Summer Seduction

By Rachel Van Dyken

#1 New York Times bestselling author Rachel Van Dyken delivers a sexy three-book enemies to lovers, new adult, angsty romance with a Dirty Dancing twist!

Marlo and Ray's story continues...

I wanted revenge.
And I got it in the best way possible.
Ray has always driven me insane, now that we're older, all I want is to make her feel the pain she put me through for four years.
And then suddenly, everything shifts and I realize I just want her.
It's bad enough that I'm the camp director — her boss.
Our love is equal to our hate for one another and the burning tension between us refuses to relent. If anything it's gotten worse.
I push her.
She pushes back.

Passion, whether it be born of love or hate — is a powerful beast, one I'm refusing to tame.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Rachel Van Dyken
• Release date: Jul 21, 2021
• ISBN: 9781732142855

Rachel Van Dyken

Rachel Van Dyken is the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and USA Today Bestselling author of regency and contemporary romances. When she's not writing you can find her drinking coffee at Starbucks and plotting her next book while watching The Bachelor.She keeps her home in Idaho with her Husband and their snoring Boxer, Sir Winston Churchill. She loves to hear from readers! You can follow her writing journey at www.rachelvandykenauthor.com

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Summer Seduction

Cruel Summer, Book 2

by Rachel Van Dyken

Copyright © 2018 RACHEL VAN DYKEN

This is a work of fiction. Names, places, characters, and events are fictitious in every regard. Any similarities to actual events and persons, living or dead, are purely coincidental. Any trademarks, service marks, product names, or named features are assumed to be the property of their respective owners, and are used only for reference. There is no implied endorsement if any of these terms are used. Except for review purposes, the reproduction of this book in whole or part, electronically or mechanically, constitutes a copyright violation.

SUMMER SEDUCTION

Copyright © 2018 RACHEL VAN DYKEN

ISBN-13: 978-1-7321428-5-5

Cover Design by Jena Brignola

Formatting by Jill Sava, Love Affair With Fiction

Table of Contents

Front Matter

Dedication

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Sixteen

Chapter Seventeen

Chapter Eighteen

Chapter Nineteen

Chapter Twenty

Chapter Twenty-One

Chapter Twenty-Two

Chapter Twenty-Three

Chapter Twenty-Four

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Acknowledgments

About The Author

Also By Rachel Van Dyken

To summer crushes and the way they make us feel, to sunshine and first kisses and everything in between.

Chapter One

Marlon

My body was stiff.

My breathing heavy.

I could still feel her thighs clenching around me. The girl who had gotten away. The spoiled princess I used to hate. Now a woman with swollen lips staring at me as if I’d just pulled her heart from her body and ripped it to pieces — smiling at me all the while.

I lifted my hands to cup her face. Ray—

Don’t you fucking touch me, she said in a harsh whisper as more male laughter sounded around us.

We couldn’t leave.

If I left, people would assume the shower was empty. They would know.

If she left, the same thing would happen.

We were trapped in a wet sex-filled Hell.

I couldn’t tell if the moisture on her face was tears or water from the shower spray. All I knew was I had to fix it. I had to fix that look. I had to make it better.

Because as much as I wanted to be that guy — the one who used revenge sex to make the girl who’d hurt him in high school feel like shit — I wasn’t.

Not with her.

She was…

She had been…

Would always be…

Everything to me.

All it had taken was a succession of vulnerable moments followed by vulnerable moments where I saw the girl I used to know shadowed by the girl she was forced to be, and I was lost.

Ray, I tried again, lowering my voice. She let me touch her this time, but she refused to look at me. It’s not what you think.

She shook her head and then covered her breasts with her arms. Her eyes zeroed in on her lacy black underwear floating by my feet. They probably cost more than my entire wardrobe, those underwear. It was a weird thing to fixate on.

It’s fine, she whispered. We both wanted it. We both got it. End of story.

I clenched my jaw and cornered her against the wall. Don’t fucking say that, Ray.

She jerked her head to attention; her face was indifferent, her pretty blonde hair was wet and sticking to her cheeks. She’d never been more beautiful than after we were together. It was why she’d broken me, because she’d allowed me to let her bloom then closed up minutes later.

And they said history repeated itself.

What? She shrugged a shoulder. It’s just sex, right?

I narrowed my eyes. You’re better than that, and you know it.

You aren’t, she snapped. What’s this about revenge sex and one-night stands? You know what? You wanted your revenge. Her lips trembled. Congratulations, you just got it.

Ray—

Fingers crossed you got me pregnant! she shouted over her shoulder, picking up her wet underwear and tugging them on. Bonus points if you tell the entire staff that you fucked me in the shower!

I didn’t want to say they probably already knew since she was yelling so loud.

Ray, stop… I reached for her.

She jerked away from me, yanked open the curtain, and grabbed her shirt. She pulled it backward over her head. Leaving her caddy and everything but her flip-flops, she ran out past a wide-eyed Jackson and Brax.

The door to the bathroom closed.

I slammed my hand against the tile again and again.

Dude… Jackson looked between me and Brax. What the hell, man?

I didn’t know she was in here. Brax looked pale. I swear, I had no idea, but hey, at least you finally did the deed. Now you can move on and—

I punched him before he could say more, nabbing him in the right eye at least twice before Jackson pulled me off him.

Chill the fuck out, Marlo! he roared. You can’t just punch your staff members. You’re the director!

I’m murdering him! I seethed as visions of Ray’s face played on repeat in my head. Her pleasure. Her soft moans and gasps while I filled her. And then her pain. So much pain.

Whoa. Brax held his hands to his face. Shit, that hurts. Marlo, I didn’t know, and even then, why the hell do you even care? You just got the best revenge possible, and you have witnesses. Need I remind you that this is the girl who broke your heart and embarrassed you in front of the entire student body after sleeping with you in high school? So what. At least it’s a drama camp for high schoolers, and you guys are college graduates. You only have six more weeks of this hell anyway. Just leave it.

I wiped my face with my bare hands and grabbed my towel, wrapped it around my waist, and then shook out my right hand.

What’s done is done, Jackson said in a calm voice. It doesn’t leave this room, all right?

Yeah. I exhaled a pissed-off breath that did nothing to calm me down. I could still feel her on my skin, taste her on my tongue, and no sane part of me wanted to keep quiet about how good it was between us.

About how good it could have been if I hadn’t let my anger rule my emotions.

I didn’t look back as I made my way outside the bathroom. Every muscle was taut as I angrily shoved the door open to my cabin and dropped my towel to get dressed.

It was going to be a hell of a long day.

Chapter Two

Ray

My hands shook as I tried to grab myself a cup of coffee. I hadn’t really showered, not the way a human is supposed to. And because of that, I smelled the sex between us.

No matter how many times I sipped the searing coffee in an effort to burn away his taste from my tongue, it existed. It was there.

I squeezed my eyes shut.

I closed off my mind to the way he’d looked at me — as if I was special.

The world was a cruel monster. I knew this. I just didn’t expect his hatred to run that deep for me, that he would pretend to care and then just strip away one of the only things I kept close to myself. He didn’t know that, though.

He didn’t know that the only other guy I’d ever given myself to…

Had been him.

Willingly.

I’d gone willingly twice.

And both times had been burned for different reasons.

It was the universe telling me it was wrong. All of it.

I wiped a fallen tear that decided to make its presence known all over my makeup-free face. My skin felt hot to the touch, as if he’d somehow managed to bruise the outside as well as the inside. I wiped another tear, then another.

This was the time when a girl normally called her best friend, someone who cared about her, who wouldn’t judge her despite her bad choices. Or at the very least, went to her mom and proclaimed that all men should burn in Hell while said mom gave her ice cream and a hug.

I had no one to hug.

And I’d never felt so alone.

Not even when he had died.

Not even then.

Because at least that day my parents had hugged me.

It was the only time I’d ever felt truly close to them.

The best twenty-four hours of my life — when I had felt like I was a part of a family, where it was okay to grieve and shout how unfair the world was.

My stomach revolted as if preparing to puke.

He had touched me.

He’d made me feel alive.

Wanted.

Cherished.

And now I was used. Dirty. Just a game.

A revenge plot gone wrong. Or maybe for him, horribly right.

I couldn’t stop the shaking as my teeth started to chatter. Maybe it was possible to go into shock from heartache. Maybe that pain would get so severe I would just collapse against the coffee machine.

Would anyone even care if I did?

Would my parents even answer their phones?

Hey… Jen touched my arm. How long had she been standing there? Are you okay?

Great, I lied. Just… fantastic.

Yeah, I cry when I’m feeling fantastic too, she joked.

A warm summer breeze picked up as the door to the mess hall opened. It seduced me with its smell, with its promise of good things.

And then trampled all over me when I