He blinked and raised his head. “You did?”
She was grinning. “Yes. I went looking for you, and then I happened to run into a mutual friend.”
“Not—”
“Yep. Candy told me that making money and paying her rent were the things that made her happiest, and it just…made me realize what made me happy.”
He found himself smiling. Candy had always helped him forget that he cared. Who’d have thought she would have helped Ava to remember? “And what’s that?”
Ava smiled right back, bright as the sun. “Milk and cookies in the kitchen. Eggs and bacon for breakfast. You.”
He didn’t think it was possible for that sweet pain in his heart to get any sweeter, but it did. “I’m glad I rate at least third on that list,” he said, his voice hoarse.
“If you take me upstairs, you might make it to second.” She pressed her hips against his, desire lighting up her eyes. “I mean…if that’s what you want.”
“No, honey, we’re not going upstairs. I’m not sure I want Cagney and Lacey staring down at me while I do all the things I’m gonna do to you. Not to mention the sheriff listening in.”
She blushed. “Then where do you want to go?”
“Back to Lone Star and my king-sized bed.” He smiled. “And after that? Wherever the hell you want.”
Epilogue
Rush adjusted the glass of milk, then made sure the plate containing Ava’s favorite brand of chocolate chip cookies was perfectly situated. It was her birthday, and he wanted to start the day right, with milk and cookies in the kitchen of their brand-new apartment.
They’d both moved out of their respective homes a week earlier—with the blessing of her father and several rounds of thank Christ from his brothers—and into the sweet place he’d found in downtown Austin.
It was big and light, and he loved that it was theirs and only theirs.
He especially liked being able to make love to Ava on every available surface without worrying about some idiot walking in on them.
Speaking of…He patted the back pocket of his jeans to make sure he had a couple of condoms at the ready. He knew how frisky she got after some sugar and lactose, and he didn’t want a minor detail such as the lack of condoms to interrupt anything at a vital moment.
She’d been busy with her job the past couple of months and things hadn’t been all that easy, not after Troy’s trial. The bastard had gone down, thank fuck, but it had taken an emotional toll on his little redhead, which was why he wanted this day to be perfect.
Not only was it her birthday, but he wanted to show her what an amazing woman she was. And how she gave him a reason not to be an asshole every single day.
A big thing for a guy like him.
After they’d gotten together—much to Quinn’s disapproval, which was cancelled out immediately by Zane’s warm approval—he’d decided to really make a go of the family business thing with his brothers. Sure, it meant continuing to hold on to his network of criminal contacts, but since being on the right side of the law was where he wanted to be after all, he’d been surreptitiously passing any intel to the sheriff’s department when they needed it. Which had made Ava’s father happy. And that in turn made Ava happy, and that was reason enough to keep going with it.
Rush adjusted the plate again, then ran a hand through his hair.
Fuck. He was nervous. Which was stupid, but…Well. This day really needed to be perfect.
“Rush?”
He looked up, and his heart nearly stopped beating, because there she was, wearing one of his T-shirts, her red hair tousled, her long legs bare. His milk-and-cookies virgin.
She was smiling. “What’s all this?”
He gestured to the arrangement of food on the counter. “You got your milk. You got your cookies. And best of all…” He gave her his full-on, panty-dropping Rush Redmond smile. “You got me. Happy birthday, honey.”
A look of pure joy crossed her face. “You remembered.” And then she was coming toward him, walking straight into his arms, where she belonged.
He held her tight, the feel of her body against his a drug he was very firmly and very happily addicted to. “I’m like an elephant—I never forget.”
She grinned, lifting her arms and winding them around his neck, her copper eyes full of laughter. “You’re like an elephant in other ways too.”
“Honey, please.” He gave her a mock frown. “Can you stop talking about my dick for two seconds?”
“Not sure that’s possible.” Ava snuggled against him. “Want to know something?”
“Sure.”
Her smile took on a deeper warmth that made him ache in the very best kind of way. “You make me happy.”
He was Rush Redmond and he always had a snappy comeback, rude or otherwise. But all he did was smile back at her like the big fucking sap he was.
“You make me happy too,” he said simply.
To Deadpool, for the inspiration he gives us daily. Well, me, at least. ;-)
Acknowledgments
Thank you as always to my fab agent, Helen Breitwieser. And also to my wonderful editor, Shauna Summers, for helping Rush find his inner hero.
And to my ladies, who adored him even when he was being a douchebag.
BY JACKIE ASHENDEN
Take Me Deeper
Hold Me Down
Make It Hurt
JACKIE ASHENDEN has been writing fiction since she was eleven years old. Mild-mannered fantasy/SF/pseudo-literary writer by day, obsessive romance writer by night, she used to balance her writing with the more serious job of librarianship until a chance meeting with another romance writer prompted her to throw off the shackles of her day job and devote herself to the true love of her heart—writing romance. She particularly likes to write dark, emotional stories with alpha heroes who’ve just got the world to their liking only to have it blown wide apart by their kick-ass heroines.
Jackie lives in Auckland, New Zealand, with her husband, the inimitable Dr. Jax, two kids, two cats, and two rats. When she’s not torturing alpha males and their stroppy heroines, she can be found drinking chocolate martinis, reading anything she can lay her hands on, posting random crap on her blog, or being forced to go mountain biking with her husband.
To keep up-to-date with Jackie’s new releases and other news, sign up for her newsletter at her website and follow her at:
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@JackieAshenden
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Take Me Harder Page 32