Consumed by Love (Written in the Stars Book 10) Read online

  Consumed by Love

  Written in the Stars Book 10

  C.M. Albert

  The unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal. Criminal copyright infringement (including infringement without monetary gain) is investigated by the FBI and is punishable by up to five years in federal prison and a fine of $250,000. Please purchase only authorized electronic editions and do not participate in, or encourage, the electronic piracy of copyrighted materials. Your support of the author’s rights is appreciated. This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the products of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons—living or dead—is entirely coincidental.

  CONSUMED BY LOVE (Written in the Stars Book 10)

  Genre: Contemporary Romance

  Copyright © 2020 by C.M. Albert | FlowerWork Press

  Cover by Marisa Wesley of Cover Me Darling, LLC

  Cover Photographer, Christopher John of CJC Photography

  Cover Models, B.T. Urruela and Rachael Baltes

  Editing by Crystal Shelley of Dot and Dash, LLC

  Formatting by Stephanie Anderson of Alt 19 Creative

  All rights reserved. Except for use in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work, in whole or in part, in any form by any electronic, mechanical, or other means now known or hereafter invented, is forbidden without the written permission of the author.

  FOREWORD

  Written in the Stars

  Dear readers,

  Do you believe in destiny? Or do you believe you drive your own fate when it comes to matters of the heart?

  The idea for the Written in the Stars series came about one afternoon as I was thinking about how intertwined we are with the universe and the cosmos—we’re made of stardust, after all. It got me thinking about astrology and whether something as celestial as our zodiac signs influence how we behave in love. Some may call it pseudoscience, while others use their horoscopes daily to make major life, love, and career decisions.

  That’s how this series was born!

  Twelve months. Twelve wickedly talented romance authors. All coming together to answer the age-old question—Does your horoscope decide your fate in love?

  You’ll have to decide for yourself as you binge-read your way through twelve deliciously sexy and deeply romantic stand-alone novellas—one for each zodiac sign. I can’t wait to start this journey with you. Personally? I think it was written in the stars!

  XO,

  C.M. Albert

  P.S. Please join us in our fun and interactive Written in the Stars readers’ group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/writteninthestarsbooks where we discuss all things horoscope and love related!

  DEDICATION

  This book is for my husband, Derek.

  You are my best friend, my reward for being such a good girl, and my inspiration for being not such a good girl. You are every answer I have ever asked for from God, and it’s clear to me that our love story was written in the stars many moons ago. I am so grateful to keep meeting you in each new lifetime, and I keep loving you more and more every time. We have the greatest love story never told. The one no one would believe, anyway. Ours.

  CONSUMED BY LOVE PLAYLIST

  2U (feat. Justin Bieber) – David Guetta

  Always Tomorrow – Shane Filan

  Amazed – Shane Filan

  As Long as You Love Me – Ali Brustofski

  Baby Blue Eyes – Olly Murs

  Because of Me – Billy Gilman

  Butterflies – Alex G

  Completely – Shane Filan

  Dreams – Bazzi

  Eternal Flame – Shane Filan

  Explosion – Nicky Byrne

  Fetish – Alex Goot & Jada Facer

  Head & Heart (feat. MNEK) [Acoustic] – Joel Corry

  I Love You – Alex & Sierra

  I Try – Ben Taylor

  I Won’t Let You Down – Alex Clare

  I’m Yours – Alessia Cara

  LoveStoned – Boyce Avenue

  Marvin Gaye (feat. Meghan Trainor) – Charlie Puth

  Perfect – Britton Buchanan

  The Bright Side – Erick Baker

  You Have My Heart – Anthem Lights

  “Consumed by the light of her love,

  I forgot to thank darkness

  for how it answered my wish of

  procuring her,

  by sacrificing one of its own

  shimmering stars!”

  —Pranav Hegde

  “You are my sun, my moon, and all my stars.”

  —E.E. Cummings

  “Seduce my mind and you can have my body.

  Find my soul, I’m yours forever.”

  —Anonymous

  CONTENTS

  FOREWORD

  DEDICATION

  CONSUMED BY LOVE PLAYLIST

  PROLOGUE

  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

  WRITTEN IN THE STARS SERIES

  OTHER BOOKS BY C.M. ALBERT

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  PROLOGUE

  Scorpio

  Your Daily Horoscope for

  Friday, October 29

  Today is going to be a great day, Scorpio woman! You’ve been in a slump lately, but once again, you will rise from the ashes! Your career will take a turn for the better, and your love life is about to get so hot you’ll need to be careful not to get burned!

  A dark stranger will cross your path today—and he just might wield the arrow that pierces your protected heart and captures it for good! But with romance on the horizon, don’t overlook the gifts staring you right in the face. There may be an even better prospect coming soon, a second chance that will tip your good fortune in love—maybe forever.

  Either way, your forecast is looking hot, Scorpio! It’s time for this passionate, fiery sign to get a taste of its own medicine and finally be consumed—by love, that is.

  Are you ready for it?

  It was written in the stars.

  CHAPTER ONE

  I CHEWED ON the wood casing of my red pencil, something I often did when I was stuck during a particularly challenging edit. It wasn’t that the author’s manuscript was bad just because it was now giving me indigestion. But if I had to cross out the word “throbbing” one more time and write “WC” next to it to let the author know she needed to choose another word, I would absolutely lose my shit.

  I flung my pencil across my desk and stood, stretching the aches from my lower back. I was wracking my brain for an alternative word when my best friend, Lindy, popped her perky blond head into my office from the doorway.

  “Ooh! I’m glad you’re here!” I said, frantically searching for another red pencil. I always had one somew
here. I reached for my hair and laughed as I pulled out the one that I’d tucked behind my ear earlier. I was such a cliché.

  “What’s another word for ‘throbbing’?”

  Lindy snorted. “Pulsing? Aching? Swollen?” She wiggled her eyebrows at me. “You have all the fun down here in romance,” she complained. “Ooh! I got it! What about engorged?”

  Our eyes met, and we both burst out laughing. “Engorged, huh? Since when does ‘engorged’ sound sexy to you?”

  “Well, if—”

  “Okay, okay. I get it. But I’m not suggesting that word,” I said, eyeing her. “You got your hair cut, didn’t you?”

  Her almost shoulder-length blond bob fell in soft waves, and she had super short new bangs that only Lindy could rock. It was very forties-esque.

  Lindy nodded and ran her plum-colored nails through her hair. “Do you like it?” she asked, fidgeting with her bangs. “I’m still getting used to the fringe again.”

  “Has Walter seen it yet?” I asked. Walter was her current love interest, who happened to be much, much older than she was—and much wealthier too.

  Lindy grinned, the apples of her cheeks flaming a bright red. “He actually suggested it.”

  “Well, I think you look smoking hot, and obviously he does too,” I said, arching a brow. “Very coquettish.”

  Lindy snorted again. “Only you could pull out ‘coquettish’ in a normal conversation,” she teased. “Come on, though, or we’re going to be late. Carlisa is making her big announcement today.” She squealed and tugged my arm to get me moving.

  I grabbed my laptop and closed the door behind us as we headed to our weekly wrap-up meeting. They were usually dull, with each division’s senior editor covering their status on their current authors’ edits and discussing any new queries from book agents that we were on the fence about. Sometimes we had to pass a lead on to a different division because it was really inspirational fiction instead of contemporary romance, that kind of thing. Our meetings usually ended with the entire senior staff heading downstairs to the upscale cigar bar on the first floor of our office building to share a drink and celebrate the weekend.

  But today was different. Today was the day I’d been waiting for, for a long time. Hopefully, I’d be celebrating a lot more than just the weekend.

  As Lindy and I took our seats around the conference room table and waited for everyone to trickle in, she tapped on her phone and showed it to me. “What do you think of this?” she whispered.

  I looked down at the strapped harness made of red leather that I could only assume was some sort of bodysuit. There wasn’t enough material to actually cover anything, so it had to feel like solving a puzzle when climbing into it.

  “It’s hot,” I admitted. “What’s it for?”

  “I’m wearing it under my costume tomorrow night for the Heart Gala,” she said. “Think Walter will like it?”

  “I think Walter will absolutely salivate over it, Lindy. But aren’t you worried about giving the poor man a heart attack?”

  She giggled and swatted my arm. “He’s not that old.”

  It was my turn to snort back at her. “Yeah, but he’s not that young either,” I reminded her, nodding as the other editors took their places around the table.

  There was a lot of talent at the table, but none nearly as capable as I was to fill Carlisa’s shoes when she went on maternity leave. It was my opportunity to prove I could step into her role permanently when she returned and took over as CIO—if she returned. There was already a pool going on about that one.

  “Seriously, Lindy,” I said, glancing down at the picture one last time, “I hope you’re covering that thing at the gala. Otherwise you’ll end up on the front page of the Observer and looking for a new job by lunch time come Monday.”

  “I’ll have something over most of it,” she insisted as she scrolled through her phone again. “Just the straps are going to show. Oh, I almost forgot! Here’s your daily horoscope.”

  Lindy handed me her phone, and I took it greedily. We both obsessed over our horoscopes and read them together most days.

  “Do you still have time to get a drink at Havana’s after work?” I asked. We tried hard not to break our weekly Friday night ritual, even if it was just one drink.

  “I think so. Guess it depends on how long Cruella blows hot air up there today,” she said, not at all trying to be quiet. Our hunky non-fiction editor, Dan, chuckled. He lifted his coffee to his lips as our eyes met. I grinned back before reading my horoscope.

  “Well, that sounds ominous,” I said, glancing down at the zodiac prediction screenshotted on Lindy’s phone.

  “What’s so ominous about it?” she whispered back. “I think it’s exciting, don’t you? You’ve literally been wanting Carlisa’s job for, what, the past seven years? And today of all days you get a horoscope like that?”

  It sure would be nice if my job took a turn for the better today. I reread my horoscope one last time, doing a double take at the ending.

  Are you ready for it? It was written in the stars.

  Shivers ran over my entire body as I closed my eyes, dreaming of hearing those magic words: “Brynn will be taking over my job while I’m on maternity leave.” My scalp tingled as goose bumps raced up my arms. Maybe that’s why I missed the clipped words actually coming from Carlisa’s mouth. I watched as her lips moved in slow motion, everyone turning to stare at me before she moved on to the weekly division briefings.

  What just happened?

  The conference room was abnormally quiet as we each gave our updates. After the meeting was over, Lindy grabbed my hand and hauled me down the hallway to my office, closing my door behind us. I sat on the edge of my desk, feeling numb.

  “I didn’t get it, did I?” I whispered.

  “It’s okay, Brynn. There will be another chance. You know this was just a temporary solution to judge fit until she moves over to the CIO role.”

  “Yeah, but I can’t prove I’m fit if I don’t have the job.”

  Lindy bit the corner of her lip, neither agreeing nor disagreeing.

  “Did they say who got it? I completely spaced out,” I groaned. “Please tell me it wasn’t Shay.” That was my archnemesis from the sweet romance division. How the Wicked Witch of the West could curate sweet and clean romance novels was beyond me.

  “No. She just said it was an outsider, and we’ll find out Monday who it is.”

  “Great,” I muttered, locking up the half-finished manuscript that I’d left on my desk, mid-edit, before the staff meeting. It was my birthday weekend, so there was no way I was bringing work home. Besides, how much would that suck to have to read about things throbbing, while not actually getting to experience it firsthand on my birthday?

  “I’m a mess, Lindy. I need something tall, dark, and—”

  “Throbbing?” she teased, winking at me.

  “Exactly. That’s exactly what I need. To get laid for my birthday,” I joked. I swung my laptop bag over my shoulder and turned off my lights. “Shots?”

  We linked arms and headed down to Havana’s. That was what I loved about Lindy. The damn girl was always there for me no matter what. I needed to get my head out of the clouds. The stupid horoscope was wrong. My career hadn’t taken a turn for the better. Piercing arrows? Second chances?

  More like bullshit.

  CHAPTER TWO

  THE LONG WALK to the elevator banks was especially awkward. A few people had trouble meeting my eyes, and you could’ve heard a pin drop on the main floor. Great! Everyone was talking about me. It was no secret that I’d been working toward Carlisa’s role—everyone had to have an “up or out” strategy at Sterling and Masters. Her role was my “up,” and the thought of being “out” made me nauseated.

  Hushed whispers about an “outsider” followed us, along with noise about why the role wasn’t being
filled from within. Yeah, I needed that answer, too, but it would have to wait till Monday. There was no way I was confronting Carlisa right now. It took all my willpower to hold back the fiery Scorpio in me as I put work behind me for the night. I knew my bite could sting when I was provoked too hard. It was bad enough I didn’t get the promotion; I certainly didn’t need to lose my job on top of that.

  As we entered the elevators, I met the cold, calculating eyes of my nemesis. Because, of course, Shay had to be there. A smug grin lifted the corners of her lips when she saw us. My insides tightened, but I vowed to play nice—for as long as I could.

  “You headed down for drinks?” I asked and pressed the L button. Lindy squeezed my arm in solidarity, or warning. I wasn’t sure.

  “You’re actually going tonight?” she asked, balking. Her admin, who was standing next to her clutching a stack of books, snickered. I wanted to punch him in his scrawny little rat face.

  “Why wouldn’t I? We go every Friday, and it’s my birthday weekend.” I exhaled as I stepped off the elevator, wanting to get as much distance as I could from Shay. But the red-headed witch followed us into the bar and stood right next to me and Lindy as I waited to order.

  “Why don’t we do tequila shots?” she said, unusually friendly for once. I eyed her skeptically. I could read people in a way that made others nervous, but Shay didn’t know that. And right now, my Bullshit Barometer was zinging off the charts.

  “Are you going to the Heart Gala?” Lindy asked her.

  Please say no. Please say no.

  She eyed me, narrowing her gaze.

  Just then, the bartender slid our shots across the sleek black bar top. Shay passed one to me and one to Lindy before lifting her own glass in the air. “Here’s to Carlisa’s new replacement. May it be a man. A really hot man. And may Carlisa decide to stay home and push out more babies!”

  Lindy cleared her throat and side-eyed me, shaking her head. I didn’t raise my glass in return. I just threw back the tequila and ordered another. Holy shit, that burned!