The Wild Side (Forever Wild #4)
Read The Wild Side (Forever Wild #4) Online
Authors: Magan Vernon
The Wild Side
A Forever Wild Novella
Magan Vernon
Text copyright© 2014 by Magan Vernon
All rights reserved
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental. All rights reserved. No part of this publication can be reproduced or transmitted in any form by or any means, electronic or mechanical, without permission in writing from the author.
For information visit
www.maganvernon.com
Summary:
Nothing in Valerie Wilder’s life has been the same since she married Wild Wes.
When her two closest work friends drop a bombshell on her, she shouldn’t have really been surprised. But their unexpected news means she'll have to answer to her former friend with benefits, Max Green. And all of this just in time for a visit from her little sister Melanie and her boyfriend John “John Boy” Walden. Now Valerie just has to figure out to see where walking on the wild side takes her and if staying Mrs. Wild is going to be worth it for her career and her heart.
First Edition, January 2014
Cover Design by Sharp Covers
http://www.sharpcoverdesign.com/
Cover photo by K Keeton Designs
http://www.kkeetondesigns.com/
Cover models: Walter Veale and Suzanne Patterson-Smith
Edited by
Red Road Editing
Other Books by Magan Vernon
How to Date an Alien (My Alien Romance Series #1)
How to Break up with an Alien (My Alien Romance Series #2)
How to Marry an Alien (My Alien Romance #3)
I hated waking up for work. I hated it even more when my phone buzzed before my alarm clock. I fumbled my hand over my desk while searching for the damn thing until I grabbed it off the dresser. I prayed it wasn’t a telemarketer because they were about to get bitched out for waking me up before the sun rose.
When I finally found my phone,
Abbi’s face was staring back at me. “This better be an emergency,” I grumbled as I slid the phone up to my ear.
“Good, I caught you before you left for work.” Her voice was
tenser than usual. Like she was out of breath and nervous. This wasn’t the Abbi that I was used to. She was always in control. Fun loving, yes, but Abbi had her shit together. That’s why she was my mentor and one of the best publicists at the company we worked for.
“Of cou
rse I haven’t left for work yet. I don’t live in the suburbs. It takes me like fifteen minutes to get there.” I sat up and Wes groaned beside me, rolling over.
I wasn’t used to having overnight guests so frequently, until I woke up married to a male stripper. Now having him roll over and feel the stubble of his chin on my neck every morning was the best part of waking up. I guessed I’d have to go without that this morning.
“But what’s up, Abbi? Is everything okay?”
“Yeah, it’s cool. I just wanted to catch you before you went to work. Me and Pam wanted to see if you could meet us at Starbucks, not the one in the lobby, but the one on the corner, across from Walgreens. Can you do that?” Her words were frenzied and I was wondering if she was
crouching in the bushes somewhere and hiding from someone.
“Are you really
sure that everything is okay? Do you have something you need to tell me now? Is Greg beating you like your douchey ex? Should I send Wes over to kick his ass?”
As if Wes heard his nam
e, he turned onto his stomach and buried his face in the pillow.
“No, nothing like that. Just a business meeting with me and Pam. Nothing big, I just didn’t want to talk about it at the office. So if we meet there around seven-thirty is that okay? Do you have any other meetings you need to get to the office for?”
I thought for a minute. I couldn’t see the calendar on my phone, but the only thing I could think of was attacking the hundreds of emails I had and probably facing my boss after I told a juiced-up gym owner to kiss my fat ass when he told me he didn’t want a thick chick to work on his marketing campaign. “Nope. I’ll see you there.”
“Wonderful. Bye, Val.”
“Bye, Abbi.”
I hung up the phone and put it on my nightstand.
“Whose ass am I kicking?” I gasped as Wes breathed the words into my ear before he wrapped his arms around my waist.
“Nobody. That was just Abbi. I’m meeting her and Pam for coffee before work.”
“I see.” He put his chin on my shoulder and left it there, not saying a word but slowly breathing so I could feel each puff of air on my earlobe. It was soothing and a bit of a turn on at the same time.
On the outside we probably looked like the perfect couple. The newlyweds who were so in love. Not the people who got drunk in Vegas and got married. He was the former male stripper and I was the chubby girl publicist. We couldn’t have been more wrong for each other and
, yet, I had to admit that I was falling hard for him. He was turning into more than the husband that I married by mistake. I was afraid of what was going to happen as soon as the divorce papers were signed.
The
guy had an amazing body, a great personality, and a fucking southern accent. He was every woman’s wet dream. There was no way I could ever keep a guy like him around, so I just had to pretend like I didn’t care about him as much as I did. That way I figured it wouldn’t hurt so much when he left.
If only he wasn’t so damn sexy.
And if I wasn’t completely falling in love with him.
“Do you have plans for today? I think Paige has to work, so she shouldn’t be around to ask you a million questions or really bother you. Um, and you know the laundry room is down the hall if you need to do your laundry. I have a stack of quarters that I store in my stock drawer if you need—
”
Wes sharply turned my chin toward him and kissed me hard on the mouth
, stopping my words. He then just looked at me with a large grin on his face. “Darlin’, you really need to stop talking so damn much. I’m fine. You need to stop acting like I’m some random houseguest.”
I let my shoulders fall, exhaling a big breath at the same time. “I know, I’m sorry. I tend to ramble when I don’t know what else to do.”
“I’ve noticed.” His expression grew serious as he lowered his brows, his bright green eyes looking directly into mine. “Is everything okay? Is there something you want to talk about?”
Yes. That I’m completely in love with you and don’t want you to sign the divorce papers or to ever go back to Vegas.
“Yeah, just kind of tired. Getting an early phone call when I was up late the night before getting multiple orgasms doesn’t help.”
The grin spread even wider on his face. “Now you’re gonna make me start rambling and getting nervous.”
I rolled my eyes. “Oh, please, don’t give me that bullshit, Mr. Wild Wes. You’re always on your A game.”
His fingers trailed along my jawline and I sucked in a deep breath, trying not to tremble. His very touch made me heat up. “I’m not always on my game, especially around you,” he murmured.
My alarm blared from the nightstand, knocking me out of my love trance and forcing me backward to slam the buttons and turn it off.
“I guess that means it’s time for you to get ready for work?” Wes asked.
I couldn’t look back at him. I just stared at the digital numbers on my alarm clock instead. I knew if I looked at him I’d never want to leave my bed. And if I was ever going to leave him I had to stop having those moments with him. “Yep. Guess it’s time.”
ater
Starbucks was always packed. Everyone from businessmen to tourists were lined up to get their morning shot of caffeine before they went on with their day.
I expected to have to wait in a long line just to get my
two-dollar cup of coffee that I could have made for a fraction of the price at home, but when I got there Abbi and Pam were already sitting at a table for three with a frappuccino sitting in front of the third chair.
I approached the table slowly and then stood behind the chair. Pam and Abbi were whispering to each other and didn’t notice m
e, so I picked up the drink and straw beside it. “Double blended mocha frappuccino with a shot of toffee nut, whipped cream, chocolate and caramel syrup? It appears that my favorite drink is sitting here, so I can only expect you two are about to tell me that I’m fired. If that’s the case I would also like a muffin and a shot of Baileys to go with this.”
Abbi and Pam gasped and broke up their c
onversation, staring at me wide-eyed like two girls who just got caught smoking in the boys bathroom.
“Valerie! I didn’t even hear you,” Abbi said with a nervous laugh.
I raised an eyebrow and sat down in the seat across from her. “Yeah, that was obvious. You two are being really weird.”
Pam groaned, shaking her finger at Abbi like a club. “See? I told you we looked like a couple of creepers. You should have just told Valerie what was up this morning
when you called her like some psycho suburban serial killer mom.”
I couldn’t help but laugh. The description was pretty accurate about my friend and mentor who may have been the girl that had Vegas strip club owners as clients, but also grew her own herb garden and never bought anything canned. She was the epitome of a suburban mom, hidden in an expensive suit.
“Fine, fine!” Abbi put her drink down and put her palms forward, uncrossing her arms and legs as she leaned forward. “Okay, we called you here for a reason and it’s not because you’re getting fired or anything bad like that.”
“Okay, then what’s this about?” I crossed my arms over my chest and leaned on the table, trying to appear natural, but I felt like an idiot. I was nervous and I thought that maybe I was sweating through my white
blouse so I had to keep my arms down at all costs.
“So, me and Pam have been at the company for awhile now and while it’s been great for us, we’re also getting a little sick of all the male dominance. Like the fact that we’re the only three women full-time publicists and the rest are assistants.” Abbi kept her arms open on the table, not even touching her coffee.
“And you’re planning a coup d’état and need to use me as a human shield when you take over the CEO’s office?” I asked, half-joking and half-wondering if maybe that was their plan. Maybe not the human shield, but trying to do a takeover. Pam was only twenty-six, but had more successful clients in her Blackberry than most people did at forty. She was smart, sharp tongued, and knew how to organize even the craziest of clients. And Abbi, well, Abbi was the cream of the crop. No one could touch her.
Abbi rolled her eyes. “Will you shut your mouth and stop rambling for two seconds? I’m trying to make you an offer here.”
“An offer?” I sat up straighter. That wasn’t what I was expecting out of this conversation. Usually morning phone calls ended with bad news, not offers.
“Yes.” Abbi cleared her throat and glanced at Pam before looking back at me. “Me and Pam are sick of the shit the guys give us at the office and we want to start our own company. The two of us and you.”
“Me?” I pointed at myself, widening my eyes. “Why me? What can I bring to the table? You two are the shit and I’m just some lowly first-year publicist.”
Pam laughed. “Okay, first off, Abbi wouldn’t have gone through with this if she couldn’t bring you with.”
“It’s true,” Abbi chimed in.
“And second, for not even being in this
business a year, you have a better game than half the employees in that place. We also think that you have some great clients you could bring along with us,” Pam added.
“We’ve already spoken to most of our clients and they’ve agreed t
hey would go anywhere with us, so we’re hoping if you want to come with us that you’d bring your clients too,” Abbi said.
I fumbled for the words. When I was first offered my publicist job at the company it was like a dream come true to work on Michigan Ave
nue. Then after the long hours set in I was starting to dread going to work every day. The only thing that made it better was seeing Pam and Abbi every day. If they were leaving, what would I have left besides spastic gym owners?
“Okay.” I sucked in a deep breath and let it out slowly. “Before we start talking logistics like office space and salary ...”
“Everything would be virtual so you can work on your laptop from home and salary would primarily be commission based, but you wouldn’t have to share your commission with anyone else, so it’s all yours and you can make as little or as much as you wanted,” Pam interrupted, her arms lunging forward as if she was going to leap off the table onto me.
Abbi put her hands forward, palms out, looking at Pam. “Down, killer, let her talk. It’s probably a lot to take in.”
Pam nodded, letting out a visible breath. “Okay, sorry. I’m just excited.”
“I know, I know. Me too.” Abbi sm
iled and then looked back at me. “But go on, finish with your question.”
“What clients are you wanting me to take with? Because I kind of pissed of Steroid Stefan last week and probably a few taxi cab companies.”
Abbi and Pam stared at each other, blinking like some silent Morse code before they finally turned back to me and Pam spoke first. “Well, you do have that one author client, the one that was huge in Germany?”
“You mean the one I couldn’t get to hit a list with her book?” I grumbled.
“She may not have made a best-seller list, but selling over ten thousand books in her first month and most of those books in a foreign country is pretty fucking amazing. And that was you that helped her with that. She didn’t even know what Twitter was before you met her and now she has some ungodly number of followers,” Pam said with extra oomph.
Okay, so she was right about Annika. One of the guys said he didn’t want to work with some newbie author and called it charity work for me to represent her. I was on the phone with her more than my own sister last summer during her book launch and the months before.
“And let’s not forget about the club owner in Wrigleyville. That bar was a hot mess before you helped him rebrand. You even convinced him to shave off that hideous soulpatch thing he couldn’t get rid of. Pam tried for months and you walked in and he was like ‘anything for you, Valerrrieeeee,” Abbi said, raising her voice a decibel and flailing her arms in the air, mocking Marcus, the eccentric bar owner.
“Okay, fine
, that’s two clients. Two half way decent clients I guess.” I put the straw in my drink, finally taking a sip of the frappuccino that tasted like Snickers, my own recipe that I found on Pinterest but rarely ordered because it usually took the baristas forever and people in line always grumbled when I ordered it.
“We also can’t forget your dear, dear Mr. Wild Wes.” Pam winked.
I almost spit out my drink and had to swallow really fast, trying to hold back the brain freeze, which only made my eyes water. “We’re not talking about him as a client. That makes him sound like a gigolo.”
“But isn’t that how you approached him? To represent him as a publicist? I remember he said something about wanting to be a singer
that night we met him and he brought a guitar on the— “
Abbi put her palm up, halting Pam’s words.
“Let’s just drop the subject of Mr. Wild for now. If Valerie doesn’t want to talk about him, we won’t talk about him.
Pam groaned. “Fine, fine. Then you bring up the big client if we aren’t going to talk about Wild Wes.”
Now it was Abbi’s turn to get nervous, the color almost completely draining from her normally tanned face. There was something that she was definitely holding back and I was pretty sure I knew what it was.
“You’re not meaning ...” I started.
Abbi sighed. “Look, I know you and Max have or had a thing, but his firm is also one of the best clients the company has.”
I widened my eyes, keeping my hands on my cup because I wasn’t sure what else to do with them. I wanted to throw them up in the air and scream. I knew there was a catch to me coming on
to their team. It just took me a while to figure out that it would involve Max.
“So you wanted to see if I left the company,
if he would keep me as his publicist and henceforth I would have to continue on our relationship with him as my fuck buddy as soon as my divorce is finalized with Wes?”
Pam and Abbi shook their heads feverishly and it was Abbi who spoke first. “No, no
, that’s not what we’re saying at all. All I’m saying is that if you could talk to him and see if he would want to keep you as a publicist, purely business related. That’s all. No strings attached. Sexually or otherwise.”
I let out a big puff of air and twirled my straw in my drink. “This is all a lot to take in, you know? Leaving a b
ig company for a commission-based job, talking to an ex fuck buddy, and it’s just ... a lot since we got back from Vegas.”
Abbi put her hand on mine, stopping me from twirling my straw. “Look, I’m not saying you have to talk to Max today, or anyone. Just think about it, okay? Maybe go make a visit to the bar this weekend and talk to Marcus, send an email to the author
, and if you happen to see Max, mention it casually.”
“And if you want to bring it up to your husband about being a full-time client
, I know some authors that would definitely want to use him as a cover model,” Pam piped in before Abbi shot her a glare.
“Like I said ...” Abbi looked back at me. “Just think about it.”
“Okay.” I nodded. “I will.”