The Sound of Temptation: A Standalone Second Chance Forbidden Romance, page 1
The Sound of Temptation
A Standalone Romance
Dylan Allen
Edited by Anja Pfister
Proofread by Kaitie Reister
Cover Design: Dylan Allen
Cover Photo: iStock Photos
Copyright © 2021 by Dylan Allen
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real places are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places and events are products of the author’s imagination, and any resemblances to actual events or places or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Created with Vellum
Also by Dylan Allen
Rivers Wilde Series of Standalones:
The Legacy
The Legend
The Jezebel
The Rivals
The Daredevil - A 1001 Nights Novella (Pre Order)
Complete Standalones:
The Sun and Her Star
Thicker Than Water
The Sound of Temptation (Pre Order)
Symbols of Love Series of Standalones:
Then Came You
Still The One
Best For Last
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Contents
I. PART 1
1. Carter
2. Beth
3. Carter
4. Beth
5. Carter
6. Carter
7. Beth
8. Carter
PART 2
9. Beth
10. Carter
11. Beth
12. Beth
13. Beth
14. Carter
15. Beth
16. Carter
17. Carter
18. Beth
19. Carter
20. Carter
21. Beth
22. Carter
23. Beth
24. Beth
25. Carter
26. Beth
27. Carter
28. Beth
29. Carter
30. Beth
31. Carter
32. Beth
33. Carter
34. Beth
35. Beth
36. Carter
37. Carter
38. Beth
39. Carter
40. Beth
41. Carter
PART 3
42. Carter
43. Beth
44. Carter
45. Beth
46. Carter
47. Beth
48. Carter
49. Beth
50. Carter
51. Beth
52. Carter
53. Beth
54. Carter
55. Beth
56. Carter
57. Carter
58. Beth
59. Beth
60. Carter
61. Carter
62. Beth
63. Carter
64. Beth
65. Beth
66. Carter
67. Beth
68. Beth
Epilogue
Acknowledgments
About the Author
Also by Dylan Allen
To my Father.
Thank you for teaching me that the only limit on my dreams are the ones I place on it.
Thank you for the soul deep, abiding love you’ve always showered on me.
I’m so proud to be your daughter.
I
PART 1
E. WINSOME, TX
Carter
The First Time
“Bored yet?” My brother, Jack, asks as soon as he picks up the phone.
I glance around the crowded lakeshore, and sigh. “I’ve never been so bored in my life.”
“Like I knew you would be. There’s a 9 AM flight out of Austin, it’ll get you here in time for us to pick you up on our way to the ferry.”
“I didn’t say I wanted to leave. In fact, I’m thinking about extending my stay. Boredom is the most underrated, misunderstood state of being. I’m in heaven.”
“How? I’ve seen pictures of that place. It’s a dump.”
“It’s not a dump, it’s just not a five-star resort. It’s quiet, and nobody knows who I am. You can have the limelight. This suits me just fine.”
“You’ve been there a week. Give it one more. The novelty will wear off.”
“Maybe. I don’t know…”
“Well, the beach house has plenty of room, and Stella’s still coming with us.”
“She is?” I frown in surprise. “Why?”
“Because she planned to. Just because you decided to bail doesn’t mean she should miss out.”
I shrug. “Actually, given that she’s my girlfriend, and she was coming with me, that’s exactly what it should mean.”
“Maybe, like the rest of us, she’s thinking you’ll get over whatever it is that’s been eating at you and join us.”
“Jack, what was eating at me was the lack of privacy and the constant noise. And the fact that my girlfriend was more interested in the chance to be on the show than spending real time with me. So, even if I wasn’t here, I wouldn’t be going to the Vineyard with you. One season was enough for me.”
“Suit yourself. Spend your summer with the retirees and their caretakers. And I’ll console Stella when she realizes you’re not coming.”
“I don’t know why you think everyone here is old. There’s been a party every night. Can’t you hear the music?”
“Yes, I hear it. I love Motown, too – but I don’t know anyone under forty who parties to it. And Carter, what sane, young person would spend their entire summer in a cabin by the lake when they could actually be living?”
A loud scream of laughter draws my attention back over my shoulder to one of the large communal bonfires that were lit right before sunset.
The music that had been background for water sports and sunbathing has been turned up and the stretch of shore has turned into a dance floor. In the fading daylight, small crowd of bodies all seem to blend together. But I see her right away.
“I gotta go, Jack.”
“Oh come on, I was kidding,” he protests.
“I know. But I’ve got a ghost to catch.”
“What the fuck does that mean?”
“I’ll tell you later.” I hang up before he can ask any more questions and shove my small keyboard, phone, and notebook into my backpack. I should take them to my car, but the girl who I’d started to think was a figment of my imagination is dancing alone at the edge of the crowd, and I’m not letting her out of my sight again.
If the drawing she left behind wasn’t enough to intrigue me, seeing her like this would have done it. Her eyes are closed, her arms hang loosely by her side as she sways languidly. Her lips are curved in a smile of pure content while she sings along to one of my favorite songs of all time, I’ll Be There by the Jackson 5. I didn’t know I was a sucker for all of these things until just now, but not only can I not look away, I can’t stay away, either.
I weave my way through the crowd toward her not sure what I’ll do or say when I get closer. I also don’t know why my heart is beating out of my chest.
As I get closer, the details the distance and dusky lighting obscured are revealed. Her dark hair is pulled back and leaves her heart shaped face and the firelight turns her sun-tanned skin into a burnished canvas for eyes that are wide set, framed by dark arched brows, and fringed by thick, sooty lashes that cast feathery half-moon shadows on the high rounds of her cheekbones.
And in a visage that’s drawn from soft curves and delicate angles, her wide, ample lipped mouth is a total stand out. The deep crease down the middle of her bottom lip reminds me of the indent in the sweet, juicy cherries I’ve been eating all week.
The crowd between us has thinned, and I can see her whole body now.
She’s wearing a black, low-cut, one-piece bathing suit that on someone else, might be modest. But the body it’s hugging should come with a warning sign that reads “Carter Bosch’s Kryptonite.”
Her small, full breasts spill out the sides of the suit and her tiny waist flares out to rounded, swaying hips. From there, smooth, tanned skin sets off her long, shapely thighs and legs.
I stop when I’m close enough to touch her and take in every riveting and fascinating thing distance and the fading light hadn’t let me see.
She’s wearing small, gold earrings in the shape of some sort of flower and an impossibly delicate gold chain dotted with diamonds wraps around the base of her throat. They sparkle like stars in the firelight.
There’s a small flower shaped birth mark on the rise of her left cheekbone. A thin line of freckles arcs out from like the tail end of a shooting star and disappears into her hairline
And her hair isn’t scraped back. It’s cut short and and hugs the delicate curve of her scalp in dark waves
It leaves a clear view of her striking bone structure and her long, elegant neck and a tell tale trail of dried tears on her each of her cheeks.
It’s so at odds with the contentment in her smile that, before I can think better of it, I reach a hand out to touch her.
She stops dancing and her eyes pop open, and my breath catches in my throat. For some reason, I’d expected them to be brown, not the deep azure blue that greets me.
Her eyes narrow and move to my hand, it’s still suspended between us, and I drop it to my side.
“I’m sorry, I’ve been looking for you and when I saw that you’d been crying, I just—”
“I wasn't cryingWhy have you been looking for me?” she demands, crossing her arms over her chest and cocking her hip, impatience and annoyance are etched on her face.
But, before I can answer her, a loud burst of laughter cuts through the din , and she turns toward it and her jaw tightens. I follow her gaze to see her looking at a small group of people gathered by a small, campfire on further up the shore.
A scuffle has broken out between a man and a woman sitting with them. She shoves the him hard enough that he falls. She picks up a cup and pours whatever’s in it over his head and then turns with a shriek and runs while he chases her.
“Such idiots,” she mutters.
“They’ve been at it all day,” I remark.
She look back at me and her lips twist in disdain. “More like their whole lives.”
I grimace in sympathy “They’re friends of yours?”
She nods and, what looks like, resignation settles on her face. “I should probably head back to them.”
I chuckle. “You say that like you’re about to get on a roller-coaster you’ve been peer pressured into riding.”
Her dark brows knit together, and a frown tugs at her lips. “That’s exactly how I feel.” Her eyes come back to me, and she cocks her head to one side. “How’d you know?”
Telling her I feel the same way eighty percent of the time would be saying too much. Instead, I reach into my pocket and pull out the piece of paper I’ve been carrying around and hand it to her. “Maybe the same way you knew all this.”
Her lips part on a surprised gasp and her eyes are wide with accusation as she snatches it. “Where’d you get this?”
“You dropped it. I’ve been holding onto it in case I saw you again. It’s incredible.”
She clutches the paper to her chest and lifts her skeptical gaze to scan my face. “Really? You don’t think it’s weird?”
“A little, but since it’s me, I guess that means I am too.”
Her gaze softens, and she looks down at it and smiles. It was me – but not like I’d ever seen myself. She’d given me blurred clock faces for eyes and an arrowhead for a nose and when I looked at it, I recognized the impatience, restlessness, and disquiet I was feeling when I first got here. But the winged insect she’d drawn where my mouth should have been stumped me. “The bee…you gave it butterfly wings?”
She smiles wider, revealing a row of straight, white teeth with a tiny gap in between the two front ones. My heart skips a beat. “Uh huh, because as pissed off as you looked, I could tell you’re looking for a reason to smile.”
I chuckle, impressed, charmed and very intrigued. “What else can you tell just from looking at me?”
Her expression mellows and she looks down at the drawing again. “I think…you’re trying to figure out where you belong.”
The truth in those words unnerves me and cuts through my defenses like a scythe through overgrown grass. “How’d could you possibly know that?” I ask when I finally find my voice.
“I pay attention, it’s kind of my superpower,” Her eyes hold mine like an azure lasso of truth, and for a brief, mad moment I want to tell her how adrift I’ve been. But there’s nothing better at ruining good chemistry than honesty, so I squash that impulse.
“Well, right now, I feel like I’m exactly where and with who I’m supposed to be.” I’m trying to be charming, but as it leaves my lips, I realize it’s also the honest-to-God truth.
She cocks her head, her expression confused. “Are you…flirting with me?”
I laugh, amused by the look of surprise on her face. “If you have to ask, I’m clearly doing it wrong.” I grin deprecatingly.
She doesn’t smile back. “You’re not from around here.”
It’s not a question, so I don’t answer it. “Do you want to dance?”
“I was dancing,”
“I know…I mean…with me…”
She gives me an assessing once-over. “Why?” She folds her arms across her chest, her bright blue eyes are full of wariness.
It’s my turn to look confused. “Is there more than one reason a guy asks a girl to dance? You’ve got a hot body and an epically pretty face.” I take a step closer “And, I want to see if your skin is as soft as it looks.”
Her pink lips part in surprise. Her eyes are wide and gleaming in the firelight and the hostility that was in them when I first approached is gone. All I see is invitation, but there’s a glint of innocence in them. I can’t tell if it’s real or feigned, but I want to hear her say yes.
I take a step toward her. “Can I?”
She swallows audibly and licks her lips and nods. “Okay.”
I reach out and trail a finger down her bare shoulder and draw my hand away.
“So? Is it as soft as you imagined?” She runs her fingers over her throat before they come to rest with a nervous flutter over the exposed skin of her chest.
Oh yeah, I can smell the inexperience on her. I should stop and say goodnight. But, I can’t remember the last time I was this attracted to anyone…and it’s not like I can deflower her out here in the open. Just a little longer…
“Do you want me to touch you there, too?” I nod at her hand resting at the base of her throat.
She swallows and nods her head.
“Come here, sexy” I order gruffly and hold out my hand.
“Sexy?” She looks up at me again. Her face is flushed and reach for her.
“Yes. Now, come here.” I wrap an arm around her waist and pull her body flush against mine. Her free arm loops around my neck, and I take advantage of her slightly arched neck to press my nose to the soft skin of her throat and inhale.
She smells like a perfect summer day--sugary lemonade, sunshine, and wildflowers. She pulls away from me just enough that she can see my face. “What’s your name?” she asks in a soft voice full of wonder.
A crack of thunder rumbles loud enough it startles shrieks, screams, and bellows from the revelers around the lake.
We look at each other wide-eyed. She looks like she’s about to say something when a deafening strike of lightning turns the night sky as bright as it was before the sun set.
“Shit.” I swivel to look at my backpack. “My keyboard is in here, I should put it away before it starts to rain.” I glance in the direction of the parking lot. “Let me run to my car, please wait for me.”
She glances at the sky and shakes her head. “I don’t think you’ll have time.”
“It’ll only take five minutes.”
She shakes her head “My house is closer.”
