“Not for you though. I would love to see you in a wet shirt. Preferably one of mine.”
She peered up at him. “I think it’s great you’re getting exercise that has nothing to do with sharks.”
His little worrier. “Actually, I’d hurt myself last week and the doctor recommended I try walking.”
Concern lit her eyes and she sat up, the sheets falling to her waist. “Why didn’t you call me? I would have driven here. I would have taken you to the hospital.” She wrapped her arms around him. “I’m so sorry you got hurt.”
“It was my own fault. I was training to go back to my old job.”
“Your old job?”
“As a breacher.”
Her jaw dropped. “You’re joking.”
“No, my captain called me and said the Navy wanted me back. They needed another breacher for a mission to report for duty on the 18th.”
“And you said yes?”
“Yeah.”
Torn between wanting to kiss his handsome face for being okay and slapping it for hurting himself only to go back to the job that had almost broken him, Skylar took a deep breath.
Then another.
“You’ll hyperventilate if you don’t stop.”
“If I stop, I’m liable to pummel you.”
He picked up her hand and made a fist with it. “You’d only hurt yourself.”
“Why would you do this? You have nothing to prove.”
“I know.”
“If you rejoin, will you have to go on lots of missions and move all over the place?”
He nodded and kissed her knuckles. “Would that be so bad?”
Close to breaking down, she bit her lip hard. “I’d rather you swam with the stupid sharks.”
“You wouldn’t want to move around…with me?”
“I’m tired of moving, Mason. I want to—” She froze. “Are you asking me to go with you?”
“I’m saying that I couldn’t move anywhere without you by my side.”
This time, she did burst into tears and he caught her up in a hug. “I don’t want to move. God, I don’t want to, but I’ve been miserable without you.”
He rubbed her back as she cried all over his.
“I know, sweetness. I missed you too,” he said, his deep voice all rumbly.
“And I love you so much that I don’t know how I’ll be able to take you being gone on dangerous missions. My heart couldn’t take it. I wouldn’t be able to write songs, or serenade you in the evening.”
His hand stopped moving, but she pressed on. If she could change his mind and convince him not to go, then she would.
“Please say no. Please. I’ll learn how to dive with the sharks if you say no.”
“I’ve already said no.”
“What?” Wiping her eyes, she sat back a little and looked at him.
He looked serious. “I said no. I had to.”
“Because of me?”
His jaw worked. “In the end, yes, because of you.”
“In the end?”
“Sometimes I have to be hit over the head to see what’s best for me, and you, Skylar Jernigan, are it.”
Bewildered, she stared at him. “You’re not joining the Navy again?”
“No. My SEAL days are over. You are my future.” He hooked a finger under her chin and tipped it. “I love you, Skylar, and until you just admitted you loved me, I was afraid that, well, you’d never be able to love a man like me.”
“Don’t say that. I’ve loved you for a while now, even if I just admitted it to both of us. Thing is, both of us deserve each other’s love.”
“In the military, we have a saying—one is none and two is one. We’re one, and I want you to marry me.”
“You want to marry me?”
“Well, you see, I met this woman and I couldn’t resist the need to spend the rest of my life with her.”
With a smile, Skylar pressed Mason into the bed. “Told you I was irresistible.”
“That you did, but I think you need to show me,” he said with a wink.
Laughing, she kissed him with all the love she had inside.
“Stop laughing.”
“Little Big Mason can take it.”
“Still not funny.”
She sighed. “I love you.”
“Damn right you do.” He pulled her down to him again.
Epilogue
‡
Ten years later
Sunset was Mason’s favorite time of day. It meant that Skylar and the kids waited for him at the pier. It meant supper waited as well, though he still cooked the main course.
His boys loved it when their daddy cooked. So did their momma, which meant he was going to get his own kind of loving from her. All in all, it was a win-win for everyone.
Bomber the Second raced around the boat, his tail wagging happily. Unlike Bomber the original, this one wasn’t as contained, but he was just as protective and loving.
As soon as he docked, Bomber raced up the pier and tackled the first kid he saw. A shout of laughter went up and as soon as his wife made sure that everyone was okay, she made her way to him.
“Hello, Sailor.”
“Permission to come ashore, ma’am?”
She leaned over the side of the boat and kissed him. “Permission granted.”
He swung a leg over the side as she stepped back. “How were the kids?”
“Which kids, ours or mine?” she asked, referring to her summer music class.
“Both.”
“The usual—driving their momma crazy.”
He slung an arm around her. “I’ve been thinking that we need a vacation.”
“I like how you think.”
Turning to her, he said, “My parents have agreed to watch the boys so I can spend ten days and nights mapping your body with my tongue.”
“Mason, you did not say that to them,” she said with mock outrage.
He grinned down at the love of his life. “No. I said I wanted to take my bride on another honeymoon.”
“How long are you going to keep calling me your bride and our anniversary trips honeymoons?”
“Until the day I stop breathing,” he said and kissed her.
*
Thank you for reading Mason and Skylar’s story. Please consider leaving a review! Don’t forget to sign up for Marquita’s newsletter to be entered in a monthly $50 GC drawing for newsletter subscribers here!
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Keep reading for a sneak peak at the next Lawson Brothers’ book, LOVE SO TEMPTING, coming August 2015! You can preorder now.
Sneak Peek at Love So Tempting
Chapter One
“You are the most infuriating woman I know.”
“And you’re the most conceited man I’ve ever met.”
Tristan stepped closer to Lemon, and that damn woman didn’t step back. He wanted her to, though. He needed her to because with her eyes flashing and the way her lips quivered, she was absolutely the sexiest creature he’d ever seen and he wanted to capture that passion.
Again.
He grew hard. “Shit,” he muttered.
“This is not happening again,” she said, hurriedly throwing on her clothes. She presented him with her back, a smooth back with creamy skin and a smattering of freckles. “Please zip me up.”
Deliberately, he dragged his knuckles against her skin as he zipped the dress closed. “Done.”
She whirled around, facing him with her chin tipped up. “Thank you,” she said stiffly, as if they hadn’t spent the entire night making love.
He touched her face, and she flinched. “Don’t,” he whispered, lowering his head to press a kiss to her cheek. “I would never hurt you.”
“Stop being nice to me,” she ordered. “You got what you wanted.”
That made him take a step back. “Are you accusing me of leading you on?”
“Didn’t you?” She grabbed her purse and
stepped into her shoes, then began to fix her hair into a haphazard bun.
“As I recall it, you were just as involved as I was. In fact, you were the one to rip my—”
Her eyes snapped shut. “Don’t say what I did. I wasn’t myself.”
“No wonder I liked you so much,” he said wryly.
Her eyes flew open. “There he is. The man I’m used to dealing with.” She exhaled, as if all was right in the world again. “I’d say don’t be a stranger, but I’d be lying.”
“Just as well. I hate to think of you as human being with feelings, princess.”
She stiffened. “I hate you.”
His heart kicked against his chest at her words. They sounded alien coming from her lips. Lips that had moaned his name and eased his mind. Her tart little mouth had tasted so sweet that he thought he’d died and gone to heaven each time she kissed him.
And when he’d finally sank inside of her. Bliss. Fucking bliss.
But now, he was in hell.
Striding to the front of his studio apartment, he yanked open the door. Lemon pursed her lips, walking past him and outside.
“I trust you’ll keep what happened between us just between us,” she said, sounding so damn snooty that he couldn’t help but shoot off at the mouth.
“Thanks for the memories—I mean, nightmares. Maybe one day, you’ll be as good as your sisters. Until then, keep trying. The Karma Sutra is excellent reference material.”
Lemon spun on her foot and pulled her hand back, then smacked him hard across the face. His cheek stung, pain radiating out from the center.
“Do not talk about my sisters like that,” she practically growled at him.
He grabbed her arm, pulling her to him. “I’m sorry, sweetheart. I was—”
“Please.”
Her tone was his undoing. He laid his forehead against hers. “Lemon.”
“Even if I thought you and I had a chance, we really don’t. We always go back to our default setting.”
She was right, but damn it. He didn’t want her to be right. He wanted her to be his.
“Tristan Lawson,” a woman purred. “Is this a bad time? And oh my God. Is that you, Lemon McCoy?”
Lemon’s hazel eyes widened. “You’re still with Whitney?” she whispered so softly that he had to strain to hear her.
“Not really.” They were on again, off again, and today, they were supposed to be on again. Only he’d forgotten because of Lemon. Son of a bitch, he looked like the world’s biggest asshole. Forget looked, he was the world’s biggest asshole.
“I swear. You look like you’ve been screwed seven ways from Sunday. Not something this town sees every day from the likes of little Miss Proper,” Whitney said with a faux sympathetic tsk. “Sure hope this doesn’t get around.”
Tristan stepped in front of Lemon. “There’s nothing to get around because nothing happened. She stopped by to give me the town’s proposal on the old library.” That wasn’t a lie. She had stopped by with the proposal. Only he asked her inside and they…not now. Concentrate. He had to protect Lemon from rumors. “And in case you don’t remember the last eighteen years, the two of us can’t stand each other.”
Lemon brushed past them both, murmuring an, “If you’ll excuse me, I have to go.”
Lemon kept going, not stopping even after she heard Tristan shouting her name, as tears poured down her cheeks. There was no way she’d go back to him, especially with Whitney Pritchard standing there. Whitney hated her. Why, Lemon could never figure out, but Whitney sure had her figured out. During their freshman year, Lemon had made the mistake of admitting her feelings for Tristan and Whitney went after him, ending up as his date at his junior prom.
And here she was again, right after Lemon had spent the night with the man.
“How could you be so foolish?” she whispered to herself as she unlocked her car and got inside. “You knew better.”
But that was her. Too sweet. Too soft. Too trusting. Wasn’t that what her sisters had fussed at her for being? Hadn’t she let Mark run the show and then leave her for another woman? That was more than her mother could bear. A man never left a McCoy woman, at least without her instigating it—a McCoy woman always left him.
It was a rule. A legacy…maybe even a super power.
But for her, it was hard. Her heart and mind didn’t work like that. She didn’t want to lead a bunch of men on. She wanted to be loved by one man.
Only the man she had wanted had never wanted her.
Until last night.
Pressing the tips of her fingers to her eyelids, she took a deep breath. She could get through this, and if worse came to worse, she would call Skylar and confess everything to her while they ate brownies and strawberry shortcake.
Thank God for Skylar because her sisters wouldn’t understand. They would laugh and tell her to find a new man to get under to get over the old one.
Well, maybe Cherry wouldn’t say that now since she was with Kyle, but the old Cherry would have.
Heart thumping in her chest, she wiped off her cheeks and headed home. “Nothing but a memory.” After a long shower, she would never think of Tristan or last night again.
*
Lemon dressed in her most conservative outfit. Her stomach churned in anticipation, and she fought to keep her breakfast down.
“You can do this,” she said with a smile that didn’t quite reach her eyes.
Glancing at the mirror, she finished applying makeup and fixing her hair. With a little nod, she tipped up her chin and made her way downstairs.
“Where are you off to, sugar?” her mother asked as she walked into the foyer, carrying a basket filled with freshly cut flowers.
Lemon fought down the blush that threatened to betray her. “I have a meeting in town at the library.” At least she wasn’t lying about her location.
“You poor dear. Do you have to deal with him?”
“In a matter of speaking. I won’t be back until later tonight, after Nailed & Polished closes.”
Her mother smiled at her. “I’m so proud of all you have accomplished. Have I told you that lately?” She tucked a stray curl behind Lemon’s ear. “You are my pride and joy.”
Lemon smiled wanly at the compliment. “Thank you.”
“I have a feeling that today will be some kind of wonderful for you.” Her mother’s brown eyes twinkled. “A little birdy told me that a doctor was in your future.”
Lemon almost choked on her own saliva. “Excuse me?”
“Oh, have I given too much away?” Her mother shook her head, a secret smile playing at her lips. “Be sure to be home tomorrow evening. We’re having dinner at the Club.”
“Yes ma’am.” That could only mean one thing. Her ex was back, and it was either because he had regretted breaking up with her, or her parents had convinced him to rethink his hasty decision to join an international doctor’s organization with the woman he’d left Lemon for.
In either case, she didn’t want to be reacquainted with Mark.
“I need to go.”
Giving her one last pat on the arm, her mother finally left her alone. Lemon power walked to the garage and got inside her car, driving straight to the library. Parking near the entrance, she got out and forced herself to walk slowly inside.
A lady never ran.
Surreptitiously glancing around, she found Tristan seated in a huge chair with a child on each knee. More children sat on the floor in front of him, their little face turned up in rapt attention as he read to them.
Her heart flipped in her chest at the sight. His sexy face was animated, his vibrant blue eyes startling in color as the morning light shone down on him.
Their gazes met, and Tristan signaled for one of the librarians to come take his place. The little ones groaned.
“I know, I know. But don’t worry, Ms. Zykerria is a great storyteller. I bet you won’t even miss me.”
Zykerria smiled, her dimples flashing as she pushed back her long hair. “
Where were we? Ah, yes. Leo needed help getting a thorn out of his paw.”
Tristan walked toward her, and her knees started to shake. Blood rushed from her face. She leaned against a table, and then sat down altogether when dark spots appeared in front of her.
“I thought we agreed to lunch,” he said in a terse whisper.
Lemon waited for the moment to pass before she looked up at him. “I couldn’t wait that long.”
“I live to serve you.”
“Stop it.”
“Stop serving you? That would be my upmost honor, Ms. McCoy.” He stepped closer to her, so close that she had to tip back her head. “Please tell this humble servant what brings you here?”
She licked her lips. His eyes followed the movement. “I…” She glanced around the library. No one was near them, and the children were too involved with the story to pay them any attention.
“Yes?” Tristan’s lips flattened after she remained silent. “Look. I don’t know what kind of game you’re playing, but I haven’t seen you in a month, Lemon. For you to text me…I thought something was wrong.”
Oh, there was something wrong all right. “I’ve been avoiding you.”
“I know.”
“I have to tell you something.”
“About the proposal? We already discussed this; I’m not using your dad’s money to renovate the old library.”
“Will you stop talking and let me speak,” she said through gritted teeth.
“By all means, princess.”
Lemon sat up straighter and looked him in the eye. “I’m pregnant.”
Lemon and Tristan’s story, coming August, 2015!
More Books By Marquita Valentine
The Lawson Brothers Series
Love So Hot
Love So True
Love So Irresistible
Love So Tempting – coming August
The Brides of Holland Springs Series (coming soon)
The Billionaire Bride
The Temporary Bride
The Forgotten Bride
The Christmas Bride
Seducing the Billionaire Series
Seducing the Billionaire’s Wife (out now)
Seducing the Billionaire’s Secretary
Love So Irresistible Page 13