by Evans, Trent
“Beg me?” he whispered, his mind blanking. Dane backed up against his truck, stumbling as his heel caught the sidewall of one of the big tires. “I don’t—beg me for what?”
What the fuck is going on?
“For your forgiveness.”
“You—you don’t need my forgiveness, Amity. You need to find a man who’s right for you, who can give you what you need.” He gave her an ironic shrug. “Preferably one who’s employed, too.”
“I’ve already found that man—and I was stupid enough to let him go.” She walked to him, taking his hand, looking down at it. “All I can hope for now is that he takes me back, even if I don’t deserve it.”
Dane’s heart was pounding, the blood rushing in his ears. He didn’t want to hope—but he did. Why had she come back?
“Amity.” He caressed her cheek and she turned her lips to his palm, kissing it. “I can’t go through this again. I can’t… lose you again. Please—if this is just a game to you, you’ve gotta stop this now.”
“I was so stupid, Dane. I’m so sorry. I—I was afraid. Afraid that if you were forced to choose, I wouldn’t be your choice—so I made the choice for you.”
It was never a choice, bad girl.
A tear ran down her cheek, and he wiped it gently away with the side of his thumb, a painful lump in his throat.
“I-I’m so sorry, Dane. I should have listened, listened to my conscience—and my heart.” Her overflowing eyes looked up at him and all he wanted to do was take her in his arms and never let her go, never let her feel pain ever again.
“I wasn’t just running from that fear, I was running from something else. I’m in love with you, Dane. I think I’ve been in love with you since the first moment I laid eyes on you. Please forgive me, please take me back.”
Then he did take her in his arms, and he hugged her tight, kissing her forehead, the wonderful smell of her hair filling his senses again. He’d feared he’d never feel it again, something so simple, something so right.
His Amity, in his arms once more.
“I never stopped loving you, Amity. I forgive you. Please, please don’t ever leave me again.”
Then she sobbed against him, and he held her, as the drizzle turned to rain, as the cold liquid drenched them both, cleansing them, washing away their pain—leaving only hope.
And love.
Dane hugged the infuriating, fascinating, beautiful girl, and he knew if he had to, he’d go through this pain a thousand times over for this one moment.
His Amity in his arms, forever.
He smiled against her hair, chuckling with black humor. “Wanna help me unpack? Looks like I’ve got plenty of time on my hands now that my practice has gone bye-bye.”
“Your practice isn’t gone,” she murmured in a soft, watery voice.
“Kinda hard to have a practice without patients, girl. They locked me out of the database before I even got to the office this morning. It’s over.”
They’d likely been assigned to Vance, or maybe Johnson. Probably both. God help those poor patients.
She pulled away for a moment, wiping at the tears streaming down her face, her hand plunging into the pocket of her coat. “There’s more, sir.” She held up a little black flash drive. “The day before I quit, I copied part of the patient database. Just the names, numbers, and addresses—but it’s enough.”
He grinned at her. “Oh, Amity.”
She smiled up at him through her sniffles. “And I talked to Cathie too. There’s a whole bunch more couples—like Aaron and Lis. Cathie spread the word about what happened. They all want you as their doctor.”
Dane took the drive, turning it over in his hand, looking at Amity out of the corner of his eye. “This is highly illegal, you know.”
“I did good though, right?” She beamed at him, her puffy eyes bright and hopeful.
He wrapped a hand around the nape of her neck and pulled her up, kissing her, the feel of her soft, wet lips making him growl.
Mine.
“You did great, bad girl.”
“There’s one more thing I need to tell you, something I kept from you.”
Dane scowled down at her, pulling her tighter against his chest. “What is it? You know what happens to girls who lie, don’t you?”
Amity nodded, her big eyes wide.
“Spill it.”
“I turn twenty-five in January.”
“God, I remember twenty-five.” He stroked her hair, and she looked down, her hands spread over his chest. “Go on, girl.”
“I have a trust fund, and when I turn twenty-five, I take full control of it.” She gazed up at him with those beautiful brown eyes. “There’s three million dollars in it.”
He squeezed her tight, looking down upon her with an exaggerated frown. “I guess we need to have another discussion about little girls telling the truth, don’t we?”
A smile curved her pink lips, a shudder passing through her body.
“I can’t wait, sir.”
The End
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Trent Evans Links
You can find author interviews, excerpts of upcoming books, and general thoughts from Trent Evans via his blog, his Twitter and Facebook pages, and his Amazon and Goodreads profiles, using the following links:
http://trentevansletters.com/
https://twitter.com/TrentEvansTales
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http://www.amazon.com/Trent-Evans/e/B007Q6R6MQ/
https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5758969.Trent_Evans
Table of Contents
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Trent Evans Links