Becca Ritchie – Read Books Online Free Ebooks good best novels to read

Becca Ritchie – Read Books Online Free Ebooks good best novels to read http://www.wownovels.com Thu, 25 Sep 2025 16:13:47 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.9.4 http://www.wownovels.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/favicon.png Becca Ritchie – Read Books Online Free Ebooks good best novels to read http://www.wownovels.com 32 32 Burn Bright (Cobalt Empire #1) Read Online Krista Ritchie, Becca Ritchie http://www.wownovels.com/burn-bright-cobalt-empire-1-read-online-krista-ritchie-becca-ritchie Thu, 25 Sep 2025 16:13:47 +0000 http://www.wownovels.com/burn-bright-cobalt-empire-1-read-online-krista-ritchie-becca-ritchie Genre: Alpha Male, Billionaire, College, New Adult, Sports Authors: Becca Ritchie, Krista Ritchie Series: Becca Ritchie
Series: Cobalt Empire Series by Krista Ritchie
Advertisement

Total pages in book: 234
Estimated words: 226965 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1135(@200wpm)___ 908(@250wpm)___ 757(@300wpm)

<<<<1 2 3 11 21 >234

Love burns hottest when it's blue.

Ben Cobalt is number six. Not sixth place—in fact, he’d be considered at least third draft pick for the NHL if he didn’t quit hockey during college. And he’s not sixth-in-line for any throne. Though, most consider his larger-than-life, billionaire family American royalty.

He is the sixth-born Cobalt.

Out of a normal family of seven, he might get lost in the shuffle. But being the black sheep of the Cobalt Empire comes with its own intense spotlight. After he hits a major low at college in Philly, his four older brothers convince him to move in with them in New York City. Transferring to Manhattan Valley University—piece of cake.

Living in an apartment with all of his brothers while harboring a giant secret among a family who’s more tight-knit than a secret society—total effing chaos.

He has to find a way out of the tense living arrangement, especially as he clashes with his oldest brother Charlie. Ben turns to an unlikely source for help. A grumpy, punk-rock girl with a troubled past who's already pissed off one Cobalt brother.

So when an undeniable attraction ignites, Harriet Fisher is expecting the flames to die out. Except…what happens when they don’t? Falling for a Cobalt brother with secrets might be a Shakespearean tragedy she can't rewind.

BURN BRIGHT is the first book in the Cobalt Empire series, a new adult romance series about legacy, loyalty, and love

*************FULL BOOK START HERE*************

1

HARRIET FISHER

Itake my beer and my scowl to the wall. Me and the wall—great friends. My only current friend.

This party feels like an amalgamation of hipsters, jocks, beauty queens, and outcasts. A total Breakfast Club scenario. But instead of five people sharing detention there are a hundred-plus sharing a frat house.

My white crop top and red-and-black checkered, very low-rise pants—which I love in all their early 2000s punk glory—shouldn’t cause me to stand out that much. I’m positive I saw a guy wearing a spiked collar five minutes ago.

I take a stiff sip of beer.

Alone.

Avoiding direct eye contact with others.

Maybe I thought things would be different at Manhattan Valley University.

New city, new college, new outcomes. But I might be part of the problem when it comes to making friends. I don’t know how to be warm and inviting. I can blame it on my scowl and permanent Resting Bitch Face, but the truth is I could try harder to be softer. More approachable. Yet, the thought of being someone that people actively want to approach makes me scowl even harder. Is it weird? To want friends but also not want them?

Sure, the idea of friends sounds amazing. People to hang out with, laugh with, go to the movies and venture to the mall with. But friends also come with drama—like what if they judge me? Hate me? What if I do something wrong to mess it all up? Or worse, what if they’re amazing friends, and they start wanting more from me? So I’d have to start sharing about my life and get into my past, and all that sounds so incredibly taxing that I’d like to just fling myself into a dilapidated cabin in the South Pole where no one can find me.

Friends…sometimes the fantasy seems better than the reality.

And it’s not just girls that I struggle to connect with in that way. I’ve never had a friendship with a guy. I’ve never wanted to be adopted as one of the bros. I can’t wrap my head around what a guy’s girl even looks like. It sounds like phony fucking baloney.

I’m not even really attempting to make a friend tonight. Literally, my goals are on the floor. I just want to have a better-than-average time at this party.

When I go to the backyard for some fresh air, a thought slams at me.

I shouldn’t have come here.

Maybe I should’ve stayed inside and melted into the plaster. Kappa guys play beer pong on the grass while couples giggle-fight during a game of chicken in the pool, and I’m just trying to reach a corner of the fence.

“She’s so tiny,” a six-foot-something asshole with a humongous smile says. He wears an MVU Row Team shirt, and he elbows his preppy friend in the side. “Like a little Polly Pocket.” They snort together.

I try to walk around the jock for the second time.

He side-steps again. “Whoa, Polly, how tall are you?” He tries to pat my head, and I jerk backward.

“Leave me alone.” I raise my voice which contains rasp and grit.

But their glassy eyes say they’re four beers in and I’m as threatening as a Chihuahua. “Come on, you’re supposed to be fun-sized.” He downs a big gulp. “Be fun.”

His friend laughs, then leans into the jock to mutter, “Those are definitely party-sized, though.” Their heavy-lidded eyes drop to my chest.

Yeah, I have larger than average boobs. I’ve been told this super uninteresting fact since the tenth grade. Guys like to act as if it’s surprising to me. Like I don’t realize my tits are, I don’t know, attached to my fucking body.

I can see them.

I know they’re big.

And I wish I didn’t finish off my beer in the house. I’d throw it at his face. Cup and all. Instead, I flip them off with two middle fingers. “How’s this for fun?”

They snicker, like I’m playing around. Like this is just a game and I should lighten up. It’s a party, right? We’re at a frat house on campus. People aren’t taking anything seriously here.

I’m the buzzkill.

But maybe I don’t want to be the five-foot-one party favor.

“Seriously,” I growl. “Just let me through.” I try to slip past the jock.

He blocks me.

I glare. “Dude.”

“Polly.”

What the fuck?!

“Oooh, you made her mad, Cameron,” he says off my scowl.

“Does she bite?” Cameron laughs, then tries to pat my blonde hair again.

I swat his hand away. “Don’t touch me.”

“Aww, she’s a snapping turtle.” Cameron passes his beer to his preppy friend. “You know what turtles need?”

My pulse races. I try to back away, to return inside, but I barely even rotate before Cameron hoists me around the waist. I kick out as he tosses me over his shoulder and shouts, “Water!”

“Let me down!” I yell, banging a fist against his back. I squirm and try to pull away as he carries me to the pool. No, no, no. Panic envelops me alongside raw anger, and I fight against his rower strength.

<<<<1 2 3 11 21 >234

Advertisement
Destructively Mine (Webs We Weave #2) Read Online Krista Ritchie, Becca Ritchie http://www.wownovels.com/destructively-mine-webs-we-weave-2-read-online-krista-ritchie-becca-ritchie Thu, 01 May 2025 18:18:56 +0000 http://www.wownovels.com/destructively-mine-webs-we-weave-2-read-online-krista-ritchie-becca-ritchie Genre: Alpha Male, Contemporary, New Adult Authors: Becca Ritchie, Krista Ritchie Series: Becca Ritchie
Series: Webs We Weave Series by Krista Ritchie
Advertisement

Total pages in book: 147
Estimated words: 145038 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 725(@200wpm)___ 580(@250wpm)___ 483(@300wpm)

<<<<1 2 3 11 21 >147

FROM THE AUTHORS OF THE TIKTOK SENSATION, ADDICTED TO YOU!

Ex-grifter Phoebe Graves’ new life threatens to come crashing down around her in the next unputdownable novel from the New York Times bestselling authors of the Addicted series.

As the daughter of a con artist, Phoebe Graves only knew a life of swindling the rich until her best friend and fellow grifter, Hailey Tinrock, proposed an idea to start a new, honest life in a wealthy college town of Connecticut. Once there, they decided to leave behind their deceitful tricks and be truthful for once. But you know what they say about best intentions. . . .

While Phoebe is fake-dating Jake Waterford, the third-born son to an uber-wealthy and influential family, she’s actually dating and falling deeper in love with Brayden “Rocky” Tinrock—Hailey’s older brother. To make matters more complicated, Phoebe’s mother shows up out of the blue with conniving match-making designs of her own.

Her mother’s arrival threatens to unravel Phoebe’s plans. To keep her love, her friends, and her newfound happiness, Phoebe will have to return to her old games . . . and win

*************FULL BOOK START HERE*************

Believe nothing you hear, and only half of what you see.

—Edgar Allan Poe

PROLOGUE

Phoebe

Eight Years Ago

The Rip Deal

Malibu, California

I stare wide-eyed at a pink, a black, and a bright neon-green bikini splayed on the king-sized bed—a bed that I’ve called mine for four whopping whole days. “Why is this so hard for you?” I mutter to myself. “It’s an outfit, not a math problem. Get your shit together.”

Don’t talk to yourself out loud, bug. It’s a bad tell. Keep that up here. I hear my mom’s tip and imagine her tapping her temple with a wink. These four walls don’t need to know I’m an anxious, nervous mess. Lest I slip up in front of the things that do matter.

The four-poster bed!

The joke falls flat in my head, and I let out an audible wheezy laugh. Am I really this pathetic?

No.

I’m adept. Savvy. Confident.

I won’t slip up in front of any mark. Not for this job.

Seduce a self-absorbed, self-proclaimed “rich kid” from Malibu. In the ever-moving career of swindling the rich and handsy assholes of the world, I’ve been granted a new project. Hailey’s mom and my mom are trusting I can knock the pants off Kellan Fields while they handle more complicated threads to the larger Rip Deal, which involves screwing his father out of half a million via an under-the-table cash deal and sleight of hand. I know I have one of the easier roles.

It shouldn’t be that hard.

I’m sixteen.

This really isn’t my first rodeo. I’ve batted my lashes at boarding-school boys, and they’ve fallen for every trick in the temptress handbook. I’ve made out with an older guy in his Lambo, too, even if the actual act of being lip-locked with him is hazy in my head. I can’t remember what I did.

My short time here in Malibu has been going…okay. Day one, I “accidentally” bumped into Kellan on the pier. Day two, I went on the most boring coffee date where he name-dropped A-listers and spent a solid hour listing off the specs of his Ferrari and yammering on about his father’s yacht.

It’d been fine.

Until the end of the date when we kissed, and he reacted…strange. It caught me off guard. He thinks I’m eighteen like him, and I’m afraid my mere persona screamed adolescent! at some point. This con can’t unravel because of me.

Now he’s invited me to a beach bonfire with his friends, and I’d like to open the sliding glass doors to my new bedroom, step onto the porch, fling all three bikinis at the million-dollar ocean view, and hope the wind carries them into the Pacific.

Then my decision would be made for me.

I could just go naked.

Problem solved. The fact that I’m a second from Googling whether this is a nude beach means I’ve really lost it.

A knock sounds before my door creaks open. A second opinion. Thank God. I exhale. “Hailey,” I say without turning. “I need your help. Please, please rank these from classy slut to trashy slut. I can’t figure out what I should be wearing tonight.” I pick up the black bikini with the low-cut top and G-string bottoms and whirl around to…

My face flames. “Not Hailey.” So much for keeping my inner thoughts to myself.

Rocky raises his brows. “Not Hailey.”

My entire body roasts on a spit at being caught in a distraught state about an absurdly dumb thing like clothes in front of my best friend’s older brother.

After shutting the door, he strides farther into my room. My heart flip-flops as the space between us depletes.

His gaze falls to the bikini I’m holding. “That one is fucking trashy.”

“You haven’t even seen it,” I combat. It’s balled in my fist.

He extends a hand. “Pass it then.”

Heat bathes my face ten times more, and it’s not like I haven’t worked a con with Rocky. I’ve worked most cons right alongside him, but I would greatly like to default to his sister’s advice right now because A) Hailey is a beautiful genius and B) she’s not the one I have a crush on!

Except, the idea of not giving him the bikini, of not reeling him closer and finding out what happens next—that sounds boring. My pulse speeds as I place the bikini in Rocky’s hand, and I bask in the adrenaline rush.

It’s me, deciding my fate, my next move.

It’s him, his eyes on mine for an extended beat. Like he sees who I am before he sees the shape of my body.

Our fingers brush as I retract, and a weird sensation pulsates inside me and tickles my skin. I try not to wobble at his closeness or how he’s touching the string that might go between my legs tonight. You don’t like him. He’s annoying. He’s ugly.

Yeah. Right.

He needs to do something supremely aggravating right fucking now, so I can ignore the Jupiter-sized crush I have on him.

<<<<1 2 3 11 21 >147

Advertisement
Dishonestly Yours (Webs We Weave #1) Read Online Krista Ritchie, Becca Ritchie http://www.wownovels.com/dishonestly-yours-webs-we-weave-1-read-online-krista-ritchie-becca-ritchie Wed, 07 Aug 2024 09:50:50 +0000 http://www.booksnovels.com/dishonestly-yours-webs-we-weave-1-read-online-krista-ritchie-becca-ritchie Genre: Alpha Male, Contemporary Authors: Becca Ritchie, Krista Ritchie Series: Becca Ritchie
Series: Webs We Weave Series by Krista Ritchie
Advertisement

Total pages in book: 130
Estimated words: 126927 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 635(@200wpm)___ 508(@250wpm)___ 423(@300wpm)

<<<<1 2 3 11 21 >130

Starting fresh is the only way Phoebe can escape a life of crime, but her best friend's older brother complicates honest dreams in this gripping new series from the authors of the Addicted series.

Phoebe Graves grew up in a family where deception and seduction are as commonplace as breathing. The Graves and her best friend Hailey’s family have been on the run their whole lives, but after a high-stakes con job goes south, Phoebe and Hailey decide to run away and start over. The small Connecticut town they settle in seems too good to be true.

The biggest flaw in their plan is Hailey’s frustratingly handsome brother, Rocky, who insists on coming with them. Living honestly isn’t in his DNA, and his past with Phoebe is downright messy. He’s everything she wants, but nothing she can have.

Phoebe worries that Rocky will tempt them back into their old ways, where lying is second nature. She doesn’t want Rocky to mess up the new life she’s begun for herself. The longer she stays in town, the more she realizes what it means to have a reputation—and what a normal life with the man she loves could look like.

*************FULL BOOK START HERE*************

One

Phoebe

People say you choose your friends, but my friendship with Hailey Tinrock never felt like a choice. We clung to each other because we were told to, and then it became survival. And now—together—we’re leaving our families behind.

At midnight, the motel room stinks of stale cigarettes and a microwaved burrito from its previous resident. Yellowed stains bleed into the cement walls and ceiling tiles. Five-star accommodations right here. Luxurious.

It’s definitely not the Ritz-Carlton, and I’ve already become a roach murderer. I’ve counted four cockroaches so far, killed three with a rolled Forbes magazine that Hailey had been flipping through. She ripped off the cover with the roach juice to keep reading. I watch as the last one skitters into an air vent. It was smart to run away from us.

He knew what was coming.

As I plop down on the lumpy mattress, it lets out a warning screech but supports my weight enough. I appraise a box of poison—sorry, I mean hair dye. My scalp burns like I scrubbed it with sriracha and chile flakes.

“It says to wait thirty minutes,” Hailey tells me, sitting cross-legged on the disgusting plaid chair in the corner. Her wet hair hides underneath a plastic cap, the color processing. She’s wearing only an oversized black tee that says hexes on my exes, knee-high socks, and jet-black lipstick.

I’m not shocked she’s painting her nails the same inky color.

Hailey dresses like she’s someone who could stab you while she’s sucking on a cigarette, but her favorite movie is about sisters working at a small-town pizza joint and falling in love so, so slowly. I can’t sit through ten minutes of Mystic Pizza, and Hailey watches it every weekend like it’s her bible.

She also has zero exes to hex. Just a laundry list of one-night stands and short-term flings. Our lifestyles aren’t compatible with long-term relationships.

At least not real ones.

Hailey doesn’t recheck the instructions on the hair dye box. I trust that she remembered the info on the first read through. Photographic memory and all.

I’d be envious if she weren’t my best friend and didn’t use her beautiful brain to bail me out of a million and one tragic scenarios.

“Are we sure they didn’t make this stuff out of jalapeño paste?” I force myself not to itch, but yeah, I kinda scratch and wince. No self-control. “It feels like fire ants are exploding on my head. I’ve never even heard of this brand.” I rotate the box to stare at the front. “Vivid Value Color. What’s our plan B if our hair starts falling out again?”

“We shave our heads,” Hailey says, like it’s the obvious solution. She blows on her wet nails, and I try not to mourn my hair. Would I actually shave it?

Yes, I’m all-in with her.

Would I tear up?

One hundred percent.

Would she?

Probably not, considering she shaved her head when she was sixteen. Now that she’s twenty-four, it’s regularly chopped at her shoulders in an edgy cut.

At the moment, I’m restraining myself from doing a full-fingernailed scalp massage. Do not.

She can see my struggle. “We didn’t have much to choose from at the gas station, Phebs.”

“I know.” I sigh, trying not to complain. We might be the same age and she might be the one figuratively behind the wheel, but I’m the one dead set on protecting us and keeping us from struggling.

When Hailey came up with this idea in Carlsbad, we had just trekked away from a multimillion-dollar beach house in the pouring rain. All façades dropped—we didn’t call for our personal driver in his Bentley to take us “home.”

We just slipped out. Without splendor or attention.

Almost like we never arrived.

It’d been a little past one a.m.—you don’t forget things like time when it’s one of those days that stay with you. Or in this case, one of those nights. After a long, barefoot trek with our heels in our hands, we sat at a bus stop, thinking we could escape the rain while we waited.

We didn’t.

Carlsbad’s bus stops have fancy white pergolas as roofs. So rain slipped through the slats of wood and wet our hair and our flowery Oscar de la Renta dresses we just purchased this summer. Her dress was embroidered with poisonous white oleanders. Mine was threaded with delicate pink tulips.

Hailey was silently crying. I could tell, even in the storm. She’s an ugly crier when it’s not faked. Her whole face was scrunched, and her reddened eyes looked touched by the salt of her emotion, not the sky.

Dark mascara streamed down her cheeks, and I clasped her hand tighter while my knees jostled. From the cold, I wanted to believe.

I was just cold from the rain.

“Phoebe,” Hailey choked out. “I-I don’t think we should do this again.” She tried to catch my gaze.

But I stared at my lap. My dress was riding up, and a trickle of blood on my thigh became exposed to the elements. The rain washed away the crimson streak in a blink.

<<<<1 2 3 11 21 >130

Advertisement
Nobody Like Us (Like Us #13) Read Online Krista Ritchie, Becca Ritchie http://www.wownovels.com/nobody-like-us-like-us-13-read-online-krista-ritchie-becca-ritchie Thu, 08 Feb 2024 08:24:33 +0000 http://www.booksnovels.com/nobody-like-us-like-us-13-read-online-krista-ritchie-becca-ritchie Genre: Alpha Male, Billionaire Authors: Becca Ritchie, Krista Ritchie Series: Becca Ritchie
Series: Like Us Series by Krista Ritchie
Advertisement

Total pages in book: 241
Estimated words: 236417 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1182(@200wpm)___ 946(@250wpm)___ 788(@300wpm)

<<<<1 2 3 11 21 >241

Sci-fi writer, heiress, weirdo, and oldest daughter of the beloved and infamous Hale family, 21-year-old Luna Hale has been known by many names. But the title she’s coveted these days has been elusive…until now.

She can see it. It’s in reach. She’s more than ready to be his girlfriend.
Luna wants to go on an exploration of Paul Donnelly. Top to bottom. Inside out. To discover all there is to know about her human hero. But he’s afraid some skeletons are better left in the darkness.
As a death in the family unsteadies multiple futures, Luna and Donnelly see turbulence ahead, but they’re determined to steer their ship through the rubble and finally make a landing. This time, together.

Luna and Donnelly’s out-of-this-world, cosmic love returns in this romantic, heart-pounding, and epic conclusion to the Like Us series.

*************FULL BOOK START HERE*************

DECEMBER

“All of this has happened before. All of this will happen again.”

— Battlestar Galactica

1

PAUL DONNELLY

I’ve been avoiding funerals most of my life. Didn’t make it to my grandmom’s when she croaked. Skipped out on mass for deceased aunts and uncles. Been to one wake for a cousin. But that was because I was thirteen and hungry and they had roast beef hoagies. I’m not big on death. It feels like the conclusion of something—and I’d just rather keep on running, keep on going, than celebrate any kind of ending.

On the grassy hill of a cemetery a little outside Philly, it hits me like a burst of cold December wind.

My first funeral is for a Calloway.

Not my mom.

Not my dad.

A fucking Calloway.

I’d laugh at the sheer shock of it—but can’t laugh during a funeral. I have manners and all—even if everyone in the cemetery has been eyeballing me and Luna rather than the coffin that’ll descend into the freshly dug earth.

Feels like we were the ones who died.

Like half the people here are lowering us into the ground.

At least I’m with her. In life, in death…at least I’m with Luna Hale.

I scrape a hand through my hair.

Yeah, I’m not dead yet. Luna leans into my shoulder, her warmth radiating against me, and my left arm is already around this girl.

I look down at her. Residual glitter is still stuck in her light brown hair, the strands sparkling, and her round cheeks are rosy from the biting winter air. Her black puffer jacket is too short to warm the length of her body, but I tuck her close to me.

She’s mine. She’s all mine, but from across the wooden casket, I spot a fortysomething woman with deep auburn hair yanked into a taut bun. Luna’s therapist. If she could chuck stones, I’d be pelted to death by now. She would rather I let Luna go.

It’s worse when I spot Luna’s parents. Her mom practically turns her face into her husband’s chest just to avoid me. Like I’m truly disease-ridden and toxic waste.

My stomach clenches.

It’s not about me. She’s just upset about who died. It’s upsetting. This death. This whole thing. I try to convince myself, but it’s also clear she’s doing her best not to make eye contact with me.

Luna senses her mom’s avoidance, and she shifts uneasily. I squeeze her in a side-hug.

A light layer of snow blankets the dewy morning grass. Everyone is standing, hundreds in attendance to pay their respects, and I only feel like a special invitee because I can see the gravesite. I’m not two or three rows behind friends-of-friends and other security.

I am on-duty though. Had to keep the press and paparazzi out of the cemetery, but I managed to sneak up to the front to be beside Luna. I’m Epsilon—been that way for three days—and my fellow SFE brethren are looking at me like I deserve to be shoved in the hole. O’Malley, most especially.

I meet the intensity of his glare with one of my own.

Fuck him.

My blood courses hatefully, and I despise this feeling. I want to release it, but after all that’s happened, I can’t figure out how. I’m afraid to live inside hatred, maybe more than I am to live inside the past.

I glance back down at Luna—she’s worth everything. She’s my everything. But I’m still partially in her world. One foot in, one foot out. Like with a big enough gust of wind, I could be blown away from her.

She springs on her tiptoes to whisper to me, “It kinda feels like we’re being stared at.”

I dip my head to whisper back, “Accurate assessment, I’d say. They’re probably just jealous.”

“Uh-huh,” she says, her voice tense.

We both know they’re not envious of the hell we’ve been going through. No one in their right mind would be.

They’re also not envious of what happened to us three days ago—the same day we learned a Calloway died. Also known as the day another member of Luna’s family walked in on me giving her head. History repeats itself in strange ways, and I don’t know what it says about me that this happened yet again.

What didn’t repeat: Keeping it under wraps.

Her entire family got wind of it today. Hence, being eyeballed during the funeral like we’re the ones in the casket.

I’d say we already had some metaphorical or spiritual death of sorts, but it’s not that easy to put me to rest.

THREE DAYS EARLIER

2

PAUL DONNELLY

“Let’s go, my furry friends.” Arkham and Orion lead the way into the Hale House. While Luna, Maximoff, and Farrow talk on the front lawn about the sudden death in the family, I give them a minute to themselves. Letting the Hales have this family moment. So I offered to bring the dogs inside.

Boxes of Christmas lights are on the front brick porch. I’d been stringing them on the roof before Maximoff dropped the bad news. I collect my phone and radio nearby, in a bit of a daze.

<<<<1 2 3 11 21 >241

Advertisement
Misfits Like Us (Like Us #12) Read Online Krista Ritchie, Becca Ritchie http://www.wownovels.com/misfits-like-us-like-us-12-read-online-krista-ritchie-becca-ritchie Sun, 30 Jul 2023 16:01:08 +0000 http://www.booksnovels.com/misfits-like-us-like-us-12-read-online-krista-ritchie-becca-ritchie Genre: Alpha Male, Billionaire Authors: Becca Ritchie, Krista Ritchie Series: Becca Ritchie
Series: Like Us Series by Krista Ritchie
Advertisement

Total pages in book: 177
Estimated words: 174544 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 873(@200wpm)___ 698(@250wpm)___ 582(@300wpm)

<<<<1 2 3 11 21 >177

29-year-old Paul Donnelly has been many things in his life. Son of addicts, high school dropout, tattooist, the shameless bodyguard to Beckett Cobalt, the "bodyguard camp counselor" to the rookies of SFO, Loren Hale's nemesis, and Xander's wise one.
But nothing means as much without Luna Hale. The sci-fi-loving writer. A weirdo. Sister to his client. The only one he's fallen for.
To be with Luna, he has to ensure it's totally, completely, unmistakably safe. That starts with taking care of his family-the family he walked away from as a teenager.
He knows he'll survive. He can survive anything. But this time, he just wants to survive with her.
Take an epic cosmic journey with Luna & Donnelly through heartache, hope, darkness, love, and an unceasing light-where the bonds we make are what power us through time.

*************FULL BOOK START HERE*************

PART ONE

“The will to win and the power of war are given by the dark side—or, as dawn throws back the night…they are given by the light!”

- Tales of the Jedi: Knights of the Old Republic (Ulic Qel-Droma and the Beast Wars of Onderon #1)

1

LUNA HALE

If I could stay on the shingled roof for another lightyear, I would. I’d never unplant my butt from this very spot. I’d just wait here until my dad changes his mind and gives Donnelly permission to date me.

I think I have a better chance of rotting away on the roof.

Donnelly has disappeared into the dark of my parents’ backyard. After fighting to see the last outline of his body, he’s just…gone. Instead of glancing up at the twinkling stars, I gaze down at the sketch he just drew for me.

Black pen bleeds into the ripped paper: him and me kissing among whirling planets and stars, all fancifully drawn in one continuous line. Like we’re forever connected to the galaxy of our dreams. I clutch the sketch protectively. It’s the embodiment of us. Of what we could be.

Of what I hope we will be.

I hate that it still feels so out of reach. Like this happily ever after version of us lives in another timeline. But I know what Donnelly would say. I can practically feel the warmth of him beside me, murmuring the loving words against the pit of my ear.

“Believe with me.”

I whisper in the night, “I want to.” Oh, how I want to. The cynical pieces of me struggle to cling on to that light. Reality is darker. Sadder. Bleaker.

I try to take a breath. The savory smell of meatloaf wafts through my open window. Joining a family dinner is the last thing I feel like doing. An ache has blossomed in my chest, and I don’t know how to temper the pain other than to transplant it with anger.

We didn’t need my dad’s permission to date. Not really.

Donnelly and I are both adults. We’re not stuck in some medieval romance where he has to beg the king to wed the princess. It’s not like that at all. Though, here on this planet, I am considered an American princess. Fame and media are usually the bigger considerations when dating anyone.

How much privacy will they lose?

How much media attention will I gain dating so-and-so?

Will the public hate them or love them?

We haven’t even breached that stage of deliberation. We’re trapped in the beginning.

I do understand that Donnelly wants this to be easier for both of us, and that means having my dad on our side. It’s a rational plan. A good plan.

Especially if my dad’s hatred of Donnelly somehow becomes a headline: Loren Hale Disapproves of Daughter’s New Boyfriend! I could see the press eating up the rivalry like it’s a seven-course meal.

I just hate this shitty outcome where my dad told Donnelly to live in purgatory until his family is no longer a threat. Tears prick my eyes. Because I know, deep down, that Donnelly’s family might always be a threat. And what then?

We’ll never be together.

“Luna?!” my sister calls out. “Mom told me to come get you for dinner!”

With the sketch in my fingers, I hug my knees to my chest and blink repeatedly to keep the waterworks at bay. My throat swells too much to talk.

“Luna?!” Kinney’s voice grows louder. I imagine she’s walking deeper into my room. “Are you on the roof? You’re not trying to get beamed up again, are you?” There’s a sharpness to her voice like she thinks the idea is completely absurd.

Some of my very first trips to my roof were in pursuit of being taken away by extraterrestrial life. By you, unearthly reader. Not only to see a new planet. New galaxy. But I felt like the only way to escape my problems was to leave this planet. The idea of being kidnapped and swept away somewhere better had this dark allure.

I guess it doesn’t seem as cool now.

Donnelly probably wouldn’t be beamed up with me, and I don’t really want to live on a planet where he’s not there.

“Luna, did you hear me?” Kinney steps closer to my window and sticks half her body outside.

I turn my head a fraction, and her narrowed green eyes fix on mine. Dyed black hair is chopped at her collarbones, bangs shading her brows.

“The aliens aren’t coming for you,” she deadpans. “But if you fall off the roof, you will turn into a ghost.”

She sounds so much like our dad. It just enlarges a rock in my esophagus. Words are lodged.

“I’ll be down in a sec,” I say so quietly. I’m unsure if she hears.

Her black-painted lips draw into a thin line, and her vexed expression is riddled with blistering concern. Kinney wears worry like a dress made of razor blades. Unapproachable, untouchable. It’s as hard for me to near her as it’d be for any enemy.

<<<<1 2 3 11 21 >177

Advertisement
Wild Like Us (Like Us #8) Read Online Krista Ritchie, Becca Ritchie http://www.wownovels.com/wild-like-us-like-us-8-read-online-krista-ritchie-becca-ritchie Fri, 20 Nov 2020 21:22:56 +0000 http://www.booksnovels.com/wild-like-us-like-us-8-read-online-krista-ritchie-becca-ritchie Genre: Contemporary, New Adult, Romance Authors: Becca Ritchie, Krista Ritchie Series: Becca Ritchie
Series: Like Us Series by Krista Ritchie
Advertisement

Total pages in book: 146
Estimated words: 145257 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 726(@200wpm)___ 581(@250wpm)___ 484(@300wpm)

<<<<1 2 3 11 21 >146

Read Online Books/Novels:	Wild Like Us (Like Us #8)
Author/Writer of Book/Novel:	Krista Ritchie, Becca Ritchie
Language:	English
ISBN/ ASIN:	B0888T2PCD
Book Information:
One is new to love. One is bad at love. One denies love. Twenty-one-year-old, foul-mouthed Olympian, Sullivan Meadows, just made a huge mistake. She told her bodyguards—her buddies, her pals—they could take her virginity. Words forever engrained in her brain. And theirs. Akara Kitsuwon & Banks Moretti are best friends, sworn to protect each other and their client Sullivan. But upon hearing her confession, their reactions aren’t what Sulli expects. They’re all friends anyway. Just friends. Solid, good friends. Right? As the three embark on the road to Yellowstone, tension builds and close quarters leave no secrets behind. Feelings for her childhood friendship with Akara—that teasing, flirty leader—grow hotter, but so do her feelings for Banks, the rugged, heart-melting Marine. While Sulli is out west to free-solo her dad’s old climbing routes, the only true destination the three of them are certain of is Yellowstone. Love & romance are totally up in the air. Wild Like Us is an MFM Romance and Book 8 in the Like Us Series. The Like Us series is a true series, one continuous timeline, that follows a family of wealthy celebrities and the people that protect them.
Books in Series:	Like Us Series by Krista Ritchie
Books by Author:	Krista Ritchie, Becca Ritchie

1

SULLIVAN MEADOWS

The best way to describe this situation is fucking comical.

I have to pee.

Like I might piss my pants if I don’t find a toilet kind of pee, and I’m nowhere near a toilet. I’m in the middle of a field that’s landscaped with flashing lights, a giant Ferris wheel, thrill rides, cotton-candy stands, and too many beady-eyes that follow me as they wonder what the fuck I’m up to.

Where are you running off to so quickly, Sullivan Minnie Meadows? Why are you not with your little sister or your parents at the Carnival Fundraiser? Why’d you leave them at the Tilt-A-Whirl?

Because I downed five bottles of orange cream soda. For a good cause: a belching contest with my fifteen-year-old sister. Which turned into a “first to not puke on the Tilt-A-Whirl” contest. The squirt and I were both victorious, as life should be. Our mom would say, sisters at war is the saddest adventure of all.

Thankfully I’ve never been on that gloomy voyage. Winona is all the tendons that hold my heart together. A life without her would break me.

The carnival is packed tonight, and I go from a clench-the-thighs trot to a full power-walk, quickly bypassing a corn dog stand. The reality of my situation would disappoint many gossip blogs.

You mean to say the oldest daughter of thrill-seeking Daisy and Ryke Meadows isn’t leaving for a rendezvous with a secret boyfriend?

Nope.

You mean to say that she’s never had a boyfriend before?

That was true until last year. First boyfriend at twenty. First kiss at twenty. First break-up at twenty-one.

I could’ve waited longer for those good firsts if the right guy didn’t come around. Not that Will Rochester was Mr. Forever. He was Mr. Back Then. Mr. Good for Now.

Growing up, I always sidelined the idea of romance in favor of my first love.

Swimming.

Boys were big fucking distractions, not that many tried to distract me, but I refused to cheat on my first love, my drive to win. Myself. But once I retired from swimming, my focus expanded beyond reaching Olympic gold. No time for romance became all the time in the world to fall in love.

I honestly don’t have much faith in myself in the romance department. It’s not like I have a lot of fucking experience there, and you can’t really train for the dating game.

At least not when the pool of people I trust is small. Like Fisher-Price plastic fishing toy-set small.

But the secret boyfriend is long-gone now. Will Rochester is in the past, and our relationship wasn’t totally secret to everyone. Just the public. Thank fucking God. I couldn’t have imagined dealing with the scrutiny of a million eyes while dating for the first time.

Water guns squirt clown targets at a nearby game booth, and all I hear is the forceful splash of water. My need to pee intensifies. “Oh fuck that last sip of soda.” I pick up speed into a slight-jog, and I’m going to outpace the two men in front of me if they don’t haul ass.

I place my hands on their backs, and at the exact same time, they glance over their shoulders. They look downward to meet my eyes, and I’m really fucking tall—especially in my worn-leather boots, I crest over 6-foot—but they’re taller.

“Go, fucking go,” I say strongly, pushing them towards the bathrooms.

They easily lengthen their stride, but they’re on the cusp of full-bellied laughter.

Akara’s brown eyes twinkle, his lips lifting as he looks to Banks, his six-foot-seven Italian-American friend. “You hear that running water?”

Banks cracks a smile at me. “You mean the waterfall between her legs?”

I’d probably laugh if I weren’t so afraid of wetting myself. “Hardy-har-har.” I twist my long brown hair into a messy bun to distract my bladder. Putting my hands on their lower backs again, I shove them forward as they skillfully weave between carnival attendees.

Akara teases, “Hey, Sulli, I hear that waterfall right now.” He glances back at me. “You hear it? Goes something like woooosh.”

I almost tinkle. Fucking God. “You’re going to regret that when I piss myself and jump on you.”

Banks is laughing his ass off.

I playfully slug his side. “Why are you laughing? I’d jump on you first.”

Akara bursts into laughter now.

Banks bites down on a toothpick, mouth curved up. “You wanna jump on me, just don’t miss. It’s a long way from my body to the ground, and I wouldn’t want you to break your ass.”

I laugh hard at that, and we’re all smiling on the trek and the urge to piss actually recedes for a second.

And then we pass a long, winding line for funnel cake. Teenagers—boys and girls around my sister’s age—eye me, and their heads shift in eerie unison. Like something bizarre from Black Mirror.

I wince at the thought. Only because that’s Beckett’s favorite TV show.

We’d binge-watch all the episodes together between his ballet schedule. Since we’re not really talking that much right now, I try to push my best friend (ex-best-friend?) out of my head.

<<<<1 2 3 11 21 >146

Read Online Books/Novels:

Wild Like Us (Like Us #8)

Author/Writer of Book/Novel:

Krista Ritchie, Becca Ritchie

English

B0888T2PCD

Like Us Series by Krista Ritchie

Krista Ritchie, Becca Ritchie