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Books by C. L. Stone
The Academy Ghost Bird Series:
Introductions
First Days
Friends vs. Family
Forgiveness and Permission
Drop of Doubt
Push and Shove
House of Korba
The Other Side of Envy
The Healing Power of Sugar (November 2015)
The Academy Scarab Beetle Series
Thief
Liar
Fake
Accessory
Hoax (July 2016)
Other C. L. Stone Books:
Spice God
Smoking Gun
BONUS!
Turn the page for an exclusive sneak peek at Hoax, the next book in The Scarab Beetle Series
The Academy
The Scarab Beetle Series
Hoax
Book Five
Coming July 2016
Written by C. L. Stone
Published by
Arcato Publishing
HOAX
Blake Coaltar nudged my arm, waking me up. “Kayli. We should go,” he said. “We’ve got a ship to catch.”
When my eyes opened and the blur cleared, I spotted a clock radio on a side table, glaring three in the morning at me. I groaned, burying my head into the pillow, mumbling curses into it.
Blake touched my shoulder, and then I felt his lips kissing my skin. “Come on. You can sleep once we’re there.”
That felt good, but the rest of me was so out of it, so uncomfortable. My eyes didn’t want to open, but I moved to try to sit up. My long brown hair was clumped and dry, stiff like I’d used a ton of hairspray and teased it. My stomach and breasts were raw, the skin irritated. The bed was gritty with sand.
I was surprised to find myself partially naked, only wearing underwear. He must have removed the shirt I’d been wearing after...
I rubbed the grit from my dry and itchy eyes, looking around and realizing we were in a hotel room. Not a nice hotel room, either but one that was run down and reeked like smoke, probably the cause of my burning eyes.
How did we get here? And why were we getting up in the middle of the night?
I heard Blake get out of the bed beside me, his feet padding on the carpet as he walked around. He turned on the overhead lights. The orange glow was too bright for my sore eyes, but I focused on a dark corner until they adjusted.
When they did and I looked to Blake, I realized he’d slept naked next to me. I stared, tired as I was, at his nude form: butt and groin and hips. I imagined his own clothes had been full of sand. His sculpted shoulders and chest were covered in red patches of irritated skin. His hair was a mess, stringy with much of it stuck to his head. Looking at his face, he didn’t seem to be in any better condition than I was; his eyes were red, dark circles underneath.
Then he smiled in a way that made him look crazy like his hair.
I lifted my arm to my nose, smelling my skin. Salt and dirt. “Ew.”
“We don’t have time for a shower,” he said quietly. “We have to go.”
“Why?” I asked.
“We have to get back on the ship.”
The last couple of days slowly sank in. We’d spent less than a day onboard a ship called Lucienda. Ethan Murdock had asked us to lead a team to find out who stashed over two billion dollars his father had tucked away in secret accounts. He assumed other CEOs among his companies were part of the conspiracy. Our goals were to find out the truth, find the money, and settle things as quietly as possible.
After only our first day, Blake and I had been thrown overboard. We weren’t exactly sure who had done it. There were a lot of possibilities. Blake even suspected mutiny.
I couldn’t blame Blake for thinking that. The Academy guys, the people I’d brought onboard to help, weren’t happy he was around.
And then there was how complicated things had gotten between me and the guys. I’d been flirting with all of them. I hadn’t been honest with what was going on, avoiding their question
s about commitments and exclusivity.
They were criminals in their former lives. Had one of them been angry enough to throw me overboard? Had they all decided I wasn’t worth the trouble?
I tried to ignore that thought. I didn’t have any proof as to who it could have been although I couldn’t dismiss any of them. Axel hadn’t wanted me onboard in the first place. Raven had seemed okay with things, but could he have been holding back? Brandon had a temper, and had even attacked Blake before. And Marc...I’d been rather intimate prior to him finding out about the others. I wasn’t sure of his true feelings now, but could jealousy and anger triggered him to throw me overboard?
Blake walked over to me, bending forward. “You okay? Can you get up?”
And then last night, on the beach, Blake and I had sex. My thighs were a bit raw from the sand. I was sure there was more sand in parts of me that I needed to rinse out at some point.
I breathed in deeply through my nose and kicked the blanket away from my naked chest. I supposed he’d seen me nude before so I could forgo the modesty for now. My breasts were covered in sand and I started to flake some of it off.
“I know it itches,” Blake said, watching me. He reached over, touching my side, sliding his hand down and brushing away a clump of sand there. “But we need to hurry. I want to rinse, too, but maybe we should wait until we get on the boat.”
“That would be better,” said a voice by the door.
My whole body snapped awake, going rigid in shock. I covered my breasts and looked over my shoulder to check out who was at the door. It was only open a crack, but there was clearly a figure standing just outside. “If you two want to make it to the boat, we’ll have to be quick.”
