by JoAnn Ross
Deciding that perhaps the birds might not be too choosy, she took the cookie sheet outside.
That’s when she saw him. Walking toward her in a strong, determined stride.
At first Kirby couldn’t believe it was really Sebastian. It was undoubtedly a hologram, like the ones he showed her he could create from his mind.
Dropping the cookie sheet into the snow, she ran toward him, hurling herself into his firm arms. This was no hologram, she realized, as he covered her face with kisses. The man she loved was wonderfully, gloriously real.
“I should say I’m sorry.” Tears of happiness streamed down her uplifted face. “But I’m not.”
He buried his lips in her hair. “Neither am I.”
“What went wrong?”
“Nothing went wrong.”
“But you wanted to go home, to prove your theory worked.”
“It’s enough for me to know that it works,” Sebastian assured her. “As for going home, that’s exactly what I’ve done.”
He cupped her wet face in his hands. “All my life, I’ve struggled to be a proper Logosian scientist. I’ve spent my entire life feeling like an outsider on my own planet, forced to suppress emotions that were inappropriate. But now, here, with you, Kirby Pendleton, for the first time in my life, I feel as if I’m exactly where I belong.”
“For all time?”
“For eternity,” he agreed. “I also have a new project I need to work on.”
“What’s that?”
“Lassoing the moon.”
“Oh.” She covered her heart with her right hand as the tears began flowing again. “You truly do love me.”
“Of course I do. I would give you anything, Kirby. Just tell me what you want.”
“You.” She framed his beautiful face with her hands. “I want you, Sebastian Blackthorne.”
“You already have me.”
“As you have me,” she responded, thinking they could have been saying wedding vows. But that was a discussion for another day. For now, she was going to bask in this glorious, perfect moment.
As they walked back toward the house, something occurred to Kirby. “Poor Nate must be devastated not to have had a chance to prove his theory.”
“On the contrary. It went off like clockwork. In fact, your brother is undoubtedly having the time of his life.”
“What?” Comprehension dawned. “Nate’s gone to Logosia, hasn’t he?”
“There was only enough diamaziman for one,” he reminded her. “I trust your brother to rescue my sister and, if necessary, bring her and our mother here.”
“Wow. Well, my brother has always accomplished everything he’s set out to do.”
Nine days ago, this idea would have been too incredulous to believe. How much had changed since Sebastian Blackthorne’s arrival, which, although she’d never been a woo-woo type of woman, Kirby was convinced had been predestined. Even written in the stars.
“Nate on Logosia. Nearly two hundred years in the future.” She shook her head. “You’re right, he’s probably in seventh heaven.”
Kirby and Sebastian were almost back at the house when something occurred to her. “I hate to ask this, but what if Nate can’t get back?” The thought was too horrendous to contemplate.
“He’ll make it,” Sebastian assured her with a cocky self-confidence that reminded her of her brother. “Rosalyn will help him. Besides, he has a date back here in two weeks.”
“What’s happening in two weeks?”
“He’s agreed to be best man at our wedding. We decided that would be sufficient time to notify your mother and bring her back from Tahiti for the ceremony.”
“Did it occur to either of you two geniuses that no one thought to ask me if I wanted to get married?”
He stopped in his tracks, obviously surprised. “But you told me that you loved me.”
“I do.”
“And I love you.” His brow was furrowed and a frustrated puzzlement darkened his eyes. “And we both agreed that we want to spend the rest of our lives together, so it was only logical to assume that you would want to get married.”
The emotions were there, Kirby knew. She could feel them, warm and deep and rich, flowing from his heart. But his Logosian mind was still, and perhaps always would be, seeking logic, even in places there was none to be found.
After all, love, by its very nature, was illogical.
She did love him. All of him, his generous and caring heart, his body, even his sometimes frustrating, oftentimes intriguing mind.
“If you are concerned about my ability to provide financial support, you need not have any concern,” Sebastian said. “Nate tells me that our work will bring in enough grant money to enable me to care for a wife and children, and I have no reason to doubt his accounting.”
“Children?”
“I’m sorry. Am I taking too much for granted? About the children? Because if you’d rather not, you are more than enough to make me the happiest man on Earth.”
“I’ve always wanted a family,” Kirby said. “And the idea of making babies with you is definitely appealing. But”—she crossed her arms—“I don’t need a man to support me. I’m perfectly capable of doing that by myself.”
“You are very self-sufficient,” he agreed amiably.
“I am,” she agreed with a brisk nod of her head. “And if I marry you, it will be because I love you.”
“I understand and appreciate the thought. However, does the fact that you said if, rather than when, mean you have doubts?”
“Not a one,” she assured him. “However, while I may not be looking for a breadwinner, I wouldn’t mind at all if you wanted to take up the role of the bread baker.”
He looked down at the charred crumbs scattered like chips of ebony over the white snow. The birds, chattering their disgust, pecked with obvious distaste at the results of three hours spent in a hot kitchen.
“I think,” he decided, “that is the most logical idea you’ve come up with yet.”
Kirby laughed at that. She’d never been happier. Which was totally illogical, since her twin brother was currently hurtling through space, headed out of the galaxy.
Reminding herself that Nate might be eccentric, but he wasn’t crazy enough to attempt anything he wasn’t truly positive would work, she decided to take Sebastian’s word about her brother’s safety.
She linked her arm through his. “Come on back to the house with me,” she suggested. “We’ll heat up some pizza in the microwave, and after dinner, you can spend the rest of the night convincing me of all the reasons I’m going to marry you.”
“That scenario sounds most intriguing,” Sebastian agreed. “Highly illogical, but definitely appealing.”
“If you think that’s illogical,” Kirby promised with a bold, sexy grin, “just wait until I introduce you to the wonders of a bubble bath.”
An erotic image shimmered between them. The sight of Kirby clad in those frothy bubbles made his blood turn molten in his veins. Metaphorically.
“I believe,” Sebastian decided, “that perhaps it would be most logical to skip the pizza for now. To save more time for the bubble bath.”
“What a terrific idea.” Kirby’s smile widened as she thanked the gods or fates or whatever destiny had brought this wonderful man all the way across space and time to her. “Who’d ever guess that logic could be so much fun?”
Read on for an excerpt from Somewhere in Time, the second book in the Rum Runner Island series, on sale in January 2017, when Nate Pendleton finds himself in the adventure of a lifetime as he helps Rosalyn Vardanyian flee from the Logosian forces and discovers a woman worth fighting for.
The moon had begun to rise, casting a soft, rosy glow over Logosia. The inhabitants of the domed city were busy preparing for Truthfest, the annual observation of the arrival of the Ancient Ones. The two-week-long celebration was the one time in the year when even the most logical Logosians, aided by vast amounts of Enos Dew, tended to loosen the re
ins on their emotions.
The commuters were already smiling in anticipation. Their thoughts focused on the upcoming days, they failed to notice the sparkling bits of matter reassembling themselves outside the quartzalite windows of their speeding air shuttles.
“It works!” Nate stared around him in wonder. “Hot damn,” he shouted, “it actually works!” He could feel the grin practically splitting his face in half.
A grin that faded when he realized that he was standing face-to-face with a pair of very large, very ugly men clad in black uniforms. They reminded him vaguely of Brian and Murph, although Fred’s two henchmen had lacked the thick, leathery frontal ridge that ran along these men’s foreheads. There was, however, the same primitive violence in their eyes.
“You are late,” one of the men accused in a guttural language, which Sebastian’s translator obligingly decoded.
Sebastian had assured Nate that since English was the chosen language of the terrans on Logosia, he would be able to make himself understood. “I got held up.”
The men exchanged a look. “Truthfest is about to begin. We get paid overtime for holidays.”
“Well, I’m here now,” Nate pointed out.
With a shrug of his massive shoulders, the larger of the two men punched a code into what resembled a solar pocket calculator. The door panel behind him slid silently open. “Your prisoner awaits.”
“Prisoner?”
Deciding that somehow he must have miscalculated and landed somewhere other than Rosalyn Vardanyian’s home, Nate entered the gleaming white building. The door closed behind him, leaving him all alone in the foyer.
He was not alone for long. Two more men, twins to the pair outside the door and dressed in identical uniforms and knee-high black boots, entered the room with a rough, arrogant swagger. Between them was a woman who could only be Rosalyn Vardanyian.
Sebastian had told Nate that his sister was intelligent. And stubborn. As his appreciative gaze swept over her, Nate wondered why his friend had neglected to mention her beauty.
Her hair was golden-blond, arranged in a braided coronet atop her head. Although her body was reed slender, the clinging silvery-blue gown outlining appealing curves.
Her eyes were a tawny topaz, revealing intelligence and something else that strangely seemed to be disgust.
“So, you have finally arrived,” she said. Her voice was soft, but there was an edge to it.
“Everybody certainly seems concerned about punctuality around here,” Nate complained. “And I think you’ve mistaken me for someone else.”
“Oh, I know exactly who you are.” Rosalyn held out her hands, revealing the steel bands that encircled her wrists. “You’re the man who has come to escort me to my execution.”
Also coming December 13, 2016, Finn, the 7th book in the 7 Brides for Seven Brothers series:
Meet the Brannigan brothers! Seven sexy brothers who bring the heart and the heat! From bestselling authors Barbara Freethy, Ruth Cardello, Melody Anne, Christie Ridgway, Lynn Raye Harris, Roxanne St. Claire and JoAnn Ross comes a brand new contemporary romance family series: 7 Brides for 7 Brothers. You won’t want to miss a single one!
FINN – JoAnn Ross
Finn Brannigan has a need for speed. Fast cars, fast jets, and the fast life that comes with being a TOPGUN naval aviator. He’s flying missions over Afghanistan when his media mogul father dies unexpectedly, leaving Finn an airline in the wilds of the Alaskan wilderness. Which is a cool surprise, though he hasn’t a clue what he’s supposed to do with three small planes half a world away.
Nine months later, burned out from multiple deployments, Finn leaves the Navy and heads north to the Last Frontier to escape the world. But his planned isolation is blown to bits when a runaway bride insists he fly her to her planned honeymoon cabin located in his remote mountain town of Caribou. As the short Alaskan summer spins out, Finn finds himself wanting to slow the days down and savor every delicious moment with the free-spirited singer/songwriter who’s made him feel alive again.
Tori Cassidy has had it with dishonest, cheating playboys. Alaskan bush pilot Finn Brannigan is exactly the kind of man she can envision building a life with. Hardworking. Honest. Ordinary.
There’s just one problem: Finn is lying about who he really is.
Grab the rest of the series!
Luke – Barbara Freethy
Gabe – Ruth Cardello
Hunter – Melody Anne
Knox – Christie Ridgway
Max – Lynn Raye Harris
James – Roxanne St. Claire
Finn – JoAnn Ross
To keep up with publication dates, other news, and a chance to win books and other cool stuff, subscribe to the JoAnn Ross newsletter from her website at www.JoAnnRoss.com. Also connect with her on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest.
Other Books from JoAnn Ross
The Shelter Bay series
The Homecoming
One Summer
On Lavender Lane
Moonshell Beach
Sea Glass Winter
Castaway Cove
You Again
Beyond the Sea (pre-publication title, A Sea Change)
Sunset Point
Christmas in Shelter Bay, November, 2016
The Castlelough series
A Woman’s Heart
Fair Haven
Legends Lake
Briarwood Cottage
Beyond the Sea
River’s Bend Series
River’s Bend (Cooper’s story)
Long Road Home (Sawyer’s story) Pre-publication was Hot Shot
Orchid Island Series
Sun Kissed
7 BRIDES for 7 Brothers Series
Finn—7 Brides for 7 Brothers (Book 7), December 13, 2016
Rum Runner Island Series
A Place in Time, October 18, 2016
Somewhere in Time, January, 2017
About The Author
JoAnn Ross wrote her first novella—a tragic romance about two star-crossed mallard ducks—for a second grade writing assignment.
The paper earned a gold star.
And JoAnn kept writing.
She’s now written around one hundred novels (she quit keeping track long ago), has been published in twenty-six countries, and is a member of the Romance Writers of America’s Honor Roll of best-selling authors. Two of her titles have been excerpted in Cosmopolitan magazine and her books have also been published by the Doubleday, Rhapsody, Literary Guild, and Mystery Guild book clubs.
JoAnn lives with her husband and two fuzzy rescued dogs, who pretty much rule the house, in the Pacific Northwest.
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