Endless Encore
Kaylene Winter
(Less Than Zero, #5)
Publication date: February 17th 2022
Genres: Adult, Contemporary, Romance
Ty:
I’ve made promises I’m struggling to keep.
Because my past is too dark and painful.
Zoey is everything to me, my beautiful soulmate.
I can’t bear for her to think I’m broken.
But pressure’s building and I’m losing control .
Will one fateful day destroy everything I’ve ever dreamed of?Zoey:
My life with Ty is idyllic.
This past year has been everything I dreamed about and more.
It’s just—I can’t shake this feeling.
Something’s going on with my fiancé.
I can’t help but wonder, is he hiding something from me?
Will his past demons prevent our perfect future?Happily ever after can mean so many things.
Life happens.
Faith is tested.
Will Ty & Zoey survive the biggest challenge of their lives?
Is the deepest love endless?
ENDLESS ENCORE is Book 6 in the Less Than Zero Rockstar Romance Series, and is the sequel to ENDLESS.
It is strongly recommended you read Books 1-4 before reading any of the “ENCORE” sequels, otherwise you will be spoiled!
Get ready for more stories of captivating passion!
Trigger Warning: Content in this book deals with childhood abuse and severe neglect.
EXCERPT:
CHAPTER 1 - TY
How did I get here?
I’m all alone. Away from my wife. My band. For who knows how long. Not that it matters. I’m not certain if any of them will ever speak to me again after I blew my life to smithereens. I know I wouldn’t. After all of the love and trust my band brothers showed me over the years, how did I repay them?
I lied to them.
Treated them like shit.
Blamed them for things that weren’t their fault.
Selfishly made them put up with my bullshit.
Worse? I sold Zoey a package of goods I couldn't deliver. I sucked her back into my life for my own selfish purposes. Hiding my truth. A truth that has bitten me in the ass, just as I knew it would. A truth that has changed the very fabric of my life and that of the people around me.
God.
Zoey is the only woman I’ll ever love, and after what I did? Things will never be the same. For that, I take full responsibility. Doesn't make it easier to bear. I'm a realist. There's no way she could possibly honor the commitments we made to each other now. There's no way she could possibly still love me.
Let alone stay married to me.
I’m in agony. Every part of me aches. My heart. My body. My soul.
It's completely my fault. All of this could have been avoided. Years of therapy gave me all the tools. Stubbornly, I ignored the warning signals when they were blaring everywhere around me. Instead, I rushed Zoey into getting married before she knew what she was really signing up for. Begged her to get pregnant before confessing a past that would permeate every part of our future. All in some desperate attempt to hold on to her.
To hold on to us.
Sure, I’d convinced myself I was fine. Healed. Hell, I thought I knew better. I really, really did. I was lying to myself, though. And lying to everyone who matters to me. I’ve destroyed my life. Irreparably so. My past few months have been a master class in reckless, impulsive behavior. Now, I'll pay the price forever.
With everything that I've lost, there's one important reason I'm here. A singular motivation. I want to get well. Need to get well. If only to be part of my son’s life. To have a chance to be the father I know I can be. I'm going to do anything and everything I can to make it up to him, even if he hasn't been born yet.
I may have burned my bridges with everyone closest to me, but I'll never do that to him.
Ever.
I set Zoey free last night. Just like she did for me all those years ago. I get why she did it now. When you truly love someone, you want them to have everything good in the world. Even if it's without you.
Especially if it's without you.
CHAPTER 2 – ZOEY
I gaze up at my gorgeous fiancé, Tyson Rainier. After a whirlwind few months of travel, we’re in bed in our house in West Seattle. I’m tucked under his arm, my cheek rests on his chest. His other arm is flung over his head. Chocolate waves of his long mane cascade over the pillow. A smattering of stubble spreads across his square jaw. Little puffs of air dissipate from his full lips in a steady rhythm.
Ty’s band, Less Than Zero or LTZ, is nearing the end of its year-long hiatus to reset and recharge. His bandmates are busy working on their own passion projects. Ty started a foundation and appointed me CEO. We’ve done a lot of work with the leadership team, but mostly Ty and I have spent the entire year goofing off. Traveling. Laughing. Talking. Dreaming. Eating.
Living life. Together.
Building our life. Together.
Just…being. Together.
On our terms. Finally.
Before he was famous and I was only eighteen, we were forced apart. It took eight years, a series of misunderstandings and a few speed bumps, but we managed to reunite. Get to know each other again. Now, we’re engaged and, hopefully, soon we’ll get married. I wouldn’t trade the past few months for anything. I’ve never laughed so hard. Loved so deeply. Felt so connected to one human being. We’ve been making up for lost time, and if I had any doubts before, I definitely don’t now.
Ty and I are meant to be.
With the band’s hiatus coming to an end soon, we’re slowly transitioning out of vacation mode into a routine. Our new normal. Neither of us are sure exactly how it’s going to work, but so long as we’re together again? Nothing can come between us.
Because we don’t take anything about our relationship for granted. Not after too many missed years, months, days, hours, minutes, and seconds.
I treasure every single moment we have. Ty is a very complicated man, but also the most honest, kindhearted, generous person I know. My eyes mist a bit as I think about how far he’s come from the young man he was when we first met. Unlike me, he grew up with nothing except an addict mother who's so far gone, she tried to sell fake stories to the tabloids last year for a big payday. I admire my fiancé so much. He's never been defined by his past. Instead, he single-handedly pulled himself out of the gutter and made something of himself. Despite the odds.
God, I love him. Really and truly love him. Every single part of him.
“Are you watching me sleep?” Ty’s eyes slowly blink open. He yawns and rolls to his side so he’s facing me. “Who’s my creepy girl?”
For some strange reason, we both love to watch each other sleep. We’re self-aware enough to know it’s kind of psycho, so we’ve made it into one of our many inside jokes. I smooth his hair away from his forehead, laughing. “That’s me. Don’t worry, I haven’t been creeping on you for long.”
CHAPTER 11 - ZOEY
When I dip my toe in the pool, the water is so refreshing I decide to plunge all the way in. It’s unseasonably hot this December in Los Angeles. A swim is just what I need.
I’m so glad Ty and I decided to spend our first Christmas holiday as a married couple at our house in LA. Mom and Dad will join us in a few days. Ronni, Connor, and the twins will be here for Christmas Eve. For now, we have a few low-key days to look forward to before the celebrations start.
Gazing out over the infinity edge of the pool, the Hollywood Hills stretch out below me. I bob about enjoying the view, feeling peaceful. Content. And, a bit sad. I got my period this morning. It was about five days late and, I was getting so excited to pee on a few sticks. Now, it won’t be necessary.
It’s not for a lack of trying. I don’t think Ty and I have ever had more sex than we have in the past month since our wedding, and that’s saying a lot. He’s insatiable. We both are. It’s a bit of a bummer though. When I ditched birth control three cycles ago, I just figured… Well, it hasn’t happened. Not that I’m in any rush or anything.
“There you are.” I hear my husband's deep voice and find Ty sitting on a lounger to the side of me. “I got out of the showerand you weren’t in the bedroom.”
I shrug and paddle over to him. “One of the best things about having a pool is I can swim whenever I want.”
“It’s a great view.” Ty lowers his sunglasses to look at my bare breasts bobbing just above the water line.”
I press myself up on my forearms, squishing my boobs together. “You could join me.”
“God, don't tempt me. I’ve got a melody in my head I’d like to get down. Would you mind if I work in the studio for a bit?” Ty replicated the Seattle recording studio on a smaller scale in one of the downstairs guest rooms. He’s been in a creative mania, writing and recording at all hours of the day. It’s really the first time since we’ve been back together that I’ve experienced this side of him. I’m the one who's woken up without him beside me quite a few times since we got to LA.
“Of course not. I have a few meetings for the foundation this morning.” I push off from the edge and float away from Ty. “Not for a couple of hours though, so I’ll just have a little pool time.”
Ty stands. “Of course. You should enjoy, butterfly. I just wanted to check on you. This morning you seemed sad.”
“Oh. Not really sad, sad. I got my period.”
“Ah.”
“I was a few days late.” I draw in a deep breath. “I guess I just thought…”
Ty smiles, but it seems slightly strained. Or is it relieved? I second-guess myself when he waggles his eyebrows. “It will happen, baby. We are perfecting our craft. Holy hell. My dick is still sore from last night.”
“Is it an Olympic sport yet? We could be champions.” I splash him a tiny bit on purpose before he scuttles out of range and heads back into the house.
Author Bio:
When she was only 15, Kaylene Winter wrote her first rocker romance novel starring a fictionalized version of herself, her friends and their gorgeous rocker boyfriends. After living her own rockstar life as a band manager, music promoter and mover and shaker in Seattle during the early 1990’s, Kaylene became a digital media legal strategist helping bring movies, television and music online. Throughout her busy career, Kaylene lost herself in romance novels across all genres inspiring her to realize her life-long dream to be a published author. She lives in Seattle with her amazing husband and dog. She loves to travel, throw lavish dinner parties and support charitable causes supporting arts and animals.
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