Inevitable

Book 1: Last Hope

by J.S. Scott

Genres: Billionaires Romance; Small-town Romance

Synopsis

A brand new series from New York Times and USA Today bestselling author J.S. Scott. Meet the small town Michigan team of Last Hope. This is a stand alone series inspired by the Last Hope men of The Billionaire's Obsession Series California.

Marshall

As the leader and founder of Last Hope, I had no room for anything but my volunteer rescue operation in my life.

I lived and breathed Last Hope nearly every minute of the day, and I liked it that way.

I might be an older guy with a messed-up leg from my days as a SEAL commander, but at least I still had an important purpose in my life.

Really, what else did I need?

I wasn't the kind of guy who did relationships or any kind of emotional entanglements. I was too old and set in my ways to deal with that kind of drama.

I was perfectly content with staying solo for the rest of my life.

Or so I thought....

Until the only woman on the planet who had always made me wish I could be a different kind of guy became a hostage in need of rescue.

I hadn't seen Emma in fourteen years.

It shouldn't matter that we'd known each other briefly a long time ago.

Unfortunately, I sucked at lying to myself.

For once in my life, an operation was going to get personal for me, whether I liked it...or not.

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Release date: October 22, 2025

Publisher: Golden Unicorn Enterprises, Inc.

Print pages: 267

Sample

Prologue

Marshall
Virginia Beach, Virginia

Fourteen Years Earlier…
It was time for me to go.
I’d been telling myself the same thing over and over for the last forty-five minutes. I’d
stalled around by taking a long shower in the master bath while the beautiful, blonde
female sleeping in the bed was oblivious and sleeping like an angel.
It had been a long night for us because we knew it was our last night together.
Emma.
What in the hell had I been doing with an extraordinary woman like her for the last five
days?
And why in the fuck was I having such a hard time leaving when I’d known from day one
that this was just a brief fling for both of us?
Neither of us had wanted any commitments or strings attached to the time we’d spent
here together in Virginia Beach.
She’d said she was on vacation, and I wasn’t looking for a relationship.
I was never looking for a relationship.
I certainly hadn’t planned on hooking up with anyone, either.
I’d just finished a really rough mission as the commander of a SEAL team, and all I’d
wanted during my leave was to temporarily put that operation out of my mind.
I hadn’t planned on actually succeeding at that goal.

I never did.
My thoughts were never far away from my job. My career in the military was my entire
life, and I’d made that choice very willingly a long time ago.
However, for just a short time, I’d actually let a woman get to me.
I had managed to put that recent mission out of my mind for a while because I’d been
totally distracted by her.
Emma.
I wasn’t sure how she’d managed to get under my skin, but she had.
Five days!
We’d only been together for five fucking days, and now I was dragging my feet about
leaving her.
Emma and I had literally bumped into each other.
Okay, maybe that wasn’t exactly the truth.
I’d practically mowed her over while she was window shopping in town because my
thoughts were consumed with my previous operation at the time.
I’d stopped to help her up.
It was my fault she fell to the ground in the first place.
And then…I’d done something totally out of character once I’d looked into the prettiest
pair of blue eyes I’d ever seen. I’d invited her to get a drink to apologize.
Hell, I shouldn’t have done that.
I never did things like that.
But for some unknown reason, I had, and she’d actually accepted, even though I’d
expected her to politely decline.
She was gorgeous and extremely young to be going out for a drink with a cantankerous,
grumpy guy like me.

The days that followed were like something out of a fantasy.
Emma was no pushover.
She was fearless, and she’d pried me out of my shell like no woman ever had before.
Most women—hell, most people in general—treated me with a healthy amount of respect
because I was a humorless, introverted, large man with an attitude.
I still wasn’t sure what Emma saw in me that she actually liked.
I wasn’t a likable guy, but the connection and attraction between the two of us was
definitely mutual.
We’d agreed not to share any personal information, and no promises.
Strangely, we’d found plenty to talk about anyway.
I might not know her last name, where she came from, or what she did for a living, but I
knew her likes and dislikes.
I also knew every beautiful curve of her body.
Her scent.
Her taste.
Dammit! Those things would definitely haunt me once I’d left this beachfront home.
I shook myself out of my musings.
Certainly, I’d forget about her as soon as I was back on base and researching our next
mission.
There was no space in my brain for anything else.
The time I’d spent with Emma had simply been a brief reprieve from my normal life.
It had to be that way.
There was no room in my life for a romantic relationship, and I’d always been okay with
that.

Most special forces guys had a hard time maintaining any kind of romantic relationship.
Personally, I’d never even tried to do it myself.
I’d seen too many relationships fail in my occupation, and I had absolutely nothing to
offer a woman.
I was an asshole with no joy in my life. No woman deserved a man like me.
Especially Emma…
She deserved someone who would treat her right someday. A guy who could make time
for her.
I finally picked up my duffel bag from the floor and walked to the side of the bed.
The thick layer of ice around my heart cracked just a little as I glanced down at the
serene expression on her face as she slept.
Yeah, unfortunately, I’d remember her.
The memories over the last several days played over and over in my head as my eyes
swept over her beautiful face.
Christ! I needed to get out of Emma’s vacation rental because I was actually tempted to
leave her my number, even though we’d promised each other this was all just a fling.
Leave, Marshall. Get your ass moving.
Leaving my number so we could stay in contact was not part of the deal I’d made with
Emma, and I was a man of my word.
I dropped a small box onto the bedside table next to her side of the bed before I turned
and walked toward the door.
Gifts were probably not part of the deal, either, but I didn’t give a shit.
Maybe there was part of me that wanted Emma to remember the last five days because
I knew I’d probably never entirely manage to forget them.
Hell, they’d been the best five days of my life.

Move, Marshall. You’re married to the Navy and always will be.
I was close to forty years old.
My life was already mapped out with nothing but the SEALS in my future.
I was too damn old to change, and Emma was way too good for a guy like me.
I opened the front door, then flipped the lock on the handle so the door would lock behind
me.
I took the stairs quickly, trying to put some distance between myself and temptation.
I definitely wouldn’t change, but for the first time in my life, there had been a woman in
my life that had made me temporarily wish that I could.