He kissed her again. “Well, just so you know, when I was taking the photos in the church, all I could think about was standing in front of you, vowing to love you forever, and putting my ring on your finger to tell everyone you’re mine. I like the idea, Tasha. Just so you know.”
She looked up into his eyes, her own glimmering.
“‘Your eyes are lodestars,’” he said, brushing away a tear that fell onto her cheek.
“Is that from A Midsummer Night’s Dream?”
“That’s right.”
“What does it mean?”
“Lodestars are stars that guide the course of a ship. And that’s how I feel.” He kissed her lips. “You’re guiding me home.”
More tears joined the first. “It warrants a joke about how your Bottom’s the best or something,” she whispered, wiping her face, “but I can’t be flippant.” She raised herself on tiptoes and flung her arms around his neck. “I’m so happy. I can’t believe it. I won you and the shop! I’m the luckiest girl alive.” She sobbed into his shoulder.
He chuckled and squeezed her tightly, resting a cheek on the top of her head. He raised his right hand to his sister, who gave him a thumbs up before returning to the restaurant with the others.
As he lowered his hand, his ring caught the sun and glinted. Hey, Harry, he said silently, tightening his arms around Tasha again. He still missed his brother, and always would. But it was time to look forward, to think of the future, and to put his trust in love.
Epilogue
Maisey’s head buzzed from a combination of the loud music, excitement, lack of food, and too much wine. She checked her watch—eleven forty-five. Only fifteen minutes to go until the New Year, but enough time to catch a breath of fresh air before the celebrations began.
Motioning to Elle that she was nipping out so the other girl could keep an eye on the till, she slipped through the couples turning slowly to the music in the semi-darkness and made her way outside. More people stood on the waterfront, some dancing, others standing around or sitting talking, most of them wearing the chocolate-colored sparkly party hats she’d made. She skirted them all and walked to the water’s edge, where the crescent moon lay reflected like a silver fish.
She took a deep breath, then let it out slowly. For the first time in two weeks, some of the tension began to ease from her shoulders. It had been a mad Christmas. As soon as she’d signed the lease for Treats, it had been all systems go to get the place up and running for New Year, which was crazy considering the whole of New Zealand went on holiday over most of December and January. But she and the girls knew they’d be mad to miss out on the tourist season, and they’d worked flat out every day except Christmas Day to get the shop open.
Today had been the first day, and in the evening they’d held a huge party to celebrate. Luckily, it had been a resounding success. She’d lost count of how many people had turned up, but it must have been several hundred. Friends of friends had come to show their support, and Fox had closed his restaurant for the night and paid all his staff to work for them, handing out drinks and serving canapés he’d made for them as a Christmas present. She must remember to give him a kiss later for that. Tasha almost certainly wouldn’t.
She smiled as she thought of her best friend, glad things had worked out for her. Kole, the idiot that he was, had nearly ruined everything by wanting to make the shop a surprise, but luckily Tasha hadn’t held it against him. The two of them had been ridiculously happy, and Kole was even talking about getting married, although Tasha was trying to get him to slow down. Maisey was pleased. Kole had certainly gone through hell when Harry died; he deserved some happiness.
A shooting star streamed across the black velvet sky, and Maisey caught her breath. “Hello, Harry,” she whispered. “I miss you.” Just saying the words hurt, and she swallowed hard. His death had changed all his siblings irrevocably. Skye—fresh out university—had fled the country, needing to escape from the place where she saw her brother around every corner, and she still came back only rarely, a shadow of the carefree girl she had once been. Kole had decided he’d never make the same mistake in getting angry over a broken heart, and it had taken Tasha to convince him he did deserve a happy ending.
And herself? Maisey wrapped her arms around her, shivering a little in the cool air. Although it was the height of summer, the breeze coming across the harbor lifted her hair and raised goose bumps on her arms.
She’d changed too. A bout of depression had floored her, and she’d struggled with it all the way through university. Toward the end, she’d changed pills and now it was less of a problem, although sometimes she could feel the black dog in the shadows, watching her, waiting to pounce. She could feel it now, which bothered her, because it had been a lovely day, and she was thrilled the party had been such a success. She was just tired, that was all. It had been a busy few weeks.
“Hey. You okay out here?”
She turned to see Kole’s best mate, Joss, standing there with a sandwich in one hand and two glasses of champagne in the other. She smiled. “Hey, you. Are those for me?”
He handed her the sandwich and one of the glasses. “You haven’t eaten all night. I thought you might be feeling a bit light-headed.”
“I was, actually.” She took a big bite of the sandwich, one of Fox’s lovely tuna ones with his homemade lemony mayonnaise, silently noting his observation that she hadn’t eaten. “Mmm. I needed that.” She washed it down with a swallow of the champagne and sighed. “Nice.”
“Congratulations on the party.” He looked back at the shop. “You’ve done superbly well, getting it ready in time.”
“We’ve all worked hard.” Her gaze, however, focused not on the shop but on him. Tall and dark, with lovely eyes the color of an evening sky, Joss Heaven was the very essence of scrumptiousness. Too bad he would never think of her as a possible partner, she thought wistfully. He’d only ever treated her like a sister, and anyway, Kole had warned all his mates the area around her was a DMZ, where none of them were allowed to tread. Thanks, bro.
Joss looked back at her and sipped his wine. Yes, she thought, she could quite easily have fallen for someone like the handsome doctor, who’d always had a hint of the bad boy about him, even though he was now considered a respectable pillar of society.
As she continued to stare at him, his lips gradually curved, and for a moment they just studied each other.
“Nearly midnight,” he said.
“Yes.”
A morepork hooted way off in the bush as if to mark the occasion.
He glanced at the shop again, then back at her, his eyes lit with the mischievousness she remembered from when they were all teenagers together. “So who are you going to kiss when the clock strikes?”
Heart thudding, Maisey gave a nonchalant shrug. “No special someone for me at the moment. Hasn’t been for a while.”
“That’s just a crime.” His gaze fixed on hers, and her heart sped up even more. Was he saying…he wanted to kiss her?
“It is,” she agreed. “I might cry.”
He chuckled. “Well, we can’t have that.”
In the shop, voices started counting down from ten, and those out on the waterfront echoed them. “Ten, nine, eight…”
Joss moved a bit closer.
“…six, five, four…”
She held her breath as he slipped a hand to cup her head.
“…two, one… Midnight!”
“Happy New Year,” he murmured, and lowered his lips to hers.
Maisey closed her eyes and let him kiss her. His lips were warm and firm, and they moved across hers slowly, pressing soft kisses from one corner of her mouth to the other. She’d expected a brief touch of lips, a brotherly peck, but this had nothing to with sibling affection. He reached the right side of her mouth, moved back to the center, and then she felt the brush of his tongue on her bottom lip.
With a soft sigh, she opened her mouth to him and met his tongue with her own, enjoying the lux
urious slide of it, the way it sent a tingle all the way through her.
His hand on the back of her head still didn’t release her, and Maisey gave a soft moan as he deepened the kiss, holding her tightly, refusing to let her go. All the hairs on her body rose, her nipples tightened, and her internal muscles clenched in a tiny pleasurable squeeze.
When he finally released her, she was breathless and trembling, completely bemused by his sudden display of passion.
He lowered his hand, and she blinked rapidly and moistened her lips, conscious they were only a foot or so away from the water’s edge and hoping she didn’t faint and fall in.
“Gosh,” she said, and swallowed.
Joss stared at her, then ran a hand through his hair. “I…um…” His lips curved. “Sorry about that.”
“No need to apologize.” That was the best kiss I’ve had in, like, ever.
“I got carried away,” he said. “Excitement of New Year and all that.”
She nodded, trying not to laugh. “Happy New Year, Dr. Heaven.”
He smiled. “Happy New Year, Maisey.” He held up his arm. “Back to the shop?”
“Sure.” She held his arm, her fingers tightening on the firm muscle, and they walked slowly back to Treats through the crowds of people dancing and singing.
No doubt he spoke the truth. They were all fairly drunk, excited about the opening of the shop, and emotions were always heightened on New Year’s Eve.
But later, when she eventually lay in bed there looking up into the darkness, she would remember the way he’d held her, refusing to let her go as he kissed her, and it would be a long while before her eyes finally closed.
#
Read the rest of Maisey’s story in Treat her Right (Treats to Tempt You #2)
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Five Treats to Tempt You
Book 1: Treat with Caution – out now!
Book 2: Treat her Right – buy from Amazon
Book 3: A Rare Treat – buy from Amazon
Book 4: Trick or Treat – to be published later in 2014
Book 5: A Festive Treat – to be published later in 2014
About the Author
Official Bio
Serenity Woods lives in the sub-tropical Northland of New Zealand with her wonderful husband and gorgeous teenage son. She writes contemporary romances with both heat and heart, and is a member of the Romance Writers of New Zealand. She would much rather immerse herself in reading or writing romance than do the dusting and ironing, which is why it’s not a great idea to pop round if you have any allergies.
Unofficial Chat
Thank you so much for buying and reading this book. I so hope you enjoyed it as much as I loved writing it! The beautiful Northland of New Zealand takes some beating as a setting for a romance, which is why a good proportion of my novels are set up here. Sexy stories fit so well with a hot and steamy climate! You can check out all my books (over twenty-five now) at your favourite retailer, or on my website below. If you’re interested, I also write epic fantasy as Freya Robertson, and the first in The Elemental Wars series, Heartwood, won the 2014 Sir Julius Vogel Award for Best Novel. You can check out more about Freya on Serenity’s website here.
Website: http://www.serenitywoodsromance.com
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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
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Chapter Twenty-Four
Chapter Twenty-Five
Chapter Twenty-Six
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Chapter Thirty
Chapter Thirty-One
Epilogue
Five Treats to Tempt You
About the Author
Treat with Caution (Treats to Tempt You Book 1) Page 23