Notorious Read online

  Other Titles by Leanne Davis:

  Poison

  “You’re not that guy in those pictures anymore, are you?” Kelly asked. “It’s all an act to make everyone leave you the hell alone.”

  “If you’re so sure about this, why don’t you leave me the hell alone?”

  “Because it’s no way to live.”

  Luke blew out a long breath. “Look, I get it. You’d probably buy my family from me to have a family. You and Cassie grew up so isolated that you can’t understand how anyone wouldn’t relish having a large, close family. But for this, nothing helps. I can’t make anyone really understand what this is like. There is nothing they can do for me. The pain it would cause them isn’t worth the little benefits I’d get. There’s nothing you or anyone else can do for me.”

  “I can sit here with you.”

  He cocked his head and frowned. “Why? What do you think that will do?”

  “Maybe give you twenty minutes where you don’t feel as if you’ve fallen to the dark side of the moon and no one’s noticed.”

  His mouth flattened. He stared long and hard at her before he turned toward the water.

  She waited. And waited.

  Finally he said, “All right, you can sit here with me.”

  She nodded in satisfaction and looked at him from the corners of her eyes. “I am sorry.”

  “You’re not sorry, so quit saying you are.”

  She smiled at Luke’s profile as he glared out at the ocean waves. Something big had shifted between them.

  Notorious

  by

  Leanne Davis

  The Seaclusion Series, Book Two

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, organizations, places, events, and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.

  Text copyright © 2013 by Leanne Davis

  Originally published by Wild Rose Press

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced, or stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without express written permission of the publisher.

  Published by AmazonEncore, Seattle

  www.apub.com

  Amazon, the Amazon logo, and AmazonEncore are trademarks of Amazon.com, Inc., or its affiliates.

  eISBN: 9781503998698

  Cover Designer: Debbie Taylor

  This title was previously published by Wild Rose Press; this version has been reproduced from Wild Rose Press archive files.

  Dedication

  To: Adam

  For continuing to make all my dreams come true

  I will love and adore you…forever

  Contents

  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

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  Chapter Thirty

  Chapter Thirty-One

  Chapter Thirty-Two

  Chapter Thirty-Three

  Sneak Peek: SECRETS

  A word about the author...

  Chapter One

  Luke Tyler tugged at the tuxedo collar constricting his neck, while trying to ignore the crowd of people who gazed up at him. Instead he stared at the bright, shiny, brass colors of the crucifix. He flinched when the strands of the music started. God, he hated that sound, these people, and most of all being in this wedding.

  He tried to focus on the crowd, the flowers, his brother, John, who was the groom, anything at all, in order to avoid staring at Kelly Reeves, who was coming down the aisle as maid of honor for her sister, Cassie Reeves.

  Kelly stopped at the altar and smiled at him. Luke shifted his gaze over her head to look at the giant mural hanging from the back of the church. No way would he stare at Kelly while she walked down the aisle where he once walked his own bride.

  The music rose into the swells of the wedding march. John’s usual stern face, relaxed into a lopsided grin when his bride appeared at the back of the church. Luke shifted his feet, tugged at his sleeves, and stared at the smudge on his shoe, anything to keep from watching the bride and groom. Anything to ignore the breath-stealing pain squeezing his heart. He shouldn’t be up here. Not alone. Not without his wife. Not with Kelly Reeves opposite him.

  When Cassie’s blonde head came into view, her curves swathed in a gown of white, her image wavered for Luke. He had a severe case of déjà vu. He pictured himself, seven years ago, at this very altar, watching his own bride walk down the aisle. Shelly should be there in her beautiful, voluminous dress and brunette hair. But she wasn’t. She was dead. He shook his head trying to block out the images of his dead wife.

  The ceremony was a blur. Little things stood out. Smiles, rings exchanged, words exchanged, and Kelly speaking with surprising eloquence about her sister. Luke did his duty well. He smiled when he should and watched the ceremony dry-eyed while pretending he was present today and not lost in painful memories.

  Finally, it ended. John and Cassie kissed and smiled as if the world were just starting. They walked down the aisle to a standing ovation of clapping and whistles from the crowd. Luke took Kelly’s elbow and followed the bride and groom, all the while resenting the hell out of Kelly infringing on his memories of this sacred spot. The minute they stepped through the back doors, he dropped Kelly’s skinny arm.

  In the church vestibule, they were met with a blinding explosion of lights. Cameras snapped and flashed in a hurried frenzy, the photographers resembling piranhas around blood.

  Luke sighed and turned his face away from the spectacle. He wanted nothing more than to get out of the suffocating church and all the flashbacks it created. But instead, here they were, trapped in a funnel of cameras and voices, and it was all because of Kelly.

  Her status as a famous supermodel was being exacerbated by her current scandal of sleeping with married leading man, Brett Carlton. Their tawdry affair was the buzz of Hollywood and the reason so many reporters from tabloids followed Kelly here, to their little town in the middle of nowhere.

  Kelly used her bouquet of flowers to block her face. According to Cassie, who took her sister’s ridiculous lifestyle and fame with an ease Luke didn’t understand, Kelly didn’t seek out attention. Cassie claimed Kelly did everything she could to avoid the paparazzi. Cassie would say Kelly hadn’t meant for any of the media to know she was here in Seaclusion, Washington, attending her sister’s wedding. But Luke didn’t buy it. Kelly planned for her itinerary to be leaked in hopes of receiving this kind of attention.

  And this was one of the reasons he so disliked her. He found her lifestyle disgusting. He’d had the displeasure of spending large quantities of time with Kelly when she came to town to visit Cassie, and Cassie’s seven-year-old son, Tim. Cassie had moved into the house John and Luke shared, so to Luke’s dismay, any time Kelly was in town, she became his roommate.

  Kelly pretended to look stunned at the buzz of media in the stifling church vestibule. Father Thoma
s herded her out as if she were the bride, again taking attention from Cassie. Once Kelly was out of the cameras’ view, the incessant flashing of lights stopped and the half dozen reporters scattered out into the parking lot like a stain of ink spreading over a white shirt. They were in a hurry to leave now, no doubt planning to follow Kelly onto the reception.

  There was one reception venue in town, the same one Luke and Shelly had used. He was reliving his entire wedding day. But this time he was all alone.

  He tried to convince Cassie to have a beach-front ceremony. But Cassie was too afraid of Western Washington’s weather to attempt an outside June wedding. Luke hoped to avoid a day like this one, re-living his own wedding while he was best man for his brother. But if they’d had an outdoor ceremony, they’d all be part of this media fiasco, much more than they already were.

  By the time Luke got to the reception hall, the reception line was long and filled with just about every person who had attended Shelly’s and his wedding, seven years ago. Cassie had a handful of people to stand up for her. Kelly drawing attention away from her was inexcusable.

  Luke made a bee-line for the bar. Maybe a beer would ease the knot in his gut. The reception was going to be harder than the wedding because now, he had to socialize. Every family member and longtime family friend had been at his wedding, and his wife’s funeral. There was no getting around everyone’s pity and discomfort at facing him. There would be the hugs and handshakes, followed by the words of sympathy and sorrow, all capped off by some lame-ass excuse to get away from him.

  Their discomfort about talking to him was tangible. It was excruciating to keep up his pleasant façade. Yes, he was doing fine. Yes, he was keeping busy and excited about moving into his new condo while John and Cassie were on their honeymoon. He smiled, shook hands and hugged, doing his best to put all the well-wishers at ease. He’d become the master of it. The perfect smile, hug, and tone of voice did the trick of convincing people he was all right and getting them off his back. Most believed him. Even his mother wanted to.

  Too bad it was all a pathetic act. One maintained until Shelly’s parents, his former in-laws, came walking up to him.

  Luke didn’t think they would be able to stomach coming back to Seaclusion, especially for a wedding. After Shelly died, they relocated to Arizona, where they had previously only spent the winter months. He blinked his eyes against the painful prick of tears when Shelly’s mom grabbed him in a crushing hug. Tears streamed unchecked down her face. She hugged him without speaking. They seldom spoke of Shelly, yet they talked at least once a month. They understood each other like no one else could, simply, they were here, alive and physically present, but their hearts were long withered and dead.

  ****

  Kelly shuffled her feet, twirled her wine glass, and watched the liquid spin, anything to avoid looking around. She was being stared at, even whispered about. And she wasn’t being paranoid. Groups of women were looking at her and talking as they nodded her way. She was a giraffe, standing in a flock of birds. She was the tall, freakish outsider who was always in the public eye; therefore, it was okay in people’s minds to talk about her. They often did it while she was standing right in front of them. Like right now.

  “You’re not looking so glamorous now, standing there all alone.”

  Kelly spun around to find Sarah Langston walking up to her, in a short sun-dress, with her dark hair bouncing on her shoulders. Was Sarah going to talk to her? Anything was better than standing there alone. Sarah was dating John when Cassie showed up in town over a year ago. John ended up splitting with Sarah and falling back in love with his old flame, Cassie. The weird part was that Sarah disliked Kelly being in town even more than she disliked Cassie. Sarah, as most citizens of Seaclusion, disapproved of her lifestyle.

  “Why does the entire town have to be afraid of me?”

  “What about all those paparazzi? You had nothing to do with them?”

  “Of course, I didn’t. Have you ever seen me drag my work to town? Especially paparazzi?”

  “Do you ever let anything be about your sister?”

  “I didn’t do it on purpose.”

  Sarah’s gaze traveled over her. “Well, you’ll have to forgive all us small town people of being weary of you. Paparazzi broke into our church! We’ve never seen anything like that spectacle before.”

  “I didn’t plan it.” Kelly shuffled her feet, her high heel squeaked on the ground.

  “Are you sure?”

  Kelly rolled her eyes. “Of course, I’m sure. I had no idea they’d be out there until the back doors were opened.”

  “You’re notorious, for everything from who you’re sleeping with, to what you’re wearing. You had to know they’d stalk you to such an important event as your sister’s wedding.”

  Kelly flipped her long, red hair. “Believe what you want. I made every effort to keep this a secret. Come off it, you may hate my lifestyle, but you know how I feel about my sister. You know I’d never do anything to hurt her.”

  “You might not plan it, but everything about your life hurts your sister. So it’s hard to feel sorry for you. Try being a little less of a walking scandal, and maybe people would want you around more.”

  “I deserve to have my life ripped apart in public because I’m famous, right? It just so happens to be a nasty side effect of my chosen profession, and not something I enjoy.” There was no sympathy for her. She deserved the invasion of privacy for having chosen to be a model. Kelly glanced at Sarah and asked, “So how was it watching my sister marry your ex?”

  “You’ve been waiting to rub that in, haven’t you? And for your information, I was glad, to see a couple so happy. I was never in love with John.”

  “You were just sore to lose out to my sister.”

  “I was a sore loser for a while. But Cassie and I have moved past it.”

  “So what do you want anyways? You don’t like me.”

  Sarah tapped her finger against her thigh. “I guess I could see where it might be awkward to be you, coming to this town. No one will even come up to you, will they?”

  “No, they won’t. But you did.” She hadn’t considered Sarah much of anything, after Sarah’s blatant dislike of her. But maybe having someone besides Cassie and Tim talk to her in Seaclusion might be a nice change. She pointed toward Luke and asked, “Who is Luke hugging? I’ve met so many of their relatives, I can’t keep them straight.”

  Sarah turned and glanced to where Kelly motioned. “Those are Shelly’s parents.”

  “Oh. Shit.” Dead wife’s parents. God, that couldn’t be easy for Luke.

  “They moved right after the funeral and haven’t been back since.”

  Kelly turned back to Sarah. “Did you know Shelly?”

  “I knew of her.”

  “What was she like?”

  “She was ten years older than I. She was a real estate agent who was born and raised here. She left for college, where she met Luke. He got on at the high school, teaching math, and they soon bought Shelly’s parents’ home to start a family. Then…you know the rest. I was away at college when she was in the car accident. It was terrible. Everyone was so worried about Luke.”

  “Are they still?”

  “I don’t know. He seems better. He’s the most popular teacher at the high school. When Shelly died, Luke stopped everything for a while. When he came back, he was never the same. He keeps everyone at arm’s length.” Sarah paused, her eyebrows raised. “How come you don’t know all this?”

  Kelly shrugged and grimaced. “Like you, Luke hates me. So I don’t talk to him.”

  “I don’t hate you.”

  “You don’t?”

  “No, just your lifestyle.”

  “A lifestyle that I don’t live while I’m here. Why can’t you give me a chance? I’m really not all that bad.”

  Sarah narrowed her eye, finally she nodded. “What do you have in mind?”

  “I’ll be in town all week, taking care of Tim while C
assie is on her honeymoon. What if I stop by on your lunch hour and we can have lunch?”

  “What makes you think I want to?”

  “What time?” Kelly persisted.

  “Noon, you idiot, just like every other working adult.”

  “Great, see you then.”

  Sarah groaned out loud but smiled, shaking her head while she walked away. Sarah owned a shop on Main Street in Seaclusion.

  After standing alone for over an hour at her sister’s wedding, it was time she found some kind of friend in this stupid town beyond her sister. And since Sarah had come up to her, why not start with her?

  Luke and Shelly’s mom were still speaking. He had his hand on her back as he bent close to her. It pained Kelly. How could it not? Luke was thirty-four and already a widower, and had been for three years. Each time she looked at him, she pictured what it must have been like the moment he got the call saying his wife had been killed in a car accident. Shelly was pregnant when it happened, which made it sickening to imagine.

  And no matter how much Luke detested her, her heart ached for him. No one deserved that kind of loss. Luke didn’t like her, but he was good to her sister and wonderful to her nephew, Tim. Tim was the only person who Luke showed any real feelings toward. Luke was somehow too nice, too polite, too perfect-acting for it to be real. He used it to deflect everyone’s pity. And everyone let him do it. Everyone stood there, pretending to be so glad for Luke to be moving into his new condo. They seemed to take the condo as proof Luke had moved on, as if a new address somehow represented Luke was doing fine. If Luke was busy, then he must be okay. Even his mother tried to believe it.

  Too bad it was a bald-faced lie. It made everyone feel better to believe that lie, than to ask for the truth.

  Except her. Luke didn’t pretend with her. He downright snarled at her. He gave her dirty looks, scowled, walked away when she entered a room, and had no problem telling her what he thought of things she said or did.

  If she had to come to this small, judgmental, afraid-to-talk-to-her town, then her one distraction was going to be Luke. She said things to set off his temper, sarcasm, and annoyance with her. Why not? It was too easy; he believed everything bad about her anyway. And for the five minutes he was annoyed with her, he seemed a little less tragic, a little less lost, and a little more normal. It was worth it even if it exacerbated his foul opinion of her.