Abby stood in the middle of the bus aisle, clutching two grocery bags to her chest. Her blue eyes widened as she took in my appearance. “Oh my God, Jake, are you all right?” she asked, her voice laced with concern.

I gave a maniacal laugh that surprised even me. “No, I’m not.”

She sat the bags down on the counter and took a step toward me. “Are you sick? You look so pale.”

“That’s because the jackass chased two beers with half a bottle of Jack,” Brayden replied, shaking his head.

“Go easy on him,” Abby chided.

“Why should Bray go easy on me? He’s always riding me about something,” I spat, scowling at Brayden.

“Jake, you did this to yourself because of your mom, didn’t you?” Through my haze, I felt Abby’s hand rubbing my arm, and all my senses hummed at the simple touch. As much as I hated to admit it to myself and wanted to keep fighting my feelings, there was no doubting how much I wanted her.  

Her brows furrowed as sympathy etched across her face. “Can I do anything for you? Please tell me what’s wrong?”

Before I could stop myself, a snort escaped my lips. “Don’t you get it, Angel. You are the problem.”

“Jake—” AJ warned.

Her eyes widened as she swept her hand over her heart. “Me?”

“Yeah, you.” I lunged forward causing her to take a tentative step back. “It’s you with those sexy as hell cowboy boots that I want digging into my ass as I fuck you until you scream my name. And those perfect tits…” I licked my lips at the mere thought of my mouth on them. But in that pause, my cloudy thoughts veered in a different, less perverted direction. “It’s the way the dimple comes out on your cheek when you smile really big and the way you blush when I tease you.” I sucked in a breath as the fuzzy memories from the night before crashed over me. “It was the way your sweet, soft hands wiped away my tears, and the way your body curved into mine when you let me hold you. It all made me feel for just an instant that everything really was going to be all right. No one has ever comforted me like that…except my mom.” What the fuck? Did I just say all that out-loud? I shook my head furiously from side to side as the room started spinning me like a Titled Whirl at the county fair back home.

Abby grabbed my shoulders to steady me. I blinked my eyes trying to focus on her blurry, but beautiful image. “Most of all, it’s that I want someone like you to want me—just for me, not for Jake Slater the singer of Runaway Train.” I smacked my hand hard against my chest. “For what’s really inside me.”

Abby gasped. “Oh Jake, I—”

She never got the chance to say what I hoped to hear because my churning stomach chose that precise moment to lurch, causing me to puke all over Abby’s pristine sundress.

I lounged on the couch, balancing my opened Nursing and Physiology book on my knees. Jake staggered up the bus stairs with a leggy, dark-haired goddess. Somehow after our morning song writing session, he had managed to not only get drunk, but he’d found some random chick in the middle of the rest-stop. Her arm snaked around his waist while her tongue licked up his neck. His gaze flickered over to mine before he turned back to the guys. “I call the bedroom,” he said.

“You had the bedroom yesterday,” Rhys argued.

“Easy, grumpy, I won’t need it that long,” Jake replied, a sexy smile curving on his lips.

“You underestimate your stamina, babe,” the dark haired girl replied. I couldn’t help the squeak that escaped my lips when her hand left his waist to cup his fly, working Jake over his jeans.

“Take it to the bedroom. There’s a lady present,” Brayden snapped over his newspaper.

When the bulge started to grow, Jake cut his eyes over to me again. I flushed and buried my head in my book. “You’re welcome to join us, Angel. Bree doesn’t mind sharing me, do you?”

I jerked my chin up. So this was Bree—the groupie he had mistaken me for in his bed.

She eyed me and shrugged. “As long as I get off, I don’t care.”

“Whatta ya say?” Jake asked.

Before I could respond, Rhys growled beside me. “You’re a drunken jackass, Jake. You’re stepping over the line with Abby, not to mention your bargain with her.”

“Oh really?” Jake countered.

Rhys cocked his brows. “Yeah, especially after last night.”

The thoughts of me comforting him through his tears sobered Jake a little, and his smirk faded. A combination of remorse and embarrassment entered his face.

I patted Rhys’s arm. “It’s okay. I’m very capable of telling Jake no thank you.” I smiled sweetly up at Jake who glowered back at me. He jerked Bree forward down the narrow hallway and then slammed the bedroom door.

“He can be such a prick,” Rhys grumbled.

“Yeah, I know, but he’s also in a lot of emotional pain about his mom right now.”

“So that excuses him for getting drunk off his ass before noon and for treating you like a sleazy asshole?”

“No, but I guess it makes me understand him better and forgive him a little easier.” I smiled reassuringly at his skeptical expression. “It’s fine. Really.”

But then it became very plain it was not fine. Moans and shrieks echoed through the cabin from the bedroom. A warm flush poured over my cheeks and inched down my neck. I gripped the edges of my book tighter, desperately wanting to crawl into a hole and die rather than to hear the sounds of Jake screwing Bree. I also didn't like the way Jake's noises of pleasure were effecting me. There was also the fact that the guys seemed totally unaffected by the chaos coming from the bedroom.

“Here. This seems to help,” AJ said, thrusting two ear plugs at me.

I eyed them as Jake gave another long groan. “Oh yeah, suck me harder babe!”

“Um, on second thought. I think I’ll go get some fresh air.” I scrambled off the couch and raced down the aisle. The moment I got off the bus I exhaled noisily. Bending over, I rested my elbows on my knees and tried to clear my mind of what I had heard. Once I recovered, I started putting as much distance between myself and the bus as possible.

After taking a hesitant sip of water, Abby patted down her cheeks with the paper towel. When she glanced up, she found all of us staring at her. “So, um, I guess you’re all wondering how I ended up here, huh?”

Brayden motioned to the authorized pass nestled in her ample cleavage. “I’m going to take a wild guess and say you got on the wrong bus.”

Abby nodded. She then launched into a story about why she was even at Rock Nation. When she explained about the roadie and Jacob’s ladder, I sucked in a breath. “He thought you were looking for me.”

“Huh?” she asked.

“I’m Jake Slater. He probably wasn’t paying much attention, right?”

She nodded.

“I mean, Jake Slater and Jacob’s Ladder running together kinda sound similar—if the asshat even heard anything past J. He just assumed you were coming to see me.”

Abby’s eyebrows shot up. “And you often have random chicks coming to your bus with luggage and a guitar case?” she countered.

The grin I gave her caused pink splotches on Abby’s cheeks. “Never mind,” she muttered, looking away from me.

The sound of her phone vibrating on the table interrupted us. She grabbed it and frantically brought it to her ear. “Gabe, oh my God, it’s so good to hear from you!” The voice on the other line spoke frantically. She shook her head. “No, no, I didn’t get cold feet about the tour. It’s just…I, um, I got on the wrong bus.”

At the response, her face clouded over with fury. “Oh really? Well, maybe one you assholes should have come to meet me!” He said something else, and she sputtered with indignation. “Don’t you chastise me about cussing! I’m a grown woman, and I’ll say whatever I want to! I can’t believe you have me on speakerphone right now. And Eli, if you don’t stop laughing, I’m going to beat the shit out of you the moment I see you! And if you think I can’t, just remember Costa Rica!”

I couldn’t help snickering at her fiery personality. The other guys were equally amused at the spit-fire in front of us.

“How did this happen? There were over a hundred buses out there, Gabe. When I asked about Jacob’s Ladder, they thought I meant Jake Slater.”

Gabe’s voiced screeched on the other end so loud we all could hear it. “You’re on Runaway Train’s bus?!!!”

“Yes,” she replied. At his next statement, she snorted. “Well, I’ve only managed to do the drummer and the bassist so far, but I’m thinking I could get a threesome going and knock out the others. Maybe I’ll gang bang with the roadies when we stop for dinner!”

Rhys made a strangled noise in his throat while AJ muttered, “Fuck me,” under his breath. Even I couldn’t stop the below the belt stirring at her suggestion.

She rolled her eyes. “Gabe, would you give me a little credit? I’ve held on to my virginity this long. I think it’ll hold for awhile.”

We all exchanged wild glances. Rhys tugged so hard on his stud it came out of his ear and dropped onto the ground. AJ fumbled for the beer next to him and drained in a long guzzle—his chest heaving hard as he stared at Abby. Even Brayden appeared shell-shocked by her declaration. All of us had to be thinking the same thing. How was it possible for a smokin’ hot girl like the one before us to be a…virgin?

Maddie and Allie had been best friends since Pull-ups and Pre-K. Raised on the same rural road and with their parents close friends, nothing had ever come between them. But the summer after graduation changes everything. When Allie’s dad starts spinning out of control with his PTSD, an altercation leaves her black and blue. Maddie never could have imagined that acting on a whispered accusation would lead not only to a friend’s broken trust, but to a fiery midnight blaze that took Allie and her mother out of this world at her father’s hands. Maddie is left with a gaping hole in her soul and the unimaginable guilt that she was somehow to blame.

Miles away at college, Will thought he could escape the impending chaos at home. At twenty-one, he never could have imagined the entire world he knew would go up in smoke, leaving him orphaned and without his little sister and confidante, Allie. With the life he once had in ashes, Will can’t see the way ahead, nor can he shake the crippling grief that threatens to consume him. No one makes him feel alive again or want to embrace the uncertain future except Maddie.

In Will, Maddie has someone to help her pick the pieces of her shattered life without Allie. He’s the only one who understands what she’s going through. Her old friends, her boyfriend of two years, none of them seem to comprehend what her dark world is like. The more and more time they spend together, the more they depend on each other. But everything they have is threatened when the lines between friendship and lovers start to blur.

For Olivia Sullivan, love is more a four letter curse word than a sentiment. Growing up as the daughter of a small town mortician, guys didn’t warm to the fact there were dead people in her house. At thirty, taking over the family business and becoming the town Coroner helped to cement her undateable status. Of course her past sex history didn’t help matters either.

Attempt number one with her first love ended before it got started with a horrific latex allergy hospitalization. Attempt number two had him coming and then going with an undiagnosed heart condition. For the past three years, Olivia has closed up shop for fear of what might happen next in the bedroom.

After being forced to go single to her mother’s lingerie shower, Olivia stumbles into an out of town bar with one intention: find an able bodied stud to go home with to end her losing sex streak. Enter Holden Caulfield Mains aka Catcher, who earned his nickname not just from the book he was named for, but for the fact he was sure to catch the attention any woman who came within a five mile radius. Waking up after a night of the most mind blowing sex she could have ever imagined, a horrified Olivia runs away thinking she’s left Catcher behind.

When Olivia’s small town is wracked by its first murder, she never could have imagined her one night stand would reappear in the form of the GBI’s lead investigator. To her mortification, Catcher isn’t ready to let go of their sizzling chemistry, and he doesn’t understand the meaning of no. As things start to heat up between them, the body count starts to rise, and they’re led on a wild goose chase from back woods mountain Nudist Colonies to altercations with the Dixie Mafia. Can Olivia and Catcher survive to solve the murder while also not succumbing to their explosive passion?

HAPPY, HAPPY 2013 everyone!! I can't say I'm too sad to see 2012 go...it was a hard, hard year that was only tempered by the amazing year end success of The Proposition. So to celebrate that, to whet your appetites for The Proposal(which is coming sooner than you think), and to celebrate 1K likes to Katie Ashley Facebook page(if you haven't liked yet, well, feel free: http://www.facebook.com/katieashleybooks , I've decided to unleash the Preface on you....

Yep, this time there is a Preface. Why, you might ask? Well, let's just say it's a hint into Aidan's past...a brief glimpse at why he is the way that he is.

     Preface

Aidan tried to still the rapid beating of his heart as he raced up the front walkway. Stumbling on the porch steps, he lurched towards the front door. He banged both of his fists against the wood as hard as he could. “Please! Please open up! I have to talk to you!” he shouted. His hand slid down the jamb to the doorbell. His finger punched it relentlessly like a SOS call in Morse Code.     

Finally, his desperate ministrations were rewarded by the front door swinging open. At the sight of her tear stained face, his soul twisted in agony. “Please…please just let me talk to you!”

She shook her head. “There’s nothing left to say, Aidan. We’ve been down this road too many times. I’ve come to the conclusion that your actions will always speak louder than your words.”

“No, last night is not what I want. It’s just I was scared with the baby and everything that’s happened between us in the last few weeks.”

When she tried sweeping past him out the door, he pushed himself in front of her like a shield. “Aidan, move. I have to get to work. Nothing you have to say is going to change the way I feel right now.”

“Can’t you call in? I love you, and I want to make this right.” He raked a shaky hand through his already disheveled hair. He was still in the wrinkled clothes he had worn the day before. He hadn’t slept, hadn’t eaten—he had spent the night consumed with how to get her back. “No matter what you think, I do love you…and I do want the baby.”

She raised her head to glare at him. Aidan took a step back at the unadulterated rage that burned in her eyes. “Don’t you dare say that! I know how you really feel about me being pregnant—the burden it is on your life. If anything, it’s the reason you were fucking that girl! Because when you’re scared, you always manage to screw up!”

Shoving him out of the way, she stomped down the porch steps. He followed close on her heels. “Okay, you’re right. It was a burden—maybe it still is. But I realize now I was just being stupid. I love you, and I do want to marry you and raise our child.”

She skidded to a stop. Her shoulders sagged before she slowly turned around. “Right now you think that’s what you want. But I know you too well. Before we get married or before the baby is born, you’ll get scared and cheat again.” She shook her head sadly. “I was stupid to think me being pregnant would change you. That somehow it would make you commit. But you can’t even be faithful for your baby.”

Aidan reached out for her, but she spun away and ran down the sidewalk. When he finally caught up to her, she had locked herself in the car.

He banged his fist against the window. “Please. Please don’t do this!”

She threw the car in reverse and squealed out of the driveway. The engine roared as she sped down the street. Aidan closed his eyes in defeat. He staggered back, trying desperately to stop himself from hyperventilating. 

Then the sound of screeching tires and busting glass caused Aidan’s heart to shudder to a stop. He sprinted to the edge of the driveway. His entire world slowed to a crawl at the sight of the mangled heap of twisted metal in the distance.

*In case you forgot, Amy was Aidan's first love...the one who caught him cheating in the exact same way as Emma...except Amy had tried to trap him into marriage by getting pregnant.