by Melissa Jane
Wrapping my arms around his neck, I pulled him in, feeling our galloping hearts beating in time.
“Thank you for coming to find me.”
“Losing you was never an option, Bella.”
I’d had it wrong from the very beginning.
I didn’t need Paris.
I was at home.
I was where I needed to be.
Together, with Leo by my side, I could paint the world beautiful.
CHAPTER: Leo POV
School of Lafayette
“Who the fuck are you?” A thick French accent sounded from behind. He sounded pissed, ready for a battle.
Unfortunately for him, I already knew who he was which meant I was a step ahead.
Turning, I met his hardened glare with one of my own. Carefully placing Josie’s paintings to the side, I squared my shoulders noticing the shocked expression of a young woman behind my target. I had no doubt that was Cassie.
“Monsieur Bordeaux?”
“Yes!” he spat looking put out by my simple question. My lips twitched, almost breaking a smile as I took in his eye patch. One eye was covered, the other completely bloodshot. Josie had done a good job and my heart swelled with pride.
“What do you want?” he barked.
“It looks like someone got you good,” I said, gesturing to his face.
A scowl took hold of his already twisted features. “Some little bitch crying foul.”
I swallowed. Hard.
“Mm…some little bitches never learn do they?”
Realisation was slowly dawning, my pointed comment sinking in. His one semi-functioning eye narrowed in question. “Whoever you are, those paintings belong to Lafayette. The artist owes us that much for wasting our time.”
Ignoring his warning tone, I placed two canvases under my arm and held the other in my left hand.
“She’s here, isn’t she?” His tone had changed. Now, he had the balls to taunt. “Sending you in to clean up her mess? Don’t worry,” he said, moving closer, his voice lowering. “The feisty ones are always better in—”
I cut him off before he could finish, my fist colliding sharply with his jaw. The girl behind him screamed, dropping her brush. The pussy in front of me cowered on the ground held one hand up in defense while the other nursed his injury.
“Just take the fucking paintings,” he said, his accent thickening when scared.
I moved to collect the small bags of paints I had gathered, my sudden movement causing Bordeaux to cowardly flinch.
“And Bordeaux. Every time you look in the mirror and see the shit that’s been done to your face, you will remember Josie Marks as being the little bitch who kicked your ass.”
Stepping over his pathetic and defeated body, I made my way down the hall and back to the woman I admired. Seeing her through the glass sliding doors, wearing a panicked face, I fell even more in love with her. My clumsy talented artist with the beautiful dancing legs.
She was perfection.
She coloured my world and breathed life into everything she touched.
She didn’t know it yet, but soon Josie would be Mrs. Santiago and this time, no matter what fate threw at us, I was never letting her go.
EPILOGUE
“Here…definitely this colour.”
I looked at her with skepticism. “Nicole, last time you bought me a lipstick you told me a month later it was hideous.”
“I promise I was sober when I got this one. I thought it was you as soon as I saw it.”
Admiring the colour, I had to agree with her. “You’re right. I love it. Thank you.” Leaning into the mirror, I applied the last of my makeup when I saw an adorable face round the corner.
“Aunt, Josie,” Mimi’s sweet voice sounded. “Could you please tie my ribbon?” She turned around to show me her loose ribbons dangling at her waist. Shuffling my way over in my big dress, I sank to my knees and pulled her into a backward cuddle.
“You look like a little angel,” I whispered next to her ear. And she did. In her little flower girls dress and ear length hair, she looked too gorgeous for words. Mimi’s soft, strawberry blonde hair had grown back fast after the last of her treatment. Her good health astounding everyone including the Doctors.
“You look like a princess,” she whispered back, and I felt my eyes prickle with tears when I recalled what she’d said to me over a year ago. She wanted to still be alive for, if or when, there was a wedding. And now here she was, healthier than ever. In remission, but going strong.
Tying the ribbon around her miniature body, I planted a kiss on top of her head.
“I have something for you,” she said, handing me a folded up piece of thick paper.
Taking it from her, I carefully unfolded it before my heart stopped. Looking from the picture to Mimi’s smiling face and back again, I knew this kid shared a gift of foresight. While I wasn’t pregnant, yet, it was certainly something on the cards, just like she had pictured Leo coming to get me and knowing that there would be a wedding.
“Soon, I will have a niece or nephew and a brother or sister to play with,” she cooed with excitement.
We both looked at Nicole, who at five months pregnant, was radiant with her tiny bump. Mimi ran over to her and climbed on her lap, the affection the two shared for each other was both mutual and heart-warming. Jase now had two women in his life to dote on, and he did it so well. Nicole was a new woman. It was like a fresh gust of wind had picked her up and placed her down in the exact spot she was meant to be in life.
A gentle knock sounded, breaking me away from my thoughts.
“Everyone’s ready,” the celebrant announced, poking her head around the door.
Unlike a lot of brides, I wasn’t nervous. I’d been looking forward to this day since Leo proposed, and now I desperately wanted to get out there and be by his side.
Nicole walked over, holding Mimi’s hand and my bouquet in the other.
“Are you ready?” she asked with a bright smile.
“More than ever.”
Leaning forward she kissed me on the cheek. “I’m so proud of you.”
“Ditto.”
Taking the flowers, I waited while my flower girl and bridesmaid left me to start the procession. Less than a minute later I followed them out. When I rounded the corner, I saw the man of my dreams standing on the balcony with the vibrant blue ocean behind him.
He saw me and our eyes locked.
A smile stretched across his handsome face and I fell in love all over again.
After spending sixty long days apart, we would wed exactly three hundred and sixty-five days after he came to find me.
What I didn’t know as I stood in front of Leo taking my vows and resisting the urge to kiss him until we were told, was that at night when we privately celebrated our union, Mimi would prove to be right yet again.
As fate would have it, the two of us were a mere nine months and three days away from becoming the three of us.
Her name? Isabella Santiago.
Numbers.
They can be as cruel as they are kind.
As bitter as they are sweet.
For now, I was enjoying just how sweet they really could be.
THE END
Other titles by Melissa Jane
The Bittersweet Series:
Little Doll (Book 1) http://amzn.to/1P0MKmL
Crimson Desert (Book 2) http://amzn.to/1P0MBQ7
Laughing Eyes (Book 3) http://amzn.to/1UWbldY
Sofia (Book 4) http://amzn.to/1UWbldY
Acknowledgements
I truly do love my book family and that extends to everyone I have met on this journey from my home country of Australia to my US travels.
Firstly, thank you to the readers who have jumped genres. I severely missed my “dark” world writing Tequila Nights, but I also sincerely enjoyed the change.
A warm hug and kiss to the amazing bloggers who have shared and/or reviewed.
Thank you Jodie O’Brien for encouraging
me to take this journey to extend my genre base. Our friendship has blossomed into something so amazing over the last year and I love you dearly. You always have my back and that is a trait so hard to find.
T L Smith. Girl, where would I be without you? No, seriously. Where? You crack me up, always have me covered and save my ass when I’m having a freak out. I love our dark minds and one day we will conquer the world!
Casey Lalkas. My sweet American buddy and beta reader who lives in a beautiful far away land that one day I will move to also. From the moment we met, we clicked and your support has been invaluable.
Kaylene Osborn for being the most gorgeous editor ever! Your patience with me always saves my butt and thank you for kicking me into line when I “rush” through endings.
Emma Fitzgerald for being another amazing woman who rushed in to save me from my own doubts. Love you, lady.
To my TEQUILA buddies I had the fortune of meeting in Melbourne, you ladies Nicole Hartney, Jill MacKenzie, Bozica Brzica and Nerissa Peterson are SERIOUSLY awesome.
Again to my readers. Thank you for following me, or for just joining me. I hope you enjoyed Tequila Nights.
And lastly, to memories. The good, the bad, the ugly and beautiful.
Antagonize Me
T.L. Smith
This book is a standalone.
I wanted what she had, she had what I wanted. With her long blonde hair and her legs that never ended, she had him, but I wanted him.
We can’t always have what we want, and sometimes that’s the way life is meant to be. Sometimes destiny places other people in our path, a path that should not be mixed. But also sometimes, just sometimes, the paths cross, causing an explosive reaction.
Tanner was my crush. A crush that I’ve had since I first laid eyes on him. But now he’s dating my friend… my beautiful, flawless and perfect friend.
Then out of nowhere, Kyrone bursts into my life, taking me over bit by bit. I don’t know how to feel about that. I don’t know what to do. He frustrates me. He annoys me. But most of all, he makes me smile.
They say dreams are a powerful thing, that our imagination is a powerful thing. And that sometimes all you have to do is dream big, or imagine big, to get what you want. To strive for what you want.
I dream big. My grandfather taught me to do so. The world is my oyster and yada yada. I never believed him, though maybe I should have. Maybe, just maybe, I should have dreamed and imagined bigger for myself. Maybe I could have taken a different path if my dreams were bigger if I imagined bigger.
Though sometimes we have no choice to, sometimes life takes us in the direction it thinks we should have been in. The life that is our path.
I don’t believe my life took the right path, some of it was great and some of it was hard.
I always tried to dream a little, maybe that was my downfall. I dreamed, but I didn’t dream big enough.
Shoot for the stars, he would say to me. Dream as big as the ocean, you can do anything you want, anything. Just imagine you can and your possibilities are endless.
So that’s what I am going to do, dream as big as the ocean, imagine like the sky above. No one can stop me.