Stupid Cupid (Holiday Heartthrobs Novella Series Book 2) Read online

  Copyright © 2016 Annelise Reynolds

  Stupid Cupid

  All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduction, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) utilization of this work without written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, brands, media and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. The author acknowledges the trademarked status and trademark owners of various products referenced in this work of fiction, which have been uses without permission. The publication/use of these trademarks is not authorized, associated with, or sponsored by the trademark owners.

  Table of Contents

  Prologue

  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

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Epilogue

  Acknowledgements

  So many people to thank for walking this journey with me. First and foremost, I’ve got to thank my kids. They put up with mommy having to be in the writing cave all the time. I am truly blessed to have both of them in my life. They are my heart and soul and the reason I do what I do. They are everything to me.

  To my sisters: Lili, Paula, and Katie, you three have shown me what family really is. I love you more than you can ever know. Thank you for sticking with me through everything, supporting and encouraging my dream. I truly do not know what my life would be without you three amazing women in it.

  Jemma and Addy: thank you both for starting this journey with me. I am where I am now because of you two. You have both been sounding boards and given me so many laughs. You do not know how much you mean to me. Counting the days until I can hug you both.

  To my two friends that started as fans: Amy and Michelle, you two blow me away daily. You have both been so supportive and encourage me at every turn. Even when I don’t believe in me, you both do, and it blows my mind. Thank you for your support, but even more, thank you for your friendship.

  To my Best Bitch Pepper: Lady, I haven’t known you long, but I feel like I’ve known you forever. You make me laugh all the time, and push me to be better. Thank you for joining me on this journey. I cannot wait to cut up with you in KC and at other events. Let’s just make sure we have someone ready to bail us out.

  To my editor, my cover designer, and my formatter: Thank you, Dawn Lewis, for your amazing work on my books. I can’t thank you enough for what you do. I know I’m a total mess when it comes to editing. Tracie at Dark Water Covers, you fucking rock. I lucked out when I won the cover for Ember’s Burn from you, and I love getting to work with you. Thank you. Jaye, thank you for helping my books look as beautiful on the inside as they do on the outside. I can’t thank you enough for all you do. I love working with all three of y’all. Thank you from the bottom of my heart.

  To my Vixens and Kyle: Thank you all for showing me such support. You guys amaze me with all you do. You kick ass and take names every day. I can’t tell you how much it means to me that you all help pimp me like a two dollar whore. Thank you.

  To the other amazing authors that I have met along the way: You fucking rock. Thank you, ladies, for showing me support and friendship. I have met so many amazing women through this journey, and you are all amazing. Thank you: Jemma Bell, Addyson Thompson, Pepper Lynn, Becca Taylor, Debbie Dickerson, Jess Sims, and so many more…

  Prologue

  Katie

  Christmas in the ER – how fucking perfect. I wish I could rewind the past hour and stay in my bed curled up with Cocoa – that would be amazing.

  Unfortunately, I didn’t stay home. Nope, my ass thought it would be perfect to seek out my Santa on Christmas day to see if he would like another go round or more. Only, my Santa was the last man I wanted him to be.

  Cory. I growled as the nurse pushed an IV into my arm. Fucking hell my hand hurt, and he didn’t even wince when I hit his jaw. Prick. Just another reason for me to hate the arrogant asshole.

  How could I not have known? Why the hell didn’t Robyn say anything? When I get ahold of her… They gave me a syringe filled with painkillers, and my world went hazy. I tried to hold on to my anger, but dammit, I was slipping under.

  When it comes to pain meds, I am a light weight. It doesn’t take much to make my ass happy, nor does it take much to knock me out. The x-rays revealed the break.

  “What did you hit?” the nurse asked me.

  “Santa,” I grumbled. Fucking Cory. I fucked Cory. I must have growled because the nurse looked at me worried.

  “Ma’am, have you been drinking?” She asked as if it were impossible that I decked the fat jolly guy in a red suit, but that’s not really what happened. I decked an imposter, and all the fantasies I’d had were doused by a pair of whiskey-colored eyes.

  “No. I could use a drink, though. Just not whiskey. Whiskey is dangerous, like his eyes, and you can’t see through whiskey. You don’t know what you’re getting until the beard comes off. Vodka is clear, though, you can see through vodka. I’d like some vodka.”

  “Ok ma’am. Maybe when you get out of the hospital, huh?” she said to me, trying to calm me down.

  “Let’s see how much alcohol is in her system,” I heard her say to someone else.

  Whatever, they’d soon find out that I’m sober, well I was until they put me on pain meds, but I needed the pain meds. They helped dull the pain in my heart as well as my hand.

  Of all people, why did Cory have to be my Santa? Santa fucking sucks.

  Chapter One

  Katie

  New Years

  “Katie, come on. I had no idea you didn’t know.” I stood on the other side of the door, a bulky splint on my hand, Cocoa eagerly waiting for me to let Robyn in.

  “How was I supposed to know?”

  “Well, I thought he would take the damn beard off before he fucked you, and you’d see who it was well before then. When you didn’t come back, I just assumed you knew and you didn’t care.”

  She had me there. What kind of woman lets a man fuck her repeatedly and she never sets eyes on his face? I turned the lock awkwardly with my left hand and pulled the door open. Robyn was on the other side with the big basket she had promised me.

  I let her in and Cocoa went after her, but I couldn’t stop her from licking without hurting my hand, so she was on her own.

  “I’m sorry,” she said, petting Cocoa with one hand just to placate the playful animal.

  “It’s my fault.” I made a mistake and I’d have to live with it. I guess I owed Cory a thank you for not pressing charges. There had been witnesses to my hitting him, and video, but he refused to press charges, saying he deserved it – which he did.

  Robyn went into the kitchen and found the wine opener. Then poured us both a generous glass. We sat
on the couch sipping in silence for a few minutes, but I knew what was coming when she finally got around to asking.

  “You want to talk about it?”

  “Not really,” I said, shrugging it off.

  “What happened that night, Katie?”

  I sighed, knowing she wasn’t going to give up. “He gave me what I’ve wanted and what I didn’t know I needed.” I went on to explain how he blindfolded me all night – and as she had put it Christmas morning – rocked my world.

  “Why did you hit him then?”

  “Because he lied to me, he deceived me, and he fucking deserved it.”

  She bobbed her head at me. “Ok, I’ll give you that. It was low for him to hide who he was.”

  “Damned right it was.” I threw back the glass of wine guzzling it all, then held out my glass for her to refill. I’d stopped taking the pain meds days ago. They made me too loopy and made me sleep. When I slept, I relived that night, and – it’s a vicious cycle.

  “Has he tried to call you?”

  I got up and went to my answering machine, hitting the play message button for her to hear. Twenty new messages.

  “Katie we need to talk.”

  “Kitty call me.”

  On and on they went, more of the same. I shut it off before any more of them could play. I didn’t want his apology. This was unforgivable.

  “You should hear him out.”

  “We went down that road. It sucked. Our first date was a disaster and he was a jerk.”

  “Did you ever ask him about that first date?”

  “No.”

  She got up and shrugged on her coat. “Maybe that’s your mistake, Katie. I love you, and I want you happy. If there is even a chance that Cory could make you happy, why not hear him out? Because I saw you the day after the auction, and whether you want to admit it or not, you were happy.”

  Chapter Two

  Cory

  Christmas day did not turn out how I thought it would. I went back to work at thirteen declining Jim’s invite to Christmas dinner.

  I didn’t want them to accidentally say something to Katie and ruin their holiday. I knew she was going to be pissed when she found out. What I was not expecting was for her to hit me.

  I barely felt it as her hand connected with my jaw, but I heard the crack of her fingers near my ear. I knew she broke a finger the second she made contact. Her cry of pain ripped at my gut.

  She refused my help, but I went to the hospital anyway, calling Jim to take my spot at the station and Robyn to get to the hospital.

  I rubbed my jaw where she hit me. For a kindergarten teacher, it wasn’t a bad shot – she just happened to hit on the jaw bone which is a lot thicker than her dainty little fingers – fingers I vividly remember having wrapped around my cock as I fucked her face in the shower.

  I’d been trying my damnedest to figure out how to tell her that I was her Santa, but the words escaped me. Her prim and proper attitude with her sweet little kindergarten teacher persona was now blown to hell. She may be those things, but in the bedroom, she was anything but.

  Katie wanted dirty, raunchy sex and fucking. She was, as the old adage goes, a lady in the living room and a whore in the bedroom. I had suspected as much after I had gotten to know her. Seriously, how could she not be when Robyn was her best friend and wrote things that would make a pimp blush?

  She was a curious kitten wanting to play and eager to learn. I just had to find a way back into her good graces and back into her bed. Then I’d make her mine.

  New Years Eve

  “You screwed up royally.”

  “Thanks, Jim. I didn’t know that” I said sarcastically.

  “Don’t take it out on me man, or the other guys at the station. You need to get a grip on yourself and either figure out how to fix it or move on.”

  “She won’t even talk to me in order for me to fix it.”

  “Ok, so you make her.”

  I raised an eye at him. “You have an idea?”

  “Well, being a secret Santa didn’t work, what about trying things the old fashioned way.”

  “You mean clubbing her over the head and carrying her back to my cave?”

  “I said old fashioned not prehistoric, smart ass.”

  “I’ve tried just talking to her, she doesn’t hear me. I’ve tried picking on her, it just makes her angry. Please, if you can spell this shit out for me, then, by all means, do it, because what I’ve tried hasn’t worked and I’m ready to try the caveman approach.”

  “Romance the woman, Cory.”

  “How do I romance a woman who refuses to even see me?”

  “That, my friend, is what you have to figure out.”

  Fuck.

  Chapter Three

  Katie

  I went back to work still in a splint. My handwriting looked like that of my students, and I listened as they told me all of the things they did on their Christmas break. When they asked me how I broke my hand, I lied: “I went ice skating and fell.” Hitting Santa Claus in the face would not have gone over very well with my students.

  When I got off work, I was tired and my hand was hurting, so I was in no mood to see Cory’s truck sitting outside my apartment and him climbing out of it when I pulled up in my parking spot.

  “Go away, Cory,” I said, barely giving him a glance.

  “We need to talk.” His voice was gruff, and it sent tingles up my spine remembering it from that night. I hated my reaction to it.

  “No, there is nothing left to say.”

  “That’s where we disagree on things, Kitten. I think there’s a lot left to say.”

  “And that, ‘Sir’,” I said with disgust, “is where you are totally fucking wrong. Now, leave me alone or I’ll call the cops.”

  “Dammit Katie, you went there looking for me.” He growled at me.

  “A mistake, I assure you.” If only I could turn back the hands of time, I could be blissfully ignorant of what happened that night and who my Santa was. Now, the memory just haunted me.

  “Us – together,” he gestured between us with his hand, “is not a mistake, Kitten.”

  “Don’t call me Kitten. I’m not your damn pet.”

  I opened my door and walked into the warmth of my home, shutting him outside in the cold. He had caused me to let go and lose control, and I couldn’t let that happen again – not with him.

  Numbly, I took off my jacket and went to get Cocoa out of her kennel. She greeted me with yelps of joy and kisses. I hugged her neck as silent tears of humiliation slid down my face.

  Chapter Four

  Cory

  “Romance her.” How the hell do you romance a woman that has never given you the time of day, and is even more dead set against you now than she was before?

  It had been three weeks since that day outside her house, and working out seemed the only way I could concentrate and keep myself from going crazy. It also kept me from beating the shit out of the guys at the station.

  “Haven’t figured out how to break her yet?” Jerry said, lifting some weights off the rack.

  “No.”

  “Have you sent her flowers? Women love flowers.”

  “Flowers and jewelry are clichés. I don’t want cliché.”

  “I don’t know man, they seem to work with the women I’ve been with.” He grinned proudly.

  “That’s because the women you go for have an IQ no bigger than their bra size,” I shot back.

  Katie is smart, cliché gestures wouldn’t work for her, that much I know. I need to figure out something else – something that will keep her on her toes and coming back for more.

  “Hey, at least they are easy to please, and I’m getting laid right now – which is more than I can say for you.”

  “Jerry, one day, a woman is going to knock you on your ass, and I can’t wait to see it happen.” I put the weights I was working with down and wiped my face on a towel.

  “Never gonna happen, Cory. One woman won’t get her c
laws in me. I need variety in my life.”

  I shook my head at him. He was younger than me by a couple years, still in his early twenties, so I guess I couldn’t really blame him for thinking the way he did. I was guilty of it too – once upon a time.

  With my light workout finished, I went to take a shower. The hot water felt good, but I knew to hurry through the motions in case the alarm went off.

  I was just wrapping my towel around my waist when the alarm went off – ‘car accident’ dispatch said over the loud speaker giving us the basics of what we were heading into. I grabbed my clothes off the bench and threw them on, stepped in my boots, and ran like hell.

  I was still one of the first on the truck. Jim, Jerry, Danny, and Kevin were also there. Paul and Blake were the last to arrive before we took off.

  When we hopped off the truck, I recognized the car immediately and took off sprinting to it. Jim was right on my heels.

  The sedan was flipped up on its side. “Robyn,” Jim shouted, vaulting up on top of the side of the car. This was a first responder’s worst nightmare – finding a loved one at the scene.

  “Jim?”

  “Yeah, Robs.” She was scratched up, but coherent and talking.

  “Damn. I think the car is totaled.”

  He laughed, and it was one of relief. “Yeah, Honey, it’s totaled. Let’s get you out of there, huh?”

  “Yes.” She paused, her voice going quiet and soft. “I love you.”

  My friend was shaking. I’ve never seen emotion get the better of him, but his hands were literally shaking. “Yeah, Robs, I love you too.” He cleared his throat, and we got busy trying to get his wife from the car.

  When Robyn was free, he swept her up into his arms and carried her to the paramedics, climbing into the back of the ambulance with her.

  The rest of us stayed behind to clean up the wreck. The driver who T-boned Robyn, was in in way worse shape. She would do some time behind bars when she got out of the hospital. The smell of alcohol was overwhelming, and there was a bottle on the floorboard. She was lucky she didn’t kill anyone.