Fall in Love

by Anthology

  “Dean?”

  “Hmm?”

  “My foot’s asleep.”

  His muffled chuckle brushes against my hair. We untangle ourselves, and he grasps my hands to pull me up. I work the pins and needles out of my foot before we move to the sofa, where I settle against his side, right into the place I never want to leave.

  A deep, dreamless sleep pulls me under. I surrender, knowing I’m safe.

  *

  Dean is gone when I wake early the next morning. There’s a note on the coffee table saying he went to the bakery. I’m still drained and tired, but the fear has eased.

  I push aside the quilt that Dean must have spread over me during the night. I sit up as the front door clicks open and he steps in. Our gazes meet across the room, somewhat cautious, but no anger or uncertainty shimmers in the air.

  He pauses beside me, the scent of his soap tickling my nose, and brushes his hand against my cheek. A tingle skims through me at the touch of his fingers.

  “You look like you need some coffee,” he remarks.

  I manage a hoarse laugh. “Yes, please.”

  “Coming right up.”

  “Oh, what about Kelsey?”

  “I called her last night and told her you were here. She said, and I quote, ‘It’s about freaking time.’”

  We both smile, then Dean goes into the kitchen while I shove to my feet and head for the shower. I stand under the hot spray for a long time, feeling as if it can wash away all the ugliness of recent weeks. I dress in loose pants and a soft fleece shirt, then go to sit at the kitchen table with my husband.

  We’re both relatively quiet as we have coffee and muffins, though we cast glances at each other from across the table. Just the sight of him warms my blood—his masculine features that are so dear to me, the strands of thick hair brushing his forehead, the way he picks up his coffee by wrapping his hand around the cup rather than the handle.

  We exchange sections of the Sunday paper, commenting on news articles and local events. He reads the sports page. I read the entertainment insert. He refills our coffee. I clip a few coupons. He studies the stock market. I get a pencil and work out a few answers on the crossword puzzle, then pass it across for him to finish. We split the last blueberry muffin.

  It’s almost eleven before we finally get the dishes washed and the paper stacked for recycling. Dean stands and stretches, his T-shirt pulling across his chest, then comes around the table to wrap me in his arms.

  “Ah, Liv.” His body heaves with a sigh. “I miss you.”

  I press my forehead against his chest. “I miss you too. Things sure got messed up, didn’t they?”

  “They did.”

  “We’ve done a lousy job trying to fix it.”

  “Yeah.” His voice roughens with the admission.

  I swallow hard and force out my darkest fear. “What if we can’t?”

  Dean puts his hands on either side of my head and lifts my face to look at him. His eyes are serious but tender.

  “We’ve done it before,” he says. “We can do it again.”

  Fall seven times. Get up eight.

  “I don’t want to lose you,” I whisper.

  “You’ll never lose me.” He slides his hand to the back of my neck. “I want you to come home.”

  I tighten my arms around his waist. A tentative hope spreads inside me, like a new, green shoot pushing its way up through a layer of ice.

  “I want to come home,” I say. “And I want you to be here when I do.”

  “I’ll be here, beauty. Waiting for you.”

  *

  Christmas Eve is cold and bright. A fresh layer of snow covers Avalon Street, and the sun sparkles off it like little jewels. Colorful lights twinkle around lampposts and store windows.

  The Historical Museum is having a holiday party for staff and volunteers this afternoon, and Dean and I are going together. Though I haven’t yet moved back into our apartment, we’re both here getting ready.

  I dress in a black, short-sleeved jersey dress with a scooped neckline that displays the cameo necklace Dean gave me as a first anniversary present. The pendant matches my cameo engagement ring, which I’m also wearing. I twist my hair into a ponytail and fasten it with a red bow, then head out of the bathroom.

  Dean is knotting his tie in front of the mirror. He slides his gaze to me, and his eyes warm with appreciation.

  “Very pretty.” He gives his tie a final pull, then comes over to press a kiss against my lips.

  My heart flutters. He looks incredibly handsome in black trousers and a crisp, white shirt, the knot of his tie nestled against the column of his throat. I watch as he shrugs into his suit jacket, checks for his wallet, fastens his watch—all those easy, deft movements that have become so familiar to me over the years.

  I think I’ve loved him since he first walked into Jitter Beans. Into my life.

  He takes his car keys from the dresser and glances at me. A frown tugs at his mouth.

  “Liv?”

  Emotions tumble through me, riotous colors, light and shadows, fear and joy. I take a breath.

  “Dean.”

  “What?”

  “I’m pregnant.”

  *

  Thank you for reading AROUSE!

  Liv and Dean’s passionate journey continues in

  ALLURE: Book Two in The Spiral of Bliss Series

  AVAILABLE NOW! CLICK HERE TO PURCHASE ALLURE

  Please consider signing up for the Nina Lane newsletter and liking Nina’s Facebook page to receive updates, or visit http://www.ninalane.com

  *

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  New York Times & USA Today bestselling author Nina Lane writes hot, sexy romances and spicy erotica. Originally from California, she holds a PhD in Art History and an MA in Library and Information Studies, which means she loves both research and organization. She also enjoys traveling and thinks St. Petersburg, Russia is a city everyone should visit at least once. Although Nina would go back to college for another degree because she's that much of a bookworm and a perpetual student, she now lives the happy life of a full-time writer. You can write to Nina at nina@ninalane.com.

  Getting Out of Hand

  Sapphire Falls, book one

  Erin Nicholas

  Website ~ Facebook ~ Newsletter

  Dedication

  To the inventors of the shower cleaning stuff you don’t have to scrub.

  To the inventors of the frozen pizza.

  And to my family who has to put up with shower cleaning stuff you don’t have to scrub too often passing for “cleaning” and frozen pizza too often passing for “dinner”.

  I love you with all of my heart.

  Genius scientist Mason Riley can cure world hunger, impress the media and piss off the Vice President of the United States all before breakfast. But he’s not sure he can get through his high school class reunion.

  Then he meets the new girl in town.

  Adrianne Scott loves Sapphire Falls. The sleepy little town has been the perfect place to escape her fast-paced, high stress lifestyle. Her only plans now include opening her candy shop and living a quiet, drama-free life.

  Until Mason Riley bids four hundred dollars just to dance with her.

  Mason sure doesn’t look—or kiss—like a genius scientist geek. In fact, he makes Adrianne’s heart pound like nothing she’s ever experienced. Passion like this with a guy who travels the world and parties at the White House should probably be a red flag for a girl who wants a simple boring life.

  Good thing no one falls in love in a weekend.

  Chapter One

  Mason Riley studied his best friend’s tight butt and long legs and reflected, not for the first time, on how much easier his life would be if they were attracted to one another.

  “Oh, you’re going,” Lauren said, as she turned from retrieving the garlic bread from the oven.

  “I’m not going.”

  “You h
ave to.”

  “No, I definitely do not.”

  “Come on. It’s your hometown.”

  Initially, Mason had thought he was attracted to Lauren, but they had a hard time spending any time together that didn’t quickly divert into work talk. They’d tried. But they were too compatible in their work life to ever get beyond it.

  And then there was the small detail of Lauren being a lesbian.

  Technically, she was bisexual, but of her last three lovers, two had been women and those two relationships had spanned almost a year.

  “I’ve lived happily for the past eleven years without spending time in Sapphire Falls. I can’t imagine why that would change now simply because they need something from me,” he said.

  Lauren slid the bread into a basket and handed it to him.

  “Mason Riley, your hometown needs you.”

  He frowned as he carried the bread and wine to the table. “Too bad.”

  “You inherited that land what, two years ago? You haven’t even seen it.”

  “Not true. I spent hours and hours on that land growing up.”

  “You haven’t seen it since you’ve owned it.”

  “It’s a big old farmhouse, a barn and three hundred and sixty acres of fields. I imagine it looks much like it did when I last saw it.”

  “You should be doing something with it. Or letting someone else do something with it,” Lauren said.

  He glanced at the letter lying conveniently in the center of the table. “They want to build on top of it.”

  Lauren set two plates of chicken parmesan on the linen placemats and took her chair. “It’s a legitimate offer. You have land that you’re not using and they need land to build on. Why shouldn’t they ask you?”

  “It’s a town of twelve hundred people. What could they possibly be building that’s worth investing in?”

  “Why don’t you go find out?

  He took a bite of chicken.

  “It’s your hometown,” she tried again.

  That really didn’t matter. It might mean he was an ass, but it really didn’t matter that it was where he had grown up.

  It didn’t make him feel special, or intrigued, or flattered to be on the list of five specially selected possible investors. He knew the other four men on the list. Too well. They’d been in high school with Mason. They’d all done well enough to be included on the list, but he knew for a fact that he was worth three times what the other four were—put together.

  So they wanted him to invest. And they wanted his land.

  He’d loved that farm and Milton Johnson, the man he’d worked for every day for nearly six years during junior high and high school, but he had few positive emotions for the town where the farm was located. He hesitated to call it his hometown. He didn’t know that he’d ever really felt at home there. But it remained that he’d spent his formative years in the tiny Nebraska town. And now they needed him.

  It was interesting. To say the least.

  He’d been an outcast growing up. He’d skipped two grades, making him two years younger than the peers he went to class with. That made him weird. He’d been far more interested in the crops and animals he worked with on Milt’s farm than the dates and parties the other kids spent their time on. That made him weird. He’d been awkward around girls, hadn’t been able to discuss pop culture and didn’t care about Friday’s ballgame. That made him weird.

  That was years ago, of course. But he hadn’t been back to Sapphire Falls since he’d finished his doctorate degrees, made his money, discovered the genius of custom tailored suits or realized that there was a fine science to women and seduction—and science was something he was plain made for.

  Mason poured wine into both glasses and then took a long drink of his. He watched Lauren stab a green bean and chew, clearly thinking of a new argument.

  “Why do you care if I go?” he asked.

  “I just want you to.” She didn’t make eye contact as she pushed her chicken around her plate.

  “How is this about you, exactly?”

  “It’s about you. I think you need to go back there and blow them away.”

  “You think my two PhDs will impress them?”

  “Maybe. But they’ve always known you were smart. What they don’t know is that you now know how to dress, how to talk to women, how to order wine, how to—”

  “Got it. And let’s not forget to mention that without you, I would be sitting in the corner, alone, dressed in ten-year-old sweat pants, lamenting the utter lack of anything positive in my life.”

  Her gaze traveled over him, and Mason grinned, knowing what was coming.

  “I really did do a hell of a job.”

  Lauren wasn’t technically as smart as Mason, but she was smarter than ninety-six-point-four percent of the population, which meant she was hard to argue with. Making things even more difficult was the fact she could be impressively charming or incredibly manipulative, depending on what the situation required. Both of those things had helped them expand from a research lab funded by grants to an actual business that made a profit consulting with and developing projects for everyone from overseas governments to local farmers.

  Innovative Agricultural Solutions, or IAS for short, was the perfect combination of all the things he and Lauren were good at and loved. This was where he was appreciated, needed, successful.

  Why would he want to go back to Sapphire Falls even for a weekend? He had every intention of flat out ignoring the letter.

  “They said in the letter that it’s the alumni weekend. They’ve invited you to all the festivities, to see what the town is really like and hear about their plans for the land. Aren’t you the least bit curious?”

  Mason took a drink of wine and shook his head. “No.”

  “You have to be,” Lauren insisted. “You haven’t been back in over a decade. You have to wonder, at least a little, what’s going on. Isn’t there anyone you would want to see again?”

  No.

  It didn’t matter that Hailey Conner still lived there.

  Nor did it matter that the letter to the potential investors had come from her. The mayor of Sapphire Falls.

  Oh, yeah, the land would mean a lot to her.

  But it didn’t matter.

  He had a sophisticated lifestyle, the respect of the state and nationwide agriculture community and the attention of women that would make jaws drop in Sapphire Falls. He’d gained confidence and the ability to participate in social situations without embarrassing himself. He could out dress the models in GQ. He never had to look at price tags before buying anything and his taste in wine, entertainment, women and nearly every other facet of life was perfect.

  He didn’t need to impress Sapphire Falls, or Hailey Conner, to feel good about himself.

  Lauren continued to chew, her eyes on the wine bottle. Finally, she swallowed, set her fork down and regarded him with a serious look. “Honey, you have to go because…I need the time off.”

  “You need the time off? You’re coming with me?” He knew that wasn’t the case. Lauren didn’t spend the night in towns that didn’t have a Starbucks and a Macy’s. Sapphire Falls had coffee at the diner, Dottie’s, and at the Stop, the gas station/convenience store/pizza place/ice cream shop on Main and First—though not good coffee. The closest shoe store was twenty-two miles away.

  “I need the time off from you.”

  He selected a green bean as well and chewed as he watched her. “I have no idea what you mean by that.”

  She tipped her head to one side. “The hell if you don’t.”

  Mason took a sip of wine and shook his head. “No. I really don’t.” He did. But he did not want to go to Sapphire Falls.

  “I can’t take time off if you don’t take time off,” she said. “And you know it.”

  “You don’t need time off. We have a lot to do.”

  “Look, Mason,” Lauren said. “Alex is a little intimidated by you.”

  “Alex needs to man up.”
Alexia was a tall, beautiful, willowy blond who was absolutely, no question, all woman.

  “Ha, ha. What Alex needs is a weekend alone with me without you interrupting us.”

  Mason knew exactly what she was talking about but he wasn’t about to admit it. “I don’t interrupt. I call you about work. If you’re in the middle of…things…when I call, that isn’t my fault.”

  “The last eight out of ten times that we’ve been making love, you’ve called.”

  “Not on purpose. Though if you had a webcam, I would very likely email.”

  “Again, you’re hilarious.” Lauren drank the rest of her wine, set the glass down on the table and leaned in. “You owe me. I made you rich, hot and un-weird. Now I want you to leave town. Is that so much to ask?”

  “It’s also not my fault that you take my calls and return my texts,” he pointed out, not wanting to admit or deny that he owed her. He did. Big. And he knew that no matter how wonderful Lauren was, she was going to cash in sometime. Maybe this was a good way to get it over with.

  Lauren looked down. “You’re right.”

  “I am?” He hadn’t expected that.

  “I shouldn’t answer when you call. But I never know for sure. I mean, what if you need me? Or what if something huge happened at the lab? Yes, I’d want to know.” She looked up with the most desperate expression he’d ever seen on her face. “I can’t help it. I love Alex, but I also love what you and I do together, Mason. So I can’t ignore the calls. Which is why you have to leave town. Far away. For several days. Because when you’re here, you work. When you work, amazing things happen. When amazing things happen, I want to know. So you have to leave.”