River Rain Series by Kristen Ashley – Read Books Online Free Ebooks good best novels to read

River Rain Series by Kristen Ashley – Read Books Online Free Ebooks good best novels to read http://www.books2020.com Thu, 25 Sep 2025 16:04:17 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.9.4 http://www.books2020.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/favicon.png River Rain Series by Kristen Ashley – Read Books Online Free Ebooks good best novels to read http://www.books2020.com 32 32 Finding the One (River Rain #7) Read Online Kristen Ashley http://www.books2020.com/finding-the-one-river-rain-7-read-online-kristen-ashley Thu, 25 Sep 2025 16:04:17 +0000 http://www.books2020.com/finding-the-one-river-rain-7-read-online-kristen-ashley Genre: Alpha Male, Billionaire, Contemporary, Sports Authors: Kristen Ashley Series: River Rain Series by Kristen Ashley
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Total pages in book: 118
Estimated words: 120838 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 604(@200wpm)___ 483(@250wpm)___ 403(@300wpm)

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Their parents being family friends, American/English aristocrat, Blake Sharp, and Scottish playboy Alasdair Wallace were thrust together all through their childhoods.

Blake thought Dair was a filthy, obnoxious, little boy bully.

Dair thought Blake was a spoiled, prissy wee miss.

Then Blake grew up to be a beautiful, loving woman who took care of everyone and made amazing pistachio muffins. And Dair grew up to be a protective, fun-loving, hard-living professional rugby player.

In the meantime, they’d both been deeply betrayed by lovers.

When their paths cross again, Blake is still reeling from her fiancé’s treachery and what she learned about herself during it.

Dair thinks he’s recovered from a marriage to a woman who was not at all what she seemed, and now he’s smitten by the woman Blake has become.

So smitten, he has every intention of exploring what they can grow to be together.

But their combined family history is filled with secrets and lies. Secrets and lies that explode in their faces.

And while they deal with that, ghosts from the past rise up and threaten to haunt their future.

Is what they built together strong enough to hold true?

Or will their personal demons tear them apart?

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

Chapter 1

Tally Sheet

Blake

* * *

“You need to be nicer to Wallace, dear.”

I turned at my mother’s voice.

“They’re an important family,” Mum went on when I caught her gaze. “And he’s the heir.”

This was so Mum.

Thus, of course, I rolled my eyes.

“Don’t roll your eyes at me, Blake Charlotte Sharp,” Mum snapped.

“Alasdair Wallace is a bully,” I snapped back and looked across the bar at the man in question.

He was standing with the groom-to-be (tomorrow) Rix and Rix’s best friend, Judge.

They looked like a craft beer advertisement.

A very successful one where every man who saw it would want to be them and therefore run right out and buy that beer. Whereupon they’d drink it and think the next day, even after they’d over imbibed, they’d be prepared go on a ten-mile hike that included a bracing swim in a snow-fed lake, get home and still have enough energy to mow the lawn and fuck their woman.

Blech.

Some women might think Dair Wallace was sinfully attractive.

I was not one of those women.

Okay, so he had thick, dark hair and rugged outdoorsman features hewn from centuries of his ancestors being, well…rugged outdoorsmen (along with rebels, warriors and pains in the asses of any English ruler that came along). He was tall and built like a rugby player (because he played rugby).

All my life, when we’d go to England for our visits to Mum, for a week during their summer holidays, the Wallaces would come down from their sprawling estate in Scotland to visit us in her townhome in London, or our family’s country seat in Somerset, or worst of this lot, we’d go up north and visit them.

Dair Wallace was the epitome of “oh, he’s pulling your hair and teasing you relentlessly because he likes you,” when everyone knew that wasn’t the case.

No, it was because little boys like that were assholes who weren’t taught better.

And Mum was the kind of woman who gave little boys like that as much leeway as possible, because that was the way of her world, but also because his daddy was rich.

And because she was fucking him.

Dair’s daddy that was.

As far as I knew, I was the only one who held this knowledge, outside Mum and Balfour Wallace. We’ll not get into how I discovered this because I didn’t need the resurgence of that particular trauma. We could just say it was not conjecture in the slightest.

We could also say that this affair had lasted forever, and as far as I knew (considering the covert glances they’d been sharing since the Wallace family showed at the party, not to mention, them being at Genny and Duncan’s last night), it was still going strong.

Certainly Kenna Wallace, Balfour’s wife, didn’t know it. Nor did Dair and Davina, their children.

The very fact the Wallace family were here, at this bar, for the rehearsal dinner for my sister Alex’s and her fiancé Rix’s wedding tomorrow said it all.

They were not family.

Dair nor Davina were in the wedding party.

Rix hadn’t even met any of them until yesterday.

This was one thousand percent not some formal celebration where “important” out-of-town guests needed to be catered to.

Alex didn’t even have a single flower in her wedding décor. Not one. It was all grass.

So it was pretty grass. Really pretty. I made sure that was so.

But it was grass, and this was an Arizona mountain bar that was one step up from a honkytonk (all right, I didn’t know that for certain, I’d never been to a honkytonk—and I never wanted to go to one—but this place was one step up from what I would suspect a honkytonk would be like).

They were serving a buffet out of tinfoil trays, for God’s sake. And it was barbeque. Totally messy. (However, also delicious.)

Dad was pissed Mum had invited them. I could tell.

Maybe he knew Mum was sleeping with Balfour, though I doubted, if he did know, he cared. They were so over. They were so very over, they were that before they even began. Something me and Alex lived our whole lives in numerous and vastly unpleasant ways.

Still, even if it was lowkey, laidback and happening in a private area sectioned off in a bar, this was a planned function. One where I finalized the numbers with the owners two weeks ago. And those numbers did not include Balfour, Kenna, Dair and Davina.

That was why Dad was pissed. Because Mum did this kind of crap all the time. And it drove him up the wall.

As it should.

It was rude as hell.

Of course, I inflated the numbers because one of the greatest sins of entertaining was running out of food. That said, I’d allotted for two more people, not four.

And Dair ate like a rugby player too. He’d been to the buffet three times (yes, I counted).

Once, he had nothing on his plate but a massive pile of meat covered in barbeque sauce.

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Advertisement Embracing the Change (River Rain #6) Read Online Kristen Ashley http://www.books2020.com/embracing-the-change-river-rain-6-read-online-kristen-ashley Mon, 23 Sep 2024 09:23:44 +0000 http://www.booksnovels.com/embracing-the-change-river-rain-6-read-online-kristen-ashley Genre: Alpha Male, Billionaire, Contemporary Authors: Kristen Ashley Series: River Rain Series by Kristen Ashley
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Total pages in book: 109
Estimated words: 109608 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 548(@200wpm)___ 438(@250wpm)___ 365(@300wpm)

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From New York Times bestselling author Kristen Ashley comes the new book in her River Rain Series, Embracing the Change.

That Kiss…

Gorgeous New York socialite, Nora Ellington has been waiting a very long time for her happily ever after.

So long, she’s given up on it and has decided, even though she’s the plus-one friend without benefits to a man she’s head over heels in love with, an HEA will forever be out of her reach.

Handsome billionaire Jamie Oakley thought he’d had two happily ever afters in his life. However, neither lasted long, and both ended in tragedy. He’s not about to try it again or put his children through the trauma Jamie has learned from experience undoubtedly will come their way.

And he’s made this decision even if the woman who’s become his constant companion is a woman he loves straight to his soul….and wants with everything that is him.

But then, one night, Jamie loses control and kisses Nora.

He can’t go there.

She can’t go on without it.

They’ll never be the same.

Or will they?

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

PROLOGUE

VALENTINO

Nora

Jamie pulled his lips from mine.

My first thought was to shout, “No!”

My second thought was that our kiss was so heated, so desperate, so deep, and it had lasted so…very…long, I needed oxygen.

I dragged in a breath.

In that space of time, Jamie took a step from me, meaning my arms were forcibly detached from where they’d been wound around his broad shoulders. Therefore, with nowhere to find purchase, they floated to my sides as I expended grave effort in solidifying my trembling legs beneath me.

I watched as he tore his hand through his dark hair, turned his head and looked at the floor.

My mind wasn’t working properly, considering it was busy dealing with not only allowing me to remain upright, but also the array of pleasant sensations coursing through my body. Sensations I hadn’t felt in so long, I forgot I could feel them.

But when my brain started to click in…

When what I was seeing in the haggard expression in Jamie’s handsome profile started to penetrate…

I felt a tightness start to form in the small of my back.

I was not feeling haggard.

For the first time since I met him all those many years ago, I was feeling hopeful.

And for the first time in years—nay, decades—I was feeling truly and completely alive.

“Jamie?” I whispered, and I didn’t like the tone of my voice. It was hesitant. Weak.

I was neither hesitant, nor weak.

Ever.

He looked to me, the drawn expression gone, there was a different tightness in his striking features now, and it corresponded with the steely light in his sky-blue eyes.

And his deep voice with that delightful touch of Texas twang he either couldn’t or refused to filter out after all his years living in the city was firm when he stated, “That was a mistake.”

If he’d slapped me across the face, I wouldn’t have been more offended.

This was when I took a step back.

As my feet moved, those beautiful blue eyes framed with a fringe of thick black lashes dropped to my fabulous Valentino red Roserouche sandals, and when he looked at my face again, I was treated to yet another expression from the magnificent Jameson Morgan Oakley.

Chagrin and gentleness.

Though, not only that.

Worst of all (far worse)…understanding.

“Nora,” he murmured, beginning to lift a hand my way.

“No,” I said coldly.

His hand dropped and his lips thinned before he tried again. “Perhaps we should talk this through.”

“I believe in the little you’ve said already that you’ve made yourself abundantly clear.”

“I disagree,” he replied.

“That’s a problem for you,” I returned.

“Damn it, Nora,” he clipped. “Now, after what just happened between us, is not the time for you to get stubborn.”

In that moment, I hated he knew me so very well. I detested that I’d let him in so thoroughly. I abhorred the fact, over the last few years, I’d given him everything he would allow me to give when I knew he had no intention of returning the favor.

Yes, our kiss had given me hope I’d been wrong about that last part.

And then he’d dashed that hope.

“I don’t believe we have the kind of relationship where you’re at liberty to tell me how I can behave.” I paused, but not long enough for him to have the opportunity to speak. “No, wait. You’re never at liberty to tell me how I can behave.”

“What we have⁠—”

I interrupted him. “We have nothing.”

I felt the arrow I’d nocked in the bow myself pierce my heart at my words—words (in my defense) that were coming from place of deep hurt—because I knew I took things too far even before I watched him flinch so fiercely, his head jerked with the gesture.

“Nothing?” he asked softly.

Not nothing! my mind shouted.

We were friends. We were very good friends. The best.

That had grown recently.

But we’d been something to each other for decades.

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Advertisement Sharing the Miracle (River Rain #5.5) Read Online Kristen Ashley http://www.books2020.com/sharing-the-miracle-river-rain-5-5-read-online-kristen-ashley Mon, 01 Jan 2024 09:40:43 +0000 http://www.booksnovels.com/sharing-the-miracle-river-rain-5-5-read-online-kristen-ashley Genre: Alpha Male, Contemporary, Novella Authors: Kristen Ashley Series: River Rain Series by Kristen Ashley
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Total pages in book: 34
Estimated words: 33887 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 169(@200wpm)___ 136(@250wpm)___ 113(@300wpm)

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From New York Times bestselling author Kristen Ashley comes a new novella in her River Rain Series...Elsa Cohen has everything she ever wanted.A challenging career. A bicoastal lifestyle.And an amazing man—the kind, loving and handsome Hale Wheeler—who adores her and has asked her to be his wife.She isn’t ready for the surprise news she’s received.And she doesn’t know how to tell Hale.Once Hale discovers that his future has taken a drastic turn, a fear he’s never experienced takes hold.He just doesn’t understand why.Family and friends rally around the couple as they adjust to their new reality, and along the way, more surprises hit the River Rain crew as love is tested and life goes on.

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

CHAPTER 1

GOOD NEWS

Elsa

I messed up.

Again.

As I sat on the edge of the exam table, my legs dangling, my eyes glued to my doctor, I realized, in the haze of falling in love, getting engaged and sorting a new, and hectic, bicoastal life with my fiancé, I’d blown it.

Yes.

Again.

My doctor was studying me intently.

“Is this not good news?” she asked.

Yes.

It was good news.

It was the best news ever.

It was just that I worried Hale wouldn’t think of it the same way.

“How did this happen?” I asked. “I’m on the pill.”

“Are you taking another medication I don’t know about?”

I shook my head.

“Did you by chance miss a dose?”

I shook my head again.

“Do you abstain during fertile periods?”

I bit my lip.

She fought a smile.

Then she shared, “No birth control is foolproof, Elsa.” The intensity of her gaze grew grave. “I have to ask again, isn’t this good news?”

“It’s the best news ever,” I told her quietly. “It’s just that my fiancé told me he doesn’t want children.”

She smiled. “I’ve heard that before, and then something like this happens, and they change their mind.”

That might be true for many others.

But Hale hadn’t wanted a partner, definitely not to get married.

And here we were.

He hadn’t wanted to back off his ambitious and back-breaking goals to save the world.

Now, he shared that mission with his right-hand executive man, Javi, so the goals were still ambitious, but not back-breaking.

And although he was great with kids, and Genny and Tom taught him how to be a good parent, his own mother and father faltered (hugely) in that endeavor, and how that played out had scored marks into his soul. And when that kind of thing happened, it tended to make the child who endured that manner of being raised gun-shy about repeating his or her parent’s mistakes.

We’d imploded the last time both of us didn’t keep the finger on the pulse of where we were and what we wanted from each other and our future (Hale bore the brunt of that, but I, too, hadn’t been communicative with him).

Hale had compromised again and again in our relationship.

And this would be the biggest compromise of them all.

Because…surprise!

I was having his baby.

CHAPTER 2

DIAMONDS

Elsa

The text came in when I was panicking at the same time riding up the elevator to my doom (that doom being somehow, during that short elevator ride, figuring out how to tell Hale I was pregnant with the child he didn’t want, then getting out of the elevator and sharing that miracle).

The text was from Tom, and it came into the “family” text string.

By the way, the “family” text string included Mika, Cadence, Genny, Duncan, Sully, Gage, Chloe, Judge, Sasha, Matt, Hale and me.

And this family text string was busy.

I probably received, on average, seven texts a day from one or another member of that string. They ranged from the important, like someone was going to be in town, to the ridiculous, and these were usually hilarious gifs or links to TikToks from Gage, but Chloe was a master gif sender as well.

Sasha, on the other hand, sent Daily Moments of Zen texts with gifs of lapping waves or swimming turtles. Those were not hilarious, but that reminder to take a second to chill out every day was a smart one.

It felt good to be in this company. It felt good, when we were scattered from New York to Arizona to LA, to be in touch every day in some way.

I loved it for me, having my family expanded so exponentially by good, caring (hilarious) people.

I loved it more for Hale, that he had any family at all, and such a great one no less.

However, this text also was sent to an alternate, expanded “family” text string that added Jamie, Nora, Dru, Rix, Alex, Blake and Ned to that list.

That wasn’t unheard of, considering Jamie was Judge’s dad, Dru was his sister, Rix was his best friend and Nora was Mika’s best friend, not to mention Alex was Rix’s fiancée, and Blake was her sister, Ned her father.

Still, that string wasn’t nearly as busy. It could light up, especially if someone was coming to New York, but it didn’t include daily communication.

Though, what made this particular text from Tom highly unusual was that it also included my dad, my mom and my brother and sister.

Actually, that wasn’t unusual.

It was bizarre.

It wasn’t that my family hadn’t been adopted by that extended family. It was just, we were the newest members, so we weren’t quite fully in the fold (well, Dad was, and Oskar kind of was, but Mom and Emilie could be difficult to deal with, so they weren’t).

Tom’s text said: Important family meeting. In person. Jamie’s house. Clear your calendars for Saturday afternoon at 2:00.

“What on earth?” I whispered as the elevator doors to Hale’s and my fabulous Manhattan penthouse opened.

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Advertisement Fighting the Pull (River Rain #5) Read Online Kristen Ashley http://www.books2020.com/fighting-the-pull-river-rain-5-read-online-kristen-ashley Thu, 14 Sep 2023 21:22:31 +0000 http://www.booksnovels.com/fighting-the-pull-river-rain-5-read-online-kristen-ashley Genre: Alpha Male, Billionaire, Contemporary Authors: Kristen Ashley Series: River Rain Series by Kristen Ashley
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Total pages in book: 136
Estimated words: 135847 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 679(@200wpm)___ 543(@250wpm)___ 453(@300wpm)

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From New York Times bestselling author Kristen Ashley comes the new book in her River Rain Series, Fighting the Pull .

Hale Wheeler inherited billions from his father. He’s decided to take those resources and change the world for the better. He’s married to his mission, so he doesn’t have time for love.

There’s more lurking behind this decision. He hasn’t faced the tragic loss of his father, or the bitterness of his parents’ divorce. He doesn’t intend to follow in his father’s footsteps, breaking a woman’s heart in a way it will never mend. So he vows he’ll never marry.

But Hale is intrigued when he meets Elsa Cohen, the ambitious celebrity news journalist who has been reporting on his famous family. He warns her off, but she makes him a deal. She’ll pull back in exchange for an exclusive interview.

Elsa Cohen is married to her career, but she wants love, marriage, children. She also wants the impossibly handsome, fiercely loyal, tenderhearted Hale Wheeler.

They go head-to-head, both denying why there are fireworks every time they meet. But once they understand their undeniable attraction, Elsa can’t help but fall for the dynamic do-gooder.

As for Hale, he knows he needs to fight the pull of the beautiful, bold, loving Elsa Cohen, because breaking her would crush him.

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

PROLOGUE

FAMILIAR FEELING

Corey

Then…

It was not a good idea to roll up to his son’s baseball game in a chauffeur-driven town car.

However, it was either that or miss another one of Hale’s games.

No, that was incorrect.

It was either that or miss the entire season, since this was the championship, and until then, Corey hadn’t been to a single game.

But weather had been atrocious in Minneapolis, where he’d been that morning. Their takeoff had been delayed for over three hours.

One of his assistants had made all the plans, and Corey should have had plenty of time to get home, get changed and drive to the field in one of his personal vehicles, all of which were high-performance, and thus expensive. But they weren’t chauffeur-driven town cars.

Regretfully, after their late takeoff, that became impossible.

But he couldn’t miss another game. Sam would be livid, and Corey would have to put up with her attitude.

And his son Hale would be…

Corey didn’t finish that thought as he stood beside the bleachers in his ten-thousand-dollar bespoke suit trying to figure out what was happening on the field.

He’d never been into sports. However, since Hale played baseball, if Corey had more time, he’d look up the rules and regs, even read up on the history and watch a few games.

Although he didn’t know much about baseball, he could see his son’s natural ability. His focus. The ease with which he maneuvered his body, even at fifteen years old.

Watching him, Corey had a funny taste in his mouth because Hale reminded him of…

He didn’t finish that thought either.

Nevertheless, Corey was a busy man. He didn’t have time for much of anything, but work. If he had time, he’d have been at more than one of Hale’s games and would have learned by being there, not reading a book about the history of baseball.

He stood where he was, not-so-easily ignoring the attention he got from both sides of the bleachers.

Yes, Corey was wearing a suit that no doubt cost months of their mortgages.

Yes, Corey was in a suit, rather than wearing something far more casual, like everyone else.

Yes, his chauffeur was also his bodyguard, and the man was not only sticking close to his charge, but also being obvious about it.

Yes, Corey was more famous than many in that town, and considering it was Los Angeles, that was no small feat.

And yes, he was by far richer than any in that town, and that was no small feat either.

What made the attention not so easy to ignore wasn’t about any of that. Normally, he would have no issue with it. He was used to it. And in these instances, he could share it. Genny and Tom were in the bleachers watching Hale. As were their kids, Chloe, Matt and Sasha.

Or, as Corey understood it, but Sam did not, Hale’s real family were watching Hale play baseball.

Now, they never missed a game.

Genny—or America’s Sweetheart, Imogen Swan—wasn’t richer than Corey, but she was far more famous. Tom, partly by association, was as well, considering he wasn’t only Genny’s husband, but many said he was one of the greatest tennis players ever to play the game.

And Corey could feel their censure, particularly Tom’s.

Tom was a busy man too, but he’d cut off his own arm before he’d miss something important to his wife or one of his children. In fact, if the situation came up (and it had), Tom would fly from Australia to LA just to walk Genny down a red carpet, then fly right back in order to continue commentating the matches, which was what he did now that he’d retired.

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Advertisement Making the Match (River Rain #4) Read Online Kristen Ashley http://www.books2020.com/making-the-match-river-rain-4-read-online-kristen-ashley Sat, 01 Oct 2022 08:38:50 +0000 http://www.booksnovels.com/making-the-match-river-rain-4-read-online-kristen-ashley Genre: Contemporary, Drama, Erotic, Romance Authors: Kristen Ashley Series: River Rain Series by Kristen Ashley
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Total pages in book: 129
Estimated words: 131459 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 657(@200wpm)___ 526(@250wpm)___ 438(@300wpm)

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Decades ago, tennis superstar Tom Pierce and “It Girl” Mika Stowe met at a party.

Mika fell in love. Tom was already in love with his wife. As badly as Tom wanted Mika as a friend, Mika knew it would hurt too much to be attracted to this amazing man and never be able to have him.

They parted ways for what they thought would be forever, only to reconnect just once, when unspeakable tragedy darkens Mika’s life.

Years later, the impossible happens.

A time comes when they’re both unattached.

But now Tom has made a terrible mistake. A mistake so damaging to the ones he loves, he feels he’ll never be redeemed.

Mika has never forgotten how far and how fast she fell when she met him, but Tom’s transgression is holding her distant from reaching out.

There are matchmakers in their midst, however.

And when the plot has been unleashed to make that match, Tom and Mika are thrown into an international intrigue that pits them against a Goliath of the sports industry.

Now they face a massive battle at the same time they’re navigating friendship, attraction, love, family, grief, redemption, two very different lives lived on two opposite sides of a continent and a box full of kittens

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

PROLOGUE

THE GOOD ONE

Corey

Decades ago…

He didn’t think he’d gain entry.

But when he knocked, the door opened, and one of the groomsmen looked at him, then glanced over his shoulder, he heard the familiar deep voice call, “Let him in.”

Corey entered and saw immediately that the groom had prepared for Corey’s visit.

As, of course, he would.

He was not stupid.

Corey knew he’d prepared because, with a nod and a look, but not a word, all the groomsmen filed out.

Corey did not see joyous-wedding-day expressions on their faces when each man caught his eye as he left the room.

That wasn’t about them having any apprehension about what was to happen that day or the woman their friend was about to tie the rest of his life to.

It was because they all detested Corey and perhaps knew why he was there.

Or they thought they did.

His face void of expression, Corey met every eye.

He was used to this, especially with the male gender. Men never knew what to do when another man was in their orbit who was smarter than them in a way they’d never equal him— and worse for them, richer just the same.

Especially ones with huge egos like these men had.

And on that thought, the door closed behind the last and Corey turned to Tom Pierce.

“I know,” Tom started. “If I hurt her—”

“I will have her.”

Tom’s mouth snapped shut and his eyes, annoyingly always filled with wit and intelligence, turned shrewd.

Another annoying thing about Tom Pierce?

Not only was he the most talented tennis player on the planet—a player who turned that wit and intelligence against opponents so that he not only prevailed through physical prowess, he outthought them.

(As an aside, this was, to Corey’s way of thinking, worse than someone humiliating you after serving an ace, then doing it again, and again, and then again, something Pierce did often—his serve was, as one of his rivals put it, like trying to return a bullet.)

He was also one of the most handsome men on the planet.

He was not built like a tennis player. He was built like a football player, his tall body packed with power. This being what made his serve so terrifying, not to mention his return.

Dark hair.

Dark eyes.

Classic looks, square jaw, strong chin, high cheekbones.

The first time Corey heard his name was overhearing office talk. Someone’s assistant was talking about “that tennis guy, Pierce,” who “looks like JFK, Jr., but more handsome.”

When Corey saw a photo of him, he noted she was not wrong.

When Genny phoned him and said, “Corey, I think I’ve met the man I’m going to marry,” and that man was Tom Pierce, Corey’s heart cracked in two.

Last, when Corey had met Tom, he knew what Genny knew.

She would never truly be his.

But Pierce would always be hers.

And he’d be happy with that.

As to the matter at hand…

“You would not be the first to break her, or the best,” Corey jibed.

Pierce, damn the man, didn’t give him anything. Not a sneer, a flinch, or even an eye twitch, his ability to hold his own against Corey was something else he didn’t like about the guy.

Corey carried on, “I put her together before, I’ll put her together again.”

At that, Pierce spoke.

“Let’s not pretend that’s what you’re angling for.”

“And what am I angling for?” Corey pushed.

It was a mistake.

His first for so long, he didn’t realize it, not then.

“You hope this will crash and burn, like she and Holloway crashed and burned, because you hope she’ll eventually give up on men she actually wants and settle for one she doesn’t want, but he wants her.”

Truly.

Corey hated this man.

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Advertisement Taking the Leap (River Rain #3) Read Online Kristen Ashley http://www.books2020.com/taking-the-leap-river-rain-3-read-online-kristen-ashley Wed, 23 Feb 2022 19:28:13 +0000 http://www.booksnovels.com/taking-the-leap-river-rain-3-read-online-kristen-ashley Genre: Alpha Male, Contemporary, Drama, Romance Authors: Kristen Ashley Series: River Rain Series by Kristen Ashley
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Total pages in book: 144
Estimated words: 147540 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 738(@200wpm)___ 590(@250wpm)___ 492(@300wpm)

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Read Online Books/Novels:	Taking the Leap (River Rain #3)
Author/Writer of Book/Novel:	Kristen Ashley
Language:	English
ISBN/ ASIN:	1952457688 (ISBN13: 9781952457685)
Book Information:
From New York Times bestselling author Kristen Ashley comes the new book in her River Rain series, Taking the Leap. Alexandra Sharp has been crushing on her co-worker, John “Rix” Hendrix for years. He’s her perfect man, she knows it. She’s just not his perfect woman, and she knows that too. Then Rix gives Alex a hint that maybe there’s a spark between them that, if she takes the leap, she might be able to fan into a flame. This leads to a crash and burn, and that’s all shy Alex needs to catch the hint never to take the risk again. However, with undeniable timing, Rix’s ex, who broke his heart, and Alex’s family, who spent her lifetime breaking hers, rear their heads, gearing up to offer more drama. With the help of some matchmaking friends, Rix and Alex decide to face the onslaught together… As a fake couple.
Books in Series:	River Rain Series by Kristen Ashley
Books by Author:	Kristen Ashley

Prologue

Someone like Me

Alex

It was happening.

He was flirting with me.

John “Rix” Hendrix, the coolest guy I’d ever met, the most interesting person I’d ever known, the most handsome man I’d ever seen, was flirting…

With…

Me.

And I was somehow managing to flirt back (kind of).

Okay, I might be relying on something from Moscow to do so (that something being their mules), but it was happening.

And I knew I wasn’t making more of it than I should.

I knew that because Chloe and Judge were with us. We were out having drinks, celebrating the official beginning of our new Trail Blazer program (that day, Judge, Rix and I had signed on to new job titles with new responsibilities and new salaries with the expanded program—I got a promotion and a fifteen percent raise!—definitely worth sitting down to drinks with the man who terrified me most on this earth).

Chloe was giving Rix and me smug looks, but mostly me, and once, she’d even winked at me.

As an aside: Chloe Pierce, my boss Judge’s girlfriend, was the coolest, most interesting, most gorgeous woman I’d ever met.

And even though (fortunately, so far, though maybe not now?) Rix had missed it, but although she hadn’t said anything, I knew Chloe knew I was crushing on Rix…big time.

And I had been.

Crushing on Rix.

Big time.

She was happy for me.

I was happy for me!

Because Rix was flirting with me.

Me!

And the reason why this was crazy was not only because he was cool and interesting and handsome, and as yet, such a man had never shown any interest in me (no, the men who had shown interest in me lacked one or more of those qualities).

It was because I was, well…

Me.

First off, I was shy around cute guys (okay, I was just plain shy, but it got a lot worse around guys, and off-the-charts worse around cute ones).

Not to mention, I knew how to put on mascara, I just wasn’t a big fan of wearing it (so, unless it was a super special occasion, or I was with my family, I didn’t).

I had a little house up in the mountains (TBH, it was more like a big shack), but I was rarely in it because there were a lot better places to be (and my house was awesome, I just had a ton of interests and not a lot of them happened in my house).

I knew how to cook in a kitchen, but I cooked way better over a campfire (and in a hot coal pit).

There were Star Trek nerds, I was just a star nerd (that being, lying under them at night in the middle of nowhere and staring at them until I fell asleep).

I would rather snowshoe into a forest in the dead of winter, set up a tent and spend a couple of days in nature, reading by a headlamp at night cozied up in a one-woman sleeping bag in a one-person tent than sit by a fireside during a snowstorm with a mug of hot cocoa (though, that was nice too).

Many women didn’t get me.

Men didn’t either, and it was actually more men who didn’t get me than it was women because I wasn’t stereotypically womanly. Most woman got there were lots of different kinds of women. Most men (in my experience) weren’t that broad minded.

No, actually, it was more my family who didn’t get me than anyone else.

My family didn’t get me at all.

Which wasn’t really surprising, seeing as I didn’t get them either.

“Sexy as fuck,” Rix was saying.

I came out of my musings to focus on his words.

Words he was aiming at me (me!).

Words of which one of them was “sexy.”

A flutter assaulted my belly at hearing his gravelly voice utter that word (at me).

“What?” I whispered, like talking louder might break the spell of how close he was sitting, leaned in even closer, talking to me, but doing it with his attention centered right…on…me.

Yowza.

“That glass dome glamp sitch in Joshua Tree,” he answered, reminding me what we’d been talking about. “Never thought I’d say those words, glamping is better than not camping at all, it just isn’t my gig. But it was just that fuckin’ awesome. Bedding down under the stars at night…”

Oh my God!

He was into sleeping under the stars just like me!

“Waking up with the sun…”

That wasn’t as great as stars, but it was cool.

Something happened to his eyes which saw results in specific parts of my body before he finished.

“The shower that was top and sides all glass. Getting wet and clean with a near-on three-hundred-and-sixty-degree view of the Joshua trees and the desert. Only thing missing was I didn’t take a woman with me.”

He stopped speaking.

Shoot.

That meant it was my turn.

“You’ll have to…” My voice was clogged due to the fact my mind was on Rix in a shower that was all glass. Rix…wet and slick and slippery…in a shower that was all glass. So I cleared my throat, and when I did, his lips hitched in a way that those specific parts of my body, already perked, became veritably primed. “Text me the deets for that. I, uh…don’t usually glamp but…”

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Advertisement Chasing Serenity (River Rain #1) Read Online Kristen Ashley http://www.books2020.com/chasing-serenity-river-rain-1-read-online-kristen-ashley Wed, 08 Sep 2021 08:01:36 +0000 http://www.booksnovels.com/chasing-serenity-river-rain-1-read-online-kristen-ashley Genre: Contemporary, Erotic, Romance Authors: Kristen Ashley Series: River Rain Series by Kristen Ashley
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Total pages in book: 152
Estimated words: 156146 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 781(@200wpm)___ 625(@250wpm)___ 520(@300wpm)

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Read Online Books/Novels:	(River Rain #1) Chasing Serenity
Author/Writer of Book/Novel:	Kristen Ashley
Language:	English
ISBN/ ASIN:	1952457564 (ISBN13: 9781952457562)
Book Information:
New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Kristen Ashley brings a new novel in her River Rain series… From a very young age, Chloe Pierce was trained to look after the ones she loved. And she was trained by the best. But when the man who looked after her was no longer there, Chloe is cast adrift—just as the very foundation of her life crumbled to pieces. Then she runs into tall, lanky, unpretentious Judge Oakley, her exact opposite. She shops. He hikes. She drinks pink ladies. He drinks beer. She’s a city girl. He’s a mountain guy. Obviously, this means they have a blowout fight upon meeting. Their second encounter doesn’t go a lot better. Judge is loving the challenge. Chloe is everything he doesn’t want in a woman, but he can’t stop finding ways to spend time with her. He knows she’s dealing with loss and change. He just doesn’t know how deep that goes. Or how ingrained it is for Chloe to care for those who have a place in her heart, how hard it will be to trust anyone to look after her… And how much harder it is when it’s his turn.
Books in Series:	River Rain Series by Kristen Ashley
Books by Author:	Kristen Ashley

Prologue

The Lecture

Corey

Fifteen years ago…

Genny was doing something in the kitchen with a summer salad. Tom was off with Matt at their club, playing tennis, destined, from a recent call from Tom, to be home soon in order to eat the dinner Genny was preparing. Sasha was doing cartwheels on the beach.

And Chloe was on the terrace, arms crossed on her chest, ostensibly keeping an eye on her little sister, but mostly glaring at the sun glinting off the sea.

To Corey’s mind, when it came to Tom and Genny’s children, he thought Matt was okay. Too much like his father, a man who Corey put up with, but Corey had no patience for anyone, especially men, who got everything easy in life, like Tom Pierce had.

Life was not easy.

You suffered for what you earned.

Worked for it.

Cheated for it.

Stole for it.

Whatever you had to do to get it.

Tom, his looks, his talent on the tennis courts, his easygoing manner, sly smile, and inability to put up with any shit, it all fell in his lap.

Including Genny.

Sweet, beautiful, talented Genny. One, if not the most beloved actress in America.

Sasha, Genny’s youngest, Corey simply did not understand. Although she had some of Genny’s features, including her sunshiny blonde hair, she was not like either her mother or her father.

Or anyone Corey knew.

But Chloe, the eldest…

If she didn’t so look like Tom, she could be Corey’s child.

Smart as fuck.

Shrewd as hell.

Chloe Pierce calculated any situation she was in within seconds, deciphering what outcome would serve her purposes the best, and then she set about doing that.

And she was ten.

Corey adored her.

So now, seeing her seething about something, he went out to the terrace, and he did this not only because, as Genny’s nearly life-long friend, Corey was there, as he often was, for dinner with the family, and Genny was busy with cooking, so he was bored.

He did it because he was interested in whatever was occupying Chloe Pierce’s mind.

As he approached, Chloe sent him a ten-year-old’s version of a look that said fuck off.

And he adored her more.

There were fair few people on that earth who had the courage to send him looks like that, considering he’d amassed the wealth, and thus the power, to buy and sell practically anyone.

Corey ignored the look and moved to the lounge chair next to where she sat at the end of hers, close to the sheet of clear glass set into the railing of a terrace of a house that rested above the cliffs of Malibu.

He sat on his chair’s end too.

“Spill,” he ordered.

“I don’t wanna talk, Uncle Corey.”

“Want to,” he corrected, and heard her instantly suck her teeth in annoyance at the criticism.

Corey fought smiling.

“I’ll repeat, spill,” Corey pressed.

She didn’t.

Corey waited.

She still didn’t.

Corey continued to wait.

Chloe was no fool. In fact, there wasn’t any vestige of that trait in any cell of her body.

She knew her Uncle Corey would have what he wanted.

So she didn’t push it any further.

“There’s…”

She trailed off, and Corey gave her more time.

She picked it up again. “Kids are bullying Matt at school.”

This took Corey by surprise.

Matthew Pierce was the vision of his father.

At nine years old, already tall, dark, with boyishly handsome features. He was gifted in athleticism. He was clever.

Though what he also was, was introverted.

He was not a leader, like Chloe (and Tom).

He was not outgoing, like Sasha (and Genny).

He was perfectly happy doing his own thing.

To the point, even at his age, living in a house full of people, he was reclusive.

Like Corey.

The perfect target for jealousy.

The perfect target for bullies.

“And this is your issue because…?” Corey asked.

Her head whipped around to him, and now she was giving him a ten-year-old’s look that said she thought he was stupid.

“He’s my brother,” she snapped.

“He can fight his own battles.”

“Well, he isn’t,” she retorted.

Corey found this interesting, but not startling.

In all probability, Matt couldn’t care less about the bullying.

Even at nine years old, his intellect was such (and his parents’ lessons were as well) that he was not unaware that the fates had seen fit to grant him more of almost everything than most people received.

The boy had happily married, exceptionally successful, wealthy, loving parents.

Good looks.

Brains.

Not to mention, if Tom kept honing it, what would be Matt’s version of physical excellence.

Matt Pierce didn’t need anyone, and not only because he already had it all.

That was just him.

He just didn’t.

“Has it occurred to you that your brother doesn’t care?” Corey inquired. “I’m sure it hasn’t escaped your notice that he’s perfectly fine in his own company.”

“It hasn’t, Uncle Corey, but bullies shouldn’t get away with being bullies. One,” Chloe returned.

One.

She had a list.

Corey fought a smile.

“Two,” she continued, “he’s my brother, and no one messes with my brother.”

He nodded and said nothing because he knew there was a three.

“And three,” she went on, “he’s a Pierce. And no one pulls crap with a Pierce.”

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Advertisement After the Climb Special Edition (River Rain #0.5) Read Online Kristen Ashley http://www.books2020.com/after-the-climb-special-edition-river-rain-0-5-read-online-kristen-ashley Sat, 17 Jul 2021 00:50:55 +0000 http://www.booksnovels.com/after-the-climb-special-edition-river-rain-0-5-read-online-kristen-ashley Genre: Alpha Male, Contemporary, Drama, Romance Authors: Kristen Ashley Series: River Rain Series by Kristen Ashley
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Total pages in book: 109
Estimated words: 113617 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 568(@200wpm)___ 454(@250wpm)___ 379(@300wpm)

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Read Online Books/Novels:	(River Rain #0.5) After the Climb Special Edition
Author/Writer of Book/Novel:	Kristen Ashley
Language:	English
ISBN/ ASIN:	B0992BTL4X
Book Information:
NEW, EXTENDED VERSION! With many new chapters, and introducing a new series character, this re-released Special Edition version of After the Climb is the book you have, but it’s also so much more! They were the Three Amigos: Duncan Holloway, Imogen Swan and Corey Szabo. Two young boys with difficult lives at home banding together with a cool girl who didn’t mind mucking through the mud on their hikes. They grew up to be Duncan Holloway, activist, CEO and face of the popular River Rain outdoor stores, Imogen Swan, award-winning actress and America’s sweetheart, and Corey Szabo, ruthless tech billionaire. Rich and very famous, they would learn the devastating knowledge of how the selfish acts of one would affect all their lives. And the lives of those they loved. Start the River Rain series with After the Climb, the story of Duncan and Imogen navigating their way back to each other, decades after a fierce betrayal. And introduce yourself to their families, who will have their stories told when River Rain continues.
Books in Series:	River Rain Series by Kristen Ashley
Books by Author:	Kristen Ashley

Prologue

The Meet

Corey

* * *

Forty-four years ago…

* * *

He stood beside Duncan and watched her go.

And as he watched her flounce away, all mad because Duncan was being a jerk, he knew he could watch her forever.

But she was walking away. They didn’t have forever. He knew that because, even though she was way down the creek before she made that turn into the woods, it seemed like it was all of a sudden that she was gone.

That was when he looked to his side and up, at Duncan.

Yeah, up.

Because Duncan was taller than him.

It wasn’t just being tall.

Duncan was a lot more “ers” than him.

And when Corey’s eyes got to Duncan’s head, he saw his best friend was still staring at the spot where she last was, like she was still there.

And Dun’s face was all weird.

Corey knew that weird.

He felt that weird.

Deep in his chest.

Like it’d been there all his life, even if he’d never felt it before.

It was a good weird.

Corey didn’t get it, but maybe it was the best weird ever.

No.

Duncan couldn’t feel that same thing.

Not for her.

Not for her.

“Why’d you have to do that?” Corey grumbled.

Dun didn’t even look at him when he replied, “I don’t know. I don’t know.”

He didn’t have to say it twice.

Why did he say it twice?

And why did he keep watching that place where she’d gone?

“She’s just a girl,” Corey muttered.

That was when Duncan finally looked at him.

And he knew.

They both knew.

Imogen wasn’t just a girl.

And she never would be.

Chapter 1

The Box

Imogen

* * *

My head came up when the Rolls made a turn and the road got bumpy.

We’d been following a mountain path for so long, the twists and turns, I’d been lulled. We were at least a half an hour, maybe longer, from the center of town.

Truth be told, to keep my mind from this upcoming meeting, I wished I didn’t get car sick when I focused on something while riding in a vehicle. I’d have been all over marathon texting one of my kids. Getting caught up on Insta. Playing that game I downloaded which I seemed to be able to get lost in for hours.

Hell, just last week, before I found out what had happened with Corey, my phone had warned I was at 10%. I’d looked at the time and it was two in the morning. I’d started playing when it was 8:30.

But then life changed.

I got the call.

Corey had killed himself.

Then I got other calls.

From my agent.

My publicist.

I needed to make a statement.

Corey Szabo, self-made tech billionaire behind Corza computers had committed suicide.

Corey.

Corey.

And, of course, being one of his dearest long-time friends, Imogen Swan, America’s sweetheart, had to have something public to say about it.

What to say about my beloved Corey?

My childhood friend.

The boy, and then man, who’d been in my life the longest.

There weren’t enough words in all the languages of the world to share how shattered I was that he’d taken his own life.

I closed my eyes tight, before I opened them and stared out the window at the thick trees we were (very slowly on this gravel road) passing.

Because this would be what Corey would do.

What was happening right now.

Me, on my way to visit Bowie.

Bowie hadn’t come to the funeral. I had no idea why. And I thought the worse of him for it.

Then again, it didn’t take much for me to think the worst of Bowie.

In grade school, all through high school, they’d been the best of friends.

Duncan “Bowie” Holloway and Corey “The Stick” Szabo.

The jock and the nerd.

Impossible.

But there you are.

Then, when Bowie got shot of me, he got shot of Corey.

I had no idea why.

On both counts.

Though, Bowie had told me, rather explicitly, if completely, tortuously and heartbreakingly erroneously, why he was done with me.

Therefore, it was only for Corey’s sake I would be in the back of that car right now, heading to Bowie’s house.

I knew he lived in Arizona, like I did.

I knew this because somehow, the fates had made him impossible to avoid.

Like Corey.

And me.

Knowing Duncan was that close, it had honest to God been the only reason why I hesitated moving my family from LA to Phoenix.

But he didn’t live in Phoenix.

And I was done with the industry, the traffic, the mudslides and fires, and it bears repeating, the industry, but I did not want cold, snow or the possibility of days filled with fighting what humidity did to my hair.

I’d talked Tom into it.

Then we moved to Phoenix.

Suddenly, the landscape opened up, and I wasn’t the only one in the car that gasped. Rodney, my driver did too.

Good Lord.

Was that…?

I clenched my teeth as my heart squeezed.

This would be what Duncan would pick if he had the money.

And he had the money.

So there he was.

That lake.

God.

And that house.

Sheer sprawling, rustic, monied perfection.

Even with the lake surrounded by the trees and mountains being such a breathtaking vision, I couldn’t take my eyes off the house as the Rolls rounded the graveled drive and came to a stop at the bottom of the steps that led to the carved-wood front door.

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Read Online Books/Novels:

Taking the Leap (River Rain #3)

Author/Writer of Book/Novel:

English

1952457688 (ISBN13: 9781952457685)

Read Online Books/Novels:

(River Rain #1) Chasing Serenity

Author/Writer of Book/Novel:

English

1952457564 (ISBN13: 9781952457562)

Read Online Books/Novels:

(River Rain #0.5) After the Climb Special Edition

Author/Writer of Book/Novel:

English

B0992BTL4X