Have
you ever felt like you were living your life for a future that was predetermined?
Like there was some bigger picture you just prayed you would someday see
clearly? That picture has been crystal clear to me since I was old enough to
recognize it for just what it was.
Or
I should say recognize him for who he was.
I’ve
loved Cohen Cage since I was a small child. He’s been my everything for the
last twenty-two years. I’ve loved him through every girlfriend he’s ever
brought home. Through his college years and then mine. I’ve loved him through
two deployments. And ever since the day I told him how I felt, he’s acted like
I’m a stranger.
My
name is Danielle Reid, and it’s time for me to get my man.
Our
future is an unexpected fate, and no matter what our parents, siblings, and
friends say…it’s going to be worth every second of the fight to make it happen.
Prologue
“Axel
Reid, don’t you dare!” my mom exclaims.
Then she yelps when my daddy charges through the front door.
“Don’t
I dare what, Princess? No way that boy
is going near my girl. Look at him! He looks like he can’t wait to creep on my
daughter!”
“Well,
there is no need to scare him to death!” she mocks.
My
cheeks heat instantly when I see Dane start backing away from the porch. My hopes of being able to actually go to my
senior prom are starting to go up in flames.
Poof.
Just
like that.
Not
that I should be surprised about it. Mom
did her best to calm Daddy down, but we should have known better. He took one look at me and stormed over, only
to return ten minutes later looking like he does now.
So
embarrassing.
“You
need to stop this nonsense right now, you big lug, or you’ll be sleeping on the
couch,” Mom fumes.
“Like
hell I will, woman!” Daddy roars at my mom.
I
watch her face get sharp. He stops long
enough to sling one of—that’s right, ONE of—the rifles he’s carrying over his
shoulder, where it lands next to the other one he already has over his other
shoulder.
Only
my mom would be brave enough to deal with him when he’s in “Protect Dani from
everything with a penis” mode. He looks
absolutely ridiculous. He has two
hunting rifles now hanging by their leather straps over each shoulder. He has two handguns strapped to each thick
thigh, two on each side of his belt, and various knives along the way. His shirt, which he thinks is hilarious to
wear when I attempt to go out on a date, says I kill things…and eat them. I know it’s a hunting shirt—for animals, not
teenage boys—but Dane doesn’t.
Mom
moves in front of him, standing in the front doorway and blocking his path,
where Dane is still slowly retreating.
She’s been dealing with this way before they even had me. He’s…protective. I guess that’s the nicest way to put it. Well, she calls him protective. However, I call it possessive, overbearing,
controlling, demanding, and jerky.
“This
is her senior prom, Ax. You wouldn’t let
her go last year.” She pauses when he grunts. “And I’m sorry, but you won’t be
stopping her this year. She has a right to
experience this. And Dane is a nice
boy. Right, Dane?” she yells over her
shoulder.
“Uhh…”
he stammers, causing my daddy to grunt some more.
“The
boy doesn’t even know how to talk, Izzy.
I bet he will be nothing but handsy and think with his little pecker. Nope.
No way. Not near my baby girl.”
Oh. My.
God. I wish I could just fall
into a hole right now. I try to see over
my parents to find out if Dane heard that, but with Daddy basically being a
giant, that’s not happening.
“You
did not just say that!” I yell at his back.
Daddy
turns around, his movements awkward with how many weapons he has strapped to
his body. His green eyes, so like my
own, slant and harden. He looks down at
my dress for the thousandth time since I came downstairs and doesn’t even
bother hiding his displeasure that it’s showing too much of my body. Even if it is about as tasteful as it gets.
My
strapless, red dress has a sweetheart neckline, and everything he calls my
“girly bits” is covered. There isn’t
really any cleavage. Well, okay, there
is some, but surely with my lack of being busty, you couldn’t even call what is
showing “cleavage.” His first problem
was with how much of my legs was showing.
Then I made the mistake of turning around without my wrap on. That’s when he saw that the dress was
completely backless to my bra line.
Well, what it would be if I had been wearing one. Which is clearly when he lost his mind.
“You
look just like your mother did that night twenty years ago when we finally came
back to each other. Right down to those
strappy shoe things. And I guarantee you, Danielle Reid, any teenage boy who
doesn’t bat for the other team will be thinking thoughts I’ll cut his dick off
for. No.
You aren’t going with that boy, and that’s final.”
I
harden my eyes, and his narrow even further.
I
put my hands on my hips, and he squares his shoulders, his rifles clinking
together.
I
raise one brow, and he mirrors the action.
“Daddy.”
“Dani.”
“I’ll
cry.”
“No,
you won’t. You have more balls than
that.”
“Want
to bet?” I attempt to muster up some
tears, knowing that he won’t be able to handle them, but before I can force the
first one out, my brother jumps into my line of sight and blocks our standoff.
“Yo,
Dane! You just run along now. Dani is unfortunately feeling a little under
the weather. Ebola. Or the flu. I don’t
know. It’s really ugly and you probably
don’t want to be around this. The
boils—they could pop at any moment.”
“You
did not just do that,” I heatedly whisper, fuming at his nerve.
Nate
turns and smirks at me. “Oh I just did.”
“I
can’t believe you two!” I spin to look
at the one person who can help me.
“Mom, seriously?”
Her
expression softens, and she just shakes her head. “I’m sorry, Dani. I tried.”
“You
two,” I start, pointing between my older brother and father. “You just can’t leave it alone? I’ll be eighteen in a few months. What are you jerks going to do then?”
“You’re
not dating, Danielle. Not ever.”
“Oh
yeah, Daddy? And how realistic is that
crap?”
“Watch
your mouth, little princess.”
“Mom?”
“I’m
so sorry, Dani.” She walks over and
wraps me in her small arms.
I
could probably really cry now a lot easier than when I was trying to fake it,
but I’ve never been one of those girls who weep constantly. It would be easier to just go upstairs, take
off the dress mom and I spent hours looking for, scrub off the light makeup she
helped me apply, and pretend this night didn’t happen.
***
An
hour later, I’m sitting in my bedroom, still wearing my perfect dress. My makeup is still done and my hair is still
flowing in long waves. And I’m no less
mad at the men in my life than I was earlier.
I’ve considered climbing out my window.
I’ve considered asking my best friends, Lyn and Lila, to come help me
escape. But what would be the
point? Rambo-Dad already scared away my
date, the only boy left in school who had been willing to ask me even though
his friends had warned him about my father.
I
lie down on my bed and stare up at the ceiling.
Maybe I should go away for college.
I planned on living at home while I attended Georgia Tech, but there is
no way I can deal with this stuff any longer.
If my father had things his way, I would be shipped off to become a nun. Or he would buy an island and make it an
all-girls cult.
“Uhggggg!”
I yell to the empty room.
“Seriously,
Dani-girl, things can’t be that bad.”
I
jump up when I hear the deep, gravelly, insanely sexy voice coming from my
bedroom door. That voice. My lord.
The things it alone does to me should be classified as illegal.
My
hair slaps me in the face, a good handful landing in my open mouth, and I
hastily pull it out before I turn to where he is standing.
My
lord, he’s beautiful. He’s always
been. My heart speeds up when I take in
his smirking face and the mischief dancing in his brown eyes.
“Cat
got your tongue?”
I
shake my head.
“Speechless?”
I
shake it again.
“Do
you really have some flesh-eating, boil-slash-Ebola-like sickness?” he laughs.
I
narrow my eyes at him, and his rich laughter booms through the room.
“I’m
just kidding, Dani-girl. Come on. Get
yourself ready and let’s go rock this prom.”
My
jaw drops again. “What?”
For
the first time, I notice that he’s dressed in a perfectly tailored tux. My eyes travel down his tall form to his
shining, black dress shoes. On the way
back up, my eyes hit the corsage spinning around his finger before I look back
up into those gorgeous eyes.
“Let’s
go, beautiful.”
“Does
Daddy know you’re here?” I ask, not moving from my spot.
He
sighs, steps into my room, and walks over.
His cologne, Gucci Black, wraps around me. He’s worn the same scent for years. I perversely sniff it every time I hit the
mall with Lyn and Lila. That scent—it’s
my undoing.
He
grabs one of my hands and gives my knuckles a kiss before placing the corsage
around my wrist. He gives my hand a
squeeze before letting go. Placing his
strong hands on my shoulders, he presses down until I’m seated on my bed. Kneeling before me, he takes my feet one by
one and fastens the straps of my black heels before standing and grabbing my
hands, again, to pull me to my feet.
The
whole time, I act like a freak and just gape at him.
What
in the hell is going on?
“Ready?”
he asks.
“Uhhh…”
“Right.
You’re ready,” he laughs, grabs my hand, and pulls me through the house, down
the stairs, and into the entryway of the house, where my parents are waiting.
Mom
has her camera ready, forcing us to take some pictures, for all of which I’m
sure I’m just standing there in a daze.
I think I smiled in them, but I was too busy trying to figure out what
the hell is going on. Daddy smiles big
and triumphantly the whole time, like he’s won some battle here.
“Oh,
good. You got here,” Nate mumbles
through a sandwich he’s stuffing down his throat.
I
shake out of my stunned stupor and look over at him. “You did this?” I ask with disbelief.
“Well,
duh. Can’t have my little sister miss
her prom because of some boils. Plus, I
knew this guy,” he says, pointing at our father, “wouldn’t mind him.” He takes another bite before he looks over my
shoulder. “And I know he isn’t going to
try to pet the cat.”
“Nathaniel
Gregory!” Mom gasps.
“What? Why do you think Dad acts like he does? Just because I’m willing to say the words
doesn’t mean you have to freak out.”
I
look over at my mom, who has turned bright red.
Daddy
laughs at her embarrassment and pulls her into his arms. “Are you sure we didn’t drop that one a few
times as a baby?”
She
slaps his hard stomach and shakes her head. “You look beautiful, honey. Have fun, okay?”
I
smile at her and move my eyes to Daddy to judge his mood.
He
just smiles at me. “I trust him. He
won’t let any of those pimple-faced, prepubescent boys touch a beautiful hair
on your head. Have fun, sweetheart.”
I
walk over and give them both a hug, standing up on my toes as far as a can to
whisper my gratitude in his ear. He’s
annoying, overprotective, and possessive of his girls, but I love him and I
know he comes from a good place.
“Uh,
excuse me? Do I not get any
little-sister love here? I’m the one
running this show, you know?”
“You’re
such a dork, Nate,” I laugh and give him a hug before turning back to my date.
He’s
standing by the door, talking in low tones to my daddy. I can’t hear him, but he’s still smiling, so
I’m guessing there isn’t any talk about dismemberment going on. He looks over, his smile deepening and the
lines around his eyes crinkling.
Something moves behind his eyes that darkens them slightly, but he looks
back over at Daddy, finishing up their conversation.
“Ready,
Dani-girl?” he asks a few minutes later, making my heart speed up again.
Holy. Crap.
“Yeah.
I’m ready.” Or at least as ready as I’ll
ever be.
**
That
night, while dancing to Brett Young’s “Kiss by Kiss,” I knew I would never be
the same. I could feel the jealous waves
coming off every female in the room as he held me in his arms. Of course, I had a man and not a boy as my
date. Five years older than I am and
very obviously not a teenager.
Being
held in his arms was a dream come true.
His scent invaded my lungs with every inhale. His eyes twinkled as his smile held me
hostage. I knew I would never love a man
as much as I love him.
Yeah. That was the night I confirmed what I had
always known. What I had always felt.
Cohen
Cage owned my heart and I never wanted it back.
Meet Cohen &
Danielle in the newest stand alone
in the Hope Town
Series by Harper Sloan!
Releasing: February 17th
Harper
lives in small town Georgia just a short drive from her hometown of Peachtree
City. She (and her 3 daughters) enjoy ruling the house they dubbed 'Estrogen
Ocean', much to her husband’s chagrin. Harper has a borderline unhealthy
obsession with books; you can almost ALWAYS find her with her eReader attached.
She enjoys bad reality TV and cheesy romantic flicks. Her favorite kind of
hero--the super alpha kind!
Harper
started using writing as a way to unwind when the house went to sleep at night;
and with a house full of crazy it was the perfect way to just relax. It didn't
take long before a head full of very demanding alphas would stop at nothing to
have their story told.
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