More than hate you, p.1
More Than Hate You, page 1
Contents
Copyright
Praise for Reed Family Reckoning
Foreword
About More Than Hate You
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
More Than Desire You
Forbidden Confessions: First Time
About Shayla Black
Other Books by Shayla Black
MORE THAN HATE YOU
Reed Family Reckoning: Friends, Book 7
Written by Shayla Black
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This book is an original publication by Shayla Black.
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Copyright 2021 Shelley Bradley LLC
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Cover Design by: Rachel Connolly
Photographer: Sara Eirew Photographer
Edited by: Amy Knupp of Blue Otter
Proofread by: Fedora Chen
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Excerpt from Forbidden Confessions: First Time © 2020 by Shelley Bradley LLC
ISBN: 978-1-936596-84-3
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The characters and events portrayed in this book are fictional. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental and not intended by the author. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form by an electronic or mechanical means—except for brief quotations embedded in critical articles or reviews—without express written permission.
eBooks are not transferable. They cannot be sold, shared, or given away, as it is illegal and an infringement on the copyright of this work.
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All rights reserved.
PRAISE FOR MORE THAN WANT YOU
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"Amazing! Everything I didn't even know I needed or wanted in a romance novel. Hot. Spicy. Addicting." - Rachel Van Dyken, #1 New York Times Bestselling Author
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"Sexy, passionate and oh-so-clever! An intriguing love story!" - Lauren Blakely, #1 New York Times Bestselling Author
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"You’ll hate him and then you’ll love him! A sexy read with a surprising twist.” - Carly Phillips, New York Times Bestselling Author
PRAISE FOR MORE THAN NEED YOU
5 Stars! “I adore Shayla Black! She masterfully delivers story after story full of passion, love, heartbreak, and redemption.” -Chasing Away Reality
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5 Stars! “I love this book!!! It has all the elements that takes you on an emotional rollercoaster.” -Romance Between The Sheets
PRAISE FOR MORE THAN LOVE YOU
5 Stars! “The perfect blend of romance, lust, love and standing in your own way. I love the story.” – Alpha Book Club
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5 Stars! “One of the best books I’ve read in months! I love this book!” – Magic Beyond The Covers Book Blog
PRAISE FOR MORE THAN CRAVE YOU
5 Stars! “With beautifully written characters and a storyline that I could not put down this was a fabulous read. It needs more than 5 stars!!” –The Overflowing Bookcase
5 Stars! “…fun, hot and really hard to put down…loved it!”–Sissy’s Romance Book Review
PRAISE FOR MORE THAN TEMPT YOU
5 Stars! “The More Than Words series is Shayla Black at her best—and this book is absolutely my favorite of the series so far.” – USA Today bestselling author Angel Payne
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5 Stars! “I nibbled my nails to nubs one minute and had to turn up the A/C the next. I enjoyed the hell out of every step of their journey and was sad to turn the final page. I wasn't ready for the goodness to end…sigh.”– iScream Books Blog
PRAISE FOR MORE THAN DARE YOU
5 Stars! “This was a sublimely perfect read for me. It checked every single box for the magical memorability that has become the hallmark of this wonderful series. Brava!” – USA Today Bestselling author Angel Payne
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5 Stars! “HAVE MERCY that was HOT *fans self* with a huge side of heart!! Perfection!” – Goodreads Reviewer
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5 Stars! “Ooooooooh...dirty, dirty, dirty, but also filled with lots of heart.” Kay Daniels Romance
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5 Stars! “More than Dare You...was every bit of a sexy, can’t-put-this-book-down page-turner I wanted it to be.” – Reading in the Red Room
Foreword
There are infinite ways to tell someone you love them. Some of the most powerful don’t require words at all. This was the truth rolling through my head when I first conceived of this series, writing about a love so complete that mere letters strung together to make sentences weren’t an adequate communicator of those feelings. Music is one of my go-to choices.
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I love music. I’m always immersed in it and spend hours a day with my earbuds plugged in. I write to music. I think to music. I even sleep to music. I was thrilled to incorporate songs into the story I felt were meaningful to the journey. I think of it this way: a movie has a soundtrack. Why shouldn’t a book?
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So I created one.
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Some of the songs I’ve selected will be familiar. Some are old. Some are newer. Some popular. Some obscure. They all just fit (in my opinion) and came straight from the heart. I listened to many of these songs as I wrote the book.
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For maximum understanding (and feels), I recommend becoming familiar with these songs and either playing them or rolling them around in your head as you read. Due to copyright laws, I can’t use exact lyrics, but I tried to give you the gist of those most meaningful to the story. I’ve also made it simple for you to give them a listen by creating a Spotify playlist. Click here for all the enjoyment.
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TEETH - 5 Seconds of Summer
IRRESISTIBLE - Fall Out Boy
LIKE LOVERS DO - Hey Violet
THE ONLY EXCEPTION - Paramore
MAKE YOU FEEL MY LOVE - Adele
LOVE ME LIKE YOU DO - Ellie Goulding
THINKING OUT LOUD - Ed Sheeran
THE WAY YOU LOOK TONIGHT - Frank Sinatra
THE CHAIN - Fleetwood Mac
ABOUT MORE THAN HATE YOU
I seduced my rival for a deal. Now I’ll do anything to claim her for good.
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I’m Sebastian Shaw—CFO, pragmatist, and moneymaker. I’ve mismanaged love in the past, but when it comes to business, I’m pure shark, able to cut down any threat to my success…except Sloan O’Neill. We’re vying for the same major client, so I do what any self-respecting cutthroat does to gain the upper hand: spy on the ball-busting piece of work. She may be gorgeous and unnervingly clever, but I have skills. My gutsy hourglass-shaped roadblock doesn’t stand a chance.
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Until I realize I’m falling for her.
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Suddenly, everything from my objectives to my morals is cloudy. Stay loyal to my best friend and boss to win this critical client at any cost…or give my heart another chance? But the more time I spend with my redheaded adversary, the more I realize she’s not just ambitious but kind, vulnerable…and perfect for me. Sloan has no idea how far I’ll go to make her mine—but she’s about to find out.
February 10
Las Vegas
Sebastian
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“Well, that was a nice wedding,” my boss and best friend, Evan Cook, says as he rattles the ice cubes in his glass of scotch before knocking back the liquid.
“If by nice you mean quick, yep. Best kind of wedding, in my opinion.”
Evan laughs. “I can always count on you to be even less sentimental than me. Thanks for making me look good by comparison.”
I grin. “What are friends for? Besides, I’m just being honest.”
Evan searches the luxurious rooftop deck for his wife. When he spots Nia, he relaxes, giving her a tip of his chin and a smile. Love is all over his usually detached face. Standing among the bridal party, she responds with a happy wave, her long, dark hair caressing her bare, umber-hued shoulders. She doesn’t look pregnant yet, but she absolutely glows—and not strictly with hormones. She’s happy as hell with my buddy, and I’m thrilled for them. He deserves bliss after the disaster of his first marriage.
Especially since, if things had turned out differently, I could have caused its end.
Evan tosses back the last of his drink. “You didn’t have to come with Nia and me to see her half brother get married, you know.”
He’s right. When I first met Stephen, I thought he was a raving douche. But the groom is important to Nia, who’s important to Evan. And I have a lot to make up for. We both know it.
“It’s no problem.”
“Bullshit. It’s a long flight from Maui, and you have a full plate.”
“But hey, it’s Vegas. Not exactly a hardship.” I take a long pull of my beer and hope he’ll drop the subject.
“I guess I spoke too soon. So much for you being honest.”
I pause, the longneck freezing inches from my lips. “What do you mean?”
“You didn’t come with Nia and me to this wedding because you wanted to visit Sin City. You didn’t do it for any business reason , either, so don’t try that line.” He sighs. “Look, I know you still feel guilty about Becca—”
“Man, I don’t want to talk about this.”
From the minute we met in college, Evan was the best friend I could have asked for. He had a great idea for data storage solutions for businesses of all sizes, along with the technical know-how and the minimal capital required to get started. What he lacked was working knowledge about actually starting and running a company, especially its financials. Allocations, budgets, taxes, and employee compensation all overwhelmed him. So I stepped in. Over the next decade, Evan and I grew Stratus Storage Solutions together, from a vague notion to a firm worth over a billion dollars.
Everything was perfect—except I fell in love with his wife.
“We never talk about it,” Evan points out. “Nia constantly tells me it’s not healthy to hide my feelings. That’s true for you, too.”
Probably so, but… “What do you want me to say? I’ll apologize again. I’m sorry. More fucking sorry than you’ll ever know. I swear I never touched Becca. I had no idea she was planning to divorce you.”
For me.
I don’t say that aloud, but we both know she was in love with me, too. We found that out after she died, but Evan doesn’t need salt in whatever wound he might still have.
Or maybe I’m the only one who hurts anymore. After all, Evan is really damn happy these days.
“You don’t have to keep reassuring me. I know you. In fact, I should probably say something this time. Falling for Nia taught me that you can’t control who you love. If you could have changed how you felt about Becca, you would have.”
“I fucking tried.” And the fact I couldn’t, that my brother from another mother nearly lost everything he worked for his whole adult life because I couldn’t resist giving my heart to his late wife, still eats at me.
“I know. I’m not blaming you. I’m trying to absolve you. Hell, I had no business falling for Nia. I’d only lost Becca six months earlier. I felt numb. And don’t get me started on how cliché it was of me to nail my assistant.”
Or how much Evan’s impulsive decision had risked dragging Stratus into a nasty sexual harassment suit, but that’s not the point of this conversation. Everything worked out for him and Nia.
“Look, I appreciate you trying to make me feel better—”
“I’m not. Well, I am, but not for the reason you think. Nia proved to me that the heart wants what it wants, and lying to yourself is pointless. You knew I didn’t love Becca. As the man who did, you wanted what was best for her. I can’t imagine how hard it must have been to see her miserable and feel powerless to make her happy.”
Fucking awful. “It wasn’t my place.”
But while she was alive, I wished like hell it had been. At times, I resented my best friend for taking up Becca’s time, for filling her life and her womb when he wasn’t as devoted to her as I was dying to be. Hell, he wasn’t even with her the day rain-slick streets claimed her and their unborn child because he’d been immersed in work.
Evan sighs. “Maybe it was more your place than mine. I just didn’t see it.”
“It’s done. Nothing we say will change that.”
“You’re right, but I still want to thank you. You could have taken Becca from me, royally fucking my business in the process. You didn’t, and I appreciate it.”
This is so like Evan. No matter what, he’s the most true-blue friend I’ve ever had. That I ever will have. He’s right; I had choices. I could have made a play for Becca. When she was alive, I sometimes wondered if she cared about me, too. There were hints. Knowing what I know now, she would have run away with me. It’s possible we would have been happy…at least for a while.
But the truth is, no matter what my feelings were for Becca, I didn’t turn my back on Evan. I couldn’t. I chose him over her. Sure, I also chose my self-respect and my ethics—what few I have—over a woman. But I chose.
If I had to choose all over again, I would make the same choice.
“I wouldn’t do that,” I swear. “You’re my ride-or-die, man.”
He claps me on the shoulder. “Same. And I hate to ask more of you, but I need your help.”
“You got it.” No questions asked. “Tell me what’s up.”
“My talks with Michael Astor at Wynam have stalled. It’s taken me a while to get that stiff Brit to tell me the problem, but—”
“Let me guess. Bruce Rawson’s merry band of assholes has been up in our potential customer’s face, trying to convince them that their on-site solid-state solutions are best for their company’s data storage needs.”
“Exactly. I’ve tried logic. I’ve sweetened the pot. I’ve all but tongue-bathed my contacts at Wynam to close this deal. Landing it would give us a huge leg up in the UK and Europe. I’ve got a lot riding on this financially. I can’t lose the deal. I won’t.”
So Evan needs me to do something. He can manage the aboveboard back-and-forth of dealing with the folks at Wynam, one of the biggest computer resellers to businesses abroad. He can do the schmoozing, the contracts, and the handshakes. But when business gets dirty…he calls me. I’ve always taken care of shit like this. I always will.
“Sure. Leave it to me. Any ideas where to start?”
My best friend frowns. “I wish I had some. Sorry.”
“No worries.” I’ve started with less. “Timeframe? Are you still looking to close this deal by the end of second quarter?”
“Yeah. Nia’s father is still making noise like he’d love to buy me up, supposedly for the right reasons this time. The bad blood between us is over, and I’ll be nice for Nia’s sake.”
But Evan doesn’t want to sell—to anyone. I hardly blame him.
“I’ll figure out how to make Rawson and the rest of Reservoir, Inc. fade into the background pronto so Wynam focuses on Stratus.”
“Perfect.”
Evan never asks how dirty a job is. He doesn’t want to know. He’s too nice, and he wants plausible deniability. Fine. He has no idea just how underhanded I am when it comes to saving Stratus and his ass, and he wants to keep it that way. Also fine. That’s what he’ll get.
I owe him.
“Don’t mention it. I’ll get back to you once the situation is resolved.”
He smiles. “Even if you weren’t my best friend, there’s no one else I’d rather have watching my back. Thanks, buddy.”
I stifle my guilt and vow I’ll never let him down again. “No thanks necessary.”
I start making phone calls the next day. A question here, calling in a favor there. It takes longer than I want and impatience rides me, but by the following weekend, I have my answer. So Monday, I pick up the phone and dial an old frat brother of mine. It’s a stroke of luck that he’s in the middle of this cluster. Now I just need to find the right lever to pull to get him the hell out of it.
Thankfully, he answers on the second ring. “Holy shit. The great Sebastian Shaw is calling me on a Sunday morning. How the hell have you been?”
