by Louise Bay
She sank back down onto me and flicked her hips. Fuck, she could be wicked.
She watched me as she gathered her breasts in her hands, pushing them up and together. Jesus, the sight of her tight pink nipples, and the knowledge of how they felt in my mouth made my spine fizz. I had to get myself together, or she was going to make me come too soon. I clasped my hands across her back and flipped her over so I was over her, still inside her.
“You’re driving me crazy.”
“Because I love your cock so much?”
I groaned, pulling away from her. There was nothing better than knowing that your wife-to-be worshipped your cock.
“It loves you back, baby,” I said as I stabbed back inside her. She tightened in response.
“Yes,” she moaned.
“Tell me.”
I focused on her words, the so good, so deep, right there, as the booming of my orgasm echoed in the distance, getting louder and louder.
She pressed her fingers into my shoulders, her nails biting into the skin. How could she know exactly how my body worked? That I needed the sharp to spark the pleasure? I dipped my head and licked sloppily over her lips, desperate for a taste of her. Fuck. Her hips tilted up to meet mine as she whispered, “So deep, I need you, don’t be gentle.”
I pulled back and lifted her leg over my shoulder, going in deeper as if I were chasing something.
“Fuck, baby.”
She reached over her head, grabbing at the pillows as I watched her flat stomach ripple and her mouth form a perfect “O”.
There was nothing better than giving your wife-to-be an orgasm that showed across her whole body.
Her pussy undulated around my cock, tearing my climax from me.
She was my world.
One Week Later—Luke
“The District Line? I didn’t even know it was open at the weekend. We have to be at Sunday dinner by two. This isn’t just a ruse so you don’t have to tell Haven you’re pregnant and engaged, is it?” I squeezed her hand.
“I can’t wait to tell Haven. In fact, I want to tell everyone. I can’t believe I’ve kept it a secret for a week,” she said.
She’d told me we should be prepared for the cold, so as well as looking like we were wintering in Moscow, Ashleigh had insisted we bring an overnight bag full of blankets. My girl was losing it.
“Isn’t the cold bad for the baby?”
“How can I be cold when I have you to keep me warm?”
I shook my head and pulled on the sides of her woolen hat, bringing it down over her eyes.
As the tube came to the next stop, she squeezed my arm and stood. I followed her, picking up our overnight bag. I felt a complete tool. Kew Gardens? This was where she wanted to go?
She insisted on paying our entrance fee and seemed to know where she was going. Hand in hand, we passed the palm house and headed toward some trees. The open, grassy spaces were almost deserted, everyone else sensible enough to stay home on a day like today. But despite the cold, the sun was shining, and the sky was a beautiful, bright blue. After what seemed like forever, she stopped abruptly under a leafless tree and reached for the bag, getting out all the blankets and laying two on the ground before sitting and beckoning me to do the same. I huddled down behind her, pulling her close to me as she pulled the remaining blanket around us. She was bat-shit crazy. What I wouldn’t do to make this woman happy.
I rested against the trunk of the tree we were under, and Ashleigh turned her head to look at me. The cold had made her cheeks pink. She looked so young, so fresh.
“Luke, I fell in love with you one summer under a magnolia tree, and I’ve been in love with you ever since. But despite my heart having been yours for so long, I’ve given you reason to doubt me. I’ve pushed you away and not trusted you, not thought it was possible that what you felt for me could be anything close to what I feel for you. Well, I wanted to bring you back to where it all began for me. And say, winter or summer, rain or shine, whether the magnolia trees are in bloom or not, I will love you for the rest of my life. Will you marry me?”
My heart was pounding, and I raised my head to study the branches of the tree we were sitting under.
This was why she’d brought me here?
To propose to me under a magnolia tree?
My throat was tight with a thousand things I wanted to say to her.
She pulled out a green velvet pouch from under the blanket and opened the drawstrings that held it together. She dipped inside and brought out a small circle of wood. “It’s magnolia.” Her eyes darted to mine, checking for a reaction. “Do you like it?”
“I love it.” It was perfect, a symbol of our past that would be with us into our future.
“I measured your finger with cotton while you were asleep. It should fit, but I understand if you don’t want to wear it.” She was babbling, and it was adorable.
“Of course I want to wear it. And of course I will marry you. I love you so much.”
She pushed the ring onto my left ring finger and clasped her hand over mine, her sparkling sapphire nestling against the sturdy wood of the magnolia.
“So my proposal wasn’t good enough?” I asked, chuckling.
She laughed. “I just thought you deserved to see how much you mean to me. To know that I realize we’re forever.”
“You’re going to be the most incredible wife and mother.” I was so proud of her in that moment, so proud of who she was and the mother I knew she would become.
“You’re going to be the most amazing husband and father.”
I pulled her closer and buried my head in her neck, breathing in her familiar smell of summer. “This is the perfect engagement story to tell our kids and grandkids.”
“You think the story where you pulled out a ring while I stank of vomit isn’t romantic enough?” She giggled. “For me it was when we finally made sense. I wouldn’t trade that moment for anything.”
“I wouldn’t trade any moment I have with you.” Every second was special when I spent it with Ashleigh.
A Few Months Later—Ashleigh
My husband cooing over our daughter had to be one of the sexiest things I’d ever seen. He was just so gigantic next to her delicate newness.
“Welcome home, Maggie,” he whispered as he stepped over the threshold of our new house, clutching her like the precious jewel she was. Even at twenty-three hours old, she had Luke’s eyes and golden skin. She was perfect. She’d been as desperate to meet us as we her, and the labor had only lasted two hours. A girl after my own heart, she’d arrived just after six, and just in time for cocktails. The hospital had told us we could go home that evening, but Luke, ever protective, had insisted we all stay the night. Luke and I’d spent the entire time holding hands, just staring at her.
A few months earlier, we’d found a house, a Victorian villa with a garden. When we’d moved in, Haven and Jake put an offer in on a place two streets down. Their home was at least nine times the size of ours, but I couldn’t wait to have them round the corner. Ours was a fixer-upper, but when it was done, there would be room for more babies and a garden where they could play. Luke insisted that he wanted at least seven more kids. I’d told him that he would have to pray for a medical miracle that made men carrying children possible. Though now that Maggie had arrived, he could probably convince me that I should be pregnant the rest of my life.
“She smells like you,” he said, taking a seat in our living room, his eyes not leaving her for a second. I stood next to them, leaning into him, gazing at my daughter as I threaded my fingers through his hair. How had I gotten this lucky?
I bent down to take in her scent. “She smells of the flower she was named after. How is that possible?”
“She’s a miracle.”
“We have to try not to break her. She’s nonrefundable,” I said.
“We got this, Ashleigh.”
I nodded. “We really do.”
There was some scrabbling at the front door, and then I hear
d voices. Luke looked up at me, and we grinned. The rest of the family had arrived.
I turned around and found myself enveloped in a Beth-and-Haven hug, which was the best kind.
“A two hour labor? Are you shitting me?” Haven asked.
“Giving birth is her superpower,” Luke said proudly.
“And you look so good,” Beth added. I felt fantastic, elated—as if I were high on a new kind of drug named baby.
Jake carried a sleeping baby Sophia over to the sofa and set her down next to Luke and Maggie as we all gathered around them.
“She’s gorgeous,” Haven said, mesmerized by Maggie.
“She really is,” I replied. “Maggie, meet your future partner in crime, Sophia. You two are going to break some hearts.”
Haven and Beth laughed.
“I really don’t need to hear about my daughter and boys the day she’s home from the hospital. Are you trying to give me a heart attack?” Luke asked.
“Don’t worry, we have a few years to formulate a plan,” I replied.
Haven and I exchanged a look. No plan would ever work. We knew how naughty teenage girls could be.
“Can I hold her?” Beth asked me.
“If you can pry her away from her father, then of course.”
Luke shot me a glance. He didn’t want to lose a second with his daughter, but he reluctantly handed our tiny bundle to Beth.
“You next then, Beth,” I said.
Beth smiled. “I don’t think so.”
“They all say that,” Jake said. “Just before they meet the perfect guy. And he better be perfect.” He slung his arm around his sister’s shoulder. “But in the meantime, you should have some fun.”
“Yeah, surely there’s a tall, dark stranger waiting for you on one of your trips to Chicago.”
“Yes, mindless sex with a stranger. That’s what you need.” Haven sounded excited, and I couldn’t help but giggle at Jake’s face as he watched his wife consider the idea.
Beth rolled her eyes. “Let’s just concentrate on baby central over here, shall we? Just because you’re all domesticated doesn’t mean that’s my path.”
“It’s just a matter of time.” I grinned at her.
I wrapped my arms around Luke’s waist. “Can you believe this?” He bent down and dropped a soft kiss on my lips.
“We brought food and beer,” Haven said. I didn’t want to let my baby out of my sight, so I stood as Haven scurried round, finding plates, glasses and cutlery.
“We’ve set it all out in the garden,” she said a few minutes later.
“Please, may I have my daughter?” I asked Beth. I loved her feeling everyone else’s love, but I needed a Maggie top-up, just so I could feel her pressing against my heart, to let her know I was still here, as I always would be.
Beth grinned and handed Maggie to me, and she led the way into the garden.
“I hope you don’t mind all these noisy people,” I whispered to Maggie. “You’ll get used to their strange ways soon enough.”
“Is she talking back?” Luke asked as he came up behind us in the doorway.
I turned to face him. “She is. She told me she’s pleased to have such a handsome, kind and generous daddy.”
“She said that to me too,” Luke said.
I giggled.
Luke’s face broke into a grin, and then his smile fell, his brows knitting together. “God, you’re so beautiful.” He sounded so serious, my heart skipped at his words. He pulled us into his arms as we watched the rest of them gather around the table.
The air was warm, still full of summer. “Let’s show her the tree,” Luke suggested.
Our guests made themselves comfortable, content to let the three of us wander about our little oasis. “Thank God I deferred business school. I would have failed all my exams because I was so totally obsessed with our daughter and our life together. But I still want to do it—go back to school. Does that make me a bad mother?”
Luke chuckled as we crossed the lawn. “Of course not. Maggie told me you’re the best mother she could have ever wished for. I feel sort of torn. I can’t imagine being away from her for a second, but at the same time, I have a near-Neanderthal desire to go out and make a ton of money and lavish it on you both. If I hadn’t made partner before she arrived, I think I’d be going crazy right now.”
We stopped in front of our tree. “But you did. We have everything we need right here.”
When we moved, we’d brought the small magnolia tree that I’d bought Luke as a housewarming present and planted it at the end of the garden. It had flourished in the months since and its flowers this summer had been so big they were in danger of bowing the branches supporting them.
“I can’t believe it’s still got some petals. It’s as if it’s been waiting for her. Look, Magnolia, it’s almost as pretty as you.” I handed her to Luke. I could tell he was just itching to hold her again. She was going to be horribly spoiled, with both parents fighting for her attention as we were.
Luke slid his free arm around my waist. “It’s late blooming, which is kinda perfect,” he said.
I looked up at my husband. “The wait makes the flowers all the more beautiful when they arrive.”
To read Jake and Haven’s story, check out Parisian Nights.
To read Beth’s story, check out Indigo Nights.
I Can’t Make You Love Me – Bonnie Raitt
If You Ever Want To Be In Love – James Bay
Landslide – Dixie Chicks
Say You Love Me – Jessie Ware
To Make Her Love Me – Rascal Flatts
If I Knew Then – Lady Antebellum
You Are Everything – Diana Ross
Let’s Wait Awhile – Janet Jackson
Here I Am – Leona Lewis
Knocks Me Off My Feet – Stevie Wonder
Where My Heart Belongs – Gloriana
Come Rain Or Come Shine – Ray Charles
I’m so thankful to you for reading about Luke and Ashleigh’s story. It’s difficult to explain what a gorgeous lift to my day it is when I get a message from someone telling me how they enjoyed one of my books. Every single interaction on social media and my website means the world to me.
I still have to pinch myself every now and then that people are actually buying and reading my books. It’s a lesson to us all that some of our best dreams are the ones we don’t plan. I heard Condoleezza Rice say how important it is in life to leave room for serendipity. I’ve never been good at doing that but dear readers, I’m learning and you’ve all proved to me that it’s worth it –thank you.
To all the bloggers, supporters, champions and cheerleaders that I’m lucky to have in my world – thank you. I love the way you’re all on a crusade of positivity. We need more of it in the world.
In a sense it feels wrong to single people out to thank because the smallest like, share, retweet means so much, but I can’t leave the stage without just a few others standing to take a bow.
Elizabeth—I really don’t have the words to thank you. You’ve taught me how to write (and induced various meltdowns about my writing) and I will be forever grateful. Thank you for being brutal. Here’s to being dangerous.
Karen Booth, I just love you more the more I know you. You are so kind and generous and lovely and I’m lucky to have found you.
Jessica Hawkins, you are a rock star and a dear friend. Thank you for all your support and for lending me the wonderful Elizabeth.
Lauren Blakely—thank you for all your generosity and support. I love your spirit.
Jules Rapley Collins and Megan Fields. What can I say? You pair are the girls that keep my spirits lifted and make me laugh with your outrageous confessions. Thank you for letting me share your worlds. Thank you for ALL your support and encouragement.
Thanks to Jacquie Jax Denison, Lucy May, Lauren Hutton, Kingston Westmoreland, Lauren Luman, Mimi Perez Sanchez, Ashton Williams Shone, Tina Haynes Marshall, Susan Ann Whitaker, Sally-Ann Cole and Vicky Mar
sh. You are so good to me!
Twirly, thank you brain twin for inspiring the line “I’ve lost my funny.” I hope I find it again at some point. PS Juno’s “the business” because she’s her mother’s daughter.
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THE NIGHTS SERIES
(each book is stand alone, focusing on a different couple)
Parisian Nights
Promised Nights
Indigo Nights
OTHER BOOKS
The Empire State Series
Hopeful
Faithful
The moment I laid eyes on the new photographer at work, I had his number. Cocky, arrogant and super wealthy-women were eating out of his hand as soon as his tight ass crossed the threshold of our office.
When we were forced to go to Paris together for an assignment, I wasn't interested in his seductive smile, his sexy accent or his dirty laugh. I wasn't falling for his charms.
Until I did.
Until Paris.
Until he was kissing me and I was wondering how it happened. Until he was dragging his lips across my skin and I was hoping for more. Paris does funny things to a girl and he might have gotten me naked.
But Paris couldn't last forever.
The only thing better than cake is cake with a side of orgasms.
Dylan James has no expectations when it comes to relationships. He uses women for sex and they use him for his money and power. It’s quid pro quo and he's good with that. It works.
Beth Harrison has been burned. She's tired of the lies and the game playing that men bring and has buried herself in her passion—baking which keeps her out of the reach of heartbreak. As she begins her career as a TV baker, a new world opens up to her.