Her heart hammered from his close proximity, his pure male scent, and the conviction of his tone. “And that same thing is what?”
“A happily ever after.”
She widened her eyes. How many times had she’d dreamed of her own happily ever after with Colt? Too many.
“But you couldn’t trust me enough to tell me what was really going on with the show.” He gripped her shoulders. “And I...I was too stupid to not listen when you wanted to explain. I’m sorry for that, baby.” He pressed his lips together and looked away for a moment before he placed a gentle kiss to her forehead. “I’m so sorry.”
Tears swam in her eyes, making it difficult to focus on his gorgeous face. “I’m the one who’s sorry. I should have told you. I wanted to...but I—”
“I’m an attorney, hon, I understand why. You were under contract.”
She stiffened. “Yes, that’s true, but the real reason I didn’t tell you...” She trailed. The admission hovered on the tip of her tongue. Then she looked into his eyes, and once again, drew from his strength, his courage. Funny, until Colt, she’d always relied on herself, but it appeared two, had become better than one. And she wanted to be one with him. Mind, body, and spirit. The thought of not having him in her life out-weighed whatever outcome her admission might reveal.
“The real reason,” she began again, firmer, stronger. “Was that I was worried if I’d told you the truth you’d walk away.”
Disappointment clouded his eyes. “And the show would be ruined, ratings would drop, everyone on the crew would lose—”
“No,” she shouted, and gripped his biceps. Without a fist to secure her towel around her body, it slipped and sagged to the floor. She didn’t care. She couldn’t let him think...
“No,” she repeated, softer, quieter. “I was worried you’d walk away from me.”
He gave her a hard shake. “I would never have left you over that.”
She choked on a sob. “You did leave me.”
His eyes softened, and he cupped her cheeks. “I know, and I’m so sorry. I was hurt and mad...” He trailed off, and brushed his thumb along her jaw.
“And now?”
“I’m still mad, but at myself. I should have listened to you last night.”
“Yes, you should have, but I owe you the apology. I didn’t tell you everything that I should have, but now that you’re here, I want to.”
He kissed her forehead again, then her nose, then her lips. “I think I got the gist from Shepp last night. There’s no need to rehash this.”
“There is. I did do the show to save it and everyone’s jobs, but in return, Derek promised to promote me, double my salary, which wasn’t much to begin with, and read one of my screenplays.”
“You write screenplays?”
“I do, and have a dozen of them, but I want you to know that I told Derek I wasn’t sure if I wanted the promotion after all.”
“Why?” he asked, his voice barely a whisper.
“I didn’t want to leave Dallas.” Naked, vulnerable, she drew in a ragged breath and admitted what had been in her heart for more than seven months. “I couldn’t leave you again.”
“Denver?”
She nodded, and held his gaze.
Running his big hands down her back, he kissed her shoulder. “When I’d woken up that morning and found you gone, I ripped the hotel room apart, hoping you’d left me a note, your information, something.” He kissed her neck, nuzzled his nose against her hair. “I searched for you, for months I tried to find you.”
Gripping his head in her hands she searched his eyes, and found nothing but honesty. The shy, boyish smile he sent her had tears streaming down her face. “You did?”
He nodded. “You did something to me that night, something I couldn’t understand or comprehend. And when you showed up in Dallas, I was determined to see if what had happened in Denver was my imagination running places it’s never been before, or just a case of plain ol’ hot sex on the brain. I ended up discovering that the sex was incredibly hot.” He nipped her lip. “And that it wasn’t my imagination. I’d fallen for you in Denver, and fell even harder in Dallas.”
“Me, too,” she said. “But I’d already signed the contract with Pick Me. I wasn’t supposed to breathe a word about my part in the show, and I was so worried you’d walk away from me when you’d learned the truth...I’m sorry, I embarrassed you. I betrayed your trust, but I honestly had no idea they were going to do what they did last night. If I had, I would have walked off the show. You’re more important to me.”
He hugged her, and she held him close. Inhaled his scent which had become so familiar, so comforting to her, and swore she’d remember this moment forever, even if what they had together didn’t last that long. She’d take the time she could with him. This week. Maybe a few months in Dallas. For too many years she’d controlled every aspect of her future, and now she wanted to fly by the seat of her pants, so to speak considering she wasn’t wearing any. She wanted whatever it took to have this. The comfort of a man she loved, for however long it lasted. And if she ended up hurt, at least she’d discovered what it was like to love.
“You’re important to me, too,” he whispered in her ear, then drew back, and tilted her chin with the tip of his finger. “I hurt you last night, and swear I’ll never walk away from you again.” The conviction in his tone, the intensity in his gaze had her biting her lip. “I love you, Valentina.”
The words she’d wanted to hear slammed into her heart. Her chest tightened, and her body grew limp against him. She’d betrayed Colt, lied to him, and he loved her? The future suddenly brightened. Where a week or a few months would have been enough to have gotten her through an unforeseeable future, knowing he loved her changed...her future. He said he wouldn’t walk away again, neither would she. “I love you, too. So much, Colt, and have for a long time.”
His lips were on hers. She gasped against his mouth, then sank into every hot, hard inch of him when his tongue swept against hers. Naked and in his arms, she twisted her fingers through his hair and shamelessly ground against him. His belt buckle dug into her belly, and so did his erection. Wetness seeped between her inner thighs, the need to have him inside of her the only thought...the only need.
Shoving his shirt over his head, she broke the kiss, then immediately had her mouth on his once his coarse chest hair tickled her nipples.
Not enough, her brain and body screamed.
With her lips locks to his, his tongue offering promises of more to come, she tackled his big ol’ belt buckle with finesse— practice makes perfect —shoved his khaki shorts down, then dropped to her knees.
“No,” he grunted, gripped her hair, and tried to pull her away. She strained against his hold, took him in her mouth and was rewarded with a deep groan that sent a zing of throbbing desire straight between her thighs.
She loved him like this. Knew what he loved. She lapped the underside of his length, zeroed on the slit at the tip, then smiled when his knees buckled. She sucked him, rolled his sac between her fingers until he tugged her hair hard enough only the tip of her tongue remained at the head of his erection. She flicked once, twice, against the wide crest. He shuddered then hauled her against him. His hand still gripping her hair, he forced her head back. Licked his way down her neck, then back up, and nipped her earlobe.
“My turn.”
He had her on the bed, his head between her legs in a matter of seconds. She jumped, then sank onto the mattress when his mouth, those firm lips caressed her sex. He shot his tongue out, licked and lapped, then he pressed her back and spread her legs wide and stared at her.
“Watch me,” he said, then went to work. Kissing her sex with an intimacy she hadn’t believed possible. She couldn’t tear her eyes away even if a sudden hurricane came crashing onto the island. He looked so sexy between her legs. His head dipping, withdrawing, coaxing, his stubble tickling her thighs, his tongue dancing along her clit, and when he inserted his fingers, she came
with an explosiveness that had her back arching and her head dropping against the mattress.
As her orgasm shot through her, tensed her body, he was inside her with one long thrust. Capturing her groan with a deep kiss as he released his own. The sensation overwhelming, more than mind blowing, more like making love.
One rough hand palmed her breast, plucked her nipple. The other raised her leg over his shoulder. While he teased her nipple, he ran his hand down her leg until he reached where they were joined. He stilled, gave her nipple a final, light pinch, then moved his calloused fingers along her rib cage, her belly, until he reached her dark curls. He thumbed her clit. “You’re hot, baby. Always wet and tight for me.”
Slowly, he withdrew. The drag of his heavy erection against her over sensitized nerve endings caused goose bumps to cascade across her skin. “Watch,” he demanded. “Watch how well we fit together. How hot we are together. Watch me fill you.” Leaning back slightly, he slammed every hard inch into her. She groaned and closed her eyes, then immediately flipped them open when he plucked her clit. “Watch.”
She did, the sight too erotic, too hot and intimate to tear her gaze away from. The slide of his erection, glistening with her desire, the stroke of his thumb along her clit, the way his stomach muscles clenched and tightened with each thrust of his hips.
Close to coming apart with each sensual rock of his hips, she leaned up, reached for his neck, and brought him closer. Chest to chest, his coarse hair teasing her rigid nipples, she captured his lips. With a low groan, he thrust his tongue inside her mouth, mimicking the way he thrust between her outstretched thighs.
Panting, she tore her mouth away, and cupped his stubbled cheeks in her palms. Their breaths mingled as she snared his gaze, caught the heat in his eyes, the consuming hunger, the lust, and the love.
“When you come, you always look me straight in the eyes. As if I’m the only one. As if no other man could make you feel the way I do.”
His words, spoken the night he’d stripped her raw with overwhelming need and emotion, would echo in her heart forever. No man could ever make her feel the way he did. He was right, they fit perfect together. Not just physically, either. With Colt, she found comfort and safety. He softened her rough edges, soothed her, and gave her strength to be herself. To love and be loved.
With tears clouding her eyes, she held his gaze, held his head in her hands and let herself go. The orgasm ripped through her, shook her core, her heart, her soul. With his eyes, wild with passion and love, still locked on hers, he pounded into her. “Don’t ever stop looking at me like that,” he whispered, his warm breath burning a path along her lips. “Don’t ever stop.”
“Never,” she vowed, then cried out his name as another orgasm splintered through her body. He joined her at that moment, thrusting deep, his body rigid and taut. Breathing hard, he continued to hold her gaze, then kissed her with so much tenderness and love, tears streamed down her cheeks.
He brushed them away, then rolled onto his back, taking her with him. She nestled her head in the crook of his shoulder, wrapped a leg across his body, and ran her palm along his chest. His heart raced beneath her hand, his chest and stomach still heaved from the exertion of their love making, and she smiled.
“What are you grinning about?” he asked, and brought her hand to his lips.
She raised herself onto her elbow and cradled her head in her hand. “How’d you know I was smiling?”
He kissed her fingers. “I could feel it against my shoulder.”
With her smile growing, she tweaked his nipple. “Well, what can I say? You make me...happy.”
“Is that all?”
She rubbed her aroused sex against his hip. “And horny.”
“I’ll take happy and horny.”
“How about well loved?”
“That’s even better.” He gave her a long lingering kiss.
“So you’re not upset that I picked you as my bachelor?” she asked when he rested his head back on the pillow.
In an instant she was on her back, pinned beneath his body. His erection unbelievably hard again and pressing between her thighs. “All I ever wanted was for you to pick me,” he said and thrust inside her with one full stroke of his hips.
An hour later, freshly showered, she snuggled next to Colt in a comfy lounge chair out on the patio and watched the sun set. He stroked her arm leisurely and kissed the top of her head. “There’s something I’m wondering.”
“What’s that?”
“After everything you did for the show, why do you think Derek used you like he did?”
She raised herself up to look at him. “Derek had nothing to with what had happened during the season finale. Jonas had gone behind his back and made me the imposter.”
“To retaliate against me,” he said, his eyes darkening with regret. “Long story short, I’d found out that Jonas used to be a porn star back in the late eighties. I’d threatened to out his dirty secret to get him to give me the security tape.”
“A porn star?” She wrinkled her nose. “Really? Jonas? I mean he’s...” She shuddered just picturing Jonas naked. “Well, apparently he’d gotten his revenge anyway,” she said wryly.
He smoothed his hands down her back until he cupped her bottom. “Are we going to let him?” He squeezed her rear sending a shock of desire straight between her thighs. “’Cause I could think of a much sweeter vengeance.”
She wrapped her arms around his neck. Loving him, loving that he loved her. “You’re insatiable,” she chided, and nipped his lower lip. “And I like it. So tell me every sexy detail of your plan for vengeance.”
“First I’m going to ask you to marry me, then I’m going to strip you naked, spread your gorgeous thighs and...what? Not detailed enough?” he asked with a crooked grin.
Stunned, reeling, her heart beating to the point she might actually need a fibulator, she blinked a few times, then gripped his shirt. “Colt, I...I—”
“Marry me, baby. We picked each other, and I can’t imagine my life without you.”
A tear slipped down her cheek. “Yes,” she whispered, and kissed him until the sun slipped below the horizon.
Epilogue
Four months later...
“Showtime.”
Valentina looked up from her computer and smiled. Her husband had to be the sexist sight on earth. Freshly showered, his hair still damp, and wearing nothing but a pair of old baggy sweatpants and that crooked smile she loved. “Why didn’t you tell me you were jumping in the shower? I would have joined you.”
“Mmmhmm, ever since I installed the double shower massagers you insisted on after experiencing them in Jamaica, you’ve been taking an awful lot of showers lately. Should I be jealous?”
“Of a shower massager?” She lifted a shoulder and hid a smile as she closed the file she’d been working on, then turned off the computer. “Nothing beats the real thing, baby.” She winked and gave his tight butt a squeeze.
He snagged her arm as she moved past him and pinned her against the wall. “Don’t start something you can’t finish,” he said, his eyes darkening with desire before he kissed her.
She melted into the kiss, sank into his heat, wrapping her arms around his neck and grinding herself against his erection. He tore his skillful lips away with a frustrated groan. “You’re a bad girl. And all bad girls deserve a spanking.”
Running her finger along the arousal pressing underneath his sweatpants, she shook her head. “Promise?”
He pushed off the wall, and took her hand. “Oh yeah, you better believe it. Now c’mon, let’s go watch ourselves one last time.”
Snuggling on the couch next to Colt, she reached for the remote and turned on the TV. Pick Me’s cheesy theme song blared from the speaker, and she lowered the volume. “I hate that song,” she grumbled.
“After tonight, you don’t ever have to hear it again.”
“Thank God.”
He rubbed her arm. “No regrets?”
&nb
sp; “None.” She kissed his cheek, then rested her head on his shoulder. How could she? Married to the greatest guy on earth, living on the most beautiful piece of land in the country, and making income doing the thing she loved most.
After they’d returned from Jamaica, she’d called Derek and told him the good and bad news. The good, she was marrying Colt. The bad, she quit the show. Derek didn’t seem the least surprised. He’d promised her the thirty thousand dollars all the bachelorette’s received on the completion of the show, plus a twenty thousand dollar bonus. The bonus, she’d supposed, was guilt money.
Derek had also informed her that World Entertainment had loved her screenplay, Dark Knights, and wanted to run the pilot, along with half a dozen shows over the summer to gage audience interest. If things went well, Dark Knights would air every Tuesday, during primetime, come the fall. Yeah, she had zero regrets. Well, except for having to watch Pick Me one last time. But, her darling husband had said viewing the show would give them closure. Because she’d do anything for him, she’d spent every Wednesday night for the past two months watching them date and fall in love on TV.
Tonight was the last show, and she didn’t need to see Pick Me’s reunion episode considering she’d lived through it. Both Brad and Trent had been there, offering their congratulations to them on their upcoming marriage, but it had turned out they had both needed some congratulating in return. Brad and Larissa had gotten engaged, and had decided to open their own gym. Trent...well, he’d run off to Las Vegas and had married his Goth, dental hygienist, Bridget. While they had been in Vegas, an agent had discovered him, drumming at a club with his band, and had landed him a record deal. Everyone had come out on top. Well, except for Jonas, who, last she’d heard from Derek, was flipping burgers at a fast food restaurant.
Her image appeared on their fifty two inch high definition TV, and she cringed. “Oh God,” she complained. “I hate seeing myself on TV.”
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