Hope Falls: Treasured Kiss (Kindle Worlds Novella) Read online

  Table of 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

  Text copyright ©2016 by the Author.

  This work was made possible by a special license through the Kindle Worlds publishing program and has not necessarily been reviewed by Melanie Shawn. All characters, scenes, events, plots and related elements appearing in the original Hope Falls remain the exclusive copyrighted and/or trademarked property of Melanie Shawn, or their affiliates or licensors.

  For more information on Kindle Worlds: http://www.amazon.com/kindleworlds

  TREASURED KISS

  A Hope Falls Novella (Kindle Worlds)

  by

  Virna DePaul

  ABOUT THIS BOOK

  MMA trainer Alder Hanson heads to Las Vegas ready to party hard; instead, he finds himself bored out of his mind. Then he runs into Dara Brennan, a beautiful brunette with sea green eyes who pleads with him to fill in as a stripper for her friend's bachelorette party. Unable to resist her, Alder negotiates his fee: a kiss. Only Alder finds one kiss isn’t nearly enough. When given the opportunity to train Dara's MMA fighter cousin, Alder jumps at the chance—it means more time with Dara, and a chance to win the greatest prize of his life: her heart.

  Note: Treasured Kiss is a standalone novella in the Hope Falls Kindle World. It connects to Lucky Kiss, a Hope Falls novel by Melanie Shawn (where you first meet Alder), and What Love Can Do, Book One in the Home To Green Valley Series by Virna DePaul (where you first meet Dara). It can be read on its own!

  ***If you are a new-to-me reader, I hope you’ll check out my other books. Please visit my website and join my mailing list to be the first to hear about new releases and giveaways! You can also follow me on Facebook. Thank you!

  ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

  Thank you to Melanie Shawn for letting me hang in the wonderful town of Hope Falls. I love your series and it was a pleasure bringing my characters to visit!

  CONTACT VIRNA HERE

  Website: www.virnadepaul.com

  Twitter: @virnadepaul

  Email: [email protected]

  Facebook Fan Page: www.facebook.com/booksthatrock

  CHAPTER ONE

  What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas.

  At least, Alder Hanson sure as hell hoped so, or else his rep was going to be taking a serious hit.

  Because sitting in a bar in Sin City, surrounded by beautiful women, all he wanted was to head back to his hotel room—alone.

  What the hell had happened to him?

  At thirty-three years old, Alder had spent almost a decade of his life fighting in the UFC. He’d held the light middleweight title for three years before retiring six years ago, and he’d enjoyed all the money, women, and partying that had come with his rise to fame. Post-retirement, as a highly sought-after trainer, he’d had plenty of opportunity to revisit that lifestyle. Granted, he’d just spent the last several months in a small town in the middle of nowhere, training his friend Lucky Dorsey for the last fight of his career, but that’s exactly why Alder had been so stoked about coming to Vegas.

  Sure, that was mostly due to the excitement of the match between Lucky and Mike Moser. And he couldn’t have been happier knowing that after the fight was over, Lucky was going to officially retire and ask his girlfriend, Deanna, to marry him. But more than that, Alder had been ready for some serious partying. Once they’d arrived, he’d bided his time, waiting until Lucky won his match then proposed to his girl in the ring, but as soon as Lucky and Deanna had left town, the real fun should have begun: drinking, clubbing, and some serious action between the sheets. That hadn’t happened—or rather, a lot of it had, just not the most fun part—and Alder could no longer deny it: he’d been bored out of his mind.

  Was something in the water the citizens of Hope Falls drank that made otherwise sane men prefer its quaint streets to the sinful decadence of a Vegas vacation? How else to explain that he was thinking of cutting his trip short and flying back to Hope Falls early? What other reason was there for his gaze to skip over one hot babe after another as he searched for something intangible to satisfy his restlessness, something similar to the fiery heat but also the affection and familiarity that Lucky shared with Deanna?

  Alder had actually made fun of Lucky after he’d arrived in the little mountain town of Hope Falls three months ago. Sacramento and Lake Tahoe weren’t exactly at the top of people’s lists when it came to bustling nightlives, yet they certainly had that over Hope Falls in spades. But instead of moving to one of those cities, Lucky had picked some small town hours away to put up a gym. Alder had been positive he would hate it, and he’d grudgingly resigned himself to serving time in Mountain Mayberry while he trained his friend.

  Before too long, however, he’d acclimated to the climate and altitude, and had spent more and more time exploring the natural beauty of the mountain into which Hope Falls had been carved. He’d developed a friendship with Audrey and Vivien, two sisters who were hotter than the coffee they served at their shop, Brewed Awakenings. He’d eaten at least one home cooked meal a day at a café run by a lady named Sue Ann, and he’d drunk beer and played pool with the locals at JT’s Roadhouse. He’d even attended an annual charity event in the form of a masquerade ball. Somehow, before he quite knew how it had happened, Alder had been feeling right at home in Hope Falls, with the townspeople treating him less like an outsider and more like family. When Lucky had asked him to become an equal partner in the gym and literally hang a shingle training MMA fighters in Hope Falls, Alder had readily agreed.

  Didn’t mean he still wasn’t shocked as hell to find that partying in Vegas had become more painful than enjoyable.

  Time to throw in the towel. He’d pay his tab, call it a night, and head back to Hope Falls in the morning. He finished the last of his beer, then raised his hand to catch the bartender’s attention.

  The bartender, a redhead dressed in a pair of Daisy Duke’s and a revealing tube top, misunderstood his signal and went to get him another beer. She had plenty of colorful tattoos running up and down both of her tanned, toned arms, and her muscles flexed attractively as she operated the tap. She was just his type, and she should have revved his engines, but his dick didn’t so much as twitch.

  “Alder Hanson!”

  He turned at the high-pitched squeal and smiled at a voluptuous brunette who was jumping up and down in her excitement. The movement did great things for her impressively melon-sized breasts. “That’s me,” he said.

  “I knew you looked familiar. Do you remember me? I was a card girl. I’m Cameo.”

  Alder had absolutely no memory of her (not even her mind-boggling breasts, but since they looked fake, she could have gotten those more recently). He’d started his career as a lower-tier fighter, before regulations became so stiff, and during the first three years he’d trained seven days a week and fought six to eight times a year. There were days when he barely remembered his own name. Once the big money and sponsorships had started coming in, he’d reduced his fight schedule to four times a year, and reduced his training schedule as well, which had left more time for him to accept what so many women had been offering him. He hoped he hadn’t accepted what this woman had offered because she looked to be in her early twenties, which meant she would have been in her teens back then. “I’m sorry, Cammie. I don’t remember you, but I’ve been hit in
the head a lot.”

  She laughed. “That’s okay. I wasn’t a card girl for very long. My boyfriend hated all those guys looking at me in a bikini.”

  As opposed to the skin-tight, super short dress with the plunging neckline that she was wearing now? “Well, it was good see you again, Cammie, but I was just about to pay my bill and head out.”

  “Really?” She rifled through her small sparkly clutch before handing him a card. “Here’s my number. In case…you know…you want company later.”

  Alder refrained from asking if her boyfriend would mind and graciously accepted the card. “Thanks but I have a flight to catch in the morning, so I’ll probably get these old bones to bed early.”

  She laughed as if what he’d said was the most hilarious thing she’d ever heard, and he almost winced at the high pitch and volume of the sound. He asked the bartender for the check and looked around as he waited.

  The colored lights reflecting off the mirror behind the bar and the sounds of the band playing fast and loose with the term “music” were starting to give him a headache. He couldn’t wait to get back to his quiet hotel room, and he no longer cared if that made him old or not. He paid his bill, leaving a generous tip, then walked out of the bar and into the hotel lobby.

  Where he came face to face with a woman with sea green eyes.

  They were surrounded by the longest and thickest dark lashes he’d ever seen, and it took him a few seconds to realize he was staring. In his defense, she was drop-dead gorgeous. Her dark hair stopped at a tiny waist while the rest of her body had curves that went on for days; unlike Cammie, her breasts were more grapefruit than melon-sized, and they complimented her petite frame perfectly.

  Automatically, he flashed her his most charming smile—Old, my ass— and though she smiled in return, she looked distracted. Then her eyes focused more directly on him and she smiled as if she’d just won the lottery.

  “How’d you like to make a couple hundred bucks?”

  The music and chatter were loud behind him, and his head still ached. Maybe he’d heard her wrong. “Excuse me?”

  “I need a stripper.”

  Okay, that he’d heard loud and clear. Alder chuckled. She’d obviously had one too many tonight, but that was Vegas for you. “Chippendales is a few doors down.” He told himself to walk away, but he was trapped by her green gaze. Warmth spread from his core to his extremities, and he wiggled his fingers, relishing the slight buzz he felt when he was extremely attracted to a woman, something he hadn’t felt in quite a long time.

  “Please. I just need you for an hour, maybe less.” Her eyes pleaded. She put her hands together in prayer style as best she could given she was holding one of those giant fruity drinks sold on every corner in Vegas. Hers was pink and half gone.

  “I think you’ve probably had one too many drinks, babe. I’m not a stripper.”

  “You don’t have to be,” she said, her voice laced with desperation now.

  Weird how adorable he found the sound, when a desperate woman was usually something he avoided at any cost. But he was having a hard time finding anything about her not adorable, be it the slightly confusing conversation they were having or the sexy little spray of freckles across her nose. Unfortunately, she was obviously drunk or disturbed, and he didn’t need either tonight. “Look, I’m sorry, but—”

  “You’re big and you’re hot, and my girl likes big, muscular guys with a lot of tattoos…”

  Alder chuckled and ran a hand through his thick hair. “Wait…so you not only want me to strip, you want me to do it for someone else? What kind of kinky party are you trying to lure me to?”

  She blinked owlishly at him before giggling, and forget tingling, his cock jumped at the beautiful sound. “I know how this must sound, but let me start at the beginning. I’m in town for my friend Megan’s bachelorette party. I’m the maid of honor and it was my job to book the entertainment. She flew all the way here from New Jersey and has been talking non-stop about her one-and-only chance to get a lap dance from a gorgeous stripper all while having a free pass from her fiancé, Stuart. Stuart. He’s a great guy and all, but that should tell you how badly I don’t want to disappoint my friend.”

  Geez, poor Stuart. “So you put the party together but you forgot to hire a stripper?” Once again he told himself to walk away, but his headache was now amazingly gone, and talking to her was the most fun he’d had all day. Hell, was he actually considering her request?

  “Excuse me, that is not what happened,” she said, her voice indignant. “I arranged for a stripper, but the flake called me a half an hour ago and cancelled. The party is already going strong and I can’t bring myself to tell her that she and her other friends came all this way and I don’t have a stripper for her, so I slipped away to find one.”

  He chuckled again. The girl was definitely not right, trolling the casino looking for a stripper. But damn she was hot. And sweet. And a good friend. He felt more blood rush down south the longer he talked to her, but this wasn’t Magic Mike; for all he knew, this was an elaborate con and if he wasn’t careful he could end up bare-ass naked, handcuffed to a bed, and relieved of his wallet. Granted, she didn’t strike him as a hustler but… “Listen, sweetie, I’m sorry, but I just can’t help you. A stripper I am not. Now if you wanted a fighter—”

  “You’re a fighter?” Her face lit up.

  Alder could see he wasn’t getting through to her.

  “I know several fighters. My cousin is a fighter, and by sheer coincidence, Megan’s fiancé used to be a fighter, too. I mean, he’s not famous or anything, but he used to fight in a club in Newark before he opened his accounting firm. How hot would that be to have a real fighter strip for her?”

  Alder’s attention had been planted on her mouth—she had lush, pillowy lips—but he lifted his gaze to meet hers. “Stuart the accountant fought in a club in Newark?”

  She shrugged and her expression said, Hey, whatcha gonna do?

  He shook his head, trying to clear it. “Again, sorry. I don’t even dance.” That wasn’t exactly true. He was no expert, but he’d been known to bust a move once or twice, just not naked in a room full of screaming women.

  Her pouty lip came out further and he wanted to nibble and suck on it.

  “Megan and I have been friends since before we even started kindergarten, but she moved to Jersey for college four years ago. She used to come home a lot, for vacations and stuff…but then she met Stuart and I rarely get to see her. She made all of these new friends there and several of them are in the wedding. But, she asked me to be her maid of honor. She wanted everyone to know that she still loves me best. And now I’ve screwed it all up!” Her green eyes took on a watery sheen, and Alder felt the beginnings of panic rise in his chest.

  Oh Lord, not that. Anything but that. He couldn’t stand to see a woman cry.

  He cursed softly, then said, “What exactly would I have to do?”

  Her eyes immediately dried, making him wonder if she’d just played him. “You’re going to do it?” She looked cautiously happy and, damn, it felt good that he’d made her that way.

  “I haven’t committed to anything. I want to know what you’d expect me to do.”

  “Just dance a little, take off your shirt…nothing dirty, I promise. I’ll tell them they can’t touch you and you don’t even have to get completely naked.” For the first time since they’d begun to talk, her eyes ran the length of his body. Her face flushed and her breath hitched slightly, making him grin. “I’ll pay you double what I was going to pay the other guy.”

  Hell, Alder thought, he wasn’t going to take advantage of her desperation or her drunkenness, but there was no harm in having just a little bit of fun with her. “What if money isn’t what I want?”

  It took her a while to tear her gaze away from his chest. She blinked. “What do you mean?”

  “I don’t need money.”

  “What do you need?”

  His gaze dropped to her lips aga
in, and her little pink tongue darted out. He was more than half hard now. He cleared his throat and said, “I’ll settle for a kiss.”

  “That’s all you want? A kiss?”

  “I didn’t say that. I said I’ll settle for a kiss. It’s actually quite a deal. You get to keep your money but you get a stripper and you get to kiss me. There are quite a few women who’d jump at my offer.”

  He was teasing, expecting her to roll her eyes. Instead, she instantly said, “Okay.” Then she took a huge gulp from her plastic glass before tossing it in a waste can next to them. “Let’s go upstairs.”

  She started to walk toward the bank of elevators, but stopped when he loudly cleared his throat. When she turned back to him, he said, “Not that I don’t trust you, but in case you’ve had enough of that pink stuff to affect your memory later on, maybe we should take care of my payment before I actually remove my clothes.”

  She smiled and took hold of his hand. He felt the heat rush from the point of contact straight to his dick. “We’ll take care of your payment in the elevator on the way up.”

  Alder wasn’t going to argue with that. He didn’t really know why he was doing this, but for the first time since Lucky and Deanna got on their plane, he actually felt happy.

  He watched her press the up button. The doors slid open and they stepped inside. She pushed the number twelve and as the doors started to close, a preppy-looking college boy stuck his arm in to stop them.

  “We’re full,” Alder said.

  He looked like he was about to say something but Alder gave him “the look,” the one that had intimidated seasoned fighters across the globe time and again. When the kid backed up and let the doors close, Alder smiled to himself.

  Once the doors slid completely shut, however, Alder wasn’t feeling in the mood to play anymore.