The pursuit of happiness.., p.1
The Pursuit of Happiness (Men of Whiskey Row Book 3), page 1
TABLE OF CONTENTS
TITLE PAGE
COPYRIGHT PAGE
PLAYLIST PAGE
AUTHOR’S ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
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
CHAPTER NINETEEN
CHAPTER TWENTY
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
EPILOGUE
THE PURSUIT
OF
HAPPINESS
BY
D. A. YOUNG
Copyright © June 2016 by D. A. Young
Cover Art by Karen Kunz/ Lab Media © March 2016 created for D. A. Young
Editing by Little Pear Editing Services/littlepearediting@gmail.com Copyright © June 2016
All rights reserved. This copy is intended for the purchaser of this e-book only. EBooks are not transferable. They cannot be sold, shared or given away. The unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this e-book is a crime punishable by law. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including printing, photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law. Criminal copyright infringement, including infringement without monetary gain, is investigated by the FBI and is punishable by up to 5 years in federal prison and a fine of $250,000 (http://www.fbi.gov/ipr/).
This book is a work of fiction and intended for mature audiences aged 18+ only. All names, characters, places, businesses, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination and have been used facetiously. Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead, locales or events is entirely coincidental.
THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS PLAYLIST
PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS – STEVE AOKI REMIX FT. MGMT
MISS YOU - ADELE
STAND BY YOU – RACHEL PLATTEN
FOLLOW ME – UNCLE CRACKER
CHECK ON IT – BEYONCE FT. BUN B AND SLIM THUG
ANIMALS – MAROON 5
WALK OF SHAME – MEGHAN TRAINOR
SPEAKERS – SAM HUNT
IGNITION REMIX – R. KELLY
AMERICA’S SWEETHEART – ELLE KING
CATCH MY BREATH – KELLY CLARKSON
BABY I LOVE YOUR WAY/FREEBIRD – WILL TO POWER
GOOD LIFE – ONE REPUBLIC
I CHOOSE YOU – SARAH BAREILLES
LET ME GET THIS RIGHT – NE-YO
LIVE LIKE YOU WERE DYING – TIM MCGRAW
STILL WAITING – K.C. & JOJO
MY GIRL – THE TEMPTATIONS
TO BE WITH YOU – MR. BIG
I HOPE YOU DANCE – LEE ANN WOMACK
AUTHOR’S NOTES
Thank you very much for taking the time to read my work. I’m a firm believer in God, doing my best, love, good times, family, friends, romance, HAWT (no that’s not a typo) sex, laughter, details and sentence enhancers. All of which I like to share in my writing. If you found that declaration to be offensive, you should probably pass on my books. If you didn’t, then enjoy and happy reading!
I’d love to hear your thoughts and opinions. Please email me at day_one2015@outlook.com
To Patrice Harrison and Karen Kunz (or my Glam Squad as I like to think of you ladies) there are no words to truly express how incredibly thankful I am for all that you do for me. Thank you very much for sharing your wonderful talents, time and patience with me.
To my family and friends, thank you so much for all of your love, support and encouragement! For always being there for me and supporting my vision. I’m forever indebted and my love for you has no limits.
Sincerely,
D. A. Young
Interested in what I’m doing next? Follow me on Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/D-A-Young-1695356880704195/
Prologue
1998
Whiskey Row, Tennessee
Darby anxiously waited on the bench near the bicycle rack at the back entrance of the high school. He listened as the final bell rang signaling the school day’s end. He looked down at the single pink rose in his large hands and shook his head in disbelief. If his friends or brothers could see him now, they’d give him shit for the rest of his life—big, badass Darby Sullivan shaking in his boots as he waited to ask a girl to the prom.
She wasn’t just any girl, though. No sir, she was Mariah Devereaux, the prettiest girl in school who only had eyes for him, the wild child of the tainted Sullivan family. Just thinking about her choosing him blew his mind. It had all started innocently enough. They had third-period Spanish class together, and Mariah was struggling in the class. Even though he liked to act like he couldn’t care less about his education, Darby had the highest grade in the class. Mariah came from a well-off family where her parents could’ve afforded a tutor, but instead, to everyone’s surprise, she asked for Darby’s help.
Reluctantly, Darby agreed to do it, but only because the teacher offered to write him a letter of recommendation for college. Tutoring took place in the classroom three times a week after school let out. Mariah made him really nervous with her sweet smiles that caused his stomach to dip every time she gave him one, and her slight touches always caused him to break out in goosebumps. Her tropical perfume lingered on his clothes long after they parted ways, and at night in bed, Darby jacked off as he thought about her big, blue eyes, long, straight black hair, and pert little figure.
Darby was far from a virgin and hadn’t been one in three years. His first time had been with Alexi’s housekeeper Marta’s granddaughter, Anya, who was visiting from the Ukraine for the summer. The fifteen-year-old vixen, with long, pale blonde hair and slender nubile body, had shown up in his bedroom one afternoon while everyone else was down at the swimming hole, and he’d been home on punishment for riding his bike off of Alexei’s roof. She said she came by to keep him company but ended up riding and sucking his dick that afternoon and every one after for the rest of her two-week visit.
Her next summer visit, she’d introduced him to good, ole fashioned pussy-eating and anal sex. He loved her inhibitions, patience, and adventure. She was an excellent teacher, and he knew he’d graduated at the top of her class when he made her shout out, with tears in her eyes, that she loved him as she came. Sadly, that was her last visit as she got knocked up the following winter and her parents quickly married her off.
After that, it seemed that all the girls could sense his experience and were dying to get next to him, but he found himself only drawn to sophisticated, older women. So he got a job at the Miramar Resort and worked as a pool boy during the summer and room service during winter. The women were plentiful and always willing to give advice on how to please them. Tips were good, sex was plentiful, and he was living a pretty good life. The little girls in The Row could do nothing for him, and he wasn’t even tempted by them— until now.
Mariah, with her wide-eyed gaze and sweet smile, scared him senseless. The first time they kissed three weeks ago, he was in the middle of explaining a verb in Spanish to her when she suddenly leaned in and pressed her small mouth to his. He’d been stunned as her sweet breath washed over his face, and his dick turned hard enough to drill through the school roof. It was the quickest of kisses, but it left him reeling and wanting more.
Afterward, she pulled back and said with a starry-eyed expression, “Please don’t be mad, but I’ve been wanting to do that ever since you said hello to me.”
She’s innocent; don’t scare her, he chanted to himself as he fought the urge to throw her on the table and pound into her pussy like a maniac. Don’t. Scare. Her.
“Uhhh, naw, that’s cool,” he said stupidly and cringed at how his voice almost cracked. Then she smiled and did it again. Her lips pressed into his with a sweet clumsiness, and Darby found himself falling for her. After that, in the following weeks after their tutoring session was over, he found himself exchanging chaste kisses with her and never going past first base for fear of scaring her. Darby found out quickly that being a goddamn gentleman was really fucking hard.
Now here he was, waiting to surprise her because she’d hinted at wanting to go to the prom, and Darby was about to break his cardinal rule of going solo just to make her happy. He couldn’t wait to see the look on her face when he asked her. His best friend Ginger said he was crazy and insisted that he didn’t know the real Mariah, but he figured she was just a little jealous because he hadn’t been spending as much time with her as she’d like.
As students came out of the double doors, he waited, hidden by the stair wall, until he heard his name mentioned by a boy. The voice belonged to Lance Davis, and he was talking to Mariah. Darby’s fingers clenched as he remembered what the spoiled little
“So Mariah, looks like you’ve got Sullivan eatin’ out of the palm of your hand. You’re certain he’ll go for it?”
What the hell? Darby’s heart started beating erratically in his chest as he heard a mocking laugh. Then he heard Mariah’s voice, only now it wasn’t as baby-soft as it was when she was with him. It was grown-ass woman confident. “Darby Sullivan is like putty in my hands, baby. He’s so inexperienced, sometimes I feel like I’m with my kid brother. Why he barely knows how to kiss! I will get him to take me to prom, and when I do, you owe me a pair of Charles David heels. They’ll look so good on me when I’m ridin’ you with nothin’ else on, lover.”
Quietly he stood up, and his height enabled him to see Lance, Mariah, and their friends from the football team and cheerleading squad gathered around them as they talked shit about him.
“I still can’t believe you’ve got him eatin’ out of the palm of your hand like that,” another girl said enviously. “Aren’t you scared he might try to hurt you or something? All that dirty blood runnin’ through him.”
“Naw, he’s not like that. He’s more like that big, stupid ape in that movie, ya know?” Mariah snapped her fingers as she tossed her hair over her shoulder. “That’s it! He’s like King Kong! A big ole stupid monkey!”
Their mean laughter filled the air as Lance picked Mariah up and carried her over his shoulder, attempting to act like King Kong carrying actress Fay Wray. They continued to talk shit about him, and someone mentioned that he might possibly be gay.
A slow, cold rage filled Darby as he looked at the pink roses that were now crushed in his large fist. He should have known better. The nice girls weren’t for him. Ginger had been right about Mariah, and he had turned his back on her for what he thought was a promising relationship. But Mariah was not a nice girl, and it was time everyone knew.
***
Lance Davis was pissed that he’d thrown three interceptions during tonight’s game. His old man was gonna be all over his ass tonight at dinner. And Mariah had disappeared, which really pissed him off because he was looking for her to blow him before he had to go home and hear his father’s shit. Lance sulked as he and his friends walked through the school parking lot to what was considered the rich kids section. The only thing that brought him an inkling of joy right now was how Mariah planned to humiliate that baboon Darby in front of everyone for him.
Lance could vividly recall Sullivan beating the shit out of him last year over that little bitch Ginger. He would never admit it out loud, but he was scared shitless of the big bastard and had been secretly plotting revenge, trying to think of the best way possible to humiliate Darby without him knowing that he, Lance, was behind it. When he saw the way Darby’s eyes followed Mariah in Spanish class, he knew he’d found his weakness.
So Lance bribed Mariah with a new Coach bag and Charles David shoes to seduce Darby into falling for her. The Davises were one of the wealthiest families in Whiskey Row, and Mariah’s father worked for his. Mr. and Mrs. Devereaux were a pair of social-climbing parasites who thought Lance would be their meal ticket to the Country Club. So he let them think that while he slept with their daughter, and she acted like butter wouldn’t melt in her mouth.
His friends kept talking and laughing as they got closer to their section of the parking lot when they suddenly heard a high-pitched, keening sound.
“What the fuck was that?” one of his teammates asked, looking around nervously, but Lance ignored him as he heard a familiar voice shriek, “Oh yes, fuck me harder!”
A chill went down his spine as he ran around the corner with his friends, hot on his heels, and an even larger crowd behind them coming to see what the commotion was all about.
What Lance saw stopped him cold in his tracks. Mariah, bracing herself against the hood of HIS Ferrari, was getting fucked doggy-style by Darby Sullivan.
“You like that, Mariah?” Darby asked coolly, and Mariah moaned again as she backed her little ass up to him.
It was like watching a train wreck, and Lance couldn’t look away as he watched his nemesis, fuck the little whore with skilled precision. Pistoning in and out of her and making her say things that she had never said in bed with HIM.
“I love it! Don’t stop, Darby! Bang this pussy!! Holy shit your dick is so big!” she yelped as Darby continued to pound into her faster and faster. “Uuuugggggghhhh! I’m cuuumiing!!”
Darby laughed cruelly and fucked her harder. “Go on ahead and cum for me; you’ve earned it, Mariah.”
Mariah’s legs shook uncontrollably as she fell forward onto the hood, and Darby pulled out of her revealing his dick to everyone as he jerked off the condom and came all over the hood of Lance’s car and Mariah’s back.
“Jesus Christ, he’s hung like my daddy’s prize stallion,” one of Lance’s minions whispered enviously. The other guys chuckled nervously but quickly grew quiet as Lance shot them all an evil look. His fists were clenched as he watched Darby zip up his pants and walk away from Mariah who was still lying on Lance’s car, shaking, ass on full display for everyone to see.
Darby didn’t seem surprised to see the large crowd that was staring at him as he turned around. His eyes met Lance’s, and the rich boy gulped nervously as the bigger boy surveyed him coolly and headed toward the group. Darby was a couple of steps away now, and Lance stepped back warily.
His big hand shot out and he ruffled Lance’s hair as he walked by. As the crowd parted for him, Darby called out over his shoulder “Looks like you had FOUR interceptions today. Better luck next time, asshole.”
HE KNEW. Somehow Darby knew what Lance and Mariah had attempted to do to him. FUCK! He was so dead! He felt something cool touch his ear, and at the same time, someone tentatively tapped his shoulder.
“Dude…is that Sullivan’s jizz in your hair?”
Chapter One
Corrine, Mississippi
Dewayne Lister spat his tobacco chew into the bar sink with disgust as he watched his newest employee Tucker Smith slowly wipe down the tables. He shook his head in irritation. The boy was slower than frozen molasses in everything he did. But he was free labor. If it wasn’t for that fact, Dewayne would have gotten rid of the little retard on his first day and got himself one of them fucking wetbacks that hung out at the Home Depot in the city. But then he’d have to come out of pocket. Unless Dewayne called Immigration and arranged for them to pick him up for questioning. Sometimes he wished he could go back in time and shoot that son of a bitch Abe Lincoln himself for abolishing slavery. Things would be a whole lot simpler for him and his fellow brethren of WTBP.
But he’d taken a chance on the little nobody that no one took a second look at, sitting on the sidewalk outside of Slappy Jo’s holding a sign saying: Will Work for Food in writing so bad, his three-year-old grandson could have done a better job. So out of the goodness of his heart and the chance to keep money in his pocket, Dewayne had taken the help wanted sign out of the bar’s front window and magnanimously offered him a job. Tucker slowly agreed and quicker than you could cheer “White is right!”, Dewayne had him sign and date the worn cardboard sign and in a Slappy Jo’s uniform washing dishes. The thing he liked most about the dimwit was that he didn’t complain about anything. Not about cleaning the restrooms or after patrons who didn’t realized they’d had too much of a good time until they were puking their guts out.
But he couldn’t afford for Tucker to be slow today because today was a big day for Dewayne Lister. Today was the day that he would get to host the WTBP rally at his fine establishment. Yes sir, today their fearless leader Elgin-Ray Colloway was coming out of mourning and leaving his house for the first time in months to speak at today’s sermon. He looked around and realized that Tucker had finished everything except wiping the damn tables. Trucks sporting the confederate flag were now starting to pull into Slappy Jo’s parking lot. Dewayne took a quick peek into the mirror behind the bar to make sure his mullet was perfectly gelled.
