"Valentine," he says softly, and just the way he says my name causes a shiver to run up my spine. It's said with such tenderness that I want to weep. "There's nothing to make up for. Later...if you want...you can suck my cock for hours...days even. But for tonight, let me do this. I've dreamed about this so much, and I have so much lost time to make up for."
Another shiver up my spine and my toes curl slightly.
"I'd really, really love for you to be inside me right now," I whisper. "I need you inside me, Logan."
His eyes go thoroughly warm, still filled with desire, but also with something I've never really seen there before. I can't put my finger on it, but I like it, and I'm mesmerized by it as he crawls up my body.
He reaches a hand out to the table and snags the cuff key, quickly unlocking me from the bed. I immediately wrap my arms around his neck while he settles in between my legs. His erection lies hot, thick, and heavy against me and my hips flex just a tiny bit to rub against him.
He huffs in frustration as he circles his hips. I open my legs wider, and the head of his cock comes right up against my opening. It's a perfect match, and with a tiny push of his hips, he slides in just a fraction.
The look in his eyes becomes warmer and he lowers his face just to press his lips softly to mine. When he lifts up, that look in his eyes becomes warmer yet and he pushes his hips, sliding all the way in. We both moan and I watch as his eyes flutter closed only for a brief moment, and then open again to look at me with...that look again. It's so beautiful, and I almost feel unworthy to have it directed at me. I wish I knew what it was.
"I love you, Valentine," Logan says, and suddenly everything about this moment punches home. That look in his eyes, the words from his mouth, and the fullness of him lodged deep inside of me. "I'm sorry it took this long to tell you that."
"Oh, God," I say as my nose stings and I blink my eyes furiously so I don't cry. "Oh, God...I love you too."
"I know," he says softly and without any smugness. "You told me before. Now it's my turn."
I go ahead and let the tears build. It's without a doubt the most special moment of my life. I'm in love and it's being returned to me. This was an emotion I never thought I'd feel...never thought it was an emotion that was important enough to feel. I berate myself slightly, because look at what I could have been missing, but then I realize...no. I could only have this feeling with Logan, and my life was nothing but preparation for this perhaps very singular moment right now.
"I'm glad you came back," he murmurs as he rests his forehead against mine and squeezes his arms in slightly at my ribs. He doesn't move otherwise, just lies on me...within me.
"I don't give up on what I want," I tell him, one hand coming to stroke the hair at the back of his head. "Never have."
"I need to get you to Seattle to meet my family," he says gruffly. "Think I fucked up that last visit."
Chuckling, I shake my head, which dislodges his forehead from mine. He looks down at me with serious eyes. "You had good reason. Besides, Tabby and I are like best friends now."
Logan pulls his head back, eyebrows knit in confusion. "Tabby?"
"Yeah...she reached out to me. Sort of encouraged me to go after you."
"Why that little--"
"Absolutely, wonderful, charming and romantic sister of yours," I finish that statement for him. "And if it wasn't for her, you wouldn't be inside of me right now."
"Feels kind of good, doesn't it?" he asks with a grin.
"Would feel better if you move," I suggest.
And so he does, and it's wonderful, and I missed it so much that I vow to myself right then and there that I'll never leave his side again. I know that might be a bit of a long shot, but I never think clearly when Logan's fucking me.
"Love you, baby," I whisper as he rocks in and out of me.
"Love you too, my Valentine," he murmurs back. "And welcome home to Alaska."
I sigh in contentment. "It's good to be home."
Epilogue
Valentine
"Christmas weddings are the best, aren't they?" I ask as I look out at the expanse of sparkling white before me and sharp blue skies above.
"You're just saying that since I agreed to marry you in Saint Lucia," Logan mutters as he leans back in his beach chair. I do the same and dig my feet down into the pristine white sand as I close my eyes. We decided to elope to a tropical destination for our wedding, with the intent to throw a big shindig when we got back to Alaska, most likely next summer. I never wanted that big white wedding--and Logan knew there was nothing virginal about me--and Logan wanted something low stress and really only about the two of us. In my opinion, it was perfect.
Before we finalized this plan, however, we did check with his family, who are absolutely the best people ever. We wanted to make sure they were okay with us eloping, and because they're the type of people that just want us to be happy, they were all for it. Plus, they liked the idea of a party in Alaska better.
My parents were a little peeved they couldn't do a big society wedding in New York, but I wasn't about to have the happiest day of my life played out in that scenario. And once they got over their snit about it, they did send Logan and me a beautiful eight-piece china setting.
We both snorted over that, because what in the hell do we need china for in Alaska?
When I tilt my face up to the sun, I feel Logan take my left hand, his fingers absently twisting my wedding band back and forth. A small smile plays across my face, because he's been doing that for the last four days since I've said "I do." He does it because he's having a hard time believing it to be true.
That I said yes.
After all, he asked me to marry him only five weeks after we reconciled. Both of us knew the request was impetuous and a huge risk. After all, I'd just moved to the wilds of Alaska and was yet to even experience a harsh winter--although truth be told, this area of Alaska really doesn't get that much colder than New York in the winter. However, in New York I had a car service to take me where I wanted. In Alaska, I'd have to get out and drive around in that snow on curvy mountain roads.
Regardless, Logan is a man of confidence, and in his words, "We fit so well together in all ways," that there was no reason to wait. He did mention something about him being thirty-seven, and perhaps he felt our biological clock was ticking, and he did keep harping on the fact about that night long ago when he carried me out of The Wounded Caribou over his shoulder and I made a passing remark to Ted that we'd name our firstborn after him.
Seems this stuck with Logan, and before he asked me to marry him, we'd spend long nights in bed holding each other and talking about the future. That included kids, of course, and I learned he wanted three. I hadn't thought about it at all, since I never saw myself getting married. He let that subject lay low for a while.
The marriage proposal caught me off guard, because as I said, it happened pretty quickly. But it was simple, private, and in only the way that Logan can do. He had me on the couch, on his lap, and there was a nice fire going. We were both sipping wine and talking.
And then he just pulled out a black velvet box from his pocket and gave me an impassioned speech about love, destiny, and fate. As he started to open the box, I risked a glance at his face, and for the first time since I'd known him, I saw he was nervous.
Before he even got the box open, and with my heart hammering harder than it ever has before, I blurted out, "The answer's yes. So you can stop worrying."
Logan's eyes came to mine, his lips tipped up. "You might not say that after you see the size of the ring."
My eyes dropped down, my heart still hammering over the magnitude of what I just agreed to, and when I saw the ring sitting there, my heart just broke wide open with love for him.
It was simple.
Elegant.
A gold band with a small diamond solitaire.
I loved it at first glance because it was exactly what I would have wanted from Logan.
"Answer's still
yes," I murmured as I plucked the ring from the box.
He in turn took the ring out of my hand and slid it on the appropriate finger on my left hand.
Then he dragged me off to bed and we went at it for so long and hard that night I swear I was walking funny the next day. We had also a tentative plan for a Christmas wedding because we'd made our plans between all the sex that night.
Logan continues to twirl my ring around and I lazily roll my head to the side to look at him. His face is tilted up to the sun, eyes closed.
"What are you thinking?" I ask, and his fingers stop moving on my ring.
He sits up, releases my hand, and turns in his chair to face me. I twist slightly to face him.
"I noticed your birth control pills have been gone from our medicine cabinet for a few weeks now," he says, and I blink at him in surprise. Never in a million years would I have thought he'd notice that.
When Logan proposed to me, and after I said a very hasty but definite yes, he wanted to talk about kids. I think this was about after the third time we'd had sex to celebrate the engagement. He told me he didn't want to wait.
I told him I had to think about it.
And I did, for about two days, and I realized...I didn't want to wait either. Neither of us were getting any younger, so I threw my pills out and didn't look back. I also didn't say a word to Logan, because if and when I got pregnant, I thought it would be fun to surprise him.
"Are you--" he starts to ask.
I shake my head. "It's only been a few months, and I went to see a gynecologist and she told me it can take some time."
"Makes sense," he says as he stands from the chair. Reaching down, he lifts me up and sweeps me off my feet. His skin is warm and oily against mine, and I have to admit I'm dreading going back home in three days, only because I'm going to miss him strutting around in nothing but swim trunks and hard abs since we got here.
"Where are we going, Mr. Burke?" I ask as I hook my arms around his neck and nuzzle into him.
"To the room, Mrs. Burke," he says, picking up the pace. "Why the fuck we're still lying out here on the beach when we could be inside fucking and getting pregnant is beyond me."
I giggle into his neck and then pull back to look at him. "We should try tequila."
He stops dead in his tracks. "Tequila?"
"Yeah, supposedly if you get drunk on tequila you get pregnant," I say with a shrug. "Or so I've heard."
"Well, right now let's do some sober fucking," he says as he continues past the pool and into the resort. "I can go a few times this afternoon. Then after dinner tonight, we'll try tequila."
I laugh at my husband as he carries me all the way up to our room before walking us into the large shower to get us rinsed off before we hit the bed. Truth be told, we've spent a lot of time in this room, and I'm fine with spending more.
I'm also not going to be joining in the tequila tonight. As of today, I'm technically two days late on my period, but I don't want to tell him that and get his hopes up for nothing. Sometimes I'm late.
But once we get back to Alaska, if it still hasn't started, I'll get a pregnancy test and then maybe the last of all our wishes will come true.
BY SAWYER BENNETT
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PHOTO: MARIE KILLEN
Since the release of her debut contemporary romance novel, SAWYER BENNETT has written more than thirty books and has been featured on both the New York Times and USA Today bestseller lists on multiple occasions. A reformed trial lawyer from North Carolina, Sawyer uses real-life experience to create relatable, sexy stories that appeal to a wide array of readers. From new adult to contemporary romance, Sawyer writes something for just about everyone. Sawyer likes her Bloody Marys strong, her martinis dirty, and her heroes a combination of the two. When not bringing fictional romance to life, Sawyer is a chauffeur, stylist, chef, maid, and personal assistant to a very active toddler, as well as full-time servant to two adorably naughty dogs. She believes in the good of others, and that a bad day can be cured with a great workout, cake, or a combination of the two.
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Read on for an excerpt from
Jilted
A Love Hurts Novel
by Sawyer Bennett
Available from Loveswept
Chapter 1
"Eden...over here."
"Eden...who are you wearing tonight?"
"Eden...let's see that sparkler on your left hand."
The cameras' bright lights go off as I look from one paparazzi to the next, flashing my pearly whites or giving my trademark pout with my more-than-ample lips. Lips that'd once graced a billboard in Times Square, and that I've had to dispel more than one rumor of having been cosmetically enhanced. If anyone wanted to go back and look at my freshman high school picture, they'd see the same very full lips that had been ridiculed all those years ago. I used to hate them.
Turns out they were moneymakers, so I guess the joke's on all those classmates who bullied me.
"Eden...has a wedding date been set yet?" someone calls out.
I keep the same smile plastered on my face as I turn toward that camera. I do the patented actress pose of one hand on my hip, the other hanging elegantly at my side holding my silver Swarovski-studded clutch. My lips start to quiver at the corners, which is a by-product of holding a smile for too long.
Brad's arm around my waist tightens as he pulls me in closer. I don't need to turn to look at him to know he's melting panties everywhere with his golden blond hair, perfectly chiseled face, and ultrawhite smile. He stands only four inches taller than my five feet eight inches, but he's strong and I've never felt like a behemoth next to him. In my heels, I'm at eye level with him.
He tilts his head to murmur in my ear. "You know we make one fucking fantastic looking couple, right? This will be on the cover of every entertainment magazine tomorrow."
I chuckle and slip my arm back around his waist. I know the photographers to our left are able to get a good close-up of the five-carat yellow diamond that Brad surprised me with last week. I'm gloriously happy to be engaged to him, but admittedly, he caught me way off guard with the proposal. We'd only been dating exclusively for about six months and my gut instinct told me the proposal was too soon. But he did it in a public place frequented by other stars and lurking paparazzi, and I didn't have it in me to tell him that I'd like some time to think about it. I especially didn't want to deal with those headlines, so I fluttered my hand near my heart and nodded yes, my head reeling from what was happening. A
s expected, the proposal was headline news the next day.
HOLLYWOOD'S GOLDEN COUPLE ENGAGED
"Tell me something sad," I murmur back to Brad. "Something...anything...to break this smile on my face. I think it's frozen in place."
"How about I tell you something sexy?" he says in a low voice, and my belly tightens. "That work?"
I nod my head, turning and smiling for the cameras.
"When we get home tonight," Brad whispers in my ear, "I'm going to fuck you so hard you'll be feeling me for weeks."
And...that did the trick. My frozen smile breaks, softens, and becomes an actual genuine smile that's not as wide or fake-looking. My belly flutters also at the thought of Brad doing that to me and I feel a flush creep up my neck.
"You're so bad," I mutter back to him.
"Come on," he says as his arm around my waist drops and he takes me by my hand. "Let's head in."
We're here for the premiere of Brad's new film, Code Zero, a highly energized action movie that involves him leaping from buildings and driving fast cars. It's his thing in Hollywood and he always teases me he wants me to star in one with him.
Sort of like his Bond girl.
And even though my agent and business manager were reluctant to let me take on such a small role, to play nothing but a sexpot, I'd agreed because it made Brad happy. We were set to begin filming in about five weeks.
This decision made my business peeps unhappy because I have my work too. While Brad is an action star, I got my big break about four years ago when I transitioned from modeling to acting, and lucked into the most amazing indie script ever. It was about a woman with split personality disorder who was trying to maintain two separate lives on opposite sides of the country.
It was an emotional masterpiece; a thriller that would be unrivaled for years to come.
Not my words. That was from a film critic.
Regardless, I got an Oscar nomination for that role, and to everyone's surprise in Hollywood, I won that coveted award too. To those naysayers who doubt dreams come true, they've never met Eden Goodnight. Not only have my dreams come true, but they've surpassed anything I could have ever imagined.
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