“I don’t…I might…” he stammered out.
She laughed again, feeling almost giddy. “You love me, Rocco. Admit it.”
He sighed, his hands once again fisted on his hips. “Yeah. I love you. But I don’t really know…” His arms closed around her at the last moment as she threw herself into his arms. He felt her soft, amazing body against his and knew that this was the woman he wanted to be with for the rest of his life.
Unfortunately, he didn’t know how to do forever.
Pulling back, he placed her carefully onto the floor. “Daisy, listen to me. I’m not a good bet.”
“You’re a wonderful bet, Rocco,” she told him, kissing his jawline. “You love me, that’s all that’s important.”
He pulled back, looking into her eyes. “Daisy, I’m not. I mean,” he sighed and lifted her up for a kiss, then set her back down. “I’m not a good bet. When I think something is wrong, I walk away.”
“You’re fighting for me now, Rocco,” she whispered up to him. “You’re here. You still have no idea what was going on yesterday. You had ample evidence that I was committing a crime and yet, you’re here. You might have put me through hell last night, and if you ever do that again, I’m going to kick your ass from here until tomorrow, but you’re here now. You didn’t run from me. You took a moment, or a night, and tried to figure out what I was doing, but you’re here. You’re trying.”
He stopped and looked down at her, focusing on her words. What she was telling him was right. He was here. He hadn’t walked away. “You’re not a criminal, are you?”
Daisy laughed, delighted with the disgusted look on his handsome features. “No. I’m not a criminal.”
“And there’s a logical explanation for everything, isn’t there?”
“Yep,” she said, bouncing up and down excitedly. “But you love me,” she restated. “Say it, Rocco.” When he sighed, she laughed again. “After what you put me through last night, I deserve to hear you say the words.”
Rocco groaned and picked her up into the air. “I love you, you crazy woman. I love you, and you’re going to teach me how to love you, aren’t you?”
“Yes,” she whispered, tears forming in her eyes.
“Daisy, I’m sorry,” he groaned, his hands moving from her hips to her face as his thumbs wiped away the tears. “I’m so sorry, please don’t cry! I can’t handle it when you cry.”
She sniffed, trying to stop the tears, but it was hard when her tough guy was being so sweet. “If it helps at all, they are happy tears!”
“No,” he groaned. “I don’t think it matters. Just…tell me what I can do to make it stop.”
“Tell me you love me one more time,” she whispered.
“I love you, woman. I love you so much, it makes my head spin. ”
She smiled, leaning her head against his chest. “I love you too!”
He sighed and hugged her tighter. “Will you show me?”
Her arms tightened around his waist. “I will, but you’re doing a pretty darn good job of it already, Rocco. You came back.” She pulled away slightly, looking up at him. “You came back despite a lot of evidence that I’d done something horrible.”
He shook his head. “I couldn’t be without you.”
Epilogue
Rocco stared at the big guy stepping out of the truck. For some reason, he wanted to punch the guy. Especially when he heard a screech behind him a moment before Daisy zoomed past him, throwing herself into the big guy’s arms.
Thankfully, that was his clue that the guy in question wasn’t a threat, but Daisy’s infamous brother, Gunner Marks. With that realization, Rocco relaxed. Hell, he was even amused by his fiancée’s excitement. The guy had arms the size of tree trunks and a chest that looked like he could pound boulders. But he was gentle with Daisy, and that was all that mattered.
They talked for a few moments and Rocco took a moment to appreciate the sun sparkling off Daisy’s strawberry blond hair, the adorable ass that he loved pressing against him every night. He’d moved into Daisy’s house, something he never thought he would do with a woman. But Daisy was different. He was a different man because of her. What’s more strange, he wanted to be even better. He wanted to know her, to learn from her, and be with her all the time.
He also had the most organized tools in the construction world. Daisy had converted her garage into Tool Central. He was going to have to build her another garage, he knew. He didn’t like taking over her garage.
In the meantime, he had learned from Marilee, Ivy, and Tony to move things out of place when Daisy was upset about something. Organizing her world soothed her. It helped her focus and work out in her mind whatever was bothering her. It was one of the few times she was quiet, he thought with a mental chuckle.
Damn, he loved her!
The big guy was walking up the sidewalk now and Rocco pushed away from the door, meeting him halfway. “You’re the guy that likes to blow things up,” Rocco said in way of a greeting. “And you’re the one that likes to try out new weapons.”
That drew a laugh from the muscle bound guy and Rocco liked him immediately.
“One and the same,” Gunner agreed. “You’re the man who gets my baby sister to shut up every once in a while.”
Rocco laughed at her outraged expression, but he pulled her into his arms. “Not often,” he replied. “Beer?”
“Thought you’d never ask,” Gunner replied.
The three of them walked into the house and Daisy grabbed three beers, handing them out as they made their way into the living room. “What do you think?” she asked her brother.
He was staring at the enormous canvas, frozen in place.
Daisy and Rocco waited and Daisy couldn’t wipe the smug expression from her pretty features so he swatted her bottom. She only laughed and moved closer to him. “He loves it,” she told Rocco in a whisper. “I can tell that he loves it.”
The picture was of a massive ship out at sea, the waves crashing over the bow of the ship while the crew struggled to keep it afloat. The colors of the waves drew one’s eye, making one think of darkness, something menacing underneath. But up above, the sun was starting to peek through the grim clouds. There were hints of something under the water, perhaps a mermaid, perhaps love. Perhaps whatever the viewer wanted those hints to be. Light and dark. Evil and hope. Struggle and success. The opposites were all captured on the canvas.
“Where did you get it?” Gunner asked, awestruck.
Daisy bounced again and Rocco had to pull her in closer to stop that movement. She looked up at him, understanding exactly what he was doing and laughing about it. In return, he promised retribution for turning him on like that.
“Excuse me!” Gunner exclaimed. “None of that while I’m here! That’s my sister!”
Rocco pulled her closer, hugging her as he looked at the guy over Daisy’s head. “Get used to it,” he warned.
“Tell me about the painting,” Gunner growled.
Daisy turned, but Rocco kept an arm around her waist and she placed her hands on his, keeping them there. “It’s from an artist who just got out of prison for manslaughter. He spent his years in prison working on his art, transforming from a street graffiti artist into this.”
Gunner nodded. “It’s exceptional.”
“It’s yours,” Daisy told him.
Gunner’s eyes swept over to his sister’s. “I can’t take it,” he said with reverence.
Daisy laughed. “Okay, then I’ll give it to Ivy.”
Gunner’s stance instantly changed from amazed to belligerent. “She wouldn’t appreciate it properly. I’ll take it back to my place until you can find a proper home for it.”
Daisy beamed. “Fine, but Ivy is going to be severely disappointed.”
“Join the club,” Gunner muttered, then took a long swig of his beer.
“Okay, so tell me about this wedding,” he urged. He looked at Rocco. “Just so you know, if you hurt my sister in any way, there won’t
be anything left of you to be found.”
Rocco threw back his head laughing. “So I’ve been told,” he replied and clinked his beer bottle with the man.
(Read on for excerpts from the next two stories in this series. There are a total of 8 in the series – but I didn’t want to overwhelm you!)
Excerpt from “Rescued” – Coming May 18, 2018
Ivy’s story in The Lottery Winners Series
To Order this story, click HERE
(There are a few things that happen before this scene – but I loved this one so I’m offering it to you as a sample of what’s to come in Ivy’s story.)
Ivy wiped the sweat from her forehead, looking at the compound. This wasn’t good, she thought.
After losing the bandits in the jungle, she’d eventually circled back, finally finding the area where the truck had been parked. Because of the wet ground, it was an easy task to follow the tire tracks back to the compound.
In an ideal world, she would have found civilization, reported the bandits to the authorities, and gone home. Unfortunately, this wasn’t an ideal world. Not by a long shot. After running for about five miles, she’d turned and circled back. Thankfully, the truck hadn’t gone far, maybe only another three miles. So in total, she’d barely traveled a total of more than thirteen miles today. On a slow morning, she ran that before breakfast.
But this wasn’t Kentucky and her jungle boots weren’t the best for long distance running, although they’d done an excellent job of protecting her feet. If she could have walked out of the jungle, she would have done so. No pathway to civilization appeared, so Plan C…or was she on Plan D now? She wasn’t sure …but her current plan was to steal one of the small trucks and drive out of the jungle.
That had been her plan, at least. But as soon as she’d arrived, she’d seen others prisoners. In good conscience, she couldn’t leave them. Not when it appeared that these people had been held here for a while. Their clothes were tattered, filthy and, even from a distance, she could tell that the people hadn’t been treated well.
She needed to go back, find help. But she had no idea where she was. Her camera bag contained her compass, emergency satellite phone, and the smaller emergency supplies she always carried on her when she traveled.
On the upside, she’d gotten away from her would-be captors. On the downside, there were others in the compound and she was determined to help them while she figured out how to get everyone out of this area.
Leave, she thought. Go find help. She wasn’t trained to save these people. Unlike…
No! Gunner was thousands of miles away and he made her crazy anyway! Besides, she’d never had to rely on another person for help in her life. Emotional support? Yeah, absolutely! Ivy considered Marilee, Daisy, and Tony her family and loved them as much.
But she wasn’t the type to wait around and wait for someone else to fix a situation.
If she could sneak her bag away, she might be able to call Gunner’s commanding officer, or someone else, to let them know that there were Americans being held captive here, but she wasn’t sure they would come. Ivy wasn’t even sure if the Indonesian authorities would step in to help. She suspected it was a way of life here. In some parts of the world, ransoming off tourists was a steady income. There were some areas of Indonesia one didn’t go into for that reason. It was a bit like New York City or Chicago. Or any big city. There were some places one didn’t go because they were too dangerous.
Ivy fully acknowledged that she shouldn’t be here either. But the flower!
No, Ivy knew that not even pictures of that stupid flower were worth what she was dealing with now.
Biting her lip, she looked around, wondering if she could hot wire one of the vehicles, use it to get out of here to find help. Hot wiring was one thing she hadn’t needed Gunner to teach her. She’d learned that skill from one of her teenage boyfriends and was an expert on how to hotwire cars. Of course, he was in prison now due to his youthful enthusiasm for his trade. In fact, that little journey into the criminal world had convinced her to take the waitressing job at Janice’s years ago. It had been a horrible job because Janice, the owner, was one of the most unethical people she’d ever met. But working as a waitress had kept her out of prison. And it wasn’t as if she’d had a whole lot of options back then. Now, she had millions of dollars in a bank, earning interest. Now, she had options.
Well, her present predicament sort of negated that statement, she thought as she munched on a protein bar and watched from her hiding place. Janice had stolen their tips, docked their pay for bogus reasons, and denied them overtime pay.
But the diner had also been the place where she’d met her best friends Tony, Daisy, and Marilee. If she hadn’t worked there, they wouldn’t have bought that lottery ticket on Tony’s twenty-first birthday, they wouldn’t have won that enormous jackpot and she wouldn’t have more than two hundred million in the bank and investments. And she wouldn’t have been able to afford traveling to different countries, photographing the most amazing places.
Also, she wouldn’t be in this position, sweating in a stinking jungle after having escaped these idiot rebels.
Okay, so maybe she needed a break from the traveling. This was really getting old, she thought. Ivy frowned, realizing that she’d been having that thought a lot over the past several months. But after years of traveling, she was growing weary of anonymous hotel rooms and dining alone. She’d visited the most amazing places but…Ivy wanted a home. She wanted something more than her one bedroom loft over her gallery in LowPoint, Kentucky. She wanted a real home with kids and a husband. A husband that was NOT Gunner Marks! She munched on her plastic flavored protein bar and contemplated her future husband. He would be kind, sweet, and non-muscular. Probably a runner like her, but that wasn’t a requirement. Sure, it would be nice to have someone who could keep up with her, but…well yeah, Gunner could keep up, but he didn’t count. Not even a little!
Focusing on the task at hand, she considered her options. Her number one priority was to get her bag back. If she could do that, she could figure out where she was, and call for help. Barring that, she wanted to free those hostages. They were held in a hut and guarded by only one guy so far. The guard wasn’t overly attentive; he seemed to be snoozing at the moment.
Getting the hostages out would be a whole lot easier by truck than by foot. Ultimate priority, Ivy had to get out of here, even if she went on her own and sent help back for the hostages.
Maybe she could sneak up to the camp and get that one jeep by the edge of the compound, push it down the dirt road a ways so that the engine wouldn’t alert anyone. Or if they did hear it when she started it up, she’d be too far away for them to catch her.
Yeah, she liked that plan!
Looking up, she estimated that it was only a couple more hours until the sun set. Ivy figured she’d wait until the inevitable drinking and partying began, then sneak in when they passed out. The compound had guards, but she’d watch and learn, figure out which of the guards were lazy. She suspected that most of them would fall asleep at their posts.
Looking around, she carefully searched the area for bugs, reptiles, or other hidden icky things, and found a good spot to observe. Taking out another protein bar, she nibbled on the end, but put it away without finishing it. Since she had no idea where she was, she had no idea how long it would take her to get back to civilization. Ivy knew to eat sparingly; her stomach had given up groaning from hunger yesterday.
Oh, what she would do for a cold shower right about now. Settling in, she thought about what she would do as soon as she reached her hotel. She was staying in the penthouse suite, which had a huge bathtub. She’d shower away the jungle stench that was now clinging to every pore of her body and shampoo her hair three times then slide into the tub and stay there for hours! A bottle of wine, a huge meal, and afterward, Ivy would crawl between the clean, crisp, white sheets and sleep for days. Weeks!
After she sent a message to Daisy, Marile
e, and Tony. Most likely, they would be worried sick by now. She was always careful about sending them daily messages, letting them know she was okay. It was one of the many security features of her daily life, thanks to the big lug whose name will not be spoken of at the moment.
And….that was the end of her Gunner-free moment. Ivy was tired, hungry and itchy, which meant that her self-control was…well, non-existent. So just the thought of the big guy and all of those amazing muscles popped into her mind and they weren’t leaving.
Not that she was trying very hard.
Settling back against the tree, she waited, allowing her mind to drift, entering a fantasy of Gunner walking towards her in…nothing at all. Yeah, if she had her way, the jerk would be naked and…oh, she would love it if he also had tape over his mouth so he couldn’t make fun of her.
As Ivy watched, she thought about all the things she’d love to do to Gunner’s body. And if he was tied down so he couldn’t take over, all the better.
Then again…
The hand covering her mouth startled her out of that particularly nice fantasy. Darn it! How many times had Gunner warned her not to lose her concentration?
Now she was going to learn the hard way what happened when she let her guard down.
The strong arm started to pull her back, but she struggled, digging her nails into the hand covering her mouth. No! She wasn’t going down! Not in this disgusting jungle while watching disgusting men! No way! Thinking back to all the techniques Gunner had taught her, she went slack. It was the hardest thing to do when someone was dragging her. Terror caused adrenaline to flow, increasing the fight response.
But it worked. The arms holding her loosened when she released all the tension in her body and she heard a deep, guttural growl that sounded vaguely familiar, but she didn’t take the time to dissect her reaction. Instead, she jerked upright and…
The strong arms caught her again, the hand tightening over her mouth. A scruffy cheek rested against hers and…the man’s smell wasn’t horrible. Yes, she smelled sweat and man but…it wasn’t reeking body odor.
Tempted (The Lottery Winners Book 2) Page 14