“There’s no way she couldn’t be gorgeous and smart with you as a mom, Goldilocks.” Nick said. He put his hand on the back of my neck and pulled me over toward him.
With his arm around my shoulders he looked at me out of the corner of his eye then said, “You think you’ll ever want to have another little girl like that? ’Cause I could see having one like her someday. A little mini-Lyndsey. I’d have tea parties with her and take her to soccer practice.”
I turned and stared at him, my jaw hanging open. He laughed at me. “What? That idea doesn’t appeal to you?”
“I didn’t say that, I’m sort of stunned though, which reminds me…are you my boyfriend now? I mean, that’s what you said earlier.”
“I was hoping to audition for the job. You taking applicants?”
I could feel my cheeks heat up. “Well, someone’s got an inside track. I mean there’s only one person who’s right for the position.”
“Oh yeah?” Nick sounded just a bit hesitant.
“Mmhmm. See this particular applicant has been there for me through thick and thin, and he knows everything about me. Stuff that I’ve never told anyone else.”
“I see.” He gave me a cocky smile now.
“He’s also kind of hot. Tall, handsome . . .” I could see his ego inflating by the second. “Really nice, thick, blond hair . . .”
“Wait. What? I’m not blond!” He scowled at me.
I laughed. “Who said it was you?”
“Who else knows all your secrets and has always been there for you? What the hell, Lyndsey?”
I giggled more. “Nick, calm down. I was kidding. Of course it’s you. God, you’re a big baby.”
He heaved a sigh of relief as we pulled into the parking lot for my apartment. He turned off the ignition and pointed at me as he said sternly, “Stay right there.”
I blinked at him as he hopped out of the car and came around to my door. He opened it, reached over me, and very slowly unbuckled my seat belt. His hand stroked across my thighs as he let the belt retract. My breath caught.
“Come here,” he growled. I stepped out the truck, and he swung me up over his shoulder in one smooth movement.
I screamed. “Nick! What are you doing?”
He marched up the stairs to my apartment. “I’m going to show you what kind of boyfriend I am.” He grabbed the keys from my hand, unlocked the door, and hauled me inside.
Nick
I threw Lyndsey on the bed in her apartment and started taking my clothes off. She stared at me like I’d lost my mind.
“What’s the matter? It’s nothing you haven’t seen before,” I joked.
“Give a girl a chance to catch up! You only announced you were my boyfriend five minutes ago.”
I flung my shirt on the floor and dove onto the bed on top of her. “Lyndsey?” I kissed her hard on the mouth.
“Yes?” she squeaked.
“Will you stop doubting and just love me?”
She relaxed and I felt her lips turn up under mine as I ran my tongue along them. “God, Nick, I love you so much. I’ll stop doubting. I’ll love you as long as you’ll have me.”
“Good. Because I intend to have you a lot. I mean a whole hell of a lot. Starting right now.” I reached under her top and unhooked her bra, my fingers brushing the soft skin under the swell of her breasts.
“Hey, what’s this?” she asked running her fingers over my bicep.
“Oh. I got a new tat. What do you think?”
She peered at it. “Memento Vivere. What’s it mean?” She pressed her lips against it and I almost couldn’t remember the translation for a moment.
“It’s for you,” I panted, as my fingers found their way back to her breasts. “For us. Remember to live. Because you showed me the other side of the coin.”
She smiled that sweet little smile that said more than a hundred words ever could. “I love it. Almost as much as I love you.”
“Good. Now where were we?” I asked, pinching her waist right above her smooth hipbones.
She giggled when I tickled her, then let out a long breath when I rolled her nipple between my thumb and finger.
“Oh, wow, that feels really good.”
“Tell me about it,” I mumbled as I put my nose in her hair and inhaled coconut and Lyndsey all at once. “God, I’ve dreamed about you every night since you ran from me. Every single damn night. It’s like I’ll never have enough of you. I could fuck you over and over and never get tired of it.” I switched and palmed the other breast. “Then I could make love to you in between fucking you and never get tired of that either. Which do you want this time, Goldilocks? You want me to fuck you or make love to you?”
She put her arms around me and pulled me closer as I ground my dick against her and moaned; I was so hard I felt like I might explode.
“Right now?” She gasped. “The first one. We can make love later.”
I smiled and tore her T-shirt right up the middle, then wrenched her shorts and underwear down until I kicked them off of her ankles. I turned to my shorts and boxers next, removing them in record time. Once I had us both stripped I kneeled between her legs, running my hands up her thighs and on to her smooth stomach, ending when I reached her soft, full breasts. I leaned down and kissed her belly. “This is the most special part of you, you know why?”
She looked down at me and stroked my hair. “No, why?”
“Because this,” I said running my mouth over her abdomen, “has the magic to make Cayla. A perfect little human being. It awes me, Lynds. You awe me.”
She pulled at my hair, and I looked up at her as she took my face in between her hands. “How did I ever get to so lucky?” she asked.
I moved up until my face hovered over hers. “I’m the lucky one, baby, I always have been.”
Epilogue
Lyndsey
“Raoul would have loved this,” Leesa said to me as we sat down in the auditorium.
I grabbed her hand and gave it a squeeze. “I think he’s watching it from somewhere, don’t you?”
“You know I do.” She smiled at me.
“There you are!” a voice said behind us.
I turned around to see a tall woman with a little blonde girl holding her hand. “Hey! You guys made it!” I cried as I stood up and hugged the woman then leaned down to hug Cayla too. I inhaled deeply to get my fill of her sweet smell and patted her corn silk hair.
Moments after Cayla and her mom were settled in seats next to us, a man in a dress uniform walked onto the stage at the front of the room, and the lights overhead dimmed.
“I’d like to thank you all for coming today,” the presenter said into the microphone. “This is always one of my favorite days of the year. Nothing gives me greater pride than introducing the young men and women who will help keep all of us safe into the future. So, without further ado, let’s hand out the diplomas to this year’s graduates of the Hawaii State Police Training Program.”
The room erupted in applause and Cayla cried, “Is it Nick? Is it Nick?”
“Yes, honey, it’s going to be Nick, just wait and they’ll call his name. Then we can see him up on the stage,” I told her. She bounced up and down in excitement. In the nearly twelve months since he and I first met Cayla, we’d seen her every few weeks, eventually getting to take her for ice cream a half hour or so at a time. She wasn’t old enough to understand that I was her birth mother, but her parents had talked to me about telling her eventually. They wanted to follow an open adoption to its fullest so that she wouldn’t grow up feeling she’d been abandoned or wondering where she came from.
The ceremony began and it wasn’t long before they reached the C graduates. When they called the cadet standing ahead of Nick in line my stomach tingled with butterflies. It felt like I was on stage myself.
Nick stood in a full dress uniform, his hair clipped short, his broad shoulders emphasized by the dark blue jacket with its brass buttons and trim. He looked serious but also calm as a cucumb
er. I realized how in his element he was. He was meant for this work.
“Our next cadet is the winner of the James Hanalei award for most outstanding cadet, as well as the recipient of the top score on the final certification exam, and the instructors’ choice for Cadet of the Year. It’s my great pleasure to award a diploma to Nicholas Robert Carlisle.”
The auditorium erupted with cheers and I heard shouts of, “Nick! Nick!” from the back of the room. I turned to see Gabe, Ian, and Kelly standing behind the seated section, Gabe hollering for Nick.
I clapped and stood up, others following me until the audience was giving a standing ovation for Nick. Cayla stood on her chair and squealed, “It’s Nick! It’s Nick!”
Nick was very dignified as he walked to the podium, shook the Chief’s hand and took his diploma. His eyes scanned the crowd and he saw Gabe and saluted him, then he kept searching until he found me. I blew a kiss to him and he mouthed, “I love you.” My heart beat steadily in my chest, knowing that he was all mine and I was worthy of every beautiful ounce of him.
* * *
The party we threw at The Grill for Nick’s graduation was laid back. Leesa shut the place down for the afternoon, and we grilled bratwurst on the deck and let the microbrews flow. Cayla’s dad came as soon as he got off work, and Kelly invited some of her little cousins so that Cayla would have someone to play with. The kids ran up and down the deck stairs, going to the adjacent beach to chase seagulls and dig in the sand. Couples sat watching the sunset, and Leesa even had a DJ there to keep the music flowing along with the beer.
“So, Lyndsey, this’ll be you in a few months, huh?” Gabe asked as he came over and sat next to me at one of the tables on the deck. His hair was mussed, and I could tell he’d been surfing more than usual by how dark his skin was.
“Yeah, with the money Raoul left me, I haven’t needed to work and I piled on the classes instead. I should be done with the degree in May.” I smiled at him.
“Child Psychology?”
“Uh huh.” I watched Cayla trying to carry a handful of sand to her mom without losing it all on the deck. “I think I’d like to become a school counselor. You know if a good counselor had noticed me in school I might not have ended up in the situation I did. Maybe I can help some other kids who have lives like I did.”
“And how’s the legal case going?” he asked carefully. A lot more people knew about my past with Chris these days, but most, like Gabe, were hesitant to ask me about it.
“The trial starts next month actually. They’re charging him with attempted murder for that night when Nick found me.” I cleared my throat, realizing that I was as uncomfortable talking about Chris as others were. But, my therapist said I needed to, and that it would get easier with time. “The prosecutor really thinks he’s going to be locked up for a very long time. They’ve been able to get all the records of the domestic violence calls from when we lived in Illinois together, so that helps too.”
He nodded, subdued compared to his usual enthusiastic self.
“What about you? Are you close to finishing your degree?”
He watched the ocean for a moment before he turned to me. “I haven’t told Nick yet, so if you could keep it under wraps for a few days?”
I nodded. “Sure.”
“I’m leaving.”
“Leaving? You mean school? Or Hawaii?”
“Both,” he answered. “I’ve got to get it together, Lyndsey.” He rubbed the stubble on his cheek roughly. “I don’t know if college is for me, I don’t know what the hell I’m doing, and I think there’s shit from Afghanistan that I need to deal with.”
I rubbed his back for a moment, feeling the pain that crept out through his words. Remembering what it felt like to be lost in the world. “What are you going to do?”
He leaned back in his chair and looked up at the sky. “I’m going to go find something I’ve been looking for a long time. Someone actually. Until I find her, I don’t think I can really move on. It’s time.”
“Will you make sure to let us know how it’s going?” I asked, trying very hard not to show how shocked I was that Gabe had a woman somewhere who was so important to him.
“You betcha, girl.” He gave me his trademark grin, and cocky Gabe was back.
I heard someone tapping on a glass. “Excuse me! Can I get everyone’s attention for a minute?” Nick yelled as he stood on top of a chair. Everyone gradually fell silent. “Where’s Lyndsey?” He scanned the crowd.
I raised my hand, and he saw me and smiled. “Can you come up here for a minute, babe?”
I looked at Gabe who shrugged to indicate he didn’t know what was going on. I walked to Nick, people catcalling and whistling as I went. I rolled my eyes at them.
When I reached Nick he hopped off the chair and took my hand in his. He smiled at everyone around us. “Okay, I’ve been wanting to do this for a while, but I needed to wait until my parents had a chance to come out and meet Lyndsey.” He indicated his mom and dad who’d flown out the day before to watch his graduation, and who I was getting to know.
Suddenly he put his hand in his pocket and withdrew a small velvet box. Then he dropped down on one knee in front of me and everyone caught their breath, some of the women gasping, and one squealing, “Oh my God!”
I stared at him in disbelief.
“Lyndsey.” He gazed up at me with those blue, blue eyes. “When we met I was in a bad place, and you were too. It hasn’t been easy for us, but look at where we’ve come to, and look at who we are. I’m here today because of you. I love you, Goldilocks. Will you marry me?”
I put my right hand over my mouth as he took my other hand and the ring and put it on my shaking finger. I watched this man who had changed my whole world, my entire future, who’d accepted me as damaged and scarred as I was, and loved me anyway. I heard Gabe shout, “Answer the man before he does something even more humiliating!” Everyone chuckled.
“Yes, Nick Carlisle, I will marry you. Yes.”
Everyone cheered as he stood up and kissed me hard on the mouth then pulled back and said, “You’re loved.”
“So are you,” I replied smiling. “So are you.”
THE END
Want to find out what’s next?
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And in October, look for Camouflaged (Hiding From Love #.5), the prequel to Hidden, which takes place in Afghanistan after Nick is discharged. This is Gabe’s story, and what a story it is. Here’s an excerpt:
Gabe
In the dirt plaza area were six trucks flying United Nations’ flags. There were people pouring out of the transport trucks, and many of them had already begun unloading the cargo. Someone bumped my shoulder on the way by and said, “Get working, Thompson, these trucks won’t unload themselves.”
I looked around and saw the last cargo truck being opened up and headed over. As I stood waiting for them to get the tarp across the back rolled up I heard a girl’s voice shriek, “Get the hell away, with that thing!” right before someone slammed into my back making me stumble forward a step. I turned around ready to take some asshole out and found myself face to face with big dark eyes, a cute nose sprinkled with freckles, and mess of long brown hair tossed haphazardly into a knot on the top of a perfect head.
I slowly looked down, my gaze meeting up with a tight t-shirt stretched across full breasts and then nipped in at a tiny waist. A pair of low-ridin
g cargo pants fell from narrow hips down long legs. The top of her head only reached my chin, so I put her at 5’4” or shorter. Her crazy mess of hair was half hanging down alongside her face in loose waves. I thought it would feel really good if I dug my hands into it while I yanked her in for a hard, hot kiss on those lips that were slick with some kind of girly lip crap.
“Sorry,” she said looking at me like I was the enemy. Her voice was low and rough, like a great torch singer. I wondered if she was musical, because looking at her made my head spin like there was a song ricocheting around in it.
I grinned at her a little to see what her reaction would be. “No problem, babe. Can I do something for you…or even to you, if you’d prefer.”
She scowled more and her eyes narrowed. “My name’s Alexis, not ‘babe,’ and I really doubt there’s anything you could do that I’d be interested in,” she snapped.
I held my hands up in surrender. “Whatever you say, sweetheart. I’m only doing my duty, you know us soldiers, here to serve the public.”
She huffed out a breath that clearly communicated she found me disgusting and went back to haranguing the guy behind her.
I turned to face the truck, thinking that I hadn’t felt that much animosity from a woman I hadn’t screwed in a long time. It was fucking hot. Nothing like some serious hatred to spice up the sex.
About Selena Laurence
I love to write romantic stuff that helps you get away. Life can be a grind, and things like jobs and school and dirty dishes make Jill a dull girl—and me too! So, I write Contemporary and New Adult romances about hot guys and smart girls and cool places. It’s an Escape from the Everyday.
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