by Unknown
“It’s my pleasure,” she said before turning to his brother. Going up on her toes, she pressed a kiss on Marcus’s cheek. “You’re scaring the kids with that scowl.”
Marcus put his hand on her chin and turned her face to his for a real kiss that said Mine loud and clear to any man in the room who might have been confused as to which Sullivan brother she was with.
Gabe made sure his grin stayed in place, even though something inside his chest was pinching tight. Over the past months, he’d gotten used to seeing Chase, and now Marcus, as part of a couple. Their mother was beside herself with joy over her sons’ relationships.
Jackie, the girl Gabe had been casually dating off and on for the past few months, was practically shaking with excitement at the thought of finally meeting Nicola. She’d been angling to be invited to Sunday lunch at his mother’s house to meet not just Nicola, but Smith, too. The thing was, Gabe just couldn’t see her around his family. She was too young, too eager. Sure, Nicola was young too, but there was a reason she and Marcus fit so well together. Nicola was far more mature than other twenty-five-year-old girls.
Especially Jackie, Gabe thought as she started toward them, stars in her eyes.
Gabe knew he’d strung her along too long. Quickly deciding that he’d break it off with her tonight, he wasn’t looking forward to her tears. She was a crier, which was partly why he hadn’t had the balls to make a clean break these past weeks.
“How the hell did you end up with her again?” Gabe asked Marcus a couple of hours later as they stood to the side and watched Nicola charm the pants off the tightly packed crowd who had paid big bucks to see her do a short acoustic set in the fire station’s parking lot. The money they’d bring in today with her help would go a long way to getting the new equipment that budget cuts were making hard to come by.
Rather than trying to take any credit for it, Marcus simply said, “I’m the luckiest bastard on the planet.” He nodded his head in Jackie’s direction, way up at the front of the group, clearly in awe of every little thing Nicola said or did. “What about her?”
Gabe shook his head. “Just a casual thing that’s run its course.”
Nicola had just finished her set when the station alarm rang and dispatch rang out over the station’s loudspeakers, alerting them to an apartment fire.
Gabe and the rest of the crew immediately moved to put on their turn-outs and headed out, their alarms blaring to clear the busy city traffic.
“Wow, that was intense and they’re not even at the fire yet,” Nicola said a few minutes later when she and Marcus were standing together in a corner of the station. “I don’t know how your mother deals with this so well. I feel like a basket case right now.”
“This is what Gabe does. He’ll be fine,” Marcus reassured her.
But fifteen minutes later, after they’d said their goodbyes to the volunteers who had set up the concert and were about to get into Marcus’s car to head back up to Napa Valley, another station alarm went off.
“All units responding to 1280 Conrad Street, be advised, upgrading to third alarm.”
Nicola looked at Marcus with huge eyes. “That’s the fire Gabe went to. It sounds like it’s gotten worse, not better.”
“My brother is a hell of a firefighter,” Marcus told her. “He’s not the kind of guy who’d ever do something dangerous or stupid.”
Only, as they stood together while the siren continued to blare and dispatch repeated the call, both of them knew there were plenty of other reasons why firefighters got hurt in the line of duty.
And all they could do was hold on to each other and hope that Gabe would be all right.
~ THE END ~
Book #3 in Bella Andre’s bestselling Sullivan series
~ CAN’T HELP FALLING IN LOVE (Gabe & Megan) ~
Coming December 2011!
And don’t miss Book #1 in the Sullivan series
~ THE LOOK OF LOVE (Chase & Chloe) ~
Out now!
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Win a chance to read an advance copy of CAN’T HELP FALLING IN LOVE (The Sullivans Book 3)!
Bella Andre is celebrating the launch of FROM THIS MOMENT ON with a special contest. Three winners will receive a free advance electronic copy of the sequel, CAN’T HELP FALLING IN LOVE (Gabe & Megan’s book). You can enter in two easy steps.
(1) Post a review for FROM THIS MOMENT ON at an online retail site between now and October 31, 2011. Each posted review is eligible for entry, including reviews at book review sites and romance blogs.
(2) Email [email protected] with your reviewer/pen name under which you wrote the review and the site(s) you posted your review.
The winners will be announced on November 1, 2011. An independent third party will validate each entry and randomly select the winners. No Purchase Necessary. Please see details and other terms at http://www.BellaAndre.com.
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More books by Bella Andre...
THE LOOK OF LOVE
Chase & Chloe – The Sullivans Book 1
Chloe Peterson is having a bad night. A really bad night. The large bruise on her cheek can attest to that. And when her car skids off the side of a wet country road straight into a ditch, she’s convinced even the gorgeous guy who rescues her in the middle of the rain storm must be too good to be true. Or is he?
As a successful photographer who frequently travels around the world, Chase Sullivan has his pick of beautiful women, and whenever he’s home in San Francisco, one of his seven siblings is usually up for causing a little fun trouble. Chase thinks his life is great just as it is—until the night he finds Chloe and her totaled car on the side of the road in Napa Valley. Not only has Chase never met anyone so lovely, both inside and out, but he quickly realizes Chloe has much bigger problems than her damaged car. Soon, Chase is willing to move mountains to love—and protect—her, but will Chloe let him?
Chloe vows never to make the mistake of trusting a man again. Only, with every loving look Chase gives her—and every sinfully sweet caress—as the attraction between them sparks and sizzles, she can’t help but wonder if she’s met the only exception. And although Chase didn’t realize his life was going to change forever in an instant, amazingly, he isn’t the least bit interested in fighting that change. Instead, he’s gearing up for a different fight altogether…for Chloe’s heart.
Enjoy the following excerpt for THE LOOK OF LOVE...
Chase almost missed the flickering light off on the right side of the two-lane country road. In the past thirty minutes, he hadn’t passed a single car, because on a night like this, most sane Californians—who didn’t know the first thing about driving safely in inclement weather—stayed home.
Knowing better than to slam on the brakes—he wouldn’t be able to help whomever was stranded on the side of the road if he ended up stuck in the muddy ditch right next to them—Chase slowed down enough to see that there was definitely a vehicle stuck in the ditch.
He turned his brights on to see better in the pouring rain and realized there was a person walking along the edge of the road about a hundred yards up ahead. Obviously hearing his car approach, she turned to face him and he could see her long wet hair whipping around her shoulders in his headlights.
Wondering why she wasn’t just sitting in her car, dry and warm, calling Triple A and waiting for them to come save her, he pulled over to the edge of his lane and got out to try and help her. She was shivering as she watched him approach.
“Are you hurt?”
She covered her cheek with one hand, but shook her head. “No."
He had to move closer to hear her over the sound of the water hitting the pavement in what were rapidly becoming hailstones. Even though he’d turned his headlights off, as his eyes quickly adjusted to the darkness, he was able to get a better look at her face.
Something inside of Chase’s chest clenched tight.
Despite the long, dark hair plastered to her head and chest, regardless of the fact that l
ooking like a drowned rat wasn’t too far off the descriptive mark, her beauty stunned him.
In an instant, his photographer’s eye cataloged her features. Her mouth was a little too big, her eyes a little too wide-set on her face. She wasn’t even close to model thin, but given the way her T-shirt and jeans stuck to her skin, he could see that she wore her lush curves well. In the dark he couldn’t judge the exact color of her hair, but it looked like silk, perfectly smooth and straight where it lay over her breasts.
It wasn’t until Chase heard her say, “My car is definitely hurt, though,” that he realized he had completely lost the thread of what he’d come out here to do.
Knowing he’d been drinking her in like he was dying of thirst, he worked to recover his balance. He could already see he’d been right about her car. It didn’t take a mechanic like his brother, Zach, who owned an auto shop—more like forty, but Chase had stopped counting years ago—to see that her shitty hatchback was borderline totaled. Even if the front bumper wasn’t half smashed to pieces by the white farm fence she’d slid into, her bald tires weren’t going to get any traction on the mud. Not tonight, anyway.
If her car had been in a less precarious situation, he probably would have sent her to hang out in her car while he took care of getting it unstuck. But one of her back tires was hanging precariously over the edge of the ditch.
He jerked his thumb over his shoulder. “Get in my car. We can wait there for a tow truck.” He was vaguely aware of his words coming out like an order, but the hail was starting to sting, damn it. Both of them needed to get out of the rain before they froze.
But the woman didn’t move. Instead, she gave him a look that said he was a complete and utter nut-job.
“I’m not getting into your car.”
Realizing just how frightening it must be for a lone woman to end up stuck and alone in the middle of a dark road, Chase took a step back from her. He had to speak loudly enough for her to hear him over the hail.
“I’m not going to attack you. I swear I won’t do anything to hurt you.”
She all but flinched at the word attack and Chase’s radar started buzzing. He’d never been a magnet for troubled women, wasn’t the kind of guy who thrived on fixing wounded birds. But living with two sisters for so many years meant he could always tell when something was up.
And something was definitely up with this woman, beyond the fact that her car was half-stuck in a muddy ditch.
Wanting to make her feel safe, he held his hands up. “I swear on my father’s grave, I’m not going to hurt you. It’s okay to get into my car.” When she didn’t immediately say no again, he pressed his advantage with, “I just want to help you.” And he did. More than it made sense to want to help a stranger. “Please,” he said. “Let me help you.”
She stared at him for a long moment, hail hammering between them, around them, onto them. Chase found himself holding his breath, waiting for her decision. It shouldn’t matter to him what she decided.
But, for some strange reason, it did.
* * *
Chloe Peterson had never felt so wet, so miserable…or so desperate. She’d been beating the speed limit for the past couple of hours, before the storm had kicked into overdrive. She’d slowed down considerably on the super-slick pavement, but her tires were old and bald, and before she knew it, her car was skidding off the road.
Straight into a muddy ditch.
It might have been easier—smarter, too—to sit in her car and wait out the storm. But she’d been too keyed up to stay still. She’d needed to keep moving, otherwise the thoughts knocking around in her head were going to catch up with her, so she’d slung her backpack over her shoulders and stepped out into the rain, just as it turned into out-and-out hail.
The hard little pellets hurt her skin, but she’d been glad for the cold, for the sting. Because it gave her something else to focus on, something besides what had happened just hours ago.
She hadn’t been sure exactly where she was—or what she was headed for–but she’d hoped she was walking in the direction of town.
All night long the roads had been strangely empty, but she’d barely starting walking away from her car when she’d realized headlights were coming up behind her.
Fear had knocked into her again as the car pulled over to the side and she’d had to stop to brace herself to withstand it. She was all alone on a dark, wet, country road. She didn’t have her cell phone, and even if she had, she doubted there was enough reception out here in the storm for it to get a signal.
And then a man–a large man–had gotten out of his car and started walking toward her, telling her to get into his car.
No way.
He’d tried to convince her that she was safe with him. He’d said all the right things, but she’d had too much experience with people like that, who easily said one thing, then did another.
“I don’t know you,” she told him. He could be an axe murderer. She had feet. She’d walk and find a place to dry off later.
She could see the frustration on his face, knew he was about to try and reason with her again, when suddenly, the sound of skidding tires came at them. Before she knew what was happening, he was pulling her into his arms. She didn’t have time to think of fighting him, didn’t even consider it when she realized a fast-moving motorcycle was practically on top of them.
She closed her eyes, bracing for impact, when the man effortlessly lifted her and jumped into the ditch, holding her tightly against him.
She opened her eyes just in time to watch the motorcycle’s back tires skid and then finally catch hold just in the place she’d been standing. Her heart, which had all but stopped, started racing again as she watched it speed away.
“Are you okay?”
Chloe looked up at the man who had shielded her from harm with his own body, and for the first time since he’d stepped out of his car, she was hit hard with the realization of just how attractive he was.
No, she silently admitted to herself. Attractive was a paltry word for a man like this. Even in the darkness, she could see that he put other men to shame. As big as she’d first thought, even in the cold rain, he was utterly gorgeous.
And her body was reacting with surprising heat.
Or maybe, she suddenly realized, that heat was coming from the fact that he was still cradling her in his strong arms.
The way he’d moved her out of the way of the too-close motorcycle had her teetering on the edge of trusting him. And on any other night, perhaps it would have been enough. But was it?
They were both splattered with mud from where he’d landed with her in his arms and now that they were safe again, she struggled to stand up, to try and right her thoughts so that she could come to some sort of rational decision.
“Wait a minute,” he said, “let me get us out of here.”
A few moments later, he put her down on the side of the road. “It really isn’t safe to be out here. Not for either of us.”
Common sense told her he was right, and yet, she was still wary. Incredibly so.
But at this very moment what other choice did she have?
Replaying in her mind the way he’d protected her from harm, Chloe finally, said, “Okay. I’ll go with you.”
She sincerely hoped she didn’t end up regretting her choice.
...Excerpt from THE LOOK OF LOVE by Bella Andre ©2011.
Buy The Look of Love
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GAME FOR LOVE
© 2011 Bella Andre
In a relationship built on lies...the only truth is their feelings for each other.
To fulfill his grandmother's dying wish, linebacker Cole Taylor must find – and marry – a good girl. First grade teacher Anna Davis fits the bill perfectly. Their deal is simple: If she'll be his temporary wife, he'll give her more pleasure than she ever imagined was possible.
Only, love is the ultimate game-changer.
Enjoy the following excerpt for GAME FOR LOVE...
His eyes, still dark with desire, were fixed on her and she felt as if he saw all the way into her soul. It was too much, too soon. Anna tried to walk inside the hotel room, but he grabbed her before she could take more than a step, and pulled her against him.
“You don’t need to run from me, Anna.”
Her breath was rising and falling too fast. “I don’t want to run, but I don’t know how to do anything else.”
His mouth found hers and she tried to lose herself in his kiss the way she’d been lost in all the others, but panic was riding her too hard now to be able to let go. His hands moved down her back, rubbing, massaging from shoulder to hips, but instead of relaxing, she only tensed up more. He lifted his head and she immediately said, “I’m sorry. I don’t know what’s wrong with me.”
“No apologies."
Grateful that he wasn’t pressuring her into anything—even though she was now his lawfully wedded wife—she said, “I want—”
Oh God, she was such a novice at all of this that she didn’t even know how to get the words out.
“You want to sleep with me."
Thankful that he clearly didn’t have the same problem, she nodded.
“But something is holding you back?"
Again, she nodded.
“How many lovers have you had, Anna?”
She flushed at his question. “Two,” she said in a voice that was barely more than a whisper. “But being with them wasn’t like being with you.”
The words were out before she realized they were coming and her flush flamed even brighter.
“You’re special to me, too,” he said softly against her lips and this time when he kissed her, she was able to sink into it a little more. “I want to give you pleasure, Anna, more pleasure than you’ve ever known. Will you let me do that for you?”