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  After Tonight

  Ever After in Sapphire Falls

  Erin Nicholas

  Copyright © 2018 by Erin Nicholas

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  ISBN: 978-0-9988946-8-3

  Editing: Kelli Collins

  Line editing: Nanette Sipe

  Cover artist: Dana Leah, Designs by Dana

  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

  Enjoy this excerpt from Diamonds and Dirt Roads, book one in the Billionaires in Blue Jeans series!

  About the Author

  1

  “Sex. God.”

  Riley Ames perked up at the two words from the blond at the next table. Who wouldn’t? The other woman was talking to her friend, but that was eavesdrop-worthy stuff right there.

  “The man should open a spa or a clinic or something.”

  “A sex spa?” her friend asked with a laugh.

  “I’m not kidding,” the first woman went on. “I have never felt as good as I did after that weekend with him. Relaxed, happy, beautiful, and completely spent. I smiled for days after that. And I didn’t get my vibrator out for over two weeks. It was that good.”

  Okay, seriously? Riley was supposed to concentrate on her work with that conversation going on three feet away? She pivoted her computer and surreptitiously scooted her chair so that she could see the women better. She continued to study her laptop screen, pretending to be focused on her own work, but she was completely tuned in to the conversation now.

  The blond was curvy and had half of the inventory at Sephora on her face. And, if she was from around here, then she’d gotten that Sephora online because there wasn’t a store for fifty miles, Riley noted as an aside. One more strike against Sapphire Falls.

  Riley was all about makeup and the fun that could be had with a good palette of colors and some high-quality brushes. She easily spent an hour getting ready every morning herself. But she didn’t like to look like she spent an hour getting ready every morning. Less was more.

  Sephora was the one who knew the Sex God. She was drinking red wine and wore a fitted black dress that was a little much for the Come Again, the only bar in Sapphire Falls. The dress code here went a little less lace and a lot more denim.

  “And I didn’t care about Zach at all after that weekend,” she said. “I mean, this guy completely fucked him out of my system.”

  Well, okay then.

  “You were almost engaged to Zach,” her friend, a brunette with curls and more of a girl-next-door look, said.

  “I know. That’s what I’m saying. No more booty calls for Zach. No more letting him walk all over me. I’m cured.”

  Riley couldn’t help but be a bit impressed with that. Sex God for the win.

  It wasn’t that she didn’t realize how sad it was to be completely into this conversation and intrigued by another person’s sex life. But she was in Sapphire Falls. Tiny, everything’s-always-the-same, everyone-knows-everyone Sapphire Falls. And she’d now been here for three months. Creepy or not, listening to this woman talk about an amazing weekend of sex was the most interesting conversation she’d had in a while.

  She was living in her parents’ basement, sleeping ’til noon—or trying to at least, when her mom didn’t bang around the house at the crack of dawn—wearing sweatpants all day, eating chips by the bagful, and on her computer until three a.m. every morning. And yes, she was online gaming for several of those hours. Because the work she was doing was easy and, frankly, there wasn’t very much of it. Hence, the need to be living with her parents again at the age of twenty-six.

  Basically, she had reverted back to her thirteen-year-old self. And her fourteen-year-old self. And fifteen. And…yeah, it was sad and pathetic. And she, unlike this very satisfied, over-her-ex woman, had not gone two weeks without her vibrator.

  Okay, so that was a little different from her teenage self.

  But otherwise, Riley was right back where she’d started—and she was about to go crazy.

  Maybe she needed to meet this Sex God. She had to admit that she’d had some pretty good sex. She was no stranger to hot-sweaty-awesome weekends. But she wasn’t sure she’d been with anyone she would label a God. And definitely not in Sapphire Falls.

  “So you need this guy,” Sephora said. “We’ll chat with him tonight, and then you can come back here on Friday, okay?”

  Riley perked up at that. The Sex God would be here? Oh yeah, this was getting all kinds of interesting. And she was very grateful to these two women. She might have to buy their next round.

  Riley settled back in her chair and pulled up a game of solitaire. No way was she leaving before she saw the God for herself, and no way could she concentrate on the new website design she was doing now.

  “I don’t know,” the brunette said. “I’m not very good at flirting and stuff.”

  Her friend laughed. “That’s part of the beauty. You don’t even have to be good at it. He’s good at it.”

  “What’s he look like?” Curly asked.

  Yeah, what’s he look like, Sephora? Riley asked in her head. She was beyond curious now.

  “Tall, big hands.” Sephora laughed. “He’s got dark brown hair, gorgeous blue eyes and he’s built. He does a bunch of manual labor—yard work, construction, farm work—so he’s in great shape, has great abs, a fabulous ass, and arms…” She sighed happily.

  Riley assumed she meant that he had great arm muscles because if he was doing yard work and farm work, having arms was pretty helpful, but she refrained from commenting. Or snorting out loud. She cracked herself up sometimes.

  “Is he easy to talk to?” Curly asked, scratching at the label on her beer bottle.

  Ah, she’s a little nervous, Riley thought. So this one wasn’t quite as into fucking her ex out of her system with a weekend fling, perhaps.

  “He’s a huge flirt,” Sephora told her. “You won’t have to worry much about talking. Except the dirty kind,” she said with a grin. “He’s really good at that.”

  Riley had to admit that dirty talk was a mark in the pro column for her too. But she wanted to know if the guy didn’t need to talk much because women’s panties just dropped off whenever he was around, or if he didn’t have much to say that was interesting or noteworthy. As in, he mostly read Sports Illustrated, had all the ESPN channels on his cable package, and spent his time hunting and fishing with his buddies where quiet was a must.

  And none of that narrowed down who this guy was.

  Riley acknowledged that she was being super judgmental. Yes, the guys around here were interested in things she had no interest in. Yes, she had a hard time having an engaging conversation with most of them. But that didn’t mean they weren’t nice guys. They were, by and large. In fact, they were almost too nice. And hey, if the woman only needed Sex God for his magic cock, then it didn’t really matter if he used his computer mostly for porn. Or solitaire, she thought wryly, as she moved the eight of spades to the next column.

  “And he’s really cool with just a one-night thing?” the brunette asked. “Like, I can even be up front about that?”

  Riley almost snorted again. She didn’t even need to know who he was to know that he was really cool with just a one-night thing.

  “Fo
r sure,” Sephora said. “This is what he’s best at.”

  “One-night stands?”

  “For just being all about the short-term fun. It’s like…eating dessert for dinner. Not something you’d want to do all the time, but once in a while it’s fun and makes you realize that you shouldn’t take everything so seriously all the time.” Sephora sighed. “No one should have to eat salad for every meal.”

  “Zach was salad?” her friend asked.

  Sephora nodded. “Zach was what I thought I should do. We’d been dating since our junior year. I mean, I just assumed we were supposed to get married. He was comfortable and good for me and…the same. No matter what I tried to add to it, it was still just salad.”

  Riley thought maybe she should feel at least mildly amused at the analogy. But the truth was, she totally understood Sephora. It was really easy to get caught up in a salad life. It wasn’t bad. In fact, it seemed like a good idea. It was certainly nothing anyone would judge. But at the same time, you could add croutons and Craisins all over the place, it was still just a bunch of lettuce underneath.

  But dessert…that was a whole other thing. There were so many different kinds, different flavors, different experiences to be had with a dessert menu.

  “But if you eat it for every meal, even chocolate could get old, right?” Curly asked. “So it’s good that this guy is a short-term thing.”

  “Maybe,” Sephora said. “But I sure wouldn’t mind trying to get sick of his chocolate, if you know what I mean.”

  Curly and Riley both knew what she meant.

  Who was this guy? Riley couldn’t wait to see. And to see if she knew him. Because if she did, she had to find out if he knew about this reputation. Either the guy was brilliant and had cultivated this reputation and was, she had to admit, using it for a greater good in helping women get their mojo back. Or he was…brilliant and had marketed a bunch of B.S. that was getting him laid on a regular basis and praised in small town bars across the county.

  There simply weren’t enough jilted, or even single, women in Sapphire Falls to keep him this busy.

  These women weren’t from here. They were within two years on either side of Riley’s twenty-six, and if they were Sapphire Falls girls she would have known them. Hell, she would have known them no matter how old they were. Or of them at least. Sapphire Falls was tiny and no one got away with being reclusive. Plus, Sephora was not a reclusive kind of girl. That was clear.

  Riley focused on her computer screen again, but couldn’t care less about the card game in front of her. Keep going, Sephora. Tell us more.

  “He sounds amazing,” Curly said, almost wistfully. “How do you leave the next morning? Don’t you want more?”

  Ooh, good question. Did the guy have stalkers all over the tri-county area now? Were women yearning and longing and weeping over no longer having him and his Cock of Wonder?

  “Oh, no. It’s pretty easy to leave in the morning,” Sephora said.

  “Oh?”

  Sephora nodded. “He’ll give you every fantasy that night, but the next day he says goodbye, hands you a cup of coffee and walks you out to your car.” She paused and then added, “He seriously has like fifteen flavors of coffee to choose from and like eight flavors of creamer and syrups. You can have whatever kind you want. But he also has a stash of disposable coffee cups with lids in his kitchen. So, you get the coffee fixed exactly the way you want it, and then you take it with you.”

  Riley had to cover her laugh with a cough. Oh my God, who was this guy? Because she was kind of impressed. Maybe a little horrified, but mostly impressed. Because it sounded like the women knew exactly what they were getting into, agreed to it, and had a hell of a good time. And then got coffee.

  “So, don’t even think about dating him,” Curly said. “Got it.”

  “Yeah, don’t get attached,” Sephora agreed. “Though, really, I don’t think that’s a risk.”

  “No?” Curly said. “He sounds amazing.”

  Riley wasn’t so sure that amazing was the word she’d use, but he was intriguing.

  “He’s hot-fling material,” Sephora said. “Not boyfriend material. Once you get past the orgasms, and look around his apartment and stuff, you’ll realize he’s a confirmed bachelor and would be way too much work to convert.”

  Okay, well, trying to convert anyone into anything else was always a bad idea, but Riley was glad this woman was cautioning her friend against even trying.

  “Is it a dump?” Curly asked.

  “Not really. It’s just very…male. He has a few kinds of body wash you can pick from in his bathroom, and he has nice towels and stuff. I thought that was interesting,” she said. “But the rest of the place…looks like a guy lives there with no female influence at all.”

  The guy gave these women a choice of coffee creamer and body wash at his place? Good Lord. Riley had to admit that impressed was starting to edge out horrified. He was kind of a master. And the disposable, to-go coffee cups? Brilliant.

  The door to the Come Again opened just then and Riley realized Sephora was facing the door. No doubt waiting to spot the Sex God. Though Riley thought the guy really should walk around with a T-shirt proclaiming him as such. Or something. Did the guy glow? Did he have a halo over his head for all the good he was doing for the area women?

  “Oh!” Sephora gasped. “There he is.”

  Riley almost hurt her neck snapping it around to see who had come through the door.

  But the next second, she frowned.

  No. That couldn’t be right. The woman must be confused. Because the guy who had just walked into the Come Again was Derek Wright. The bartender. Riley’s brother’s best friend. The guy she thought of as a second brother. Her second, even more annoying brother, to be exact. The guy who had once put dead spiders in her bed. She’d kicked his ass for that. Of course, then he’d been scrawny and a lot shorter than he was now.

  “Oh my God, he’s gorgeous,” Curly said.

  Riley looked from her and then in the direction she was staring. But no, she was still looking at Derek.

  “I know, right?” Sephora said. “Look at those shoulders.”

  So, Riley did. But they were just shoulders. On Derek. The guy who, when she was eight and he was twelve, put all of her Barbies in compromising positions with Kyle’s army guys all over her bedroom. She remembered being shocked that Derek had known those positions. In fact, looking back now, she was still a little shocked.

  She narrowed her eyes and studied the guy that she’d known her entire life. Literally. He’d been there when her parents had brought her home from the hospital as a newborn. He’d lived next door and decided that where there was excitement and cake, he too would be.

  But Sex God? She winced. She wasn’t sure she should know the stuff she now knew about him. Or that she wanted to.

  Then again, maybe the girls were looking at someone else at the bar. It was Tuesday night, so it wasn’t like it was packed, but there were three other guys up there. Of course, one was her brother, Kyle. And she did not want to know if the girls were talking about him.

  But it couldn’t be Kyle. For one, he didn’t live in a house, he lived over at Ty Bennett’s place, a sort-of boarding house type setup. He was building a house, but it was far from finished. For another, he worked horribly long and erratic hours as the town physician, so he’d hardly have time for all of this Good Samaritan screwing. Even before Hannah, his one true love, had walked back into his life. Which she had. So no, it wasn’t Kyle.

  But maybe they were talking about—

  “So that, my friend, is Derek Wright. The man who is going to change your whole sad, post-break-up perspective,” Sephora said.

  Well, crap. So much for pretending they were talking about someone else.

  “Okay,” Curly said with a nod. “But, why is he all muddy?”

  Riley looked back over to where Derek was now leaning on the bar. He was the main bartender here, but the business belonged to Bryan Mur
ray, who was currently behind the bar. Derek was leaning on his forearms, laughing with the guys, including Bryan and Kyle. And Curly was right. He was muddy. Not as in his shoes were muddy from being outside. He was muddy from the ass down. And it looked like he had streaks of mud on his arms and even his face. What the hell was that about?

  And for reasons she couldn’t quite explain, Riley pushed up out of her chair and headed in that direction. As she approached Derek, her mind swirled with all of the things she’d overheard. He was well-known for his short-term flings? He made women feel better after their breakups? He was…a Sex God? He had flavored coffee creamers in his kitchen?

  No freaking way.

  “Can I talk to you?” she asked, walking right up to him and interrupting whatever conversation was going on between the guys.

  Derek looked over at her and lifted a brow. “Me?”

  She rolled her eyes. She was looking right at him. “Yes, you.”

  “Uh, yeah. Okay.”

  Uh, yeah. Okay. Well, she could believe the part about him not being much of a talker. He did, indeed, fit the stereotype of the guy who was pretty much about sports, hunting, and fishing. Which were also technically sports, so…sports. He was all about sports. Not technological advances, not math and science, not world-wide communications and cooperation. He was into throwing balls and killing things.

  And orgasms. She couldn’t forget the orgasms.

  Even though she seriously wanted to.

  “Riley?” Derek waved a hand in front of her face.

  She blinked and shook her head. Dammit. Why did he have to be the Sex God?

  “In back?” she asked.

  Now he looked more interested and maybe even a touch concerned. “Okay.”

  He straightened from the bar, and she was hit by how not-scrawny he was now. No way could she kick his ass for anything. He was six-two or three, lean, muscled—yeah, yeah, his arms were impressive—and…damn, his shoulders really were wide.