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  Picture Perfect Summer

  Copyright © 2018 by Marquita Valentine

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, transmitted downloaded, distributed, stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, without express permission of the author, except by a reviewer who may quote brief passages for review purposes.

  This book is a work of fiction and any resemblance to any person, living or dead, or any events or occurrences, is purely coincidental. The characters and story lines are created from the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.

  Cover Design: Hang Le

  Proofreading: Read by Rose

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  Table of Contents

  Copyright Page

  Picture Perfect Summer (Kings of Castle Beach, #3)

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2 | Duke

  Chapter 3 | True

  Chapter 4 | Duke

  Chapter 5 | True

  Chapter 6 | Duke

  Chapter 7 | True

  Chapter 8 | Duke

  Chapter 9 | True

  Chapter 10 | Duke

  Chapter 11 | True

  Chapter 12 | Duke

  Chapter 13 | True

  Chapter 14 | Duke

  Chapter 15 | True

  Chapter 16 | Duke

  Chapter 17 | Duke

  Part II

  Chapter 18 | Duke

  Chapter 19 | True

  Chapter 20 | Duke

  Chapter 21 | True

  Chapter 22 | Duke

  Chapter 23 | True

  Chapter 24 | Duke

  Chapter 25 | True

  Chapter 26 | True

  Chapter 27 | Duke

  Chapter 28 | True

  Chapter 29 | Duke

  Chapter 30 | True

  Chapter 30 | Duke

  Chapter 31 | True

  Chapter 32 | Duke

  Epilogue | Duke

  Also by Marquita Valentine

  About the Author

  Picture Perfect Summer

  It all started with a dare...

  He was supposed to be a summer fling, but Duke King made me fall in love with him and I spent the most perfect summer by his side.

  Then I met his wife—his pregnant wife.

  And I had no other choice but to leave Castle Beach for good.

  Ten years later, I’m back to sell my parents’ house and leave behind the memories of that perfect summer, once and for all.

  But my plans for a quick visit are hindered by a sexy single dad.

  I’m older and wiser, but so is he... and this time, he says he’s not going to let me go without a fight.

  Chapter 1

  True

  Only a dare could convince me to talk to the hot surfer as he waxed his board.

  Which is exactly what my best friend did two seconds earlier.

  “You can’t wimp out, True,” Sunny teases. “You totally pinky-swore.”

  I want to point out we’re twenty-two-year-old recent college graduates, not five-year-old kindergarteners, but Sunny won’t back down.

  Plus, I did pinky-swear and only the worst friend imaginable would break one.

  “Fine,” I huff, and Sunny cheers, beaded bracelets clicking together, and she claps in excitement.

  Pasting a confident smile on my face, I stand, tip up my chin, and saunter in his direction.

  “Go get ‘em, tiger,” she calls out.

  My face flames as half the beach turns to stare at us.

  “Just keep walking. Just keep walking,” I chant, the sand under my feet hot as all get out under the three o’clock sun.

  The object of my promise flips his board around and sets to working on it. His skin, brown from weeks, possibly months, in the sun gleams and his muscles... oh his muscles are divine. I want to forever commit them to memory.

  “Way out of your league, Prince,” I tell myself. “So far out he’s not even in the same galaxy.”

  Also, I’m pretty certain he already has a girlfriend, even if it’s only for the summer. The beach bunnies have been hopping around him for a while now, but he hasn’t acknowledged them once.

  Cold fear makes my heart stutter as I draw closer. Maybe that’s exactly why I should stay away. I mean, Sunny will understand if I tell her he’s taken. It’s not like I need hard facts to present to her.

  Basically, I can stand as close as possible to him, pretend to say something, wait a second for his non-reply, and then walk right back to her with the saddest, I got denied face that ever existed.

  I nod to myself. That will totally work.

  “Watch out!”

  Suddenly realizing that I’m practically on top of the hot surfer and not in a sexy way, I attempt to pivot but end up hitting my shin against his board.

  Pain shoots up to my brain and tears spring in my eyes. “Son of a motherfrecking biscuit eater.” Grabbing my leg, I hop up and down, yelping like a scalded dog.

  “Damn. Are you okay?” he says, dropping the wax and moving closer to me. “Thought you heard me.” He bends, visually inspecting my injury and sucks air through his teeth. “That’s going be a big one.”

  Still perfectly balanced on one leg, I peer at him. “Maybe not. I don’t bruise easily. It’s all good.”

  He raises his dark brows and pushes his long-ish brown hair out of his face before straightening to full height. “Then my work here is done.” With a grimace, he nudges his board up with his foot and executes a perfect one-handed catch. “Later.”

  Later? Oh hell, no. After all this I am not about to let him get away without a firm denial or affirmation of a summer girlfriend. I put my foot down, both literally and figuratively. “Wait.”

  He stops, his gaze quizzical. “Yeah?”

  “I’m True.” Extending my hand, I wait for him to take it. A beat later he does and I swear that all the swoony tingles I’ve read about whoosh over my entire body.

  “Duke.”

  Oh crap. “As in King?” As in the oldest son of the rival to Prince Global Shipping? Double crap. While I haven’t been forbidden to be in the company of a King, I’m fairly certain that my parents think I have the good sense to stay away from them. The only thing... because I don’t live in Castle Beach, I know next to nothing about the King siblings, and since I’ve been gone for the last four years, attending college at Arizona State to get my teaching degree, I haven’t caught up on the latest gossip about them.

  There’s always gossip about them.

  Duke’s mouth quirks, his full lips so sexy that I follow the movement. What can I say? I’m a mouth girl. Oh, and an arm girl.

  All right, so I’m the entire male body girl. Sue me.

  “’Fraid so,” he replies.

  I squint at him, jutting out my hip and planting a hand on it. “Should I be afraid?”

  “You’re an odd duck.” His gaze drops, a frown on his lips. “I was right.”

  “About what?” I ask, still mesmerized by him. This is really getting out of hand, but I can’t help myself.

  He gestures to my leg. “The bruise.”

  I glance down. Sure enough my leg’s beginning to look like a Rorschach image as it swells up to the size of the planet Jupiter.

  Or a grapefruit.

  You get the gist. “Awesome,” I mutter.

  Duke exhales heavily. “Let’s get some ice on it.”

  My face flushes at his obvious exasperation. “No. I’m fine. It’s fine. We’re all fine.”

  “We’re not all fine. I swung my board around when I should have waited for you to pass by me. Inste
ad, I got distracted by... other things.” Duke grabs my upper arm gently and just when I think he’s about to drag me to the boardwalk, he dips and swings me up in his arms. “Laird!”

  “Duke!” I flail a little, searching for Sunny. When I find her, she’s staring at us, dark brown eyes wide. As soon as she recovers, she gives me a thumbs-up and flops down on the towel, her work to land a man for her bestie, i.e. me, done.... Or so she thinks.

  Being carried in a swoony, hot guy’s arms due to an injury is not my idea of the perfect meet cute.

  “I got you, True,” he assures me, then raises his voice, “Laird King, get your ass out of the ocean, dammit.”

  “Ophelia,” he calls out, his voice way soothing again.

  “Is Ophelia your girlfriend?” I ask.

  Before he can answer, a young woman appears beside us, her dark hair wild and long. With her pale green eyes and shimmery blue-green one piece, she looks like a mermaid with legs.

  My heart sinks.

  I’m super bad at discerning age, so she could be a teenager or fully legal. Either way, she’s gorgeous in this sort of ethereal, heartbreaking way that I can’t compete with. While I’m not disappointed with what my momma gave me, I’m more like the girl next door.

  Trustworthy.

  Friendly.

  Easy to get along with.

  Like a golden retriever.

  I do like to fetch things for people...in need, anyway.

  “Laird’s coming in,” she says, head tilting toward the ocean.

  I follow her movement. A surfer, tall and broad-shouldered, hefts a surfboard under his arm as he emerges from the break in waves. His hair is bleached nearly white from the sun, but his smile... his smile is shadowed.

  As he gets closer, I can tell by the lack of heavy muscle on his bare, mostly hairless chest that he’s young. A teenager, but still, young.

  “What’s up?” He plants his board next to Duke’s.

  Duke shifts me in his arms, holding me out a little. It’s the nicest feeling ever to be held like this, in the strong arms of a man who smells like mango board wax, coconut, sunscreen, and the ocean, and makes all the tingles tickle my body. “Gotta take True to get some ice for her leg. Can you keep an eye on my stuff?”

  “That’s a new one,” Ophelia says.

  “Oh my gosh.” My eyes grow round. “I wasn’t hitting on your boyfriend. Swear it. I mean, yeah, Sunny dared me to come talk to Duke. But for sure, I was going to find out if he was taken or not.”

  Laird moves closer to Ophelia. They’re not quite touching, but even I can tell that there’s something going on. “Duke’s not her boyfriend.”

  “Besides being more like a little sister to me; I don’t date anyone under twenty,” Duke says, and I swear my face has to be as red as the board shorts Laird is wearing.

  “Twenty-two here,” I sputter, because I have no idea what to say that will make me look less like a fool and/or ease this awkward moment.

  “We’ll be back,” Duke says, taking charge.

  Halfway to the boardwalk, I find my voice. “You don’t have to go to all this trouble.”

  “Should I put you down?” he asks.

  I shake my head hard. “The bottom of my feet will burn off.”

  “Can’t have that,” he murmurs and cradles me closer as a group of kids rush by us, their laughter putting a smile on my face. “You like kids?”

  “Brand new teacher,” I chirp. “You?”

  “Would I be a monster if I said no?”

  “I don’t think it makes someone a monster not to like kids... as long as you like your own if you decide to have them. Someday.”

  The side of his mouth quirks. “That seems like a reasonable response.”

  “There seems to be a lack of those these days.” I grin as he carefully sets me on my feet. For a moment, I’m put off-balance as I look up at him. He’s really handsome and hot, and his eyes are the exact color of dark storm clouds.

  He frowns. “You okay?”

  I blink. “Totally. Except for the throbbing bruise.”

  “Now I feel even worse.” He runs a hand through his golden-brown hair. “Maybe I should buy you lunch, too.”

  “Dinner would be better,” I blurt. I pull at the corner of my bottoms, worrying a thread that’s been bothering me since we got here. “I mean, it’s too late for lunch. Obviously. So, dinner is even later and that would work better because I’m not hungry right now.”

  I sound like an idiot. An over-eager beaver of an idiot.

  “Dinner, huh?” He strokes his jaw, as if he’s really considering my proposition.

  Maybe he likes over-eager beavers?

  I tilt my head to one side, the thick braids Sunny plaited this morning swinging with the movement. His gaze washes over me and the admiring look in it makes me even bolder. I’ll only be here for the summer, so why not go for it?

  “Only if your girlfriend won’t mind. I mean, only if you don’t have a girlfriend, that is.” Okay, so my boldness doesn’t extend into other woman territory.

  He bites the side of his lip and I’m a goner. A total goner for a guy I just met and barely know.

  “I don’t have a girlfriend.”

  “So that means...?” I prompt, my heart beating a mile a second.

  “I’m free for dinner.”

  Chapter 2

  Duke

  I can’t say that agreeing to dinner with True is one of my best ideas, but it’s certainly not one of my worst.

  Not her fault, of course. I’m simply going through a lot of shit right now and adding a bubbly brunette to the equation isn’t wise.

  Except, I did smack her in the leg—accidentally—with my surfboard and... honestly? There’s something about her that makes me feel lighter. True’s smile or laugh, or the way she almost wriggled herself right out of my arms when she incorrectly thought Ophelia was my girlfriend.

  My mouth moves, forming a smile, an involuntary action that hasn’t happened this much in a long time. Hard to do when your dad kills himself and leaves you in charge of everything at only twenty-four.

  Running a hand though my hair, I exhale and focus on getting the ice True needs for the knot that’s formed on her leg. A purple and black lump that looks harsh against her golden skin.

  Yeah, I owe her dinner. Nothing more, nothing less.

  Then we will go our separate ways and I won’t see her again. Hell, I don’t even know her last name. However, she did know mine and that means she either wants the dirty details about us or she doesn’t know we are currently in limbo when it comes to finances.

  And by limbo, I mean broke as shit because the IRS has frozen almost all of King Global Shipping’s assets, along with my parents’ personal accounts.

  “Do you have a plastic bag that I can put this in?” I ask Ms. Janie at the counter of Bette’s Donuts. “My friend’s got a nasty bruise, courtesy of my board, so I’m trying to do the right thing and help her out.”

  Ms. Janie’s face turns sympathetic and she tsks. “Bless her.” She moves from the counter and toward the back, grabs a huge plastic bag, fills it halfway with ice “This should do it, but if you need more, come right back and I’ll fill ya up again.”

  “Thanks. How much do I owe you?” I ask as she ties and tosses it to me. I catch it against me neatly, the cold from the ice a shock.

  “Not a thing, honey.” She winks at me. “Go take care of your lady friend.”

  I grimace at her description, then return to True. She’s sitting at a high top, one tanned leg stretched out to rest in the opposite chair. Wisps of hair have fallen loose from the thick braids that rest on her shoulders. Her cheeks are pink from the sun. I let my gaze roam over her, taking in the curves of her body. The rise and fall of her chest as she breathes. The way her breasts fill out the triangle top of the bright blue bikini she’s wearing.

  “Oh good. You’re back,” she says. “Thought you were ghosting me.”

  Feeling a little pervy, I forc
e my gaze to her face, but she didn’t catch me staring, she’s too busy gazing out at the ocean. “Not my style.”

  “Dolphins.” She leans up in her chair, her face animated as she watches them ride a wave. “I wish I had my phone.”

  “Me, too.” But not for the dolphins.

  With a little sigh, she turns her attention to me. “You are a man of few words. By choice or by design?”

  “Design?”

  “You know, God made you made that way.” She doesn’t wait for an answer. “He made me the most talkative woman on the planet. Ask my parents. On second thought you don’t have to because you’ve been in my company for more than five seconds and know firsthand.”

  I don’t know exactly how to answer that, or if there was a question in the first place, so I move closer to her leg, gently placing the bag of ice on it. I watch her face after I get it on there, searching for a telltale sign of pain.

  “Owwww.” She sucks in air. “Okay, not that bad now. But the cold? Yikes.”

  “Sorry.”

  “Not your fault. You can’t help that ice is cold... unless ...” She wriggles her brows, “you have special super powers.” Her pretty eyes twinkle and I swear I want to laugh.

  “You’re going to make one hell of a teacher.” Unless she works with older kids. I can’t see high schoolers taking to her mile a minute bursts of talking. “What grade?”

  “Second grade. I’m so excited.” She frowns. “Except my new teaching job is in Arizona and my parents aren’t too thrilled with that.”

  “Does that mean you’re only here for the summer?” I ask and really, I shouldn’t because in the grand scheme of things, this encounter with True isn’t a game changer.

  She tilts her head to one side, eyes looking up. “Unless my parents convince me to stay here. They’re pulling out all the stops, too.”

  “What kind of stops?” I take a step back from her leg and lean against the table, so I can watch her expression as she talks.

  True holds up a hand, fist closed, then starts putting up one finger at a time. “Paid for apartment. New Car. Better pay. Seafood.”

  “Seafood?”

  She shrugs, grinning. “I’m easily persuaded by my favorite genre of food.”