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    One Hot Night: A Jupiter Point Novella
    One Hot Night: A Jupiter Point Novella
    One Hot Night: A Jupiter Point Novella
    Ebook136 pages1 hour

    One Hot Night: A Jupiter Point Novella

    By Jennifer Bernard

    4.5/5

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    About this ebook

    A standalone Jupiter Point novella...
    Comic book artist Mia Grant is fleeing from her ex-boyfriend when she stumbles across a cabin in the woods, where she finds the last thing she expected--a kidnapping victim. Extra bonus that he's the exceptionally attractive Aiden Knight.
    Aiden has no idea why he was snatched off his college campus and brought to this wilderness cabin, but he suspects it has to do with the hunt for his father's killer. For now, he has a bigger worry--helping his gorgeous rescuer escape her nasty ex, who's still hot on her trail.
    Add in a thunderstorm and a white-knuckle wildlife encounter, and Aiden and Mia can hardly be blamed when the simmering attraction between them explodes into fiery passion.
    Years later, back in Jupiter Point ... was their raw hunger the real deal? Or will the slightly older and wiser couple chalk up the adrenaline-filled bliss to just one hot night?

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherJennifer Bernard
    Release dateJun 12, 2018
    ISBN9781945944352
    One Hot Night: A Jupiter Point Novella
    Author

    Jennifer Bernard

    Jennifer Bernard is a graduate of Harvard and a former news promo producer. The child of academics, she confounded her family by preferring romance novels to . . . well, any other books. She left big city life for true love in Alaska, where she now lives with her husband and stepdaughters. She's no stranger to book success, as she also writes erotic novels under a naughty secret name not to be mentioned at family gatherings.

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      Book preview

      One Hot Night - Jennifer Bernard

      Acknowledgments

      1

      Aiden Knight should have been studying for finals. Or writing his Psychology 101 paper. Or pounding back a few beers with his roommates while grieving his latest breakup with Daisy. Any or all of those things would be preferable to where he now found himself. Which was so insane he could barely believe it was real.

      He was in a rustic cabin somewhere in the Sierras, probably not too far from Jupiter Point. He was being held hostage—or something. The man who had yanked him off his bike and hustled him into an SUV hadn’t exactly explained the point of it all. But he’d been very careful not to hurt Aiden in any way.

      That was good, of course. But it only went so far. And now, with his kidnapper off somewhere else, Aiden was gritting his teeth and rubbing his wrists raw trying to free his hands from the rope binding them behind his back. His feet were tied to the legs of a chair. Next to him sat an overturned orange five-gallon bucket. The kidnapper had set a gallon of water with a straw on it, along with a plastic bowl of trail mix. Aiden had stuck his face in that bowl a few times in the hours that he’d been here. He’d also sipped the water, but since the man hadn’t offered any options for urinating, he didn’t want to go overboard with the hydration. Already he felt the need to pee. If only he’d foreseen this problem before the kidnapper took off. But how was he to know the dude would be gone so long?

      Aiden had tried talking to the man, since that sort of thing was his strength. Will, his oldest brother, always said he had the most emotional intelligence of any of the Knight brothers. He could generally talk to anyone and got along with most people. So naturally he’d tried to form a bond with his kidnapper.

      What’s your name?

      You’ll know when the time is right, he’d answered. And those had been the last words Aiden had been able to pry out of him.

      Apparently the time wasn’t right yet, because Aiden was still in the dark about what this was all about.

      He scanned the cozy little cabin, which was made from rough-hewn logs with gaps that let the brisk mountain air in. The windows were so grimy he could barely see out of them, which was sad because this forest was majestically beautiful—according to his memories of camping out here with his father. A little wood stove sat in the corner, with a box of kindling and a few logs next to it, but the man hadn’t made a fire before he took off. The air was chilling down fast, the way it did at higher elevations. At a guess, Aiden would say he was at least at two thousand feet.

      Maybe he was near the Breton Lookout Tower, from which volunteers scanned the wilderness for signs of wildfires in the summer. Was it staffed this early in the season? Probably not. It was only late April. And even if it were, how would he signal that he was being held in this cabin against his will? Smoke signals?

      The kidnapper had taken his cell phone, of course. But there was an old radio on a shelf near the woodstove. Maybe he could rig the radio to send out an SOS on an emergency frequency. He knew the frequencies, thanks to his brother Tobias. Tobias had taken him up in one of their prop planes and shown him the basics. But Aiden wasn’t really interested in flying. He was more of a water lover. Surfing, swimming, river-rafting, anything involving water got his vote.

      He eyed the plastic jug of water the man had left for him, then looked away. The need to urinate kept getting stronger. Strange how the kidnapper had thought of everything except that. He seemed very well prepared overall. A four-wheeler had been waiting for them near a fire road. No one had seen them during the entire backcountry ride to this remote spot. It was in the middle of nowhere. No one was going to randomly stumble across this little cabin.

      What if the kidnapper had gotten lost? What if a bear had eaten him? What if Aiden was stuck in here indefinitely?

      Setting his jaw, he got back to work on the rope around his wrists. His idea was that if he built up enough sweat—and maybe blood from the friction—he might be able to slip his hands out of the restraints.

      But so far, the pain of rubbing the skin off his wrists hadn’t gotten him anywhere. He needed a new plan.

      He eyed his surroundings. The floor of the cabin was unfinished plywood. If he fell onto his side, maybe he could do a kind of worm move across the floor and make it to the door. It was locked, of course. But maybe he could bang it open with his feet. Or his head.

      He used his body weight to teeter the chair from side to side. When he reached the tipping point, he braced for impact.

      Crash.

      Water drenched his legs as he hit the floor with a painful thud. Trail mix skittered across the plywood. Great. He’d knocked over the upside down bucket and all his food and water.

      It occurred to Aiden that this might be the low point of his life so far. Dumped by Daisy once again. Stranded in the wilderness. Held hostage. Bladder about to burst. Could things get any worse?

      Of course they could. The guy could come back any second. Might as well try to complete his plan. He wriggled across the floor like a snail tipped onto its side. It was like a very stupid-looking dance club move. Maybe if he got lucky and made it out of here, he could get this one trending. Call it the awkward.

      From his new vantage point, he could see a bit of sky through one of the grimy windows. Night would be falling soon. Progress was ridiculously slow, and probably pointless. Would he be any better off when he reached the door? Even if he got out of this cabin, where would he go? Was he going to do the awkward all the way to a road? What direction should he head?

      By the time he got close to the door, he was panting and sweating. Help! he called, just in case someone happened to be passing by. He tried to kick the door, but since his feet were tied to the legs of the chair, all he could manage was more of a flick. The door hung crooked on its hinges, just as neglected as the rest of the cabin. Did the kidnapper actually intend to come back at all?

      For the first time, real fear snaked through him. What the hell was going on here? The guy had worn a bandanna over his face the entire time, and offered no explanation whatsoever. Was it random or was he targeted? If he was the target, why? He had no enemies that he knew of. He was just an ordinary guy, if you called someone whose father had been murdered and who was raised by his older brothers—

      He froze as a terrible suspicion struck him.

      Did this have to do with Dad’s murder? Will had recently quit his sheriff’s deputy job in order to devote all his time to finally tracking down Robert Knight’s killer, twelve years after the murder. He’d pinpointed a suspect—Matthew Dearborn, who ran an accounting firm and had an obsession with their mother. Will was still trying to actually locate him, however, and the man kept slipping through his fingers.

      Aiden hadn’t been following the investigation all that closely, since he’d been dealing with college and heartbreak. He’d only been eight when the murder had happened. He had memories of Dad, of course, but they were pretty fuzzy. He knew Dearborn was still at large. He knew the man was dangerous, obviously. He’d briefly kidnapped another kid in an attempt to scare off a witness—Julie deGaia, who was now engaged to his brother Ben.

      Was it Matthew Dearborn who had kidnapped him off the Evergreen campus?

      Why?

      Filled with new determination, he swung his bound feet toward the door once again. Thud.

      Except this time, a sound came right back at him.

      A knock.

      Hello? A young-sounding female voice called cautiously. Is anyone in there?

      Aiden was so shocked he almost forgot to answer. Yes! I’m in here and I need some help!

      The woman paused before answering cautiously. Who are you?

      What does that matter? I need help! Can you get the door open? As soon as he heard his impatient voice, he winced. If he pissed this woman off, she might disappear and he’d be stuck here even longer. Sorry about that. My name’s Aiden Knight. I’m…well, I guess I’m being held captive. I mean, yes. I’m being held prisoner in here. Against my will.

      "Held prisoner? Her voice went high with incredulity. Then we should call the police."

      Brilliant idea. Except who knew how long the police would take to get all the way out here. Wherever here was, exactly. Yeah, definitely. Can you call them? The guy took my cell phone and tied me up in here. Do you have phone service out here?

      No, she said in a wary tone.

      Then maybe you could just get me out of here?

      She paused before answering. Here’s the problem. How do I know this isn’t a trick to get me to come in there?

      Aiden’s jaw dropped. He must be really naive about situations like

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