“Cause you’re not stupid,” Drake said.
Mason went over to the fridge and pulled out a Pacifico and sat down at the dining room table beside Sophia.
“Frannie sent me a text with a picture of the two of them. They looked adorable.” She turned her phone around so he could see. It was nice, but they’d looked even better in person.
“So how long is a high school prom?” Sophia scowled at Drake.
“They’re in ninth grade, you doofus. This is their Valentine’s Day Dance. It’ll be over in three hours.”
“Well then I better tell you my news and leave you guys with some alone time.”
“Is this about what Dare found out?” Sophia asked.
“I’m betting this is about his and Jack’s mysterious absence today.” Mason gave Drake a hard look.
“Like you wouldn’t have gone with us if we’d invited you,” Drake scoffed.
“What are the two of you talking about?” Sophia asked.
“Drake and Jack were AWOL for a few hours today. I’m suspecting they visited with Rebecca’s foster parents. Am I right Drake?”
“We had a little meeting of the minds with those cretins.”
“Am I going get a call from the authorities? Will you need an alibi?” Mason asked only half kidding.
“No. Mr. and Mrs. Yarbrough know better. And from now on Rebecca will have a key—not that she’ll need it. Jack is one scary dude, Mase. He acts all Texas choirboy, but get him riled and he will make you remember the Alamo. Anyway, he got Rebecca a phone with all of our numbers on speed dial. He explained to Yarbrough that if she should ever have a need to call us he and his wife will be wearing prison garb. I believed him, and more importantly, so did they.”
“I hate that she has to spend one more day with them,” Sophia said.
“Let me tell you what Dare told me,” Drake said. “I talked to him this afternoon about the next steps with Rebecca. Unfortunately if they took Rebecca out of the home she’s in today the only place they could put her is a group home. Same for the other kids with her. However, he said they are going to be easier to place because they’re younger. Apparently people are faster to step up for younger foster kids.”
“Sophia and I checked into getting certified and found out it’s a long process. Then we thought about how awkward it would be with Billy.”
Drake looked from one to the other and gave a slow grin. “Well I guess you do deserve some alone time.”
“Fine, we’re nice people. It still doesn’t do shit for Rebecca. We’ve got to think of something,” Mason muttered.
“Do you know who else checked into it? Finn’s mom.”
“Really?” Sophia asked. “That’s wonderful.”
“Yep. She’s already applied. Darius said his friend is going to fast-track her application so she can take custody of Rebecca.”
“Oh my God, for real?” Sophia got up from the table and hugged Drake.
“Your work here is done, Avery. Now give us our alone time,” Mason drawled.
****
Billy Anderson
The girls left twenty minutes ago to go to the bathroom. He and his friends had tried to figure out why it always had to be done as a group activity. Then the door to the gym opened and he saw her. She floated into the room—there was no other way to explain it. Billy smiled to himself as Rebecca laughed at something Cammie said, and then she waved as she made her way over to him.
“Are you having fun?” he asked.
“I’m having a great time.”
“This is for you,” he said as he handed her the glass of punch he had poured for her.
“Billy, thank you for asking me to the dance tonight. I can’t believe everything that’s happened. Frannie and Tony. The way everybody’s been so nice and has tried to help me. Your sister. Drake. It’s all been so much and it’s all because of you.”
“Rebecca, you’ve got it wrong. They would have done it no matter what. They think you’re wonderful and they’re the type of people who help. They jumped in and helped Sophia and me when we needed it too.”
“Jack gave me a phone with everyone’s number plugged in. He said I should call if I ever needed help. I changed your number to the first contact,” she told him shyly. His heart swelled.
“And if I’m not available you call one of the men. They’re serious, they will come and help you any day, any time, no matter what. No more sleeping on the porch.”
“I have a key now,” Rebecca assured him.
“You also have us. We’re not going anyplace.”
“I still don’t understand why.”
“I didn’t either for the longest time. It’s who they are. It’s their code.” She opened her mouth to say something else, then stopped. Finally she said.
“I like their code, a lot.” She ducked her head, then looked back up at him. “I like you too...a lot.”
Billy swallowed.
“Have I told you how beautiful you look?” She did, too. She outshone every girl at the dance.
“You have, Billy, you’ve made me feel beautiful.”
“Well good.” He cocked his head as he heard the music change. “May I have this dance?”
He heard Cammie giggle but it seemed to come from a long way off. Rebecca gave a shy nod, and he escorted her across the floor. The gym had been transformed into a wonderland filled with twinkling lights and hearts. A new soft and low song started, and he finally got to hold her in his arms just as he had imagined all those weeks ago when he first thought about asking her to the dance.
Rebecca clasped her hands around his neck and laid her head against his chest. She was just the right height for him. He could smell the jasmine and vanilla scent of her hair. Gently they swayed together, until finally she pulled back a little and looked at him, her brown eyes liquid.
“Thank you so much for asking me to the dance tonight. It was more than I ever dreamed possible.”
She licked her lips. Oh God, she’d glossed them.
Her fingers tightened on his shoulders.
Now he got it. This is what the guys had been talking about. She was giving him such a sweet signal, and it matched his every instinct.
He watched her carefully as he bent his head, and her eyes drifted shut, dark lashes dusted against her delicate smooth skin.
As his lips touched hers for the first time his eyes closed too. He savored the petal softness beneath his mouth and the hint of trembling strawberries.
Ever so slowly he drew back, and she opened her eyes. They stared, she grinned, and he knew his smile was equally wide. He wrapped her close into a hug.
“Rebecca, this is the best night of my life.”
THE END
Biography
Caitlyn O'Leary is an avid reader, and considers herself a fan first and an author second. She reads a wide variety of genres, but finds herself going back to happily-ever-afters. Getting a chance to write, after years in corporate America, is a dream come true. She hopes her stories provide the kind of entertainment and escape she has found from some of her favorite authors.
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Email: [email protected]
Books by Caitlyn O’Leary
The Found Series
Revealed, Book One
Forsaken, Book Two
Healed, Book Three
Beloved, Book Four (Summer 2016)
Midnight Delta Series
Her Vigilant SEAL, Book One
Her Loyal SEAL, Book Two
Her Adoring SEAL, Book Three
Sealed with a Kiss, A Midnight Delta Novella
Her Devoted SEAL, Book Four (Spring 2016)
Fate Harbor Series Published by Siren/Bookstrand
Protecting Olivia, Book Two
Claiming Kara, Book Three
Isabella’s Submission, Book Four
Cherishing Brianna, Book Five
Excerpts from Her Adoring SEAL
Midnight Delta 3
By Caitlyn O’Leary
Look for the release of this thrilling addition to the award winning Midnight Delta series in two weeks!
Excerpt One
They were going to kill her. Jack gripped his gun as he looked into the storage room. Griff was across the square in the bell tower, and Jack had just gotten word he found three of the other doctors and could take down their captors. Aiden and Dex were on other floors of the hospital looking for hostages and tangos. Their lieutenant was outside ready to give the command to Aiden to start taking out the targets. That left him in the basement to find this horror.
The woman was on her knees, her shirt torn, breasts spilling out, and a face covered in blood and bruises. She had one arm wrapped around a man’s hips like a lover, her cheek pressed against his thigh, and her blonde hair tangled with his pubic hair. That’s where the farce ended. The tip of the knife she held was pressed against his balls, and Jack could see a trickle of blood.
“Come closer and I will cut off his cock,” she said in raspy Spanish.
“Kill her.” The man commanded to the three other men in the room.
“Sir, the bullet could hit you.”
“You’re two feet away. You can’t shoot straight? Kill the bitch!”
The woman flinched, and the knife bit into the man’s tender flesh. He yowled.
“Kill her now, she’s cutting me.”
“You keep talking and threatening me and you’ll never father a child. Tell them to back off.”
Jack admired her bravery, but what did she think she was going to accomplish? How in the hell did she think she was going to get out of this mess?
Excerpt Two
Beth caught fire in his arms. Jack hadn’t expected she would burn so bright and so fast. He looked up at her face, and saw her biting her lip her face suffused with passion. He was scared, but it had never stopped him before, and it wasn’t going to stop him now. This was the most important mission of his life.
Her brow furrowed as she began to rock back and forth in his lap. It was clear to him what she needed. He continued to taste the sublime texture of her nipple, licking, savoring, and then he took the brown rose nub into his mouth. She arched into him with a sigh. He continued to hold her breast to his lips, while his other hand began a languid journey down her torso.
He knew Beth was unaware of her rocking, the way her legs had shifted and were now slightly spread apart. Her soft buttocks tortured his erection, and her legs attempted to clamp around his knee. He stroked further downwards, easing over the waistband of her Capri pants. She jerked.
Her hands were suddenly there, and he couldn’t help a second of disappointment he immediately tamped down. But her hands slid underneath his, and she was unbuttoning her trousers and lowering the zipper.
He considered, and knew he needed to take this opportunity to show her she could. She made a frustrated sound as the zipper caught.
“Shhhh, I’ve got it. They train us in complicated machinery.” She gave a little giggle. Just what he wanted. Her hands stayed on her zipper, as if not sure where to go.
“I love it when you touch my hair,” he coaxed.
“You do?” He looked at her and smiled. “Don’t you like it when I touch yours?”
“Yes.” She reached up put and her arms around his neck, her hands playing in his hair.
He kissed her, once again luxuriating in the taste of Beth Hidalgo.
She relaxed, and he unzipped her pants, easing his hand inside the front of her silky panties. Her curls were damp. He dipped down further, nudging her tender folds apart, finding her drenched. He brought some of that moisture upwards, and began to gently circle her engorged bud.
She broke off the kiss, and buried her head in the crook of his neck, panting. He continued his ministrations. She pushed against him, hard. Understanding her wordless command he increased his speed and pressure.
She sobbed into his neck. “I can’t.”
“You can. You were meant to fly in my arms.”
“I can’t, it won’t work.”
Jack heard the frustration in her voice, how she was working herself into a self-fulfilling prophecy. With his free hand he tilted her head up, and gave her a reassuring smile. He kissed her, plunging his tongue into her mouth. She sucked him inside. At the same moment he slid one finger inside her sheath. Her head arched backwards, the tendons in her neck rigid, and she let loose a silent scream.
****
He’d done it. She’d done it. She was shaking. Beth collapsed into the arms of the man she loved, shuddering in ecstasy. She felt his erection and wasn’t scared, she saw nothing but patience, satisfaction, and love in his eyes.
“Beth.”
“What?”
“Just Beth. Always and forever, it will be just Beth.”
SEALED with a Kiss (Midnight Delta Book 4) Page 6