The Tycoon Page 20

  I wanted that smile. I wanted it every damn day. She had to be mine. She just had to.

  I knew she was getting my emails. I had them specifically tagged so I would know when she was reading them, but maybe it wasn’t enough. Maybe she needed proof of my love and devotion. Something to convince her I was worthy of her.

  Hank King was dead. She had no protection from anyone else in this world.

  I could be that. I could be that for her, if she would only let me.

  Deep breath, I worked up my courage, made my way through crowd and got close to her. So close if I reached out with my hand I could touch her. She was talking to some woman telling her the food was delicious. The caterer maybe. I just needed a second. A window of opportunity before I took her hand in mine, felt her skin against my skin.

  The caterer was leaving and I was about to make my move.

  “Sabrina, it’s time. We need to make our way to the study.”

  It was Ronnie. The older sister. Sabrina didn’t hesitate. She turned and followed her sister and my opportunity was lost.

  I cursed softly my frustration and made my way out of house. Once outside I had to think about what was next. What steps I could take to ensure my future with her.

  One thing was certain… I needed to follow her back to L.A.

  Are you ready for the rest of the King Family Saga:

  Sabrina’s Book - THE BODYGUARD by S. Doyle

  Unrequited Love

  I’m known around the country as the Cowboy Princess. A reality TV star who likes champagne, expensive shoes and cowboys.

  It’s a lie. For me there has only been one cowboy… except he never wanted me.

  Now stardom has attracted the wrong kind of attention. From a person I know is hunting me. My only choice is to go home to The King’s Land.

  Home to Garrett, the man I could never forget. While I have always loved Garrett, I knew he could never return that love. My childish lies drove him away.

  Now my life is at stake and I’m not lying about that. This time Garrett has to believe me.

  Because I need a bodyguard…

  Dylan’s Book - THE BASTARD by Julie Kriss

  They call me the Ice Princess. As the King family lawyer, I keep all of the family secrets. And as a woman in the high-powered world of million-dollar business, I have to stay cold and in control.

  I’ve earned my way to the top, and I’ve never met a man who makes me weak. Until Dylan King, the family’s exiled son, comes home.

  He’s former Special Ops, the family rebel, a mystery, a myth. A man who seems like he can do anything—including becoming the heir to the King empire if he chooses. He’s also the only man whose touch can melt my ice. And he wants me.

  But nothing is simple, and love doesn’t come without a price. When I offer Dylan a devil’s bargain—and he takes it—there’s no telling who will win. And if he discovers the secrets I’m keeping, I might lose everything—including the heart I’ve so carefully put on ice.

  Bea’s Book - THE COWBOY

  Coming Fall 2018

  To hear about it first - and to get a free romance book in your inbox every month! - sign up for the Bad Boy Romance Lovers Book Club newsletter here! Or join the BBRL Facebook group to talk books!

  Keep reading for a sneak peek of THE BODYGUARD by S. Doyle

  Chapter 1

  SABRINA

  The King’s Land—The Summer of Dylan

  “Dylan. I want next. I want next!” I was hopping up and down with my hand in the air so he would see me.

  He couldn’t not see me. We were all out by the open horse pen. Bea and I were sitting together on the fence, while Dylan walked Ronnie around on the horse. He was my big brother and he was good at everything.

  Hank didn’t think girls needed to ride horses so he didn’t bother to teach us. But I wanted to ride. At least, I wanted Dylan to show me. He’d been here for weeks this summer, he was fourteen and he was the most fun.

  “You’re making such a big deal about him. He’s just here for the summer,” Bea snapped.

  I looked over at my half sister. She was nine, only a year older than me, but she didn’t like me too much. I knew it was because Hank married my mom right after her mom died. So she hated my mother, and she barely tolerated me. And that was sad because we could have been great sisters.

  “He’s our big brother,” I pointed out. Which was the best thing in the world of things to have. Dylan let me follow him wherever he went. And he played with me sometimes, only not dolls. Today he was teaching us to ride a horse. It was totally scary, but I wanted to do it if he wanted to teach us.

  “You don’t even know him,” Bea huffed.

  “I do too!” I protested. Well, I knew he was Dylan and he was my big brother and he was nicer to me than Bea was. Hank had never married his mother at all, but he wasn’t mean to Ronnie or Bea.

  Bea shook her head in that way that she did that said she was so much smarter than me just because she was a year older.

  “He’s just a kid staying with us for the summer. You shouldn’t get too close.”

  “But I like him. He’s funny and he…pays attention to us.”

  Bea frowned. “Right. You shouldn’t get too close to him. He’s only going to disappoint you.”

  I watched as he helped Ronnie down from the horse and they high-fived. I didn’t care what Bea said. I hopped off the fence and ran in his direction. I got to his side and tilted my head and looked back up at him with my goofy smile. At least, that’s what Ronnie called it.

  “My turn.”

  He shook his head and laughed. And then he had to pick me up to help me onto the horse, which was awesome. He grunted a little, but I didn’t mind.

  “Okay Brin,” he said. “Hold the reins, but don’t pull on them. We’re just going to walk you once around the pen, okay? You need to just sit tight. Okay?”

  “Okay, Dylan. Anything you say.”

  “Be careful with her, Dylan,” Ronnie said, taking a few steps back and watching him closely.

  “Don’t worry. I won’t get her hurt,” he said.

  Of course he wouldn’t. He was my big brother. Big brothers never let you down.

  SABRINA

  The King’s Land—Three Years Later

  Hank’s Summer Barbecue Blowout

  “He loves me. He loves me not. He loves me. He loves me not. He loves me. He loves me not.”

  Shoot. I needed to try again. I searched around for another daisy on the grassy spot where I was perched. I was sitting underneath the bleachers Hank had set up for the picnic. It was cool in the shade and the best part was that no one could see me eat.

  I was on my second hotdog and I planned to have a third. Beyond the bleachers they were all playing tag football. Naturally Garrett was the quarterback. Of course he was the quarterback, because he was the best ever.

  In everything.

  Which was why I needed to find another flower that I could pluck that would end with him loving me instead of not loving me.

  I took a bite of my hotdog and mustard squirted out onto my shirt. Shoot. Mom would be mad about that. She would be mad I was eating hotdogs at all. She called things like burgers and dogs common food.

  What she didn’t know was that they were delicious. And eating common food was pretty much the only thing that made me happy. So I ate a lot of it. Especially today.

  Hank had said Dylan might show up today for the barbecue. Hank had invited him and he thought his mother would let Dylan come this time.

  But at the last minute Dylan called to say he couldn’t make it, which is what usually happened. I don’t know why I ever expected him to come when he had only visited the ranch that one summer.

  Bea had been right. I shouldn’t have let myself get too close. Dylan wasn’t like Garrett. Who came to every party he was invited to and who was always nice to me.

  I heard the ruckus on the field and saw Ronnie waving and calling for the ball. Garrett threw directly to her, but
it sailed right through her hands and into the bleacher seats. The people sitting on top, mostly Hank and his buddies, scrambled out of the way and the ball actually fell through and practically dropped into my lap.

  Knowing it was my chance to talk to Garrett, I leaped at it. I got up with the ball in one hand and my hotdog in the other. I came out from under the bleachers and started running. We were using the flat land beyond the open pen and large stable building as the football field, but at that moment it felt as if I had a mile to run. Halfway to Garrett, I tripped.

  I could hear Hank and his friends laughing.

  “I think she needs to run more and eat less hotdogs, there, Hank,” one of them said with a huge roaring laugh at his own joke.

  I ignored them all and got up. Garrett had already reached me and was giving me a hand. He was scowling at the men still laughing on the bleachers.

  The hotdog was ruined so I dropped it on the field.

  “Here you go, Garrett,” I said, a little out of breath, as I handed him my prize.

  He smiled at me and I got lost in his green eyes like I always did whenever I saw him. He was fifteen, and too old, and technically I wasn’t even allowed to like boys yet, but I liked him. I had always liked him. I was so lucky it was his family’s ranch that bordered Hank’s property to the north.

  “You’re the best, Brin.”

  Brin. I liked that, too. That’s what Dylan had called me that summer. I shrugged and giggled a little in response.

  “Sure you don’t want to play?”

  I shook my head. I couldn’t throw or catch. I wasn’t good at any of that kind of stuff and I didn’t want him to see how much slower I was than Bea at running. Bea always won any race between us.

  “I like watching,” I said.

  “Yeah, you’re a watcher, all right. You’re rooting for me, though, right?”

  I nodded.

  “Okay, go be my best cheerleader.”

  I sighed and ran off the field. I was Garrett Pine’s best cheerleader. It made me so happy I didn’t even want another hotdog.

  There were, however, cupcakes. Couldn’t miss out on those.

  SABRINA

  High School—Start of Freshman Year

  “I don’t understand. I thought her family was so rich. Why wouldn’t they send her to fat camp or something?”

  I pretended not to hear the girls whispering about me as I passed their lunch table with my tray of food.

  It was fried chicken fingers and french fries. More common food, as my mother would tell me. Certainly nothing healthy at all. But it’s not like anyone at home cared enough to make lunch for me and, well, I guess I didn’t care, either.

  I was headed for an empty table in the back of the lunchroom. Hopefully where I could just sit and eat and read without anyone saying anything nasty.

  That hope was quickly dashed when the three boys, sophomores I was pretty sure, stepped in front of me.

  “You might consider a salad the next time,” one of the boys said.

  “Or at least a fucking piece of fruit,” another snorted.

  “Hey, you three dipshits got a problem with me?”

  I turned around when I heard the familiar voice, but I couldn’t believe it was actually him. Garrett Pine. My lifelong crush. Well, my crush for as long as I had known what a crush was.

  “No, Garrett. No problem with you,” said the boy who had told me to eat fruit.

  “Well, it sounds like you’ve got a problem with Brin. People who have a problem with Brin have a problem with me. Get it?”

  Uh, yeah, they got it. Garrett was a senior. The quarterback of the football team. The most popular guy in school. And right now he was here, sticking up for me. But that’s what he always did.

  The three sophomores looked like they were going to poop themselves.

  I thought I might faint.

  “Yeah, sure, Garrett. Sorry,” one of them mumbled to me. Then they were gone.

  I sat down at the empty table and Garrett sat next to me. So…fainting was still an option.

  I picked at my fries and he opened up a lunch bag and pulled out a sandwich. That’s right. Technically, I was having lunch with Garrett Pine. Me, fat Sabrina King, and Garrett. I could barely contain myself I was so nervous.

  “You didn’t have to do that,” I said, feeling like I should have done a better job sticking up for myself.

  “Yes, I did. I’m so sick of it. People being assholes to each other. What do they get out of that?”

  I shrugged my shoulders.

  “Don’t let it get inside your head. Be confident in who you are.”

  Was he joking? I was a fat freshman. That was nothing to be confident about.

  “Okay,” I said. Because it wasn’t like I was going to defy him.

  After a few man-sized bites, he finished his sandwich and packed up his stuff. I wish I had said more. Been funny. Anything. I was too busy having a near heart attack to manage actual words.

  “I mean it, Brin. Shake off the haters. Own your shit. No matter what it is.”

  “Right. Thanks, Garrett.”

  “See you around.”

  Well, I would be seeing him, I thought. Because the one advantage of being a freshman was that for the whole year I got to go to school with my lifelong crush.

  SABRINA

  Freshman Year—Winter

  It was between classes and I was coming back from the bathroom. I was walking down the school hall, minding my own business, which is how I had decided to navigate high school. Head down, keep my nose in my books (my romance novels, not my textbooks), and just avoid the people around me. It wasn’t exactly owning my own shit, as Garrett had once told me to do, but I found if I didn’t bother them, they mostly didn’t bother me. Mostly.

  I was still a King and that meant people thought they knew things about me. So the idea that I didn’t fit in the King family still made me a target for some. But I was dealing.

  What I was dealing with less well was the fact that Dylan was officially gone. Hank told us he’d enlisted in the army as soon as he turned eighteen. It wasn’t like we had seen him much. Still, it felt like there was this person who had been in my life who was now suddenly gone from it.

  The army might has well have been Mars.

  Bea pretended like she didn’t care, and Ronnie just said he had to do what he had to, but still it felt a little like…he was leaving us for good. I wondered what might bring him back. I stopped when I heard voices.

  The hallway should have been clear, but there was clearly something going on around the corner.

  “Let me go!”

  “Make us, fag.”

  “I’m not even!”

  There were two of them against one. I knew who they all were—Dusty Creek’s one high school wasn’t that big. Kevin, who was being pinned to his locker, was in my class. The other two were juniors. Buddy and Fitz. They lived to terrorize anyone who they thought strayed from the straight and narrow path of a true Texan.

  Kevin didn’t like guns and he wore skinny jeans. Enough said.

  I thought about Garrett and that day he’d stood up for me back in September. He’d been so angry that people felt the need to treat each other like this. Suddenly I felt that anger, too. I could turn around and walk away from it all. Stepping in would only invite trouble. Trouble I most likely couldn’t handle.

  But Kevin looked more than annoyed. He looked scared.

  “Hey,” I said, rounding the corner. “Leave him alone!”

  “Oh, if it isn’t Princess Fat Ass,” Buddy said. “Take a hike. This doesn’t concern you.”

  “Yes, it does. Kevin is a friend and you guys are being jerks. Just let him go.” He wasn’t really a friend. I didn’t really have friends. Hard to make them when all you wanted to do was avoid people.

  Then Fitz, who was pretty big for a junior and really shouldn’t be calling anyone else fat, started to walk toward me. I could have run, but I didn’t.

  “You know
you’re considered the ugly King sister,” he sneered.

  I did.

  I shrugged my shoulders. “Yes, but I’m also the funniest, so there is that. You’re not going to do anything with me watching. So just let Kevin go.”

  Fitz looked like he was going to retaliate when suddenly he stopped. Buddy took his hands off Kevin and stepped back. Kevin stumbled but thankfully he didn’t fall on his butt.

  The two juniors turned their backs and walked past me, and Kevin just gave a chin nod in my direction and took off down the hallway. Not for nothing, but he did rock his skinny jeans.

  I thought that had gone remarkably well. I mean, I did it. I stood up to two bullies and they backed down!

  I gave myself a little fist pump and made my way back to class.

  Freshman Year—Spring

  I knew they would be here. Caroline was so predictable. Quietly I made my way to the top level of the bleachers. School was out for the day. The football field was empty now that it was winter and the season was over. No one around except Caroline and…her boyfriend.

  My someday-in-the-future boyfriend, Garrett.

  I knew I had as much chance of getting Garrett to go out with me as I did of becoming a world-famous model. But a girl could dream.

  Fantasize.

  Stalk.

  They were making out now, and it hurt a little. Because, as silly as it was, I considered Garrett to be mine.

  Which was ridiculous. I knew that. It was just that from the moment I met him he’d been my hero. Because he didn’t see the fat girl or the ugly sister. He just saw me. He was best person I knew. And I had to believe that it all meant something.

  That we were meant to be something.

  He’d started dating Caroline a few weeks ago, and it broke my heart because she had a reputation in school for being totally slutty. And not just she’d-slept-with-a-few-guys slutty, because that was slut shaming and not cool. No, the rumor with Caroline was that she didn’t necessarily stop sleeping with one guy before she started sleeping with another one. She also liked older guys. Like, super old. There was one rumor that she was seeing a ranch hand who was TWENTY-EIGHT! That was practically thirty, which was totally ancient.