by Mignon Mykel
I wanted the reminder that I was Rory’s.
That beyond all my fears, Rory was truly in it for the long haul. Something he continued to prove yet I still hadn’t truly grasped onto until this moment.
He kissed me again, this time allowing his tongue to brush over my lips. I parted them, moving the tip of my tongue over his, before he pulled back. I started to ask why, but he twisted to turn off his lamp, blanketing the room in darkness. Rory lay down then, pulling me along with him and I cuddled into his side, content and happy and surer than anything the direction things with him were going.
“I love you, Emy girl,” he spoke into the growing darkness.
“I love you, too.” I rubbed my hand over his stomach.
“I can’t wait to get you home.” His face was turned into mine again and his lips brushed over my temple.
“Yeah?”
“Yeah. So I can love on you all over and be reminded of it every day.”
I laughed lightly, hitting his stomach gently. “Behave.”
He didn’t respond but I could feel his grin. “You want it too,” he eventually said, to which I didn’t confirm nor deny.
No sense, when he knew the truth anyway.
“Merry Christmas, Rory.”
He hugged me close and I closed my eyes, ready to drop off into sleep. “Merry Christmas, Emy love.”
As I stated in the final O’Gallagher Nights book, I have truly enjoyed writing these siblings. I have absolutely loved watching the playboys that are Con and Rory find a single woman each who has them reevaluating everything they’ve done before, and the love Gray has for Brenna? I’ve loved that man since he first ‘spoke’ to me.
That said, this series definitely tested some limits for me as a writer, like it did for some of you as readers. So thank you for continuing on the ride and believing that men like Conor and Rory could find their forever loves, and for watching as Brenna opened up her heart and believed that what she had, could last.
Like always, to my editor Jenn. You have been such a great sounding board and again, I’m so glad to have found you to add to my team. You’re a great ear and have talked me off of many ledges…
Dana of Designs by Dana. I love the new covers for this series. You did such a great job and I definitely feel these covers convey how I feel about the characters. Thank you, thank you, thank you!
Colleen of Itsy Bitsy Book Bits. Thank you for your continual support.
Mia and the IndieSage group. I absolutely love working with you and the company; I cannot wait to continue this journey with you guys in my corner.
Bloggers: I was once you, ‘full-time’ not even seven months ago. I know the work you put in and how sometimes you bite off bigger chunks than you realize you should take, rushing to get posts up and cross-posting reviews. Thank you so much for helping me promote my stories. You all help this indie-world go ‘round.
And, lastly but most certainly never least, my readers. Seven months I’ve been on this journey and it is you all who have continued to motivate me to keep writing and sharing my stories. I have no plans of stopping any time soon. I have many more stories to share with you, and I cannot wait to do so!
Mignon Mykel is the author of the Prescott Family series, as well as the short-novella erotic romance series, O'Gallagher Nights. When not sitting at Starbucks writing whatever her characters tell her to, you can find her hiking in the mountains of her new home in Arizona.
Connect with Mignon online:
website | facebook | twitter @mnonmklwrites | instagram @mignon.mykel
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BOOKS BY MIGNON MYKEL
PRESCOTT FAMILY
Interference
Beauty—a Prescott Family Wedding
Trouble Maker
Breakaway – coming February 2016
Altercation – coming February 2016
O’GALLAGHER NIGHTS
One Night Stand
About Last Night
All Night Long
LOVING MEADOWS
Saving Grace – coming December 2016
Bright Ember – coming Spring 2017
Honor Bound – coming Spring 2017
ENFORCERS OF SAN DIEGO
Dropping the Gloves – coming Spring 2017
December
Sawyer
My brain hurt.
I was so fucking tired and my goddamned key wouldn’t fit in the lock.
Cases like last night’s were killer.
No pun intended.
A called in rape that turned into a missing person case which fucking unfortunately turned into a homicide. This job was going to kill me.
At the very least, it was going to kill my personality.
I finally managed to get my key in the lock and pushed through my apartment door. I dropped my backpack near the door and closed the door quietly behind me. Just because I was awake at ten on a weeknight didn’t mean my neighbors were.
God I needed a drink.
I toed off my shoes as I locked the deadbolt. When I turned, I tripped over the damn bag I put there.
“Fucking bag.”
When I went to pick it up though, I was reminded of my sister.
Sydney was notorious for leaving her bag by the door—from childhood to, as far as I knew, now. I squeezed the bridge of my nose when I realized I never called her today. I called her every day, no matter what the day brought to my doorstep.
Even though I knew it was ten, I glanced at the clock, trying to figure out what she and her husband would be doing right now. It was nine in San Diego; my nephews and niece were likely already in bed. My brother-in-law was a professional hockey player, but I didn’t know if he’d had a game tonight. If he did, the house would still be up. If he didn’t…
Maybe they’d still be up. It was only nine.
I picked up my cell and decided to call their house phone. That way if the two of them were out on a date or something, I wouldn’t be a bother.
As the phone rang in my ear, I took off my dark Ralph Lauren suit jacket, laying it over the back of my second-hand micro suede couch. Spotting the television remote, I picked it up and pulled up the viewing guide, trying to figure out if the Enforcers, the team my brother-in-law played for, had a game tonight. At the fifth ring, I was about to hang up and just text Syd but the phone was answered.
“Hey, Soy.”
Caleb.
So no game.
I turned off the television, now knowing that he hadn’t played tonight and not needing the background noise to add to the stress going on in my brain. I needed quiet tonight.
I tossed the remote on the couch. “Hey, Caleb. No game?” Obviously I now knew this but sometimes making small talk with my brother-in-law was awkward. My very first impression of him hadn’t been the best.
Nor had my second.
But he was a good guy in the end.
“Nah, no game. You looking for Syd? She’s out.”
“Shit,” I mumbled, tucking the phone between my shoulder and ear to untuck my dress shirt from my dark jeans. I lost my tie and unbuttoned the top of my shirt long ago.
“You forgot to call her today, didn’t you?” Caleb was chuckling on the phone. Even he knew that I talked to my sister every day. When I first started doing it, after going away to college, it was to keep in touch with her. Of our siblings, Sydney had always been my partner in crime. After a few years of daily calls, it became habit.
I sighed. “Yeah. Bad case.”
“She’s just out with Grace. You can call her cell.”
Grace.
Now there was a name that had my bad mood melting away.
Not that she’d spoken to me in the last few months. Not after I pissed her off with my opinion of that douche bag Jeremy she was seeing. With the exception of passing Sydney’s youngest, Brielle, to Grace after she was born a few weeks back, I hadn’t even seen the woman, much less spoken to her.
“I might do that,” I replied. “I’m off tom
orrow though so maybe I’ll just video chat with you guys and the kids tomorrow. Will you guys be around?” My three year old nephew, Brandon, got a kick out of Skype.
“Three day weekend?”
One of the brighter spots to my job as a detective for special crimes in Salt Lake City was I worked what were called 9/17 shifts. I worked nine hours a day, for nine of ten weekdays. Of course, crimes didn’t just stop at night, so that was when my eighteen hour shifts came into play, but thank God I wasn’t on call this weekend. “Yeah.”
“You want to come out here and keep Syd and the kids company? I leave in the morning for an east coast trip.”
I thought about it. It wasn’t like I had anything keeping me here for the weekend. I didn’t have reports to file. My partner Jake took the time off to fuck his girl sideways to Monday, but I didn’t have one of those either.
A girl.
I had a list of willing partners, but I hadn’t been feeling any of them lately. I went through the motions to get her off, get me off, making sure she found a satisfying release, but mine never quite got there.
Not to the point I knew I could get to, a point I’d gotten to once before.
And the one woman I wanted? The one I knew without a fucking doubt would do it for me? Well, I firmly shut that door and friend-zoned her years ago.
“I could probably do that.” I nodded to myself as I looked around my bleak apartment. The job paid well, but there wasn’t any reason for me to be in a larger place than what this one bed, one and a half bath apartment gave me. The couch pulled out to a bed if ever a friend or sibling decided to crash, which was rarer than a blue moon. The white walls were devoid of anything that would even hint toward who I was.
That in and of itself probably spoke volumes.
I used to be this goofy guy, the guy cracking jokes left and right, but damn if this job didn’t dim that sometimes. I needed to get away, and a long weekend with my sister and her kids would likely help.
…and maybe Grace would be around too.
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