“I’m sorry, Mum, but we’re all here now, and we have some really good news.”
“What’s that? You won the lottery again?”
“No, it’s better than that.” Addison stands there looking at her. “I’m going to be moving out.”
“And that’s good news? I like having you live with me. We can look for somewhere else together.”
“I’m going to be moving in with someone.”
“You’ve got yourself another floozy? Already? She’ll just be after your money. You need to be careful now, Genesis Collins. You are far too trusting for your own good. You meet some tart on a cruise and now you’re moving in with her! Oh no—”
“Mum, it’s not like that.”
“Of course it is. You have to be careful.”
I love Addison to bits. I do. But trying to stop her when she’s on one is like trying to stop a runaway train. My throat still hurts, and I can’t shout or talk too much, so my options to support Genna here are somewhat limited. But never let it be said that I have no guts. It only takes me two steps, and I’m right at Genna’s side. Her face is getting redder and redder as her frustration grows. Every time she opens her mouth to speak, Addison jumps in with more words of “wisdom” regarding the proper conduct for lottery winners and their ongoing search for love and happiness.
Time to take the plunge.
I grab Genna’s shoulders and turn her to face me, then kiss her full on the mouth. I take my time enjoying the deep passionate kiss. I’ve missed being able to kiss her whenever I feel like it, to wrap my arms around her and taste her lips and tongue. So I let the world fade away and trace my fingertips down the length of her neck and down her back until we part to draw in much needed air.
She grins up at me, blushing furiously. “You certainly know how to make a point, don’t you?”
I just nod, knowing that my voice won’t hold if I try to say anything, and look over at Addison. I know she can see the questions on my face. The “so, what do you think of that” question, as well as the “do you hate me now” question. She doesn’t seem particularly inclined to answer either of them, to be honest. She has a look on her face that’s hard to interpret. She has one eyebrow all hiked up and her mouth all set in a straight line. Arms folded across her chest, foot tapping. I feel like a child standing in front of the headmaster, waiting to learn how long my detention is going to be.
“Well, it’s about bloody time you two figured it out.”
Genna and Claire’s heads whip around, and they stare at Addison, both of them talking at the same time.
“What?”
“Huh?”
Genna shakes her head and starts again. “What do you mean?”
Addison smiles and hugs us both. “I’ve known you two were in love with each other for years. Just didn’t know if you’d ever have the gumption to admit it to each other.”
“Why didn’t you say something?” Genna asks.
“What kind of interfering old busybody do you think I am?”
Right now, I’m so glad I can’t answer. There are just far too many possibilities for me to pick just one. I want to stay on good terms with her. She’s my mother-in-law, after all. Well, she will be once I get Genna down the aisle.
I like that thought. Genna in a white dress walking towards me, maybe some little flowers in her hair. Oh, I like that thought a lot.
I just need to think of the best way to ask her.
CHAPTER 34
THREE MONTHS LATER
GENNA
I pluck Rosie’s glasses off her nose and put them on her bedside table, then turn off the light and close the door behind me. I’m still getting used to the new house. The five bedrooms seemed excessive at first, but I think I went a little overboard when I set up the playroom for Rosie. It’s now a play suite that takes up over three rooms. Who knew that an air hockey table, My Little Pony stables, and a Wii dance mat would take up so much space? We simply won’t mention the Barbies, or the full set of Dora the Explorer figurines. Or the child-sized piano. We especially won’t mention the Lion King stuffed toys, the giant Buzz Lightyear, or the mermaid toy that sings in the bath. I even found some vintage toys from when I was a kid. Thundercat figurines! Damn, Cheetarah was one hot kitty! Rowr!
Then there’s the swing set, treehouse, and trampoline that I’ve got being delivered for the garden tomorrow. What can I say? I love the kid.
I open the door to our bedroom. Wait. I need to say that again. Our bedroom. As in, mine and Abi’s. Ours. Both of ours. Belonging to both of us. Our bedroom. Sigh. Okay, that’s out of my system now.
I stare at the candles all around the room, the gentle light casting deep shadows. The bed’s turned down but I can’t see Abi anywhere.
“Close your eyes,” she says.
Her hands slide along my shoulders. Her fingertips slip into my hair and trace feather-light patterns along the back of my neck. Shivers race up and down my spine. She slowly removes my clothes and lays me down on the bed.
“Keep them closed.”
I don’t say anything, just lick my lips and wait. The anticipation is making my skin erupt with goosebumps, the tiny hairs all over my body reaching out, searching for the heat of her body. I feel the bed shift as she climbs up next to me, and a single fingertip begins to move across my skin. It’s slow and soft, and exploring every inch of my exposed body. I want more. She lifts my arms above my head and wraps silk around each wrist.
“Tonight I want to show you how much I love you.” She whispers in my ear, her breath hot against my neck, and I can’t stop the soft moan that escapes my lips. Then the weight of her disappears, and I feel her fingertips running over my skin again, trailing ever so softly across my collarbone and down my arms, over my chest and down my ribs, avoiding my breasts no matter how I try to move them towards her fingers. Then they move to my ankles and begin to glide up my legs, over my knees, tracing serpentine patterns over my thighs. Up and down, back and forth, she strokes me, until I spread my legs wantonly and squirm, trying to position my throbbing centre into the path of her fingers.
The bed shifts again, and her hands disappear altogether. I hear myself whimper pathetically, and she chuckles. She lifts my leg and kisses my foot, licking and nipping all the way along my calf, lifting so she can reach the back of my knee, then down my thigh, only to stop when she’s a scant inch from my groin. Then she starts on the other leg. I’m beside myself when she moves away from my thighs and kisses my belly, dipping her tongue into my belly button and then over my ribs. She licks the underside of my breast, dragging her tongue upwards and stopping just short of my aching nipple.
“Please.”
“Please what?”
“Please, Abi. Please touch me.”
“Like this?” She wraps her lips around my nipple and pulls it deep into her mouth, batting her tongue across the hardened tip.
“Oh God, yes.” I lift my knees to wrap my legs about her hips, but she hooks her elbows under them and holds me open.
“Oh no, you don’t. I told you.” She blows across my wet nipple. I feel it grow even harder under the cool stream. “Tonight you’re all mine.”
I open my eyes then. I have to. I have to look into her eyes. I have to know that she understands every word I’m going to say to her. No room for doubt or confusion. I need to see every word register in those beautiful eyes of hers.
“I’m always yours. Always have been. Always will be.” I lie beneath her, my arms tied above my head, my legs held firmly in her arms, and I’m helpless. Yet when the tears well in her eyes, I have never felt so powerful. Right here is where I belong. I’m loved, and I love in return. I’m wanted, and, by God, I want her too.
She never looks away from me as she lowers my legs back to the bed and reaches between our bodies. I haven’t even noticed the black leather straps about her hips or the dildo resting between us, but when she starts to ease it into my body, I’m ready. She fills me and loves me so fully, so tenderly, t
hat I cry when I come, her own orgasm following right behind mine.
“I’m always yours too.”
“I love you, Abi Kitson.”
“And I love you, Genesis Collins. Marry me?”
It takes a minute for the question to register, a minute when her gaze goes from joyful to uncertain, until I smile and kiss her lips.
“What did you say?”
She ducks her head, takes a deep breath, and stares deep into my eyes again. “Will you marry me?”
“Yes.”
###
ABOUT ANDREA BRAMHALL
Andrea Bramhall wrote her first novel at the age of six and three-quarters. It was seven pages long and held together with a pink ribbon. Her Gran still has it in the attic. Since then she has progressed a little bit and now has a number of published works held together with glue, not ribbons, an Alice B. Lavender certificate, and a Lambda Literary award cluttering up her book shelves.
She studied music and all things arty at Manchester Metropolitan University, graduating in 2002 with a BA in contemporary arts. She is certain it will prove useful someday…maybe.
When she isn’t busy running a campsite and hostel on the North Norfolk Coast, Bramhall can be found hunched over her laptop scribbling down the stories that won’t let her sleep. She can also be found reading, walking the dogs up mountains while taking a few thousand photos, scuba diving while taking a few thousand photos, swimming, kayaking, playing the saxophone, or cycling.
CONNECT WITH ANDREA:
Website: andreabramhall.wordpress.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/AndreaBramhall
OTHER BOOKS FROM YLVA PUBLISHING
www.ylva-publishing.com
Collide-O-Scope
(Norfolk Coast Investigation Story – Book #1)
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ISBN: 978-3-95533-574-8 (mobi), 978-3-95533-575-5 (epub)
Length: 90,000 words (370 pages)
An unidentified woman is found murdered on the North Norfolk Coastal Path and newly promoted Detective Sergeant Kate Brannon and Kings Lynn’s CID have the task of figuring out whom, how, and why. A job that’s made more difficult when everyone of the forty residents in the village has something to hide and answers her questions with a string of lies.
Georgina Temple has her own secrets to keep, and her own reasons to keep them. But her growing attraction to Kate makes it increasingly difficult to keep them.
Kate’s investigation into the woman’s death delves into the heart of the tiny fishing village where nothing and no one is quite what they seem.
Welcome to the Wallops
(The Wallops – Book #1)
Gill McKnight
ISBN: 978-3-95533-560-1 (mobi), 978-3-95533-561-8 (epub)
Length: 67,000 words (242 pages)
The villages of High Wallop and Lesser Wallop have graced either end of the Wallop valley since medieval times. And competition between the two has never ceased since, especially over the famous Cheese and Beer festival.
As head Judge of Show, Jane Swallow has always struggled to keep peace, friendship, and equanimity within the community she loves, but this year everything is wrong. Her father has just been released from prison and is on his way to Lesser Wallop with the rest of her travelling family and their caravans.
Her job is on the line, and her ex-girlfriend from a million years ago has just moved in next door.
Her life is going down the drain unless she can pull off some sort of miracle.
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ISBN: 978-3-95533-691-2 (mobi), 978-3-95533-692-9 (epub)
Length: 92,000 words (343 pages)
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ISBN: 978-3-95533-396-6 (mobi), 978-3-95533-397-3 (epub)
Length: 295 pages (77,000 words)
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Then, out of the blue, their birth mother wants to contact Wendy and her twin brother Will.
Fenced-In Felix
(Girl Meets Girl Series – Book #3)
Cheyenne Blue
Felix Jameson is working hard to get her outback hospitality business off the ground. Building cabins, leading trail rides and enticing tourists means she hasn’t much time for distractions—and that includes romance. But when she meets Josie, a drifter who picks up casual work as she goes, Felix is intrigued and attracted. Josie asks Felix to board her horse, Flame, and Felix is delighted. Not only can she use the extra money, but it means she will see a lot more of Josie. Felix finds Josie fits in well into her life, and for the solitary Felix there’s finally the possibility of romance. But there’s something suspicious about Flame, who bears an uncanny resemblance to a valuable stolen racehorse. Felix knows she is falling hard for Josie, but is Josie all she seems, or is she mixed up in shady dealings?
Just My Luck
© 2016 by Andrea Bramhall
ISBN (mobi): 978-3-95533-703-2
ISBN (epub): 978-3-95533-704-9
Also available as paperback.
Published by Ylva Publishing, legal entity of Ylva Verlag, e.Kfr.
Ylva Verlag, e.Kfr.
Owner: Astrid Ohletz
Am Kirschgarten 2
65830 Kriftel
Germany
www.ylva-publishing.com
First edition: 2016
No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the author’s rights. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are a product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to locales, events, business establishments, or actual persons—living or dead—is entirely coincidental.
Credits
Edited by Gill McKnight, R.G. Emanuelle & Michelle Aguilar
Cover Design by Adam Lloyd
m.Net
Just My Luck Page 25