Release Me

By Jenni Bradley

Not all dreams come true. Lucy leaves behind a promising education as an aspiring pianist to come back home and take care of her ailing mother. The only thing keeping her afloat is her best friend Gage. He is funny, doting, and sinfully sexy. She continues to torture herself fantasizing about him. She is dying to reveal her feelings.

Gage is pretty focused on two things: his career and fast women. He has dreams of his own but he is afraid to leave Lucy. She is beautiful, smart, and lost. When his dream turns into reality will he leave Lucy behind?

Witty, charming, and steamy: Release Me is story that will warm your heart.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Jenni Bradley
• Release date: Aug 11, 2015
• ISBN: 9781516338283

Book preview

Lucy 1:

It was pitch black out and pissing down rain when I parked my car in the driveway. I threw the car in park angrily and waited for the rain to ease up before I darted toward the house. I hated this part of the day. It was always eerily quiet and held too many things that go bump in the night. Nothing had ever happened to me, and I had never watched scary movies as a kid. My imagination would run wild and I would think of the most frightening things for no reason. I had to sleep with the TV on now just to drown out my thoughts. It just plumb pissed me off. I couldn’t believe I was still scared of the dark. Even as a kid, the nightlight that my mother turned on every night couldn’t erase all the darkness.

I made a mad dash for the house. Screw waiting in the car. Something rubbed up against my leg and I screamed. Scaring whatever had touched my leg, it now latched itself onto my leg. As the claws dug into my skin, the sticky wetness of blood trickled down my leg. My heart kicked up a notch, just below beating out of my chest. I squeezed my eyes shut, took a deep breath, and looked down. The demonic animal attached to my leg was Cottonball. Fucking cat should be wearing a bell. I unlatched the cat and vowed that the next time I saw Mrs. Studder, I would tell her to declaw that crazy cat. I unlocked the door and kicked off my shoes while I slammed it shut with my hip. All I wanted to do was change into some sweats, sit down in front of the TV and zone out. I’d had one hell of a day.

***

The banging on the door zapped me right out of a steamy dream. I wiped the drool off my face and zombie-walked to the door. Yeah, I answered dryly, not even bothering to look up at the disturbance.

Did I wake you up? chuckled the husky voice. His tone always sent shivers right to my core. I pinched my arm just to make sure I still wasn’t dreaming. Ouch! Definitely not dreaming. Okay, Lucy, quit staring at his lips and, oh my geeze, those eyes. His cobalt blue eyes were dark around the edges, and turned lighter toward the pupil. They had a hypnotizing effect on me. I must look away! Come on, Lucy, get a hold of yourself. His hand touched my shoulder and I sucked in a breath. He took a hold of my other shoulder and leaned in closer. Oh yes! Finally he is going to kiss me. Then my head snapped back, and then forward, as he shook me. What the hell, Gage? I practically spit in his face as my wits crashed into me. I cringed as my brain caught up to my mouth. I looked back into Gage’s concerned eyes and another dose of shame slammed into my gut. I’m sorry, I think it must be a full moon, I mumbled.

It’s okay. Can I come in or are you going to let me drip all over your nice floor? Gage’s lopsided boyish grin had my heart tap-dancing on my ribcage. I had to get a hold of myself; it’s Gage, for Pete’s sake!

I stepped aside to let Gage in. As he passed me, I inhaled his Armani cologne like a Cheshire cat in heat. I really need therapy. We’ve known each other since we were born. Our parents were friends and we grew up practically next door to each other. I couldn’t believe I thought about him this way. We were essentially raised as siblings. However, my feelings for him are anything but sisterly. I just threw up in my mouth a little at the thought of that. That’s just gross. However, I do know that he does think of me in a brotherly way. I do not want to screw up our friendship. So as long as I don’t subconsciously lick him when he hugs me, I might just make it through the rest of the night.

I grabbed two beers and sat next to Gage. What brought him here tonight? He’s over all the time, so that wasn’t what had me curious. He was supposed to be taking out his flavor of the month tonight. I knew I wouldn’t be seeing him until tomorrow night. So what had him in my house for a PG-night when he could be having crazy monkey sex? I watched him slowly take a drink. I knew he was biding his time and choosing his words carefully. This must be a pretty serious conversation if he was taking this long to open up. I was getting antsy but didn’t want to rush him. I took a long, hard look at my cuticles and thought they needed some serious attention. My nails had grown too long. I needed to just go to the salon and get it over with. Finally, I couldn’t take it anymore.

Alright, dish it before I shrivel up and die from waiting.

Geeze, Lucy, do you have to be such a drama queen? He sighed dramatically.

Really? Who was being a drama queen now?

Look, I know you have something on your mind, so just spit it out already. Then I rolled my eyes for good measure.

Lucy, I...never mind. Let’s go out.

I opened my mouth to try to soothe his defeated look but he moved away and headed for the door. He turned around with that damn grin again. Come on already. The night is wasting away!

I blushed and hung my head in shame for having such dirty thoughts about his perfectly shaped ass. I thought about changing out of my sweats, but let’s face it: the only one I wanted to seduce was the furthest from me.

***

I don’t even want to know what the hell happened last night. By the way my tongue stuck to the roof of my mouth and some troll was using a jackhammer on my brain, I’d say I closed the bar down. I hope no one posts anything incriminating on Facebook. I’ll have to scroll through after I feel a little more human. My intention was to get Gage roaring drunk and take advantage of him. Er, I mean get to the root of his problem. After I saw him leave with a peroxide-box blonde floozy with paid-for boobs, I sought out Jack, Jim, and Jose.

They may have kept me warm last night but I certainly felt tainted this morning. They are a bunch of jackasses or was that me? I walked into the bathroom and let a squeal of surprise slip out. My normally straight as a pin chestnut hair looked as if I had stuck my finger into a socket. My hazel eyes were hijacked by bloodshot red. Holy Mary, fuck me! First thing first is a shower. Then some grease in my squeamish belly would have me right as rain. After I ate a healthy dose of bacon grease, I headed over to my best friend Candice’s house.

I knocked on the door and waited for what felt like an eternity for it to open. Yeah, I know I’ll never be awarded the blue ribbon of patience. Just as I was about to knock again, the door swung open and a curly, blonde, blue-eyed monkey launched themselves in to my arms. The little she-devil pulled my hair behind my ear. TiTi Wuce, I have a secret for you.

I smiled and told her to tell me. I loved secrets. Once again, she pushed back my hair, took a deep breath, and raspberried my ear! She jumped from my arms, ran, squealing toward her mother. Who, coincidentally, yelled in the background about never opening the door to strangers.

I walked into the house and wiped spit from my ear.

Hey, I’m no stranger!

Irregardless, Riley is only three and knows not to open the door for anyone.

It’s regardless, and you’re right you should’ve answered it yourself.

That’s what I said. Do you want coffee or not?

Yeah, I definitely need some.

I pulled out the kitchen chair and made myself at home. Every time I walked through the door, I envied Candice and Riley’s chaotic and yet cozy home. It always smelled of cookies. Maybe it was the candle Candice always had burning. Come to think of it, when she did bake, it was burned and hard as a rock. You do have to watch where you sit and step. Otherwise you'll be impaled by one of Riley's toys. It was an ordinary cookie-cutter house but inside was a home filled with lots of love. It filled my own void. I lost my dad when I was younger and then my mom only three years ago. I’ve felt empty ever since. Riley and Candice filled in some of my cracks.

Candice snapped her fingers in my face.

Sorry, I got lost in thought.

I said, by the looks of grease splattered on your shirt, I’d say you went out last night, Candice commented sarcastically.

I groaned, Gage came over last night and was getting ready to tell me something but then lost his nerve. He charmed me out the door instead and we wound up at the Hickey.

Candice interrupted with a squeal, Maybe he was getting ready to confess his undying love for you!

I rolled my eyes, which didn’t help my headache, and slapped her arm. Right, and pigs fly.

Hey, Debbie Downer, you never know.

Since I didn’t wake up with him in my bed, I’m pretty sure the blonde he left with got all his loving.

You should just tell him already. You’ve been in love with him ever since you started wearing a bra and he snapped it on your back. Gosh that’s been at least ten years ago.

I don’t need to be reminded on how many years I’ve crushed on Gage. I don’t ever plan on telling him either. I’ll just have to drool over him from afar! Taking deep breaths I tried to calm down. I didn’t need to get mad at Candice. It unsettled me that she had the gall to call me out on it. Wasn’t she supposed to be my rock as well as my best friend? She certainly was not allowed to state the obvious!

Whatever. I was planning on taking Riley to see a movie today. You want to join us?

Only if you are buying the popcorn and extra butter. Once again, my best friend showed up and did me a solid by changing the subject and taking me to the movies! Gosh, I really loved this woman!

Kid’s movies are the best. You can talk all you want and never get shushed! Okay, it’s really the buttery popcorn and company that’s the greatest. We let Riley pick the movie, which hindsight being twenty-twenty probably was not the smartest decision we’ve made. I can’t really remember what we saw because for at least half of the movie I was snoring. Good thing Candice was there to supervise! I do have to reiterate that the popcorn was pretty good, even with a little of my drool mixed into it.

We walked out of the theatre with a sugar-induced hyperactive three-year old and more grease stains on my shirt. We got into the car and Riley requested the fire song, which is actually Roar by Katy Perry. I only played it loud enough to make Riley happy but not too loud to overpower the ten or so words of the song she knew. I loved to hear her little voice sing and try to pronounce the words. It was the cutest thing I’ve ever witnessed from her today! I got the eye of the tiger, the fire. Yep, that’s it but man, can she boogie in her car seat to the rest of the song! We all sang obnoxiously out of key the rest of the way home.

As we pulled into their drive Riley asked, TiTi Wuce are you going to come in and play clippity clop with me?

Not today, Riley I’ve got to go home and get the stains out of my shirt. Maybe we can have a playdate next weekend.

She only pouted for about two seconds and then asked her mom if she could have ice cream for dinner. Candice certainly had her hands full. I gave Riley a quick kiss, tickled her belly, and told Candice I’d call her later.

I stopped at Clyde’s Bistro on the way home. There is nothing like a large iced caramel latte to chug down while vegging out on my couch. Good thing I picked up two because Gage was passed out on the porch as I pulled in. He was lay

spread-eagle on the wicker furniture, with his arm draped over his eyes. Looked as if he had a pretty bad hangover himself. Which reminds me, I still need to check my social media page.

He sat up as I neared. Hey Gage, you are looking pretty rough. I hope you showered before you came over to give me your apology for ditching me last night. I really tried to act mad. I snubbed him as I walked inside but damn if his cologne and just-got-out-of-bed, mussed-up hair kept me from fuming.

He tried to say something but it got cut off as I shut the door in his face. He threw open the door and glared at me with a look that said I had better run. So that’s exactly what I did.

I sprinted as fast as I could while I laughed like a deranged hyena. I ran toward the coffee table to set the coffee down and just as I was making my getaway, Gage caught me. He threw me over his shoulders and tossed me onto the couch. He not so gently jumped on top of me and proceeded to tickle me to the point of almost peeing my pants. I may or may not have snorted multiple times. Sexy, I know. If I passed gas right now, it probably would have gone over better than the snorting. Uncle! Uncle! I cried.

Sorry that isn’t the magic word. Try again, he chortled.

I swear I’m going to kill you when I get up.

Nope, not even close. I’ll give you a hint. It’s three little words, he teased.

I couldn’t even breathe at this point and I really was going to pee my pants if he didn’t get off me. I huffed, You are ugly.

Gage held onto his stomach as he laughed as if I were some kind of comedian. At this point, I didn’t really care. I made a mad dash to the bathroom.

I’m sorry for ditching you last night Luce, I was a terrible wingman, he said as he pouted a little.

Yes, you were, and it’s a little too late for the apology. I do not accept.

He yanked the remote from my hand, signed onto iTunes, and selected my favorite movie: 21 Jump Street. Yep, bet you thought it was going to be Pretty Woman or Jane Eyre. Although those are some of my favorites, there is nothing like a movie with raunchy humor and a killer gunfight. We sat there and watched a bunch of movies and drank coffee like an old married couple. How I wish that was true.

This was our Saturday night routine. Has been since I came home from college to take care of my mom. He started coming over regularly, just to take my mind off my mom’s illness and then to help me cope after she died. It’s been three years since she has passed. Sometimes it still hits me as if it was yesterday. That’s one of the other reasons our movie nights are filled with crude humor. My other favorites are the ones I used to watch with my mom. So we keep the theme as far away from sappy love stories as we can. I usually reserve those movies for Sundays and let myself get lost in my memories.

I woke up to a pillow being put under my head and a blanket thrown over my lap. Love yah, Luce. I smiled and mumbled, Ditto. I pulled the covers up to my chin and blissfully succumbed to the sandman.

Ah, the realization of another weekend going too fast. I don’t mind Sundays it’s just that I know I have to go back to work tomorrow. If I loved my job, it would be another story. Before my mom got sick, I was on my way to becoming a musical prodigy. Well, that’s where I was when I packed my bags and came back home. I didn’t even have time to process everything when I came home. I just had to get a job to help pay for some of the medical bills. Now I’m stuck working for an idiot at a small realtor company. My big title is an administrative assistant. Sometimes I feel like a glorified coffee runner and paper pusher. The trouble with coming back home was that everyone knows who you are. Unfortunately, there are not many job openings for a pianist without a degree or paying higher than minimum wage. Before I started to head down memory lane and get depressed, I figured it was time to do the laundry. Then maybe grab a quart of ice cream and watch Jane Eyre.

Lucy 2:

I grabbed another Clyde’s Bistro coffee on my way to work. I may have a small addiction to lattes. Do they have a twelve-step program for that?

I went to open the door to the office and of course it’s still locked. Well, that is no surprise. Why would Gus be in the office at eight in the morning? Noon is more his speed. Just as I walked through the door, the phone rang. I ran to get it, tripped on the rug and spilled coffee on my white blouse. I swear, the only elegant part of my body is my hands. Please God do not let me damage my hands.

Good morning Lakeshore Realty. This is Lucy. How may I assist you today? Yes, I am smiling, gritting my teeth, and using my fake phone voice. I’m sorry. Gus is not available at the moment but as soon as he is free, I will have him call you back. Thank you and you have a nice day as well. Ah, one message for Gus, which I’m pretty sure will turn into fifty before he strolls in today. Mostly from his lady friends: only one or two will be actual business calls.

Well, I’ve finished everything in my inbox and filed all the paperwork. It might be a good time to think about an early quit. I’ll just work through lunch and hope that Gus comes in so I can let him know. Speak of the devil: Gus in the flesh. I think