Torrid Exposure - Book 4 E-Book

Carla Coxwell

• Herausgeber: Revelry Publishing
• Kategorie: Gesellschafts- und Liebesromane
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2017

Beschreibung

Book 4 of the Torrid Exposure New Adult Romance Series

A Billionaire New Adult Romance Story

April's world splits wide open when she discovers that the father of the man she loves is behind a deep betrayal.

***Due to sexually graphic content and language that some may find offensive, this book is intended for mature readers only***

April’s world is rocked when she discovers the truth behind the night of her accident. Her sister, Spencer, has deep secrets of her own. Both involve a man they have known since they were kids – Kevin, Bennett’s father and the owner of a billionaire media corporation.

April is determined to help her sister break free of Kevin’s clutches and repair their relationship. She wants to help Bennett see that he can stand on his own two feet without needing to bow down to the whims of his father. However, April discovers the hard way that family ties are difficult to break. Can Bennett protect his father without losing April?

April learns that she has a strength that she didn’t know she had when it comes to her sister and the man she loves. But is it enough to unravel Kevin’s secrets and put an end to the control he has over everyone she knows?

Download the story to find out what happens.

Leseprobe

WARNING

This book contains sexually explicit scenes and adult language. It may be considered offensive to some readers. This book is for sale to adults ONLY.

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Please store your files wisely where they cannot be accessed by underage readers.

Copyright 2017 by Revelry Publishing

All Rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this book. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known, hereinafter invented, without express written permission of the publisher.

DISCLAIMER

This book is a work of FICTION. It is not to be confused with reality. Neither the author nor the publisher or its associates assume any responsibility for any loss, injury, death or legal consequences resulting from acting on the contents in this book. The characters, incidents and dialogue are drawn from the author’s imagination and are not to be construed as real. While reference might be made to actual historical events or existing locations, the names, characters, places and incidents are either products of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons living or dead, business establishments, events or locales is entirely coincidental. Every character in this book is over 18 years of age. The author’s opinions are not to be construed as the opinions of the publisher. The material in this book is for entertainment purposes ONLY. Enjoy.

Other Books by Carla Coxwell:

Devil's Advocate BBW MC New Adult Romance Series

When Kristie comes home from college, the last thing she is expecting is her world to be turned upside down by the appearance of her step-brother, Gray. Gray is rash, impulsive and breaks the law. Kristie’s mom asks if she can try to befriend Gray, in hopes to get him on the straight and narrow. The plan backfires, however, as Kristie finds herself falling for Gray. Is it possible he feels the same way? The connection between them threatens to tear down everything Kristie has ever held dear.

Fifty Recipes For Disaster New Adult Romance Series

Trying to win a competition for best chef is cut-throat business. Kiara Sands has just won the opportunity of a lifetime. When she arrives at Fission, she has no idea just how much her life is going to change. She’s immediately introduced to Jenny Foster and Robbs Martin, her competitors in the cut throat competition. The only thing Kiara finds more distracting than Robbs’ hateful attitude is the handsome executive chef, Paul Weston. It doesn’t help matters that Paul is quite taken by Kiara, and showers her with more attention than he gives her competitors.

Star Bright New Adult Romance Series (This series follows “Fifty Recipes For Disaster New Adult Romance Series”)

Torn between her feelings for her agent, Jon, and Rich, a charming bad boy who has ties in the movie industry, Jenny finds herself working through her own past to try to get a grip on her present. As she struggles to learn the lesson that in Hollywood not everyone is what they appear to be, Jenny tries to become a person that she can be proud of. Will she be able to find love and success in Hollywood? Or will she be dragged down by her past forever?

Obsessed Bounty Hunter Romance Series

Jacqui Schneider couldn't help it. Every time the memories of her family's brutal murder haunted her, she had to escape. The only thing that could replace her sorrow was sex... and lots of it. Depressed and with no goal in sight, Jacqui continued on with her self-deprecating lifestyle until it all changed one day. Uncle Max, an old family friend, appeared unannounced. Jacqui was astonished when Uncle Max revealed a secret to her about her father. From those few words, Jacqui's world turned completely upside down. She really didn't know her own father. In fact, she didn't even know much about Uncle Max, except that he visited them for a few days at a time over the years.

Get the latest update on new releases from the author at:

https://www.carlacoxwell.com/newsletter

This book is Part Four of the “Torrid Exposure New Adult Romance Series”

Book 1

April is finished with school and ready to build a career. Coming from a well-to-do family, she has decided to reboot her life completely. With family scars too deep to mend, April craves a fresh start. But the past is harder to shake than April ever would have imagined. At the center of it all is Bennett, an old family friend who is the heir to a billionaire media mogul company. Bennett and April haven’t been able to stand each other since they were kids. But as the world shifts, the two of them discover the past might be the key to their future.

Book 2

April is shocked to find Bennett kissing another woman. What takes her even more by surprise are the sudden feelings that swell up in her at the sight. As April struggles to figure out where she stands with Bennett and resolves to stay away from him, her father falls ill. April toes the line between taking care of her father and not getting involved with the family’s company. Will April be able to stay on top of everything going on in her life and be able to keep her head on straight? Or will family ties drag her down past the point of no return?

Book 3

April has discovered her sister's darkest secret that has kept their relationship on the rocks since her near-fatal car accident. After learning of her father’s death, she suddenly feels as if she has lost her one ally in her family. All she has left is her promise to her father that she will make things right with her sister, Spencer. As April refuses to give up and dives head first into discovering the past, she also falls deeper in with Bennett, the billionaire heir to a far reaching media corporation.

Book 4

April’s world is rocked when she discovers the truth behind the night of her accident. Her sister, Spencer, has deep secrets of her own. Both involve a man they have known since they were kids – Kevin, Bennett’s father and the owner of a billionaire media corporation. April is determined to help her sister break free of Kevin’s clutches and repair their relationship. She wants to help Bennett see that he can stand on his own two feet without needing to bow down to the whims of his father. Can Bennett protect his father without losing April?

Book 5

With Spencer’s daughter, Aria, missing and Kevin hot on their trail, April feels as if things have flown completely off the rails. After Kevin lies and tells Bennett that April was kissing Anderson, she finds herself struggling to plan out her next move. Will Bennett help her work against his own father or will he be more concerned about the company? April must put the pieces of her life story together before it is too late to take down a mad billionaire and his lust for power but will the target on her back prove to be deadly?

A New Adult Romance Series

Torrid Exposure

Book Four

By Carla Coxwell

Copyright Revelry Publishing 2017

Table of Contents

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

Other Books by Carla Coxwell

About the Author - Carla Coxwell

Connect with Carla Coxwell

Chapter One

I OPEN my eyes and turn my head. 7:20am. I stare at the clock until it turns to 7:21. The sun is trying to peek through my window but cannot break through the blinds. At 7:22 I turn around and close my eyes. Maybe now I can get a couple of hours of sleep before I have to get up for a photo shoot at the park. I need some sleep.

I picture Bennett, settling into his business class seat on the flight across the country. It’s been a week since I found out he knew about his father and Spencer being involved. He told me he had no idea she had even gotten pregnant let alone had a daughter. Even though he didn’t know that, the fact that he knew they were involved and hadn’t told me when I had been wondering aloud about things hurt too much. I hadn’t spoken to him since I told him to get out of my apartment.

Not that he hadn’t tried to contact me. My phone is full of missed calls and pleading texts to talk to him. But I can’t find it in my heart to speak to him yet. I feel stupid. How could he not tell me? I had looked directly at him, musing aloud if Spencer had been involved with his dad and all he had done was usher me out of his new apartment.

Emotion rises in me, making my throat tighten. I close my eyes and cover my head with my pillow. I am determined to get some sleep before my job today. I can’t keep thinking about Bennett on that airplane, traveling far away from me. I don’t want to think about any of them. For now, I won’t think of Bennett, Kevin, Spencer or her daughter. For now, sleep is all that matters.

<<<>>>

Sleep comes but it is full of dreams. In the first one, I am in the car on the night of my accident. I am being moved. I can feel Spencer tugging me across the mud and the rain hitting my skin. I can feel the pain in my leg. I can hear Spencer’s ragged breath in my ear. Behind her, I hear Kevin speaking to someone on the phone.

“Ten-thousand dollars,” he is saying and then sighs, “Fine. Twelve-thousand. And if you say a word about this, I’ll make sure you lose your job, do you understand?”

Dimly, it registers that he is talking to the hospital director. Spencer stops for a moment, trying to catch her breath.

“What are you doing?” Kevin says to her, covering his phone with his hand. “Hurry the fuck up!” He sounds unlike any other time I have heard him – panicked and slightly out of control.

Spencer lets out a choked sob and moves me again. I want to tell her to stop. I want to tell her that I won’t let Kevin do this to her, to us, but the dream is suddenly shifting and changing.

I am now in the guest house on Kevin’s property. I am clutching my camera. I can hear Bennett by the pool, having sex with that girl. The sounds are magnified, as if he is right next to me. I move on my own, opening the door to the inside pool. He isn’t there. The noise stops. I want to call out to him but I suddenly grow afraid.

I turn around and I am staring right at Kevin. He is grinning. Behind him is Bennett. His eyes are blank and expressionless. He has chains around his legs and isn’t looking at me. Kevin’s eyes are full of emotion – victory and a smugness that makes me want to run away.

But I can’t run. I look down and my leg is missing. It is just gone. I am suddenly thrown off balance and I pitch forward. Kevin doesn’t move to stop me from falling. I hit the floor with a solid thud and Bennett just watches...

<<<>>>

I wake up to the sound of my alarm. I quickly shut it off and rub the dream from my eyes, trying to clear my brain. I guess I did get a couple hours of sleep. I grab my clothes and hop in the shower. The water is hot and scalds my skin. I wish it could remove the thoughts from my brain. I am sick of mulling over the accident. Slowly remembering this has been a torture I never wanted to experience.

Even now, as I think about Spencer moving me, my anger has shifted over to Kevin. This is all his doing. What sort of man uses his child against the mother? He threatens Spencer with Aria, telling her that she will never see her if she doesn’t follow his instructions. That is why she moved me and lied. That is why she sold our dad’s company.

At the thought of Dad, I close my eyes. I suddenly want to sob. If he were still here, would things be different? Could I have gone to him with this information? Would he have believed me? I suddenly wish I could see him. Even if it were just for a hug. I feel as if I would feel better if I had my dad hugging me.

Everything feels messy. I press my hands against the shower wall and splay my fingers out, staring at them. Bennett and me, destroyed by the secrets of our family. Spencer and me, torn apart by Kevin. I had thought when I told my dad that I didn’t want anything to do with the company, I wouldn’t be drawn so deeply into things like this. Somehow, I’m pulled down even more than I had ever thought possible.

My plan was to talk to Bennett about his father and see if he could gather some evidence against Kevin... something either to prove he is Aria’s father or to blackmail him. But after discovering that Bennett already knew Spencer and Kevin were involved, that plan died. I haven’t spoken to Spencer about Bennett knowing about the two of them yet either. I’ve felt frozen, unwilling to speak to Bennett and unsure how to approach Spencer with more questions.

Spencer lives in fear of Kevin taking Aria away from her somehow. Even though she has an open adoption, she is afraid Kevin will pay the family off and have Aria moved away without telling Spencer where they went. I wanted Bennett to help find a way to get rid of that fear for Spencer. I wanted her to be with her daughter and not worry about Kevin using Aria against her. But without Bennett’s help, I feel lost at what to do.

I get out of the shower. The apartment is so quiet that I could hear a pin drop. It is strange to be without Emily. It is almost lonely, especially now that Bennett is out of the picture. I wander into the kitchen, feeling as if the silence is closing in on me. I feel ragged. My head hurts. I feel exhausted. I miss Bennett, even though I am furious at him. I miss my father.

I make some coffee, determined to ignore my problems to make sure I do a good job today with my client. It seems that as my personal life grows messier and messier, my work life improves. My clientele is building and the word of mouth about me is positive. When I am at work, all of this mess dims to the background.

“At least I have that,” I say aloud but the words fall at my feet with no one here to listen to them.

Chapter Two

“Hey,” I say, answering my phone as I pull up into the apartment parking lot after a full day at the photo shoot. “Spencer.”

“April,” my sister replies, sounding tired. “Am I bothering you?”

“No, I just finished work for the day.”

“Did it go well?”

“Yeah,” I reply, “are you okay though?”

“Yes, I’m fine...” she says, trailing off.

In the silence that follows, I listen to her soft breathing on the other line. It is strange that she has called me. I waver back and forth to reach out for her but I don’t know what to say. I finally tell her that I thought there was someone who could help us but that was now a dead end. For all I know, Spencer is still considering going into hiding and taking Aria with her. Besides the fact that she put Aria up for adoption and would get in trouble for taking her daughter away, I didn’t want her to run away and go into hiding. I don’t want to let Kevin win.

“Actually, I was wondering if you could do me a favor,” Spencer finally says.

I get out of my car and shiver. Summer is winding down. The first touch of fall is in the air tonight.

“Of course.”

“Well. Kevin is out of town. He went to the other coast for some business stuff,” Spencer says and I get a mental image of Kevin tutoring Bennett.

“Yeah, Bennett is with him.”

Spencer doesn’t ask how I know that, clearly lost in her own problems. “I haven’t seen Aria in quite some time and I was wondering – I’m very nervous. I was wondering if you would... come with me.”

I open the front door of my apartment and step inside. “You want me to come with you?”

“Yes. I’m just nervous, I guess. I usually tell Kevin when I am seeing her and if he finds out I just went and saw her – well, it is a risk. And I just thought if you could come with me, I’d feel better,” she says in a rush and then finishes quickly.

“Yeah, of course,” I tell her without any hesitation. “That’s fine. When do you want to go?”

“This Saturday. Are you working?”

“No, I have that day off. We’ll take my car instead of yours and we’ll go, okay?” I say, trying to reassure her.

Spencer exhales into the phone and then replies, “Okay. Thanks, April.”

“No problem. It’ll be good for you to see her, Spence.”

“Yeah. I hope so. Anyway, I’ll talk to you later. Have a good night.”

The call ends suddenly and I look down at the phone with mixed feelings. I want to go with Spencer to see Aria. I want to help her as much as I can. Even so, I feel nervous too. She said she was going against Kevin’s wishes. What will he do if he finds out we saw Aria together?

Not for the first time, I am gripped with fear. Kevin, someone I always considered a close family friend, is a snake in the grass. He is someone who wields his money like a sword, taking down anyone in his way. What would stop him from using his sword on me?

“Stop, April,” I say aloud firmly.

Growing scared of Kevin isn’t going to help me. I need to stay focused on my sister and how I can help her. I am about to go into the kitchen to get food when my phone goes off again. It’s Bennett. I bite my bottom lip.

I didn’t bother to hear anything he had to say that night when he said he knew about Spencer and his father. I kicked him out almost immediately. I know he wants to clear the air. Maybe because I am preoccupied, thinking about going with Spencer to see her daughter this weekend or I am lonely but I absentmindedly answer the phone.

“Hello.”

“April!” Bennett exclaims, sounding surprised. “You answered.”

“What do you want?”

“I’ve been trying to get in touch with you.”

“I know,” I reply curtly.

There is a beat of silence before Bennett continues, “I need to talk to you. Will you just let me talk to you?”

“Fine. Talk.”

“I had no idea Spencer had a kid with my dad. I promise. When you told me that after I said I knew about them – I never meant – I didn’t mean I knew about that.”

“You still didn’t tell me about the two of them,” I counter angrily. “I even suggested it and you still didn’t tell me. Why?”

“I found out by accident. I came home early from a party one night. Mom was out of the country on some trip with her best friend. I got home and I heard Dad talking to someone. So I just went to say hi. He was in his office and Spencer was there. They were kissing. Dad saw me, and he got so angry. Furious, April. He pulled me out of the office and shut the door and...”

“What?” I press.

“He told me that if I said anything to Mom about Spencer, he’d cut me out of the company. That’s when I figured he was grooming Spencer to take over the company. I still think that.”