Dropout Read online

  Grayson groaned, tightening his grip on her even as he leaned forward to capture her nipple in his mouth. He sucked hard, and she bucked on him, coming around his cock as she screamed his name.

  He thrust a few more times, his balls tightening before he came with her, not even close to sated when it came to this woman.

  “We fogged up the windows,” she panted, leaning on him.

  He kissed and licked up her neck, needing more of her taste. “I’m pretty sure we did that when you ate my cock before you rode me like the Texan cowgirl you are.”

  She laughed into his neck, and her breathing calmed. “You were right, you know.”

  He kissed her shoulder. “Yeah? What was I right about?”

  “I never did this in high school.” She looked up and around the cab of his truck. “I mean, parking like some teenager and making out? I totally didn’t have time for that with all my extra classes.”

  He rocked his hips, his cock still buried deep inside her. “I never had time either. And, baby, this was way more than making out.”

  She winked and kissed him again. “Then I guess we’d better keep quiet before the cops come.”

  “Someone is about to come, and it’s not the cops,” he joked, and she laughed with him.

  “Dork,” she breathed.

  “Your dork,” he answered, his gaze on hers.

  “I like the sound of that,” she whispered. “I like it a lot.”

  “Good,” he said softly. “Because you’re going to hear it for a long while yet.”

  Forever if he had his way, but he’d take for now as long as he could. Because some things took time, and falling in love with the woman he’d known he couldn’t have in the past but had now was one of them.

  Epilogue

  Three Years Later

  “Why did I think graduation day while pregnant was a good idea?” Kate asked while trying to work her gown over her exceedingly large stomach. “Pregnant with twins, no less.”

  Grayson stood behind her so they could both see themselves in her full-length mirror and winked. When he wrapped his arms around her middle, she was honestly surprised his hands could actually touch.

  “You look gorgeous. If you keep talking down about yourself, I might have to punish you.”

  Even eight months pregnant with twins, she still shivered in his hold. “West and Lili are going to walk through our bedroom door any minute now, wondering why we’re late.”

  Grayson kissed her neck, and she closed her eyes, leaning in to his touch. “They’ve seen us kiss before. A lot. They got over it the day I moved in.”

  She rolled her eyes as he helped her out of her graduation gown since she didn’t want to wear it in the car ride over. “I think they like you more than me.”

  He shrugged, his eyes dancing. “I’m a pretty kickass stepdad, what can I say?”

  She hugged his side, falling in love with him all over again. They’d moved into a home they’d bought together six months after she moved to Denver. They’d married only three months later, with her kids and best friends from Catfish Creek by her side.

  “You are a pretty kickass stepdad.” She placed her hand over his where it covered her belly. “And you’re going to be a pretty kickass dad, too.”

  Grayson smiled down at her, and she held back a sigh. The man could seriously make her swoon sometimes. “We should get going.” He kissed her hard on the mouth. “My mom and sisters are probably already there since they like being earlier than early.” He cupped her face. “You sure you’re okay that your parents aren’t coming?”

  Her heart hurt like hell but she breathed through it. “They’ll be here when the babies are born. Small steps.” They hadn’t been happy when she moved, and they sure as hell hadn’t been happy when she married Grayson. They might be marginally okay with her finally graduating college, but she wasn’t ready to let them fully into her life when they’d made her feel lower than low for so long. As she’d said, baby steps.

  “I love you,” Grayson said after a moment. “I don’t think I said that today.”

  She smiled, her heart opening even wider for the man in front of her. “You did when I woke up.”

  Grayson winked. “Well, then, I guess I needed to say it again.”

  “I love you, too,” she whispered. “I love you more and more every day. Thank you for going on this journey with me. For taking a chance and falling in love with a single mom who wanted to finish college. I’m not the girl I was, and I’m not even the woman you started to fall in love with, but I’m so happy you’re with the woman I am now.”

  Grayson brushed his lips along hers. “We might have fallen in love when we were younger if we’d had the chance, but I have to say, I love the fact that I have you now. All of you.”

  West’s and Lili’s voices filled the hallway outside her door, and Kate grinned. She truly was the luckiest woman in the world. She had her husband, her children, a degree she’d worked her butt off for, a new job on the way, and a future where the sky was the limit.

  Kate had never been one for high school reunions in the past, but she had a feeling when their twentieth came up, she and Grayson just might have to make an appearance.

  It would be their anniversary, after all, and there was nothing like skipping down memory lane…as long as she had her bearded, inked, sexy husband by her side.

  A Bad Boy Homecoming

  Thank you so much for reading Dropout! Grayson and Kate’s story is part of the fun and sexy Bad Boy Homecoming series. Each book is a complete stand alone but we hope you’ll go through each of the romances to see your favorite characters make special appearances and see just how the reunion went down. Each book carries at least one of our favorite troupes as well as a few high school flashbacks that make us smile and shake our heads. If you enjoyed the book, we’d love if you could please leave a review to show us how much. Reviews help authors every day and we totally appreciate it.

  Thank you for coming to the Bad Boy Homecoming reunion and we hope you’ll not only find a romance you love, but a few authors as well.

  Happy Reading!

  The Books of Bad Boy Homecoming

  Dropout by Carrie Ann Ryan

  Trouble by Avery Flynn

  Prom Queen by Katee Robert

  Honor by Kennedy Layne

  Rock Star by Stacey Kennedy

  About Carrie Ann and her Books

  Carrie Ann Ryan is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of contemporary and paranormal romance. Her works include the Montgomery Ink, Redwood Pack, Talon Pack, and Gallagher Brothers series, which have sold over 2.0 million books worldwide. She started writing while in graduate school for her advanced degree in chemistry and hasn’t stopped since. Carrie Ann has written over fifty novels and novellas with more in the works. When she’s not writing about bearded tattooed men or alpha wolves that need to find their mates, she’s reading as much as she can and exploring the world of baking and gourmet cooking.

  www.CarrieAnnRyan.com

  Redwood Pack Series:

  Book 1: An Alpha’s Path

  Book 2: A Taste for a Mate

  Book 3: Trinity Bound

  Redwood Pack Box Set (Contains Books 1-3)

  Book 3.5: A Night Away

  Book 4: Enforcer’s Redemption

  Book 4.5: Blurred Expectations

  Book 4.7: Forgiveness

  Book 5: Shattered Emotions

  Book 6: Hidden Destiny

  Book 6.5: A Beta’s Haven

  Book 7: Fighting Fate

  Book 7.5: Loving the Omega

  Book 7.7: The Hunted Heart

  Book 8: Wicked Wolf

  The Complete Redwood Pack Box Set (Contains Books 1-7.7)

  The Talon Pack (Following the Redwood Pack Series):

  Book 1: Tattered Loyalties

  Book 2: An Alpha’s Choice

  Book 3: Mated in Mist

  Book 4: Wolf Betrayed

  Book 5: Fractured Silence

&nb
sp; Book 6: Destiny Disgraced (Coming September 2017)

  Book 7: Eternal Mourning (Coming February 2018)

  Montgomery Ink:

  Book 0.5: Ink Inspired

  Book 0.6: Ink Reunited

  Book 1: Delicate Ink

  The Montgomery Ink Box Set (Contains Books 0.5, 0.6, 1)

  Book 1.5: Forever Ink

  Book 2: Tempting Boundaries

  Book 3: Harder than Words

  Montgomery Ink Box Set 2 (Contains Books 1.5, 2, 3)

  Book 4: Written in Ink

  Book 4.5: Hidden Ink

  Book 5: Ink Enduring

  Book 6: Ink Exposed

  Book 6.5: Adoring Ink

  Book 7: Inked Expressions

  Book 8: Inked Memories (Coming Oct 2017)

  The Gallagher Brothers Series:

  A Montgomery Ink Spin Off Series

  Book 1: Love Restored

  Book 2: Passion Restored

  Book 3: Hope Restored (Coming July 2017)

  The Whiskey and Lies Series:

  A Montgomery Ink Spin Off Series

  Book 1: Whiskey Secrets (Coming January 2018)

  The Branded Pack Series:

  (Written with Alexandra Ivy)

  Book 1: Stolen and Forgiven

  Book 2: Abandoned and Unseen

  Book 3: Buried and Shadowed

  Dante’s Circle Series:

  Book 1: Dust of My Wings

  Book 2: Her Warriors’ Three Wishes

  Book 3: An Unlucky Moon

  The Dante’s Circle Box Set (Contains Books 1-3)

  Book 3.5: His Choice

  Book 4: Tangled Innocence

  Book 5: Fierce Enchantment

  Book 6: An Immortal’s Song

  Book 7: Prowled Darkness

  The Complete Dante’s Circle Series (Contains Books 1-7)

  Holiday, Montana Series:

  Book 1: Charmed Spirits

  Book 2: Santa’s Executive

  Book 3: Finding Abigail

  The Holiday, Montana Box Set (Contains Books 1-3)

  Book 4: Her Lucky Love

  Book 5: Dreams of Ivory

  The Complete Holiday, Montana Box Set (Contains Books 1-5)

  The Happy Ever After Series:

  Flame and Ink

  Ink Ever After

  Single Title:

  Finally Found You

  Trouble

  Want more Bad Boy Homecoming? Check out the next romance in our sexy reunion stand alone series:

  TROUBLE by Avery Flynn

  It was the boobs. It was always the boobs.

  They weren't like the-plane's-going-down-emergency-flotation-device big, but they were large enough that Leah Camacho was used to idiots who never looked her in the eyes trying to buy the girls drinks—or, in this case, upgrade her compact rental to a luxury Aston Martin DB9.

  "You're the one hundredth customer today," the guy behind the car rental counter said. "It's totally legit."

  Leah looked around. The place was empty. It was ten in the morning. There was no signage saying anything about a luxury upgrade contest. Sarah—according to the guy's name tag—was the only one working. He had a thick mustache, shaggy blonde hair, and the company shirt he wore was about three sizes too small, barely making the stretch across his broad chest. Her bullshit meter was off the charts. She glanced out the front door, ready to walk back out into the July Fort Worth heat—it wasn't a dry heat or a humid heat it was just an oppressive, thank-God-someone-invented-air-conditioning face-of-the-sun kind of heat—and Uber her way to another car rental place when the black sports car parked outside snagged her attention.

  It was all sleek lines and badass beauty. She'd make the three-hour trip from Fort Worth to Catfish Creek in half the time. Of course, that may not be a plus. It's not like she was all that excited to return to her small hometown for her tenth high school reunion. If it wasn't for the opportunity to see the cute cheerleaders who'd made her life hell back then now looking like life had bitch slapped them around, she probably would have ignored the invite. Petty? Absolutely. However, anyone who said that wasn't part of their reasoning for attending a high school reunion when high school had been one of Dante's lower levels of hell was a big, fat liar. Anyway, there was no denying that this car would make a helluva better impression than a silver compact with zero pickup and a tinny horn. Plus, her best friend Gray would go ape shit. A mechanic and total gear head, he'd probably pet the damn thing and whisper sweet nothings into its intake manifold.

  Decision made, Leah turned back to the man behind the counter who had developed a slick sheen of sweat on his forehead. Boyfriend here was nervous.

  "And what do you want from me?" She dropped her gaze to his name tag. "Sarah?"

  He shoved the printed contract across the counter to her along with a pen. "Just your signature."

  "Same price?"

  He nodded and pushed the paperwork another two inches toward her.

  What the hell? If her boobs were gonna give her a backache and ruin her for strapless dresses unless she wore the mother-of-all-industrial-strength bras, she might as well get something out of them besides catcalls and unsubtle leering. She picked up the pen and signed.

  Three minutes later her suitcase was in the tiny trunk, her purse on the passenger seat and she was behind the wheel, the rental contract still in her hand. Reaching across the dashboard, she popped open the glove box and pushed the paperwork inside. One corner didn't slide in easily. She patted her hand around inside and pulled out a small, hot pink satin bag with a cartoon unicorn stitched onto it. Something hard was in the bag. She tugged open the strings holding it closed and spilled out the contents into her palm. It was a diamond-shaped paperweight or kid’s toy, she couldn't tell. Obviously, the last people who rented the Aston Martin before her had forgotten it. No doubt, some poor kid was seriously bummed out.

  She turned the key in the ignition. Then, she pictured a little kid with her eyes all puffy from crying because her parents had forgotten the kid's prized possession. Damn. It sucked being let down by the people around you—no one knew that better than Leah. There was no way she could hit the road with some kid's fake diamond. She cut the engine.

  Sighing, she got out of the car to turn in the bag so the rental people could contact the previous renters, but the building had gone dark. The open for business sign had been changed to Out For Lunch Back At with the little clock on the sign reading eleven thirty.

  Great.

  She got back in the car and tossed the bag back in the glove compartment and closed it. She'd remember to turn it in on Monday when she returned the car. Unable to delay the inevitable any longer, she turned the key in the engine and let the car purr for a minute before pulling out onto the road and heading to the one place in the world she'd sworn she'd never go back to--funny how fate just loved to laugh at declarations like that.

  ###

  Drew

  Catfish Creek

  For the fifth time that week—and hopefully the last in his quickly dwindling tenure, Sheriff Drew Jackson knocked on Beauford Lynch's front door, standing off to the side just far enough that if the old goat let loose with his shotgun the blast would miss its target but not so far to the side that Beauford's wife, Betty Sue, would think Drew was being rude. The situation pretty much described life in Catfish Creek: smile and protect your balls.

  The door opened, revealing Beauford in a pair of pressed jeans and a God Bless Texas T-shirt. The shotgun was nowhere to be seen. Some of the tension leaked out of Drew's shoulders.

  "Morning, Mayor."

  The other man crossed his arms and narrowed his eyes, taking in Drew's worn jeans and plain white T-shirt. With only a few days left as Catfish Creek's sheriff, since he lost the election, he'd become sheriff in name only--except, of course, for paying house calls on the mayor.

  "Sheriff," Beauford said with a curt nod.

  No shotgun, but no welcome either. Looked like it was going to be one of those mornings.
"Maisy Aucoin filed a complaint this morning, she says you've been harassing her cat."

  "The damn thing keeps coming in my yard," Beauford sputtered. "Am I supposed to just welcome invaders with open arms?"

  Drew managed not to laugh. It wasn't easy. The town's perpetual mayor for life was acting as if he was fighting terrorists or the East Coast liberal elite. "It's a tabby cat."

  "It's my property," the other man shot back, an ugly red flush starting to climb its way north from his T-shirt collar.

  "Does the cat destroy any of your property?"

  "Not the point."

  Drew sighed. This was ridiculous. God give him the patience to make it to five p.m. Friday, only four short days away. "Couldn't you just ignore the cat?"

  The other man threw up his hands in frustration. "And this is why you lost the election."

  "My even-handedness?" Drew asked, keeping his tone casual even as his heart rate sped up.

  "Because you kowtow to people like Maisy Aucoin instead of listening to the folks who matter," the mayor said with a sneer. "We expected more of you considering your family name, which is why we appointed you to finish out Ned Finnigan's term after his heart attack."

  "Mrs. Aucoin is the town librarian, she's not the criminal underbelly."

  "She's a rebel rouser." Beauford's voice went up to a full shout on the last two words.

  "Because she wouldn't get rid of the romance section of the library?"

  "That trash doesn't need to be within sight of our young people," he huffed.

  The man was delusional. "You mean the ones with full access to the Internet?"

  The mayor jabbed a finger in Drew's direction. "Don't you backtalk me, boy."

  In a normal place, being thirty-one would eliminate being called boy. Not in Catfish Creek, the town that sanity forgot. Not for the first time in the past two years, he wanted to kick himself for agreeing to come home in return for his mom agreeing to go to rehab. The kick wouldn't have changed anything, he'd have still come home, but it would at least have been an acknowledgement of the hell he was entering. Drew gave Beauford a tight smile and forced his right hand to unclench before he gave into the urge to punch a seventy-six-year-old man in the face.