Love on the Forbidden Side Read online

  Table of Contents

  Excerpt

  Praise for Mariah Ankenman

  Love on the Forbidden Side

  Copyright

  Dedications

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  A word about the author…

  Thank you for purchasing this publication of The Wild Rose Press, Inc.

  He lifted a hand in surrender.

  “Hey, you enjoy your vacation time however you see fit.”

  “I will.” She lifted her chin. “Not that I need your permission or anything. This is, after all, my home.”

  “You mean your brother’s home.” He tapped one long finger on the end of her nose.

  So far, this getting him to see her as a woman thing was not going well.

  “Yes, it’s Jake’s home now, but I grew up here, so it will always be home to me.” She reached back to grab the handle of her rolling suitcase. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’ll be going to my room.” She brushed past him then stopped, turning abruptly as a thought occurred to her. “Wait, where are you staying?”

  When she moved out, her brother turned her room into a guest room, but she still used it as her own. She even left clothes in the closet.

  Liam grinned. “I was going to stay in the guest room, but your bed is too small. Ryder said I could crash in the master.”

  An image of Liam sleeping in her bed popped into her mind: her pale blue sheets wrapped around his naked body, his strong, broad shoulders filling the full size bed. Yes, it would definitely be too small for a big man like him. Particularly if someone—her—shared it with him. A flush rose on her cheeks. She silently thanked the makers of her twenty-four hour antiperspirant for keeping her cool when her body burned like a raging volcano.

  Praise for Mariah Ankenman

  Ms. Ankenman’s paranormal novel, Daemon Uprising was a Golden Heart Finalist.

  ~*~

  Other titles in her Peak Town Colorado series

  available from The Wild Rose Press, Inc.:

  LOVE ON THE SWEET SIDE

  LOVE ON THE WILD SIDE

  LOVE ON THE RISKY SIDE

  Love on the Forbidden Side

  by

  Mariah Ankenman

  Peak Town Colorado, Book 4

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the product 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.

  Love on the Forbidden Side

  COPYRIGHT © 2017 by Mariah Ankenman

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission of the author or The Wild Rose Press, Inc. except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews.

  Contact Information: [email protected]

  Cover Art by Kristian Norris

  The Wild Rose Press, Inc.

  PO Box 708

  Adams Basin, NY 14410-0708

  Visit us at www.thewildrosepress.com

  Publishing History

  First Yellow Rose Edition, 2017

  Print ISBN 978-1-5092-1697-0

  Digital ISBN 978-1-5092-1698-7

  Peak Town Colorado, Book 4

  Published in the United States of America

  Dedications

  To Karen and Melissa.

  And to my Prince Charming,

  thanks for being my sounding board even at 3 a.m.

  Chapter 1

  Nothing like having a gun shoved in your face to make a girl second-guess her choices in life.

  Julie Ryder stared down the barrel of a very scary, very large handgun. Terror froze her for a split second before…

  “Oh shit, Julie. I’m sorry. I didn’t know it was you.”

  Brain synapses started firing at the harsh, familiar voice. She sucked in a deep breath of air, raising her gaze from the deadly weapon to the guilty, handsome face of the man wielding it—Liam Graham, FBI agent and her brother’s best friend. Brain still trapped in a loop of danger, she opened her mouth, but nothing came out.

  “Julie?” The gun dropped, but his worried expression didn’t. “Are you okay?”

  Regaining her senses, she smacked Liam on the arm, curling her hand into a fist to hide her trembles. “No, I’m not okay, you big idiot. You just pointed the business end of a gun in my face. Who would be okay after that?”

  Placing the weapon on the hall side table, he rubbed the back of his neck with one large hand. “Dammit. I’m so sorry, Jules. I didn’t mean to bring up any…” He trailed off, shamefaced as he gazed down at the floor.

  Of course he would feel guilty. He must think every time she saw a gun it brought up bad memories from six months ago. Memories of being taken hostage, tortured, and held at gunpoint. Well, it didn’t.

  Not much. A shudder of fear rippled down her spine.

  Okay, maybe a little.

  But she was getting better. At least she hadn’t screamed.

  “Liam, I was kidding. I’m fine.” When he glanced up in doubt, she swept her hand out in front of her. “See? Moving, breathing, dry-eyed. I was just teasing you.”

  He nodded, accepting her answer.

  She was fine. Sure, there had been a moment there, a flashback where she internally panicked, but it passed. Her heart may still be going a million miles an hour, but thankfully, he couldn’t see the furious pounding in her chest.

  “What are you doing here?” His tone sounded accusatory.

  The guy just shoved a gun in my face, and he wants to cop an attitude? Oh, heck no. “This is my family home, Liam Graham. I think the proper question is, what are you doing here?”

  “Housesitting for Ryder while he’s in Vegas.” His gaze widened. “He did tell you—”

  “That he and Kayla hopped on a plane to get hitched at the Chapel o’ Love?” She shook her head. “Yes, and when they get back from their honeymoon I plan to kick his butt for eloping. The coward didn’t even have the courage to tell me in person. He left a voicemail.”

  Liam chuckled. “Don’t be too hard on the guy. He’s in love.”

  Love. How odd to think of her big brother in love. Jake never dated much. After their father died, he’d spent too much time taking care of her and their mother. When Mom passed, it had just been the two of them. Now Jake had Kayla.

  She was happy for him, truly. But that didn’t stop the tiny ache of sadness at the loss of being the only woman in her brother’s life. His newfound happiness also brought into focus her own love life. Or lack thereof.

  Julie couldn’t remember the last date she’d been on. Her law career took all her focus, and honestly, no one appealed to her these days.

  “So, if you knew your brother was gone, why are you here?”

  Liam’s smooth, deep voice rolled over her body like silk. A shiver—having nothing to do with her earlier scare—ran down her spine. Okay, someone appealed to her, but the guy lived hours away.

>   She glanced up into pale, golden eyes. He wasn’t hours away now. The man stood less than three feet away, and it looked like they were going to be sharing living quarters for the next two weeks.

  Why, thank you very much fate. It’s about time you stopped being a raging bitch to me.

  “I have some vacation time to cash in.” Not a lie. “I thought I’d hang out at the ol’ homestead for a bit and just relax. Ya know, unwind.” A total lie.

  She couldn’t very well tell him she was hiding out from a killer who escaped prison by disappearing from the courthouse during his appeal hearing two days ago. A man she helped put away. The same murderer who vowed in court to get his revenge on her and everyone who—to quote the crazy bastard—“was in on the conspiracy to ruin his life.” The only one who ruined his life was Jason Kline himself when he took a butcher knife and stabbed his girlfriend thirty-seven times. The man was crazy. Not in a clinical way, but in a scary, should be in prison for life way.

  If she told Liam about Jason she knew exactly what her brother’s FBI buddy would do. The same thing her boss and the Aspen police department wanted her to do. Go into WITSEC. No way in hell. As a prosecutor, she knew all about witness protection. People could spend years, even a lifetime, in the program. She’d have to hide until Jason was caught—if he ever was. Even then, there was no guarantee she would be safe. Witnesses got killed all the time, no matter how hidden they thought they were.

  Besides, no one had proven Kline escaped just to go on a killing rampage. The guy was probably halfway to Mexico by now.

  And she couldn’t leave her brother. They were all each other had. Well, no, that wasn’t true anymore. Jake had Kayla now, and she had…

  Of its own accord, her gaze traveled up and down Liam. They sure trained them good at Quantico. Even with his dark blue jeans and plain black T-shirt, Julie knew a hard, toned body hid beneath the clothing. She knew for a fact the man had a delicious six-pack. Over the decade or so of friendship Liam and her brother shared she’d seen the man in his swim-trunks a time or two. To be honest, she’d had a crush on him since that first Thanksgiving Jake brought him home when the men were in cadet school. One look at the tall, blond-haired, golden-eyed Adonis and she’d been sunk. At the time, she had still been in high school, so of course Liam saw her as nothing more than his best friend’s little sister. An image she’d been trying to change for years to no avail.

  Perhaps the time had finally come to show Liam how much of a woman she truly was.

  “You decided to spend your vacation here?” He raised a skeptical brow.

  He could believe what he wanted. Lots of people went back home for vacations. Okay, so mostly college students looking to unload months’ worth of laundry, not thirty-year-old women who might have a killer after them.

  “What’s wrong with Peak Town?” She crossed her arms, umbrage rising in her at the need to defend her hometown. “It’s quiet, beautiful, lots of people come here to get away.”

  He lifted a hand in surrender. “Hey, you enjoy your vacation time however you see fit.”

  “I will.” She lifted her chin. “Not that I need your permission or anything. This is, after all, my home.”

  “You mean your brother’s home.” He tapped one long finger on the end of her nose.

  So far, this getting him to see her as a woman thing was not going well.

  “Yes, it’s Jake’s home now, but I grew up here, so it will always be home to me.” She reached back to grab the handle of her rolling suitcase. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’ll be going to my room.” She brushed past him then stopped, turning abruptly as a thought occurred to her. “Wait, where are you staying?”

  When she moved out, her brother turned her room into a guest room, but she still used it as her own. She even left clothes in the closet.

  Liam grinned. “I was going to stay in the guest room, but your bed is too small. Ryder said I could crash in the master.”

  An image of Liam sleeping in her bed popped into her mind: her pale blue sheets wrapped around his naked body, his strong, broad shoulders filling the full size bed. Yes, it would definitely be too small for a big man like him. Particularly if someone—her—shared it with him. A flush rose on her cheeks. She silently thanked the makers of her twenty-four hour antiperspirant for keeping her cool when her body burned like a raging volcano.

  “Well…good. I mean, um, I didn’t want to kick you out of my bed just because I showed up unannounced.” She wouldn’t kick him out of her bed for anything. “So, are you on vacation, too?”

  The playful light dimmed from his face. “Something like that.”

  Oooookay. Apparently, she wasn’t the only one hiding something.

  She’d let Liam have his secret. Couldn’t hurt to have the FBI agent close at hand considering her current predicament. For now, she would just enjoy the fact that for the next two weeks she would be living, eating, and sleeping under the same roof as the man who made her hormones go wild. If she played her cards right, sexy FBI man would be naked sexy FBI man by the end of the week.

  Giddy anticipation bubbled inside. She was a very, very good card player. Liam didn’t stand a chance.

  Chapter 2

  Shit!

  Liam couldn’t believe he’d just pulled his gun on Julie. What a colossal ass. When the front door opened, he hadn’t thought—years of training made him act. Having seen too much bad shit in his years with the FBI, he never went anywhere without his gun. Not even a peaceful, sleepy little mountain town. Criminals lived everywhere, and break-ins were more common than people thought. Thinking only of protecting his buddy’s house, he’d prepared for the threat, which turned out to be no threat at all, but a tall, slim woman a stiff breeze could knock over. He’d seen the fear in her dark brown eyes the moment they landed on the gun. Dammit, what the hell had he been thinking?

  “Want a cup of tea?”

  Tea? Smooth man. Like hot water with some flowery herbs dunked in it would help, but he didn’t know what else to do. He felt like a jerk. Had to do something. Though Julie smiled and said she was fine, he saw the slight tremor in her hand as she grabbed her suitcase.

  “Tea would be great. Chamomile please. Jake keeps it in the—”

  “I remember where it is.”

  Her gaze widened as a faint pink stained her cheeks. “Oh, right.”

  Crap. Bringing up the fact he remembered where the tea was because he was the one who made it for her after she got cut to hell by that bastard David Tyler a few months back just made things worse. He’d felt useless then, too. The bad guy had already been caught by the time he got here. Julie’s wounds were mostly superficial, but it killed him seeing those stark white bandages, knowing what lay beneath. Never before had he been tempted to kill a man. David Tyler deserved to rot in a cell forever.

  “Why don’t you go unpack while I make your tea?” He motioned to the hall when what he really wanted to do was smack his stupid head against the wall.

  “Thanks, Liam. I know it’s only an hour drive, but that mountain pass at night always makes me tense.” She chuckled. “I feel like I’ve gone ten rounds with a bear.”

  He had no idea what that meant, but by the weary lines around her eyes he didn’t think it sounded pleasant.

  Julie headed down the hall, slipping into her room and closing the door. He let out a tense breath. His R and R time just got a lot less relaxing. A grunt left his throat. Relaxing was the last thing on his mind this trip. When Julie asked if he was taking vacation time, he didn’t fully answer because he didn’t want to lie to her. The bureau had given him time off…but not to enjoy cool drinks on a sandy beach.

  He grabbed his gun from the hall table, slipping the weapon into the lockbox Ryder kept in the coat closet. Normally, he’d leave it out and at the ready, but he didn’t want to scare Julie any more than he already had. For safety sake, he’d keep it locked away for now.

  One issue dealt with, he made his way into the kitchen. Reaching up to t
he top cabinet where the tea was kept, he winced. His right shoulder tightened, pain lancing through the muscles cobbled together by the fine surgeons at County Medical.

  No, he wasn’t on vacation. He was on forced paid medical leave. The doctors had no idea if he would ever regain full use of his shoulder. So, in addition to resting up, he had some big career decisions to make during his time off. If he couldn’t make a full recovery, he’d be pulled from the field and given a nice, easy, boring-as-hell desk job.

  No-freaking-thank you.

  Filling the kettle with water, he set it on the stove, turning the burner to high. As the water started to heat, Liam contemplated why fate was a bitch determined to mess with him. First, he gets a possible career-ending injury, then he has to spend two weeks living under the same roof as a woman who appealed to him on every level, but was so far off limits she might as well be on the moon.

  Julie Ryder was the whole package, smart, beautiful, funny. But he had almost a decade of age on her, far too young and sweet for his old, grumpy ass. She was also his best friend’s little sister. A big no-no in the bro code. Never mess with your buddy’s sister. No matter how sexy and sweet she is. She could set a man’s body ablaze with a single touch, make him crave her with nothing but a glance. A man could spend night after night fantasizing about how sweet her smooth skin tasted, of all the different ways they could enjoy each other. But if she’s the little sister of a friend, fantasies were the only thing allowed. Hell, he shouldn’t even be fantasizing. What kind of perv did it make him to imagine Julie naked, laid out on his bed, every time he saw the woman?

  A bastard. It made him a bastard.

  The woman was still recovering from a traumatic experience—evidenced by the way her body shook at the sight of his gun earlier—and here he was lusting after her in her brother’s—his best friend’s—house.

  “You are the worst kind of dick,” he muttered to himself.

  “Who’s a dick?”

  Liam spun around. Shit, he really was off his game if Julie could sneak up on him. Maybe he wasn’t cut out for fieldwork anymore. “No one. You get all settled in?”