Don't Break This Kiss (Top Shelf Romance Book 5)

by Jessica Hawkins

  He wasn’t surprised that she looked a little off-kilter. After all, he was very private with his work. He didn’t like having anyone see it before he revised it.

  And she had only seen his work after it was ready for publication.

  But this was different.

  Because Nash and Penny were for her.

  “You see, I’m at the point where Nash is deciding what he needs to do when it comes to Penny, his work, and his future.”

  “Okay,” she said softly, nodding. “Do I need to know what happens at the beginning of the book?”

  “Not right now. It’s just you and me, okay? Just this part.”

  And so he told her about Nash’s artifact, and how Nash and Penny had figured out their ending and how to save the world. And also that Nash had figured out his future. No matter how many times he had to save the world, there was only one path for him. The one with Penny. He told her that Nash had finally made his choice. And in the end, there was only one. There was only ever one.

  And then Liam looked up at her and spoke Nash’s words. He didn’t need to read them to know what they were. After all, he had just written them down, and they were engraved on his heart. “I never thought I’d fall. Never thought I needed to. But there are no nets, no safety, no staying tied and thinking I’m free. I love you. With everything that I have. Don’t push me away. Let me stay.” He paused, swallowing hard as Arden wiped tears from her cheeks. “Let me stay. Let me love you.”

  Chapter 22

  Arden swallowed hard, wiping tears from her cheeks. “Did Nash really say that? Because that’s wonderful for Penny.”

  Liam closed his laptop, set it on the counter next to him, and then stood up to stand next to Arden’s hospital bed. “Yes, it’s Nash. But it’s not just Nash, and you know that.”

  Her hands shook, and she reached out to cup his face. “I love you, too,” she whispered.

  He loved her. And he had told her in the best way possible. He had spun them both together in a cacophony of promise, written in his beautiful words. Unique, just like how they had met. Like how they knew each other far beyond just a meeting in a park or in a hospital.

  Nash loved Penny, and Liam loved her.

  “I love you,” she whispered.

  “I’m always going to want to hear that. Always,” he growled. “And I really wish you weren’t in a hospital bed, because I think there is something that I want to do to you right now to prove that.”

  She snorted and shook her head. “Unlike in certain TV shows, sex in a hospital is gross. Think of all the germs.”

  “Yeah, totally not going to do that here. But when we get home? When you feel better? Totally going to do you.”

  She snorted, laughing hard. “Now that’s romantic. Do me?”

  “Make sweet love to you while rose petals fall over us and candles are lit.”

  “For a writer, you don’t really have much imagination. What if the petals fall on the candlesticks and catch fire, and then set the curtains on fire, and then everything’s on fire, but we’re too busy making out, and Jasper just leaves us going…whatever.”

  Liam was full-out laughing at that point, and she was too. He kissed away her tears. But they were happy tears. Finally, happy tears.

  “You’re such a dork. But you’re my dork.”

  “You’re a dork. I really like that. So, this is us, then? Love and sparkles and all the good things?”

  “Sparkles?” he asked, taking a seat next to her as he wiped her face with his thumbs. He was getting good at that, and she only wanted happy tears from now on. Even though she knew sad ones would come, they always did, she wanted to be happy.

  And he made her happy.

  And the fact that she was his? That made all of this worth it.

  “I’m just saying, you have to know what you’re in for,” she said quickly, sobering just a bit. “I’m going to have good days and bad days. I just hope there’re more good days. But no matter what, I want all my days with you.”

  Liam blinked at her, kissed her hard, and then grinned. “I think I’m going to need to put that in a book.”

  She shoved at his chest, but he didn’t back away. “I’m going to need royalties for that then.”

  He laughed, pressed his lips to hers, and she melted into him.

  “I love you so much. And I told you, I’m not going away. So, no matter what, you’re going to have to deal with me in your life. All of us Montgomerys, actually.”

  She grinned and leaned into him. “You’re going to have to deal with the Bradys, too.”

  “Dear God, the force of the two families together? There’s nothing we can’t do.”

  They kissed again, and only stopped when the nurse came in and cleared his throat.

  No, they were not on a certain medical TV show, so Liam went back to his book, and she just watched him write and fell in love with him even more.

  Thankfully, they let her out of the hospital the next day as promised, and she was back to feeling normal—whatever normal was for her.

  There would be decisions to come, and there would be surgeries most likely. But they had time. She had time.

  And she wasn’t worried. Because no matter what the decisions were, she wasn’t going to make them alone.

  Yes, it was her body, her health, but she had someone to talk to. And not just family.

  She had Liam.

  She wrapped her arms around her dog. Jasper licked her face, and she grinned.

  Well, she had Liam and Jasper. She had her men, she had the idea of her future.

  She couldn’t wait to see what happened next, because she wasn’t alone.

  They weren’t going to walk away from her.

  She had been through enough in her life to know when things were true and steady. And they were. Liam and Jasper were her rocks.

  She didn’t know what would happen next, but she couldn’t wait to find out.

  Because she had fallen in love with Liam Montgomery. Through one smile, one cup of coffee, and one blue-faced dog, she had fallen in love.

  And love, as they said, could heal anything.

  Even when she’d thought she had lost her hope in the darkness.

  Epilogue

  It had taken a couple of months, but they were finally having a Montgomery dinner where Arden was involved. Between illnesses, hospital visits, people going out of town for work, going out of the country, and secret babies—something that he and Arden liked to talk about between them because laughing about something rather than crying about it was sort of how they made their lives work—they hadn’t actually been able to do the big dinner with Arden.

  Their lives were immensely busy, and most of them ended up having to travel long distances when they were done with their work at home.

  Liam himself had a book tour coming up, and he was trying to convince Arden to come with him.

  Yes, the world was finally going to see his face, even though they had already quietly put it up on his website and social media.

  He had a feeling that pretty boy modeling photos would show up at any moment, but he didn’t care.

  He just wanted Arden by his side when he traveled the country, talking about Nash’s new book.

  The one that came out next year where Nash and Penny finally professed their feelings for each other as they continued to save the world together? That was the book he was really excited about. But first, he wanted to go on tour with the woman who had saved his world.

  He would get her to agree. Eventually.

  Bristol had just gotten back from a trip to France where she had played for some dignitaries or celebrities or something. She hadn’t been really forthcoming about it since she had been kind of embarrassed, but they all had the video set up to watch her play later after dinner, just in case.

  Sometimes, she wasn’t in the mood and felt way too self-conscious, but it was fun to praise his baby sister.

  Aaron had come home from another showing of his work, but was
quiet as usual, probably contemplating his next piece of art.

  Ethan, of course, was always home, but he was the brilliant one, the sibling constantly in his mind, and didn’t travel much.

  He was there with the rest of them tonight.

  And he had brought his friend Lincoln.

  Lincoln was practically a Montgomery since he and Ethan were as thick as thieves.

  Liam was close to Lincoln, as well, but Ethan was the same age as Linc.

  Lincoln had been off for some showing or other since he was a famous painter, which just made Liam smile.

  So many artists in the family. And then there was Ethan, the brainiac. Liam loved it.

  He put his arm around Arden and looked around at his family. He couldn’t believe that they were here. All of them.

  Yes, there would always be that little bit of tension when he first walked into a room, but hopefully, that would go away eventually.

  Because he had chosen his loyalties. His family.

  After all, they had chosen him.

  He was a Montgomery, through and through.

  As Ethan and Lincoln laughed at something his mother said, Liam just shook his head.

  Their mother loved Lincoln like a son, and she was always trying to get him to marry Bristol—if Bristol didn’t marry Marcus.

  Not that Bristol wanted either of them.

  It was just that Francine Montgomery really wanted grandbabies. It seemed since the other Montgomerys had all started having children, his mom needed some, as well.

  Liam squeezed Arden’s shoulders, and she looked up at him. He didn’t say anything. They weren’t going to mention the fact that when and if they decided to have children in the future, they would go the adoption route.

  That really wasn’t anyone’s business, much like his birth father wasn’t anyone’s business.

  He had a feeling if he had his way, and if Arden moved forward with how they had been speaking lately, maybe one day soon there would be a baby or an older child for Francine to spoil like grandmothers do.

  One step at a time, though.

  Bristol was in the corner, arguing with Marcus about something, and Liam just rolled his eyes. The two of them weren’t laughing about some plan they were in on, they were arguing.

  How the two ended up best friends for so long was beyond him.

  But everyone was there, all of them parts of the whole with their own dramas, but always there for each other. Always family.

  Liam had almost forgotten that.

  And because he had, he knew he needed to remember the true meaning of what had brought them all together.

  “What are you over there overanalyzing,” Ethan said, glaring at Liam.

  Liam held up his free arm and shook his head. “You’re the analytical one.”

  “But you’re the one looking all weird in the corner and hugging Arden so close that you’re hogging her.”

  “She’s right, son,” Francine said. “I haven’t even been able to show Arden your baby pictures. And there’re so many. There’s one of him on an actual bearskin rug with his little tushy up in the air, and he’s all smiles.”

  “Dear God, not the baby pictures.”

  “Eh, the baby pictures are old school. Show the modeling photos. With his pouty lips.”

  Ethan threw back his head and laughed at Aaron’s words, then nodded.

  “Yes, pouty lips! Pouty lips!” Ethan started chanting, and the rest of them joined in.

  Liam pinched the bridge of his nose.

  “Please, do not pull out those photos.”

  “Oh, the ones online?” Arden asked. She shook her head, laughing. “I already saw those. I didn’t see the bearskin rug, though.”

  “I was an infant.”

  “Oh, I bet you were cute. Do you have other pouty lip photos? Maybe ones where he’s giving like that blue steel face?” she asked and moved away from Liam’s arm so she could follow his mother.

  “You are all traitors,” Liam ground out.

  “You’re the one who brought the new lamb to the slaughter,” Ethan said, grinning. “After all, none of us brought our significant others. We just brought friends. You’re the one who brought the girlfriend. The one you loooove.” He drawled out the word, and Liam rolled his eyes.

  “One day, you will find someone that you love, and you’ll bring them to dinner, and I will do everything within my power to embarrass you. You will rue the day.”

  “You know, no one uses that phrase enough these days,” Ethan said, and Lincoln just shook his head, taking a sip of his beer.

  “You really shouldn’t egg him on,” he whispered to Ethan. “You know, Liam was right with us with those pranks when we were kids. He’s downright dastardly.”

  “See? No one uses that word either,” Ethan said, laughing. “Plus, he can’t do anything to us. It’s not like any of us are in relationships.”

  Something flashed over Lincoln’s gaze, and Liam’s brows rose.

  Interesting.

  Very interesting.

  Well, it seemed the rest of his family had secrets, and now that Liam had the love of his life by his side, and he was pretty sure that he had no more skeletons in his closet, he was just going to have to figure out what was going on with the rest of his family.

  One Montgomery at a time.

  THE END

  Next in the Montgomery Ink: Boulder series?

  It’s Ethan’s turn.

  Stay turned for a bonus epilogue!

  For more information, go to www.CarrieAnnRyan.com

  Bonus Epilogue

  “Liam Montgomery, if you feed that dog anything from the counter, you will not be getting any tonight,” Arden said, and Liam froze in the middle of trying to hand over a piece of bacon to Jasper.

  “I wasn’t doing anything,” he said quickly and glared at his brother, Ethan, as he and Lincoln started laughing.

  “Oh, I know you were. That bacon needs to go on top of the maple donuts we’re making for the community center. And then we’re making lemon meringue cupcakes for the senior center. Plus, some gluten-free brownies. So, don’t tell me that you were going to feed that bacon to my dog. The dog that my brothers said was getting too big.”

  She glared at everyone in the room, and Liam just shook his head, holding out his arms.

  “I wasn’t doing anything of the sort,” Liam said and then cast a look down at Jasper, who was doing his best to look innocent. Of course, Jasper was a beautiful white Siberian Husky with big eyes and always looked innocent—even when he wasn’t.

  “Sure,” she said and hugged Liam around the waist as he wrapped his arms around her. He discreetly stuffed the bacon into his mouth over her head, avoiding Ethan’s and Lincoln’s knowing gazes.

  “And don’t you dare eat another piece of bacon,” she said. Then she pulled away and kissed his chin. “You’re going to have to go to the store and pick up more if you keep eating it.”

  Ethan cleared his throat. “Um, we bought another pack, knowing us and bacon. It’s a thing. You put bacon near us, we’re going to eat a whole slab,” his brother said, grinning.

  Lincoln had the grace to look ashamed, while the Montgomerys in the room just laughed.

  “Heathens. All of you. But because I have four big brothers, I already had one in the freezer. But we’re going to leave that for them. Somehow, they’re going to enter this house and smell that there was bacon and get annoyed that they didn’t get any.”

  “There’s a lot of bacon thieves in your life,” Liam said, kissing her hard on the mouth.

  “Since I can taste it on your lips, Liam Montgomery, I think the main culprit is the love of my life.”

  He grinned and then met his brother’s gaze again before puffing out his chest like a peacock.

  Love of his life? He liked that. As a man who’d never thought to find love because he was so busy with work and hadn’t really thought about moving on to marriage? It was kind of cool.

  Yeah, he and Arden h
ad had their bumps when it came to their relationship, but it had never been about them. It had always been about what was pulling them away from each other, not what was pushing them together.

  He needed to put that in a book.

  He narrowed his eyes, wiped his finger on his jeans, then pulled out his phone, sending himself a quick email with those thoughts.

  “Is he always like that?” Arden asked Ethan. “It’s like his brain goes off on an idea, and he has to email himself quickly.”

  “Ever since he was a kid. Even in school, he would write down some notes, even if they didn’t make sense. You were always going to be a writer, big brother,” Ethan said.

  Liam looked up from his phone after he’d hit send and nodded. “Well, I didn’t think I would, but it’s kind of cool.” His phone buzzed, and he looked down, expecting to see a new email from his agent or something, but then he cursed at himself. He discreetly slid his phone into his pocket, but Lincoln started laughing.

  “Let me guess, you emailed yourself, and then were like, ‘Oh, look, a new email, wonder who it’s from?’ and then realized it was from yourself.”

  Liam flipped him off. “Don’t tell me it hasn’t happened to any of you.”

  “All the time,” Arden and Ethan said at the same time and laughed, giving each other high-fives.

  Liam loved the fact that Arden fit in with his family so well.

  Arden was his family, and one day soon, he planned to get down on one knee and ask her to marry him. He would do it right that moment if he could, but he knew that she needed some time to get used to this part of their relationship before he moved it along. And he was just fine with that. Because he loved her, and Arden loved him and his family.

  Apparently, that bacon had been laced with something because he was going off the deep end.

  “Okay, let me show you how to make a brownie,” Arden said, wrapping an apron around her waist.

  Dear God, she looked sexy as fuck like that.

  “Why am I learning how to bake again?” Lincoln asked, and Ethan elbowed him in the gut.