Faking It (McCullough Mountain) Read online

  FAKING IT

  McCullough Mountain 4

  Lydia Michaels

  Erotic Romance

  Secret Cravings Publishing

  www.secretcravingspublishing.com

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  A Secret Cravings Publishing Book

  Erotic Romance

  Faking It

  Copyright © 2014 Lydia Michaels

  E-book ISBN: 978-1-63105-130-2

  First E-book Publication: February 2014

  Cover design by Dawné Dominique

  Edited by Elise Hepner

  Proofread by Rene Flowers

  All cover art and logo copyright © 2014 by Secret Cravings Publishing

  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED: This literary work may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, including electronic or photographic reproduction, in whole or in part, without express written permission.

  All characters and events in this book are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead is strictly coincidental.

  PUBLISHER

  Secret Cravings Publishing

  www.secretcravingspublishing.com

  Dedication

  This book is dedicated to

  Sandy Sullivan

  Beth Walker

  Dawne Prochilo

  Ariana Gaynor

  Jean Joachim

  Becky Hollada

  Dawne Dominique

  &

  all the incredible people at

  Secret Cravings Publishing

  Most importantly, my awesome editor,

  Elise Hepner.

  Thank you for recognizing my voice and helping me sing.

  Hugs,

  Lydia

  The Cravings Ebook Club

  The Cravings Paranormal Ebook Club

  Have you heard about the newest idea in ebooks, the ebook club? Secret Cravings Publishing has two ebook clubs, The Cravings Ebook Club or the Cravings Paranormal Ebook Club, and we invite you to become a member.

  As a new member, you will receive Trouble With a Cowboy* by Sandy Sullivan and Blood Kisses** by H.N. Sieverding FREE, just for joining!

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  *Trouble With a Cowboy, a western, erotic romance:

  18 wheels had her heart until one hard-up cowboy found her kickin' up her heels and propositions her to take his bull to Vegas.

  Jacie Hawkins drives big wheelers for a livin'. Something not a lot of women do. Littleton Oklahoma is just a dry stopover for a few hours of rest and relaxation at the nearest bar. Jacie needs to find a hot cowboy to release some of her pent up frustrations on for the night, but wannabe's aren't her style.

  Tucker Marshall needs a big-rig driver to haul his prize bull to National Finals Rodeo and he needs one fast. Who would have thought he'd find one shootin' pool at the local bar dressed to kill and takin' numbers?

  Can some slashed tires and an ornery bull bring two hard-headed people together for some fun in the sun and a little more?

  **Blood Kisses (Nightwalkers 1), paranormal erotic romance:

  Ashleigh Brown, the author of the popular Nightwalkers series, lives a quiet life free of the limelight. She keeps her real identity secret by writing under the pen name, Victoria Allure. She soon finds herself in a bind when she's kidnapped by a group of handsome vampires seeking Victoria. She then agrees to meet their Master, who's a huge fan of her books. But instead of meeting him, she accidentally crosses paths with her rock star crush. He is the sexy muse behind Nightwalkers and the man she based the hero in the series upon. She would do anything to meet him but little does she know her crush has a secret...

  We will try to match your books to your preferences, however, if you’re a major paranormal fan, we suggest you join the Cravings Paranormal Club. Everything is the same except that three of your four books will be paranormal. The remaining book will be of a different genre.

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  Best wishes,

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  FAKING IT

  McCullough Mountain 4

  Lydia Michaels

  Copyright © 2014

  Prologue

  The house is quiet without Kelly and Bray. I miss them, but they’re too busy to miss me. Mum and Dad are off doing their thing and the quietness is suffocating. When it’s silent, I have nowhere to hide. I’m thinking too much. I have to do something reckless, something large enough to hide behind and get them stirred up before the silence swallows me whole.

  Why was she doing this? Sheilagh McCullough dispassionately glanced down at her outfit. She was better than this. She had an IQ that testified she was a genius, yet here she was making another stupid decision.

  The lining of her sequined bra chaffed her breasts and her ass was currently being flossed by the world’s tightest thong. Her finger pulled at the collar around her throat, searching for some measure of comfort.

  Bass pumped like a pulse adding to the thrum of adrenaline rushing through her veins. Why was she here?

  Because no one cares. They don’t see you and if you don’t do something soon, you’re going to die inside.

  She should have earned her Bachelors by now and been on the way to her doctorate. Aside from the college level courses she’d taken in high school, she had nothing to show for an education. Five years wasted and the only thing she’d succeeded at was being Center County’s biggest loser.

  She was turning twenty-four and she wanted to do s
omething reckless. That was how she’d wound up at some grungy bar on the outskirts of town about to give her first peepshow.

  In their small town, McCulloughs outnumbered the population three to one. If they weren’t her relatives, they were married to a relative, or had slept with a relative. After accounting for that majority, the leftovers were either old, married, or gay. The remaining handful of eligible men was simply sad. Momma issues, commitment issues, anatomy issues—no one measured up to the man she wanted and on most days she felt like ripping her hair out and screaming, because no matter how desperately she wanted him she’d never have him.

  There was nothing really wrong with her. She was pretty. She had a nice body. She knew how to have fun. Why didn’t men see her?

  She was sick of being invisible. That was why she was determined to be seen once and for all. Afterward, the adrenaline would fade and shame would creep in, but for the briefest moment she might actually feel alive and forget her uglier parts for a minute or two.

  “Shei, you about ready?”

  Her palms were clammy and she had nowhere to wipe them. She glanced at Tasha, the senior dancer at Puss n’ Boots and nodded. “Ready as I’ll ever be.”

  Tasha smiled. “Just remember not to get too close to the edge of the stage. The boys get rowdy when they see fresh meat. We got a good size crowd tonight, so you should do pretty well. Take your time and don’t forget to breathe.”

  Breathe. Yeah, she was sort of struggling with that at the moment. “Thanks, Tash.”

  “You’re up after Candy.”

  Sheilagh turned toward the curtain and watched as Candy took the stage. The all-male audience cheered as she twirled around the pole and dropped into a split. Sheilagh didn’t know how to do all that, but she would try. She’d been secretly practicing basic moves for several weeks.

  “Jesus mother fucking Christ. I’m going to kill you.”

  She turned and sucked in a breath. Her brother, Kelly, stood at the door to the back entrance, a hand over his eyes, and his mouth clenched tight.

  “Kelly! What the hell are you doing here?”

  His fist closed and she actually heard his knuckles crack over the pulsing beat of the music. “Cover yourself.”

  “You have to leave!”

  Her brother muttered something. His eyes were still covered. “When I heard you were here, I nearly maimed a guy for spreading rumors. Then we called around and no one knew where the hell you were. Never in my life did I think you could be this stupid. Get your shit and get in the fucking car. We’re leaving.”

  “You’re not my father, Kelly.”

  “Should I go get Dad? Will that make you leave?”

  Her eyes widened. “You wouldn’t.”

  “Try me, Sheilagh. I am this close to losing it. Get in the fucking car.”

  She was tired of being told what to do. “No. I’m next.”

  He growled and marched forward. His hand landed on her upper arm and squeezed. “You’re not getting on a stage and jiggling your lady bits for every pervert in Center County. Now move!”

  “Get off me!”

  “Kelly.”

  They both stilled and looked to the door. Her shame bloomed and folded into something unbearable. Tristan stared into her eyes, his jaw locked, freezing her in place with that glacial stare. What the hell was he doing here?

  Kelly released her. “You try talking some sense into her,” Kelly snapped and marched to the door.

  Sheilagh couldn’t take her eyes off of Tristan. He looked furious. He looked beautiful. “You’re not doing this, Shei,” he growled in such a low voice she was amazed she could make out his words, words that only made her want to defy him.

  She’d been in love with him since the day she first saw him. He’d moved to Center County from Texas. Her cousin, Ryan, had been his roommate at State. Tristan had fit right in with the McCulloughs and Sheilagh had never seen any man quite so devastatingly sexy.

  But he would never see her as anything more than a little girl. She could do whatever she wanted. He wasn’t her keeper. “You don’t get a say in what I do, Tristan. My days of hero worship are over.”

  He marched to her in two strides. In a soft voice he said, “Don’t do this, Sheilagh. We won’t let you. You’re better than this. Your other brother’s in the car. Don’t make them see you like this. Let’s go.”

  He was tall with tanned skin and dove gray eyes. His brown hair was threaded with shades of gold from working outdoors. Most of the time he pulled it back with a torn piece of cloth, which only accentuated his strong, scruff covered jaw.

  He was gorgeous, but that wasn’t what attracted her to him. No, there was something magnetic about Tristan. When he looked at her he seemed to see into her when most people accepted the bullshit façade she’d been perpetuating since puberty. Those eyes and that incredible mouth followed up with that Texan lilt could make a girl drop her panties and forget her name in seconds flat.

  Her body trembled. He didn’t need to clarify that the other brother was Luke. Of course he was there with Tristan. She was sick of them all. No one wanted her, but whenever someone got close enough, they all acted like a pack of protective dogs guarding a bone and scared anything with male parts away.

  Gritting her teeth, she met his cold stare and said, “Tough.”

  She didn’t have time to step back. A split second later she was lifted off her feet and thrown—not gently—over Tristan’s shoulder. The door slammed behind them and the hot July air tickled her skin. “Put me down! I’m up next!”

  A car door opened and she was tossed inside. She scrambled to an upright position on the leather seat and heard Luke curse. The door slammed and she jolted as the car was thrown into drive. A blanket or some article of clothing was thrown at her and someone ordered her to cover herself.

  Wheels squealed out of the parking lot as Luke shouted a litany of disapproving words in her direction. Her gaze turned toward the front passenger seat and narrowed on Tristan. He was no better than the rest of them.

  Tristan was a flirt. There had been numerous times when he’d plucked loose the strings of her bikini or tickled her in a borderline inappropriate place. As a teenager, she’d been certain he found her attractive, but she’d never been more wrong.

  It had been years and she still wasn’t over the shock. Tristan wasn’t attracted to her, or any woman for that matter. No. He was madly in love with her brother, Luke, and the two of them had been in a secret relationship for years.

  The family didn’t know. They knew of her hopeless crush, because at that time in her life there was no limit to her shame. But no one knew about Luke being gay. She would have never believed it if she hadn’t walked in on her brother and Tristan in an indisputably sexual moment. That was the day something inside of her broke.

  She’d only been eighteen when she discovered their secret, but she never got over what she saw that day. Luke hadn’t done anything wrong, but it took a long while for her to get over the sense that her brother betrayed her by loving the man she loved first.

  Some of that old resentment returned as her brother continued to shout at her. Completely enraged, she sat up and shouted at Luke, “You have no right!”

  “Shut up!” the three of them shouted at once.

  Her eyes prickled with unshed tears as they drove. Under the passing shadows she saw each one of them staring away from her, fury stamped into their set jaws. She kicked the seat in front of her and Tristan grunted.

  After she discovered Luke and Tristan’s affair, Tristan handled her with kid gloves. Sheilagh didn’t want his pity. She was tougher than that. She was a McCullough, for Christ’s sake. She had five crazy brothers and she could hold her own with every single one of them.

  The farther they drove out of town, the more self-doubt crept in. “Where are we going?”

  No one answered. The commercial storefronts faded away as Kelly turned the SUV onto the highway leading out of town. As they took the jug handle onto the in
terstate her concern doubled. Their anger was so thick it seemed to siphon the air right out of the car.

  Her concern for herself doubled as her eyes rapidly blinked back tears, forcing those telling little spills to stay put where others couldn’t see. Her entire existence focused on hiding those telltale signs of weakness from the world.

  She hated that her stupid, childish heart was permanently damaged and her life derailed. Since the day she’d discovered Luke and Tristan, she’d been going at the world like a runaway train, making one poor choice after another and leaving nothing but self-destruction in her wake. It was the only way she knew to control the pain, control herself. But in truth, over the last few years she felt out of control and with every stupid transgression came another reason to hate herself.

  She wasn’t sure she’d ever be normal again. She wasn’t breaking hearts, just breaking herself, battering pieces of her broken heart, little by little, with each poor decision.

  Suddenly the car swerved. She slammed into Luke and he pushed her off. Gravel spewed under the tires as Kelly tore onto the shoulder and threw the SUV in park.

  It was dark and no one said a word. Fear tickled her spine. Why were they there? It was completely dark and eerie and she wondered if this was their version of some kind of confessional.

  The sound of their breathing sawed out of their lungs and she waited. Luke, of course, broke the silence. “Are you out of your god damn mind?”

  She turned to unleash the fury inside of her. “Oh, shut up, Luke! You have no right to pass judgment on me!”