Desperate Lovers Adam Carpenter (the reading list book txt) 📖

Rich looked up with newfound interest. Emerging from behind tinted windows were, in order, that officious yes-man prick, Russell Allen; Danvers Converse, the mastermind behind the land grab; and lastly, as though having achieved the final “and” status in a television show’s credits, the glowingly handsome Parker St. John. Rich crossed his arms, an obviously defiant move in light of the new arrivals. The three men strutted confidently up the cement path, stopping only when Converse approached Rich.

“You realize today’s meeting is a mere formality. We’ll have our land—and you’ll have nothing.”

“That’s the thing about the future, Danvers, no one knows what it holds.”

“Foolish man,” he said with a shake of his head. “Russell. Parker.

Come.”

Not the first time he’d demanded such a thing of them, Rich surmised. Danvers led, Russell followed. Parker, though, hung back and pulled Rich aside.

“So, Rich, we haven’t really had a chance to talk. It’s been a long time.”

“Not long enough, apparently. Parker…what do you want? Why are you doing this?”

“I have a right to that land.”

“Is that so? Why do you need all of our houses, isn’t Number

Two sufficient?”

“Some day, when you and I have a chance to be alone, I’ll

tell you everything.”

“I can’t see a time when that will be happening.”

Parker, his smile all dimples, looked gorgeous in tight blue jeans and a white dress shirt, opened at the neck to reveal a triangle of thick brown hair. Parker had certainly grown up since high school; back then he’d been short, skinny, barely pubescent, but still definitely cute. Now he was buff, sexy, hairy, and gorgeous with that tanned skin and irresistible dimples. Parker ran a hand over Rich’s rough cheek, scratching at the day’s scruff. Rich realized he didn’t pull back. Temptation stood before him, and he could never resist. Swallowing hard, he fought the urge to check out Parker’s package. For a second their eyes locked, heat firing their irises.

“Oh, I think we’ll have our moment, Rich,” he said, drawing a finger against Rich’s lips. “Destiny always knows its place.”

With that pronouncement, Parker St. John went inside the cool confines of the municipal building, leaving Rich alone with the warmth of the afternoon sun. Beads of sweat trickled down his brow, but somehow he suspected the warm temperatures had nothing to do with it.

Inside the meeting had just gotten under way, but Rich needed to wait a moment until the tightness in his pants receded. As he put a hand in his pocket to adjust himself, he found a piece of paper had been stuffed inside without him knowing. He unfolded it: “Bayside Hotel, Suite 901.

After the meeting.” For a moment Rich’s cock hardened again. The idea of sex right now sounded good, he knew he was turned on, and not by just one man. But which of them had left the note?

“Okay, we’ve now heard both sides of the argument,” said LeeAnn Lehman, addressing the assembled crowd, “and while both complainant and defendant paint compelling pictures for and against their plan, it is the consensus of this board that the Wonderland Palaces would be an ideal project for the Village of Wonderland, opening up vast new reservoirs of cash in this troubled economy. We must always look toward the future, even here in Wonderland….”

A rustle of disharmony erupted in the room, mostly from the residents of Eldon Court. Marc looked to Rich, who still stood in the back, had ever since he’d re-entered the building at the start of the meeting. He hadn’t spoken up at all, leaving all the talk to Edgar and Jack, the longest tenured residents who’d been designated to speak for them all. They’d been good, but perhaps a bit too emotional. Danvers Converse, and worse, his associate Russell Allen, had been scarily prepared, business-like, presenting the pros as though they came with no cons. And now the zoning board appeared ready to hand over their lives to these corrupt men.

With turncoat LeeAnn surprisingly leading the charge.

“Gentleman, ladies…please, let me finish my statement. While we do agree on the idea of the Wonderland Palaces, it’s this board’s decision that Eldon Court is not the place for it. We are prepared to offer alternate locations to Converse Properties, and as such not disrupt the harmony or the history of Eldon Court.”

Just then Danvers Converse stood up and yelled, “That unacceptable. We want that land, and only that land.”

Russell was trying to calm down his boss, and LeeAnn was attempting her best to maintain order in the room, as were her fellow board members. She banged down on the desk with a wooden gavel, as though this were a court of law and they could all be guilty of contempt. After the third hard blow, the crowd came to attention and all eyes focused on not the woman behind the gavel but the man who now stood before them all. It was easy to look at him, he was simply the most attractive man in the room, probably in all of Wonderland. Marc hated to admit that, but Parker St. John was true beauty. For a second he looked back at Rich, but Rich’s expression showed nothing, unlike Paolo, who sat beside him and was practically salivating at the sight of Parker. That’s when it dawned on Marc—of course, the guy Paolo had been blowing down on the beach, it had been Parker…

“With all due respect to the zoning board and to the dedicated, passionate citizens of Wonderland, I’m afraid it’s my turn to speak and to reveal a truth I’d been holding back on,” Parker said. The audience was suddenly rapt. “Ms. Lehman, my apologies for not stepping forward earlier, but it’s only in light of the board’s decision to deny Wonderland Palaces access to Eldon Court that I realize I need to come forward.

Russell, if you would?”

From a briefcase on Russell’s lap, a tattered manila envelope was handed off to Parker, who took hold of it with the ease of a man who knew just what was inside. “Wonderland has always prided itself