“Thirty-first!” I called out. “I’m owning all my years.” The room chuckled.
Olivia waved her hand in the air. “Either way, we have many things to celebrate. Not only did she make it through one hell of a divorce this year—that’s right, we got the bastard to sign on the dotted line.” The room cheered. The process of my divorce had been a long, drawn-out headache. Jack had fought me every step of the way, trying to extract more than his fair share from the marital assets. His arseholery knew no bounds. But in the end, my attorney had been a gun, beating them back to a seventy-thirty split my way. Since I earned more and therefore contributed more financially as well as domestically, there wasn’t a lot they could do. Jack now lived in a tiny apartment in the western suburbs, working for an even tinier newspaper, the only newspaper to employ him after he effectively sabotaged his own career printing that article about Bran. Oh, the irony. I felt it was more than he deserved, but was mostly relieved the whole ordeal was over. The cheque for my portion of our assets had already cleared in my bank account, and Bran and I had already put a deposit on a house of our own. I was now a free woman. Well, free, but very much taken…
“But,” Olivia continued, holding her hands up to quiet everyone down. “Our dear friend, Cora, also had an amazing year professionally. After many years of hard work, she’s a barrister working directly for the DPP now.” Another cheer went up. I was starting to get very red in the face from all the attention.
“Thank you,” I called out, covering my cheeks with my hands. They were starting to hurt from smiling so much.
“And to reign in that trifecta, she also met the love of her life, that giant thing sitting beside her, Brandon Sharp.” She pointed to where we were sitting, and Brandon lifted his hands above his head, causing the room to once again erupt in applause; he’d won over more than just my heart during the sixteen months we’d been together—yes, I was still counting. “Those of you who knew Cora before will know how great young Brandon has been for her. Love knows no age limit, people—I’m a living testament to that.” She looked to where Paul was sitting with Monique bouncing on his knee and waved. “Anyway, enough about me. Back to the birthday girl and her beau, Bran, who I’d like to hand the mic to.”
Everyone clapped as Olivia held out the microphone and Bran stood. “What’s going on?” I asked, catching him by the arm. I had no idea he was planning on speaking tonight. Not that I knew much about the night at all. It had all been an elaborate plan designed by both Olivia and Bran in order to surprise me with a combined birthday and happy divorce party. Once upon a time, any sort of secret whispering from those closest to me would have sent me into a panic. But birthday surprises were the exception, with this one being particularly exciting since we were celebrating my freedom and the beginning of my new journey in life. Our new journey. Personally, I was excited about all the presents on the table, because despite my thirty-one years, I was still a little kid at heart.
“You’ll see,” Bran said with a wink, heading to the stage.
With my heart thudding in my chest and my hands clasped in front of me, I watched the man I loved more than anything in this world stand in front of a roomful of everyone we both collectively knew. There were school friends, parents, extended family members and colleagues. Even my brother and his family had come. I wondered how Bran and Olivia had managed to pull this off without my finding out, but their careful planning had been well worth it. I’d walked into the hotel thinking Bran and I were having a quiet dinner and was met with a chorus of surprise.
“A year ago today, Cora and I had our first official date. Before that, we’d been quietly falling for each other behind the scenes, and if you believe the newspapers, we were embroiled in a scandalous affair where I purposely led her astray.”
“More likely saved her from that cheating scumbag of an ex-husband!” That voice was my mother. She would never forgive Jack for the way he’d treated me. I smiled her way and blew her a kiss. She smiled and waved excitedly. She was a gorgeous woman.
“That’s right, I’m the hero of this story,” Bran said, winking at my mother, who incidentally, thought he was the most dashing specimen of the male species she’d ever met. The first time she met him, I thought she was going to faint. I was sure she’d steal him off me if given half a chance.
“The anti-hero,” Adrian called out, a proud smile on his face as he looked at his son.
“Thanks, Dad.” Bran chuckled. Over the past year, there had been a lot of growth in their personal relationship with Bran learning to understand that despite his original parentage, Adrian Sharp was his father. He wasn’t an overly affectionate man and felt that being hard on his son growing up would turn him into a stronger man. It was a bit of a messed up way of parenting, because it created a lot of animosity between them. But it was something they were working through, and as Bran came to the end of his undergraduate degree, you could see the dynamic between them shifting—especially since Bran had decided to follow his father’s footsteps after all by entering the OPP’s Legal Traineeship Program.
“If we could quit the heckling for just a moment, I’d like to talk about the centre of my world.” Bran flashed his trademark dimpled smile and melted the hearts of almost everyone in the room, including my own. “Cora, baby, will you come up here for a moment, please?”
I touched my hand to my chest, feeling nervous. What was he planning and why I did I need to stand beside him? But I rose to the collective applause going around the room and took his hand while he helped me onto the stage.
“Some of you might not know this,” he said, turning toward our audience. “But Cora actually pulled a Cinderella act on me after the first night we met. Instead of leaving her shoe, she left something a little more…intimate for me to find.”
“Don’t you dare,” I gasped, slapping him playfully on the chest. It wasn’t that big a deal, but our parents were in the room, and his grandparents. None of them needed to know I’d left my underwear for him to find. I literally heard his grandmother asking, “What did she leave?”
“Relax,” he said in my ear, planting a kiss against the side of my head before he continued.
“Anyway, I searched high and low, holding the item in my pocket in the hopes of finding her again, and when I was nearly ready to give up, I found her in the last place I was expecting—the Office of Public Prosecutions where she was to be my boss for the duration of my internship. That’s when things got really complicated. But, we couldn’t say no to each other. Despite all the obstacles life tried to throw our way, we made it through and came out the other end stronger than we were before.” His hand tightened a little around mine. “And from there, things just got better and better. I couldn’t possibly imagine going through a day without having her in it.” Turning to face me, he reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out a small pale blue box.
“What are you doing?” I asked, my voice a nervous whisper as I realised exactly what was going on.
He grinned and lowered himself to the floor, taking one knee before opening the box to reveal a beautiful Tiffany’s solitaire. “Baby, from the moment we met, I knew there was something special about you, something I couldn’t walk away from. Your name is the sound my heart makes each time it beats, because I’ve never been happier than with every new day you’ve been in my life. And, now that you’re a free woman, I’d like to catch you up and make you mine. Will you marry me?”
I stuck my hand out and nodded my head emphatically. “Yes!” I forced out. “Do you even have to ask?”
My hand shook as he slid the ring onto my finger then stood to wrap me in his embrace. The room erupted into cheers and applause as he kissed me and spun me around. “I love you so much, Bran,” I whispered against his lips.
“I love you too, baby. Now and forever.”
He kissed me again, and I knew that in that moment, I was right where I needed to be. Everything I’d been through in life had been designed to lead me right there, to the ve
ry moment when my soulmate asked me to be his for the rest of our lives. I’d never considered that I’d want to be owned by someone, but that was before I met a man like Brandon Sharp. At first he took me, then he claimed me, and now he would make sure I was always his. The idea seemed like absolute perfection to me.
THE END
www.lillianaanderson.com
Also by Lilliana Anderson
The Confidante Trilogy
Confidante: The Brothel
Confidante: The Escort
Confidante: The Madame
Beautiful Series
Too Close
A Beautiful Struggle
Phoenix
A Beautiful Forever
Commitment
A Beautiful Melody
A Beautiful Rock
Devotion
A Beautiful Star
A Beautiful Taste
A Beautiful Danger
Entwined Series
Our Hearts Entwined
Our Lives Entwined
Drawn Series
Drawn
Drawn 2 – Obsession
Drawn 2 – Redemption
Drawn to Fight
Zac & Evie
Hugo & Meg
47 Things
47 Things
One More Thing
Standalones
In the Wind
Till There Was You
Never Again
For information on upcoming releases visit
www.lillianaanderson.com/preorders
Acknowledgments
AS ALWAYS, there are people to be thanked! Many sets of eyes go in to the creation of each of my books and I am very grateful to every person who takes time out of their lives to help me.
To Julie Chippindale and Mary Sart, thank you so much for beta reading and giving me excellent feedback to work with. I can’t tell you how much I appreciate your sage advice. To my editor, Marion Archer of Making Manuscripts, I thank you for your detailed guidance during the first draft and your keen editing eyes on the second. Helena Cullen and Margaret Neal, thank you for helping to proof the final copy.
To my team of sharers, you’re all so wonderful. I don’t ask you to do what you do, but you see something I post and share it far and wide. I’m eternally grateful. Thank you all so much. I love you all!
To every blogger and reviewer who has an ARC or has signed up to post about my book – I thank you too. You are the first step to announcing my work to the world. No author can do this without you xoxox
Also, a big thank you to my husband for putting up with my bitching and moaning and his unending support and encouragement.
Thank you to my kids for being so patient while I stare at a computer screen and finish typing out a thought. I love that you all come and sit with me while I work just to spend a bit of extra time with mummy!
And of course – thank you to all of my readers. You are the most important of all. Without you, I would be writing to the crickets.
Mwah! xoxox
About the Author
Bestselling Author of the Beautiful Series, Drawn and 47 Things, Lilliana has always loved to read and write, considering it the best form of escapism that the world has to offer.
Australian born and bred, she writes New Adult Romance revolving around her authentically Aussie characters with all the quirks you’d expect from those born Down Under.
Lilliana feels that the world should see Australia for more than just it’s outback and tries to show characters in a city and suburban setting.
When she isn’t writing, she wears the hat of ‘wife and mother’ to her husband and five children.
Before Lilliana turned to writing, she worked in a variety of industries and studied humanities and communications before transferring to commerce/law at university.
Originally from Sydney’s Western suburbs, she currently lives a fairly quiet life in suburban Melbourne.
For more information on Lilliana and her work:
www.lillianaanderson.com
[email protected]
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