Brazen Steele: Brazen Series Book 2 Read online

  Brazen Steele

  Brazen Series Book 2

  Ali Dean

  Edited by Leanne Rabessa at Editing Juggernaut

  Cover design by Hang Le

  Copyright © 2020 by Ali Dean

  All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or, if an actual place, are used fictitiously and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  This book may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person you share it with. If you are reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then you should return it to the seller and purchased your own copy. Libraries are exempt and permitted to share their in-house copies with their member and have full thanks for stocking this book. Thank you for respecting the author’s work.

  Created with Vellum

  Contents

  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

  About the Author

  Also by Ali Dean

  Sneak Peek

  Chapter One

  Jordan

  I can hear the guitars and laughter as we continue walking toward the party. I’m only half listening as Davis talks to me about surfing. I just kissed him. After Beck’s cryptic rejection, I showed up at this party and just went for it with the first guy to show an interest in me. But I’m not feeling ashamed about any of it. Actually, I feel sort of empowered that I’m taking matters into my own hands.

  Could I try being with Davis? I could see him teaching me to surf and sharing sweet kisses I guess, but something inside me resists giving him any of my firsts. Maybe that’s natural though. Maybe I need to get to know him better and that will change.

  Davis stops talking mid-sentence and squeezes my hand as he comes to a stop a short distance from the party.

  I look over at him and follow his gaze.

  “You know this guy?” he asks. Before I can answer, he says, “Shit, that’s Beckett Steele. What’s he doing here?”

  Davis swings his gaze back to me, and I wonder if I should feel guilty about that mix of confusion, alarm, and surprise on his face. I glance back at Beck, who’s walking toward us. His hands are shoved in his pockets and he’s moving fast, like he wants to run but is holding back. My chest burns with an unfamiliar sensation.

  “Yeah, that’s him.”

  Davis drops my hand. “You two aren’t together, are you?”

  At that question the burning in my chest explodes, sending flames to my stomach and down my veins. “Why would you think that?”

  Davis looks from me to Beck and back and forth a few times.

  “Seriously, why would that be the first thing you’d assume?” There’s a challenge in my tone, the anger coursing through me impossible to subdue.

  Davis opens his mouth to respond but Beck is there. “Assume what?” he asks with no introduction.

  “Nothing,” I snap at the same time Davis swings an index finger between me and Beck.

  “You two, there’s nothing going on between you, is there?”

  “No!” I nearly shout.

  But Beck answers with even more force, in a stern voice I’ve never heard from him before. “Yes.”

  I take a step sideways away from Beck as I realize how close he is. “Uh no, we are not together. We’re not anything. Maybe friends, kind of, but only because I work for Griffin and hang out with his sister.”

  I’m explaining this to Davis but it’s Beck I’m looking at as I talk. What is he doing right now? I think I know, and it makes me want to shove him into the sand. As if I could.

  Beck looks frustrated but he’s got no right. I glare right back at him.

  Davis faces Beck. “Look man, she says there’s nothing going on. We’re headed back to the party. Let’s get a drink and chill.” He looks over at me and reaches out a hand. “Come on, Jordan.”

  I hesitate, but not for long before taking it. Sure, it feels like a betrayal to Beck to hold hands with another guy in front of him, but he’s made it clear where we stand. Kind of. I’m not going to snub another guy just to avoid hurting Beck’s feelings, especially when he didn’t need to come over here in the first place.

  But Beck doesn’t stand by and let it happen. I don’t know who’s more surprised, me or Davis, when Beck steps forward and places his hands on both our wrists, pulling us apart and saying, “I don’t think so,” as if he’s my dad or something. It’s such a juvenile move, I have to laugh.

  “Are you kidding me, Beck?”

  Davis stiffens his shoulders and leans into Beck’s space. “Beck, dude, I respect you but what the fuck do you think you’re doing right now?” Whoa. I didn’t expect that either.

  “Good question,” I mutter. “I think he’s trying to play big brother. But he’s not related to me and I’m an adult, so you can ignore him.”

  “No, that’s not what I’m doing. I need to talk to Jordan. Alone.”

  “You’ve talked to me alone plenty of times. You don’t get to do this, Beck.”

  Davis seems to be assessing the situation, uncertain of his next move.

  Beck adjusts the ball cap on his head. “You’re right, but I’m asking anyway.”

  The fury pulsing through me diminishes ever so slightly. I can’t help but soften when he sounds so damn vulnerable. Demanding and irritating as hell, but the vulnerability is undeniable. At least it is to me.

  Davis, I guess, thinks I’m the vulnerable one here. “I’m not leaving you alone with Jordan if she doesn’t want you here.” He straightens his shoulders, coming to his full height.

  Beck looks at me and I know what I have to do. “It’s fine, Davis. I’ll just talk to him for a few minutes and see you back at the party.”

  Davis doesn’t move right away. “Are you sure?”

  “Yeah,” I say on an annoyed sigh. I mean, Beck doesn’t look like he’s going anywhere, so I might as well get this over with without Davis around.

  “I’ll be right over there,” he says, pointing to the area by the keg, where I can now see we’ve got a little audience. Lucy, Zora, Ellie, Coby, and even Taylor Sly are there, facing us. At least there’s no one else. If we’d been close enough for people to hear, I’m sure we would have gathered a crowd.

  Davis walks backward for a few steps, like he’s letting us know he’ll be watching. Once he’s out of earshot, I snap at Beck. “I only agreed to this to avoid making a scene. What’s your deal, anyway? You reject me and then as soon as someone else shows an interest in me, you come back around. You did it with Griffin and now you’re doing it with Davis. It’s not okay, Beck. You have to stop.”


  For the first time, I finally feel like I’m the one with the upper hand when it comes to the dynamic with Beck. At first I let him have it because I couldn’t stop seeing him as a celebrity, and when that faded, I just didn’t want to lose the friendship we’d built. I was willing to let him set the tone, lead the way. That ends tonight. And Beck knows it.

  “I will stop. I am stopping. Right now. Because you’re right, it’s not fair. To either of us.”

  “What are you saying?”

  He takes a small step forward, and I already feel the flutters in my lower belly kickstart. It’s those damn eyes and the way he looks at me.

  “I’m saying I shouldn’t have left your room earlier. I’m saying I’m not going to be coming back around whenever guys show an interest in you, because I won’t be leaving in the first place.”

  I shake my head, holding onto that anger. It’s so much easier to do than let his words fill me up and soak in. “Beck. No. You can’t just say that because I kissed someone else.” The words come out before I can take them back, and Beck’s eyes close. I’ve hurt him, but it’s the truth. “Would you have even come here tonight if I hadn’t told you I wasn’t going to wait forever? How could you expect me to when I don’t even know what I’m waiting for, and you never asked me to in the first place?”

  Beck opens his eyes. “I don’t need you to wait. I need you now. I’ve been scared of this, between us, of anything real beyond friendship. Yeah, you putting it out there tonight like you did made me question why I was trying so damn hard not to touch you when that’s all I want to do. All day, all the time.”

  His words make those flutters take over my body, threatening to wipe out the anger. But I’m not done. “So you suddenly realized this? What are you afraid of, anyway?”

  “Fucking it up. Losing you. Losing myself. Of not deserving you.”

  His voice is so raw, so open, I’ve got no choice but to believe him. And then he adds quietly, “Of being my father.”

  I don’t know how to respond to that. “What made you stop being afraid?”

  “I still am. But I can’t deny how I feel about you. I could never let you go, and I can’t keep going on like we’ll only ever be friends. I can’t do that to myself or to you. So we have to give this a shot. Please, Jordan. Make me be brave and be the guy worthy of you. Have some faith in me, and we can make this work.”

  “Honestly, I don’t even know why you think you’d mess it up in the first place,” I tell him. I can see now there are demons he’s fighting that I can’t understand. He hasn’t told me about them before. Until today, I rarely ever heard about his past, especially his personal life.

  But the anger is gone now, and as I take in Beck, totally open and exposed as he stands at the edge of the ocean, I don’t know that I can lie to myself either. It doesn’t really matter what got him to this point, because he’s here, telling me he can’t go on being just friends and he can’t lose me either. That leaves him with one other choice, and where does it leave me?

  I glance over to the keg, and find we don’t have onlookers anymore. The girls must have convinced Davis that Beck’s not dangerous because they’ve made their way to the beer pong table, leaving us with a little more privacy.

  Beck tugs my hand, bringing my attention back to him. “I want you to be mine, Jordan. I’ve never wanted anything more, and that scares the shit out of me.”

  I eye him warily, even as his words make me want to throw my arms around his neck and jump on him. He’s made so many offhand comments that suggested this very sentiment, but to have him finally say it loud and clear, it’s somehow harder to take. My heart wants to push it away, like it’s not real, and I’ve got no clue why. Maybe because he said it earlier, on my bed, right before I made my move and he walked away.

  “You said something about wanting me to be yours earlier tonight, in my dorm, do you remember that? It was right before you bolted.” It’s kind of mean to try to undermine his declaration when he’s clearly putting himself out there. But he put me through the wringer too, and I won’t let him do it again. These are big words he’s saying, and he better mean them.

  “Do you not believe me?” he asks, like he’s reading my mind.

  “It’s not that.” I look up at the sky, trying to grasp at what’s lingering there, making me resist him despite hearing the words I’ve only dreamt about him saying to me. I believe him that he means it, but does he actually intend to do anything about it besides stop me from being with Davis, or the next guy?

  “Jordan, it doesn’t matter if it’s the idea of someone else having you that got me here tonight. It doesn’t even matter that I came with Griffin that night weeks ago because I didn’t want him flirting with you. Who cares that I got the balls to kiss you on your birthday because you were going to kiss Griffin instead? The point is, I’ve never felt jealousy, not like this, until you. I’ve never felt any of this irrational need to be with someone until you. Seeing you with Davis tonight might have pushed me to see some clarity that I hadn’t seen before, but I was already on my way to that when I made Taylor bring me with him to this party.”

  “You can’t say things that sound like you mean one thing, and then act a different way. If you say you want me, and you want me to accept that, then you have to follow through. I can’t do halfway with you, Beck. If you don’t want me to be with anyone else, then we’re really doing this, not a stolen kiss here and there, but all of it. We commit. And there’s no one else. For either of us.” I lay it out, and that’s when I know what’s been tugging at me. I need him to be all in if we take this step.

  “I want to be with you, Jordan. Only you.”

  “Until the end of the semester?” I challenge.

  “Until whenever you want,” he says, like it’s easy.

  And maybe he’s right. It’s too soon to think that far ahead.

  I can’t get any more reassurance than what he’s given me, and I don’t need it. If he wants me to be his, I’m not going to refuse him, as long as he knows he’s mine then too.

  Scrunching up my face, I have to ask, to get that clarification.

  “So you want to be, what? My boyfriend?”

  Chapter Two

  Beck

  “Yeah, Jordan, that’s what I want.” I can’t believe I’ve managed to restrain myself this long as it is. “Can I fucking kiss you now?”

  Her eyes twinkle as her lips twitch, fighting a smile. “Last time we agreed on a label, we shook hands.” The damn friendship handshake, what the hell had I been thinking with that?

  “I never wanted to shake your hand.” I take another step forward until we’re inches apart, our bodies nearly touching. My finger reaches for her chin, tilting it up to the angle I want.

  Jordan gasps. “Wait.”

  I do, but not without flaring my nostrils in frustration.

  “We can’t kiss right here. Davis might see.”

  My hand drops from her chin and I almost take a step back with the blow. “You can’t be serious. Jordan, I’m all in here, and you’re worried about what Davis might think if he sees us?”

  Jordan bites her lower lip. “Hey, it’s not my fault I’m in this position. And yeah, I am worried. It’s pretty shitty that I just led him on and gave him a different idea of everything only to kiss you in front of him at his party a few minutes later.”

  I swallow, understanding exactly why I’m falling for this girl. She’s the opposite of unnecessary drama. “Come on. Let’s go to my van.”

  I put my hand on her lower back, but she stiffens. Dropping it, I add, “I won’t even touch you. You can text your friends I’m giving you a ride back. Is that ok?”

  She nods, but as we’re walking toward the house, she adds, “Actually, don’t take me home.”

  My head snaps to hers, wondering if she’s playing fickle to give me a taste of my own medicine. Jordan’s smiling at me and she shrugs. “I was kind of hoping we could sleep in the van. You brought it?”

  This time
I groan for an entirely different reason. “Yeah, Jordan, we can do that.”

  “Will that seal the deal or whatever or do we have to kiss too?” she teases, and for the first time all night, my muscles loosen from attack mode.

  “Yeah, we have to kiss too,” I deadpan.

  “Good, I was hoping you’d say that.”

  Jordan

  As soon as we’re around the side of the house, Beck grabs my hand and picks up his pace. I’m surprised either of us remembered to get our shoes at the back deck. When we reach the van, he stops at the passenger side but doesn’t open the door. Instead, he pulls me to his chest and walks me backward until I hit the window.

  He lets our eyes meet for the briefest of seconds before his mouth is on mine. Beck raises my hands above my head, taking control and making me want to drag him closer. It’s not even a desire, but a burning need growing stronger with each passing second. But he pulls away too fast.

  “You’ve been drinking.”

  My head is fuzzy, but it’s not from the drinks, I don’t think. At least, I was clear-headed a few minutes ago.

  “Yeah, just a little.” I remember Davis took my empty wine cooler on the walk back because it was in the hand he wanted to hold. Beck didn’t notice earlier, but his eyes flash dark now, and I don’t think it’s from the same sensations coursing through me.

  “How much?” His hands drop my wrists and they fall to my sides.