Tempest Rising: Episode 1 (Rising Storm)

Tempest Rising

By Julie Kenner

Rising Storm

Episode 1

Story created by Julie Kenner and Dee Davis

Tempest Rising, Episode 1

Rising Storm

Copyright 2015 Julie Kenner and Dee Davis Oberwetter

ISBN: 978-1-942299-01-1

Published by Evil Eye Concepts, Incorporated

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the author’s rights.

This is a work of fiction. Names, places, characters and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination and are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or establishments is solely coincidental.

Book Description

Tempest Rising

By Julie Kenner

Rising Storm, Episode 1

Secrets, Sex and Scandals …

Welcome to Storm, Texas, where passion runs hot, desire runs deep, and secrets have the power to destroy… Get ready. The storm is coming.

Nestled among rolling hills and painted with vibrant wildflowers, the bucolic town of Storm, Texas, seems like nothing short of perfection.

But there are secrets beneath the facade. Dark secrets. Powerful secrets. The kind that can destroy lives and tear families apart. The kind that can cut through a town like a tempest, leaving jealousy and destruction in its wake, along with shattered hopes and broken dreams. All it takes is one little thing to shatter that polish.

Ginny Moreno didn’t mean to do it, but when she came home to Storm, she brought the tempest with her. And now everyone will be caught in its fury…

About Julie Kenner

Julie Kenner (aka J. Kenner) is the New York Times, USA Today, Publishers Weekly, Wall Street Journal and #1 international bestselling author of over seventy novels, novellas, and short stories in a variety of genres.

Praised by Publishers Weekly as an author with a flair for dialogue and eccentric characterizations, JK writes a range of stories including super sexy romances, paranormal romance, chick lit suspense, paranormal mommy lit, and, with Rising Storm, small town drama. Her trilogy of erotic romances, The Stark Trilogy (as J. Kenner), reached as high as #2 on the New York Times list and is published in over twenty countries, and her Demon-Hunting Soccer Mom series (written as Julie Kenner) has been optioned by Warner Brothers Television for the CW Network.

A former attorney, JK lives in Central Texas with her husband, two daughters, and several cats. One of her favorite weekend activities is visiting small towns in the Texas Hill Country. Visit her website at www.juliekenner.com and connect with JK through social media at http://www.facebook.com/juliekennerbooks,

http://www.facebook.com/jkennerbooks, http://www.twitter.com/juliekenner, and as @juliekenner on Instagram.

Also from Julie Kenner

For more information visit juliekenner.com/

Dark Pleasures

Caress of Darkness

Find Me in Darkness

Find Me in Pleasure

Find Me in Passion

Caress of Pleasure

Demon-Hunting Soccer Mom Series

Carpe Demon

California Demon

Demons Are Forever

The Demon You Know

Deja Demon

Demon Ex Machina

Pax Demonica

Blood Lily Chronicles (urban fantasy romance)

Tainted

Torn

Turned

The Blood Lily Chronicles (boxed set)

Protector Superhero Series

The Cat's Fancy (prequel)

Aphrodite's Kiss

Aphrodite's Passion

Aphrodite's Secret

Aphrodite's Flame

Aphrodite's Embrace

Aphrodite’s Delight

Aphrodite’s Charms (boxed set)

Dead Friends and Other Dating Dilemmas

Writing as J. Kenner

Stark Series

Release Me

Claim Me

Complete Me

Stark Ever After novellas

Take Me

Have Me

Play My Game

Stark International novellas

Tame Me

Stark International Trilogy

Say My Name

On My Knees

Under My Skin

Most Wanted

Wanted

Heated

Ignited

Devil May Care Series

(with Dee Davis)

Raising Hell (Julie Kenner)

Hell Fire (Dee Davis)

Sure As Hell (Julie Kenner)

Hell’s Fury (Dee Davis)

Acknowledgments from the Author

For Dee. Who rode the storm with me.

And for Liz and MJ, for helping the storm to brew!

Foreword

Dear reader –

We have wanted to do a project together for over a decade, but nothing really jelled until we started to toy with a kernel of an idea that sprouted way back in 2012 … and ultimately grew into Rising Storm.

We are both excited about and proud of this project—not only of the story itself, but also the incredible authors who have helped bring the world and characters we created to life.

We hope you enjoy visiting Storm, Texas. Settle in and stay a while!

Happy reading!

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Rising Storm story

Storm Season: Ginny & Jacob – the Prequel

by Dee Davis

Table of Contents

Book Description

About Julie Kenner

Also from Julie Kenner

Author Acknowledgments

Foreword

Family Trees

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Rising Storm

Teaser for White Lightning: Rising Storm Episode 2 by Lexi Blake

1001 Dark Nights

Special Thanks

Family Trees

Allen Family

Alvarez Family

Douglas Family

Grossman Family

Johnson Family

Moreno Family

Murphy Family

Prager Family

Rush Family

Salt Family

Chapter One

Pounding rain battered the roof of Ginny Moreno’s twenty-year-old Toyota Camry, and she tightened her grip on the steering wheel even as she leaned forward, as if that would somehow help her see through the impenetrable sheets of rain. A flash of lightning illuminated the dense trees that lined this section of the country road, turning them temporarily into grasping skeletons. A crack of thunder shook the car and Ginny jumped, then cursed herself for being so on edge.

Beside her, Jacob took his feet off the dashboard. Want me to drive? he asked gently.

I can drive my own damn car, she snapped.

He held up his hands as if in supplication. Sorry. I just thought...

He trailed off with a shrug, but Ginny knew exactly what he’d been thinking. Jacob Salt had been her best friend since forever, and he knew how much she hated thunderstorms—and why. He’d been at her house the morning that Dillon Murphy, then just a deputy, had come to the door and delivered the news. An eighteen-wheeler had lost control on the rain-slicked surface of Interstate 10 in San Antonio. Her parents had been coming home from a concert.

They’d died instantly.

So, yeah, Jacob got it. And even though Ginny might be pissed at him right now, she knew that he was only trying to help.

I’m fine, she lied. I just want to get past Bryson’s Creek before it floods, okay? That was the trouble with the Texas Hill Country. It might be absolutely beautiful, but with the latticework of creeks and rivers, flash flooding was a common thing, especially in the summer when rain clouds tended to roll through on a daily basis.

Bryson’s Creek intersected the country road just past the Storm city limits, and right then, all Ginny wanted was to be home. She wanted to see her little brother Luis. And, yeah, she even wanted to see her older sister Marisol, who was half parent and half pain-in-the-butt.

For the first time since she’d started at the University of Texas, Ginny was excited about coming back home for the summer. The year had been weird for a lot of reasons, mostly because of men she had slept with even though she probably shouldn’t have. And, yeah, men included the guy sitting next to her, otherwise known as her best friend and The Guy Who Should Have Been Off Limits.

So, yeah. She needed a breather. She needed Storm.

And, yes, she knew she was being bitchy. But that was only because he’d been such an ass lately.

We probably should have left earlier. Avoided the storm and gotten home before dark. He spoke casually, as if he had no clue that anything other than the storm was bothering her. Then again, wasn’t that the problem? Ever since that night, he’d acted like there was absolutely nothing filling the space between them.

I had to work, Ginny said. Some of us have jobs at school. And you didn’t have to drive with me. You have a car, too, you know.

He popped a CD into the player. Max wanted to borrow it, he said, referring to his roommate. It’s not like I need it in Storm, he added, his voice rising a bit to be heard over George Strait, whose soothing, sexy voice now filled the car, competing with the timpani of the rain on the roof.

It was The Chair, the same song that had been playing the night they’d sat on the roof drinking tequila. The night they’d done so much more than just talk.

What the hell was the matter with him? Was he intentionally rubbing it in?

Can you turn that down? It’s already loud enough in the car with the rain pelting us.

We should have stopped in Fredericksburg, he said, referring to the popular Hill Country tourist destination about an hour