My Name Is Desire: The Bad Baker Boys: Mark's Story Read online

  My Name Is Desire

  By Tonya Brooks

  Copyright 2014 Tonya Brooks

  Amazon Edition

  This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only and may not be re-sold. If you would like to share this book with another person, please do so. In return, I would appreciate it if you would leave me a review on one of the links at the end of the book. Thank you for reading.

  Praise for Desire Had A Name

  DESIRE HAD A NAME, a sweeping, fiery tale of a young and passionate love that seems doomed from the start. Harley was a great heroine: feisty, independent and blunt. She deserved Matthew, the kind of hero every woman wants. He was fierce in everything he did, from his loving to his fighting. He was protective and biting with everyone else, but gentle and tender with his woman. Sigh. I'm melting again just thinking of him. Their moments together were magical. DESIRE HAD A NAME was gripping and engaging. I read it assiduously and am definitely looking forward to reading about the rest of the Baker bad boys! ~ Sawyer Belle, The Romance Reviews

  Acknowledgements:

  For Linette, my sister by another mother, oldest friend, faithful editor and streaking buddy (hey, it was the 80’s and there were green milkshakes involved... I think. The details are kind of sketchy so, ‘nuff said). Thank you for catching all of my blonde moments (like corvette’s being made of fiberglass, not metal, duh), and for all the time spent laughing over outrageous pen names. You are the best and we are so gonna rock that retirement home!

  And for my wonderful husband, Billy. Thank you for cleaning the house, cooking dinner, letting me ‘borrow’ your notebook after I broke your laptop and all the other wonderful things you do that allows me to pursue my writing obsession. You are always my inspiration and my beloved.

  Table of Contents

  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

  Excerpt from Book Three

  About the Author

  Prologue

  Lakeside, SC

  Once upon a time in the small town of Lakeside, there lived a family of handsome men better known as the Bad Baker Boy's. The patriarch of the family was Matthew Jedidiah Baker. In his youth, Jedidiah had been in an elite Special Forces unit, and he had gone places and done things, that no man should ever have to endure, or live with the memories of.

  At the age of twenty-seven, he had left the military and came to Lakeside to have a look at the house that a distant relative had left him, and was floored when he discovered it was a genuine antebellum mansion that had been in his family for generations. He'd never even met the woman, but as her only surviving heir, she had left him the home and acreage that sat atop a prominent point along the river. The house had fallen into disrepair over the years, so with no plans for his immediate future and nothing better to do, he moved in and began to renovate her room by room.

  The people in town knew little about the handsome young man who appeared to be the last of his families’ line, except for the fact that he had been in the military, and that was only because of the tattoo on his arm. Jedidiah kept to himself and had little to do with the local residents until he met seventeen year old Virginia Lawson. Ginny was like no one he had ever encountered before. She was as innocent and trusting as a newborn babe and there was no guile in her. She set her sights on the handsome, mysterious newcomer and nothing could change her mind.

  Jedidiah refused to have anything to do with her. She was perfect and pure in her innocence and he was tormented with images from the past and couldn't bear the thought of tainting her perfection with the demons that drove him. Ginny would have none of his excuses. She wanted him and she knew that Jedidiah felt the same about her, no matter what he said. So what if he was ten years her senior? Age didn't matter and neither did the fact that he refused to talk about his past. She was only interested in his future, with her.

  He couldn't believe someone so young and innocent could twist him into so many knots that he didn't know if he was coming or going. In spite of everything he'd been through, Jedidiah had been raised as a gentleman and there was no way he could take advantage of her innocence. She was a lady and he couldn't treat her as anything less than that. Giving up the fight, Jedidiah had gone to her father to ask for her hand in marriage and been told in no uncertain terms to stay away from Ginny. The Reverend Lawson also warned his daughter not to go near the older man again, not that it did a bit of good.

  One rainy afternoon, his Gigi, as he had called her, had taken matters into her own hands and seduced him. Jedidiah hadn't been strong enough to fight her and his own desire any longer and he had given in and made love to her. As luck would have it, her father caught them. Once again, Jedidiah offered to marry the girl, much to her delight and her father’s fury. The Reverend Lawson was a hell fire and brimstone Baptist preacher and he'd been livid over his daughter's fall from grace and flatly refused to let them get married. He'd had the younger man arrested for statutory rape and Jedidiah sat in a jail cell for over a week while Ginny was kept locked in her room.

  Judge Mason had pulled Jedidiah's service record and the parts of it that weren't classified assured him that the young man was a bona fide hero with an impressive list of commendations and a chest full of medals. He also knew that the good Reverend was a vindictive bastard and was certain that he was keeping the couple apart just to punish them. After he discovered her father was keeping Ginny a prisoner in their home, the judge dropped the charges and married the couple himself.

  Word got around town about Jedidiah's military background and the stories of his supposed missions got more dangerous with each telling until they were almost as bad as the truth. Before he knew how it had happened, he had a reputation for being a badass as well as the respect and admiration of people he'd never even met.

  Except for his father in law's congregation. Rumors began to circulate that he was a murderer and seducer of innocent children on a par with the devil himself, according to the holier than thou crowd. Just to spite the Reverend, who had publicly disowned his daughter, Jedidiah bought a liquor store and named it Wicked Spirits much to the town’s amusement and had a highly successful business.

  He and Gigi shared ten wonderful years of love and laughter and she chased his demons away with her gentle touch. They had four boys, each of them two years apart, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, their names chosen due to her gratitude to God for allowing her to marry the man of her dreams. Ginny was pregnant with their daughter when she fell down the stairs and broke her neck, losing the baby in the process. The fact that her death had been instantaneous was of no consolation to Jedidiah. He was inconsolable without his Gigi and lived in the bottom of a bottle for months, unable to come to terms with the loss of the woman he loved more than life itself.

  One morning he awoke on the floor at the base of the stairs, where he had passed out the night before and finally came to his senses. Eight year old Matt was kneeling over him, pounding his fists on his father’s chest as he screamed hysterically, “Don't die, Pop! Please don't die and leave us, too.” Matt had been the one who had found his mother and seeing Jedidiah lying in almost the same spot, his first react
ion was that his father had died as well.

  Realizing that his sons were suffering as much as he was, Jedidiah pulled himself out of the torment of grief and dedicated himself to raising sons that his Gigi would have been proud of. The holier than thou crowd in town referred to them as the bad Baker boy's with good reason. They were all a little bit wild, but considering who their parents were, that much was to be expected.

  Matt was the oldest and a hellion from the moment he was born. He was his father's son, of that there was no doubt. From the coal black hair and eyes right down to his fiery temperament, he was Jedidiah Baker made over. He was a handsome devil with an abundant supply of bad boy charm and the ladies loved him. From the time he was old enough to walk, he had joined his father for a morning workout in the old carriage house that Jedidiah had converted into a private gym.

  Matt possessed the natural instincts of a killer and Jedidiah knew his namesake needed to learn how to discipline himself or he'd wind up hurting someone. He could track a man or an animal with deadly accuracy and as stealthily as a jungle cat. In hand to hand combat, he fought as tirelessly as a demon and could run for miles without breaking a sweat. He'd be a perfect candidate for the military and Jedidiah did everything in his power to ensure his son did not follow that path as he had done.

  He got Matt a summer job at a garage pumping gas when he was twelve and by the time he was sixteen, Henry had hired him as a part time mechanic and was amazed at the way the boy had with an engine. When he was twenty-one, Henry sold him the garage because there was nothing Matt loved more than working on cars. At least there wasn't until he had a son of his own and the boy became his whole world. It was just too bad his marriage didn't work out the first time around, but now that he and Harley were back together, he couldn't imagine his life without her.

  Mark was their second child and the complete opposite of his brother except in looks. Had it not been for the age difference and the fact that Mark had dark brown eyes, he and Matt could have passed for twins. He had a wicked devious streak and a temper when riled, but most of the time he was laid back and easy going and his one true love was football. From the time he was old enough to hold the ball in his hands, he never put it down. The child excelled at the sport and spent every waking moment in the yard practicing throwing the ball through a series of hoops that he had hung from the trees. His accuracy was amazing and the older he got, the more powerful his arm became.

  By the time he made it to high school, college scouts were already coming around and he had his pick of scholarships to choose from. After college he had gone on to play professionally and that first season, his team had won the Super Bowl. Then the worst happened and he was involved in a car accident that crushed his right arm. The specialists did everything they could to repair the damage, but they assured him that his shoulder would never be the same again. His career in professional football was over.

  Mark had returned home and opened a bar that all the ladies in town flocked to just to be near the handsome owner and he loved it. Thankfully he'd had the foresight to take advantage of his education and had dual degrees to fall back on. He had a bachelor’s degree in finance as well as an associate’s degree in business administration and had managed to accumulate a healthy portfolio in a short amount of time that supported his playboy lifestyle nicely and then some.

  Luke was the third child and the thinker of the family. He always had his nose in a book and was as different from his brothers as daylight and dark. He rarely lost his temper and more often than not refereed when his brothers got into it with each other. Luke was the voice of reason and he always thought an issue through before he acted on it. There wasn't an impulsive streak in his nature and he had never once behaved in a reckless manner that anyone knew of, except for jumping headlong into a fight if his brothers were in the thick of things.

  When he decided he wanted to be a lawyer, no one was surprised at the choice since he excelled at debate and it was almost impossible to win an argument with him. After getting a full academic scholarship for college, he applied for and was granted a scholarship to Harvard Law as well. He could have chosen to practice at any number of prestigious firms around the country, but he surprised everyone when he came back home to Lakeside to practice locally. The female population had been thrilled because with his father’s coal black hair and his mothers blue eyes, he was one of the most eligible bachelors in town.

  John was the baby of the family and gentle natured like his mother even though he had a wicked temper when provoked. He had picked up a toy guitar as a toddler and refused to put it down. Night and day he plunked the plastic strings and sang at the top of his lungs for the sheer joy of it. Jedidiah bought him a real guitar when he was six and the boy literally wore it out learning to play it. By the time he was twelve, he had saved enough money cutting grass to buy a used electric guitar and his father had been forced to make the boy practice in the loft of the carriage house when he rattled the windows in the house with the decibel level.

  At thirteen he started his own band with some boys from school and much to Jedidiah’s fury, refused to cut his hair again. When he graduated from high school, the band bought an old van and went on the road seeking fame and fortune. After three years of barely making enough money to stave off starvation, the band returned home and took local gigs while they worked days to support themselves. When Mark opened his bar, he hired them to perform every weekend but John hadn't given up his dream of being a rock star. With the black hair and blue eyes that he shared with his brother, he had an adoring female fan base that always came out to watch him perform.

  No, the Baker's were not the average family, but they sure did liven up a small town like Lakeside with their outrageous behavior. And the best was yet to come!

  Chapter One

  Friday, August 2, 2013

  “Are we there yet?” a petulant voice asked for the umpteenth time.

  “Almost,” Desi Anderson sighed wearily.

  “We would have been there if someone hadn't fallen asleep,” Josie Benton complained.

  “Don't blame me because you got lost,” Desi shot back. “If you'd listened to the navigation system when it told you to turn...”

  “I'm not using that thing,” Josie refused grumpily. “That computer animated voice is creepy.”

  “We drove your car because it has a navigation system,” her friend reminded her yet again.

  And because they couldn't fit in the sardine can that she drove, Josie thought but refrained from saying again since she had already reminded her of that several times. “It also has a horn but that doesn't mean I have to use it.”

  “I was trying to scare the dog so it wouldn't run out in the road,” Desi defended herself since she had blown the horn a few minutes before and awakened her irascible co-driver from a much needed nap.

  “Well, it did anyway, so it was a waste of time.”

  “At least I didn't hit it.”

  “No, but you almost hit a mailbox trying to miss it,” the older woman just had to point out.

  “How much longer?” Kylie Anderson asked in exasperation at their bickering.

  “We're coming into the city limits now,” Desi informed her daughter in genuine relief. After the twelve hour drive they were all tired, grumpy and ready to get out of the car.

  “Thank God,” Josie sighed wearily. “I've had enough of this car.”

  “Me, too,” the child agreed as she peered out the window at the pretty little town they were entering in obvious excitement. This was the place where her best friend spent all of his holidays and summers and the one thing that they had never been able to share, until now. Kylie was almost as thrilled that she was finally going to meet Trey's dad and the rest of his family as she was devastated over the fact that he was going to be living here all the time now.

  Her worst fear had always been that Trey would move in with his dad and now that it had become a reality, she was going to lose him forever unless she found a way
to get her mom to move to Lakeside as well. Kylie and Trey had concocted a plan to find her mom a husband so they could be together forever and it shouldn't be too difficult since he had three uncles who were all single. Now, she just had to convince her mom to go along with it. That could take some doing.

  “Is that it?” Josie asked in awe as she stared at the house they were approaching.

  “That's it,” her friend agreed as she checked the navigation system again to make sure it was the right address. “It's a mansion!”

  “It's beautiful,” Kylie breathed in awe as the house came into view.

  “I'd hate to clean it,” the ever practical Josie commented as they drove up the quarter-mile long driveway lined with centuries old live oak trees draped in Spanish moss, their gnarled roots bulging out of the ground, the massive limbs struggling to remain upright under their own weight.

  “There's a tire swing in the tree just like Trey said,” the child exclaimed.

  The car rolled to a stop in front of the 14,000 square foot Greek-revival style antebellum home built in the eighteen hundreds and its three occupants stepped out to stare up at it in appreciation. Crisp white with glossy black double front doors and multiple sets of French doors framed by black wooden shutters, it was a magnificent structure. It's most impressive feature was the twenty-four classic eight foot circular columns that surrounded the house. The first and second floor verandas extended thirteen feet from the walls and a black wrought iron railing wrapped around the second floor gallery.

  The front door opened and Harley Baker came rushing out to greet them as if she hadn't seen them in months. “I'm so glad you're here,” she said as she hugged each of them.

  “Not as glad as we are to be here,” Desi assured her with a tired smile.