Ali Holsinger
Surrender
(Rapture Island 9)
Erotic Romance, Contemporary, BDSM, Romantic Suspense, MF, HEAAlexandria Flemming realized something was missing from her life. Although she suspected she knew what it was, she doubted she could ever truly surrender herself to any man.
That is until she met her new attorney, Beau Lucian. The aura of power surrounding him drew Alexandria like a moth to a flame. His thoughtful tenderness allowed her to trust for the first time in her life.
Beau Lucian enjoyed the Dominant lifestyle, but despaired of ever finding a woman he could share that lifestyle with. What he longed for was a committed relationship, one where he and his woman could build a life together. Did he dare hope that Alexandria Flemming could be that woman?
As they explore her desires, they realize they’re perfect together but wonder if pleasure is enough. Her surrender to his dominance thrilled them, and as their intimacy grew, so did their feelings.
When a man hired to kill Alexandria nearly succeeds, Beau’s protective instincts go into overdrive, and he realizes he can’t live without her.
Reality, they discover proves to be better than any fantasy.
Excerpt
Forcing a smile, Alexandria pressed her thighs together in an attempt to ease the ache that had settled there. Part of her felt relief that he seemed to understand her, while another part feared that he saw too much. Averting her gaze so he didn’t see more, she found herself breathless. “My needs are none of your business.”
Beau glanced at the waiter as he brought a bread basket, the scent of it tickling her taste buds and making her mouth water. Waiting until the waiter left, Beau took her hand in his again and brought it to his lips, his action surprising her into meeting his gaze again. “On that, we disagree. Did I mention that you look beautiful tonight? But then, I’ve never seen you look anything but.”
“I think the word you used was stunning.” Running a fingertip up and down the stem of her glass, she raised a brow. “You don’t really believe you’re going to charm me into capitulating with compliments, do you?”
“Not at all. You’re not naïve, and you’re certainly not gullible.” He buttered a small slice of bread and handed it to her. “Do you have a lot of trouble with theft in your company?”
Breaking off an edge of her still steaming portion of bread, Alexandria shrugged. “It’s always a threat. I have to have employees I trust completely, and I don’t trust that easily. Still, someone has to do the work, but I have to keep a sharp eye on everyone.”
Beau picked up a piece of bread. “Steve takes care of your security?”
“He does. I wouldn’t trust anyone else. He watches over the head of security—”
“Paul Simpson?”
Surprised that he remembered that, Alexandria nodded and popped a bite of bread into her mouth. “Yes. He’s very upset that someone was able to copy something.”
Beau frowned, glancing up when the waiter came through the curtain again with a platter of hot appetizers. “I’m surprised that was allowed to happen. I could tell when I spoke to him earlier that he was coding something.” He smiled and gestured toward the platter. “Your brother speaks in one-word grunts when he’s coding. What would you like?”
“Hmm. The clams, shrimp, and stuffed mushrooms look good. Everything looks good, but I didn’t hear you order it.”
“Arthur just wants to know what you want as a main dish. He chooses a variety of appetizers and desserts. We should get a small salad next.”
“Hmm.” Alexandria took another sip of wine. “I didn’t know you knew my brother so well.”
Beau slid the items she’d mentioned, along with a bacon-wrapped asparagus and a small, filled puff pastry onto her small plate before buttering another piece of bread for her. “He wanted to meet me when Les Willard sold the firm to me and retired. We hit it off, and have lunch together when we get the chance.”
He smiled and slid the bread onto her plate, his attention to her more than she was used to. “He mentioned his beautiful sister more than once and his frustration with her that she seemed so alone.”
Chewing the bite of breaded clam, Alexandria shook her head and smiled. “I have all the social life that I want. My brother thinks I should let him do background checks on every man I date. Because of that, I keep my social life to myself.”
Beau slid several appetizers onto his own plate. “Steve knows we’re out tonight.”
Amused, she cut her asparagus. “Can’t keep a secret?”
“I didn’t intend to keep it a secret. I have no problem with people knowing of my interest in you.” He cut into the puff pastry. “If you don’t go out much, what do you do with yourself after work?”
“Who says I don’t go out much?”
Beau popped the bite of his appetizer into his mouth. “Your brother, for one.”
“I told you that I don’t tell him about my social life.”
Picking up his wine glass again, Beau narrowed his gaze on hers. “It’s interesting that you mention a social life but you never call it a love life.”
Alexandria cut her shrimp in half and decided it was time to change the subject. “Why did you decide to become a lawyer?”
Beau smiled. “I like the rules. Right and wrong. I like the challenge of outwitting a prosecutor. I like making sure my clients have a proper defense and aren’t pushed through the system.”
She finished chewing her bite of shrimp and stabbed the other half. “But most people wouldn’t be able to pay your fees.”
“Those fees enable me to pay the best private detective agency in Georgia.” His lips curved. “They also allow me to take more cases pro bono. As a matter of fact, the murder case I’m trying next week is pro bono.”
“That’s nice of you. It’s important to give back.”
“Is that why you send free makeup and skin care products to cancer patients at the hospital?”
Alexandria shrugged. “A little makeup can sometimes make a woman feel beautiful. A woman needs to feel beautiful. My entire career is based on that concept.”
Beau refilled his wine glass and topped off hers. “Women also feel beautiful when they know they’re desired.”
Looking down at her plate, she sighed. “Feeling desired isn’t enough.”
Because he was watching her, Beau couldn’t miss the brief flash of a deep sadness, one that appeared to have been cultivated for quite a long time.
The waiter appeared again with their salads and, after he’d cleared away the appetizers, disappeared again.
Beau’s mind worked as he watched Alexandria, and feeling on the verge of learning something more, he carefully searched for the right words. “No. Feeling desired isn’t enough. You have to desire in return. It has to be a two-way street.”
Averting her gaze, Alexandria cut into her salad. “I imagine so.”
“You also need to play.”
Blooming Desire
(Desire, Oklahoma 19)
Erotic Romance, Contemporary, Menage, BDSM, Romantic Suspense, MFM, HEAAnna Stevens meets Dirk and Heath Jensen when they order flowers from the shop where she works. Labeling them as playboys, she ignores their flirting for as long as she can.
Dirk and Heath love Desire, and the lifestyles lived there, but meeting Anna gives them a whole new outlook on what their lives could be together. They fall for her immediately, delighted with everything about her. Sharing a woman has long been a dream for them, but the reality proves intriguing now that they’ve visited a town where such things are normal.
Despite her conviction to resist them, Anna falls hard, too, though she can’t ignore the fact that they live in different worlds. Still, she has no idea that a larger threat will endanger everything they’ve built, a threat from inside that they never see coming.
Excerpt
Instead of a basket, she chose a cart and went down the first aisle, her heart beating faster when they flanked her. “I thought you’d be back in Dallas by now. Shopping for dinner?”
Dirk chuckled softly. “We don’t cook. We came to find you.”
His closeness, the brush of his arm against hers, and the clean fresh scent of him bombarded her senses, reminding her just how dangerous he could be. “We want to take you out to dinner. We have a reservation at an Italian restaurant in Tulsa.”
She paused and turned to face him. “Why?”
Dirk’s eyes narrowed as he studied her features. “Because we’d like to get to know you better.”
“I don’t think that’s a good idea.” Shaking her head, Anna turned to get some lettuce and slammed into Heath’s hard chest. Swallowing heavily, she carefully avoided his gaze, which meant she found herself staring at his chest. “Excuse me.”
Her ragged breathing made her words come out breathless, and when he used a fingertip to lift her chin, she couldn’t seem to breathe at all.
With a faint smile, which heightened the awareness to her nipples and slit, Heath eyed her steadily. “Why don’t you think it’s a good idea?”
Anna stepped back, only to run into Dirk, biting back a moan when his hands closed on her shoulders. “Because I’m not interested in playing games. You’re a little too sophisticated for me, and I don’t like the idea of being an amusement for you.”
Moving around Heath, Anna grabbed a head of lettuce, tossed it into the cart and moved forward again, until Dirk gripped the cart.
“If we wanted a sophisticated woman to play games with, we have plenty at our disposal.” Dirk’s eyes narrowed. “Instead, we find ourselves consumed with thoughts of a woman who seems hell bent on avoiding us. Now we know why. We just want to get to know you better, Anna. Won’t you have dinner with us so we can talk?”
Heath grinned. “It’s only dinner. Unless you’re afraid?”
“Reverse psychology?” Anna snorted. “Games. Not interested.”
Dirk gripped her chin between his thumb and forefinger and lifted her face to his. “Please, darling. We just want to get to know you.”
Anna hated the warm, fuzzy feeling his endearment provoked.
Damn it.
“I’ll think about it while I do my shopping. You have until I finish to convince me that going to dinner with you is a good idea.”
Going out with them would be exciting.
Going out with them could mean trouble.
Dirk’s lips twitched as she chose tomatoes. “You have to eat anyway.”
After bagging her tomatoes, she placed them in the cart. “Not convincing. I’ve already planned my dinner. In fact, I’m shopping for it right now.”
Heath moved in behind her and placed his hands on the cart on either side of hers. The heat of his body warmed her entire back, the heat spreading to encompass her nipples, disconcerting her.
The feel of his lips just beneath her ear sent an erotic shiver through her, and closing her eyes, she imagined that if that small touch created such havoc, just how good it would feel to have his touch on other, more intimate places.
What the hell is wrong with me?
“We can talk about the chemistry between us.”
He turned with her so that he remained behind her and Dirk stood in front of her.
While Heath ran his lips over her neck, beading her nipples so tightly they ached, Dirk bent and brushed her lips with his own.
“And maybe we can figure out why Heath and I can’t forget about you and why you have that little catch in your breath or why your nipples are always hard when we’re near.”
Dirk ran the tip of his tongue over her bottom lip before capturing it with his own, his kiss light but packing a powerful punch. “Please.”
Anna would bet a year’s pay that Dirk could count on one hand the number of times he’d pleaded for anything. The combination of their effect on her system and Dirk’s soft plea wiped away her resistance, the yearning inside her too strong to deny. Pushing away from both of them, she took three steps back. “Damn you.”
Dirk inclined his head, his lips twitching. “I’ve thought the same about you a few times myself. It’s about time we figured this out. Don’t you agree?”
Anna sighed, making the decision she’d known she would make all along. “Something tells me I’m going to regret this, but I’ll go out with you.”
The flash of pleasure in Dirk’s eyes had a predatory gleam that unnerved her, but since they were friends of people she trusted, she threw caution to the wind. Closing the distance between them again, he ran his thumb over her bottom lip, reigniting the tingling from his kiss. “You won’t be sorry. I promise.”
Anna closed her eyes and blew out a breath, confident that she was going to regret this at some point but equally confident that, until it crashed and burned, it would be a hell of a ride. “I’m afraid that’s a promise you’re not going to be able to keep. I’ll finish my shopping tomorrow, but I have to shower and change before dinner.”
When they both smiled, Anna shook her head. “And, no, you can’t come into my apartment. You have to wait outside.”
Heath ran a hand down her back. “Honey, it’s not like we planned to attack you.”
“You wait outside. Deal breaker.”
Heath grinned and ran the back of his finger down her cheek. “It’s interesting that you’re afraid to be alone with us.”
Anna set her tomatoes and lettuce back, careful to avoid their sharp looks. “I don’t know you very well.”
Dirk ran a hand down her back. “That’s something we plan to rectify.”
More Desire, Oklahoma, Volume 3
(Includes “Rules of Desire: Protecting Erin” and “Raw Desire: Alison’s Awakening”
Erotic Romance, Contemporary, Manage a Trois/QuatreRules of Desire: Protecting Erin
Marriage to three men once seemed nothing short of insane, but now it has made Erin Preston happier than she could have ever imagined. Jared, Duncan, and Reese changed her life, and giving birth to their child made them even more complete. She never expected, though, that an incident from her past would jeopardize everything they’d built together.
Nelson Stark, an accountant in the oil company she used to work for, had embezzled a fortune, and Erin was the one to catch him. Even though he’d vowed to get even with her, she considered him harmless. But then Wes Cramer, the attorney she’d worked with to get Nelson convicted, appeared on her doorstep, enraging her overprotective husbands, so she didn’t tell them about the missing money…or that the FBI was involved.
It was a mistake she’d regret—one that would put her life in danger and kick her husbands’ protectiveness into high gear.
Raw Desire: Alison’s Awakening
Married to Dillon Tanner and Ryder Hayes, Alison found a love and happiness she’d never expected to find.
But found she couldn’t completely trust.
Her unplanned pregnancy brought all of the insecurities from her past relationship back to the surface with a vengeance and she found herself watching and waiting for her husbands to realize they no longer wanted her.
Dillon and Ryder were delighted to find out Alison carried their child, and struggled to give her the reassurance she needed.
As her body swelled with their child, they found themselves even more enthralled with her and adjusting mentally for the responsibility of a growing family.
When a threat from the past reappeared, the sense of protectiveness sharply intensified, overriding everything else.
She and the child she carried belonged to them—and they would do whatever it took to keep them.
Home to Callum’s Arms
After the death of her mother and brother in an accident caused by her drunk father, Melanie Evans stayed with neighbors on the Holt Ranch during her recovery. Afterwards, she left Lovell, Wyoming, to get away from her drunk, hateful father. But she still thought of her friend Callum Holt. His kindness had made an impression that she’d never forgotten.
Years later, within days of Mel selling her business in Cheyenne, her aunt suffers a stroke. With no commitments, Mel rushes back home. Already restless, she puts decisions for the rest of her life on hold until her aunt recovers—and after she faces Callum and her father again.
Callum, however, has other ideas. He takes Mel and her aunt into his home, making it clear that he has intentions toward her, some honorable, some a little…darker.
Excerpt
Exhausted and almost numb with fear, Mel walked into the hospital, unsurprised to find Callum waiting for her.
Her breath caught at the sight of him. The handsome young man just growing into his skin had filled out in a way that left her mouth dry and her stomach doing strange little flutters.
Still handsome, but with a maturity and hardness to him that hadn’t been there in the past, he was all muscle. She knew how hard he worked at the ranch and suspected those muscles would be hard as iron.
She took a deep breath and made the mistake of looking into his eyes.
She didn’t know how such dark eyes could be warm. She only knew that the chill that had gone all the way to her bones seemed to ease somewhat. “Callum.”
He stepped closer, close enough for her stomach to knot, and opened his arms. “Come here, baby.”
Remembering that he had a girlfriend, who could be his fiancée by now, Mel shook her head and took a step back. “No. I’ll fall apart. How is she?”
Callum dropped his arms. “She’s still in ICU, but she’s stable. Just like the doctor told you, they’re going to keep her in the ICU for a couple of days. If everything goes okay, she should be able to go home in a week.”
“Home.” She didn’t relish going to her father’s house.
Callum took her hand in his. “Come on. Betty’s waiting for you.”
Her hand felt so small in his large rough one. It reminded her of another hand, a rougher one, a hand that hadn’t held hers since the accident. “Where’s my father?”
“He left about an hour ago.”
“He knew I was on my way?”
A muscle worked in his jaw. “He knew.”
When they turned another corner, Mel’s knees buckled at the sight of Betty, stretched out on a padded bench, her head on a hospital pillow and a hospital blanket tucked under her chin.
When Callum released her hand to walk over to Betty, Mel caught his arm and shook her head. “Let her sleep.” Setting her purse and coat on one of the chairs, she gestured toward the nurses’ station, barely visible in the distance. “I’m going to go see if they’ll let me see her.”
“They will. The doctor already approved it.”
Mel couldn’t help but smile at that. “Your doing?”
Callum shrugged. “He knew you were driving from Cheyenne in this weather. Go see your aunt so we can all go back to the ranch.”
Instead of taking the time to argue with him, Mel started toward the nurses’ station, anxious to see her aunt.
Callum stared after her, still trying to recover from the punch to the gut he’d felt when he first saw her.
Before, she’d been beautiful.
Now, she was absolutely stunning.
Even tired and scared, she took his breath away.
Her dark brown hair, secured at the back of her head, shone with good health and made his fingers itch to loosen it and run his fingers through it.
Her eyes, a brilliant green, had appeared darker under the harsh hospital lights and held a sadness and exhaustion that he vowed to himself to fix.
The sweater dress she wore clung to curves that made his mouth water.
Scraping a hand over his face, Callum sighed and turned at the rustle behind him. “We’re going to keep her here.”
“Yes.” Betty sat up and touched his arm. “This is where she belongs. She needs people around her who love her.”
“But we don’t know what kind of life she has in Cheyenne. I’m not taking her from a good life.”
Betty rose and folded the blanket. “She can have a better life here.”
Amused by Betty’s automatic defense, Callum smiled faintly. “That’ll be for her to decide. Right now we just have to worry about getting Jean better. They’ll both have to stay on the ranch. After hearing what her father’s done, there’s no way I can allow her to stay with him.”
Keeping one eye on the hallway in anticipation of Mel’s return, Callum clenched his jaw. “Has he been abusive to Jean?”
“No.” Betty pressed her lips together and shook her head. “No. She didn’t take her brother’s shit. After Mel left, he’s the one who asked Jean to come live with him. He needed someone to cook and clean, and she was tired of living alone. Plus, she thought she was safer with a man in the house and she appreciated having a man in the house, especially since her brother knows his way around tools. You know for yourself how often Jay has to fix things around the ranch house.”
“Hmm.” Hearing the truth in Betty’s tone, Callum turned his attention to Mel as she came toward him. As he slipped on his coat, he watched her, wondering if she was aware of the tears streaming down her face.
Without a word, he held out his arms again, but this time instead of stopping, she kept coming closer until she pressed her face against his chest and began to sob, her cries ripping his heart to shreds. “It’ll be okay, baby. I’ve got you.”
He lifted her high against his chest while Betty gathered her coat and placed it over her before slipping into her own and gathering their purses. “Everything’ll be all right.”
He pushed down his anger at her father.
Dealing with him would have to wait.
Right now, the precious bundle in his arms and soaking his shirt needed him.
This time, he would be there for her.
He took her coat from Betty and bundled her into it.
“Come on, baby. Let me take you home.”
Every Breath
(Rapture Island 8)
Erotic Romance, Contemporary, Menage a Trois/Quatre, BDSM, MFMM, HEAJoanna Winslow met Michael Drake when she was a teenager, just when she needed him. He made an impact on her life, but she couldn’t know just how much of one.
Over the next several years, he became her hero and confidant, and eventually, her lover. Learning Michael was a Dominant rocked her world, scaring her enough to pull away, until an accident brought him back into her life, along with another revelation.
Michael’s best friends, Thomas Evers and Simon Reese had known about Joanna from the beginning and wanted to share her with Michael. She had to admit to being attracted to them, but she doubted she’d feel for them the way she felt for Michael.
Thomas and Simon had the same concern but vowed to build the trust and intimacy with her they all needed. They’d finally found what they’d searched for and wouldn’t let anything- or anyone-threaten that.
Excerpt
Michael winced at the slam of Joanna’s bedroom door. “Damn it. What the hell did she mean by that shit?”
“If I’m not mistaken, she’s in love with you, and because you want to share her with your friends for sex, it means that you don’t love her.” Simon dropped into one of the two chairs at her small kitchen table. “We should have met her sooner.”
Clenching his jaw, Michael went to the kitchen cabinet where Joanna kept a bottle of the scotch he preferred, got a glass, and poured himself a healthy portion. “She wasn’t ready. How the hell can she think I don’t love her? I’ve been calling and visiting her ever since I met her. I waited until she was older and had a chance to be on her own before I took her.”
Thomas took Michael’s drink and helped himself to a small sip. “We could have handled this differently, but I don’t see any better way of letting her know our intentions without shocking her.”
“She was a virgin.” Michael closed his eyes, his hunger for her stronger than ever. Keeping his voice low as the others did, he blew out a breath. “I couldn’t believe it.”
Thomas dropped into the seat across the table from Simon and took another sip, his gaze going toward the small hallway. “At least you told her about our desire to dominate her. Well, your desire.”
Michael got another glass and poured himself a drink with a sigh. “Yeah, and I gave her the time to think about it. I was getting ready to pay her a visit when I got the call that she was in the ER. Scared the hell out of me.”
Simon poured himself a glass of wine and opened the container that held their appetizers. “Scared the hell out of all of us. Hell, after all these years of talking about her, learning about her, I already feel as if she’s mine.”
He looked up at Michael. “I don’t know about the two of you, but I’m not leaving here tonight. I want to be here if she gets up tonight, and if not, I want to be here when she wakes up in the morning.”
Michael leaned against the wall, staring toward the hallway. “The way she looked at me…She’s never looked at me with hurt in her eyes. I’ve never hurt her. Damn it.”
He didn’t think he’d ever forget that look.
Straightening, he set his glass on the table. “I can’t leave this until morning. The only way to deal with this is to talk it out. I can’t let her go on thinking she’s nothing but a fuck toy for all of us. Frankly, I just don’t understand how she could think something like that. I thought I’d already established a relationship with her and that I had her trust.”
Thomas lifted his gaze from his drink and inclined his head. “I’ll give you five minutes alone with her and I’m coming in.”
“So am I.” Sitting back, Simon sipped his drink. “We all need to have a nice long conversation with Joanna.”
Michael went to Joanna’s door and, finding it locked, went back out to the kitchen, opening the drawer where she kept a few tools.
Raising a brow, Thomas turned in his seat. “Problem?”
“Just have to unlock the door.”
Armed with the small screwdriver, Michael made his way back to the bedroom and unlocked the door. Quietly opening it, he paused in the doorway, taking in the sight of her lying on the bed, the moonlight coming in through the window illuminating her.
Still dressed in her black dress, her stockings in small puddles on the floor, she stared at the window, her hand, fisted around a bunch of tissues, lying limply near her face.
He took a step toward her, setting the screwdriver on her dresser and pausing when he saw that her eyes were closed.
Moving around the bed to the other side, he stood watching her, enthralled by the vision she made in the moonlight.
Picking up the small throw she kept at the foot of the bed, he covered her. When she didn’t move or react in any way, he concluded that she had, indeed, fallen asleep.
The sight of a glistening tear on her cheek and on her lashes ripped a tear in his heart.
He must have stood there longer than he thought because Thomas and Simon came silently into the room and stood next to him.
More Desire, Oklahoma, Volume 2
(Includes “Blades Desire: Adoring Kelly” and “Dark Desire: Earning Hope’s Submission”
Erotic Romance, Consensual BDSM, Contemporary, Sex Toys, MF, HEABlade’s Desire: Adoring Kelly
Kelly Royal has learned the pleasure of submitting under her husband’s gentle, but firm, hand, but Blade’s interest in dominating her seems to be gone forever. Going into labor a month early scared the hell out of her, and despite Blade’s efforts, he couldn’t hide his own fear—especially when things go terribly wrong. Unable to forget the image of her pale and unmoving form in the hospital bed, Blade can’t even imagine taking her back into his playroom, and as soon as he brings her home from the hospital, he empties the room, vowing to never dominate her again. His fragile wife has been through enough, and he can’t imagine taking her the way he did before. Kelly, though, has other plans. She wants her husband back, and frustrated that he thwarts her attempts to take her the way he did before, she takes matters into her own hands.
Dark Desire: Earning Hope’s Submission
Hope Tyler had married the man of her dreams–the stern-faced sheriff of Desire, Oklahoma. She loved him, and his dark desires, but feared that surrendering herself completely to him would lead to him becoming bored with her, so she challenged him at every opportunity. Ace Tyler understood his wife’s fears, probably better than she did. He’d discovered her need to submit completely, but understood her reluctance to do so, but knew, deep down, that neither one of them would be completely happy until they each gave in to their own needs. Her demands, and an ultimatum that sent him reeling, handed him the perfect opportunity to set his plans to earn a deeper submission from her in motion. Dominant in ways he never had with her before, he led her deeper into the world of erotic pleasure, and to a closeness that each of them desperately needed.
Excerpt
Blades Desire: Adoring Kelly
“I should walk away from you right now.”
“Please, no!” Kelly struggled to remain still when she wanted to jump up from her position bent over the table and run to him, throw herself in his arms and beg forgiveness.
When Blade moved into her peripheral vision and stroked a hand slowly, deliberately from her buttocks and up her spine, tears of relief filled her eyes. She needed this, needed the connection. He seemed to know it and she drew a shuddering breath, grateful that once again, he gave her what she needed.
“Why should I waste my time trying to train such an undisciplined submissive?” he asked her coolly. “Only a few minutes ago, you assured me that you can take whatever I dish out and almost immediately have the audacity to bring yourself to orgasm, deliberately disobeying me, in my presence and in the room that more than anywhere else, I demand total obedience and submission from you.”
“I’m really sorry. It won’t happen again.”
She shrugged her shoulders helplessly. “All of this is still new to me The ice in his voice froze her. When he lifted her trembling form off the table to stand in front of him, she looked up to see the same cold look in his eyes.
She wiped at the tear trickling down her face and stared up at him blinking furiously. “I’m so sorry. I just couldn’t stand it anymore.”
It seemed impossible, but his eyes became even colder.
“Now, you’re going to tell me how much you can take? I decide what you can and cannot take. Not you. Remember?”
Reaching out, Kelly gripped his arms. “Please give me another chance.. I’m trying, Blade. Honest. Please don’t give up on me. Give me another chance.”
When Blade looked down pointedly at where her hands gripped his arms and raised a brow, Kelly immediately dropped her hands to her sides.
Damn, she’d messed up again.
Blade stared at her intently for what seemed like hours, stretching her nerves to the breaking point. Just when she thought she couldn’t stand another second, he spoke, his words both thrilling and terrifying.
“You do know that what you did demands disciplinary action, don’t you?”
Dark Desire: Earning Hope’s Submission
Hope stiffened and pushed away from him, getting up from his lap and putting several feet of distance between them. “You’re rich, Ace. You own Tyler Oil with your brothers. You could work with them.”
Raising a brow at the whine in her tone, he rose and started out of the room. “If I had to work there, I’d go out of my mind.”
Following him down the hall to the kitchen, she tugged at his forearm. “Then don’t work at all! You don’t need to.”
Keeping a tight rein on his temper, he shrugged her off and reached into the refrigerator for the pitcher of sweet tea. “Not working at all would make me even crazier.”
“I can’t stand it anymore, Ace! I want you to quit.”
After filling her glass and his, he set the pitcher on the table and slowly turned to her, raising a brow. “Excuse me? Quit what, exactly?”
Hope swallowed heavily and set the plate of fried chicken on the table, taking a deep breath before lifting her chin. “I want you to quit your job as sheriff.”
“No.” He went to the refrigerator, retrieved the coleslaw, and took it to the table before looking at her again.
Hope spun, slamming the bowl of mashed potatoes on the table. “No? Just like that?”
Ace inclined his head, keeping his tone calm and controlled. “No. Just like that.”
“You won’t even discuss it?”
“We just did. You knew what I did when you married me, Hope.”
“You never got shot at before!”
He waited until she dropped into her seat before lowering himself to his. “You’re so naïve, baby. Of course I’ve been shot at before. I’ve even been shot before. It’s part of the job.”
Hope’s eyes went wide. “Well, I never knew about it, and I’m not naïve. I thought the most dangerous thing you ever did was breaking up bar fights. You handle the Dominants from the club, give out tickets, and help round up horses that have escaped.”
After setting a piece of chicken on her plate, he set one on his. “Did you ever ask about my job?”
Lowering her gaze, she shifted restless in her seat, her face flushing. “Well, no.”
“Of course not. You were more interested in making sure that I accepted you as a submissive than learning more about me. I knew you were too young, but your innocence intrigued me, and I found you too irresistible.”
Raising a brow when she gasped, he let his gaze linger on her flushed cheeks before continuing. “You were raised by a mother and three very overprotective fathers who tried to shield you and your sister from the ugly side of life.”
“Like you do?”
Ace shrugged. “It’s only natural for a man to try to protect his woman, but I’ve never lied to you. I knew who you were when I married you. I knew that you were exactly what I wanted. I love you, but I won’t quit my job, not even for you.”
Jumping to her feet, Hope stamped her foot. “Damn it, Ace!”
Ace had had enough. Pausing in the process of scooping mashed potatoes onto his plate, he clenched his jaw. “Stamp your foot at me again, and I’ll put you across my knee.”
Her eyes flared with desire, the passions inside her too strong to contain. “That’s your answer? Sex?”
Confident in his ability to handle his wife’s passions—including her temper—Ace raised a brow. “Who said anything about sex? You’re acting like a brat and obviously need to be spanked.”
Hope gasped, her eyes going wide. “A brat?”
Ace reached for the coleslaw. “A brat. You’re demanding that I quit a job I’ve had most of my adult life—a job that I love. A job that I had when you married me.”
Hope sighed. “I worry.”
Ace inclined his head. “I know that, and I do everything I can to make things easier for you.”
“Sometimes it’s not enough.”
Knowing this was an issue that couldn’t be resolved, Ace dug into his dinner. “People die in car accidents every day. Do you want me to stop driving, too? You drive like a maniac just to get my attention—an unnecessary danger that scares me but that you do on a whim.”
Hope’s face flushed again. “I won’t do it again.”
Ace nodded once, pleased that he’d made his point. “Good.”
She dropped into her seat again with a sigh. “I don’t know if I can live this way anymore.”
Fear turned his stomach to ice, and setting his silverware aside, he kept his tone low and cold. “Is that an ultimatum?”
Losing her wasn’t an option, but he couldn’t allow his wife to deliver ultimatums and expect to get away with it.
Lifting her chin, she met his gaze squarely, her bottom lip trembling. “What if it is?”
“You know that I don’t respond well to ultimatums.”
With her chin still lifted, Hope wrapped her arms around herself, the combination of defiance and defensiveness a testament to the contrary woman herself. “What if I said that I would leave you if you don’t quit?”
Sitting back, he smiled coldly. “Then I would give you the spanking you so richly deserve and tell you that you’re not going anywhere. Are you sure this is the tack you wanna take?”
Stormy Desire: Guarding Stormy
(More Desire, Oklahoma 12)
Erotic Romance, Contemporary, Menage, Suspense, MFMM, HEAStormy Hart loved working as a private investigator and had a reputation for finding proof of cheating husbands. Little did she know that her latest assignment would put her in grave danger.
Her client suspected that her elderly boyfriend was seeing another woman and wanted Stormy to find proof, one way or the other. Stormy found the proof, information that could ruin a marriage and a career. Proof that could get her killed.
The attack on her out of nowhere sent her husbands, Lucas Hart, Devlin Monroe, and Caleb Ward into an icy rage, and their protective instincts through the roof. The knowledge that the threat to her still existed kept them by her bedside. Although Stormy was used to taking care of herself, she knew she needed her husbands’ protection, for her and their unborn child.
Excerpt
Taking notes and measurements, Caleb made his way around the building while talking to Boone and Chase Jackson, his friends and the fathers of two little girls. “I don’t care if Stormy’s carrying a boy or a girl. I just want her and the baby to be healthy.”
Because they were friends, Caleb found himself spitting out the truth. “I never thought we’d ever be fathers. I want to give this baby a stable homelife.”
Boone frowned and glanced up from the large paper where he’d penciled in his own measurements, marking electrical and plumbing. “You and the others grew up in foster homes, didn’t you?”
“Yeah.” Caleb’s stomach knotted. “We never knew when we’d be transferred to another house. No security at all. I want Stormy and the baby to feel secure. We all do. Love and security are things we never knew, and we all want to make sure Stormy and the baby never go without either.”
Boone inclined his head and made another notation before looking up again. “Understood. Chase and I didn’t have your rough upbringing, but we want the same for Rachel and the girls.”
He looked up with a smile, his smile falling when the door flew open and Cord Preston, one of the owners of the grocery store in town, rushed toward them.
“Caleb, there’s been an accident. Stormy’s down on Second Street. She was hit by a car.”
Icy fear stabbed his stomach and gripped him by the throat. “Jesus!”
His feet were moving before Cord had even finished speaking, with Boone and Chase hot on his heels. A crowd had already started to gather, and frustrated at trying to fight through it, he ran into the street and went full out until he reached Rafe Delgatto, who spoke on his cell phone, raising his voice to be heard over the sirens. “Dark blue four-door coupe. License plates covered with mud. Driver, Caucasian, mid-forties, dark hair.”
He pointed toward the ground where Krystal knelt over Stormy, running her hands over her.
Stormy remained absolutely motionless.
Caleb couldn’t breathe as he knelt at his wife’s side. “Baby?” He felt for a pulse, Krystal’s voice getting to him just as he felt his wife’s weak pulse.
“She’s alive, Caleb. Scraped up pretty good and her leg is broken. Serious bump on her head. Christ, I heard it when her head hit the pavement. I’d be amazed if she doesn’t have a concussion. I just hope she doesn’t have internal injuries.”
Caleb leaned protectively over her as Ace Tyler, the town sheriff, and Linc, Krystal’s other husband and another of Desire’s deputies, blocked traffic and had the crowd back off. “The baby?”
Krystal looked worried as hell as she gathered clothing that Stormy had obviously bought and used it to pillow her head. “I don’t know, Caleb. I’m sorry. She was hit hard and hit the ground hard. She’s alive. Let’s just hold on to that right now.”
Caleb helped Krystal pillow Stormy’s head and leaned over her, stroking her hair and face, avoiding the red scrape where her face had met the pavement. “Come on, baby. Open your eyes for me. Wake up. Let me see those beautiful green eyes.”
He held her hand, wincing when he noted that her wrist was broken. “Krystal—”
“Yeah, I see it. I’ll ride with her in the ambulance. I can splint it there.”
Caleb’s phone started beeping, the ice of fear in his stomach accompanied by the edge of anger.
Krystal continued to check Stormy’s pulse and breathing, glancing up when he pulled his phone from his pocket to shut off the alarm. “An alarm?”
“Yeah. Somebody’s breaking into the house.”
Rafe crouched next to him, closing a hand on his shoulder. “This was intentional, Caleb. I’m sorry. I tried to reach her in time, but I couldn’t.”
Fighting not to tighten his grip on her hand and risk hurting her worse, Caleb kept his focus on Stormy. “Intentional? Are you sure?”
“I’m sure.” Rafe blew out a breath. “Can I call Lucas for you?”
“He should be calling any minute. The alarm went off at the house. Someone’s trying to break in.”
Rafe’s hand tightened on his shoulder. “What? I’ll go check it out.”
Caleb ignored him and bent lower, touching his lips to Stormy’s hair. “I don’t care about that. Hey, baby. Please wake up for me. Please, baby.”
Krystal touched his arm. “At least she’d not in pain right now. When she wakes up, she’s gonna feel it.”
“I never should have left her alone. I should have been with her.”
His phone rang just as the ambulance pulled up, and when he looked up, it was to see that Ace had disappeared. Marshall and Joe Garrison rushed toward them, and Clay and Rio Erickson, along with Cord and his wife, Isabel, kept people back, Isabel doing so with tears running down her face.
Boone stood at his other side, blocking their view of Stormy and turning his head to yell at someone behind Caleb. “Hurry up with that gurney!”
Erin came rushing up, shaking off the hold of Jared, one of her husbands. “She just left the store. She was so happy. What can I do? What do you need?”
Shaking his head, Caleb looked at his phone display, unsurprised to see that the call came from Lucas. “I don’t know.”
He watched as they loaded Stormy, terrified beyond anything he’d ever felt before. After helping Krystal inside, he answered the phone and stepped up into the ambulance beside her. “Stormy’s hurt. She was hit by a car. Rafe saw and said it was intentional. I’m not gonna be able to hear you soon. They just loaded her into the ambulance. Krystal and I are riding in with her. Get to the hospital. Just…get to the hospital.”
Night Secrets
(Night 7)
Erotic Romance, Contemporary, Romantic Suspense, MFM, HEASerena Wyndham can see present and future events and hear the thoughts of people around her. Her visions haunt her at times. Visions of murders, of thefts. Visions of the darker sides of life that leave her feeling helpless to do anything.
When word about Serena’s abilities gets to her husbands’ boss, Mitchell Krantz, aka Mr. Jones, Mitchell is desperate for Serena’s help. His daughter has been taken, a victim of human trafficking, and he needs Serena’s help to get Annabelle back. Serena doesn’t trust the agent, but her visions have shown the details of the human trafficking ring and the men who took his daughter. She agrees to help him, even though she’s aware Mitchell has plans to use her to climb the ranks.
Her husbands don’t want her to get entangled with Mitchell if he’s using her, but Serena won’t be deterred. She needs to help the young women in her visions. When her husbands see her resolve, they have no choice but to agree to help her. They’ll just watch her like hawks.
Excerpt
Alastair watched his wife as she experienced one of her visions, biting back a curse when she jolted, when she gasped, again when she whimpered, and once more when she opened her eyes and he saw the tears brimming in the beautiful violet depths.
Instinctively sliding off the sofa to kneel in front of her, Alastair started to wrap his arms around her, but she shook her head, holding out her hands and jumped up. “I’ll be in the guest house. My cousin’s dead, Jonathan. Dumped in the landfill. Like trash. When you find her body, I want to arrange her funeral. She deserves that.”
Jonathan jumped to his feet. “Mrs. Wyndham! Serena!”
Ian rose and ran a hand down his wife’s back as she walked away, holding out an arm to prevent Jonathan from going after her. “No. You’ve given her enough hurt.”
Ian watched as Alastair left the room with Serena and waited until he heard the puppies yipping excitedly as they followed Serena and Alastair out the back door.
Once he heard the door close, he turned to Jonathan. “If that’s all…”
Jonathan sat again and leaned forward to pick up his glass. “No. That’s not all. I wanted to talk to Serena about the rest. It concerns her.”
“No. Tell me. Whatever concerns my wife concerns me.”
Jonathan took a sip of his tea and sighed. “Now Carello is suspected of murder. He was picked up and questioned by homicide, but they don’t have enough to hold him. I don’t know where he killed her—if he killed her—but if he did, there’s no sign of it. Hell, no one even knew where to look and your wife didn’t tell me anything specific. I assume it’s the landfill closest to Carello’s house, but it’s a large area.”
Ian inclined his head. “I’ll find out from her and call you. Is that it?”
“No.” After taking another sip, Jonathan set his tea down again. “The FBI got wind of the murder investigation, and since they’ve been trying to pin a whole slew of shit on Carello for years, they started showing up at his house to question him. They’re watching him and making sure he knows that he’s on their radar. They started questioning him about some of his businesses. But no one saw anyone leave the house with a body. Hell, they didn’t even know she’d been killed and weren’t looking for someone smuggling a body out of the house.”
Jonathan smiled faintly. “And since they’re also watching them, and are allowing him to see that they’re watching him, he’s had to curtail certain activities. It’s costing him money. The feds arrested several of his employees for an assortment of things, concealed carry without a license, prostitution, some of them underage, drugs, even shutting down a few of his bars for serving to minors. They haven’t found anyone who’ll testify to the extortion yet, so they can’t even use this for leverage. Carello’s getting desperate. He’s trying to make a deal.”
Jonathan drew a breath and blew it out in a rush. “He mentioned Serena.”
Ian saw red, his fury so intense it turned to ice. “Why the hell is he talking about my wife? What did he say?”
Jonathan rose and began to pace. “He told the FBI that she was psychic. That she knew things and she’s using that to help you increase your fortune in illegal ways.”
Ian raised a brow at that, his blood boiling. “Such as?”
“Such as the stock market, gambling, and theft.”
“Oh? What are we supposed to have stolen?”
Jonathan paused behind the sofa facing Ian and sighed again, his features tight. “Jewelry, paintings, and that bit with someone breaking into the FBI office and stealing counterfeit money… Well, that’s something that’s still talked about.”
Other than raising a brow, Ian let nothing of his thoughts show. “So my wife is a criminal?”
Jonathan took his seat again. “That’s Carello’s claim. You and your wife are using her psychic abilities to steal. To cheat. Whatever. Most of the agents see it for what it is, and even more think this psychic crap is bullshit.”
With a shrug, Jonathan leaned back, his fingertips on the arm of the chair. “Word got to my boss. He called me in to ask me what the hell I knew about it. I told him that you were rich as hell long before Serena came along and had no trouble making investments long before she got here. I knew of Carello, but I looked up his file to see what they had. They have a lot more than I thought. But Carello must have been pretty damn convincing because he’s drawing a lot of attention to Serena. They’re curious about her now.”
“I see.” Ian rose, too restless to sit, the thought of Serena being in the government’s crosshairs churning his stomach. “Well, their curiosity is going to have to go unsatisfied.”
Shaking his head, Jonathan sat forward. “I wish it was that easy.”
“It’s going to have to be.”
Shaking his head again, he sat back and met Ian’s gaze, the worry in it tightening Ian’s stomach even more. “My boss wants to meet her. He’s got her under surveillance now. If she can do what you think she can do, she should know it by now. Has she said anything to you?”
Ian wondered if his wife knew and was keeping it from them, or if she truly hadn’t picked up on it. He forced a smile. “None of your business.”
He didn’t know, but he would for damn sure find out.
Rancher’s Woman
(Erotically Yours 6)
Erotic Romance, Contemporary, WesternCaroline Cobb fell in love with her neighbor Beck Branson when a teen. Back then, she did nothing but amuse Beck, but now he has fallen in love with her too. Caroline is embarrassed by her past behavior and she’s avoiding Beck, even when he visits her ailing father.
Beck wants Caroline to share her burdens with him, but she will only share her body. As soon as he touches her, he wants her in his life permanently. He’s convinced she’s the only woman for him.
When Caroline’s father dies, his wife, Mona, and her children, Chantel and Daniel, set out to make trouble over the will, despite divorce papers. Everything comes to a head, including an attack on Caroline, and it’s left to Beck to pay them back for hurting the woman he loves.
Excerpt
“I was thinking about going for a ride. I don’t get to ride as much as I used to. Just ride for the hell of it instead of to get from point A to point B.”
Her lips twitched. “My father says you’re a busy man.”
“That I am.”
It used to amuse him when she was in high school and flirted with him, but once she started getting her college degree online and gradually taking over running The Red Stone, he hadn’t been able to deny his attraction to her.
He reminded himself often that she was too young for him.
Too inexperienced.
Too innocent.
Knowing that his hard edges would slice her to pieces, he did his best to avoid her.
For the first time, he realized that she hadn’t hunted him down in months.
She inclined her head. “I’m sure those women in Dallas kept you busy while you were there.” Without giving him a chance to answer, and before he knew how he would, she continued as if not expecting an answer or not wanting to hear it. “Duff going crazy getting ready for your Fourth of July party?”
Randy Duff, a man with a heart of gold and a temper like lightning, was the cook on the Branson Ranch.
Beck allowed a small smile. “He’s mostly bossing the caterers around. It wouldn’t be so hard on him if he didn’t insist that he was the better cook. If he didn’t have such an issue with having to be in control all the time, things would be a hell of a lot easier for him.”
Caroline raised a brow at that. “That’s rich coming from you.”
Her smile turned him inside out in a way he didn’t want to look at too closely.
Firming his voice, he wished he could see her brilliant green gaze, fighting to ignore the fact that she excited him like no other woman.
She teased him, criticized him, and argued with him, while other women bent over backward to get close to him.
At times, she irritated him.
At times, she inflamed him.
But she always challenged him and never, ever bored him.
Wishing he could stroke her, he did the closest thing and stroked a hand down the silky coat of her favorite horse, Storm.
He smiled and looked up at her. “I remember when I asked you why you named him Storm. You were right about him. He’s powerful, fast, strong, and just a little mean and unpredictable.”
“Sometimes he can be very mean and unpredictable.”
Her tone worried him, and he wished once again he could see her eyes. “What’s wrong, baby?”
She stared out at the horizon for so long he figured she wasn’t going to answer, but finally she shrugged. “Nothing. Don’t call me that.”
Reacting before he could stop himself, he laid a hand on her thigh. “You’ve never lied to me before, Caroline.”
Caroline drew a steadying breath, the rock in her stomach and lump in her throat bringing tears to her eyes. “You haven’t paid enough attention to me to know that. I need to ride. I’ll see you at your party.”
He watched her ride away, angry as hell that she’d lied to him.
Confused and surprisingly hurt that she wanted to get away from him, he strode to the stable and hurriedly saddled his horse.
Something was wrong, and he wouldn’t be able to rest until he found out what it was and fixed it.
Suspecting it had something to do with her stepmother and Mona’s two spoiled brats, both in their thirties and with no visible means of support other than living off of others, he clenched his jaw, inwardly cursing.
“Problem, boss?”
Beck continued to saddle his horse, glancing at Wes Roberts, his foreman. “Not sure. I’ll be at the watering hole. Make sure no one goes in that direction.”
Wes frowned. “Somethin’ wrong with Miss Caroline?”
Surprised, Beck turned. “You know that Caroline goes there?”
Wes smiled humorlessly. “The night her mother was diagnosed, she and Mr. Cobb came home from the hospital and she disappeared. It was already dark, and everyone was worried. No one knew where the hell to find her. No one knew if she was hurt. We knew she couldn’t get lost. Hell, that girl knew the ranch like the back of her hand, but what if she’d wandered off or if she’d run into some unsavory character?”
“Christ.”
“Mr. Cobb was beside himself, and we were ready to send out a search party when Bull got back from Fort Worth where he’d gone to a sale and called off the search, said he knew where she was. I was already there and ready to go out and went with him. Found the poor thing just sitting on one of those rocks and staring out in the dark.”
Shaking his head, Wes blew out a breath. “I never felt such relief in my life. Bull just stopped there where she’d tethered her horse and waited. Hell, we must have waited an hour before she came to us. I’ll never forget how she looked. Barely a young woman, with tears in her eyes and her little shoulders slumped as if she carried the weight of the world on them.”
Wes wiped a hand over his eyes. “Turned out she did.”
Beck wished he’d been there at that time, but although he’d bought the property before her mother’s death, he hadn’t moved in until months afterward.
If he’d known her and what she’d endured, nothing would have kept him away.
And nothing could keep him away now.
Logan’s Desire
(Desire, Oklahoma 18)
Erotic Romance, Contemporary, Romantic Suspense, BDSM, MF, HEAKatherine Long had met Logan James years earlier and had fallen in love with him almost from the start. Logan, though, admitted to her that he was a Dominant and said she was too innocent for him. He feared that one day she would look at him with fear or disgust in her eyes.
Logan tried his best to stay away from Kat for months before finally admitting that she was the only woman for him, so he drove to Memphis with the intention of admitting his love for her. He got to the hospital just in time to watch Kat’s beloved grandmother die—and for Kat to fall apart.
When Logan takes her to Desire to build a life together, neither suspects that a coworker has hidden drugs in her car and that danger will follow.
Excerpt
The hole in her heart, which had begun with Logan’s rejection of her, had grown since her grandmother’s stroke until it had become excruciating.
It took everything out of her.
She’d never known it was possible to be so tired.
So empty inside.
Dropping her head onto the bed, she kept her grandmother’s hand clasped in hers and let herself sleep.
Logan found her that way, the relief at finally finding her so intense, he paused just inside the door to look at her.
He moved closer, the low music coming from a small speaker on the bed both calming and depressing as hell.
It sounded like the music played in funeral homes during a funeral.
Katherine, sitting in a chair, her head on her folded arms on the bed, faced away from him, but he could see clearly that she’d lost a good bit of weight.
Furious that she’d kept this from them, he leaned against the wall, taking in the plain, colorless room, the monitors and the tubes running in and out of the old, too-pale woman sleeping peacefully.
He watched them for almost an hour, straightening when the left side of Eleanor’s body began to twitch restlessly and several of the monitors started beeping.
Katherine jolted upright, looking over when several nurses burst through the door, her already too-pale face paling even more when she saw him. “What’s going on?”
Her grandmother suddenly stilled, and the nurse took Kat’s arm. “You need to move.”
The nurse nudged the chair out of the way, and as they worked on her grandmother, Logan went to Kat and gently pulled her aside.
She gasped. “What are you doing here? Go away!”
Stiffening against him, she tried to pull away, but Logan held firm, pressing his lips against her ear. “Stop fighting me.”
He turned her toward him, holding her against his chest and watched the nurses’ faces and the monitor that flat-lined.
Katherine jolted and turned, shaking her head. “No!”
Another nurse and a doctor came in and after listening to her grandmother’s chest, the doctor sighed and met Kathy’s gaze.
Releasing her so she could go to her grandmother’s side, Logan followed as the doctor kept his gaze on Kathy’s. “I’m sorry. She had another stroke. It was more than her body could handle.”
Watching Kat wrap her arms around her grandmother, her sobs racking her body, Logan felt his heart break.
Nodding to acknowledge the doctor, he went to stand behind Kat, running a hand up and down her back in an effort to soothe her and to let her know she was no longer alone.
She cried so hard he feared she would make herself sick before finally straightening, a shudder going through her.
Kathy felt a sense of disbelief, feeling a distance from her surroundings, as if she was watching the incredibly sad scene play out in a movie. A kind of blessed numbness settled over her and made it possible for her to allow Logan to help her into her cardigan and lead her out of the room.
Voices around her faded into the background, the words jumbling together and unrecognizable.
She knew Logan spoke to the nurses at the nurses’ station, his deep tone one she could never forget, but it took too much effort to decipher his words.
His voice, deep and soothing, was enough.
God, she’d missed him.
She shivered, cold everywhere except the hand he held in his.
She went where he guided her, which allowed her to stop thinking altogether.
Logan led her to his car, the arm around her firm, warm, and solid. He paused at the passenger door, drawing her against him. “I’m here for you, baby. You’re not alone. Just lean on me. I’ll help you get through this.”
Pressing her face against his shoulder, she breathed him in, tears filling her eyes and spilling over. “She’s gone, Logan. I wanted her to get better. I didn’t want to believe…”
“I know, love.” He ran his hands up and down her back, his lips pressing against her hair. “I know how much she meant to you. Let me get you home.”
“I don’t have a home anymore.” The reality of it hit her hard. She got into the passenger seat, unmoving as he fastened her seat belt and closed the door again.
Staring out the window, she leaned her head back, still reeling with her grandmother’s death and Logan’s sudden appearance. She’d loved him for years, loved him so much that when he told her that things wouldn’t work out between them, it broke her heart.
Even now, when nothing else seemed to get through the fog surrounding her, her feelings for him did.
For him to show up so suddenly, just when she needed him most, was both a blessing and torture. Leaning on him gave her the comfort and strength she needed, but she knew it was temporary and her heart would break all over again when he left.
He would leave, and the loneliness would become unbearable.
“You shouldn’t have come. Why did you have to come?”
Reaching across, he took her hand in his. “If I’d known what was going on, I would have been here sooner.”
Too numb for embarrassment, she continued to stare out the side window. “I need you to go. I need to get over you.”
Logan stopped at a red light and turned her face to his, the warm firmness of his fingertips on her chin causing butterflies in her belly. “I can’t get over you, so why would I allow you to get over me?”