by JM Stewart
“The first steps into putting what happened behind me. Feels good.” A sudden grin bloomed across his face, his eyes gleaming as if he had a secret. “There’s more.”
She smiled, heart light. “What’s that?”
“I got the bike running. It’s why I was late. Had a bit of trouble starting it the first time. It’s downstairs, parked in front of the building.” He bent down and brushed his nose against hers, his voice warm and husky between them. “Go for a ride with me, princess.”
A heady shiver shot down her spine. She pressed herself into him, sliding her hands up his back. “I’d love nothing more.”
Epilogue
Seated on the back deck of Grayson’s houseboat, Cassie stared up at the darkening sky above her. For early July, the night air held a chill. The summer had yet to warm up, but the thick cloud cover had cleared enough to at least allow a peek here and there of the stars. All over the city around them, the evening filled with a cacophony of celebration. Laughter and the tangy aroma of cooking meat carried on the breeze. Pops and bangs rang out from all over, followed by bursts of color in the sky. Soon, the city would fire off a gorgeous display from the Space Needle.
She reached beside her, found Tyler’s hand in his lap, and threaded her fingers through his. They’d been officially married for three months. Neither had wanted to wait but had agreed to keep the wedding small, friends and family only. Despite his misgivings, even her father had come. His presence had solidified the rightness of the day.
Tyler’s therapy was working. He’d learned how to deal with his PTSD, and she’d learned how better to help him. Slowly but surely, he was finding himself again, growing stronger. His nightmares had lessened, though his aversion to loud noises and crowded places hadn’t changed.
Which was what worried her about his insistence on coming tonight. They’d be practically on top of the action.
She turned her head, peering at his profile. He had his head resting along the back of the wooden lounger he sat in, doing exactly what she’d been: staring up at the night sky. “You sure you’re okay being here?”
It was the Fourth of July and Gray had invited the whole gang over for a barbeque. Not a mile from the Space Needle, Gray’s houseboat on Lake Union would give them the perfect view. Cassie had originally turned him down, worried the whole evening would set Tyler on edge, but he’d insisted they come. Despite her fear, he seemed calm and serene. As if World War Three weren’t going on all around them.
“For the thousandth time, I’m fine.” He squeezed her fingers but didn’t take his gaze from the sky. “I’ve actually been looking forward to this. I haven’t seen one of these for over three years, and we met on the Fourth of July. Seems only fitting we watch it together. Besides, I have you to keep me grounded.”
“Well, I won’t let go of this hand.” A huge explosion rocked the night, sending reds, whites, and blues streaking the sky, signaling the start of the city’s display. She glanced back over her shoulder, through the open sliding glass doors behind her.
Sebastian, Christina, Cade, and Hannah were seated around the small coffee table in the living room. Sebastian and Cade appeared to be having a serious discussion. Hannah and Christina had Hannah’s eighteen-month-old daughter Emily between them. In the attached kitchen, some ten feet or so behind them, Maddie and Gray were uncorking the third bottle of wine. Or rather, Maddie was trying to uncork the bottle. With his arms around her and his mouth turned to her ear, Gray appeared more of a distraction.
Cassie cupped her hand over her mouth and called out, “Guys! It’s starting!”
All heads turned in her direction. Christina smiled and nodded, then stood and turned to scoop up little Emily. Cassie couldn’t help watching as Hannah got to her feet. Well into her pregnancy and due any day, she pushed off the couch hips first, her rounded belly jutting out in front of her. Cassie slid a hand over her own stomach. That would be her soon.
She turned back around to find Tyler watching her, a tender smile on his face. “Have you told them yet?”
Cassie turned her gaze to the water, her stomach tumbling with a sudden case of nerves. “No. It just makes it so real and honestly, the whole idea terrifies me. I mean, me? A mom? I don’t even know how to cook.”
They hadn’t planned on getting pregnant, but hadn’t exactly been too careful, either. In fact, she was pretty sure they’d conceived on their honeymoon and that there’d been copious amounts of alcohol involved. On top of the heady buzz that they were now married. He was hers, and she was his. Marriage hadn’t changed the intensity of their need for each other. In fact, it had only seemed to increase it.
“You take care of me just fine. Besides, I can cook, and if it’s a girl, she’s going to love your closet.” He leaned over and pecked her cheek, his voice warm and reassuring in her ear.
One by one, the gang all made their way to the back deck, pairing off around them. Hannah took a seat in another lounger on the other side of the doorway, Cade coming to stand beside her. Christina and Sebastian had little Emily between them, pointing at the various colorful bursts as they lit the sky.
Halfway through the fireworks, Grayson, standing with Maddie off to her left, nudged her with a hand. As she glanced up at him, mischief glinted in his eyes. “So. Got something to share with the rest of us?”
Cassie couldn’t stop her mouth from dropping open. “How on earth did you know?”
He playfully rolled his eyes. “Please. You ate vegetables with dinner.”
Cassie’s face heated, but she couldn’t contain her giggle. He had her there.
“Salad. I had salad. I actually like salad.” Or at least, she would for the little bundle growing inside of her.
“No, you don’t.” Grayson laughed and nudged her again. “Out with it. We’re all growing old here.”
She glanced around at the faces of her friends, each one waiting with a gentle patience. “I’m pregnant.”
Congratulations erupted around the group. Maddie sprang forward, hugging her tightly. “Ooh, I’m so happy for you!”
Christina darted a nervous glance around, giggled, and covered her mouth, muttering behind her fingers, “I am too.”
“Oh my God!” Cassie squealed, and launched out of her seat, rushing down the deck to Christina.
Christina enveloped her in a hug, whispering in her ear, “I’m terrified.”
Cassie laughed as she pulled back. “Oh God, me too.”
Hannah and Maddie joined the fray, hugging her and Christina from behind, and what began as a simple announcement quickly became a chatting frenzy. They spent several minutes sharing due dates and fears. As she listened to Hannah describe those first scary days of being a mom, Cassie glanced at Tyler. He was still seated in the lounger, watching her with that serene expression. Love shined in his eyes, calling to her like a beacon.
She made her excuses and left the group, sliding into his lap. He wrapped his arms around her and she snuggled into his neck. She hadn’t a clue what kind of mother she’d make. She couldn’t cook. Didn’t clean. Hadn’t no idea how to change a diaper. But she had these beautiful, generous people…and she had him.
“Aren’t you the least bit nervous?” she asked.
“Not anymore.” He pressed a tender kiss into her hair. “Whatever life throws at us, baby, we’ll figure it out. Together.”
Online, any fantasy is possible. But when virtual lovers decide to meet in real life, the temperature rises—and so do the stakes. See the next page for a preview of the first in JM Stewart’s Seattle Bachelors series Bidding on the Billionaire.
Available now!
Chapter One
The musical ding of an incoming chat sounded through her laptop’s speakers. Hannah Miller’s heart stuttered. Standing in her kitchen, coffee cup in hand, electricity fizzled along her nerve endings, settling hot and luscious between her thighs. She didn’t need to see them to know what they said. The same words popped up every night: Hey baby. You there?
She bit her lower lip, gnashing it between her teeth. What she needed to do was wait before answering him. Keep him wondering. She didn’t want to look too eager. Like she hadn’t been biding her time waiting…in lingerie she’d bought just for him.
She glanced down at herself, fingering the hem of the pink negligee she’d donned an hour before. The sheer fabric fluttered over the tops of her thighs. It was the first time she’d ever splurged for something sexy, but on the way home from the bookshop this afternoon, she got to thinking about him and ended up in the Victoria’s Secret on Pine Street. It was a spur-of-the-moment splurge. She’d taken one look at it and knew he’d love it.
She had to admit, wearing the see-through nightie filled her with a sense of feminine power. She felt sexy. Something she hadn’t felt since long before her breakup with Dane a year and a half ago.
She sighed, set her cup on the counter, and gave in to the pull. Then she moved around the breakfast bar separating the kitchen from the living room and padded across the space. As she came to stand behind the couch, she rested her hands along the back and stared at the words on the screen. It had to be pathetic to look forward to a date with a man she’d never met. Night after night, she sat alone in front of her computer. The only sexual gratification she’d gotten in the last year and a half always happened solo.
She didn’t even know the guy’s real name. She’d been chatting with him for six months now. They’d met on a message board discussing a book, an erotic romance of all things. An easy friendship had developed that had become more over time. He made her laugh. He challenged her. And he made her see stars. She knew intimate things about this man. Where he liked to be touched and how, what his kinks were, his hopes and dreams.
Yet all she knew about him was that he was Harley-riding lawyer from San Diego. They chatted via Gchat and both went by anonymous usernames. She was “JustAGurl456.” He didn’t offer his real name, and she didn’t ask. He could be her neighbor for all she knew, the ugly guy in 45B who played the weird music at two in the morning.
Still, she looked forward to this part of her day, to coming home knowing he’d be there. Even if all they did was chat about their days, he was a lure she could never resist. More often than not, though, their conversations veered toward the hot and erotic. The man had magic fingers. He always knew the right thing to say to light her on fire, and those fingers always reached through the wires straight into her core.
She’d throbbed all day thinking about her chat with him. So much so she’d stopped on the way home for something sexy to describe to him. She only wished her lover could be there to see the nightie she’d bought for him. She’d even contemplated getting brave and sending him a picture or inviting him to a video chat on Skype. She’d grown tired of her own fingers. Even her high-end vibrator didn’t cut it anymore. What she craved was touch and the warmth of skin. A flesh-and-blood lover.
Except she’d never been able to summon the courage to move beyond their anonymous chats. She had rules she’d lived by since her parents’ deaths, since she ended up in a children’s home and part of the foster care system. Inserted and forgotten. She’d set those rules aside for Dane. Since his exit from her life, she’d reaffirmed them. The top one? Never get attached. She was already growing attached to this one. The fact that she was here, waiting, proved it. She knew better.
Even knowing that, she moved around the couch and sat, picked up her laptop, and set it on her knees. As she punched in a reply, her hands trembled with nerves and the first stirrings of arousal. Yeah. This was why she was so damn addicted to him. Because all he had to do was pop up in her Gchat window and her panties dampened.
JustAGurl456: Hi. You’re home early tonight. I didn’t expect to see you until after nine.
bikerboy357: Meeting canceled last minute. Paperwork can wait. I had to talk to you. I’ve been looking forward to you all day.
JustAGurl456: Mmm. Me too.
Hannah inserted a finger into her mouth, biting down on the nonexistent nail. She shouldn’t have told him that. Did she sound too desperate?
bikerboy357: Did you have a good day?
JustAGurl456: I had a long day. You?
Her day had been slow and boring. A couple of requests from her online bookstore had come in, people looking for original first copies, but the shop itself had been slow. Being in the middle of the rainy season for Seattle, the day had been dreary, the light drizzle enough to keep people indoors. Despite the shop sitting around the corner from Pike Place Market, only a handful of customers had come into the physical store.
bikerboy357: I’ve had a helluva hard-on all day thinking about you. Made the day hella long. Let’s do something crazy tonight, baby.
That he’d been looking forward to her, too, had her insides clenching in anticipation. The mention of his cock had fantasies filling her mind, and the desire to see him flared to life in her chest. It wasn’t the first time the urge had hit. She had a million fantasies about what he looked like. It was her favorite. She always imagined he had big hands and a big cock. More than a time or two she’d wanted to ask him to take a picture of it. She ached to have him in front of her, to see the bulge in his slacks. She bet he was long and thick, with a bulbous head she’d kill to wrap her lips around.
Really, what she wanted, what she craved more than chocolate…was his touch. To have him beside her. To bring their online encounters into reality. She yearned for the hands touching her to be his. To open her eyes after an intense, mind-blowing orgasm and find herself alone always filled her with emptiness. She was tired of being alone.
JustAGurl456: OK. What do you have in mind?
bikerboy357: Let me call you. I know we agreed to keep this anonymous, but I’m dying to hear your voice.
Her scintillating mood skidded to a halt. For a moment, all she could do was blink at the screen. Call her? Was he serious? Her hands trembled again, this time from the nerves currently wrapping themselves around her throat. Okay, she’d admit it. She’d fantasized about talking to him on the phone, actually getting to hear his voice. It would make him seem a little closer, a little more human and not just words on a computer screen.
She’d told this man secrets she’d never told anyone, including her best friend, Maddie. Like how lonely she really was. It was something they shared. A love for reading…and a lonely emptiness nothing could fill. There were nights when they simply chatted, about life and horrible days and wishes and dreams. He’d become a friend, and she looked forward to their chats as much as she did nights like these when she craved his body the most.
She’d made her self-imposed rules to protect her heart. If one more person left her life, she might crawl up inside herself and never come out. Those rules, however, isolated her. The loneliness and monotony of her life got to her every once in a while. She longed to hear his voice, to hear the sounds he made when his orgasm ripped through him. Even to know the sound of his laugh.
Letting him call her, though, would take their exchanges to a level she didn’t know if she was ready for. What did she know about this guy, really? Nothing. Well, okay, almost nothing. She knew his favorite color was blue, that he had a love for good Chinese, and that he was a reader, like her, but she couldn’t pick him out of a lineup. She had no idea if he had siblings, or if he even had family at all. He was little more than a chat handle on the other side of her computer. One step above a fantasy. How did she know he hadn’t lied about himself, the way she had?
Truth was, as lonely as it could get, she preferred their relationship this way. At least online, he wouldn’t be able to see her. He wouldn’t discover she’d lied about her looks. She didn’t have long legs up to her ears or blond hair.
She had mousy brown locks that frizzed when it got too hot and a short, plump stature. Maddie, her business partner and best friend, insisted on calling her curvy. But Hannah knew she had twenty pounds she couldn’t lose for the life of her and that men tended to overlook her.
She also wouldn’t have to watch the disgust wash across his expression when his gaze landed on the hideous scars cutting across her face. She wouldn’t have to watch him stumble for an excuse, a reason why he needed to back out of an encounter with her. She’d heard the excuses one too many times. Maybe from jerks, but still. She didn’t have it in her to start all over again.
Another message popped onto her screen.
bikerboy357: Hey, where’d you go?
With shaking fingers, she punched in a quick reply.
JustAGurl456: Sorry, I’m here. I have to admit, you caught me by surprise.
bikerboy357: I want to hear your voice, baby. I want to hear your breathing when you’re pumping those fingers into yourself and what sounds you make when you come all over them. I want to know you’re right there with me.
A hot little shudder ran the length of her spine, settling warm and luscious in all those places he mentioned. Her clit throbbed, begging her to take him up on his offer. She’d done safe for so long it had become habit, because the fear of history repeating itself froze her into inaction. Could she do this, though?
bikerboy357: Are you nervous?
She bit her lower lip, staring at his words on the screen. The answer came immediately. She shouldn’t tell him, though. No, what she ought to do was stick to the script. So far she’d played fearless and flirty, everything she wasn’t in real life. She enjoyed her online persona. For a while, she could be someone more exciting, instead of the book geek who hid in the shadows.