Ball & Chain: A Second Chance Romance (Cloverville Book 1) Read online

  This is a work of fiction. All characters and events reside solely in the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual people, alive or dead, is purely coincidental. All characters are eighteen years of age or older.

  ©2017, Annette Fields. No portion of this work can be reproduced in any way without prior written consent from the author with the exception for a fair use excerpt for review and editorial purposes.

  This title is for adults only. It contains explicit sex acts, adult themes, and material that some folks may find offensive. Please keep out of reach of children.

  Table of Contents

  Ball & Chain

  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

  EPILOGUE 1

  EPILOGUE 2

  Thank you!

  Ball & Chain

  A Second Chance Romance

  by Annette Fields

  Author's note: Hello reader! I truly hope you enjoy Ball & Chain! Sign up for my email list for freebies, new release updates and more!

  Also by Annette Fields

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  Beauty and the Bastard

  Big Bad Boss

  PROLOGUE

  ASHER

  FOUR YEARS EARLIER

  Moonlight made Dahlia’s hair look like strands of silver. I jokingly called her my unicorn.

  "No, actually more like my grandma," I said in response to her piercing yet adorable glare.

  "Goddamnit, Asher!"

  She pulled her hood up and crossed her arms over her chest, pouting.

  Honestly, she never looked more ethereal than in that moment. Like a fairy or some kind of nymph with her silvery hair, delicate features and large, round eyes. I wanted to always remember her like that.

  But eighteen-year-old boys can only be so poetic.

  "You know I'm kidding, doll," I said, pushing her hood down to reveal her unicorn hair again and planting a kiss on her temple. "Come on, we're almost to the peak."

  I glanced over my shoulder at her as we climbed up the hill. We made this trek dozens of times before, both in broad daylight while cutting class and in the dead of night when she snuck out of her bedroom window to see me.

  A light rain sprinkled down earlier in the day so we trudged through a thin layer of mud.

  "Step carefully," I warned her. "It's a little slippery."

  Despite knowing this climb with our eyes closed, I wanted to watch out for her. She had nobody else.

  And she was about to leave me.

  I pushed the thought away as we reached the top. My hand caught hers as she pushed off the last few steps before the plateau.

  The momentum sent her right into my arms. Right where she belonged.

  I picked her up and spun her around victoriously as she squealed with laughter. I loved that sound. It was so rare to hear. God, I never wanted this to end.

  When I put her down, Dahlia looked out across the view down below, if you can call it a view, while I spread the blanket on the flattest area of ground I can find.

  "Fuck you, Cloverville!" she yelled at the top her lungs into the night sky and spat toward our small, middle-of-nowhere hometown down below.

  "Someone's gonna be homesick," I remarked sarcastically.

  "Not a fuckin' chance," she said as she plopped down next to me on the blanket and nestled into my side.

  "Not even for me?"

  I wrapped my arms around her slender shoulders and pulled her legs across my lap. She had her reasons for leaving, for feeling vindictive and angry at this town that chewed her up and spat her out. I couldn't blame her in the slightest.

  But that didn't mean I wouldn't miss her.

  "Of course for you," she said in a softer tone, wrapping her arms around my neck. "You're the only thing I'm going to miss about this shithole. You and Heather."

  "It's not gonna be the same without you," I replied, my voice muffled against her silvery hair. "Who am I gonna throw into the Grayson's pool?"

  "Yourself!" she laughed. "For being such a jerk."

  "You were bitching about being hot. I provided a solution."

  "I had all my clothes on!"

  "Well if you wanted to go in naked, you could've told me."

  "Shut up."

  She turned her face toward mine and I did just that. Her breath lingered lightly on my lips while she hesitated. I closed the distance between our mouths, desperate to taste her.

  Her lips opened up to me more hungrily than they ever had before. She pulled me in needily like she never wanted to let me go.

  My dick had been rock hard and eager as always when I was around her. Now that she pressed against me and kissed me with greater passion and intensity than I ever felt from her, it pulsed with even more vigor.

  Dahlia's soft hand trailed down my torso from my neck to rest on the bulge in my jeans. She hesitated there before inching her fingers shyly underneath my waistband.

  I looked at her. "Doll, are you sure you want to?"

  She produced a condom from her hoodie pocket and grinned.

  Naughty girl. She was planning on doing this. Connecting in the most basic, physical, intimate way right before she went off to college. It was sweet and yet so very cruel.

  I kissed her in a way I hoped was gentle and reassuring. But I felt like fireworks were exploding in my chest. This would be our first time together and her first time ever.

  I never thought I'd be willing to wait, especially after my first taste of sex a couple years ago but being with Dahlia was different.

  She brought out in me a deep, primal instinct to protect. All those nights she came to my bedroom window, wide-eyed with fear, and asked if she could just sleep in my bed, how could I not be there for her? I always said yes and never asked questions. I didn't want to lose her. I didn't want to lose the trust she built in me.

  No one trusted me before she did. Not my parents, teachers, or ex-girlfriends. It felt like a precious gift she gave me.

  In our young minds, it might have been overdramatized but we felt like we were Romeo and Juliet. We were truly treating this night like our last one.

  My hands drifted over her slender body with no protest from her. Still, I was careful to pause and watch for her reactions to my touch. When she wrapped her hand around the base of my hard pillar, I almost couldn't contain how hot she made me.

  As we peeled our clothes off to the cool night air, I kissed each new area of her exposed skin, soothing the goosebumps and shivers that overcame her.

  "Oh my god, Dahlia," I gasped when my fingers sank into the heat and wetness between her legs. Why did she have to leave tomorrow? I'd never be able to get enough of her after this.

  Her pink rosebud nipples softened under my tongue and hardened again as my mouth traveled across her skin be
fore returning to them. Beautiful soft sighs escaped her mouth as I teased and warmed up her entrance.

  I rolled the condom over my length and took my time easing myself inside, covering her body with mine for warmth and protection while I moved my hips as slowly as I could.

  Her tightness sucked me in greedily as she clung to me, her face wearing a blissed out expression without an ounce of pain.

  "You feel so good," she mewed as she hugged my hips with her thighs, clawing across my back with her hands. "God, I never want this night to end."

  I dared to hope as I upped the speed and intensity of my thrusts, feeling our orgasms climb just like we did up to this hill. Reaching new, higher places together, just me and her.

  Maybe I could feel her sweet body writhing underneath me again tomorrow. And the next day. And the day after.

  "I don't want you to go, Dahlia," I whispered against her lips. "I love you."

  "I love you too, Ash. Oh, I'm gonna..."

  Her climax pulled me in even tighter and deeper. I couldn't hold back any longer if I tried.

  I came so hard that I saw stars dotting my vision. Pleasure zipped through my spine like pulses of lightning.

  "You really are a magical unicorn," I said as I withdrew from inside her and pulled her close against me to ward off the cold.

  She giggled as she curled against my chest. "You're pretty magical yourself."

  In post-orgasmic bliss with my girl wrapped in my arms, under the stars and moonlight, my body was satisfied but my mind was anything but. Would this moment really become nothing but a memory soon? I couldn't accept that, despite what reality waited for us tomorrow.

  "I seriously don't want you to go," I confessed to her.

  "Ash, I have to go to college," she sighed with exasperation. "I don’t want to leave you but I'll just end up like my mom if I stay here."

  "No, you won't," I argued. "You're better than her."

  "You don't know that."

  "Yes, I do. I know you."

  "Not really, you don't."

  I pulled away slightly and look at her. I couldn't believe we were arguing on our last night together and just after making love for the first time.

  "How can you say that, Dahlia? We've been together for two years!"

  "You don't know what happens at my mom's house." Her eyes were glassy and she didn't look at me. She was somewhere else. "You don't know how I grew up."

  "Dahlia, you know I don't care about that. I just want us to be together." I squeezed her hands in mine, pleading with her to listen. "If you won't stay then I'll come visit you whenever I can."

  She laughed bitterly. "Don't be dumb, Ash."

  "I'm serious."

  "So am I."

  Her eyes finally focused on me with a sad expression. "I love you but I have to get away from here. I have to rip this place off like a scab."

  "I don't want to lose you. I can't lose you," I protested.

  The corners of her mouth turn up in a sad smile. "If this is meant to be, then we'll find each other again."

  I shook my head. I didn't want to leave our fates to the wind, God, or whatever other unknown. The way I saw it, we had to be the captains of our own ships. We had control of our lives, choices we could make. And I chose her.

  "Dahlia." I pressed my forehead against hers as my heart hammered like a drum in my chest.

  "Marry me."

  She jerked away and looked at me with a terrified expression as if I just slapped her.

  "What?"

  "Marry me," I repeated. "Let's get married so we can stay together."

  Her eyes clouded with tears that I couldn't tell were happy, sad, or something else.

  Like a light switch, she sprung into action putting her clothes back on in a hurry and without a word.

  "Dahlia, what's wrong?" The sudden change in her was jarring. I watched helplessly as she put her shoes back on and started back down the hill, crying all the way.

  "Dahlia, wait!" I threw my own clothes on and started after her, leaving the blanket on the ground.

  Within a few seconds, I caught up to her and took hold of her arm. "Hey, what's the matter?" I demanded.

  "Let me go, Asher!" she cried with despair that I never heard in her voice before.

  I released her arm, mostly out of shock but continued following her down the slope and calling after her to talk to me.

  But she ignored me all the way and continued across the street to the trailer park where her mom lived.

  That was the last time I saw Dahlia, the girl I loved.

  Her last words to me were to let her go and I didn't have a choice.

  CHAPTER 1

  DAHLIA

  My knuckles turned white as I held the steering wheel in a death grip.

  I drove past the worn-out wooden sign that read "Welcome to Cloverville!" and slowed for the stop sign just beyond it. My brakes squealed with agony, making me wince. It was like my car didn't want to come to this town any more than I did.

  But I had to come back. I ran out of options.

  After graduation, I stayed in my student apartment down to the last day of my lease, hoping with all my heart that would be the day I'd get a call with a job offer. The call never came and my bank account ran dry.

  Like a typical millennial, I had to move back with my mom after college. The neighbors were going to just love telling me how whiny and entitled I was. Never mind that I graduated at the top of my class, had a part time job during the whole time I was in school and had a list of internships and achievements as long as my arm.

  I worked my ass off to secure a bright future for myself. And what did it all get me? Diddly squat.

  It was like this shithole town and the whole circumstances of my existence sucked me back in like a black hole of bullshit.

  I gritted my teeth at the thought of my mother. She never picked up when I called all of five times in the last week. Did she even know I was coming back?

  As I pulled up to the only traffic light in town, my brakes squealing felt like murder on my eardrums. I'd have to get this car looked at sooner rather than later if I ever hoped to escape Cloverville again.

  It felt as if time stood still in this small, sleepy town.

  All the same buildings and businesses at the intersection remained unchanged. To my left stood Leonard’s Deli, which was also the main grocery store in town because Leonard always had fresh produce and bread baked daily. I worked there throughout high school to buy myself food since I couldn’t depend on my mother to act like an adult.

  On my right was Harry’s, our token local dive bar. The kind of place that didn’t give a shit about customer service or all the trendy new hipster cocktails. Harry was a grizzled old man who liked to bitch and moan with the other grizzled old men who always ordered the same thing and sat in the same barstools every night.

  And straight ahead?

  I swallowed a lump in my throat as the light turned green and I slowly tapped the gas pedal to move forward.

  Half a mile down the road, I slowly drove past the Snowdrop Heights neighborhood. It was the newest development in Cloverville, which the residents loved to brag about, but still over twenty years old. That was where Asher’s family lived.

  My heart skipped a beat.

  I hope you can forgive me, Ash.

  He called, texted and emailed me persistently for a while after that night. Our last night together.

  I never replied to any of his messages, no matter how badly I wanted to give him the answer to that question he asked me. The answer he wanted.

  But I could never chain him to me like that.

  I couldn’t let him know how broken I was. The best thing for both of us was to let go.

  From the street, I could just barely see the front door of his family home. It was still painted that burnt orange color. I remembered him telling me his dad was colorblind and thought he was painting the door a dark brick red.

  With a sigh, I turned my head back to the road
in front of me. Hopefully, Asher was smart enough to get out of this town and stay away. He was destined for much better things.

  After another mile, the hill, our hill, came into view. The grass grew tall over the years, swallowing up the natural path we made to get away from everyone and everything.

  And at the base of our hill, the Cloverville trailer park. Home sweet fuckin’ home.

  One of the biggest mysteries of my life was why Asher Forsyth ever gave me, the trailer trash daughter of the town’s embarrassing alcoholic, the time of day. Cloverville High School wasn’t big enough to have all the cliques you see on TV high school dramas. Nobody in this area was an ultra-rich snob. In fact, most people were fairly average middle class and cordial enough to each other.

  But nobody ever talked to trailer trash.

  In a fairly egalitarian society, I was the social pariah. People shook their heads and muttered to themselves when I bought my mother’s beer for her. If I didn’t, she’d be shaking and screaming bloody murder until she had a drink. The looks I got were a mix of pity and disdain. We were the town’s gossip fodder and nothing more.

  Until Cloverville High’s sexy bad boy Asher Forsyth noticed I didn’t have any lunch one day and offered me his sandwich.

  Sixteen-year-old me knew it had to be a prank. No one would break the social taboo of offering me something just for the sake of being kind.

  And yet he did.

  The boy with green eyes and dark hair that every girl, even the cheerleaders dating the football players, secretly wanted. The guy who once bragged about collecting girls’ virginities wanted to be my friend. And then my boyfriend.

  Slowly, he gained my trust and soon after, he possessed my heart. If I had to be honest, he still did. No other guy every came close to the hold on me that Asher had.

  But despite being the only person I cared about, I never let him into the dark hellhole that was my home and family life.

  A stone made of dread sank to the pit of my stomach as I pulled up to my mom's trailer. It looked exactly the same as when I left, only with taller grass growing all around it and more paint peeling off the exterior.