LITMIR.BIZ

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      Cover Copy

      1879, Tennessee. A farmhand on the vast Rollins estate, handsome young Colby Kinsley makes the mistake of his life when he becomes briefly entangled with conniving Grace Rollins, the plantation owner's beautiful but unstable daughter. Yet matters become even more complicated when he finds himself falling truly in love with Grace's clever younger sister, Annabeth...

      Intent on escaping her darkly troubled father and her melancholy home, Annabeth is also determined to avoid Colby. Yet she is still drawn to his quick wit and many talents. And when he performs an act of astounding courage, she can no longer deny her true feelings for him…just as her sister cannot hide her jealous rage. Grace will do anything to destroy the blossoming romance—even invoke dark, powerful supernatural forces. And as her dangerous machinations begin, the passions of all three are set on a tragic course—with a conclusion that will echo across lifetimes…

      EVER BOUND

      Cursed Series

      Visit us at www.kensingtonbooks.com

      Books by Odessa Gillespie Black

      Cursed Series

      Ever After

      Ever Bound

      Published by Kensington Publishing Corporation

      Ever Bound

      A Cursed Novel

      Odessa Gillespie Black

      LYRICAL PRESS

      Kensington Publishing Corp.

      www.kensingtonbooks.com

      Copyright

      Lyrical Press books are published by

      Kensington Publishing Corp. 119 West 40th Street New York, NY 10018

      Copyright © 2016 by Odessa Gillespie Black

      All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means without the prior written consent of the Publisher, excepting brief quotes used in reviews.

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      Kensington Publishing Corp.

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      Kensington and the K logo Reg. U.S. Pat. & TM Off.

      Lyrical Press and the L logo are trademarks of Kensington Publishing Corp.

      First Electronic Edition: June 2016

      eISBN-13: 978-1-60183-930-5

      eISBN-10: 1-60183-930-8

      Printed in the United States of America

      Dedication

      Thank you, Andrew Joseph Tindall, for naming this novel.

      Acknowledgements

      I’d like to thank my sister, Anna Marie Fuller, for always believing in me and shamelessly marketing my novels everywhere we go (to the lady at the checkout, to the customers in the grocery market, to the gas station attendant, to the person pumping gas across from us, to the people momentarily sitting beside us at a stoplight—and all of this in one outing). She’s relentless. I want to be just like her when I grow up.

      Chapter 1

      After Mama made a supper fit for kings and queens, I walked out the back door of our cottage full and happy. It wasn’t dark yet, so maybe I could get some fishing in. A small rut worn in the middle of a long path led down to a pond set far away from the main house.

      “Colby? What’s your middle name?” a girl asked from behind me.

      Not again.

      For three long years, since the day we arrived at the Rollins Plantation, I’d dealt with Grace Rollins’ tiresome advances. No matter how many times I rejected her, she became more insistent. I could never have a moment’s peace without her searching me out.

      Other than her sister, Annabeth, who was buried in her studies and the arts, we were the only young people. That left me with no one to become acquainted with. Which was just as well. Time to myself had become scarce, since lately, I could never find any.

      “Well?” She eyed me with the gaze of an interested mountain lion.

      “Kendall. Colby Kendall Kinsley.”

      “Hmm. It’ll do.” She twirled a black tendril of hair about her finger as her gaze intensified. “Colby Kendall Kinsley, have you ever kissed a girl?”

      I spit into the pond. “I beg your pardon?”

      “Have you ever kissed a girl? It’s a simple question with a simple answer.” She examined her fingernails the way a cat would before she clawed your face. She tapped her chin, then pointed at me. “You’re scared of me.”

      I put my pole and worms beside the water’s edge. There was no sense in bothering to fish. She’d scare them all off with her incessant rambling. But I would figure out a way to run her off before dark. Just before the sun set over the tall trees south of the property, they really started biting.

      “You keep darting away from me when I try to kiss you. You haven’t kissed a girl before.”

      “I kiss my mom all the time. She’s plenty enough female in my life.” I took out a medium-sized hook and ran the line through it. “I don’t think this is an appropriate subject.”

      She giggled and stood. “You know by now that ‘proper’ isn’t exactly a concern of mine.”

      “Don’t you have lessons to attend or some knitting to do?”

      Pressing her dress down, she walked toward me. “I’m a big girl. I do what I want, when I want.”

      “I’m going to have to insist you bring along a chaperone if we are to be in each other’s company.” I jabbed a hook right through the biggest, juiciest night crawler I had, hoping to send her retching.

      “If you’re asking for a chaperone, that makes me believe you would like to call on me in the near future.” She slinked closer.

      I almost tripped on my bowl of worms and took a tumble into the pond.

      “I used to wonder why you came out here with all the bugs and frogs and slimy creatures, but it’s quiet. I might accompany you while you fish more often. It would get me away from Annabeth and all her goody-goody college talk. I swear, she’ll never find a decent husband.”

      Just as I gained my balance and looked up, Grace was nose to nose with me. I slid out of her clutches before she could lean in to put her lips on my face.

      “Colby,” Mama called from the back of our house.

      Relieved, I slipped around her and scooped up my fishing supplies. “I have to go.”

      “We’ll meet tomorrow night.”

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