Wanting More (Mitchell Family #5)
Author: Jennifer Foor

Chapter 1

Conner

I remember the day I moved to North Carolina with my sister and my brother-in-law, who, by the way, I’d always considered a relative, until he actually married her. When it first happened, I couldn’t get over the feeling of betrayal from both of them. I mean, I was in a real bad place in my life and they were like fuel to the fire. I don’t know why, but I hated seeing them so happy and in love. If I had other choices, I would have moved anywhere else.

You see, I was in a bad way. Between the alcohol and even the drugs, I had lost my way and turned to parties and fast women to keep me company. My family stepped in just as things were really starting to get out of hand and gave me an ultimatum. I had to change my ways or they were going to cut me off.

My sister and Ty decided that it would be best if they got me away from everything that I was used to and moved me to another state, where they could help me get clean and keep an eye on me.

At first I hated it, in fact the first week I had considered just ending my life, or running away from everyone. I didn’t have a lot of money saved up, but anything was better than being treated like a damn little kid. I think living with Ty made it even harder. It rubbed me the wrong way that he was married to my sister and raising her daughter as his own, but for him to be in charge of my day to day actions made me want to hurt him worse.

Looking back on everything, I saw that it was mostly the drugs making me so volatile with my feelings. I’d been in my share of southern brawls, but wanting to physically kill someone wasn’t exactly something I was proud of admitting.

I knew the first week was going to be hard. Besides my sister and Ty, nobody knew how serious my addiction had become. I’d like to say that I quit cold turkey and it was easy, but that would have been a lie. Besides the sweats, the vomiting, the pain and the feeling like I was dying, all I could think about was taking another pill and making it all go away.

I don’t remember the first two days very much, but I will never forget that third night. My sister was spending the day cleaning. I’d been kept up in my room for two days, so after finally taking a shower, I headed out into the barn with Ty. Of course he was hanging out alone, drinking a beer. I watched that bottle hit his mouth and found myself craving just a sip of it. I think that is when I actually admitted that I had an addiction. If I wanted to kick the drugs, I needed to stay away from the beer for at least a little while.

After shooting a few games of pool, I couldn’t control my shaking any longer. My sister had stayed up with me for two nights and I knew I couldn’t ask her to do it a third. She was pregnant and needed her rest. Once I reached my breaking point, I headed back to the house. My sister and an extremely cute red head were sitting in the living room talking. They both turned around and smiled as I came walking into the room. The red head looked like she’d been crying.

“Oh, this is him now. Conner, this is my boss and my friend Amy.”

Now, at this point, sweat was running down my face and I felt like I was going to pass out. I can only imagine how f**king rough I looked. I held out my hand anyway. “Nice to meet you.”

That woman looked up at me with bright blue eyes and I was taken back. I held her hand for an extra few seconds too long and right before she pulled away, I saw the large diamond ring on her finger. “Love the accent. Your sister tells me you’re like a real cowboy.”

I cocked my eyebrow and looked at my sister. Was she for real? Okay, I can play into this. “Let me know if you ever wanna ride.” As their mouths both dropped, I walked out of the room laughing.

A few minutes later, my sister came barging into my room. I was sitting on my bed with my hands in my face. I knew it was her without even looking up. “Save it, Miranda, I’m not in the mood for your shit today. As you can tell, I’m havin’ a real hard time here. Sorry if I offended your pretty little lady friend. I’m sure she can take her ass home to her husband and ask him to come beat my ass. I stood up and pushed my sister out of my room. Before I could shut the door, she put her foot in the way. As I slammed it, the sucker sprung back open. I shook my head and walked away, glad she was wearing shoes.

She got up in my face and pushed me down on the bed. “You listen here you little ass**le, this is my house and you will be respectful of anyone that I have come in here. You got it?”

“Screw you, Miranda. You couldn’t even begin to understand the shit I’m goin’ through.” I waved my hand for her to exit. “Go back to your little girl thing and let me be.”

She put her hands up in the air and started walking out of the room. “I don’t know why I agreed to this! You’re hopeless!”

Now that really pissed me off. Here I was trying to get clean and she couldn’t even support that I wanted to be left alone. Thankfully, my phone started vibrating and I recognized the number as my one and only friend in the whole God forsaken town. I grabbed my jacket and headed out of the house, after getting a very dirty look from my sister.

Ty was outside and stopped me at my truck. “Where you headed?”

“To get some pu**y. Is that okay with you, or do I have to get permission from your wife?”

“Fuck you Conner; I hope that little redheaded bitch gives you Chlamydia and your dick falls off.”

I started the truck and flipped him the finger as I pulled away. Just to be a dick, I rolled down the window when the truck got close to him. “You’re just jealous cause I can hit whatever I want.”

I pulled out of there before he could say anything. I probably shouldn’t have been driving, but my sister refused to let Brina in the house. For the first two days, she’d been a good friend, but I knew she was getting to a point where she was expecting more from me, which was something I wasn’t interested in.

I met Brina, because she and Van used to be friends, but since she’d gotten married and moved to Kentucky with my cousin, they weren’t really close. It worked better for me, because I didn’t want anyone knowing my business. Another reason I liked Brina was because she knew how to have a good time. In fact, she jumped out of her car, took one look at me, and dug into her little purse. Without even saying a word, she put the pill on her tongue and pulled me in for a kiss. I felt her tongue brush over mine and drop the pill. As her mouth left mine, she handed me a bottle of soda.

“You ready to party, Cowboy?” She grabbed my hand and pulled me up against her body.

I ran my hand through her natural red hair. “You’re a bad influence.”