Plus, they were so happy to see me they were practically screaming. Then they saw Ryder and got even more excited. He picked both of them up and they started chattering away, pulling on his hair and begging for his attention. Lucah grabbed Fiona and started swinging her around as Tate went and got coffee for everyone.
“It’s so good to see you again, Sloane,” April said, giving her a hug. They’d bonded in the hospital and I knew they’d been keeping in touch. After they hugged, Sloane stepped back and looked her up and down. “You’re showing already.”
“What?” April’s hands went to her belly, pressing against something I couldn’t see.
“She’s not serious, if you can’t tell,” I said, giving Sloane a look. She looked again and nodded.
“You’re right. It was just the drape of your shirt. Good. That means I won’t have to alter this!” She went to the car and brought back a garment bag and presented it with a flourish.
“What is that?” April said, pointing to the bag.
“Oh, this? This would be your dress for the charity event. Tada!” There was much squealing and rejoicing over the dress and Sloane hadn’t even showed it to her yet. The girls came over and wanted to see it, so Sloane unzipped the bag and pulled it out. Short and white, it had a vintage feel with a skirt that flared out. Sloane turned it around and showed the back, where the straps crossed with a bow in the middle.
“Pretty!” Gracie yelled, reaching for it as Sloane carefully yanked it out of her reach.
“Yes, it is. Thank you so much, Sloane. I can never repay you for this,” April said.
“Don’t worry about it. I get off on this.” Sloane beamed and the girls finally noticed her and decided to be curious.
“What are they doing?” Sloane said as the girls started to inch closer and we all watched.
“Hey, Gracie Grace, why don’t you come meet Sloane?” Ryder said.
“Alone?” Gracie said, inching closer and leaning on Ryder’s knee. Fiona toddled over and stared at Sloane as if she was a being from another planet.
“No, sweetie. Sloane,” I said. “She’s my friend.”
“Fwend?” Fiona said, looking up at me.
“That’s right. My friend.” Fiona inched forward and touched Sloane.
“What is she doing?” Sloane was just as unsure of them as they were of her. I wished someone would video this encounter.
“My God, Sloane, you’re ridiculous.” I put my hands out to Fiona, picked her up and put her in Sloane’s lap.
“Pretty,” Fiona said, pointing to Sloane’s earrings. Fiona had done the same thing to me when I’d first met her.
“Be gentle, Fi,” Tate said, coming back with the coffee. “Remember how we talked about being gentle?”
“Gentle,” Fiona repeated, stroking Sloane’s hair as Sloane tried to smile like she wasn’t totally panicking.
“I want to see!” Gracie said, climbing onto Ryder’s lap and then going for Sloane’s.
“Whoa, be nice to Sloane, Gracie. She’s a little scared,” Ryder said, winking at Sloane.
“I’m sorry, I’m not very good with kids,” Sloane said to Tate and April.
“Neither was I, before I had them,” April said. “I’m the youngest, and I avoided any and all babysitting jobs. I’ll be honest that I’m still not a huge fan of other people’s kids, but mine are pretty awesome.” I had to agree with her. Gracie and Fiona had very studious looks on their faces as they stared at Sloane. She stared back at them and then she slowly crossed her eyes.
It only took a moment for them to start giggling. They loved people who could cross their eyes and had been trying to do it, but had never managed to make it happen.
The ice was officially broken and Sloane became the girls’ new favorite person. She got more excited than they did when Barbies were brought out, along with all their clothes and accessories.
“I think she’s abandoned you,” I said to Ryder as Sloane got down on the floor with Gracie and Fiona to take the clothes off and put them back on the dolls. It was a miniature version of what she did all day.
“For children and plastic dolls that are anatomically incorrect.” He shook his head, but he was smiling.
I sipped my coffee and sat back against Lucah’s arm. After the absolutely horrible afternoon I’d had, this was perfection.
“So Rory and I have an announcement,” Lucah said, interrupting all of the conversations around us.
“Uh, we do?” I said, wondering that the hell he was talking about. Sure, we’d talked about getting married last night, but that couldn’t be it . . .
“Yes,” Lucah said, giving me a look. This was one of those times when he was trying to send me a signal and our wires were crossed. It had happened more when we’d first gotten together, but it had been a while.
“Don’t keep us in suspense,” Sloane said, looking up from the Barbies for the first time since they’d be brought out.
“Can I talk to you for a minute?” I said, getting up and trying to drag Lucah to the kitchen so I could ask him what the hell he was doing.
“No, I have to make my announcement first,” he said, not budging.
“What are you doing to me right now?” I hissed, fully aware that we were doing this in front of everyone. He ignored me and grabbed my hand even though I tried to keep it away from him.
“We would like to announce that we are moving in together.” His pronouncement was met with silence. Mostly because, uh, everyone already knew we’d moved in together. I smacked him on the arm.
“Spoiler alert: we already knew that,” Sloane said. “You jerk, I thought you were going to tell us you were getting married.” I looked at Lucah.
“Nope, not yet,” he said. “Not right now.”
“Not right now,” I agreed. At least, not at this very second. Tomorrow? The next day? We’d have to wait and see.
Another night, another gown. Only this time there were no steps to swoop down, but Lucah had helped me swoop out of the elevator in dramatic fashion. The dress was even more spectacular than I’d imagined and flowed around me like waves of red silk. It also happened to match the ring that was now a permanent member of my right hand. But my favorite part of the evening was seeing the three Blythe men in their tuxes, smiling and laughing at a shared joke. I got out my phone from the tiny clutch purse Sloane had let me borrow, and took a picture, just to immortalize it. I was going to make a print of it and add it to the photo album I’d started.
Marisol had outdone herself. The venue had a vintage feel, harkening back to the fifties and early sixties, and even the drinks served were from the era. It was like stepping into a black and white movie, but everything was in Technicolor. The majority of the guests were older, and I saw quite a few friends of my parents. They’d had another engagement, or they would have been here.
Poor April didn’t get her wine, but Tate put her cranberry juice in a wineglass and told her to pretend, because this was one of the only nights out they were going to get for a long time.
My other favorite moment was when Marisol took the stage to thank everyone for coming and a voice called out her name, and proceeded to take the stage holding a dozen yellow roses (her favorite) as she covered her mouth and started to cry.
“Did you know he was going to surprise her?” Lucah said in my ear as Mari took the roses from Fin and gave him a kiss that made the entire audience clap and cheer.
“No, I had no idea. That sneaky bastard.” After the two lovebirds exited the stage, they made their way back over to us.
“Way to set the bar too high for the rest of us,” Lucah called out to Fin as I gave him a hug.
“I can’t believe you pulled that off,” I said as he lifted me off my feet. I was so beyond happy to see him.
“It wasn’t easy. I actually enlisted the help of your mother, if you can believe that. Now that she’s given up on me being her son-in-law, she’s been surprisingly supportive of my current relationship.” He glanced over his sh
oulder at Marisol, who was being mopped up by Chloe and Sloane.
“She’s been very supportive of mine as well,” I said, jabbing Lucah in the ribs with my elbow and making him wince. “You look really good, Fin.” He did. His suit actually fit his tall frame, and cut in all the right places. Marisol was a lucky woman. She came over and couldn’t stop giggling as Fin gave her another kiss and then dragged her away so they could dance.
“We can’t let them show us up on the dance floor, can we?” Lucah said, taking my hand and leading me to the space in front of the tables that was cleared for dancing. Marisol had found a replacement band, and I didn’t know what the original had sounded like, but the replacements were fabulous, playing the old standards mixed with some newer songs so they could please the diverse crowd.
The rest of our crew followed behind Lucah and me. Tate and April, who looked stunning in her white dress; Ryder and Sloane, who looked like a walking silver screen siren in rose gold and then Chloe in green with one of her male coworkers (who also happened to be gay, but went with her to formal events as her heterosexual beard).
The band struck up a new song, and after a second I realized it was a slower version of “Royals” by Lorde. It took me back to the first ball and how I’d been so happy to dance with Lucah. I’d been bursting with so much happiness and love I didn’t think it could grow any more.
But it had. I adored him even more than I did on that night. And a year from now I’d probably love him more, and the year after that and so on. Forever.
“I can’t wait to marry you, Miss Clarke. Or should I say, future Mrs. Blythe,” Lucah said in my ear as we waltzed to the non-traditional song.
“Mrs. Blythe,” I said, testing out the name. My potential name. I didn’t know how I felt about it. I’d been Rory Clarke for my entire life. I didn’t know how to be anyone else. Lucah had the luxury of trying different identities on. I was sure if he really wanted to, he could become anyone. But I would always be Rory Clarke.
“Or maybe you want to keep your name?” Lucah said after a few beats of silence. He’d done it again, read my mind.
“How about we compromise?” I said moving my hand up his neck and tugging a tiny bit on the hair on the back of his head. “How does Mrs. Clarke-Blythe sound?” Rory Clarke-Blythe. Yes. I could be her.
He chuckled in my ear, sending shivers racing down my spine. Ryder had finally found a job busing tables at a local restaurant, so he’d moved out this morning. Tonight was going to be our first night in our apartment with just the two of us again, and I knew both of us had more than a few plans as to what to do with our returned privacy.
“I like the sound of that, almost future Mrs. Clarke-Blythe. Or I could take your name. I could be Lucah Clarke. We’ve never really been the traditional couple, have we?” No, we certainly hadn’t. Most couples didn’t start out as a one-night stand. But tradition was boring.
“I just want you to be you. Lucah Jacob Blythe. Nobody else.” He pulled back and I raised my head from where it had rested on his chest to meet his gaze.
“You be Rory and I’ll be Lucah.” He twirled me under his arm and I giggled as I nearly crashed into Sloane where she danced nearby with Ryder.
“As long as I get to call you mine,” I said.
And now for a sneak peek at Dark Surrendering (Surrender Saga, Book Three) coming Summer 2014…
“You look stunning tonight, Sloane,” Ryder said in my ear as we waltzed. I was shocked when he asked me to dance, because he didn’t seem like the kind of guy who would know how to waltz. I’d agreed and his hand had gone around my waist to rest on my back, right where my dress had a cutout. Skin to skin.
I shivered at the touch of his warm hand as he took a step, and then another moving in perfect time to the music.
“Thank you. I didn’t know you could dance,” I said as I rested my head on his shoulder. He chuckled, his breath teasing my hair. My skin was ablaze, my heart fluttering madly like it did whenever I was near him.
“There are a lot of things you don’t know about me.” I had no response to that. It seemed like the more time I spent with him, the more questions I had. We spun and I watched Lucah dancing with Rory. He said something and she threw her head back and laughed. I was so happy for her, but that didn’t stop the jealousy monster rearing his ugly head. I punched him in the mouth and focused back on Ryder, which wasn’t hard to do. I’d taken extra special care to tailor his suit to his body, making sure it showed off his glorious arms and the expanse of his back. I couldn’t see his tattoos, but just knowing they were there made me ache in all the right places.
His fingers moved up and down my spine and he pulled me closer.
“Are you sure you don’t want me to come over?” I said. This was the second time tonight I’d offered to come over to his new place and “help him unpack.” And by “help him unpack,” I meant put his stuff in my box. Over. And over.
“Sloane,” he said, his fingers stilling on my back and his feet stopping their movement. I stumbled a little and looked up at him.
“We’ve talked about this. I used to be that guy who would… But I’m not anymore. You’re too important to me, and I don’t want to fuck this up.” He wouldn’t have minded just a few weeks ago. In fact, he’d propositioned me the very first time we met. But since his overdose, he’d changed. Not that I was unhappy about the change. That guy who I’d met when Rory and Lucah had moved was powerful and commanding and sent off every warning bell in my head.
I looked up into his clear blue eyes and I could still see that guy. The guy who’d looked at me as if he wanted to possess me. Even though his mouth was saying no, those eyes… they were saying yes.
I’m going to keep this short and sweet. It’s hard to believe that less than a year ago, Rory and Lucah didn’t exist, and now here I am with the second volume in their story completed. I couldn’t have done this without the help of: my family, my friends, my beta reader, my editor, my publicist, my fellow author friends, the fabulous book bloggers who have been SO supportive of this series and last, but not least, everyone who read and raved about the first book. I didn’t intend for this to be a series, but here we are.
The Noctalis Chronicles
Nocturnal (Book One)
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Nightmare (Book Two)
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Neither (Book Three)
Amazon Barnes and Noble Kobo
Neverend (Book Four)
Amazon Barnes and Noble Kobo
The Whisper Trilogy
Whisper (Book One)
Amazon Barnes and Noble Kobo
Fall and Rise
Deeper We Fall (Book One)
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Faster We Burn (Book Two)
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My Favorite Mistake
(Available from Harlequin)
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Sweet Surrendering
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For Real
Amazon Barnes and NobleKobo
My Sweetest Escape (January 28, 2014)
Chelsea M. Cameron is a YA/NA and Adult New York Times/USA Today Best Selling author from Maine. Lover of things random and ridiculous, Jane Austen/Charlotte and Emily Bronte Fangirl, red velvet cake enthusiast, obsessive tea drinker, vegetarian, former cheerleader and world’s worst video gamer. When not writing, she enjoys watching infomercials, singing in the car and tweeting. She has a degree in journalism from the University of Maine, Orono that she promptly abandoned to write about the people in her own head. More often than not, these people turn out to be just as weird as she is.
Find Chelsea online:
chelseamcameron.com
Twitter: @chel_c_cam
Facebook: Chelsea M. Cameron (Official Author Page)
Table of Contents
Cover
Chapter One
Chapter Two
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
Epilogue
Acknowledgement
Books by Chelsea M. Cameron
About the Author
Surrendering to Us Page 29