Kiss Me Slow (Top Shelf Romance Book 1) Read online

  Kiss Me Slow

  A Top Shelf Romance Collection

  Tijan

  Corinne Michaels

  Willow Winters

  Louise Bay

  Contents

  Ryan’s Bed

  Dedication

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  1. Counseling Session One

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  2. Counseling Session Two

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  3. Counseling Session Three

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  4. Counseling Session Four

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  Chapter Thirty

  Chapter Thirty-One

  Chapter Thirty-Two

  5. Counseling Session Five

  Chapter Thirty-Three

  Chapter Thirty-Four

  Chapter Thirty-Five

  Chapter Thirty-Six

  Chapter Thirty-Seven

  Chapter Thirty-Eight

  Chapter Thirty-Nine

  Five months later

  Chapter Forty-One

  Epilogue

  Dear Reader

  Links & Resources

  Also by Tijan

  We Own Tonight

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Epilogue

  Bonus Scene

  Keep up with Corinne

  Books by Corinne Michaels

  Acknowledgments

  About the Author

  Irresistible Attraction

  A Single Glance

  Dedication

  Prologue

  1. Jase

  2. Bethany

  3. Bethany

  4. Jase

  5. Bethany

  6. Bethany

  7. Jase

  8. Bethany

  9. Jase

  10. Bethany

  11. Jase

  12. Bethany

  13. Jase

  14. Bethany

  15. Jase

  16. Jase

  17. Bethany

  18. Jase

  19. Bethany

  20. Jase

  21. Jase

  22. Bethany

  A Single Kiss

  Prologue

  23. Bethany

  24. Jase

  25. Bethany

  26. Bethany

  27. Jase

  28. Bethany

  29. Jase

  30. Bethany

  31. Jase

  32. Bethany

  33. Jase

  34. Bethany

  35. Jase

  36. Bethany

  37. Jase

  38. Bethany

  39. Jase

  40. Bethany

  A Single Touch

  Prologue

  41. Bethany

  42. Jase

  43. Bethany

  44. Jase

  45. Bethany

  46. Jase

  47. Bethany

  48. Bethany

  49. Bethany

  50. Jase

  51. Bethany

  52. Jase

  53. Bethany

  54. Jase

  55. Bethany

  56. Bethany

  57. Jase

  58. Jase

  59. Bethany

  60. Jase

  61. Bethany

  62. Jase

  63. Bethany

  64. Jase

  65. Seth

  Also by W Winters

  About Willow Winters

  King of Wall Street

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Epilogue

  Books by Louise Bay

  Acknowledgments

  Also by Top Shelf Romance

  Kiss Me Slow

  Copyright 2020

  Ryan’s Bed by Tijan Copyright © 2018 Tijan

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form without written per- mission of the author, except by a reviewer who may quote brief passages for review purposes only. This book is a work of fiction and any resemblance to any person, living or dead, or any events or occurrences, is purely coincidental. The characters and story lines are created by the author’s imagination and are used fictitiously.

  Edited: Jessica Royer Ocken

  Proofread: Paige Smith, Kara Hildebrand, Chris O’Neil Parece, AW Editing Formatting: Elaine York, Allusion Graphics, LLC (http://www.allusiongraphics.com)

  We Own Tonight by Corinne Michaels Copyright © 2017 Corinne Michaels

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means including electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without the prior written consent of the author. This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imag- ination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental and beyond the intent of the author or publisher.

  Editor:: Ashley Williams, AW Editing Proofreading: Kara Hildebrand, Janice Owen

  Irresistible Attraction by Willow Winters

  Copyright © 2019 by Willow Winters All Rights Reserved.

  No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations within critical reviews and otherwise as permitted by copyright law.

  NOTE: This is a work of fiction.

  Names, characters, places, and incidents are a product of the author’s imagination.

  Any resemblance to real life is purely coincidental. All characters in this story are 18
or older. Copyright © 2019, Willow Winters Publishing. All rights reserved. willowwinterswrites.com

  King of Wall Street by Louise Bay Copyright © 2019 by Louise Bay

  Ryan’s Bed

  Ryan’s Bed

  By: Tijan

  Dedication

  This is for all those hurting from pain so deep and so dark that you don’t think you’ll ever be rid of it. This is for those who suffer while watching their loved ones suffer and feel helpless to take that pain away.

  A note to reader that all towns and locations are fictional.

  Chapter One

  The first time I snuck into Ryan Jensen’s bed was an accident

  I’d been lying in bed next to this girl I’d been introduced to twelve hours earlier at a company picnic. My family had just moved to Portside, Oregon, from Schilling, Arizona, because of my dad’s promotion, so the whole picnic had been new faces, new names, and that feeling of being the newbie on the scene. Portside wasn’t huge, but it wasn’t small either—maybe around twenty thousand people lived in this suburb outside of Merridell.

  Robbie would know. My brother could spit out statistics because he was the family genius. Willow was the family artist. She excelled at almost everything creative, or it seemed that way. Piano. Dance. Painting. Once, she made a six-foot papier-mâché dragon that won a state competition.

  Trust me. That was a big deal. She was on the local news.

  Maybe that was when it started. Maybe she felt as if she had to compete with Robbie.

  I’d found empty bottles of laxatives in our shared bathroom, smelled the dried puke in the toilet, and a couple of times, I’d woken up to find her exercising in the middle of the night. We were the only two sisters, so it made sense we shared a bathroom. We’d shared the bedroom too until our pre-teen years, and then we got freeeee-dom! (I’m saying that in the best Braveheart yell I can muster.)

  I didn’t know why she felt she had to compete with Robbie.

  No one could compete with that kid. He was a walking, talking, and eating computer. Robbie wasn’t ever going to be normal, but Willow and me—we were. Or I was.

  I wasn’t the best at anything.

  Willow had been popular in Arizona. I hadn’t.

  Well, I hadn’t not been popular. I wasn’t in the top tier of the social hierarchy, but I was liked. Everyone knew me. Everyone was nice to me, though, thinking back, that might’ve been because of Willow. If someone came at me, they came at her. And she was not one to be messed with.

  Same thing with grades. I did okay. My B+ average made me beam with pride. Not Willow. It was A+ or the end of the world. There’d been talk at our old school about raising our GPA from a 4.0 to a 4.2 scale. Willow was all for it.

  Not me. That meant I’d have to try harder. No way.

  Maybe that was my role in the family. I was the slacker.

  Yes. I liked that. I’d been the slacker in the family—or maybe I was the lazy one. There was a difference between being a slacker and being lazy. One slacks, and the other excels at slacking. That seemed to fit better.

  Yes, that was me, and I had been once again fulfilling my role when I missed Peach’s door and tiptoed into the wrong room. I went in search of a glass of water and got lost trying to find her room again. It was easy to do. The place was a mansion.

  I didn’t realize it at the time. Both bedrooms were cool, with fans forming a breeze, and large, comfortable beds. These people were rich.

  Wait, not rich.

  They were wealthy. According to my sister, there was a difference.

  I’d met Ryan and Peach at the company picnic—or, rather, I met Peach. I assumed she was nicknamed for her fuzzy red hair. Freckles all over her face. Blue eyes. Blending. That was what she did, just like me. I blended into the crowd, whereas Willow never did. It was the same with Peach and Ryan. She blended, and her brother didn’t.

  I wasn’t actually introduced to Ryan, but he didn’t need it. I noticed him anyway. He was that kind of guy. People noticed him, even adults.

  Golden brown hair long enough that it flipped over his face and still looked adorably rumpled, hazel eyes, a square jaw, and a dimple in his right cheek—Ryan had a face girls sighed over. Even with him sitting at a picnic table, it had been apparent he was tall with a lean build and wide shoulders. Since his shirt had flattened against his arm, it was also obvious that there was good muscle definition underneath.

  The guy worked out.

  And judging by the look on his face, he’d been bored out of his mind.

  He’d been sitting on a picnic table with two friends, not doing anything. He wasn’t talking or shouting or waving his arms around. He was literally just sitting with his feet resting where people would normally sit, and he’d drawn attention. His elbows had been braced on his legs, and there was an air around him. He’d exuded a nonchalant charisma.

  I wasn’t the type of girl to notice a guy and stalk him from afar. No, no, I was the type to notice a guy and then notice the hot dog stand beyond him. Willow would go for the guy, and I would go for the hot dog.

  Priorities, right?

  But even though I hadn’t talked to Ryan earlier, I knew he was popular. A person just knew, and my hunch was confirmed when two girls walked past him. They’d paused, hands in front of their faces, and whispered to each other. One of Ryan’s friends had tapped his leg and gestured to the girls. He’d looked, and the girls had erupted in giggles before running away, their faces flaming red.

  Meanwhile, Willow refused to come so I was on my own, sitting at my own table, feeling like a loser while I stared at all the other kids there.

  They’d all seemed beautiful or remarkable in some way. And they’d all managed to find each other, like with my little brother. He’d been at a table with two other boys and a girl. All were focused on their iPads. I was pretty sure they were speaking nerd language, and if I’d walked over, the conversation between the eleven-year-olds would’ve gone over my head.

  Again, I was the slacker of the family. I should be able to communicate with an eleven-year-old, but no. I’d been to other outings with Robbie. I knew the routine. He’d found his crowd, and I could tell he was happy.

  Then again, Robbie never endured what another genius eleven-year-old might.

  He was never bullied because he was smart. He was almost worshiped. People thought he was going to be the next Steve Jobs, and his classmates had caught on, already sucking up to him. Yeah, maybe there was a jealous kid every once in a while, but Robbie never talked about it. If he was picked on, I wondered if he was even aware of it.

  I wondered how things would be for him . . . after. Robbie had always seemed happy. Would some of that be gone? I hoped not—stop.

  Mind, back up here. Mental reverse, and back to Ryan again.

  I should’ve known something was different from the minute my head hit the pillow in his room. I felt warm, at ease, and my body relaxed. It shouldn’t have. I should’ve remained awake like I had been while I was in Peach’s bed. They said I’d be ‘better off’ not being alone that night so I’d been in a stranger’s bed. I was tense and gripping the sheet with white-knuckled hands, replaying in my head what had happened at my new house earlier over and over and over.

  But not in Ryan’s bed.

  He was as surprised as I was when we woke the next morning.

  He jerked upright. “What?” he asked, his mouth gaping open at me.

  I grabbed for the covers, made sure they were pulled tightly over me, and I gawked back at him. That was it, really. My body was still relaxed. Only my mind was alarmed, but then my mind lost the battle. There was other shit up there that I didn’t want to stir and think about, so I gave in and let my eyelids droop again.