Summer Trips and Other Reasons to Get Naked: A Hot Bite story

By Jayce Carter

FROM BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF REVERSE HAREM ROMANCE JAYCE CARTER

A Hot Bite and Grave Concerns story

It' s a competition for my heart, and these men play dirty.

Saving the world was supposed to be the end of my story, but when trying to live with four stubborn, dangerous, immortal men, happily-ever-after turns out to be more complicated than fairy tales promised. Kase, Grant, Hunter and Troy can' t stop bickering, seemingly more interested in competing with one another than being with me.

Our solution? An impromptu vacation to Hawaii! Sun, nudity and plenty of orgasms— the foundation to any good relationship. Even better, the men promise to shower me with affection and take me on four amazing dates.

Unfortunately, one disaster after another strikes as each of the dates goes horribly wrong— accidental exhibitionism, surprise attacks and the less-than-sexy use of handcuffs just to name a few of the problems. What I thought would be our salvation ends up testing the bonds between us, and when I discover they' ve been lying to me the entire time, that the trip is just a ploy for them to prove who' s best for me?

Maybe there are some things that even hot, naked men can' t fix.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Totally Bound Publishing
• Release date: Jul 11, 2023
• ISBN: 9781802508192

Jayce Carter

Jayce Carter lives in Southern California with her husband and two spawns. She originally wanted to take over the world but realized that would require wearing pants. This led her to choosing writing, a completely pants-free occupation. She has a fear of heights yet rock climbs for fun and enjoys making up excuses for not going out and socializing.

Book preview

Totally Bound Publishing books by Jayce Carter

The Omega’s Alphas

Owned by the Alphas

Shared by the Alphas

Saved by the Alphas

Protected by Her Alphas

Caught by Her Alphas

Tamed by the Alphas

Claimed by the Alphas

Exposed by Her Alphas

Trained by the Alphas

Reclaimed by Her Alphas

Ready or Not

Fake It ‘til You Make It

Opposites Attract

Third Time Lucky

Enemies Closer

Grave Concerns

Grave Robbing and Other Hobbies

Hell Raising and Other Pastimes

Saving the World and Other Bad Ideas

Dark Sanctuary

Bound by Fear

Trapped by Doubt

Buried by Despair

Nemesis

The Corpse Princess

The Resurrected Queen

Larkwood Academy

Silenced

Whispers

Screaming

The Devil’s Luck

A Devil of a Time

Devil May Care

Run Like the Devil

Collections

Sun, Sea and Sinful Delights

Secret Santa: To Catch a Fox

Cupid’s Academy: Stolen

Hot Bite

SUMMER TRIPS AND OTHER REASONS TO GET NAKED

JAYCE CARTER

Summer Trips and Other Reasons to Get Naked

ISBN # 978-1-80250-819-2

©Copyright Jayce Carter 2023

Cover Art by Kelly Martin ©Copyright July 2023

Interior text design by Claire Siemaszkiewicz

Totally Bound Publishing

This is a work of fiction. All characters, places and events are from the author’s imagination and should not be confused with fact. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, events or places is purely coincidental.

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The author and illustrator have asserted their respective rights under the Copyright Designs and Patents Acts 1988 (as amended) to be identified as the author of this book and illustrator of the artwork.

Published in 2023 by Totally Bound Publishing, United Kingdom.

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A Hot Bite story

It’s a competition for my heart, and these men play dirty.

Saving the world was supposed to be the end of my story, but when trying to live with four stubborn, dangerous, immortal men, happily-ever-after turns out to be more complicated than fairy tales promised. Kase, Grant, Hunter and Troy can’t stop bickering, seemingly more interested in competing with one another than being with me.

Our solution? An impromptu vacation to Hawaii! Sun, nudity and plenty of orgasms—the foundation to any good relationship. Even better, the men promise to shower me with affection and take me on four amazing dates.

Unfortunately, one disaster after another strikes as each of the dates goes horribly wrong—accidental exhibitionism, surprise attacks and the less-than-sexy use of handcuffs just to name a few of the problems. What I thought would be our salvation ends up testing the bonds between us, and when I discover they’ve been lying to me the entire time, that the trip is just a ploy for them to prove who’s best for me?

Maybe there are some things that even hot, naked men can’t fix.

Dedication

To my future grandkids—I can’t wait until you want to look into your family history and end up having to admit to people that your weird grandma wrote porn.

Chapter One

Sun’s Out, Buns Out

Ava

I walked into my place expecting some peace and quiet. After a long day of work, of dealing with problematic client after problematic client, I wanted to take a long hot bath and pretend I didn’t have to go back tomorrow.

Well, I guess I didn’t have to go back tomorrow. While my day job paid well enough—people threw money at accountants just so they didn’t have to learn math—I didn’t have much need for money anymore. My extra work, the stuff I did that normal humans knew nothing about, had padded my bank accounts well enough that I’d paid off my house, all my debt and still had enough to never need to work again.

Something about going in each day made me feel better, as if I still had a life that had nothing to do with vampires and werewolves and the supernatural world.

And that life had me crunching numbers and getting yelled at by a boss who hated me. And why did she hate me?

The loud noises coming from my house answered that.

As it turned out, little Miss Bible Thumper, also known as Mrs. Lee, my boss, had caught a glimpse of me at dinner one night, and she did not approve of my four dinner companions.

Jealous bitch.

I sighed as I opened my front door to find those very men treating my living room like their own little clubhouse.

Which annoyed me beyond words.

Welcome home, Hunter said, catching my waist in his large hand before he tugged me closer and took my lips in a kiss that was nearly good enough for me to forgive him for whatever he’d done to piss me off.

Then again, Hunter had always managed to catch me off guard and make it hard to hate him for long. His hair was still long, and the tattoos that swirled over him shifted as if to welcome me home as well.

He tugged my shirt from my pants, slipping his fingers beneath to touch my bare skin. Despite me standing in an open doorway, fully visible from the street, I knew damn well that he’d have no issue having sex with me right here and now.

Which made me set my hand on his chest and shove him back a few steps. One of us had to be the responsible one and, somehow, it was always me.

He smirked as if he knew exactly what I was thinking and wasn’t the least bit sorry about it.

Don’t you all have a place of your own? I asked.

Hunter gestured behind him and into the main area of the living room where the other three were. You were working late, and we got lonely.

What are you, kids?

If you want to play that game, I can, Hunter said, dropping his voice low into the one he used when he talked me into all sorts of things that made my cheeks burn.

Instead of giving in to him—especially because I knew Hunter well enough to know he’d toy with me just as long as I allowed it—I walked past him toward the others.

Grant sat in the large recliner, his feet up and on the coffee table, his phone in his hands as he seemed to try hard to ignore the other two, who were—surprise, surprise!—arguing.

Kase and Troy stood nose to nose, somehow able to radiate the same level of threat while looking and behaving so differently.

Kase managed to appear unruffled by the whole thing. He wore a pair of black slacks and a white button-up shirt, though he had no tie. I’d bet he’d gotten rid of it when he’d arrived, and even undone the top button. It made him appear slightly more casual and was a side of him I usually adored. Even though he yelled at Troy, he still looked as if he cared little about the results.

Troy, on the other hand, had his lips pulled back as if flashing his teeth in response. He wore a pair of slacks and a white button-up shirt as well, but he looked entirely different. He had on a pair of light gray pants, and his shirt was undone at the cuffs and rolled up to show off his forearms. He managed to look wilder and less civilized despite the dressy clothing.

Of course, I knew what was beneath the two of them, the part of them that they hid from most of the world.

It made me almost laugh as I considered exactly how I’d gotten here.

Five years ago, I would have never figured I’d be here, watching a vampire and a werewolf argue in my living room while a mage played on his phone to ignore it and a hellhound sexually harassed me at my front door.

Somehow, no matter how many tarot spreads I’d pulled, the cards had never once mentioned any of this bullshit.

You know she is at risk, Kase said, seeming to have taken no notice of me. You can’t just take her out like that without security.

"I’m more than capable of protecting her," Troy snapped back.

You are one little lone wolf. She should have my guards watching her.

Sure, Grant said from his spot on the chair without raising his gaze from his phone. If you want those guards harassed until they quit because they don’t want to deal with her. Don’t tell me you’ve forgotten what happened when I tried to give her an assistant.

Rude. I hadn’t treated the assistant badly!

Well, there was the time I snuck out of a window when they’d tried to get me to go dress shopping for a party, or the time I turned into a reaper just to escape a boring meeting they’d set up for me without my agreement.

Still, I’d told Grant I didn’t need a personal assistant, especially one who had zero understanding of personal space or privacy.

She is still a target, Kase pressed. "She is more of a target now than ever. As more of the supernatural world discovers her true parentage and what she is, more people will try to take advantage of her."

So what, you want me to force her to have guards when she doesn’t want them? Or never go anywhere with her? You want to lock her up and never let her out just so you can sleep well at night?

If it keeps her safe? I’ll do what is necessary.

Yeah, well, let’s skip the bondage, huh? I walked the rest of the way into the living room, drawing the attention of all three.

Grant’s smile made me suspect he’d known I was there the whole time. Troy and Kase managed to look like kids who expected a scolding from their parent after being caught fighting.

You work much too late, Kase said, rebounding from the surprise quicker than Troy. Have I not told you that if you work so late, you should contact me for an escort home?

I don’t need an escort.

Far worse things travel at night. It isn’t safe.

I set my hands on my hips, leveling him a glare that would send a lot of others running. "I’m a reaper, Kase. I can handle a vampire or two if they want to try anything."

"You are half reaper. You are still vulnerable in your human form, and we have no idea what might happen to you should you be attacked suddenly and unable to take your other form. In fact, there are many things about your powers and weaknesses we do not yet know."

I rubbed my temples, frustration eating away at me from the conversation we had had many times already. I didn’t mind fighting if anything came of it, but nothing ever did on this topic.

I understood Kase’s feelings, knew he worried because he cared—that they all did—but I couldn’t allow my life to get taken over by him or anyone else. I was way too old and too stubborn for that.

I loved them all, but I was well past the age where I needed some prince to rescue me.

Why are you all here? I’ve had a very long day, and I don’t love coming home to fighting.

We weren’t fighting, Troy said, then pressed his lips together when he realized there was no way that would fly. After a long moment, he sighed out a soft, Sorry.

"It isn’t just today—it’s always like this. You guys are always at one another’s throats, always bickering, always pushing one another. Why?"

Because we’re men? Grant said as though that were the obvious answer. At my glare, he shrugged. It’s true. You’ve got four immortal men here, each of which is used to getting his own way. You really think the four of us can just be all buddy-buddy just because we’re all sleeping with you?

I opened my mouth, but no sound escaped.

He wasn’t wrong. The old fear that I’d held since this whole thing started remained in the back of my head.

I’d thought for a while that we’d reached some understanding between us. We’d faced off against Lucifer, had gone to hell, to purgatory, had fought Lilith together and survived and for a while it had seemed as if we’d found some common ground.

Yet, in the time since then, since we’d won and had settled into our new normal lives, they had grown more and more hostile toward one another.

Kase and Troy were the worst—no doubt about that—but they all had their own issues. Hunter didn’t understand appropriateness at all, and since he’d spent most of his life in hell, he was fantastic at making things weird. That rubbed both Troy and Kase wrong. Grant’s sense of humor annoyed Troy, and Troy’s black-and-white thinking didn’t sit well with Grant.

Of course, beyond that, Kase and Troy had the whole feeding thing between them. Kase could now only drink werewolf blood, which bound the two of them together, but it hadn’t fixed the way they interacted at all. If anything, they seemed more antagonistic toward each other.

Basically? If it wasn’t for me, the four of them would never willingly spend any time with one another, and none of them were happy with the idea of only seeing me one at a time since that wouldn’t be enough time for them.

I shook my head, unable to figure out something I could do to make it better. I’m going to go take a bath. I jammed my finger at Hunter before he could say anything. "Alone. Let yourselves out whenever you want."

Someone caught my wrist, and I turned to find Troy holding me. He was usually the first to cave when it came to me, the first to give in and try to make things better. He also was the one who hated when I walked away from them. You look sad.

"I’m just tired. Our lives are dangerous enough—we have enough things to deal with. I don’t want this stress in our personal lives. I don’t like the way you all seem to want to one-up one another, how you’re always competing, always fighting for some top spot like there’s a hierarchy.