Deliciously Thick (Naked Brews Book 2) Read online

  Table of Contents

  Deliciously Thick (Naked Brews, #2)

  Deliciously Thick

  Dedication:

  For the rest of you... | we hope you enjoy Melissa and Anthony’s story.

  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

  Chapter 36

  Chapter 37

  Chapter 38

  Chapter 39

  Chapter 40

  Chapter 41

  Chapter 42

  Epilogue

  About KB Jacobs

  Deliciously Thick

  Triple B...the Bad Boy of Boarding.

  That’s me and I own that title. I’m a professional snowboarder and my life IS the party.

  You want to hang out for a good time? Come to Triple B’s house.

  You need a hot chick to bang? There are tons of them at my place.

  My bar is stocked and the music is jamming. This is my life.

  Until Juliet. No, that’s not her real name. That’s just what I called her when I fell in lust with her those nights when she read in her window.

  But then a fire changed everything.

  I saved her life and it ruined mine. Now my sponsors say I either fix my party-boy image or else I’m through making the big bucks. I figure she broke me, she can fix me.

  She’s sweet and innocent, exactly what I need to fix my image. But I’m not sure either of us will survive the legacy that is Triple B.

  Deliciously Thick

  (A Naked Brews Novel)

  Book #2

  by

  KB Jacobs

  Copyright © 2017 KB Jacobs

  ASIN (e-book): B01N2921VD

  ISBN (print): 1544898053

  ISBN-13 (print): 978-1544898056

  Published by KB Jacobs

  Edited by Mia Downing

  Proofread by Tia Silverthorne Bach, Indie Books Gone Wild

  Cover Design by Amanda Matthews, AM Design Studios

  Stock photo from Adobe Stock

  All rights reserved. Except for use in a review, no part of this book may be copied, reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form, or by any means, without the express permission of the author. This book is a work of fiction. While sometimes actual locations are used in the writing of this book, they are used in a fictional circumstance and are by no means meant to reflect events happening in those places. Names, characters, events are all a product of the author’s imagination and are by no means meant to reflect actual people living or dead, or any actual events. Any similarities are purely coincidental.

  Thank you for supporting KB Jacobs.

  You can keep in touch with her at her website...

  www.kbjacobsauthor.com

  Dedication:

  This dedication requires a special explanation.

  Without a doubt, Deliciously Thick is the sexiest book we’ve ever written, so it might seem kind of odd that this is the one we dedicate to our kids.

  But for the two of us, our kids are why we do this.

  Without them there wouldn’t be a KB Jacobs.

  So this book is for...

  Katherine

  Bella

  Jacob

  &

  Sophia

  Now, this next part is specifically for them.

  If one of our kids is reading this dedication,

  then you need to ask yourself one thing:

  Am I 35 years old yet?

  If the answer is no, then you need to shut this book right now.

  Hehe.

  Yes, we’re your moms. We can do that.

  For the rest of you...

  we hope you enjoy Melissa and Anthony’s story.

  Deliciously Thick (A Naked Brews Novel)

  Book 2

  by

  KB Jacobs

  Chapter 1

  Anthony

  I scowled down at the used condom lying on the floor in the doorway of my bathroom. “Now that is just nasty.” My lips curled in disgust even as the pounding bass from the party downstairs reverberated along my spine.

  Anger surged, but I wasn’t sure how much of it was directed at the lucky but disrespectful jerk who’d gotten laid in my bathroom and how much of it was directed at myself. Hell, it had been months since I’d gotten to use a condom in my own house. Not that there wasn’t plenty of available volunteers downstairs, but sometime in the last year, I’d gotten tired of it...the nameless, faceless sex. Maybe that was why I was so moody. I needed to get laid. I’m sure it had nothing to do with my completely disastrous run on the snowboarding halfpipe today.

  An unsettled feeling swam in my gut. Why did I put up with this crap? It was my house, and I had two simple rules for the parties that happened continuously here: no drugs and the tower with the bedrooms was off-limits.

  Tonight, I just wanted to decompress with a rocking party at my house. I thought tequila and the presence of all my friends were the answer to my misery. The house brimmed with over one hundred and fifty people partying and having a good time. I wasn’t one of them. As the number of bodies increased, my ability to enjoy the chaos decreased. A dozen shots later, and I felt numb to it all.

  I stepped over the discarded condom and headed straight to my closet where I changed into running gear. This time of year, snow covered the trails up here in the mountains of Aspenridge, so I slid on my trail runners.

  I strode through the house, ignoring the partiers that lounged throughout the rooms.

  “Hey, Triple B!”

  “Righteous party, Triple B.”

  “The keg is empty, Triple B.”

  “We need more beer, man.”

  I ignored it all.

  I stepped outside the front door and took a deep breath of the frigid air. The snowfall that had made the boarding treacherous had cleared out, leaving a starry, clear night with a moon just peeking over the horizon.

  I reveled in the sense of being the only person outside. It was contrary to the way that I chose to live my life as one big party, but I loved running in the dark of the night. Just me, the stars, and the ability to clear my head from the chaos.

  I took off at a hard run, wanting to out-distance the ghosts haunting me tonight. I’d been running for about half a mile when I slowed. Naked Brews was coming up on the right. The back of the building wasn’t anything to brag about, with the loading docks for the beer, but approaching it from this side meant I could see Juliet’s apartment. Would she be home?

  A gorgeous, tiny, perky blonde lived in the apartment above the brewery. In my head, I called her Juliet. She’d moved in a couple of months ago, but I only got to see her about once a week when I ran by. She was the entire reason for this route. She had a chair in front of the window, and she’d sit there, reading late into the night, her glasses perched on that pert little nose as she s
ipped from a teacup. Sometimes she sat there and simply watched the snow fall, looking so alone.

  I knew lots of beautiful women, but something about this one spoke to me. Her solitude touched me.

  I almost laughed out loud. Damn, how much had I drunk tonight before I’d found that condom? I was turning almost poetic.

  I shook my head at my foolish thoughts, but that didn’t keep me from searching the lit windows for her.

  My pace slowed as I saw a wisp of something at the side of the building. I tilted my head, trying to get the light right to see if that was... Smoke! Coming out from the side of the building under her apartment.

  Oh, hell. I took off at a sprint toward the building. Before I got five steps, an explosion rocked the world in front of me, blowing out the windows. I stumbled as the roar of the fire broke the stillness of the night. “Frack!”

  Was Juliet still in there? I had to get to her.

  I clambered over the snowdrifts along the side of the building to get to the old, rusted out fire escape that led to a balcony off her apartment. The old snow had hardened to a firm, ice-slickened surface.

  The fire escape should have had a rope or chain hanging off of it to pull it down, but it had long ago fallen off. I crouched and sprang for the metal, grabbing onto it on the first try, but the extension didn’t slide down like it was supposed to, the metal probably rusted together.

  I pulled myself up using my core. Those muscles burned with the effort of heaving my hulking frame up. I could already feel heat coming off the building in the frigid night. My palms grew slick. What if I didn’t get to her in time?

  Another weaker explosion rocked the building. What the hell was burning inside?

  And then reality hit me and urgency pulsed. This building was a brewery filled with alcohol. Everything inside was flammable...a bomb waiting to explode.

  “Juliet!” I yelled. That wasn’t her real name, but I hoped she’d hear me and come running anyway.

  There was no sign of her through the windows, although the lights were still on in her apartment. I couldn’t believe the power in the building still worked. Sweat dripped down my back as I scrambled up the last of the rungs. Just as I reached the top, the electricity died with a pop. Smoke flowed out the broken windows from the pub below.

  The door at the top of the escape was solid metal. I tried the handle. Locked. Dammit. I pounded on it. Would she even be able to hear me over the roar of the fire? I had no idea fire sounded this loud.

  There was no response. The windows had blown out, but they were too far away from the small landing of the escape for me to get to them without being freaking Spiderman. I pounded again. “Juliet!”

  Adrenaline and fear surged through my system. I felt around the edge of the solid metal door. No way I’d ever be able to break it down. But as my fingers crept across the top of the doorframe, I found it...a key!

  My fingers fumbled as I tried to slot the key into the knob. Smoke clogged my lungs as it poured from the building. Finally, I had the door open, but some large piece of furniture stood in front of the door.

  “Juliet,” I called as I tried to shove the piece aside. Darn, it was heavy. I threw my shoulder into it, and it rocked. I pushed harder, and it tumbled forward with loud shattering glass. I couldn’t worry about that now. I climbed over it, searching the dark space made even darker by the thick, black smoke. “Juliet!”

  I crossed the room. I could see dark shadows, but from what I could tell, it was all just furniture. I coughed and ducked, trying to get below the smoke that burned my lungs. I went toward where I figured her front door would have been. If she was here, she had to be close to there.

  I shuffled across the room. The heat rose from the floor, warming the soles of my shoes. That wasn’t a good sign. If she was here, I had to find her soon or else we were both going to die.

  My foot hit something soft. I dropped to my knees.

  Juliet.

  I found her crumpled on the floor. Please let her still be alive. I didn’t have time to check. I picked her up like a parent would a small sleeping child, surprised at just how light she was. I knew she was tiny, but she weighed next to nothing.

  She’d fallen at her front door. I tentatively felt the wood. It was scorching hot to the touch. I’d learned something from those educational fire videos they showed in elementary school. I left the door and headed back the way I came in, moving as fast as I could, but my lungs didn’t want to cooperate. I hacked. Every cough drew in more and more contaminated air. We had to get out. Now.

  I scrambled across the overturned furniture, some sort of china hutch. All those teacups were toast. Hopefully Juliet would forgive me. As I crossed through the exterior door, I glanced down at her. She had a soot smudge on her face. I could see it in the glow from the moon. Her skin appeared translucent, paper thin, and in that moment my heart clenched. She looked like some sort of ethereal creature. An angel.

  Please don’t let her be dead.

  Another explosion sounded from somewhere inside the main part of the building. The floor shook below my feet as I gently draped her over my shoulder. They called it a fireman’s carry for a reason, right?

  Once I was sure I had her as secure as possible, I began climbing down the ladder. My legs shook as her heartbeat pulsed through the layers of clothing on my shoulder. Thank goodness. She was alive. I focused on that, my entire goal to make sure the beating continued.

  When I reached the end of the ladder, I kicked at the stuck portion. It wasn’t budging. Everything hurt. The adrenaline surge was waning, and my arms and legs weakened with the aftereffects. I took a deep breath, which just made me cough more.

  We needed to get down, and the ladder wasn’t going to work. We were out of time and out of options. I wrapped my arm around Juliet and jumped free from the ladder.

  It wasn’t particularly high...maybe eight or nine feet off the ground, but with the uneven snow and the added weight of the precious package I was trying to keep protected, something popped in my ankle when I landed. I grunted and gritted my teeth against the pain as I rolled and cushioned Juliet’s body from the fall.

  Juliet was still unconscious, and I had no idea how long she had spent lying on the floor of her smoke-filled room. She needed medical care. Now that I was out of the building, I could hear the sirens at the front. I had to get her there. Paramedics would help.

  I rose on shaky legs, ignoring the burning pain shooting up from my ankle. As an athlete, I’d learned to power through injury. This was no different.

  I rounded the corner of the building and was hit by the blue and red strobe lights of the multiple emergency vehicles.

  A fireman rushed over and grabbed Juliet out of my arms.

  “Melissa,” he cried.

  I recognized him. He was the youngest Murdock kid...Warner, Warren, Walker...something like that. He wasn’t much bigger than her, but he seemed confident he could carry her as he took her from my arms, so I relinquished my hold.

  I wasn’t sure how much farther I could have carried her and he knew her name, so that meant he could be trusted with her. It was more than I had going for me. A coughing fit overtook me before I could go a step more. Paramedics rushed our area.

  Juliet...no, Melissa...was carried away, her blonde hair shimmering in the emergency lights. She had to be okay.

  I sank into the snow, completely wiped out.

  Chapter 2

  Melissa

  “Yes, Mom, I’m fine. I promise.” I rolled my eyes at the nurse checking my vitals and pushed a strand of blonde hair out of my eyes. I’d been here most of the day. I needed to get back to the brewery, to see how much damage the fire had done. “The hospital is getting ready to release me. It’s just a little smoke inhalation. They said I’m fine.”

  I held in a cough so I wouldn’t worry her. She might be an irritating, overbearing woman, but she tried to be a good mom. It wasn’t her fault that she hadn’t been there when I needed her most. With seven kids,
it was too easy to let the quietest one get lost in the shuffle, but it made it hard for me to accept anything from her now. I needed my mom back then, back when I’d been in a lot worse shape than this. But she never knew, and ultimately that was my fault, so I needed to forgive her for that, forgive myself.

  I rested my pounding head in my hands. My brush with death last night had stirred up too many regrets that didn’t do me any good to dwell on now.

  “Come home, Melissa. You had a good job here, a reliable job that won’t put you in danger. You’re too young—”

  I couldn’t have this argument with her again. “No, Mom, I’m not coming home.” I blew out a slow breath, ignoring the crackle in my lungs, and reminded myself for the sixteenth time that daughters should not yell at their moms no matter how aggravating they were. “The brewery part of the building is still operational. The fire stayed mainly in the pub, so I still have a job here.” Just not a home since my apartment was directly above the pub.

  “I know your father can get you hired on at his firm.” Once again, she wasn’t hearing me. The story of my life.

  “No, tell Dad I don’t need a job.”

  I smiled at the nurse packing up her equipment and glanced out the window, ignoring my mom’s tirade. The sky was overcast and pearly gray. Brilliant. If we were lucky, there’d be a blizzard later to really put the cherry on top of this perfect day.

  “Listen, Mom, there are a million things to do here so I need to let you go. Yes, okay. I will. Talk to you later. Love you, too.” I ended the call just as another racking, shuddering cough took hold of my sore body. I tossed the phone at the foot of my hospital bed and wiped the tears from my eyes as my lungs finally relaxed.

  A million things were left to do, like figuring out how not to be homeless.

  Lake pushed into the room, a duffle bag draped over her shoulder. Her eyes were red and looked as scratchy as mine felt. She had swaths of soot high on her cheekbone and in her bleach-blonde hair. She examined me from head to toe, and the guilt and concern flowed from her expression.

  I jumped out of the bed to hug her, to make sure she knew I was perfectly fine. She had other things to worry about besides me. She smelled like hops and smoke. “Well, what’s the word?”