LOVE IN LOCKDOWN: A Charity Anthology Read online

  Love in Lockdown

  A Charity Anthology

  Contents

  Love in Lockdown

  Angel Devlin

  LOCKED

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Cora Reilly

  Forbidden Delights

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Frankie Love

  Lockdown With The Mountain Man

  1. Lochlan

  2. Louisa

  3. Lochlan

  4. Louisa

  5. Lochlan

  6. Louisa

  7. Lochlan

  8. Louisa

  9. Lochlan

  10. Louisa

  Epilogue

  More…

  About the Author

  Haley Jenner

  My Hollywood Hart

  Author Note

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Afterword

  About the Author

  Also By

  Hope Ford

  My New Neighbor

  1. Caroline

  2. Caroline

  3. Caroline

  4. Clay

  5. Caroline

  6. Clay

  Epilogue

  About the Author

  Jade West

  Lockdown with Daddy Harrison

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Ker Dukey

  Bad Good Neighbor

  Foreword

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Acknowledgments

  Books by Ker Dukey

  Khardine Gray

  Locked in Love

  About Locked In Love

  1. Amy

  2. Luke

  3. Amy

  4. Amy

  5. Luke

  6. Amy

  Epilogue

  About the Author

  Kimberly Knight

  Lone Star Heat

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Books By Kimberly Knight

  About the Author

  LA Cotton

  Angel of Tears

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Also By

  About the Author

  Marley Valentine

  Locking Him Down

  1. Oliver

  2. Micah

  3. Oliver

  4. Micah

  5. Oliver

  6. Micah

  7. Oliver

  About the Author

  Nina Levine

  Locked Up Hearts

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Also By

  About the Author

  Shaw Hart

  Locked Down

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  About the Author

  ALSO BY SHAW HART

  Tracy Lorraine

  LOCKE

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Epilogue

  About the Author

  Also By

  Love in Lockdown

  Lock*down

  A state of isolation, close proximity, or confinement.

  Join fourteen bestselling authors as they distract YOU from lockdown with this collection of all-new short and steamy stories.

  There's no escaping... love is catching.

  All proceeds will benefit organizations supporting families in need during this challenging time.

  LOVE IN LOCKDOWN is only available for a limited time, so one-click your copy before it's gone.

  Royalties will be split 50/50 between the two charities. Authors as not affiliated with either charity we are just trying to spread some love.

  LOCKED

  Angel Devlin

  Copyright © 2020

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  Chapter One

  DAN

  The only problem when everyone around you found love, was that they were so happy—so sickly, sweetly happy—they wanted you to join in. The fact that your divorce had been a horrendous, stressful, chaotic mess, did not stop them from showing you advertisements for Match.com or asking you who you'd swipe right on Tinder for.

  That was the situation I currently found myself in while Rachel, my barmaid, became exasperated with me for picking faults with every single female she showed me.

  "Oh come on, Dan. It is time you got back on the horse."

  I carried on putting glasses away, and tried my best to ignore her, hoping she'd give up as usual. Unfortunately, however, this time it appeared Rachel was determined to see this through.

  "But you're a good man, Dan. You deserve to be happy and you'd make someone else just as happy."

  She was pouting. Even without looking at her, I knew it. A sympathetic look with a pout. I felt like the last rescue dog in a sanctuary. The one who looks cute but no one will adopt because they're old.

  Scrubbing a hand through my hair, I turned towards her, wearing my best serious expression. "Rachel, I don't know how many times I have to tell you. I'm okay as I am. I love my single life. Being able to do what I want, bearing in mind the pub gets so busy. I don't have time for love. You know what it's like; up at five for deliveries and not back in bed until at least one am."

  She eye-rolled me. "Everyone has time for love, Dan. You just need to find the perfect person who fits into the life you live."

  I was between a rock and a hard place with Rachel because the best thing she could do right now was to get pregnant and therefore have something else to occupy her attention. As a relative newlywed, she'd be getting lots of practice. However, as her boss, the last thing I wanted was to have to look for another barmaid, bearing in mind that I'd just recently already lost one, as Anna had fallen in love with an Irishman and moved to Dublin. Thank goodness the rest of the staff were middle-aged and living normal lives, swinging between moments of happiness and moments of wanting to bump off their other halves.

  "Look, as long as I get the occasional one ni
ght stand just to take the edge off when I'm bored with my right hand, I am A-okay."

  I realised as soon as I said it, that it had been the wrong thing to say. Rachel's husband Evan had been the King of One Night Stands until he and Rachel had finally got together, and he'd become a whole new man. But Rachel and Evan were different. Both had wanted the other one and while Rachel had put up with an average relationship until she couldn't take anymore, Evan had dealt with not being able to date Rachel by refusing to commit to anyone else either.

  The truth was that my first relationship had been fine until it wasn't; at which point it had become a living nightmare as my wife displayed tendencies of jealousy, paranoia, and gold digging never witnessed before. Was it any wonder then that while deep down the thought of a new relationship entered my mind from time to time—especially if I got on well with any of the women beneath the sheets—I was scared of committing myself full-time to a relationship again because of what had happened before.

  "I'm not giving up on this, Dan." Added Rachel as she slung down the cloth she'd been wiping the bar with. "It's time you learned to love again, and if you won't help yourself then I'll just have to help you."

  It was at that point I realised I needed a fake girlfriend, one who was happy to just be a friend with benefits until such time as Rachel found another interest.

  But who?

  As it turned out, I didn't need to ponder fake relationships, because a very real thing entered our lives that meant for a time, Rachel wouldn't be able to bug me. Because there was a whole other bug set to make itself known…

  The bar had been busy as usual that evening and I'd been late getting to bed. Once I'd checked the deliveries and thrown myself into the shower, I came downstairs to find my cleaner, Rosie, looking concerned. She was usually such a quiet little thing, just getting on with her jobs and then leaving that it struck me as unusual.

  "Everything okay?"

  She nodded, but I wasn't convinced as she had worry lines between her brows. "I'm just a little concerned about this virus that's been found in China. Coronavirus. You heard about it?"

  I'd heard of it because there wasn't much I didn't get to hear about doing the job I did. Half the time I didn't want to know the things I learned, especially if it was one customer who was cheating on another in some way.

  "Oh, don't worry about that. We've had these things before. Mad Cow disease: my ex-wife got that one. Swine flu," I tilted my head, "She was a pig, she got that one too."

  Rosie laughed. "Didn't part as friends then?"

  "I'd say not. Anyway, I'm sure it'll all be okay."

  "I hope so." She replied. "Only I live with my mother since my own divorce and she has diabetes and asthma."

  "Well, if you ever need any time off you only have to say." I reassured her. That's probably what this whole panic was about. Worry about her mother. So, Rosie had an ex too. Wonder if hers was batshit crazy, or… if she was. Let's face it, just because she seemed quiet and nice didn't mean she was.

  I noticed she had nice eyes. They were a really pale blue. And she had short blonde hair with a long fringe; and she was cutely petite, I'd say around 5ft 4in. Her skin was pale. I realised I'd looked her over from top to toe when she blushed slightly, so I quickly changed my conversation to discussing the toilets, as that tended to end conversations very quickly. Sure enough, Rosie soon made her excuses and went to do her work.

  For some reason today I became hyper-aware that Rosie was around. I kept an eye on her and told myself it was because she'd been so worried when she came in and I was just a concerned boss, but that didn't explain why I'd hovered around for a few seconds while she'd been bending over picking up bits of broken glass in the yard outside. She had a lovely butt, by the way, not that you asked.

  And I started paying more attention to the news, and about the virus, and when Rosie came in we had a little two minute chat about the latest before carrying on with our days.

  But the virus didn't go away. A man was found to be a 'super-spreader' and brought it to Italy and the U.K. and despite using contact tracing to try to contain it, before long people were being asked to only shop when they needed to, and then, pubs were asked to close…

  Where some pubs stayed open one final night and went crazy, I closed straight down and put signs on the door for people to heed government advice. It was strange saying thank you and bye for now to my staff, some of whom were nervous and worrying about their finances. I did my best to reassure them while at the same time I was worrying about my own future. But right now, what was important was to cut down the spread of the virus and financial worries would have to wait their turn.

  It was Friday morning when Rosie came to give the place one final big clean. I saw her chewing on her lip, to the point that she drew blood.

  "You worrying about the virus again?" I was standing behind the bar and she came to stand in front of it, maintaining the required social distance of course.

  She nodded. "You know how high-risk people like my mum have to stay in for twelve weeks? I had to move out, so I've been staying in a hotel the past two nights. I've been doing her shopping and picking up her medicines and leaving them outside her house. The hotel told me this morning that they're closing and to be honest, I've been worrying about being somewhere with so many other people anyway."

  Her eyes filled with tears. "I've got no idea where I'm going to go, and it's all so strange anyway. I'm having to wave to my mum through the window. I wish the last time I'd hugged her, I'd clung on for hours."

  "Hey, there, there." I said, not maintaining a social distance between us as I walked out from behind the bar and put my arm around her. Fuck it, she'd been around me here anyway. "Rosie, I have a spare room here, and to be honest, potential lockdown by myself is not something I'd look forward to. So, how about you stay here, and maybe you could do my shopping as well as your part of the bargain? That way I can minimize my own going out. Reduce the risk. You'd be doing me as much of a favour as yourself."

  Her face seemed to weigh up all her options and I realised the point she accepted she was out of them. "Are you sure?"

  "Rosie, you're one of my most important staff." I said, even though for the most part I'd kind of not noticed she was there. However, I was noticing now and that was what counted. Yes, I was a typical bloke. Now I'd cottoned on to the fact she had nice eyes and even nicer tits, I'd took more notice. Sue me.

  "Well, this place is only five minutes walk away from where mum's is; so, if you really don't mind?"

  "Not at all." I said. "You can have the spare room and I promise not to walk around the place naked."

  That little blush came to her cheeks again.

  "So, about the toilets," I began because I needed to get this conversation away from any mention of the word naked given I'd just felt my cock twitch. I pictured the toilets in my mind and my groin soon got the message that it wasn't time to play.

  When she'd finished her cleaning, Rosie came to find me. "I'm off now. So…"

  "I'd say I'd show you your room but seeing as you clean up there once a week you already know what the rooms are like and that I tend to miss when trying to throw the teabag in the bin, amongst other bad habits."

  That seemed to break the tension a little.

  "It's really kind of you letting me stay. I promise not to get in your way. You need to tell me if I'm under your feet in the kitchen and I'll stay in my room as much as I can."

  "Don't be silly. Come out and watch the TV. Look, I know it's going to be a little weird, but this whole current worldwide situation is weird, isn't it? You just worry about keeping your mum safe and healthy. Anyway, if you get too fed up of me there's the whole downstairs you can escape to and a bar stocked full of booze and snacks. Feel free to help yourself. If whisky gets you through the night, I won't judge!"

  She pulled a face. "I'm not a whisky gal, and also if I drink even a glass of wine it goes straight to my head. But I'll bear it in mind for in case you're imposs
ible to live with, although my ex didn't manage to drive me to drink, so I don't think you will."