“Now don’t go jumping to conclusions,” she said. “They needed some time to get used to the idea, that’s all. I gave them a hell of a shock.” A thought struck her. “Although it wasn’t as much of a shock for my mum as I expected. I think perhaps we weren’t as successful in our deception at breakfast the other day as we thought we were.”
“Kudos to Edith,” Derek said with a surprised laugh.
“You did answer the door half-naked,” Scott pointed out.
“I was not half-naked, I wore a perfectly acceptable robe.”
“If you say so, honey,” he teased, pecking her on the cheek.
“Can we please get back to the important questions?” Derek demanded. “Julia, does this mean they didn’t try to talk you out of this?”
“They spent most of the night trying everything they could think of to talk me out of it,” she said with an exaggerated nod. “And don’t go thinking that ship has sailed. I have no doubt they will keep trying.”
Scott buried his face in his hands. “How is this good news?”
She took another deep breath, not put off by his dour expression. “Before I left, my parents invited all three of us to have dinner at their house tomorrow night,” she announced. “My Dad has insisted on meeting you both so he can decide for himself whether or not you deserve to be dismembered.” She cringed. That sounded so much worse when she was the one saying it. “Just be aware there may be an axe hidden behind the couch.”
“Excellent,” Derek said with a grin.
Scott looked at him like he was mad. “The man wants to cut off our dicks and nail them to the pool room wall. You got that part, right?”
“Hey, not only are they willing to meet us, we’ve been invited to dinner.” He emphasised the last word as if being fed constituted a sure sign of future approval. “It’s a good start if you ask me. Weapons included.”
Julia sighed in relief, her own smile mirroring his. “I hoped you’d see it that way.”
Scott wrapped his arms around her waist and nuzzled into the curve of her shoulder. “Okay, so we impress your folks and then over time they’ll kind of have to get used to us being around?”
“That’s the current plan,” Julia said with a shrug.
“Guess I’d better resist glaring at you then.”
With a laugh, she climbed onto his lap and wrapped her arms around his neck. “It would help.”
He began to trail kisses along her jawline. “This means you’re still ours. Yes?”
“Yes. And you’re mine,” she replied. “Don’t you ever forget it.”
She could feel Scott’s grin against her neck. “Never,” he murmured, before adding, “Now, about getting you out of these clothes.”
Chapter 29
A month later, Julia groaned as she stretched her arms over her head. The swivel chair in her office was comfortable enough, but nothing could sooth her aching muscles today. She’d spent the last week packing everything she owned into boxes for the move to Derek and Scott’s apartment, which had happened over the weekend. Everything she didn’t need had been sold online and now she could officially say she lived with her two hunky boyfriends. Though the transition had made little actual difference to their lives since she’d barely seen the inside of her rented townhouse in the past month. And what a month it had been.
Derek and Scott made her happy in ways she couldn’t begin to describe. She loved them both with everything inside her and she felt secure in the knowledge they loved her back with equal fervour. The commitment the three of them had to each other was obvious enough that even her parents were coming to accept their relationship quicker than she would have thought possible. Her dad still eyed them off in a fatherly ‘don’t you dare hurt my little girl’ kind of way, but that was nothing new and the men understood his concerns. They’d decided the best approach to the situation was to keep her deliriously happy. So far, it was working. It didn’t hurt that her dad could talk rugby with Scott until he was hoarse and Derek’s cooking kept him well-stocked with gourmet biscuits.
They’d asked her to come back and work with them again, but she’d declined. She could see herself returning to their company in the future, and certainly wouldn’t rule it out. For now, though, she was enjoying her time in her new job and intended to stay until she felt the need for a change. It had become important to her that she continue to stretch herself in new ways. After a lifetime of being practical and sensible, she was learning to reach for bigger goals that challenged and excited her. It had worked in her relationship, now she wanted to extend her new outlook to other areas of her life.
The men had supported her decision without hesitation. As long as she came home to them at the end of every day, they were happy for her to follow whatever career path she wished.
Now, seeing the time had come to finish up for the day, Julia closed down her computer and grabbed some paperwork that needed to be delivered to reception before leaving her office. She’d just finalised some details with Carrie, the receptionist, when she realised the young woman had stopped paying attention.
“Ooh la la,” Carrie murmured under her breath. “I wouldn’t mind waking up to one of them every morning.”
Julia looked up, smiling as she caught sight of Derek and Scott walking through the front door and into the large foyer. She’d planned to meet them downstairs so they could go out to dinner, but apparently they’d arrived early and decided to come up to meet her instead.
“I’m afraid you’ll have to find your own,” she said, grinning down at the woman. “Those two are mine.”
Carrie’s jaw dropped in a way that had become familiar to Julia in the last month. “What? Both of them?”
Julia nodded. She didn’t tell people about their non-traditional relationship as a matter of course, but neither did she deny it when the subject came up. She was happy in her relationship and she wasn’t going to hide it, no matter the risks. She’d seen what that had done to Derek and Scott before she came on the scene and she wasn’t about to put either of them through it again.
She was pleased when Carrie, whom she’d come to think of as a friend in the months she’d been working here, gave her a sly smile. “Lucky girl,” she whispered.
With a laugh, Julia left to greet the two loves of her life. She agreed wholeheartedly. As far as she was concerned, she was the luckiest woman in the world.
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Also by Rebecca Raine: Lost in Amber (Finding Forever, Book 2)
True love should always come with a convenient expiry date.
Amber O’Hara loves her life as a single woman. She does what she wants, when she wants and never answers to anyone. And when sh
e wants someone to do? As far as Amber is concerned, that’s what friends are for.
After a childhood marred by casual neglect, Lincoln Zane craves a deeper connection—in life and relationships. He’s not about to settle for Amber’s offer of a friendship with benefits, but he will counter with an offer of his own. He’ll give her the freedom from commitment she desires, but in return he’ll demand she not shy away from the intensity of their passion for the short time they’ll be together. After all, love doesn’t have to last forever to be real.
In Lincoln’s proposal, Amber sees her chance to experience the depth of a ‘real’ relationship, without compromising her future. It’s a temptation too great to resist. But as the bond between them grows, they discover love doesn’t always play by the rules.
Now they’re lost in each other, will they ever find their way back to freedom?
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Also by Rebecca Raine: This Time Forever (Finding Forever, Book 3)
She wants him to want her—desperately—but without the inconvenience of wanting him back.
When Jake Caine walked out on Kelly Rawlins ten years ago, after taking her virginity and her faith in love, she put the whole affair behind her and went on with her life—or so she thought. Now Jake is back and he seems determined to turn Kelly’s carefully ordered life upside down all over again.
Recently single, after being dumped by a man she intended to marry, Kelly begins to see all sorts of interesting possibilities in Jake’s unexpected return. Perhaps he is exactly what she needs to regain her sense of feminine power. She makes the bold decision to seduce him, and she plans to make him beg.
Jake Caine wants a second chance at love. Convinced Kelly is the perfect woman for him, he is thrilled when she reignites their passionate affair, until she makes it clear their relationship ends at the bedroom door. Committed to showing Kelly he wants more from her than sex, he begins to rebuff her advances. But when Kelly responds by launching a no holds barred sensual ambush, will he be able to resist her? Will he break before he can convince her that, this time, he wants to love her forever?
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Excerpt from Lost in Amber (Finding Forever, Book 2)
Chapter 1
Amber O’Hara stood on the footpath with only an umbrella to protect her from the rain and wondered if keeping her job was motivation enough to ruin her favourite pair of heels. Four metres of mud lay between her and the front porch of the almost complete house. Inside the house, her boss waited for her to deliver important documentation that required his immediate approval and signature. If she didn’t have the documents in the post by six o’clock, heads would roll. Her head, specifically.
Granted, with her current income she could easily afford to buy half a dozen pairs of shoes if she wished. But finding another pair of six-inch heels this comfortable would be like searching for the Holy Grail. Divine intervention would be required.
“Can I help you?”
The masculine drawl came from somewhere to her left and Amber turned her gaze from the inconveniently placed mud to see a pair of dirty work boots beside her. As she tilted her umbrella back, a pair of muscular legs came into view, followed by a body that knew exactly how to fill out a set of gardening clothes and did so admirably. Then her slow perusal reached his head and her admiration for his fine form choked up and died.
It wasn’t the liberal splattering of mud all over him that turned her off. She could appreciate the dishevelment that came from a hard day of manual labour. Nor was he unpleasant to look at. In fact, she would have considered him quite good-looking in a rough, uncompromising sort of way—if he wasn’t smirking at her.
Amber had no patience for men who smirked at women.
“I’m looking for Scott Mason,” she said. The rain had reduced to little more than a drizzle, so she closed her small umbrella with a snap.
The muddy gardener gestured to the house. “He’s inside somewhere.”
“Yes. That’s what I thought.” She eyed the mud again before asking, “Is there another way in?”
The smirk grew wider and he crossed his arms over his overly enthusiastic pectoral muscles and favoured her with an amused shrug. “Not currently.”
Amber sighed. He was not being particularly helpful in her time of need. “Don’t you normally put down wooden boards or something? So you don’t traipse mud all over the client’s new house?”
“Sure,” he nodded. “But just about everyone is gone for the day and I had to spread the soil before the lawn shows up tomorrow. So I removed them.”
“The soil,” she repeated. “You mean this mudslide?”
“Yes. That’s what soil turns into when it gets wet.” He wasn’t actually laughing out loud at her, but she figured it was a close thing.
Amber scowled at his condescension. “Well, it’s a very level mudslide. I’ll be sure to let the head gardener know how industrious you’ve been.”
“Would you?” he replied with a blatantly false look of sincerity. “That would be great. I really want to impress the boss.”
She felt the corner of her top lip lifting in a clear show of distaste and yanked it back down. It would be unprofessional of her to get into an argument with this man and since she’d inherited this job from her best friend, Julia, less than six months ago she wanted to be as professional as possible. Julia had been unflinchingly professional in every way and so could she. “Of course,” she said with a wide not-so-convincing smile of her own. “Well, I’ll be heading inside now.”
Her weight shifted from one foot to the other as she considered the best form of attack. Maybe she should take her shoes off before crossing the mud. Except then she’d have muddy feet and wouldn’t be able to enter the house at all—or put her shoes back on.
“You’re going to ruin your shoes.” Another drawled comment from Captain Freaking Obvious.
“I’m aware of that,” she snapped. Why, oh why, had she offered to bring these papers to Scott after she left work? She’d thought it would be a quick matter of popping into a construction site so he could approve the changes his partner, Derek, had made and add his signature to the bottom. Then she could pop the envelope into the post box on her way home. It had all sounded so simple. Until she found herself confronted with a river of sludge. Damn it. She loved these shoes.
“Come on, princess.” The gardener stepped forward, grabbed her wet umbrella with one hand, and scooped her up into his arms before she had a chance to react.
Her feet flew up in the air and she squealed as she gripped onto him for dear life. “What the hell do you think you’re doing?”
He adjusted her in his arms before taking a few long strides over the mud. His step was sure and steady, despite carrying her squirming self in his arms. “I’m saving you the tears you’ll shed over the destruction of those torture devices you call shoes.”
“How dare you? Put me down!”
Coming to a stop, he leaned forward to peer over her body at the ground. The move shifted her balance in his arms and she squeaked in horror and gripped onto him tighter.
“Are you sure you want me to put you down?”
Amber peeked over her shoulder and saw the muck surrounding them. The front porch of the house was now a mere two metres away.
“Yes,” she said with as much dignity as she could muster. “I want you to put me down, right there.” She pointed at the safety of the porch with one manicured finger.
He started to laugh. The full, deep sound reverberated through her body until she could feel her own mouth twitching at the corners, despite her fear his continued mirth would cause him to lose his balance and drop her. She gripped onto his arms and felt the shift of heavy, corded muscles beneath the tanned skin. Yeah, okay, it was time to get out of his arms before she started to lose her head.
“You’ve had your fun. Can you please get on with the saving part now?”
A few long strides later, he stepped up onto the porch. One arm slid
out from behind her knees and her legs swung down toward the wet, but relatively clean, wood. She held onto his shoulders as her feet touched down and she regained her balance.
His hands shifted to her waist, steadying her, and for a moment, their gazes met. The late afternoon light fell across his face, showing his eyes to be a pale green. Compared to the rest of him, which suffered the ill effects of toiling with dirt in the heavy rain of an hour ago, his eyes were crystal clear.
Yes, he was more than a little good-looking under all the dirt. Rough. Roguish. But hot all the same.
Realising she was staring, not to mention the fact they had yet to let go of each other, she snatched her hands away from his shoulders and stepped back so his hands slid off her waist. She took a deep breath in an effort to recover her composure.
“Thank you for your assistance, Mr…?”
“Linc,” he said as he handed the umbrella back to her.
“Mr Linc,” she repeated. “Though next time you decide to put your hands on a woman be sure to ask permission first. Do you understand?”
There was that maddening smirk again. “Sure thing, princess,” he said, placing his hands on his hips.
She paused in the process of flattening out the envelope she’d crushed in her hand to look up at him. “I’m not a princess. I’m an accountant.”
“My mistake.” He licked his lips and laughed as his gaze travelled the length of her—twice. “You sure do look like a princess.”
Amber frowned as she checked her outfit. She was dressed in a tailored navy blue skirt suit, paired with a cream knitted top. Her jewellery included a trendy coral necklace with matching earrings. It was a clean, modern look, but nothing was going to stop her ensemble from screaming ‘office worker’ to anyone within a fifty metre radius. In no way, shape or form, would she ever be mistaken for a princess.
Tilting her head back, and now she was this close she realised how far back she had to tilt to do that, she narrowed her eyes at his amused countenance and pressed her lips into a thin line. “Good day, Mr Linc. Enjoy your dirt.”
Our Little Secret (Finding Forever Book 1) Page 15