You came here a fighter, Maddie. Maybe you'd lost a round or two, but you were on your feet. You want to stay in Lucky Harbor? Fight for it. You want a relationship with your sisters? Fight for it.""What about you? What about a relationship with you?"He pulled back to look into her face as if memorizing her features. His voice, when he spoke, was low and gravelly with emotion. "I'm already yours. Always have been. All you have to do is step into the ring.
Forever this time," he said as Sawyer strode toward them.Tara sighed blissfully. "You know what this means, right?""I'm done guessing," he said. "Tell me.""It means you're mine," she said. "And I'm yours. No more walking away. We are going to get it right this time."His smile was slow and easy, and just for her. "Well, finally.
I'm done waiting. Done doing things the easy way and letting things happen as they will."Her heart caught. "What does that mean?""It means this is too important to let slip away again. You're too important." He leaned back against the truck with a low grunt of effort, eyes dark, jaw clenched. "I love you too, Tara.
Okay, first of all, I didn’t sleep with you to make amends. I slept with you because I wanted to.”He still didn’t say anything, and she pointed at him again. “And you know what? It was your own damn fault. It was those jeans you wear, and the tool belt. It was the size of your hammer!
There was a group of fans who wanted autographs, and several women who managed to write their phone numbers on Wade's hand before he pulled free.Sam sent him an arched brow, but he just shrugged. He got numbers written on him a lot; he'd never figured out how to stop that from happening.
Mallory dropped her head to the steering wheel. "Look, I'm mad at you, okay? This isn't about me. I know my painful memories are relative. My life is good. I'm lucky. This isn't about how poor little Mallory has had it so hard. I'm not falling apart or anything."He stroked a hand down her back. "Of course you're not. You're just holding the steering wheel up with your head for a minute, that's all.
At the unexpected sight of Spence, Colbie startled hard. How was it that he was the one who needed glasses and yet she’d not seen him standing against the window? “No, I don’t kill a lot of people,” she said cautiously because she was wearing only a towelin front of a strange man. “But I’m happy to make an exception.”He laughed, a rough rumble that was more than a little contagious but she controlled herself because, hello, she was once again dripping wet before the man who seemed to make her knees forget to hold her up.“I didn’t mean to scare you,” he said and pushed off the wall to come close.She froze, but he held up his hands like, I come in peace, and crouched at her feet to scoop up the clothes she hadn’t realized she’d dropped.Leggings, a long forgiving tee, and the peach silk bra-and-panty set that hadn’t gotten so much as a blink from the TSA guy.But it got one out of Spence. He also swallowed hard as she snatched them back from him.“Hold on,” he said and caught her arm, pulling it toward him to look at her bleeding elbow.“Sit,” he said and gently pushed her down to a weight bench. He vanished into the bathroom and came back out with a first aid kit.It took him less than two minutes to clean and bandage the scrape. Then, easily balanced at her side on the balls of his feet, he did the same for both her knees, which she hadn’t noticed were also scraped up.“You must’ve hit the brick coping as you fell in the fountain,” he said and let his thumb slide over the skin just above one bandaged knee.She shivered, and not from the cold either. “Not going to kiss it better?” she heard herself ask before biting her tongue for running away with her good sense.She’d raised her younger twin brothers. Scrappy, roughhouse wild animals, the both of them, so there’d been plenty of injuries she’d kissed over the years.But no one had ever kissed hers. Not surprising, since most of her injuries tended to be on the inside, where they didn’t show. Still, she was horrified she’d said anything at all. “I didn’t mean—”She broke off, frozen like a deer in the headlights as Spence slowly lowered his head, brushing his lips over the Band-Aid on her elbow, then her knees. When he lifted his head, he pushed his glasses higher on his nose, those whiskey eyes warm and amused behind his lenses. “Better?”Shockingly better. Since she didn’t quite trust her voice at the moment, she gave a jerky nod and took her clothes back into the bathroom. She shut the door and then leaned against it, letting out a slow, deliberate breath. Holy cow, she was out of her league. He was somehow both cute and hot, and those glasses .
His expression was strained. "I'm trying like hell to be the good guy here. I need you to go inside and lock the door behind you to keep out of trouble.""I thought Wildstone was safe.""It is. The trouble isn't going to come from the unknown. It's going to come from me. Go, Quinn. Now. And lock your door."She stared up at him, mesmerized by the thought of him being trouble, images going through her head of him proving it to her, all of them involving little to no clothing and a bed.
Fine. It’s your life, but—” “But you’re still going to tell me what to do?” he asked, a small smile on his lips. She went into defense mode at his amused tone. “Well, I’m sure as hell not going to be quiet about it.” “Duly noted,” he said dryly. “And for the record? I never want you to be quiet, Elle.
He already couldn’t remember what it’d been like before her. He’d thought everything was great in his life but then he’d been thrown a curve ball in the form of this gorgeous, passionate woman who he suddenly couldn’t get enough of. Which made it official. He was hers, completely.
Oh for God’s sake,” came Morgan’s sleepy voice, disembodied in the dark. “Go after the hot guy, would you?” “The peanut gallery needs to shut up,” Elle muttered into the cushion. “Just sayin’,” Morgan said. “I’d leave you alone out here in a hot minute to go have sex if I had the chance.” “I’m not going to go have sex while you’re out here knowing I’m having sex!” “Your loss,” Morgan said. “Oh my God,” Elle said. “Stop talking!
Willa came around to Finn's side of the bar. She was tiny, barely came up to his shoulder, but she was like a mother cat when riled. He knew better than to go toe to toe with her, especially when she was giving him The Look. But he wasn't in the mood. "No," he said."You don't even know what I'm going to say.""You're going to say I'm being a stupid guy," Finn said. "But newsflash, I am a guy and sometimes we're stupid. Deal with it.""I wasn't going to say that." She paused when he slid her a look and she sighed."Okay, fine, I was. But you are being stupid.
Wow," she whispered. "Gorgeous.""Yeah," he said, looking at her.She laughed. "That's cheesy."He grinned. "You liked it.""No, I didn't."He peered at her over his dark sunglasses, letting his gaze slip past her face.She followed his line of sight and realized that her nipples were pressing eagerly against the thin white cotton of her shirt. "That's because I'm cold," she said and crossed her arms over her chest.He laughed. "It's seventy five degrees.""Downright chilly," she said, nose in the air.Grinning, he reeled her in, and with Thor (the dog) protesting between them, he kissed the living daylights out of her.
With her hands still fisted in his shirt, she gave a gentle tug until he bent enough that she could kiss him softly. And then not so softly.“What was that for?” he asked when she pulled free, his voice sexy low and gruff now.“For being the kind of guy who can admit he has emotions.”He cupped her face. “We don’t have to tell anyone, right?”She smiled. “It’ll be our secret.” But then her smile faded because she wasn’t good at secrets.Or maybe she was too good at them . . . “I’m not helpless,” she said. “I want you to know that.”“I do know it.” He paused, looking a little irritated again. “Mostly.”“Good,” she said. “Now that’s settled, you should know, the caveman thing you just pulled . . . it turned me on a little bit.”He slid her a look. “Yeah?”“Yeah.”Looking a little less like he was spoiling for a fight, his hands went to her hips and he pulled her in tighter.What the hell was she doing? Clearly, she wasn’t equipped to stay strong, and who could? The guy was just too damn potent. Too visceral. Testosterone and pheromones leaked off of him. She dropped her head to his chest. “Ugh. You’re being . . . you.”“Was that in English?”“This is all your fault.”“Nope. Definitely not English.”“You’re being all hot and sexy, dammit,” she said. She banged her head on his chest a few times. “And I can’t seem to . . . not notice said hotness and sexiness.”He smiled. “You want me again.”Again. Still . . . She tossed up her hands. “You wear your stupid sexiness on your sleeve and you don’t even know it.
He stepped closer. "Lily---" "No. Stay back," she said, pointing a finger at him. He went still. "Why?" "Because when you come close I do stupid things." "Like?" "Like let you kiss me." "Let me?" He laughed ruefully. "Lily, you just about crawled up my body to get at these lips." She narrowed her eyes. "Like I said. Stupid.
The special please," she said, waving a coupon from the week's paper. "The young rejuvenating facial. I want to look thirty." "Mom," Jonathan said. "It's a facial, not a magic wand." She rolled up the paper and swatted him with it. "Fine, I'll take forty." She gave Lily a hug. "And you! How lovely to see you again!" She turned to Jonathan. "So... you can make me look forty, right?" "How about gorgeous?" Jonathan asked his mom. "Does gorgeous work for you?
You promise not to fall for me," she said seriously. "No matter how lovable I am?" He wanted to smile at that but didn't want her to think he was making fun. She wanted his word, and he could give it easily enough, confident that as adorably sexy as she was, he could refrain from falling for her, since his heart felt dead in his chest. "I promise.
A few moments ago, he'd had her up against a wall, skirt shoved up to her belly button, hands in her panties, his fingers driving her straight to oblivion, and now... now he was this intense, cool, calm, and collected man. With a gun. "Breanne. Are you ok?" She stared at him. He had his shirt loose and draped over the bulge of his gun. He looked rough-and-tumble. Baddass. Damn it, she had a serious weakness for badass.
He was just drifting off when he heard her soft whisper. "Cooper?" "Still here." Maybe she'd changed her mind about the sheet. The thought made his body twitch. Yeah, she was going to toss that damn thing aside and roll toward him. She'd wrap that hot little bod tight to his, and he'd --- "Thank you." Breanne said very quietly. He blinked. "Thank you? He slid his hand down to cup himself. Still hard. Nope, he hadn't missed anything...
She stared at him and nodded. "Yes, you're right." He cocked his head as if he couldn't hear her. "What was that?" "You're right." She gave him a little push and he had to laugh. "I heard you the first time," he admitted. "I just like the way that sentence sounds on your tongue.
I'm ready," she promised. She kissed his jaw and then rubbed her cheek against it, letting out a low hum of arousal at the feel of his stubble on her skin. He had a scent that every single one of her senses responded to. The texture of his skin, the taste of his tongue, the latent strength in his hands - everything about him did it for her. "I want this," she said. "I want you.
I know I'm the one who put limits on this... this thing," she said, and bit her lower lip, suddenly nervous. "But I'm pretty sure we're not quite done with each other." He looked at her for what felt like a long time. "You want another night." Still unable to take her eyes off his mouth, she didn't muzzle herself. "I want as long as it takes." He cupped her jaw, lifting her head up so that she was looking into his eyes again. "Don't make promises you can't keep." "What makes you think I can't keep it?" "Because you seem to like things one night at a time," he said in that low, sexy voice. "But no way is one more night going to be enough.
Her hands slid to his shoulders, his biceps, and dug in as if to hold him here, right here. But he wasn't going anywhere. He liked her hands on him, liked her tongue in his mouth, and when she made that noise deep in her throat, the one that said she was as lost as him, he groaned, both in pleasure and with a good amount of what-the-fuckery, because he knew.He was in trouble. Down to the bone trouble, and he didn't give one single shit.
I don’t want to talk about it,” she said. Once again he was close. Too close. So damn close. “At all,” she added, hearing with some alarm that her voice had softened. Everything had softened, at just his proximity. “Ever,” she whispered, and found her gaze locked on his mouth.He had a really great mouth.
I don’t want to talk about it,” she said. Once again he was close. Too close. So damn close. “At all,” she added, hearing with some alarm that her voice had softened. Everything had softened, at just his proximity. “Ever,” she whispered, and found her gaze locked on his mouth.He had a really great mouth.“I don’t want to talk, either,” that mouth said very seriously. And then he lowered his head and kissed her.
She had no idea how long they kissed—and kissed—but she didn’t think about stopping until she ran out of air. Breathing hard, she slowly opened her eyes and stared directly into his.They’d heated. Darkened. And something else. He wasn’t looking so relaxed now. In fact, he was looking the opposite of relaxed. He looked…feral.And she was his prey.
Wyatt should’ve looked ridiculous sitting on the floor, leaning into the crate makingkissykiss noises at the cat, but he didn’t. He looked … mouthwatering. “Hey, sweet thing,” he said in a low cajoling voice. “Come on out. I’ll gonna love you up, I promise. You know you want some of that.”“Oh, please,” Emily said on a laugh to cover up the fact that her bones melted at thesound of him. “That’s never going to work—“But hell if the cat didn’t shift ever so slightly closer to Wyatt and sniff at him.Wyatt flashed both Sweetie and Emily a smile. “Aw, that’s it,” he crooned to thesuspicious, wary cat. “Come on, baby girl, all the way. I’ll be good to you, I promise.”Emily laughed again, even as she felt her nipples tighten. She crossed her arms over herchest. “Honestly, Wyatt, no selfrespecting female – cat or woman – is going to—