Sweet Alibi
Authors: Adriane Leigh
SWEET ALIBI
by
Adriane Leigh
Sweet Alibi
Copyright © 2016 by Adriane Leigh
Cover Design by PopKitty Reviews
Editing by Adept Edits
No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system without the written permission of the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
License Notes
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From USA Today Bestselling author Adriane Leigh comes a passionate contemporary romance about giving in to desire so sharp and sweet it threatens to consume...
Georgia Montgomery is desperate for an escape from the life she’s been leading. The perfect job, the perfect apartment, the perfect boyfriend—all are on the cusp of driving her over the edge. On a whim, she buys a beach house on the North Carolina coast, eager to spend a summer with her college friends. She thinks she’s found the perfect balance, until one pleasure-seeking playboy turns her world on its axis. Georgia tries to ignore the tornado of emotion that sweeps through her system whenever Tristan Howell is near, but just like an addiction, one look, one taste, one touch is never enough.
The chemistry is scorching and it isn't long before the slow burn ignites into a full-blown wildfire that threatens to consume anything in its path. But Georgia and Tristan can't shelter their love from the outside world, and the moments of exquisite passion they share aren't enough to sustain the relationship. When scars from the past resurface--will their hearts meld together as one? Or will outside forces tear them apart, leaving an empty shell where love and passion once thrived?
*Note: The characters in Sweet Alibi are real and flawed--they make bad decisions and learn hard lessons. It contains a love triangle, a sweet alpha-male with a broken heart, and a leading lady that doesn't always know what she wants. If you love a character-driven romance with a hard-fought happily-ever-after, Sweet Alibi is for you.
Formerly published as The Morning After and Light in Morning duet, now with more than 10,000 words of never-before-published BONUS content.
More steamy, contemporary romance from Adriane Leigh…
For those new to her work, consider the bestseller
Wild
or the following standalones:
★
Experience edgy glamour and forbidden love in the fast-paced erotic suspense
BLINDSIGHT
. The first sixteen chapters are just $.99 in Blindsight: Part One. Available in KindleUnlimited now.
★
Fall in love with a spellbinding student-teacher romance about love that overcomes all odds in
BEAUTIFUL BURN
.
★
Get carried away with sexy, enigmatic billionaire Carter Morgan in the modern fairytale
STEEL and LACE
. The first 30 pages are $.99 in (#1) now.
"Sexy. Hot. Leigh leaves you wanting more!" -
K. Bromberg, Driven
"Sizzling chemistry, a glamorous world, plot twists...a perfect combination held together with Adriane Leigh's addictive writing. I dove into this world, and didn't want to come up for air. I can't wait for more!" -
Alessandra Torre, Hollywood Dirt
"Adriane Leigh never dissapoints with equal amounts of heat and heart with all the sex, suspense and scandal...Leigh's newest mysterious hero will have you anxiously flipping pages well into the night trying to uncover his secrets." -
Jay Crownover, Marked Men
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To My Dearest Readers,
Sweet Alibi is dedicated to you.
This strory has been on a long journey to become the story it is now. It’s gone through a few title changes, starting originally with “The Mourning After,” to “Morning” to now. This however is the first time The Morning duet has been compiled together. I dug through my files to find Tristan point-of-view chapters that were left on the editing room floor, wrote new bonus chapters of a few favorite scenes, and included an extended epilogue.
This book has always been the closest to my heart. Every writer has a book,
that
book. The book they’re the most proud of, for whatever reason. This is that book for me.
This story
is
me. Sweet Alibi is my heart on the page. I
am
Georgia.
The story may be fiction, the events may be purely a work of creativity, but I shed every tear that Georgia did as I wrote. She suffered so much heartache, but in the heartache she learned that however your past may haunt you, it’s your purpose in life to find the courage to overcome the ghosts to become the person you choose to be.
The future is yours, you’ve only got to take hold of it.
I hope you enjoy Georgia’s journey.
♥
Adriane
Love pressed them hard,
as thirst presses the dying stag to the stream.
Love dropped upon them from high heaven,
as a hawk slipped after long hunger falls right upon the bird.
And love will not be hidden.
~
The Romance of Tristan and Isolde
PART I
One
Past
“ANYONE ELSE?” A voice booms down the hallway.
“Please just leave her,” he says groggily.
A grunt echoes up the stairs, I shut my eyes to the world around me. I hear random screams and moans and then some time later–maybe hours, or minutes, or days–I hear a popping noise. I don't know what it is and my brain no longer has the ability to muster the energy to figure it out. My mind has shut down and the only thing I can hear is screaming. It seems as if I scream for days…I’ve been screaming for years.
Two
Georgia
“SO YOU KNOW how you said you had nothing going this summer?” I called my best friend from a coffee shop off the freeway just over the North Carolina state line.
“Yeah?”
“I’ve got something for you,” enthusiasm rippled through my voice.
“Since this is the first time you’ve sounded excited in a while, I’m all ears.”
“I bought a house.”
“What?!” Drew shrieked over the phone. I held it away from my ear with a smile on my face.
“I want you to spend the summer with me
―
it needs fixing up, and you can help me pick out paint colors and all that.”
“Wait, you and Kyle bought a house?”
“Noooo…
I
bought a house. Kyle didn’t have much say in it.”
“Georgia Hope Montgomery! Did you break up with Kyle?” Her voice rose to registers only dogs could hear.
“No, I’m just staying at the house this summer to fix it up and then I’ll rent it out next summer. You should see it, Drew. It’s amazing.” I finished on a dreamy sigh.
“I don’t know. Dad probably wouldn’t be keen on me being away all summer. D.C. is far away.”
Drew was the accountant for her dad’s construction company. I knew she wouldn’t have a problem working from the beach all summer, even if she would be more than a few hours away. “Please come. You can crunch numbers from anywhere. Let’s spend the summer together! We haven’t had much time together since college. Silas has already agreed. It will be a blast! And it’s not in D.C.”
I heard a huff from her end. “Where is it?”
“That’s the best part, Drew
―
it’s on the beach.” My grin grew impossibly wider, even though no one was there to see.
“The beach? Like, the
ocean
beach?” I could hear the excitement rising in her voice.
“The one and only. It’s thirty minutes outside Wilmington, North Carolina. I promise there’s plenty to do–you can troll for hotties, there are plenty of clubs...” I trailed off.
“You had me at ‘beach.’ Although Silas…” She groaned at his name, though he’s also one of my closest college friends. Silas and I were nearly inseparable. We’d both moved to D.C. after college when Drew had moved home to Jacksonville. We’d had endless amounts of fun in college, but she and Silas bickered like an old married couple most days. For whatever reason, they did not click like he and I did. Perhaps it was because she had more competition from him when they trolled for men at clubs. Silas was ridiculously charming and deliciously hot and operated under the assumption that he could turn even a straight man bi for at least one night.
“I know you love him deep down. I'll tell him not to hit on anyone you bring home,” I teased.