Before Daylight. Andie J. Christopher

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      LYRICAL PRESS

      Kensington Publishing Corp.

       www.kensingtonbooks.com

      Copyright

      Lyrical Press books are published by

      Kensington Publishing Corp. 119 West 40th Street New York, NY 10018

      Copyright © 2018 by Andie J. Christopher

      All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means without the prior written consent of the Publisher, excepting brief quotes used in reviews.

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      Kensington Publishing Corp.

      119 West 40th Street

      New York, NY 10018

      Attn. Special Sales Department. Phone: 1-800-221-2647.

      Kensington and the K logo Reg. U.S. Pat. & TM Off.

      LYRICAL PRESS Reg. U.S. Pat. & TM Off.

      Lyrical Press and the L logo are trademarks of Kensington Publishing Corp.

      First Electronic Edition: April 2018

      eISBN-13: 978-1-5161-0695-0

      eISBN-10: 1-5161-0695-4

      First Print Edition: April 2018

      ISBN-13: 978-1-5161-0698-1

      ISBN-10: 1-5161-0698-9

      Printed in the United States of America

      To Meya, Lucy, and Vayda. You don’t ever get to read further than this page, but I love you.

      Acknowledgments

      I want to thank all of the readers who picked up the first three books in the One Night in South Beach series, and wanted more heat from Miami. The bloggers and reviewers who took the time read, review, and pimp my books rock so hard! I don’t comment on reviews, but I read them, I learn from them, and I’m grateful for each and every one.

      I would be remiss if I didn’t thank Scarlett Cole for talking to me on Skype from across the world, and schooling me on how to be a badass author.

      Thank you, Jennifer Herrington for making my words sparkle and shine. And being the best cheerleader ever. Thank you to the Lyrical marketing team, Michelle, Kimberly, and Lauren for helping me bring these books to the widest audience possible. Thank you to Martin and Alexandra for believing in this series.

      Finally, thank you to my mom, who deals with the discomfort of reading dirty words penned by her daughter in order to be my #1 fan.

      Chapter 1

      Stock still, Laura Delgado stared at her Grandpa Rogelio with her mouth open. All the oxygen and all good sense in the universe had been sucked out of the room. Her dressing room had turned into the upside-down. Then, her knees gave out, and she dropped to the couch without meaning to.

      Married!? My what!? The word husband echoed over and over in Laura’s head. The two syllables sounded foreign and hostile. The disjointed—and altogether frightening—sounds reminded her of a Russian ballet master she’d once studied with. He’d thwacked her with a violin bow when she missed a step. The bow was less painful than the idea that she was actually married.

      In her mind, marriage had always equaled death—a slow, painful, wasting disease suffered while handcuffed to the cause of death. And she’d just found out that she was terminal.

      “Unless we get his signature, I can’t file your taxes.” Two days from the deadline. Her grandfather had the audacity to smirk at her as though he found this situation funny. He thought the fact that she was married and only found out about it...funny. If she didn’t love her Grandpa Rogelio so much, she would be tempted to punch him in his still-handsome face. But, given that he was her favorite relative and he’d done her taxes without incident since she got her first paycheck from the company at eighteen, she just clenched her jaw.

      And to make things even worse than the mere fact that she was married was the guy she was married to. Charlie Fucking Laughlin. With his artfully scruffy beard, his too-long hair, and naughty-looking mouth. He was smooth-talking and smug. Everyone loved him because he was so nice, but no one was that nice. Laura didn’t like nice. Didn’t trust nice. And now, nice-Charlie Laughlin was allegedly her husband.

      She’d never intended to get married, and she certainly didn’t picture ever ending up with someone like Charlie. He was too much everything—too handsome, too tall, and too sexy. By the time she was fourteen, right before she’d left home to join the СКАЧАТЬ