Reckless Falls Kiss Read online

  Reckless Falls Kiss

  Amelia Wilde

  Vivian Lux

  Contents

  Reckless Falls Kiss

  Note to the Reader

  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

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Epilogue

  More from Vivian Lux

  More from Amelia Wilde

  Stay in Touch

  Reckless Falls Kiss

  Love is reckless.

  Adam

  I’m never going back to my home town, Reckless Falls. I've got too much fun to have and too much money to spend to waste time in a small town that never forgot what a piece of shit my father is. He destroyed my life with his affair and I’ll never forgive him for it.

  So it makes sense that he would die and leave me his estate, forcing me to go back and sell it.

  I didn’t plan on running into Regina Quinn.

  We were best friends from the moment we met as kids, but now she’s all grown up. How did I ever think of her as plain and simple?

  She’s got a body that makes me want to throw away the life I’ve made in the city and worship her forever. One drunken kiss, and she’s got me wrapped around her finger

  I can’t stay here forever, though, no matter how much I want her.

  Regina

  Adam Lane ruined my life.

  He ran away with my heart—and my one chance to get out of Reckless Falls—clutched in his fists, and he never looked back. I’ve spent every moment since then rebuilding my life out of the rubble he left it in. It’s been so long. I tell myself I’m over it. And I'm over him.

  But when he shows up here for his ten-year reunion, it’s like he never left at all.

  I still want his eyes on me. I still want his lips on mine. I’m dying to give myself to him.

  But we both know he’s not staying in Reckless Falls. He's a billionaire with a business empire to run. He’s only going to leave.

  I’m not making this mistake again. I will not give in to his kisses, no matter how bruising.

  It’s my turn to run.

  If only he’d stop chasing me…

  Reckless Falls Kiss is a full-length romance with steamy scenes, adult language, and an HEA that will melt your heart.

  Note to the Reader

  Hello and welcome to the first-ever collaboration between Amelia Wilde and Vivian Lux! Here, you’ll encounter familiar characters from Vivian Lux’s Reckless Falls series and from Amelia Wilde’s Endless Kiss series. If you’re new to us both, don’t worry! This work is a complete standalone.

  So sit back, relax, and prepare yourself. It’s a steamy ride home to Reckless Falls, and there’s plenty of big-city charm on a collision course with the one woman who could change his life…

  Read on, and join us there!

  1

  Adam

  This is a far cry from that superyacht in the Virgin Islands.

  The wooden rowboat rocks beneath me in rhythm with the rolling waves on the surface of the lake, and for the hundredth time since I got here, I wonder what the hell I thought I’d get out of coming back to Reckless Falls.

  So far, I’ve gotten to take a trip on a rickety boat to the center of Ganagua Lake and what feels like a sunburn spreading across my back. Some prize.

  It’s not even eleven, but it’s hot, and this isn’t the meditative experience I thought it would be. Things were different back in high school, clearly, since back then I wouldn’t have been caught dead out in the middle of the lake if it wasn’t on some dare. Just thinking about that shit makes my skin tingle with excitement, but surprise, surprise, nobody else is here with me today.

  How times have changed.

  The oars creak in their holders, resisting my attempt to hoist them back into place. Screw this. Even hanging out in my room at the B&B–the nicest one in Reckless Falls, not that that means much–would be better than sitting in this godforsaken boat, waiting for who knows what to happen.

  All at once there’s a flash of white at the corner of my vision.

  Dark hair, a blue swimsuit–it’s a woman, gliding across the surface of the water.

  She’s heading straight for the middle of the lake. If she keeps this up, she’ll be at my boat in a couple of minutes.

  I shade my eyes with my hand, the glare of the sun on the water making her flicker in and out of my sight. My heart speeds up. There’s nothing wrong with the way she’s swimming–at least, I don’t think so. It’s not a tiny lake.

  I expect her to keep going, to keep up her even pattern of strokes, but then, before she’s even halfway to me, she stops.

  Her head bobs up from the water and she tilts it back, hands going to her face. There’s no sound. If she made a sound, it would carry over the surface to me in an instant, especially with the lake this calm. But there’s no sound.

  It’s that silence that sends my heart into overdrive.

  Then, like she’s got weights on her feet, she slips underneath the surface, the water closing over her head like a silvery door slamming shut. Only it doesn’t slam. It closes with the barest whisper.

  Shit.

  I stand up in the boat, causing the rickety excuse for a boat to rock under my feet. I don’t dare move my eyes away from the spot where she disappeared.

  One, two, three...

  The seconds tick by in my head in time with my heartbeat.

  How long has it been?

  How long can a person survive under water? I have no idea. All I know is that I didn’t like how it looked. I didn’t like how she appeared to slip so gracefully, effortlessly, under the surface, like something had easily drawn her under. She didn’t fight or resist. She just gave in.

  I don’t think for another second. I just launch myself into the water like I’ve spent every day between high school and now practicing for this moment. In fact, it’s been a year since I was in the water. It doesn’t matter. The moment I’m under, it’s second nature, like being home again. I’m only glad I didn’t have my shirt on. The damn thing would drag me down and cost me time, and my mind is screaming at me in warning–you don’t have much time.

  I streak through the water toward where I saw her. Powerful kicks propel me swiftly toward where she sank. How long has it been since I dove in?

  I have to get to her. Fast.

  I open my eyes just in time. Her blue bathing suit is suspended under the surface, and her arms are floating to the sides. Oh, shit.

  My hands connect with her first, running straight into her shoulders, and then everything is in motion. A waterlogged shriek bubbles into my ears, and then one of her thrashing hands connects with my face. Her other hand comes toward me, slowed down by the water, and I deflect it, wrapping an arm around her waist and propelling us both to the surface.

  “What are you doing?” I shout as soon as we surface. She’s still thrashing, trying to get
away from me, but why?

  She shoves away from me, getting some distance, and shoves her dark hair away from her face. Hot damn, she is gorgeous. Her dark eyes are practically on fire with confused rage. “What the fuck are you doing?” Her voice echoes over the water.

  “Saving your life!” I’m breathing hard, still treading water. Then it hits me. “Wait—”

  Suddenly, in a flash, her face comes into focus. Holy shit. Those are the same dark eyes I saw sixteen years ago, when I was twelve and she was ten. I thought she needed saving then, too, that time from the knee scraped bloody on the street outside my family’s house. “Reggie?”

  She spits out a mouthful of the lake and stares at me. “I didn’t need to be saved!” Then recognition flashes across her face. “I wasn’t drowning, idiot; I was swimming.”

  I bark out a laugh, and almost inhale a lungful of water. “You’re not even going to thank me?”

  “I think you’ve already done enough, Adam Lane.”

  The force of the water presses back against my arms, making it more tiring by the second to stay upright. I have no idea how she’s been doing it this long after swimming all the way out here. No, that’s not right. It’s so Reggie to be able to do this. Tough as fucking nails. Always.

  “What the—”

  Reggie glides underneath the water and kicks, breaking the surface a few yards away. “Don’t come after me!” she calls back between strokes. “I don’t need any more of your help.”

  “What are you talking about?” I shout.

  Then, because it seems like the absolute right thing to do, I swim after her.

  Reggie might be tough. She might be independent. But telling me not to come after her is a dare.

  And I never turn down a dare.

  2

  Regina

  I’m lurching onto the pebbly beach like a drunk. My knees are quavering, and for a second, I wonder if I’m going to pass out right in front of him.

  But there’s no way in hell I’m going to give him that satisfaction. So I slowly lower myself to the ground, ignoring the damp, gravelly sand that clings to my legs. I sit there and breathe for a moment, trying to make sense of what just happened.

  He clambers up on the shore after me, and yes, it really is him. His eyes are the same deep brown, completely at odds with his sandy blond hair. I could close my own eyes right now and conjure them up out of my memories…and hell, I’d done that maybe a billion times over the past nine years.

  “Reg—” he starts to say, using my old nickname, the one I’d shed years ago, but how the fuck would he know that?

  I hold up my hand in a gesture to quiet him. I’ve got too much swirling around in my brain. With ease born of years of practice, I shove all the bad feelings back down again and take a deep breath. There. Now I can talk. “Adam Lane,” I say, proud of the note of mild disinterest in my voice. “What the fuck are you doing?”

  There is a flicker of confusion in his eyes when I say his name, but I let that pass once he spreads his hands to gesture towards what he thinks should be obvious. “Saving you?” he says incredulously.

  Old anger I’d thought I’d conquered a long time ago flares like a match in my belly. “I said I wasn’t drowning,” I seethe, looking away from him and shaking my head. I’d been going for a personal record. I’d finally passed the forty-five second mark and was fairly certain I might actually make it to a minute underwater when his dumb ass came splashing over to mess everything up. Again.

  He was really good at messing everything up. That hadn’t changed.

  He rocks back a little on his heels. “You looked like you weren’t coming up,” he says, sounding for all the world like a chastened little boy.

  I blink. “And I also said not to follow me!” It’s too fucking familiar, the way he’s standing here with that goofy grin on his face. The flare of anger in my stomach suddenly ignites into a roaring fire. “What the fuck are you even doing here?” I demand, springing to my feet.

  He scrambles up to a standing position. Shit, but he’s grown. Nine long years have done nothing to change the color and warmth in his deep brown eyes, but they’ve changed him in every other possible way. He was always tall, but beanpole skinny like the track star he was. His waist is still as slim as ever, but nine years have broadened his chest, shoulders and back to where is suddenly makes sense how easy it was for him to drag me through the water like a sack of potatoes. I swallow, and somehow become even angrier. “Why are you here?” I snap.

  He blinks, and then he shrugs, a little grin tugging at the corner of his mouth. “Just some business I’ve got to deal with in town. It’s good to see you again, too, Reggie,” he says drily.

  I want to hit him, but instead I take a step backward. “Fuck you,” I breathe.

  I expect him to start defending himself. Instead, he winces a little. “What the hell, Reggie?” he asks, and there is genuine pain in his voice.

  “Seriously?” I spit. “You’re going to act all hurt?”

  “I haven’t seen you in nine years...”

  “Yeah, and the last thing I saw of you was your back as you ran away.”

  He cocks his head, looking puzzled, and then a grin spreads across his face. “Oh man, I forgot about that!” he crows. “The statue! Holy shit, that was hilarious!”

  Something thumps inside of my head, heavy and hard like a load of bricks crashing down. I feel like the air squeezes out of my lungs, barely leaving me enough breath to echo him. “Hilarious?” I repeat. I feel the prick of tears burning the corner of my eyes, but there is no way I’m going to start crying in front of him. I don’t cry. It’s what I told him the very first day I met him, and no matter how big of an asshole he is, I still won’t let him see me cry.

  He’s chuckling at whatever good memory he has of that horrible day. He’s not looking at me, which gives me a chance to blink away the dangerous burning sensation in my eyes before he can see me falling apart. By the time he looks at me, I’ve regained my composure. “You’re here on business?” I ask. “How long are you staying?”

  He catches the edge in my voice, and his goofy smile fades. “Not long.”

  “Then you’re leaving again?”

  He opens his mouth, and then shuts it. The sun has come out now from behind the clouds, catching the little droplets of water that are still clinging to the golden hair on his forearm.

  I need to get out of here before I claw his eyes out.

  “Then I go back home,” he says.

  Relief mingles with irritation that he gets to call somewhere other than here home. I never had that option. “Good.” I say, as coldly as I can. Then I turn my back on him the way he did on me. My toes dig into the cool sand as I walk up the small beach, but I can still feel his eyes burning into my back. I turn and jog up the wooden stairs to street level, and when I turn back toward the lake, he is obscured by the dense trees lining the shore. I wait for a beat, but I don’t see him. I close my eyes and let out a slow, relieved breath that he’s gone and I never have to see him again.

  3

  Adam

  Well, that was some reunion.

  I’m still trying to figure out what the fuck, exactly, just happened between us as I drive my rental car over the back roads away from Ganagua Lake towards the B&B, a damp towel wrapped around my waist. I hadn’t brought a change of clothes. I didn’t expect to go for a swim with Reggie, of all people, and then end up fighting with her on the beach.

  The memory of her dark eyes flashing in the sun, and those pink cheeks I always loved when we were growing up, makes me smile in spite of our shouting match. It sucks that I can’t go back right now and tease her until she laughs.

  I’ll just have to slowly back away and slip out of town before we run into each other again.

  I don’t want to—I sure as hell don’t want to—but what choice do I have?

  My thoughts are interrupted by the sound of my ringing cell phone, and I hit the button on the car’s dash that co
nnects the call to my speakers.

  “Hello?”

  “Come out with us!” The voice of my best friend Gideon Hawke against a background hum of other voices fills the car. “I’ve got my plane ready to go. I want to get out of the city.” From how he sounds, and the various cheers in the background, there’s definitely alcohol involved. It sounds like a hell of a time. But I’m not jealous. No way.

  “I’m already out of the city.” I adopt my best offended voice. “I can’t believe you forgot.”

  Gideon pauses. “Oh, shit, buddy, did we make plans?”

  “Hi, Adam!” Gideon’s wife’s voice comes through the speakers too loudly.

  “Hi, Kennedy!” I answer back.

  “Where the hell are you?” Gideon says, totally ignoring the interruption. “Am I supposed to be there?”

  “At my high school reunion? No.”

  “Hang on. I can’t hear a damn thing. Let me get away from all these people.”

  There’s a muted rustling, like Gideon has actually put his phone into his pocket and walked away from wherever he was. Knowing Gideon, it’s somewhere over the top, somewhere that’s the perfect launching pad for whatever adventure he wants to go on next. It will probably involve skydiving, or some other death-defying stunt, although that kind of thing happens less often now that he’s with Kennedy. After a minute, he gets back on the phone.