“Oh. I’m sorry. They’re both sick?” It was the first she heard that.
His eyes closed. “It may be Alzheimer's. At least with my mom.”
“Are you worried they’ll—” Suddenly, it clicked for her. “They’re going to think I’m Claire.” He nodded. She took a step in his direction, but he cringed slightly. “You don’t want me to touch you?”
He looked up at the cabinet. “I don’t know.”
“Dom, I love you.” She gradually moved closer to him. “And I’ll go with whatever you want. If they think I’m her, and you’re OK with it, then fine.” She hoped he didn’t want that. It would be awkward at best.
He shook his head and looked down when her arms encircled him. “They haven’t met any of my girlfriends since the accident.” Then he groaned and mumbled, “I need to call Claire’s mom and make sure they got the check for Dad’s new wheelchair.” His mind was on overdrive, flitting from one disaster to the next.
“Dad?” She was thoroughly confused. “Her parents live with yours?”
He exhaled loudly, unsure how to explain. “No. Well, you see, I’ve always called them Mom and Dad. When Claire and Annabeth died, that didn’t change. I still visit them from time to time and support them somewhat. She was an only child. Her father fell off their roof when he was installing solar panels. He wouldn’t let me pay someone to do it. Now he’s partially paralyzed. He needs an electric wheelchair now, since he’s out of the rehab facility. I’d like you to meet them, too.”
Noelle’s mouth was open slightly. She hadn’t thought there would be two sets of parents to meet. “Um, so… they’re not going to be upset you moved on?”
“Nah.” He took a deep breath and turned around, feeling her angst. “Mom has been trying to get me to move on for years. She helped me a lot, but I just couldn’t.”
She laid her head on his chest and squeezed him. “Now you have, and I’m glad it’s with me.”
“Me too.” He kissed the top of her head. “I really should go check my parents before we head east.”
She smiled, glad he would include her, but also nervous they wouldn’t like her. “OK.” She didn’t know what else to say.
“My mom’s gonna love you.” Dominic’s arms tightened around her. “She’s gonna pinch your cheeks.”
“As long as it’s not my ass cheeks.” She couldn’t stifle the laugh.
He lightly slapped her ass. “Those are mine.” He paused before asking, “You hungry?”
“Yeah.” She lifted her head. “Some type of cereal is fine.”
Dominic rubbed his chin. “I don’t have cereal. Never liked it. I can make you eggs, pancakes, French toast.” He let her go and opened the refrigerator. “I have biscuits and bagels, too. Tommy stops by after partying sometimes, so I keep his favorites around.”
“He comes over without calling?” She glanced at the front door, hoping he didn’t make an appearance soon.
“I gave him a key for emergencies,” Dominic explained. “Sometimes he calls or texts, but not if he’s too drunk to drive home. Then I just wake up to him on the couch. It doesn’t happen often.” He pulled out a tube of biscuit mix. “How about I make eggs and these?”
Noelle nodded. “That’s good.” She moved away from the oven, unsure how to help in the small room. “Uh, anything I can do?”
“Take a shower and start getting ready?” He laid the ingredients needed on the counter space next to the stove. “I don’t need as much time as you.”
She smacked his arm. “I don’t take that long.”
“Hey.” He rubbed his arm. “I wasn’t trying to insult you. I meant girls have more to do. For a chick, you can get ready pretty fast.”
“Nice save.” She rolled her eyes. “I’ll be back.”
Coming Soon!
Sneak Peek: Courier
by Joy Bazure
Chapter One
Delivery Service
Tanya wasn’t sure why Marcus had given her one of Sabine’s runs. “Special” deliveries were only for the more engaging and beautiful couriers in his stable. Her generous form was a dead giveaway that she was just a basic courier for his two-sided business. Reminding herself that she needed this job, she pulled on her figurative big-girl panties and got on with her job. Though she still felt sick at how she had only put up a halfhearted fight about the assignment. She thought she should have decked him like her instincts demanded.
Remembering his remarks about her only being appropriate for certain deliveries made her hands tighten on the handlebars of her bicycle. When would he stop this cat and mouse game? She wondered again if she should have just said yes the first time he asked her to sleep with him. Tanya smirked at the thought of what his face would have looked like had she taken him up on his offer and let him see all of her. He would have run for the hills, she was sure. Amused, she recalled that Sabine would arrive to take care of the more “special” part of the delivery later that night. Thank goodness, she thought
Looking at the high-end hotel, she hoped she wouldn’t be kicked out for her work attire. Who wanted to see a girl her size in the form-fitting bike clothes her job as a messenger demanded? Anyone who ever got their loose clothes caught in a bike chain knew the embarrassments of being a size 14 in such revealing clothes, despite the added safety and speed they offered. Ducking her head to not see the stares of onlookers, she entered the imposing building after securely locking up her bike.
Tanya tried to pull her long jacket as low as she could, eager to hide her expansive, though shapely, trunk. She missed all the appreciative gazes coming her way as she walked in. Tanya was thankful that, though it was generous, she could call her bottom firm. You couldn’t ride a bike for a living and still have a drooping backend. She sighed; she felt lucky that she could don her two-sizes-too-large jacket when she was off her bike.
As she approached the receptionist, she was hopeful she wouldn’t be laughed out of the lobby when she asked to see the delivery’s recipient. It had happened before when the wrong hussy was behind the front desk.
Bracing for the usual reaction from the front desk barracuda, she squared her shoulders. Tanya’s logical side reminded her that she couldn’t afford another complaint against her. Tanya knew her inability to keep her mouth shut when dealing with petty people might get her fired from the one job she had managed to keep over the last few years. If she hadn't made the other messengers’ lives easier by also being an on-site bike mechanic, Tanya would have been booted from the lackluster job long ago.
“I have a delivery for Mr. Demetri Medved,” Tanya said, when the girl behind the counter finally decided to acknowledge her presence.
“I can take that for you. He is on Do Not Disturb right now,” the desk agent said, her insincerely sweet voice making it very clear that Tanya was not anyone worth her time.
Looking at the girl’s outstretched hand, Tanya took a perverse pleasure in being able to deny her the envelope. It was petty, but the undisguised disgust of the woman grated on her tired nerves. Today was just not the day for her to be dealing with someone who looked at her and automatically assumed they were superior. The tightening of the girl’s painted eyes let Tanya know she was seconds away from the situation turning ugly.
“Little thieves are hanged, but great ones escape,” Tanya said, responding before the woman could comment on Tanya’s discourtesy.
The widening of the ocean-blue eyes told Tanya she had been understood, and the now less-animated girl picked up the phone to whisper a few words into it. As she was speaking into the receiver, she pointed to the side to order Tanya to be less noticeable. Tanya agreed about making herself as invisible as she could. Her size and clothing already marked her as an outsider to the elites who milled about the lobby.
Picking the corner, which was blocked by pillars separating the reception area from the rest of the palatial lobby, she prepared herself for what could be a long wait. The sight of another strumpet coming over to see what the desk floozy wa
s having a hissy fit about made Tanya tense. The living dolls kept glancing her way. Tanya heard Sabine’s name and words like “huge,” “rude” and “cow.” It all warmed her cooling temper. Tuning them out, Tanya turned her thoughts inward. It was her only defense, unless she wanted to be out of another job for punching rude people.
She hated being on display. Tanya was sure most people were wondering why she dared to wear the tight-fitting clothes her job demanded. Rude people who saw her in the streets wondered out loud how someone her size could pretend to be healthy and active. They never understood that she biked more in a day then most health nuts did in a week.
“Sturdy” didn’t even describe her; she was made to last. Nothing she or dozens of doctors had tried would lessen her body’s natural ability to hoard calories as if they were precious and irreplaceable. Nothing would change the contours of her amplified body. She was comfortable with herself and had stopped trying to change herself into the svelte woman society apparently demanded.
*
“You are not what he is expecting. I would just leave the envelope with us, and run while you can,” the sneering girl offered, much more confident with a sidekick around. “I will be able to calm him down so that he won’t complain to your boss. Much.”
“Karen, if Demetri wanted you to deliver the package, he would have asked it of you. No?” They were all surprised by the soft menacing question, which came from a handsome man who seemingly appeared from nowhere.
“I was just trying to help the poor girl out. You know that he is not going to be happy with this one,” Karen said, placing just the right emphasis on the words to let Tanya know, in no uncertain terms, she was unwelcome in what starlet considered her turf.
Having dealt with years of pretty and petty people hiding behind insults and thinking she couldn’t see through them, Tanya ignored her. Following the buff man and guessing he could be nothing but security by his build, Tanya wondered what he thought of her as she let her eyes roam over him. It wasn’t that she thought someone who looked like a romance novel cover come to life would ever look at her except in pity or disgust. She wished that just once, she could wow a man, but she knew that was not the course of her life.
“Marcus is playing a dangerous game, sending you in Sabine’s place,” said the man in a deep voice. It pulsed through her like warm, silky chocolate. “My brother doesn’t like to be denied or played with.”
“Marcus said I was just here to deliver the envelope and wait for the reply. Sabine was held up, and he was more afraid of it looking like he wasn’t meeting his commitment than tainting you with my presence. Especially if Sabine followed her usual stuck-up routine and arrived even later than she promised. If that happened, the letter couldn’t get delivered by tomorrow as requested. I think we both already know that I just work the delivery side of Marcus’ business,” Tanya said, letting her slight annoyance at having to state the obvious peek through.
A booming laugh was the only response to her statement. Tanya was shocked as the man looked her over as though he was seeing a feast. Tanya couldn’t understand the change. Saying she wasn’t part of the escort side caused him to examine her as if she were. His early assumption that she was to be a sub-par replacement for Sabine, who was more plastic then human by now, in Tanya’s opinion, wasn’t as unsettling as his new examination of her was.
Looking down, she compared herself once again to the glorious Sabine and found herself so wanting that she just wanted to hand her delivery over to the smirking devil. Comforting herself, she thought,Who wants to nip and tuck themselves till you can’t even tell what’s real anymore?
Entering the elevator before the man, whose name was Damon, Tanya shuffled to the back, afraid of what her libido would do if she accidentally touched the walking Adonis. Well, more of a Vin Diesel with luxurious black hair tied in a drool-worthy ponytail, she corrected herself.
Always a sucker for a built body and long hair, Tanya’s libido made itself known in the most uncomfortable of ways. It was as if she were following one of her most-denied dreams, and it was sheer torture. She was happy to see that he stayed at the front of the elevator, giving her a glorious view of his tightly-encased glutes. The sight caused her mouth to water as if she were a starving woman seeing a ripe melon just out of her reach. Her ever-eager mind, supplying an idea of what taking a nice bite out of such a melon would feel and taste like, drummed up her heartbeat. The fantasy caused her blood to pound quickly to her skin, making it redden. Tanya quickly shifted her eyes up to stop ogling what she could never have.
While she had been lost in daydreams of nipping his ripe melon, he was wondering if her ample bosom, which was only hinted at by the large jacket, could be as ripe as it seemed. Her tied-back hair gave Damon a good view of her flawless features in the mirrored doors of the elevator. He hated that the bronze dimmed the shade of her green eyes to an almost dull hue, but he knew they were far more alluring—almost like the finest cut jade. Her hair was blessed with shades of copper, sable and every hue in between, making his hand itch to untangle her locks.
Her smooth skin was naturally sun-kissed, just enough to give an almost golden sheen to her classic soft features. She had high cheekbones, an adorable nose and a slightly jutted chin that hinted at stubbornness. Full lips framed a lush mouth. It all came together to make a face that would have made the great Ruben cry to paint. Damon could visualize her sitting, barely draped, in a wild setting; a calm siren in the ferociousness of nature, calling to the animal in men. He knew he and his brother could gladly answer what her eyes were silently begging for.
The knowing smile that caught her attention let Tanya know that her sly appreciation of Damon had been noticed. She braced herself for a deriding comment, only to be met with a wink, which stumped her. Wondering if the man in front of her was just that desperate, or an equal opportunity flirt, she almost wished she was brave enough to find out. Her own ministrations had lost any real satisfaction years ago.
As part of Marcus’ stable, even on the legal side, she could be excused from offering something outside her job description. At least until Marcus realized she was ruining his reputation for only having the finest available, and he cut her loose into the financial abyss she had barely kept out of these last few years.
She shook her head to clear away the unrelenting desire to give into what her body wanted. Tanya forced herself to again accept her lot in life. She grimaced and forced her libido to remember that she was only a lowly delivery girl. At least, that was her mantra during her lonely nights. She thought people like her were doomed to be alone forever; heck, there were even groups dedicated to it nowadays. So it wasn’t as if she were being singled out, at least.
Reality came crashing back as she looked down at her frumpy attire and the even frumpier body it hid. She thought that she was not the girl a man like that could actually want. The very air around him shouted he was used to the Sabines of this world, and Tanya fell far short of Sabine’s sculpted perfection.
Looking past the man who was playing such havoc with her view of life, she evaluated her body in hopes of finding something to give her hope. Starting at the top, her bosom was naturally impressive, but so was the rest of her—if “impressive” was the right word to use. She frowned at her reflection. It didn’t matter that her livelihood was dependent on her biking all over the city; she could never be the stick girl that men desired. With modern medicine failing to help her, she had turned to exercise, but that only sculpted her curves. It didn’t straighten them.
She was cursed to be of stocky build, and no amount of working out or surgery was going to change that. Standing 5’7” in her running shoes, she was never going to be the weak chick in the room. Embracing her perceived shortcomings, she had even taken up MMA fighting in her spare time. It was a must for a girl on her own to know how to defend herself in the city. The elevator stopped, and they got out. She reigned in her delirious imaginings.
Guys like the virile male Tanya
followed down the corridor didn’t want a girl such as her. She believed that only those who could leech off her would ever want her, and as she had very little to leech, she was doomed to be alone. Shoring up the disgust she felt at letting her imagination get away from reality, she missed that they had stopped in front of one of the few doors on this floor.
The sound of a throat clearing broke her out of her depressing thoughts, and at just the right moment, too. One more second of reality and she wasn’t sure she would be able to stop herself from screaming her torment at being around his masculine goodness and not being allowed to touch it. Looking into a face that would make women wet just with the deep blue eyes alone, Tanya finally made herself listen to what the delectable mouth was saying.
“I think Marcus may have been right in his choice after all,” was the only comment the man made before opening the door to the opulent suite. “Welcome to the Bears’ Den.”
Continued in:
Courier
Sneak Peek: Ladies of Market Street
by Emily Lear
Chapter One
At five o’clock in New York City, Veronica Baldwin sent out an invitation to ten prominent gentlemen asking them to attend her exclusive benefit. Out of those ten men only four were clever enough to decipher the code within the invitation, and arrive at 910 Fifth Avenue, apartment 52, at midnight. Apartment 52 was a vacant apartment overlooking the park. Veronica had dressed each room with plush pillows tossed about, resembling Cleopatra’s salad days. Wine and exotic foods sat atop every counter, windowsill and mantel.
As Veronica awaited her guests’ arrival, she took a seat at the abandoned grand piano which stood in the middle of the living room and began to play. She was wearing a silver gown that draped over her tall curves and left her back bare. Her brown hair was twisted up in curls, and though she felt jewelry was only clutter, she couldn’t resist her mom’s diamond earrings which made her piercing blue eyes shine like ice. From the hallway she could hear male voices and knew the gentlemen had arrived. The door opened and Veronica’s girls led them in. As they dispersed among the food and wine their laughter filled the stark apartment with warmth, and the party began.
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