by Lucy Snow
“Thanks, Mom,” I muttered as she tossed me one of the coats hanging on the coat rack and softly closed the door behind me, leaving Eames and I alone outside.
I pulled on the coat and tightened it around me, shivering in the morning frost. Eames stepped forward and wrapped his arms around me, dragging me into his heat and his smell, a smell that I hadn’t realized how much I’d missed until that very moment.
“What’re you doing here?” I mumbled into his strong chest as Eames hugged me.
“I don’t understand you,” he whispered back.
I pushed my face up so I was looking at him and repeated myself. “What’re you doing here? How did you find me?”
“I spent half the night driving around the city wondering what I was doing with my life, and then I realized that I needed to come find you. That was the other half of the night.”
“It took you that long? Ever heard of the internet?” I punched him in the shoulder.
“In my defense, I haven’t really been big into computers for a while now.”
“Says the guy who built a company from his laptop while traveling the world.”
“That’s different.”
We didn’t speak for a few moments, and I just stayed in his arms, feeling for the first time in days that I was where I belonged.
Then I pulled back. “She’s watching us, isn’t she?”
Eames nodded. “I can see her face through the windows.”
I shook my head. “Typical.”
“I’m sure she’s thrilled to see you.”
“They both are.” I looked at him quizzically. “You didn’t really answer my question — why are you here, Eames?”
He looked down at me, that strong jaw working as he figured out what to say. “I missed hearing you say my name like that.”
“What way?”
“I can’t really describe it. I always thought my name was weird. I spent more than a little while mad at my father for giving it to me.” He cleared his throat, looking off into the distance. “But when you say it the way you do, it sounds…” he looked down at me. “It sounds right.”
I frowned. “I’m not just here to make your name sound good, Eames Beckett,” I said, putting a different spin on it this time.
“Will you relax for a moment? This isn’t easy for me,” he replied quickly. “I’m not the kind of person who can admit when he’s wrong.”
He sure wasn’t. “What were you wrong about?”
This time there was no hesitation. “I was wrong to leave the inn without telling you.” He paused. “And more than that, I was wrong to think that I could ever leave you. Not after what we’ve got.”
“And what’s that?”
Now it was Eames’ turn to frown. “You’re really not going to make this easy for me, are you?”
“Since when was that my job?”
Eames’ face broke out into a smile that stretched ear to ear. “It’s that, Avery, that right there. That’s why I love you.”
My breath caught sharply in my throat. We were in uncharted territory now, and I had no idea how we’d gotten here. “Say that part again,” I whispered, pressing my chin against Eames’ chest.
“Which part?”
I pounded on his chest again. “You know which part, Eames!”
He shook his head, and I saw the twinkle in his eye, the one that said he knew he had me on the hook. And I knew it too — this wonderful and flawed man had me hook, line, and sinker. “Maybe I forgot what I was going to say.”
“I hate you, you know that?”
“You did hate me, I distinctly remember that part.”
“Still do. Still do!”
“Nah, I think it’s something else now.”
Of course he was right.
“I think you love me,” Eames continued. “And that’s why I came here, because it took me a little longer than it should have to realize that I love you too, Avery.”
And then he kissed me, and it was everything that I’d ever dreamed it could be.
And so much more.
I don’t know how long it lasted, but it ended when both of us heard my mother cheering through the window and jumping around the living room. My father must have come to see what the commotion was about, but soon he was smiling and dancing with my mother too.
“I love you too, Eames,” I breathed as we broke apart for a moment.
Then I glanced at my parents, and back at Eames. “This doesn’t change anything, you know.”
Eames cocked his head to the side. “It changes everything.”
“I’m still finishing school first, despite what they,” I said, pointing back to the window, “think is going on here.”
Eames waved at my parents and then focused back on me. “Of course. School first, most important thing. I’d never dream of getting in the way of that.” He paused again. “But afterward…”
“I’ve got something in mind.”
“Yeah? What’s that?” The wonder and question on his face was palpable.
“I was thinking of doing a little traveling.”
Eames grinned. “Now you’re speaking my language, Princess.”
I let that one go.
Just once.
OTHER BOOKS BY LUCY SNOW!
CONTEMPORARY ROMANCE
Keep Me Safe: A Military Romance
When she sees something she shouldn’t at work, Mallory must go on the run to try and stay alive. Luckily she’s got an ex-military man to save her - the same man she just spent the most passionate night of her life with (64,000 words, guaranteed HEA)
SPORTS ROMANCE
Blitzed: A Football Romance; The Alpha Ballers, Book 3
Veteran Patriots Linebacker Hudson Asher knows that you never date the boss’s daughter. But what happens if she won’t leave you alone? (62,000 words, HEA)
Sacked: A Football Romance; The Alpha Ballers, Book 2
The Patriots’ star quarterback has one rule: no dating during the season. Too bad we met the night before the season started… (62,000 words, HEA)
Tackled: A Football Romance; The Alpha Ballers, Book 1
College football’s best wide receiver is a gorgeous and irresistible walking disaster. I should stay away from him…but I can’t. (62,000 words, HEA)
SCIFI ROMANCE
Ark: A Science Fiction Romance
One of the galaxy’s most fearsome warlords is stuck on a planet no one understands, trying to stay alive with the help of a human woman he can’t resist. (64,000 words, HEA)
STEPBROTHER ROMANCE
Escape: A Mob Stepbrother Romance
My oh-so-sexy stepbrother is a high-powered mobster. And I need his help if I want to live. (56,000 words, HEA)
Redeemed: A Military Stepbrother Romance, Book 1
My evil, arrogant prick of a stepbrother is back...and now he's even more irresistible. And he has his eyes set on me. (52,000 words, HFN)
Redeemed: A Military Stepbrother Romance, Book 2
I thought I could stay away from my blindingly hot arrogant ex-soldier stepbrother. I was wrong. (51,000 words, HEA)
Redeemed: A Military Stepbrother Romance, Complete
The complete saga of Laurel and Harrison. (103,000 words, HEA)
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