Make You Mine Read online

  Make You Mine

  Tia Louise

  Contents

  Acknowledgments

  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

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Epilogue

  When We Touch

  Prologue

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Books by Tia Louise

  About the Author

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  Make You Mine

  Copyright © TLM Productions LLC, 2018

  Printed in the United States of America.

  Cover design by Shanoff Formats

  Photography by Wander Aguire

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication can be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—electronic, photocopying, mechanical, or otherwise—without prior permission of the publisher and author.

  Created with Vellum

  Acknowledgments

  I have so many amazing people in my life supporting and helping me. How can I begin to thank you all?

  Let me try…

  For starters, thanks to my precious family, Mr. TL and my two daughters, for being so patient and sometimes not so patient. I love you guys!

  HUGE THANKS to Candi Kane, Dani Sanchez, and Lulu Dumonceaux for all the incredible marketing and logistical support. You help me think, you listen when I’m exhausted, and you’re just the best.

  Even MORE Huge Thanks to Ilona Townsel for always being there, for dropping everything to help, and just for being the absolute best. You’re my rock.

  HUGE THANKS to my incredible beta squad… Tijuana Turner, Rebecca Barney, and Sarah Sentz—you ladies give amazing notes.

  To my rocking Mermaids admins, Tammi Hart, Tina Morgan, Helene Cuji, Lisa Kuhne, and Ellie King. You ladies have no idea how much I need and appreciate your help!

  Harloe Rae (those teasers!), Jenika Snow, Carly Phillips, Saffron Kent, Kathy Coopmans, AL Jackson… you were my early encouragers, and I thank you from the bottom of my heart. I’m blessed to know you.

  To ALL the FABULOUS author-friends who made room for me in your crammed schedules, I appreciate YOU so much more than I can say. I know how hard it is, and I just can’t thank you enough.

  Special thanks to Shannon of Shanoff Formats for the gorgeous cover and teasers… and for every single (Oh!) last-minute thing. I love you.

  To my MERMAIDS and my INCREDIBLE Promo Team, Thank You for giving me a place to relax and be silly.

  THANKS to ALL the bloggers who have made an art and a science of book loving. Sharing this book with the reading world would be impossible without you. I appreciate your help so much.

  To everyone who picks up this book, reads it, loves it, and tells one person about it, you’ve made my day. I’m so grateful to you all. Without readers, there would be no writers.

  So much love,

  Stay sexy,

  <3 Tia

  “Lovers don’t finally meet somewhere.

  They’re in each other all along.”

  -Rumi

  For the true lovers.

  Prologue

  Gray

  I’ve heard people can change overnight.

  I never believed it until that summer.

  Gasoline, oil, dirty rags, grease, transmission fluid… the indelible scent of the garage. I don’t even notice it anymore. I don’t see the black under my fingernails that never completely washes clean. It’s my life, and I’d never questioned it until that day.

  “Hand me that socket wrench then get in the cab and spin it.” A cigarette dangles from my uncle’s lips, and the top of his overalls are tied around his waist.

  I toss him the tool and climb into the cab of the ancient Chevy we’re repairing. “Ready?”

  My hand is on the key in the ignition. He holds up a finger, bending farther under the hood before stepping away and circling it in the air. I give it a crank, and it turns over instantly, settling into a low humming noise.

  “There you go.” Mack returns the cigarette to his lips and watches a few moments as the truck continues to idle. “Kill it.”

  I turn the engine off and climb out. “I’ll write it up. Starter, alternator…”

  “Just charge for the alternator. I got that starter off an old Mustang. They don’t have to pay me for it.”

  Walking to the office, I call over my shoulder, “You’ll never make money giving shit away.”

  “I’m too old to start worrying about money.”

  I shake my head and go into the tiny room off the side of the garage. It’s all windows, so I have a clear view of the 1961 cherry red gunmetal Aston-hero Classic Jaguar rolling into the shop.

  Damn. The sight of it gives me a semi. “Holy shit.”

  The words are a sacred whisper from my lips. I know who it is. I’ve been admiring this piece of machinery since I was a little kid. I can’t believe it’s right here in Mack’s garage.

  “Grayson?” Mack’s voice snaps me out of my daze.

  I snatch up the clipboard holding the workorder for the Chevy and head out to where my uncle stands beside the sexiest of all sportscars.

  “What you need, Carl?” Mack steps back as the elegantly dressed man emerges from the low ride.

  He gives my uncle a cold nod. Asshole. “Just a tune-up. I’m planning to drive out to the lake this weekend, and I don’t want to end up on the side of the road.”

  Mack chuckles, but I stay back until I’m called.

  Carl Harris is a strange and hateful man. The old ladies say he spends his days drinking whiskey and staring at the photograph of his dead wife. I wouldn’t know. I’ve never been invited inside his house, even though he’s my best friend Danny’s dad.

  Speak of the devil.

  “Hey, grease monkey. Got any bananas for me?” Danny charges out of the passenger seat and runs around to grab me in a headlock. “Who won the Kentucky Derby?”

  I’m taller than him and stronger, but it still takes a minute for me to escape his grip.

  “Charley Horse!” he cries.

  I narrowly escape his elbow to my ribs. “Get off me, asshole.”

  Mr. Harris’s voice is loud and sharp. “Daniel!”

  My throat tightens. I didn’t think he’d hear me swear. Shit.

  “You’re such an animal, Danny.” That sweet voice gives me my second hard-on of the day.

  Andrea “Drew” Harris walks around the back of the Jaguar dressed in tight white pants that show off her cute little ass and a top that stops right under her breasts, those small, luscious handfuls that seemed to grow overnight.

  It also shows off the lines in her stomach, and I wonder what happened to the skinny little girl wi
th stick-straight pigtails running around drinking Mountain Dew and bothering us.

  It’s like a sexy version of Invasion of the Body Snatchers. The aliens took little-kid Drew and replaced her with this grown-up bombshell, who now invades my dreams at night and leaves me with a tent in my sheets every morning.

  I stand like an idiot beside Danny with my tongue figuratively hanging out as she walks up to us smiling.

  “Shut up, Drew Poo,” Danny yells before breaking into laughter.

  Those four words flip the whole scene.

  “You are such an asshole!” Drew yells, losing her cool.

  I start to laugh. Even pissed, she’s adorable.

  “Andrea Rebecca Harris.” Her dad’s voice is another sharp command, but it doesn’t deter Drew.

  Her eyes are flaming fire. “I was three years old!”

  “Didn’t stop you from shitting on my carpet.”

  “I was potty training!”

  “Drew Poo,” he sing-songs.

  My sex-kitten teenage-dream turns wildcat. She snatches up the socket wrench and starts chasing her older brother around the plastic-covered cars.

  “Stop this NOW!” Mr. Harris’s face is beet red. He looks like he might have a heart attack. “Stop it!”

  Danny dashes behind me, and I do the only thing I can. I grab Drew around the upper arms, holding her against my body as she struggles to get free. Damn, she feels so good.

  She’s soft in all the right places, and she smells like the beach and flowers and everything good. She does not smell like gasoline and oil and dirty rags.

  I have to focus so my body doesn’t betray how much I’m into her.

  “Let me go, Grayson!”

  “You can’t swing tools around in the garage,” I groan, giving her a shake. “Now drop it.”

  She struggles a moment longer before giving up the fight. The oversized wrench hits the concrete floor with a clatter. She twists in my arms and looks up at me, and for a minute, I’m lost in her blue eyes. I remember when she was four and a snake scared her in the brush behind her house.

  She was crying, and I carried her in my arms to her mamma.

  Fast forward eight years, and I remember comforting her after that pretty lady died. My mother died when I was even younger than her. It’s what brought me to this town to live with my uncle in a garage.

  This town where people treat us like dirt.

  Holding her now, looking into her eyes, the way she’s looking back at me, I’m struck by how much between us has changed.

  “Boy!” Mr. Harris strides to where I stand with his daughter in my arms. “Let her go.”

  His tone breaks the spell. It banishes me all the way back to where I belong, outside his pristine world, hands off his princess daughter.

  My arms relax, and Drew steps away from me. She’s still looking at me that way, but I have to ignore it.

  “They were fighting…” My voice dies in the face of her father’s cold disdain.

  “How old are you?” His words drip with malice.

  “Seventeen. Going on eighteen.”

  “You’re leaving for college in the fall?”

  My uncle steps up beside me. “Grayson got accepted to state as well as the military college.” His voice is friendly, I’m sure he’s doing his best to ease the tension.

  It doesn’t work.

  Drew’s messed-up dad steps closer to me, so close his warm breath is on my cheek. “Don’t you ever touch my daughter again.”

  It’s low, a veiled threat.

  I’ve never been threatened before, but I know it when I hear it. This man has nothing to lose but his legacy, and he’s not going to let me put my oil-stained hands anywhere near it.

  “I don’t think Gray meant any harm.” My uncle puts his hand on my shoulder, ducking. It’s a submissive response, cowering in the presence of this old lion.

  An old lion with a useless crown.

  King of a forest that doesn’t exist anymore.

  “As if you’d teach him not to touch what he can’t have.” He’s talking to Mack, but he’s glaring at me.

  “Come on, Carl.” Mack’s voice is placating. “You know it wasn’t like that.”

  The man lifts a trembling hand, and a sheen of perspiration is on his forehead. I don’t know what they’re talking about, but he looks like he needs a drink. Whatever’s going on, I won’t cower to Carl Harris.

  He returns to his car, pointing for his children to get in the vehicle.

  “Didn’t you want that tune-up?” Mack calls after him.

  “I changed my mind. We’re not going anywhere.”

  He can say that again. I hold steady as he fumbles with the keys to start the engine. As if drawn by magnetism, my eyes move to the clear blue ones watching me from the back seat with a very different expression.

  Drew smiles, and heat fills my lower body. I smile back, watching as she drives away.

  “Finish up that work order.” My uncle starts for the T-bird waiting under the plastic cover. “And don’t chase after trouble.”

  I tear my eyes off the beautiful blonde in the sexy sports car. I know he’s right. I should stay away from Drew Harris. Nothing good can come of getting mixed up with her.

  It’s too bad I’m not very good at doing what I should.

  Chapter 1

  Drew

  Grayson Cole’s eyes will stop your heart, but his lips will get it going again…

  Four years later

  My brother is slaughtering The Righteous Brothers as we walk through the door of my grandparents’ lake house. “You never close your eyes anymore…”

  “God, Danny is such a dork.” Ruby wrinkles her tiny nose. “Four years, and he’s still doing that Top Gun shit?”

  Stick-straight, glossy black hair swishes around her ears. She’s a sassy Constance Wu and my very best friend.

  “He loves that song.”

  The roar of voices swallows my reply. I hate parties like this. I’d rather be home watching Stranger Things on Netflix in my pajamas. Only one person could get me to come here—or the sadness of saying goodbye to that one person.

  “Your brother needs to get a life,” she shouts, leading the way.

  I can’t argue. Danny’s been doing this routine song since he decided to join the Navy in high school. Now he’s a Marine. It’s four years later, and we’re on the eve of his departure for God knows where (they won’t tell us) with his best friend Grayson Cole.

  Gray, who has every nerve ending in my body buzzing with anticipation.

  The lake house technically belongs to my dad now, since my grandparents died, but he never comes here. After my mom passed ten years ago, he pretty much stopped leaving our big house in Oakville altogether. Danny and I are the only ones who come here. It’s our summer escape, our winter retreat, and of course, Party HQ.

  “It’s sad, really.” Ruby dodges a guy pushing out of the kitchen, red Solo cup in hand.

  I strain my eyes for Gray as I answer. “How so?”

  “Well… Danny never takes his eyes off Leslie, and Leslie never takes her eyes off Gray.”

  “Danny never takes his eyes off Leslie’s boobs,” I quip, real irritation in my voice.

  Gray does not look at her.

  He looks at me.

  I want to say this out loud, but I know better. It’s not worth the big scene, and I’m tense enough as it is.

  We’re approaching the door leading to the open living room, and the closer we get, the faster my heart beats, the shallower my breath gets. I’m about to see him again for the first time since last summer—fateful, memorable, hot as hell last summer—and we only have two days before he’s gone again…

  Will he even remember those days last year? Has he changed? Does he even care?

  Swallowing the knot in my throat, I nervously play with the hem of my red dress. It stops mid-thigh, and has thin spaghetti straps, which means I’m not wearing a bra. My long blonde hair hangs in waves down my back just l
ike he always liked it, and my panties are tucked safely in my purse. Surprise…

  This has to work.

  His familiar voice carries across the space, and my body stills. He says he hates this song. I know he does. My brother ignores him as usual.

  I round the corner, and there he is.

  “You’ve lost that loving feeling…” Danny’s muscled arm is thrown around Gray’s neck, and my face gets hot.

  Love like muscle memory squeezes my chest. My fingers curl wanting to touch him, my lips heat wanting to kiss him. The space between my thighs hums with need. Last summer feels so long ago, but I remember everything.

  As predicted, Danny takes Leslie’s hand, attempting to woo her. Leslie’s a year older than me, and she’s wearing a tight green dress that accentuates her Marilyn Monroe figure. Her eyes fix on Gray, who’s laughing and pointing at someone in the crowd.

  Straight, white teeth. A deep dimple pierces his cheek. He nods, his lips close, and the muscle in his square jaw moves. He reaches out to take a fresh beer, and his bicep flexes briefly. My brother grabs him again, and his shirt rises slightly, revealing the line of a V heading into his low-slung, faded jeans.

  God, he’s so fucking hot.

  “Cut his mic!” Ruby yells. “Have some pride, man!”

  Her voice draws Gray’s attention to where we’re standing. Our eyes lock, and emotion like electricity shoots through me, starting at my lower stomach and filtering through my limbs. His stormy eyes darken, and in that one look, I know he remembers.