Blue Marguerite

BLUE MARGUERITE THE PAINTED DAISIES BOOK 4 LJ EVANS This book is a work of fiction. While reference might be made to actual historical events or existing people and locations, the events, names, characters, places, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental. BLUE MARGUERITE © 2023 by LJ Evans All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, or stored, in any retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without the prior written permission of the publisher of this book. If you find this book on a free book website, it is stolen property and illegal to download. Published by THAT’S WHAT SHE SAID PUBLISHING www.ljevansbooks.com Cover Design: © Emily Wittig Cover Images: © Unsplash | weston m, Deposit Photos | VadimVasenin and Dekues, iStock| Punnarong, and Shutterstock | Mike Mols Content & Line Editor: Evans Editing Copy Editor: Jenn Lockwood Editing Services Proofing: Karen Hrdlicka Sensitivity Editor: Liss Montoya Library of Congress Cataloging in process. Paperback ISBN: 979-8-88643-916-8 eBook ISBN: 979-8-88643-915-1 Printed in the United States 060823 CONTENTS Playlist Prologue Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Chapter 9 Chapter 10 Chapter 11 Chapter 12 Chapter 13 Chapter 14 Chapter 15 Chapter 16 Chapter 17 Chapter 18 Chapter 19 Chapter 20 Chapter 21 Chapter 22 Chapter 23 Chapter 24 Chapter 25 Chapter 26 Chapter 27 Chapter 28 Chapter 29 Chapter 30 Chapter 31 Chapter 32 Chapter 33 Chapter 34 Epilogue ROYAL HAZE - SNEAK PEEK Message from the Author Acknowledgments About the Author Other Titles by LJ Evans https://spoti.fi/3ynObKE To those who needed a push to take the leap, may your fall into love be bright and beautiful. To Liss for teaching me all the Colombian curse words that surprised the heck out of me. PROLOGUE WOULD’VE, COULD’VE, SHOULD’VE Performed by Taylor Swift SEVEN YEARS BEFORE MOVIE SET BURBANK, CALIFORNIA RONAN: What the hell have you done to me? Every look you sent my way today had me ready to go off like a pubescent teen. ADRIA: Looks? You’re accusing me? What about that whole finger stroll down my neck? RONAN: I had two minutes before my dad called action again, and I had to touch you. ADRIA: You can’t say things like that. RONAN: Get over here, Adria. Get to the hotel before we both spontaneously combust without ever being twined together. Twelve hours later. RONAN: I woke and you were gone. ADRIA: We have one last day in the studio. I couldn’t be late. RONAN: We need to talk. ADRIA: We already agreed this was a one-time thing. We have lives that will never touch again. RONAN: No one should lose their virginity in a one-night stand, Star. No one. ADRIA: This is why I didn’t tell you. You wouldn’t have had sex with me, and we both would have combusted―your words. But that’s all it was, Hollywood—sex. RONAN: Liar. FOUR YEARS BEFORE BURBANK, CALIFORNIA RONAN: Meet me at my place? Seven o’clock? ADRIA: No. RONAN: I can’t go another day watching you from behind my camera while you beat on those drums with your skin glistening and those hot-as-fire blue eyes calling me home. I’ll lose my goddamn mind. I need to be inside you. ADRIA: Don’t you mean Landry? Or Fee? Or Nikki? RONAN: You’re jealous? If I didn’t flirt with them, they’d see right through me―us―and you told me you didn’t want them to know. ADRIA: So, your excuse for hitting on my friends and bandmates is so you wouldn’t flirt with me? RONAN: Yes. I did what you asked. Now do what I ask. Show up. ADRIA: I’m not sure it’s a good idea. RONAN: Coward. ADRIA: Excuse me? RONAN: You’re afraid. You’re afraid you’ll remember what making love really feels like. I’ll ruin you, just like you’ve already ruined me. ADRIA: ***Eye roll emoji*** Hollywood’s Player Prince wants me to believe the best sex of his life was with a random virgin? I’m not sure what that says about you. RONAN: Making love, Star. Not sex. Sex is just bodies finding release. What we did to each other left scars. Permanent marks. Gouges in my soul only you can fill, damn it. Twenty minutes later. ADRIA: I’m at the door. Buzz me in. THREE AND A HALF YEARS BEFORE NEW YORK CITY RONAN: Can you leave? ADRIA: What? Why? RONAN: You know why. ADRIA: Landry wants to take pictures with the VMA award front and center. She plans on sending it to that dick critic who told her to give up singing and become a phone sex operator. RONAN: The award is pretty amazing. But you and me, skin on skin, that’s unforgettable. Stars-bursting-into-existence kind of unforgettable. ADRIA: I hate when you say shit like that. RONAN: Because you FEEL the words. Your body knows the truth of us. ADRIA: How many women have you used that line on, Hollywood? RONAN: I don’t need to use lines with anyone else, Star. Only you. ADRIA: I can’t leave the party yet. RONAN: Fine. I’ll meet you in my room in thirty minutes. But I’m not sure how long I can hold off…. Ten minutes later. RONAN: *** Image of Ronan’s bare upper body that ends just below the divots above his hips. His muscled torso ripples, and his arm extends past the edge of the photo, hand flexed, gripping something out of sight. ADRIA: You fight dirty. RONAN: Fighting is the last thing I want to do. Hurry. THIRTY-FOUR MONTHS BEFORE RONAN: I’ll be at the concert tonight, and I’d like to see you after. ADRIA: You’re in Washington? RONAN: I was meeting with a production studio in Vancouver. ADRIA: The after-party will last hours. We’re celebrating the end of the tour with the crew. RONAN: Get me