by KB Winters
Every. Damn. Day.
Chapter 20
Jana
“You really are disgusting, you know that don’t you?” Teddy dropped down onto a lounge in the backyard, her long shapely legs on display in a knee-length summer dress. The yellow and white polka dots were at odds with her sophisticated up do, but matched perfectly with her sun kissed skin and freckled shoulders. “I mean, I’m happy for you and all, but seriously.” She rolled her eyes and slid the sunglasses over her blue eyes, but I saw the twitch of her lips.
“I think it’ll be a nice surprise.” Six months had passed since Max and I declared our love for each other and things were damn near perfect. I couldn’t have asked for a better man than Max Ellison. He always made me feel beautiful and desirable. Wanted.
“How is that,” she pointed at the wooden slats surrounding the newly planted vegetable garden, “a nice surprise?”
“You’ll see,” I told her as I manned the grill. Max and Tate were coming home today. They’d been in Reno for a few days so Tate and his lawyers could argue that he should be compensated for his wrongful conviction. It was a travesty they didn’t automatically pay exonerees but I had hopes that Tate would win. “I made a pitcher of lemonade if you’re thirsty.”
Teddy groaned as she got up and poured a glass. “Lemonade,” she scoffed. “I don’t know if I like this new you,” she grinned into her glass and promptly groaned as the boozy cocktail hit her taste buds. “Damn, I still love you girl.”
I laughed and rolled my eyes, moving the steaks around the grill and turning over the fish. “I thought you might.”
“You thought she might what?”
I turned at the sound of Max’s voice with an excited grin for him and Tate. “Hey guys! How’d it go?” I stopped in front of Tate and waited.
“Fantastic. They’re working up a settlement agreement as we speak.”
“That’s great!” I wrapped my arms around his big body and squeezed tight. “I’m so happy for you, Tate.”
“Yeah, thanks babe. What smells good?” He sniffed the air and moved toward the grill while I drew closer to Max.
Big, delicious, manly Max. “Teddy will show you where everything is, won’t you?”
With an exaggerated eyeroll, she stood and waved for Tate to follow her. “You have three minutes,” she whispered as she breezed on by.
Max frowned. “Three minutes? That’s just enough time to get you all wet and bothered.” I felt my skin blush at his words and I cringed. Six months later and the man could still make me feel like a virginal schoolgirl.
“I have a surprise for you, but if you want to go with your thing, I’m game.” Cupping his face gently, I pressed a hard kiss to his mouth. “I missed you.”
“Not as much as I missed you.”
I loved to hear him say things like that, but I really loved it when he got that intense expression on his face that told me just how much he meant that. “I have a surprise for you.”
“A surprise like those magic brownies to help me sleep or like that blue lingerie?”
Another blush stained my cheeks and I buried my face in his chest at the memory of that lingerie. I’d never been so bold in my life, but he’d stayed overnight for five straight days and on the sixth I’d worn the most outrageous lingerie I’ve ever owned. It was a fun night. “Neither, actually.” I grabbed his hand and pulled him to the small garden area. “It’s a salsa garden.”
He frowned in confusion and dropped my hand, but I didn’t panic. I knew, with absolute certainty, that Max would love this. Especially when he finally saw the sign that read, ‘Garcia’s Bomb Ass Salsa Garden’. “You did this for me?”
I nodded. “The experts say that remembering the good things is the key to overcoming a trauma and though it’s never worked for me, I think it could work for you. This way every time we eat salsa, it’ll be Garcia’s.”
He stood and wrapped me in his arms. “Is that why you planted the brown eyed Susan’s? Because I told you about Reilly’s favorite spot on the family ranch?”
“Yep.”
“I love the hell out of you Jana. You are the best damn thing that ever happened to me.”
“And you are more than I imagined I could ever have out of this life, Max.”
He kissed me long and tender, sweet. When he pulled back he wore a nervous smile. “I was going to wait and make it really special, but this seems like the perfect time.”
“For what?”
He reached into his pants pocket and pulled out a small velvet box and my breath caught. He flashed a knowing smile that made my heart race. “This. Jana Carson, hottest, sweetest, most amazing woman on the planet, will do you do me the great honor of becoming my wife?”
In a million years, I hadn’t expected Max to take this step, to want to take this step. Marriage, for me, had always been a pipe dream so now, in this important moment in my life, I could only stare at the gorgeous emerald cut diamond that did its best to outshine the Nevada sun.
“Don’t leave me hanging sweetheart.”
I blinked and looked up at those amazing gray eyes with a shaky smile. “Oh Max, I can’t wait to be your wife. Yes, I’ll marry you!” I jumped in his arms as tears slipped down my cheeks, feeling happier than I could ever remember feeling in my whole life. This man, so strong and sensitive, was all mine.
Forever.
“Oh boy, they’re at it again,” Teddy said, breaking the spell we’d woven around ourselves.
“We were celebrating,” I told her, pulling Max beside me as we stopped in front of Teddy and Tate. “We are officially engaged.”
Teddy squealed as I knew she would, wrapping both of us in her lean arms. “Congratulations guys!”
I basked in her praise and her affection along with Tate’s and the feel of Max’s steady hand at my back, had me full to bursting with love.
It took a long time—a lot of therapy and acceptance—to get here but these three people, were now my family.
In every sense of the word.
* * * *
~ T H E ~ E N D ~
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Roc Hard
I never thought I’d fall for the billionaire, but his cool-blue eyes and sexy swagger drew me to him like a moth to a flame. Okay, inferno.
He was my first and so far, had been my last—my only.
Once I found out I’d been played, I high tailed it out of there and moved as far away as I could. He didn’t need to know. I didn’t need him, or his money.
Jerk.
Not only did he take my virginity, break my heart and stomp all over it, he gave me a baby as well.
How could I be so stupid?
And why the hell did he just walk into my office and tell me he now owns the posh resort I work at?
I fell for the billionaire once—this time will be different.
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* * * *
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Acknowledgments
Thank you! I love you all and thank you for making my books a success!! I appreciate each and every one of you.
Thanks to all of my beta readers, street teamers, ARC readers and Facebook fans. Y’all are THE BEST!
And a huge very special thanks to my wonderful PA! W
ithout you, I’d be a *hot mess! I’m still a hot mess, but without your keen sense of organization and skills, I’d be a burny fiery inferno of hot mess!! Thank you!
And a very special thanks to my editors (who sometimes have to work all through the night! *See HOT MESS above!) Thank you for making my words make sense.
Copyright © 2018 KB Winters and BookBoyfriends Publishing LLC
About The Author
KB Winters is a Wall Street Journal and USA Today Bestselling Author of steamy hot books about Bikers, Billionaires, Bad Boys and Badass Military Men. Just the way you like them. She has an addiction to caffeine, tattoos and hard-bodied alpha males. The men in her books are very sexy, protective and sometimes bossy, her ladies are...well...bossier!
Living in sunny Southern California, with her five kids and three fur babies, this embarrassingly hopeless romantic writes every chance she gets!
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