Sweet Agony (Sweet Series Book 1) Read online

  Beware of falling in love with the boy across the street.

  Disappearing from their dangerous life in Chicago, Ginny and her mother went from riches to rags by way of a new life in the sleepy, rural suburbs of New York. Under the illusion of safety, Ginny blossomed into a beautiful young woman with hopes and dreams for a future her mother was determined she would have.

  Lucas Young, her best friend’s oldest brother, was the dashing hero in all of her dreams. The man she fantasized about sweeping her off her feet and giving her the happily ever after she had only heard about in her mother’s fairytales.

  Sometimes, reality wasn’t what we wanted it to be, though.

  What would happen when Ginny found out Lucas wasn’t her Prince Charming after all? Instead, he was a rough and tumble soldier in extremely tarnished armor who had a propensity to break her heart.

  Maybe happily ever after wasn’t meant for everyone.

  Warning: This is the first book in a three-part serial spin-off from the Ex Ops Series. Each of the three books will feature a piece of Lucas & Ginny's story and leads directly into the next installment. IN OTHER WORDS, THIS STORY ENDS ON A CLIFFHANGER. Also, be forewarned this story will make you laugh, cry, and possibly throw your e-reader at the wall.

  Raves for the novels by

  JESSIE LANE

  Secret Maneuvers

  “…I couldn't put it down. It’s not just the love story between Belle and Bobby, the suspense, the action, the drama, the friendships, the loyalty... I could go on and on. There is relatability to the characters, it’s a well written, well thought out and developed plot… I loved this one, by far one of my top ten reads so far this year!”

  - Chelsea Camaron, USA Today Best-Selling Author

  “First loves, second chances, and too many heart-stopping moments to count!! Secret Maneuvers is without a doubt sure to be a huge hit, because this story is romance magic from page one up until the very end!! I lost count of how many times I had to use the highlight feature on my iPad with this story, there were just so many great moments and lines that I wanted to go back to! Whether they were tender or filled with raw emotion, hilarious or beautiful, this was just one of those stories that gives you a little of everything to endure and enjoy!”

  - The Autumn Review

  “The author manages a lightness and humorous atmosphere, even though the story is highly emotional at the same time… Not only does it have bone-melting romance but thrilling action scenes as well. The writing is, as always, engaging and draws you in on page 1. I’m excited to find out who is next in the Ex Ops series! If you haven’t read Jessie Lane yet, what are you waiting for?”

  - Swept Away By Romance

  Stripping Her Defenses

  “STRIPPING HER DEFENSES Blew. Me. Away! I liked this one even better then the first book, SECRET MANEUVERS. The characters were engaging, the pacing perfection, and the story-line was dynamic. This is Jessie Lane's best work yet!”

  - Reading Between the Wines Book Club

  “In this installment, Lane addresses the serious topics of depression, death, and how to deal with being married to a military spouse. A deep emotional tidal wave ebbs and flows throughout the story as Lane flips back and forth to let us see the reasons behind a failed marriage and the steps one woman takes to reclaim her life and self-worth. Steamy sex scenes spice things up the storyline while heart to heart dialogue keeps the story from becoming just another “trope.” Humor injects randomly to offset the somber tones while interesting new characters are introduced to announce a spin off series Lane is creating with fellow writer, Chelsea Cameron.”

  - Smexy Books

  Ice

  “There is angst, yes. There is drama, yes. There is suspense, yes. There is sexiness, yes. But I think what it is, the reason behind why I liked this so much is the reason behind the MC. The driving force, the reason why they do what they do, why they were founded. I don't know that I have read a book like this one before.”

  - Books chocolate and lipgloss

  “The action in this book truly has you on the edge of your seat. Chelsea and Jessie have you smiling and then nervous with each page turned. There was one scene that I was shocked and gutted. It was hard for me to read (and I have read some shocking, gruesome scenes) but this one...WOW this one was truly shocking!”

  - Halos and Horns Book Blog

  Hammer

  “This story was so much more than I expected… I just love a badass with a warm gooey center!”

  - Belle’s Book Bag

  “I have waiting for a year for Hammer and it was WELL worth the wait. Camaron and Lane did not disappoint in this story. I actually think they kicked the volume WAY up in this one with Hammer and Desirae. This story was intense and sexy… If you enjoy a different type of MC romance, then definitely add this series to your TBR list.”

  - The Book Chick

  Sweet Agony

  Sweet Series #1

  Ex Ops Series #3

  By Jessie Lane

  Copyright © 2016 by Jessie Lane

  Published by Whiskey Girls Publishing

  All rights reserved.

  Edited by C&D Editing & Asli Fratarcangeli

  Cover Design by Jessie Lane

  Cover Images by: © Eugene Partyzan | Chananchida Ch | Jaroslav74 | Shutterstock

  Copyright © 2016 by Jessie Lane

  Smashwords Edtion

  The purchase of this e-book allows you one legal copy for your own personal reading enjoyment on your personal computer or device. You do not have the rights to resell, distribute, print, or transfer this book, in whole or in part, to anyone, in any format, via methods either currently known or yet to be invented, or upload to a file sharing peer to peer program. It may not be re-sold or given away to other people. Such action is illegal and in violation of the U.S. Copyright Law. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you are reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return it and purchase your own copy. If you no longer want this book, you may not give your copy to someone else. Delete it from your computer. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events, and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

  For more information on Jessie Lane:

  http://jessielanebooks.com/

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  Or you can send Jessie Lane an email at:

  [email protected]

  Other Titles From Jessie Lane

  Ex Ops Series

  Secret Maneuvers

  Stripping Her Defenses

  Mission Delivery

  Regulators MC Series

  (co-written with Chelsea Camaron)

  Ice

  Hammer

  Big Bad Bite Series

  Big Bad Bite

  Walk On The Striped Side

  Star Series

  (co-written with M.L. Pahl)

  The Burning Star

  The Frozen Star

  Sweet Agony

  Book 1, Sweet Series

  &

  Book 3, Ex Ops Series

  Jessie Lane

  Dedication

  This book is dedicated to every reader who stuck with me, encouraged me, and understood my struggles with depression in 2015. I’ll never be abl
e to express how truly grateful I am for each and every one of you. I’m humbled that you would show me so much love and understanding. Thank you.

  I’d also like to send out a HUGE THANK YOU to Barbara New and Katrina King for bidding to be characters in Lucas and Ginny’s story to benefit my Shot Through the Heart Fundraiser. You ladies are totally amazing.

  Love,

  Jessie Lane

  Acknowledgements

  This book is a year in the making. Which is seriously crazy, because the book isn’t that bloody long. Life decided to throw me a number of major curveballs though, so at least in the end, I finally get to share Lucas and Ginny with you.

  In that time, I had a handful of people cheering me on, picking me up every time I fell down, and pushing me forward. My best friend Chelsea Camaron, I don’t know how I would have made it through 2015 without you. I know Lucas and Ginny definitely would not be here without you! Thanks babe, for being there when I needed someone the most.

  Fellow authors and super-duper friends I adore: Lani Lynn Vale, Abbie Zanders, and Ryan Michele. My editors Asli, Alizon and Kristin: you ladies are amazing and I appreciate you so much. And some readers who are totally kick-ass and check in on me to make sure I haven’t disappeared into the sunset on my crazy-train: Barbara New, J-Action Jackson, Donna Piecora, Sonya Covert and Angie Stanton. If I missed anyone, I’m terribly sorry! Please don’t burn me at the stake.

  Table Of Contents

  Prologue

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Note From The Author

  About The Author

  Connected Books

  You May Also Like

  Prologue

  Lucas

  Letting the love of my life go was not the hardest thing I had ever done. No, there was something much worse—pushing her away when every fiber of my being told me she should be mine yet couldn’t be.

  See, when you let someone go, there was that whole cliché phrase everyone heard at least once that, if the person loved you, they would come back to you, and then they were yours forever. When you pushed the person you loved away, however … Well, that was a whole different story.

  My parents had raised me to cherish and protect the ones I loved. The bonds formed in my lifetime had always run strong. The very core of who I was came down to the ideals of loyalty and responsibility. Some might say it was the first born child mentality. I didn’t give a shit what anyone called it. When it all came down to the bare bones of reality, those strong bonds were eventually what led to me ending up as I was now: alone.

  Ginny DuBois was the girl who had lived across the street during my childhood. She was my baby sister’s best friend, the scared girl with big blue eyes and the face of an angel. She had worked her way into my heart, and once she’d had it, I had never wanted it back. Too bad she didn’t know what she had been carrying with her for all this time.

  I had resigned myself years ago to not having her the way I wanted. To be brutally honest, it was more than mere want with Ginny. She was the only craving I couldn’t fulfill, an addiction I couldn’t ease. Eventually, I realized she was the oxygen I needed to breathe. And now, it felt like I had been slowly suffocating for years.

  You see, my strategy to keep her at a distance was to protect her from the dangers and heartbreaks of the life I lived. It didn’t mean I ever planned on letting her go, at least not entirely.

  Not having her the way I wanted her was never supposed to mean not having her in my life at all, only keep her at a safe distance. Never once had I planned on living a life where I didn’t see her sweet face every once in a while. I had planned on enough contact to make sure she was breathing easy, living life, and simply happy. Now I saw why “they” said the path to hell was paved with good intentions.

  The sweet agony of my plan to give her up had blown up in my face when she had disappeared without a single trace.

  The sooner I found her, the sooner she would know just how deep my feelings ran. The time had come for her to know what she’d had all along.

  Chapter

  1

  Lucas

  Thirty Years Old

  ~Present Day~

  Why couldn’t I be in Miami on vacation? Instead, I sat in my commander’s hotel room with almost all of my team members, waiting for the two Sullivan brothers to show up so we could begin our meeting on the status of our mission here.

  Leaning back in the hotel’s shabby green arm chair, my hands folded over my stomach, I gave the impression that I was relaxed and nonchalant. It was a façade I had perfected years ago during my time in the Special Forces as a Green Beret. On the inside, I was ready to strike at any perceived threat, responding to any call to action from my commander or fellow team members.

  I might not be in the Army anymore, but my life as a deep undercover operative in the black ops unit was not so different. There were only a handful of people who even knew of our existence, including the president of the United States and our CIA handler who had formed the Ex Ops team. My missions were always top secret, dangerous, and sometimes paramount to national security, but they were also off the government’s books. When they couldn’t send in the SEALs, Green Berets, Rangers, or the Marines, they sent us.

  There was always the chance that we might be caught by our enemies, and if that ever happened, the president himself would deny any knowledge or approval of our actions. That was something we all had known when we signed on for this unit.

  For some, such as my teammate Arturo Chavez, there was no family or anyone who would miss them if they disappeared. For others, like me, there was too much that had been seen, so you distanced yourself from everyone as much as they would allow, including immediate family, to keep them from the inevitable loss.

  I’d let my parents, two brothers, and one very annoying little sister think I worked in private security and investigations. They didn’t need to know any differently. After all, the reality of my job would only cause them undue worry. It wasn’t that they wouldn’t understand; it was that I didn’t want to explain my decisions.

  The Army had fulfilled my need to serve my country. The Ex Ops team allowed me to truly make a difference in the world when politics made things tricky for the higher ups. I still had to follow orders, and my life felt like one giant secret after another, but it felt damn good to know I served as one of the men they called in to kick ass instead of giving up.

  There were only two things that bothered me about my job.

  One, the men in my unit were some of the best men I had ever met in my life. I could trust every single one of them to have my back. The problem was I’d lost too many guys I had called “brother” on missions gone wrong. Somewhere along the way, I had shut down my emotions—call it emotional survival. I still did my job and still watched the other men’s backs, but I no longer invested myself in their lives like I had with other people before. Keeping myself separate allowed me to focus more on the mission and worry less about who wasn’t going to come home at the end of the day.

  That might make me sound like a heartless bastard, but it made me a deadly predator. Being on the top of my game meant there was a greater chance every man on my team might come home. It also meant I could move on to the next mission without my mind and emotions tied to the last. In my world, this was a necessary skill.

  I’d had more than one superior officer complain that I was too much of a lone wolf when I was still in the Army. Nothing about me had changed since then except for the fact that I had joined a unit where it was easier to hide my solo tendencies.

  Regret number two about my job?

  It often kept me so busy I
had little time to devote to looking for the girl who had gotten away. I watched as some of the guys around me found their second chances with the things they had fucked up, and it gave me hope I shouldn’t allow myself to have. The more time that passed, the more the hope crawled inside me.

  I had pushed her away, but I damn sure hadn’t let her go. I just needed to find her so I could tell her that. With every mission, I felt like I needed to right the wrong even more. The longer I waited, the more I wondered if I would ever get the chance.

  “Young, did you get any further intel from your connection?” Commander Wall’s question pulled me from my dark thoughts. He was talking about my connection to the Regulators Motorcycle Club. I had served with Ice, the prez, in the Army. Brett ‘Ice’ Grady and some of our old Green Beret teammates had their own thing going on now in the Regulators MC.

  I shook my head. “Trust me when I say they’re tight-lipped bastards. If they know anything more than they told us, Ice isn’t sharing it. I highly doubt that’s the case, though.” I didn’t think they would withhold anything that might help us in the current situation. Too many women in their territory were disappearing. They wanted the operation shut down as much as we did.

  Jaxon gave a curt nod. “Good. As soon as Declan and Riley get here, we can debrief and plan our next move.”

  Commander Jaxon Wall was a former SEAL. He lived and breathed to lead this unit. The man had no personal life to tell of or ties that could lead anyone back to anything on him.

  I scanned the room. Bobby Baker was present. He, like me, had come from the Army. As a Ranger, he had taken a bullet to the leg, which had resulted in his medical discharge. Beside him sat Arturo Chavez, the Marine who had come out of MARSOC—Marine Corps Special Operations Command—with a reputation as one ruthless motherfucker. Wyatt Brooks was leaned back on the rear two legs of his chair. The former Air Force Pararescueman now served as our team medic. Chase Anderson stood silently in the corner, watching. Having been recruited from the CIA, he was the one member of our team who had not served in the military.