Play Hard (The Devil's Share Book 5)
Read Play Hard (The Devil's Share Book 5) Online
Authors: Maxa,L.P.
SWEETER THAN HONEY
From the time he first met her, Luke Matthews knew Lexi Grant was the girl for him. He joined a band to impress her. He became a famous drummer to win her heart…only to have his bandmate win it instead. Watching the two together was torture, so Luke fled. Spent months in Costa Rica surfing and perfecting the art of becoming a manwhore. But on the dreaded flight home, forced to reunite with his band and begin a whirlwind promo tour for their new album, Luke knows what he must do. Lie.
Her childhood taught Harlow Davis two important lessons: Love can’t be bought, and don’t date guys in bands. Then, on a flight to Nashville, a gorgeous rock star offers her money to pretend to be his girlfriend. Wrong. Stupid.
Irresistible.
And the best bad decision she’ll ever make. Her one-day promise to Luke is about to deliver endless nights of ecstasy. And if she can learn to trust—and if he can give up a love that never was—reality will be better than fantasy. And it’ll last forever.
Play Hard
Book Five of The Devil’s Share
L.P. Maxa
www.BOROUGHSPUBLISHINGGROUP.com
PUBLISHER’S NOTE: This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, business establishments or persons, living or dead, is coincidental. Boroughs Publishing Group does not have any control over and does not assume responsibility for author or third-party websites, blogs or critiques or their content.
PLAY HARD
Copyright © 2016 L.P. Maxa
All rights reserved. Unless specifically noted, no part of this publication may be reproduced, scanned, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of Boroughs Publishing Group. The scanning, uploading and distribution of this book via the Internet or by any other means without the permission of Boroughs Publishing Group is illegal and punishable by law. Participation in the piracy of copyrighted materials violates the author’s rights.
ISBN 978-1-944262-42-6
E-book formatting by Maureen Cutajar
To my strong, driven, beautiful baby sister. I am so proud of you.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
As always, first and foremost my family. Luke’s book was a tough one to find time for. Thank you for making sure I had the brain space to sit down and write. To Angela and her baby brother for giving me this idea for the Devil’s Share in the first place. To all the amazing male friends I’ve had over the years. Luke and Lexi’s dynamic is tough, but the love they share comes from you guys. To my badass Smitten Kittens, thank you for keeping me sane. And thank you to all my readers. You love these boys just as much as I do, and it’s the best feeling in the world.
CONTENTS
PLAY HARD
“All you need is faith, trust, and a little pixie dust.”
—Peter Pan
Chapter One
Lexi
“I’m calling him this morning.” I pulled the tab on Halen’s fresh diaper and then scooped her up in my arms.
Dylan tossed me the onesie I had laying out on her dresser. “You sure that’s a good idea? Smith said the guys planned on just meeting up with him on the promo tour. Didn’t want to try to force his hand at anything.”
“I haven’t called. I haven’t texted. I haven’t emailed. I’ve given him the space he needed. I’ve left him alone. But it’s been three months, Dilly. Enough is enough.” Once Halen was all dressed in clean clothes after her massive blowout, I handed her to Dylan.
“Now?” Dylan followed me out of the nursery and down the long hallway into the kitchen. “You’re going to call him now? It’s six o’clock in the morning there.”
We were in our new house in Texas, which was well worth the hours upon hours I’d spent with the GC. Our master bedroom was downstairs and we’d added a smaller room right across the hall to use as Halen’s bedroom until she was old enough to move all the way upstairs. Like when she was sixteen. I almost cried every time I thought about her moving out of her nursery one day.
“Yeah, so either he’s just gone to bed or he’s still screwing whatever whore he picked up the night before.” I never asked Dash about Luke, I never asked if he’d talked to him. My amazing fiancé was the most kind and understanding man on the planet. He’d let me have my time, let me say good-bye to my best friend without complaint. Now this was our time; Dash, Halen, and I. But whenever the guys started talking about Luke, my ears sure as hell perked up. I hung on every scrap of information that came my way. And all of it pointed to Luke acting like a playboy down in Central America.
Dylan shot me a look and put Halen in her swing. “Here, you need to eat something after that workout.” She handed me a banana.
“Waking up at the ass crack of dawn so that you girls can kick my booty all over the gym is really starting to pay off. Have you seen these abs?” I lifted my shirt.
Once we’d all started building it’d become clear that being apart, living totally separate from one another, would never work. For any of us. So in the middle of the compound we built some common spaces, one of those being a well-equipped gym. We’d added on an outdoor kitchen, a bar, a studio, and a larger dining area as well. “Where did B go? I thought she was coming here for tea?”
“She went to see if Landry wanted to come too.” Halen cooed at the sound of Landry’s name. Those two weren’t blood related, but they were sisters through and through.
I pointed at Dilly. “There you go. Another reason it’s time for Luke to come the fudge home.” Luke had been giving Landry drum lessons before he adios’d to Costa Rica. He left names for Jacks and Bryan, guys he thought would be able to pick up where he left off in teaching her. But Landry refused. She wouldn’t take lessons from anyone but her Uncle Luke. “Not to mention his goddaughter. Halen is starting to recognize faces and he’s a stranger to her.”
Dylan filled my stainless steel teakettle with water and then sat it on my large Viking Range stove, which I was painfully learning to use with her and B’s help. “No one is arguing the fact that he’s missing things here. That he’s been gone for a long time. It’s just…We all know why he left, Lex.”
Her words caused my chest to hurt.
I was the reason Luke left.
“I thought as time went by, as he got older, that his crush would just fade away. I never in a million years thought it would develop into stronger feelings.” I would never apologize for falling in love with Dash, but it was time I owned up to the fact that Luke had had a crush on me since he was a kid. Wishing it away obviously hadn’t worked. I took a deep breath. “But that’s on me. I should have come right out and set him straight years ago.”
She reached into the pantry and grabbed a box of green mint tea. “Why didn’t you?”
“I was afraid to lose him,” admitting my selfishness. Halen started to fuss when her swing stopped so I went and picked her up, kissing her chubby baby cheeks. “Luke’s been my best friend forever, and I was scared if I told him I didn’t want him the way he wanted me that he would leave.” I laughed quietly, feeling sad. “But, he left anyway, huh?”
Dylan sent me a small smile. “He’ll come home, eventually.”
“He’ll come home, right fudging now.”
Chapter Two
Luke
The ringing in my ears wouldn’t stop. I’d been drunk before. Hell, I’d been drunk a few hours ago. But I’d never experienced this insistent ringing as a side effect. Maybe my liver had finally had enough. Lord knows I’d put it through the paces these last three months. I grabbed my pillow and placed it over my head, squeezing as hard as I could to try and get the noise to stop. My mouth was dry and my brain felt like it was a shriveled up wasteland.
“
Papi
,
su
telefono
.”
I cracked one eye. Was that chick from last night still here? Didn’t I tell her to get out? Had I said it in English or in Spanish? Usually I did it in both so there wouldn’t be any confusion. That was the second phrase I learned upon arriving here in Costa Rica, right behind
vamos a salir de aqui
. I lifted my head slightly; too much movement would most likely cause an aneurism at this point. “
Que
?”
“
Su
telefono
.” The Latina bombshell I’d grabbed before I’d left the club a mere four hours ago was holding my phone, an annoyed look on her face.
I took it and instantly hit decline. My dark cave-like room (courtesy of blackout curtains and massive window unit) was peaceful once again so I let my head collapse back down on to my mattress. It was barely six a.m. Definitely not time to start my day of beaches and booze. I was just about to kindly ask the chick to either leave or blow me, when my phone started up again. I didn’t need to look at it to know who was calling. I didn’t need to see that adorable contact picture of my best friend holding my goddaughter. Nope.
Only Lexi would call me over and over no matter the time. “Lexi.” Picking up the call, I said her name reverently, inadvertently reverent. I hardened my heart and added, “It’s early as fuck.”
“Well, good morning to you too, Luke.”
Hearing her voice for the first time in twelve weeks made my throat constrict; it felt like I was trying to swallow razor blades. Everyone had given me my space when I’d left Florida. The guys only really called when it had to do with the band and my input was needed in order to get our new album launched. Landry and I sent emails and postcards back and forth every few days. I got videos of her playing the drums and of Halen’s adorable little smiles. But I hadn’t talked to Lexi. She knew why I’d left, and mercifully, she’d given me the time I needed. Up until now apparently.
“Why are you calling?” I was being short with her, something I never did.
“It’s time to come home, Lukey.”
If she’d demanded it with her bossy snarky tone, it would have been easy to brush her off. But she hadn’t. Her words sounded heavy, weighted with sadness. I sat up, suddenly on alert, “Is everyone okay? What happened?”
“Everyone is fine.” She sighed into the phone. “You’ve been gone for over three months. Y’all’s promo tour starts in a few days and—”
“I’m going on the tour. I already told the guys that I would fly out and meet them in Nashville.” I just had no plans to go
home
until after promo for the new album.