Dirty Favor (The Dirty Suburbs Book 4) Read online

  Dirty Favor

  (The Dirty Suburbs Series - Book 4)

  Cassie-Ann L. Miller

  Dirty Favor (The Dirty Suburbs Series - Book 4)

  Copyright © 2017 Cassie-Ann L. Miller

  All rights reserved.

  This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places and incidents appearing therein are products of the author’s imagination or have been used fictitiously and are not to be interpreted as real. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

  The author acknowledges the trademarked status of the various products referenced in this work.

  Stories by

  Cassie-Ann L. Miller

  The Dirty Suburbs Series

  Book 1: Dirty Neighbor

  Book 2: Dirty Player

  Book 3: Dirty Stranger

  Book 4: Dirty Favor

  Book 5: Dirty Lover

  Book 6: Dirty Farmer

  Book 7: Dirty Silver

  Book 8: Dirty Forever

  The Esquire Girls Series

  Amber’s Story

  Amber Nights (Amber – Books 1, 2, 3 & 4)

  Madison’s Story

  For Madison, Always (Madison – Books 1, 2, 3 & 4)

  Ruthie’s Story

  Ruthie’s Desire (Ruthie – Books 1, 2, 3 & 4)

  Hailey’s story

  Moments with Hailey (Hailey - Books 1, 2, 3 & 4)

  Esquire HEAT Series

  A Very Eager Intern

  A Very Frustrated Attorney

  Standalone novels

  Matteo

  Beast

  Table of contents

  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

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Epilogue

  Dirty Lover (The Dirty Suburbs Series – Book 5)

  Blakely

  My roommate found her happily-ever-after in the middle of our lease. Don’t get me wrong – I’m glad that she found her prince and they’re shacking up. I swear I am. But I've got rent to pay.

  So when my cousin offers to hook me up with a nerdy Silicon Valley programmer who spends his days writing code and watching Japanese anime cartoons, it seems like the perfect arrangement, especially for a timid, socially-awkward girl like me. But nobody warned me that said geeky programmer would be performing said boring activities while shirtless and dripping his libido-igniting pheromones all over my new sofa.

  A girl like me can't handle all that charm and charisma in such a small space. Every time he smiles, it feels like I’m on the verge of a medical emergency and these heart palpitations are really starting to worry me.

  He can't stay here. His effortlessly seductive energy is cutting minutes off of my life expectancy.

  This living arrangement definitely isn't going to work.

  Nicholas

  I've got angel investors lined up around the block to fund my next project. Too bad I'm burnt out and lacking inspiration. I spent years working 18-hour days to build technology that will make a mark on the world. But it's taken a toll on me. I'm desperate for a change of pace.

  So when a buddy mentions a low-key opportunity in a lazy little Illinois suburb, I jump on the offer. Now, I'm rooming with sweet, innocent Blakely. She’s got tempting curves, red curls and freckled skin that blushes every time I smile at her.

  But the girl is full of secrets…and she's got dirty, dirty mind.

  And now I've got a new project; corrupting that shy girl’s curvy little body.

  Pre-order now

  Dirty Farmer (The Dirty Suburbs Series – Book 6)

  Lily

  Hello, I'm Lily and I'm a little hormonal right now.

  Y’see, I found the ring at the bottom of his sock drawer, a modest diamond sitting on a thin, yellow gold band. But now 8 weeks later, it's gone. He returned it and my once-devoted boyfriend is having second thoughts.

  Did I mention that I'm pregnant?

  Anyway, I had to get out of the city and I had nowhere else to go. So, I jumped in my car and headed to Reyfield, Illinois. Now I'm working for a grumpy ass cowboy who sets my hormones into overdrive.

  Great. Just great.

  Jakob

  Hello I'm Jakob. What the hell are you looking at?

  I like to keep to myself. Just me and my farm. So when a chatty city girl shows up in search of work, I'm hesitant to hire. But with her adorable blond ringlets and her pretty pink lips, I can't bring myself to say ‘no’.

  And did I mention that she's pregnant?

  Anyway, I’ve got to keep my head on straight and ignore the way she sends my libido into overdrive, all while keeping this farm from plunging into bankruptcy.

  Great. Just great.

  Pre-order here

  Dirty Favor (The Dirty Suburbs Book 4)

  Description

  He proposed!

  Okay, that statement may be a bit misleading. My best friend's handsome, charming brother didn't really propose marriage to me. It was more of a proposition than a proposal, actually.

  Y'see, Prescott needs to close a business deal for his law firm and to do that, he needs a fiancee. That's how I got dragged into this mess.

  I should just say 'no', but he isn't the only one in need of a favor. He promises that he can help me land the internship I need to launch my career.

  So, I made a deal with the tall, broad-shouldered devil in the custom-tailored suit, and now I'm wearing this enormous rock on my finger.

  But, it's strictly business...until he looks at me with those bedroom eyes and he flashes me that panty-melting smile.

  What the hell have I gotten myself into?

  "Dirty Favor" is a novella in the "Dirty Suburbs" series of stand-alone romantic comedies set in small town Illinois. It was first released in large part in the “White Ribbon Collection” charity anthology in November 2016. It has since been re-edited and extended.

  Chapter 1

  Bzzz…bzzz…bzzz…

  I pull my pillow over my head and slap around at the bedside table, trying to convince my alarm clock to shut the hell up.

  Bzzz…bzzz…bzzz…

  It feels like I only just crawled into bed five minutes ago. After finishing my afternoon classes at the local college and my evening shift at the campus bookstore, I was up until the wee hours of the morning studying for my upcoming Hematology exam. Now, I’m exhausted. No way it’s 7:30 already.

  Bzzz…bzzz…bzzz…

  I fumble around with my eyes closed until I feel the clock under my palm.

  Bzzz…bzzz…BAM!

  I sigh my triumph when I finally manage to turn the thing off and my bedroom falls back into silence. I pull my blanket around me and cuddle my pillow tightly, readily drifting back into slumber.

  But my victory is short lived because the buzzing starts again almost immediately.

  Seriously?

  Only then do I realize that it had been my phone vibrating all along.

  Ugh!

  I peel open one bleary eye and see the telephone screen lighting up the corner of my tiny room. I’d dumped it there together with my textbooks when I’d crashed. I lean over the side of my squeaky, little mattress with a whimper, grasping wildly for the phone. But I’ve got a ‘study-hangover’ and I’m anything but coordinated. Tied up in my she
ets, I spill headfirst off my mattress and drop to the floor with a thud.

  Fuck…It’s one of those mornings.

  Your mother will never tell you this so listen closely, folks. There’s a perk to having a week’s worth of dirty laundry scattered all over your bedroom floor; it makes an excellent cushion for your landing if you ever happen to roll out of bed...

  Silver lining found!

  I can sugarcoat it any way I like but no amount of misplaced optimism can eclipse the fact that I really need to get my life in order. As soon as I get this internship...

  With a yawn, I sit up and grab the phone. I squint at my screen. I can tell that it’s an international number but without my glasses, my eyes are nearly useless. Still, I may not know exactly what corner of the globe the call is coming from, but I know exactly who's on the other end.

  "Evangeline..." I groan her name, hoping she’ll pick up on my displeasure at the timing of her phone call. I slump back against my bedframe and a textbook pokes me in the ribs.

  She giggles. “Annaleigh, why the hell did it take you so long to answer the phone? You’re totally boning some hot guy right now, aren’t you?”

  I roll my eyes. My bestie loves to tease me. She knows very well that ‘boning’ is the last thing I’d be up to right now. But I’ll humor her.

  “Yes, Eva. Boning away over here. You’re interrupting. Talk to you later.”

  “Wait, wait, wait!” she cackles in a high-pitched tone. “Stop messing around.” I can hear shouting and commotion and the loud clicks of camera shutters traveling over the phone line.

  “Why are you calling me right now, Evangeline? Do you have any idea what time it is?” I sigh as I drag a half-dirty t-shirt off of the laundry pile and drape it over my forehead. I need to block out the sunlight assaulting my eyes through my open blinds. Forgot to close them when I fell into bed…five…minutes…ago.

  “I was supposed to call you before I left town yesterday but it slipped my mind,” she says apologetically. “I was so damn busy. Running late for my flight because my hair dryer died on me. Plus, my taxi showed up fifteen minutes late because of the road repairs they’re doing on Centennial. But then, the flight was delayed because of bad weather in Chicago so it turned out that I’d been hurrying for nothing –”

  “Eva! You’re rambling. To the point!”

  “I need a favor,” she blurts out. From her tone of voice, I can tell that she’s totally ready to start groveling.

  I exhale long and hard because I know very well that whenever Evangeline needs a favor, I eventually cave no matter how inconvenient it is for me. My best friend is a charming bitch.

  “Anyway, I’m in Milan for a few photo shoots before heading to Sydney for a runway show. I won’t be back for a month. But Tickles…" she sighs dramatically, "...he needs his thyroid medication.”

  She pauses heavily, waiting for me to fill in the blanks. I stay quiet, just to hear her beg.

  “Annaleigh!” she whines when I don’t automatically offer to run to the cat’s rescue. “C’mon! Can you please go over to my place and make sure my baby gets his pills. His health is so fragile. Plus, he gets lonely when I’m not around.”

  Yeah right, he gets lonely. That cat is something from straight out of an Alfred Hitchcock movie. He’s mean and sneaky and I’m convinced that all of his actions have an ulterior motive; my guess is, the destruction of humankind or something along those lines. Still, Eva is enamored with him for some reason.

  “Okay, okay,” I say, rubbing the corners of my tired eyes. “I’ll go before class this afternoon.”

  “No, no, no. Tickles needs his medication at 6:45. In the morning. Every morning.”

  I can't believe my ears right now. “Are you serious, Evangeline? You expect me to go over there every morning at the crack of dawn to medicate your cat?”

  “Doctor’s orders, Annaleigh.”

  I pull my glasses off of the bedside table and take a glance at my alarm clock. It glows 6:24. That leaves me twenty-one minutes to hop on my bike and get across town to Evangeline’s apartment.

  “Seriously, Evangeline?”

  Her voice drops as she readies to go in for the kill. “I promise I’ll bring you back a present.”

  I groan. The last time she brought me ‘a present’ from one of her modeling excursions, he'd been 6'2 with bronzed skin, a Brazilian accent and a man-bun. Rio, as I'd nicknamed him, modeled underwear for a living and while he had been mighty fun to look at, his beauty regimen had been so much more complex than mine that it had left me feeling inadequate. I was relieved when his talent agency called him back to Europe for fashion week. Thanks, but no thanks.

  “No more man-toys,” I warn sternly.

  “Annaleigh, c’mon.” I can hear the amusement in her voice. “I met this guy. Pietro. Tall, dark, handsome. Italian. He’s perfect for you.”

  “No, you freak!”

  She laughs in that beautiful, carefree way of hers. I close my eyes for a second and it almost feels like she's sitting right next to me, sharing a pint of cookie dough ice cream. “We’re 22. We’re supposed to be freaks.”

  “Well, I can be a freak on my own. I don’t need your assistance. Thank you very much,” I harrumph.

  She sighs. “You know you’re gonna die a spinster if you don’t start putting yourself out there.”

  “I’m ‘out there’,” I argue as I rise to my feet and rummage through the clothes around me for something to wear. “I am so, totally ‘out there’. You have no idea.”

  I’m really not ‘out there’.

  Evangeline’s the beautiful, blonde extravert and I’m her mousy, brainy sidekick. Guys flock to her everywhere she goes and I stand invisibly by her side. Not that I’m complaining per se. I’m way too focused on my studies to handle all the attention she gets. I'm content to be in the shadows. I just wish that Eva would stop focusing a spotlight on how much great sex I'm not having.

  “You know I only bug you about this because I care, right? You’re a babe. You should be having all the sex you can handle.”

  I roll my eyes as I pull on a ratty, old t-shirt. “If you cared about me, you wouldn’t have me dragging my ass out of bed at 6:00 in the morning to hightail it across town and play nurse to your grumpy cat.”

  “You love Tickles,” she teases. “Admit it.”

  I can’t stand the surly, old feline. She knows that. “Whatever,” I grunt as I tromp toward my front door. “Just know that I’m going grocery shopping in your fridge.”

  “You’re a bum,” she says. “Now, hurry up.” I hear ruckus in the background and someone scolds her for smudging her lipstick. “They’re calling me. Gotta go, babe.”

  “Bye, Eva,” I say wistfully as I imagine her being preened by hairstylists and makeup artists and an army of miscellaneous underlings on the set of her fabulous life. “Love ya.”

  “Bye, Annie,” she says with a big kiss through the phone. “Love ya back.”

  Chapter 2

  Ten minutes later, my red beanie is pulled low over my disheveled hair, my inky black bangs falling heavily over my eyes. I bike sluggishly across Reyfield, still struggling to wake all the way up. It’s a sunny morning, but the spring breeze is nippy and I feel it biting at the tip of my nose. By the time I get to Evangeline's Riverfront Road luxury condo, my lungs burn from gulping in deep breaths of chilly air.

  I greet the doorman who gives me a look of disapproval as my black combat boots leave a trail of slush across the lobby. I try to give him a cutesy smile as I haul my bike onto the elevator but I just can’t pull it off.

  With my baggy sweatpants and my plaid flannel over-shirt, I’m not exactly the type of girl that makes guys weak in the knees.

  In my defense, I get my fashion sense from my dad and my two older brothers, Wesley and Kline. Maybe if my mother hadn’t run off with her sketchy insurance salesman boss when I was seven years old, I might have learned to hone my feminine wiles.

  Who knows?

 
I step off of the elevator and amble down the hall to Evangeline's unit. I unlock the door and push it open, leaving my bike in the hallway. Tickles wanders out of the kitchen and gives me a surly onceover before sauntering lazily over to his cushion by the large bay window.

  He then proceeds to groom his white, furry balls. Classy.