Today we have the chapter reveal for DIRT by Cassia Leo! Check them out and pre-order your copy today!
Title: DIRT Author: Cassia Leo Series: Evergreen Series Release: January 12, 2018
About Dirt
A hard-hitting, emotional new series from New York
Times bestselling author Cassia Leo.
Jack and I had everything. Then, in one brutal instant, the universe
tilted on its side, discarding us into black nothingness.
Now, I have a cocky a**hole for a husband.
The only way we communicate anymore is when we’re fighting or
f**king.
With nothing left to lose, I write Jack a goodbye letter and head for
Portland, where I quickly meet a neighbor who helps me find a job.
My new neighbor—hot, tattooed ex-soldier Isaac Evans—is complicated.
Nevertheless, we form a fast friendship, bonding over our mutual desire to
create something beautiful from the wreckage of our lives.
But despite the distance between us, Jack and I are still trying to
make things work—fighting and f**king dirtier than ever. And he doesn’t
appreciate my new friendship with Isaac. Not one f**king bit.
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Chapter Reveal
Chapter 1
Laurel
I hugged Jack Jr. tightly against my
breast, and he molded his soft, warm body to mine. His eyes remained closed as
his tiny fingers curled around the fabric of my blouse, his rosy lips puckering
as he geared up for more food.
“You sucked me dry, little fella,” I
whispered, leaning in to press my nose against the downy-soft, golden hair on
the top of his head. I inhaled his scent and my muscles unspooled. “But I’ll be
back to feed you soon. I promise.”
Why do babies smell so
damn good?
Before I got pregnant with Junior, my
favorite smell was orange blossoms. As a teenager, I often got scolded by my
mom for picking the flowers off the orange tree in our backyard in Portland.
I’d rub the creamy petals between my fingers, bruise them with my fingernails,
then sniff my hand for hours until the scent wore off.
When I was pregnant with Junior, my
favorite scent became the rich aroma of the forbidden coffee I could no longer
drink.
After Junior was born, and my decaf
days came to a glorious end, I realized how wrong I’d been. There was
absolutely no scent as sweet and soul-quieting as the smell of the top of a
baby’s head. Bonus points if the baby was lying peacefully on your chest sound
asleep.
“Are you ever going to put him down?”
I flicked my head sideways, startled by
Jack’s clear, baritone voice.
He stood in the doorway of Junior’s
nursery, the silhouette of his six-foot-three athletic body framed by the warm
light in the hallway. His head was tilted to the side. He’d probably been
standing there admiring us for a while. After six years together, I knew Jack’s
body language and facial expressions better than I knew my own face.
I stood from the rocking chair and
stole one more sniff of Junior’s head before I placed him gently on his back in
the center of the crib. I adjusted the left sleeve of his pajamas, pulling it
down to make sure it covered his entire chubby arm. I didn’t want to imagine
him waking up cold and alone in here.
Jack appeared at my side as I switched
on the video baby monitor. “He’s going to be fine,” he murmured, reaching down
to stroke the soft patch of hair on Junior’s head. “In fact, he’ll probably
enjoy some time alone. After all, he is just like his daddy; sometimes, we need
a break from the constant attention from the ladies.”
I rolled my eyes and headed for the
door. “Making jokes only makes leaving him slightly less scary, you know,” I
said as we stepped into the hallway of our five-bedroom dream home in Hood
River, Oregon. I couldn’t wait to fill up every one of these bedrooms with brothers
and sisters for Jack Jr.
Jack chuckled as he followed closely
behind me. “Less scary is an improvement,” he replied, grabbing my hand to stop
me in the middle of the corridor. “You promised Junior you’d be back soon. Can
you also make me a promise?”
The hallway lights made his dark hair
look glaringly shiny, but I couldn’t help but notice how weary his blue eyes
looked tonight. Since Junior arrived three months ago, I’d been so focused on
my baby boy’s vulnerability, his scent, his beauty, I hadn’t slowed down enough
to appreciate how those were the same qualities that made me fall in love with
Jack.
Suddenly, my worries about leaving
Junior with my mother for the evening evaporated. All I wanted to do was kiss
Jack, grab hold of that dark hair and make love to him for hours. I wanted to
replace the weariness in his eyes with dark hunger, or maybe a glint of
mischief.
I squeezed his hand and smiled at the
thought of possibly having sex with him in public tonight. We hadn’t done that
in a while.
“What kind of promise?” I asked.
He shook his head. “Nope, you’re not
allowed to ask. Just promise me you’ll say yes.”
My stomach vaulted at the sound of
those words. They were the same words Jack spoke when he asked me to marry him.
I wondered what he would ask this time.
The phrase “just promise me you’ll say
yes” had become like an inside joke, our own private, unspoken promise to each
other that we would always do whatever it took to stay together. The last time
he had uttered this phrase, he asked me to stop taking my birth control pills.
With Junior here, it was easy to trust that whatever Jack asked me for this
time would turn out to be exactly what I needed.
I tilted my head back so I could look
up and into his crystal-blue eyes. “Yes, I can make you a promise.”
His expression became sober. “Promise
me you’ll be present tonight.” He fixed me with a piercing gaze as his large
hand cupped my face. “It’s just you and me for the next three hours. Promise
me.”
I smiled. “I promise. Just you and me.
And I’ll even put my cell phone on vibrate.” As I said the words, a sharp
finger of fear prodded my subconscious, telling me it was a bad idea to risk
missing a phone call tonight.
The exhaustion in Jack’s eyes melted
away as he smiled. “I can deal with that, but you have to promise me one more
thing.”
“What’s that?”
His smile turned almost menacing as he
looped his arm around my waist and drew me close. “Promise me you’ll lemme
smash that blonde bombshell booty,” he said, landing a light swat on my ass.
I shook my head as I recalled how we
often had sex in public during our first year together, in our senior year at
Oregon State University, Cascades. For some reason, once we graduated and moved
in together, having sex in public seemed like something we couldn’t get away
with so easily. We decided public sex-hibitions — or throw downs, as we more
commonly referred to them — would be reserved for special occasions like
anniversaries or vacations.
Truthfully, Jack and I kicked off our
relationship by having sex on the first date. He was always a very difficult
man to resist. When he showed up at my apartment to pick me up that night, I
couldn’t resist his suggestion that we should stay in and make paper masks of
ourselves, then put them on and ask each other first date questions as if we
were the other person. I had never laughed so much on any date. Ever. But when
he asked — while pretending to be me — if I’d ever had sex with someone on the
first date, I couldn’t help but respond with, “I’m Jack-fucking-Stratton. I’ve fucked
a lot of girls on the first date. But none as gorgeous as you.”
Jack always knew how to keep things
fresh and alarmingly sexy. Six years in and my body still craved him almost
every second of every day.
Today was our three-year wedding
anniversary. We’d only had sex twice since I gave birth to Junior three months
ago, and both of those times were truly awkward.
The first time was painful. My
C-section incision hadn’t fully healed yet, and even trying to have sex with
him behind me was uncomfortable. The second time we tried, Jack was so afraid
of hurting me, he stopped midway through. There’d been a lot of oral sex
happening in this house since then.
Luckily, a few weeks had passed since
our last attempt, and I had repeatedly assured him I was fully healed up now. I
was certain that even if the sex did hurt a little, it would still be
worth it. I couldn’t understand couples that didn’t consider sex an important
part of a relationship. I never felt more complete, more present, more alive
than when my body and mind were entwined with Jack’s.
I smiled as I wrapped my arms around
his waist. “I think I know just the place for a proper throw down.”
He wiggled his eyebrows. “Ooh. Tell me
more.”
As he leaned in to kiss me, my mother’s
voice interrupted us.
“Are you two making out again?” she
said, standing at the top of the stairs with her hands on her hips as she
gawped at us. “Well, don’t let me stop you.”
Jack laughed and I shook my head as we
moved toward her.
“We’re just trying to keep you
entertained while you’re on vacation, Beth,” Jack said.
My mother cocked an eyebrow. “If I
wanted to watch porn, I’d open up your laptop and have a look at your internet
history.”
“Mom, don’t be gross,” I protested,
trying not to laugh.
Jack smiled as he held out his elbow
for my mom to grab hold as they descended the stairs in front of me. “I made a
special collection of links for you. They’re in a folder labeled Tantric
Geriatric. You’ll love it.”
I rolled my eyes. Jack and my mother
exchanged jabs like this all day.
My mother was staying with us for a few
days, so Jack and I could have some time to ourselves and get some much-needed
uninterrupted sleep. She was leaving tomorrow to go back to the house where I
grew up in Portland. Though she pretended as if she was desperate to get home
to her Craftsman cottage in the city, and I even teased her about how she was
dying to get back so she could see the handsome new neighbor she’d been going
on about, I knew she was going to miss Jack’s pretend insults as much as she would
miss Junior and me.
My mother practically shoved me toward
the front door. “I order you to go have fun,” she said, smiling as Jack opened
the door and stepped outside. “And don’t come home until you’re too drunk to
walk.”
I shook my head. “Thanks, Mom. Please
call if you need anything. And don’t answer the door for anyone. There’s a
house that got broken into a few streets away.”
She waved off my paranoia. “Stop
worrying so much. We’ll be fine. See you later, babe.”
I blew her a kiss, then I closed the door
behind me.
*
* *
“I have to admit, having sex on the
waterfront was one of my favorite public throw downs ever,” Jack said, pulling
his Tesla into the long driveway of our four-acre estate. “But do we really
have to wait until our fourth anniversary to do it again?”
I tugged the silky fabric of my skirt
straight as I pressed my thighs together. Though my body was still raw with the
evidence of the dirty deed we’d just committed, I couldn’t wait to get Jack
inside and pounce on him again. I hadn’t realized how much I missed the
sensation of him moving inside me, and how good he was at making me feel
beautiful.
“We can do that anytime we can snag a
babysitter,” I replied as he turned the car off.
He made no move to exit the Tesla.
“Well, babycakes, you’d better get ready to interview a fuck-ton of
babysitters.”
I laughed. “Babycakes? That’s a new
one.”
Jack rarely used the same term of
endearment twice in a row. He liked to keep me guessing.
He scrunched up his nose. “Yeah, that
one was kind of creepy. Now that I’ve tried it out, I think I can bury that one
in the nickname graveyard.”
“Try the incinerator,” I said, reaching
for the door handle.
“Duly noted,” he replied, exiting the
vehicle.
Jack and I glided unhurriedly along the
flagstone walkway, which was lined with sparkling pathway lights. As we made
our way toward the steps leading up to the covered porch, I stopped in the
middle of the path and closed my eyes as I inhaled the sweet scent of the
lavender and honeysuckle I’d planted with my mom’s help.
That was when I made a wish, a corny
wish, but I didn’t care.
I wished that every person could find
someone they loved as much as I loved Jack. I wished every child could feel as
loved as Junior was. And I wished every anniversary could be as perfect as this
one.
“No… No, no, no!” Jack’s voice grew
louder with each no.
They say mother’s intuition is
scientifically proven to exist. I knew by the tone of Jack’s voice, without
even opening my eyes, that my world would never be the same. I knew in that
instant, I would regret leaving Jack Jr. tonight for the rest of my life.
Though I knew something was wrong, I
wasn’t prepared for what we found.
At some point, while we were lost in
our blissful celebration, the front door of our home had been forced open. This
discovery was what had made Jack cry out in disbelief. Father’s intuition must
also be a thing, because he told me later that, even though the door was still
closed, the moment he saw the gouges in the wood near the handle, he had felt
that same sense of dread. That feeling that the universe had suddenly tilted on
its side, discarding us into black nothingness.
The house was ransacked.
Furniture upended, paintings and
flatscreen televisions torn off the walls, shards of shattered vases littered
the floors. Complete and utter chaos.
The master bathroom doorknob looked as
if it had been shot off. We found my mother’s lifeless form huddled against the
bathtub, my baby boy’s dead body clutched tightly in her arms.
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About Cassia Leo
New York Times bestselling author Cassia Leo loves her coffee, chocolate, and margaritas with salt. When she’s not writing, she spends way too much time re-watching Game of Thrones and Sex and the City. When she’s not binge watching, she’s usually enjoying the Oregon rain with a hot cup of coffee and a book. Find her on...
