“Thousands,” she corrected with a smile.
He froze. “Damn. Really?”
She grinned, even though her heart wasn’t really in it. It wasn’t Liam’s fault his brother was a jerk. “Really. The preorders are in the thousands. I’m going to need to mess up your hair.”
His green eyes widened. “Wait, what?”
She rolled her eyes. “You can’t seriously be worried about your hair.”
“I just didn’t realize I’d be manhandled,” he said, but then he ducked his head so she could reach him without standing on a bucket.
“Get the hell out of here,” said an unexpected voice from behind them, “and you won’t be.”
Ethan.
She was afraid to turn around, because if she’d only imagined him, she’d fall apart. As it was, she was barely holding it together. Her life had become a countdown to liftoff, because only then did she think she had a prayer of putting him behind her.
“Seriously,” Ethan said. “Beat it.”
Liam glared, though humor glinted in his eyes. “You want me to give up thousands of single women? Couldn’t you have come to your senses thirty minutes from now?”
Rue turned and drank in the sight of Ethan. Her heart spun and sputtered and dammit, he was not going to walk back into her life like this. Not after the way he’d walked out of it, but some questions just begged an answer. “You came to your senses?” To say she was skeptical was an understatement.
“If my brother thinks I’m going to stand by while you mess up his hair,” Ethan said, “then I think he’s the one who needs to come to his senses.”
“Caveman Ethan is back,” she murmured. But that didn’t mean he was welcome there.
“Caveman Ethan?” Liam burst into laughter.
Ethan glared. “Repeat that and die.”
Liam shot Rue a look. “This is what women want?”
“It’s what I want,” she murmured. And then she could have kicked herself a thousand times. Or Ethan once, assuming it was a solid hit.
“And on that note,” Liam said, “I’m outta here. And not a moment too soon, you asshole. If I’d ended up in that calendar, I would have never heard the end of it.”
“Hey, wait a minute,” Rue protested. “You can’t chase off my model.”
“I’m not,” Ethan said. “If the invitation still stands, I’m in.”
“You are?” She fumed, and she wanted him and she loved him, but dammit, she still wanted to kick him. “Because I’m pretty sure you told me you were just another one of my risks, and it was just too bad it hadn’t worked out for me.”
He eyed her clenched fists. “Do I need a cup for the rest of this conversation?”
“That would be one of your better ideas.”
He had the decency to wince. Then he took her hands with his and held on. “I need you to understand,” he said, “that I let you go because I was scared. I haven’t felt what I feel for you in so long, it terrified me. But not as much as the thought of not having you in my life terrified me, once that really started to sink in. I’m sorry it took me so long.”
She blinked back tears, but she wouldn’t give him the satisfaction. “If you’re going to do the calendar, I’m going to need you to take off your shirt.”
He opened his mouth, then closed it again. He dropped her hands and took a step back. “I could just call Liam…”
She shook her head, unsure if he was serious. She didn’t deny him. If he was going to be there, it wouldn’t be because she’d begged. “Lose the shirt. And the shoes and socks. I don’t know if we’ll use a full-body shot, but if we do, bare feet are sexy.”
“Noted,” he said wryly. But he shrugged out of his shirt, and her heart leapt.
Not that she’d let him off the hook and tell him that just yet.
“Are you sure I have to do this picture?” he asked.
She ignored the teasing tone. “No. You can leave.”
She turned away from him, but he grabbed her hand and brought it to his lips. “I don’t want to.” She looked at him for a moment, but he still hadn’t completely revealed what his intentions were, and she was too bruised to make it easy for him. She got back down to business, adjusting the lighting.
For the most part, he behaved himself as she tousled his hair and told him where to stand.
She left him then and scooped up a kitten. The effect was what she’d hoped for. The tousled hair was a nice offset to eyes hooded with unchecked desire, and he even had a hint of stubble on his jaw that made her crazy with need. He was raw. Feral. Aroused. Against the white backdrop, his green eyes were electric. What woman wouldn’t want him storming her bedroom? She handed him a tiny blue-eyed kitten and practically swooned.
It didn’t take long to get the perfect shot.
“I guess that’s it,” she said. “All done here.”
His face fell, and she realized her words could have been taken a couple different ways.
“But,” she added quickly. “I do have one question.”
“Anything.” His open sincerity made her believe it. Ethan had come back. Ethan had said he loved her.
“What made you change your mind?” she asked.
He tugged on his shirt, immediately drying most of the wet look she’d painstakingly accomplished. “About you or the calendar?”
“The calendar,” she said because she wasn’t sure she could handle the other part. What if seeing her again wasn’t what he thought it would be?
“Because you are life,” he said gently. “You live it. You embrace it. And considering I’ve never even posted a picture of myself to social media, let alone shared one with a rumored thousands of single women, I hope this proves to you that I’m ready to get out there. With you.” He brushed back a lock of her hair, his fingertips caressing her cheek. “I’m in, sweetheart. All the way in. All of it. Everything you’ve got to give. I’ve got a lot to figure out and probably have no business being here, but—”
She stood on her toes and silenced him with a kiss. She’d only wanted to shut him up, but he quickly took over. Instead of a frantic, needy pace, he wrecked her with a tender exploration. Sweet and quietly demanding, he kissed her until her knees gave out—holy cliché, batman—but he had her.
He had her.
“I want you,” he murmured against her lips. “I want you however you are and wherever you are. As long as you want me, too, there’s nowhere too far.”
“I won the internship,” she said, hoping it wouldn’t change anything. But if it would, they both needed to know.
“I knew you would,” he said. He sounded proud. Of her. “And after that you’re going to play with the sharks, and then the seals. And then a dozen more adventures, and a dozen more after that. I got that. I love that. All I ask is that you let me join you for a few days here and there. I want to be part of your world. I want to tell you I love you and not feel as if I’m holding you back.”
It was then she fell apart. Right into his arms, right where she belonged. A sobbing mess, but so wholly, completely at home. “Ethan, if you love me, nothing would hold me back.”
“Good.” He kissed away her tears. “Because I love you. Imperfectly, but with everything I have. And I want to go just about anywhere with you right now and prove it.”
“That’s an offer I absolutely cannot refuse.”
Once the equipment was put away and the animals had been cared for, she emailed the rest of the photos to the charity for the Von Adler graphic designers to do the layout.
Three days later, tangled in bed with Ethan and already running forty-five minutes late for check-in on the first leg of her trip to the Galapagos, she got the calendar proof.
Ethan was on the cover.
Epilogue
Tinago Falls, Philippines
Ten Months Later
After a twenty-three hour flight that included a four hour layover in Shanghai and an airport reunion in Manila that had him spinning her in circles and a bunch of comp
lete strangers clapping, Ethan had his girl. It wasn’t the first time since she’d left for the Galapagos—she’d come home to him between trips—but this one was different.
This time he’d gone to her.
After the epic flight and an array of questionable methods of transportation, he’d stood in the pouring rain at the top of the reported five-hundred slippery stone steps that led to Tinago Falls and had given his promise to follow her to the ends of the earth second and third thoughts. Especially after she’d failed to mention he’d be on the cover of her damned calendar. He’d yet to live that one down, and the worst part was the page hadn’t yet been turned to his month.
Maybe a twenty-three hour flight hadn’t been such a bad idea after all.
But still.
“Why are we doing this in the rain?”
“Could you just trust me?”
He kept his mouth shut, mainly because he felt the need to mutter prayers all the way down, and was so focused on not dying that he nearly ran into her a few minutes later. He lifted his gaze.
He was stunned.
Crystal clear turquoise waters filled an enormous natural pool while cascades of white water fell seemingly from steep walls of vegetation, creating a spectacular waterfall display that left his jaw unhinged.
“We’re the only ones here,” she said with a mischievous grin. “That could change because this place is a Mecca for tourists, but those steps are treacherous in the rain.”
“That, and it’s the ass crack of dawn.”
She mock-glared at him and showed him where to stow their backpacks. Then she dove in, slicing cleanly through the water at a near horizontal angle that didn’t have him too worried she’d break her neck.
He was coming around.
Hell, he was going in.
His entrance was a lot less dramatic than hers, but he was there.
“Come with me,” she said, eyes sparkling.
He swam after her, belatedly wondering what kind of water snakes they might have in the Philippines. But he didn’t wonder long. She led him to the base of the waterfall, and when they broke through to the other side, the fall revealed a small cave in a world that was theirs alone.
“Wow.”
“That’s it?” she asked playfully. “Wow?”
“I was just thinking about something,” he said, eyeballing the rock underbelly of their surroundings.
“What’s that?”
“A few months ago a certain beautiful woman wore a gown about the color of this water and told me she wanted to be fucked hard against a rock.” He punctuated with a soft kiss, but it didn’t last. With them, they never did. One little kiss turned into two, and the next thing they knew they were getting thrown out of a speakeasy in the West Village.
“That,” she said, “is a promise I think you can keep.” They climbed out of the water, but he stopped short of putting her up against the wall and making good on her fantasy. Rock wasn’t so much sexy as it was brutally hard. Instead, he shed his clothes and sat on them at the water’s edge, then tugged on her hand. He didn’t have to undress her. She knew what she wanted and she wasn’t shy about taking it.
He loved that about her.
She eased onto his erection, her body tight and hot and enveloping him with dizzying pleasure. Her breasts were perfect and perfectly positioned with her straddling him. He closed his mouth on one tight peak and, with his hands on her hips, guided her back and forth while he ground against her. When he felt her shudder, he kissed her, sweetly, wholly. Forever.
They slipped back into the water, slightly less naked that way, and he held her. Loved her.
“I talked to Amy’s parents,” he said. Rue had encouraged him to do so. It had taken a few months, but he owed them that much.
“And?”
“And they somehow ended up with a copy of that damned calendar.”
Rue laughed.
“They said I was their son, too, and they wanted me to be happy. And they’d love to meet you.”
“I’m happy for you, Ethan. I’m glad you heard that, and I’d be honored to meet them.”
“They saw the dedication in the calendar. Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Because I didn’t do it for you. I did it for her.”
He swallowed a knot of emotion. Rue had dedicated the calendar to Amy’s memory, as someone who did so much to help animals, and he hadn’t even noticed. But that was just the kind of person she was. She hadn’t done it for credit. She was selfless.
And naked.
Carefree.
His.
She leaned her head against his shoulder. He slipped his arms around her from behind, and together they watched the rain dance against the bluest water he’d ever seen.
“You know, you’re going to marry me one day,” she said.
“I know.”
Hell, he was counting on it.
And he wouldn’t have it any other way.
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Acknowledgments
I absolutely must thank all the usual suspects. Tracy, my editor, for her endless patience. Michelle, for not blocking my email. My husband, for pretty much everything. My family for understanding when to scatter, and my mom for bringing dinner when I swore I wasn’t feeding anyone until I met my deadline. My street team, because they rock.
And I’d also like to thank Carol.
I met Carol around the time I started writing, when I was too clueless to realize how very little I knew. She was the very first person who cared about my words and the first to fight for my characters. Even before I knew enough to fight for them, she did. For the longest time, she was the only one who knew I’d written a word of fiction, so she was the only support I had. And, of course, she was right in saying my family would love what I was doing, so freaking tell them already. These days, I have the biggest cheering section in the world, but I’ve never forgotten when it was just her. Our paths have meandered a little, as all in life are prone to do, but she’ll always be a part of what got me to where I am today.
And for that, Carol, I could never thank you enough.
About the Author
Sarah and her husband of what he calls “many long, long years” live on the mid-Atlantic coast with their six young children, all of whom are perfectly adorable when they’re asleep. She never dreamed of becoming an author, but as a homeschooling mom, she often jokes she writes fiction because if she wants anyone to listen to her, she has to make them up. (As it turns out, her characters aren’t much better than the kids.) When not buried under piles of laundry, she may be found adrift in the Atlantic (preferably on a boat) or seeking that ever-elusive perfect writing spot where not even the kids can find her.
She loves creating unforgettable stories while putting her characters through an unkind amount of torture—a hobby that has nothing to do with living with six children. (Really.) Though she adores sexy contemporary romance, Sarah writes in many genres including historical and ghostly supernatural romance and romantic suspense. Her ever-growing roster of releases may be found on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, iBooks, Google Books, and Entangled Publishing.
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