Too Wild to Tame Read online

  “I never ask you for anything, Dad.” Her breath snagged on the final word. “I just need help with this. Please. You don’t understand.”

  Guilt battled against the never-ending pressure to win, win at all costs. “Alice,” he said tightly. “We’re playing Temple on Saturday—”

  Peggy laid a land on his arm. “I can go,” she whispered, looking a little surprised at herself for making the offer. That made two of them.

  “Hold on a second, Alice.” Elliott covered the phone with his hand. Trying not to be obvious, he sucked in the scent of Peggy. She’d swept it forward on her second approach, and it brought forth flashes of her head thrown back on his pillow, her mouth laughing into his neck. “That’s not necessary.”

  “It sounds pretty necessary.” She took back her touch, fingers curling into her palm. “Maybe just tell her I’m from the school…a fellow faculty member.”

  Elliott couldn’t hide his skepticism. “You still look more like a student.”

  She wet her lips in slow motion. “Noticed, did you?” Her low, seductive laugh made his boxer briefs feel two sizes too small. “Come on, I’m not meeting with my assigned alumni committee until tomorrow morning. My evening is free.” No longer meeting his eyes, she shrugged. “And I know what it’s like to lose your mother before you’re ready, so I have that in common with Alice. She probably doesn’t even know she needs the girl time.”

  “I’m sorry. I didn’t know about your mother.” He itched to reach out, run a thumb over the curve of her cheekbone. “I appreciate your offer, but I think we both know any kind of involvement with one another is a bad idea.”

  “Involvement is a pretty strong word.” A smile teased her lips, but it didn’t reach her eyes. “You’re worried for nothing.”

  “It’s never nothing with you.”

  She held his gaze a long moment, before turning away. “Text me your address, Elliott. My number hasn’t changed.”

  About the Author

  Tessa Bailey is originally from Carlsbad, California. The day after high-school graduation, she packed her yearbook, ripped jeans, and laptop and drove cross-country to New York City in under four days. Her most valuable life experiences were learned thereafter while waitressing at K-Dees, a Manhattan pub owned by her uncle. Inside those four walls, she met her husband and best friend, and she discovered the magic of classic rock, managing to put herself through Kingsborough Community College and the English program at Pace University at the same time. Several stunted attempts to enter the work force as a journalist followed, but romance writing continued to demand her attention.

  She now lives in Long Island, New York, with her husband and daughter. Although she is severely sleep-deprived, she is incredibly happy to be living her dream of writing about people falling in love.

  You can learn more at:

  TessaBailey.com

  Twitter @mstessabailey

  Facebook.com

  Also by Tessa Bailey

  Romancing the Clarksons Series

  Too Hot to Handle

  Line of Duty Series

  Protecting What's His

  Protecting What's Theirs

  His Risk to Take

  Officer Off Limits

  Asking For Trouble

  Staking His Claim

  Riskier Business

  Serve Series

  Owned by Fate

  Exposed by Fate

  Driven by Fate

  Broke & Beautiful Series

  Chase Me

  Need Me

  Make Me

  Crossing the Line Series

  Risking It All

  Up in Smoke

  Boiling Point

  Raw Redemption

  Made in Jersey Series

  Crashed Out

  Rough Rhythm

  Thrown Down

  Standalone Titles

  Baiting the Maid of Honor

  Unfixable

  Off Base

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  Table of Contents

  Cover

  Title Page

  Welcome

  Dedication

  Acknowledgments

  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

  Chapter Twenty-five

  Epilogue

  A Preview of Too Hard to Forget

  About the Author

  Also by Tessa Bailey

  Newsletters

  Table of Contents

  Copyright

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.

  Copyright © 2016 by Tessa Bailey

  Excerpt from Too Hard to Forget copyright © 2016 by Tessa Bailey

  Cover design by Elizabeth Turner, cover illustration by Kris Keller. Cover copyright © 2016 by Hachette Book Group, Inc.

  All rights reserved. In accordance with the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, the scanning, uploading, and electronic sharing of any part of this book without the permission of the publisher constitute unlawful piracy and theft of the author’s intellectual property. If you would like to use material from the book (other than for review purposes), prior written permission must be obtained by contacting the publisher at [email protected]. Thank you for your support of the author’s rights.

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  First Edition: September 2016

  First Mass Market Edition: January 2017

  Forever is an imprint of Grand Central Publishing.

  The Forever name and logo are trademarks of Hachette Book Group, Inc.

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  ISBNs: 978-1-4555-9414-6 (ebook), 978-1-4555-9415-3 (mass market)

  E3-20160809-DA-NF