Maybe I’ll need a new wardrobe.
I find an old cotton pair and one of my oldest dresses, the weird floral print testifies to it. My hair is tangled, and I haven’t brushed it in days, so I try to with my travel kit, but I fail. I think I’ll order room service—and once again I am reminded of Alec. I think about that night at the little inn all the time. The hours we spent talking and exploring every inch of each other’s bodies… I can never forget it. I don’t want to forget all our memories, but I wish I didn’t love him so much.
I kind of wish none of this happened, but I know I shouldn’t. Alec is… he will always mean something to me.
Once I order the greasiest thing on the menu, I kick back with a Lifetime movie. The knock on my door seems too early for the food, but I get up and answer it, and then I’m floored.
“Alec.” I gasp.
He looks a mess but still amazing. His hair is messy, dipping over his brows, his lips tight and thick. In jeans and an old-looking brown sweater, he is still the best thing I have ever seen.
“Mia, I can’t let you go. I thought I could, but I can’t. I don’t care how, but I have to get you back. I’m not here to take you from your new job. Just hear me out.”
I am still in shock as I take in his words. The urgency in his voice, the intensity in his gaze… it moves me right to the side, and I let him in.
29
Alec
It was easy to find her. Stalkerish, but easy.
I’m glad I did. She looks beautiful, she looks perfect as always. I breathe a sigh of relief when she lets me in. I sit on the bed immediately. I haven’t slept or relaxed in almost two days because I couldn’t until I saw her.
Now I’m here, and I have to start talking. She stands across from me and crosses her arms. I look up at her and try to smile, but it doesn’t work. I’m super tired.
“So… talk.”
“Just let me get into this. It’s… it isn’t that simple. Sit, Mia, please.” I pat the bed next to me, and she sits. Her scent surrounds me, and I inhale it like a drug. It might as well have become one to me.
“How did you find me?”
“Wasn’t hard… also, I’m an engineer, and I borrowed the PI my brother used to find me. The pretty one that you met?”
She does smile softly. “That’s really creepy.”
“I won’t invade your privacy like that again. But I had to find you, and I couldn’t give you a chance to tell me not to come.” I glance at her. She nods and urges me to go on.
I sigh and try to start from the beginning.
“I thought I killed my father when I left home. In theory, I mean. He died from a heart attack, but a week before he died he told me I wasn’t his biological son. My mom had this affair or something, I don’t know. They kept it quiet, he raised me as his own, and I never questioned it until he told me.” I swallow back the painful memory, but it’s a little better now that everyone knows. “So, after his funeral, I left because I didn’t know how to tell my brothers, and I didn’t know how to face my mom about it. So… I ran.”
I hunch over and take a deep breath. Mia, being her, makes things easier but having to prove myself to her is making me get cold sweats.
“I didn’t know what I was going to do, but I just knew I couldn’t sign the will he left under false pretenses. We all had to sign it for the shares to divide equally, basically for his legacy to remain in the family. I didn’t feel right knowing I’m not really his son, so I didn’t sign it, and I dodged everyone’s calls. Until one day I had to stop running from the truth, and it was the same day I realized I fell in love with you.”
She gasps and clutches my hand. I look at her and lick my lips, swallowing audibly.
“But I didn’t know what to do because I had never felt that before. It was all too much. Until a few days ago when the legal timetable on the will was up, and I had to leave. I went to sign the will and tell my family. They accepted me for it, didn’t make a fuss at all.”
“Because they’re your family, they love you.”
I nod. “Yeah. I didn’t know love was this strong. With them, with you. It was… I ran from it, too. But Mia,” I take both her hands and look at her right in the eye, so she won’t see me falter.
She has to know this is real.
“I was running from everything. I was running from even myself and everything that I knew. I didn’t know I would find you, but since I have, I know I have something to run toward instead. And it feels a hell of a lot better. I’m so in love with you, Mia, and I… I just want us to be together. Because at this point, it’s the only thing I want. I know I’ve hurt you. If I have the chance to redeem myself, I’ll gladly take it.”
I sound long-winded, but I don’t care. Mia just kind of looks at me with this expression I can’t place. Her eyes are softened and wide. Her gorgeous brown globes are grounding me in the moment.
“Mia, sweetheart, will you say something?” I chuckle nervously.
She licks her lips and inhales softly.
“Alec, I… I don’t know what to say.” She rubs my palms with her fingers.
“Anything is fine.”
She nods and then giggles softly. I cock my head softly as I glance sideways at her.
“It’s just that… that’s so perfect. Do you really mean that?”
“Of course, I do. Mia, I love you.” I cup her face in my hands and pull her closer to me.
“Tell me again.”
She smiles softly and grasps my hands on her face. “I love you, Alec.”
I smile until it hurts. “Come here.” I hold her waist firmly as I kiss her, softly to feel her lips and remind myself that I have this second chance, and then deeper as I feel all of her pour into me, and nothing else exists.
Mia moves to straddle my waist, and I am reacquainted with the weight of her soft body against me. Her legs wrap around me, and she drives her hips into me.
The urgency in our kiss is different from the last time. It’s more, it’s all of our love finally getting the chance to come together.
Mia pulls away to take her dress off in one movement, and she bites her lip as she looks at me. It makes my cock twitch and immediately harden as if it wasn’t hard before. I growl and tug her to me, so my lips can find her chest and travel downward. I suckle one breast, kissing her everywhere and sucking her nipple as I work the other with my hand, and I alternate. She moans softly and slides her fingers through my hair to hold me close.
“Alec…” she whimpers.
“I fucking love your breasts.” I kiss her. “Your lips,” I murmur against her. “Your skin, everywhere.” I turn her over and stand up to get my clothes off because I need to be naked against her.
Her gaze widens as she looks at my cock, hard and ready for her. But not before I get my fill of her. I crouch down and kiss toward her navel until I reach her bare apex and lick her sex from her folds up to her clit. I kiss her lips down there just like I would the ones on her face and flick my tongue over her clit to get her to come fast.
“Oh God, Alec,” she moans from deep in her chest, driving down her hips to my face and latching her fingers through my hair again.
I keep going, gripping her thighs as they lock me in, and I don’t stop until she is coming, her flesh swelling, and her clit throbbing as she shudders. I kiss back up her body and kiss her deeply. Her hands press down the muscles of my shoulder and back before she comes back up my abs. I shiver when her fingers graze my hair just above my cock. She wraps her fingers around my base drawing upward.
“Fuck, Mia.” I groan as she clenches me tighter.
I move back leaning on my knees as I position myself at her entrance. Our eyes meet, and I sink deep inside of her, not looking away from her. Her lids flutter, but she keeps them open as I sink deeper and deeper until I am sheathed to the hilt and feel her pulse inside of her.
“I love being inside you,” I moan.
She bites her lip, arches her back, and shudders. Her rosy nipples
are pert, and I pinch them both before I cup her breasts and massage her as I start moving. I keep my thrusts slow and even so that I can feel every inch of myself branded by her heat, her tightness. She covers my hands with hers, and I turn to lace her fingers in mine as I hold them by her head and rock into her for a little while just to feel her.
Mia wiggles her hands from my grasp and clutches my shoulders to pull me down as her eyes close.
“More, Alec. Just take me,” she whispers in my ear, and it goes right to my aching cock begging to spill inside of her.
I nod once and kiss her as I go faster deep inside of her, hard and not too fast but enough to get our skin slick against each other, her moans high, and my breath short. Her orgasm comes quick, and I watch it set her aflame before I collapse against her with mine emptying myself inside of her as I brand her with another kiss.
“I love you, Mia Lane, I love you so fucking much.” I look into her eyes as she smiles wide, cupping my face as she nods.
“I love you, too, Alec Wilde.” She giggles and kisses me, short little pecks until I take over and coax her lips apart and taste her on my tongue.
We part with heavy sighs and relax until we catch our breath. I hold her close to me, so fucking close that I feel her heartbeat. I don’t need to because I have it memorized by now. Mia is everything I didn’t know I needed and something I will never, ever let go.
Nothing will ever keep me from her, and I know I will always do what it takes to earn her heart and keep it.
Epilogue
Mia
It took me a year to finish my first research proposal. But all the hard work and late nights were worth it when I got the grant for the lab to continue the work.
It was easy to fit in, easy to get back into the field, and I loved it. When I came home excited every night about work, Alec dutifully listened even though he didn’t understand me most of the time. But it’s the same with his job too.
When he settled in with me in New York, he got a job pretty quickly with one of the big tech companies. Our days were just like when we lived together the first time unless I was working late. It didn’t make much sense to get separate places, our relationship thrived off of that close proximity at first, but it wasn’t a must. Coming home to him every day… I wouldn’t trade it for anything.
Once I close down my laptop, I grab my things and get ready to go. I can’t wear dresses in the lab anymore, but my tights and plain shirt do fine under the lab coat. I hang it up and leave my office to catch a cab. I hate the subway, and rarely ever take it. I am mostly nervous because tomorrow we are flying to see his family for Christmas and having dinner with my parents tonight. In our condo. Yikes.
I relax more when I find Alec at home already having set the table. He looks delicious as always in slacks and a blue dress shirt, minus the tie. I smile, and he greets me the same way, a deep kiss and three more to show how much he really missed me.
“Hey.” I sigh, releasing him from my hug.
“Hi, sweetheart. Your day go okay?”
“Ugh. Fine. This is worse. I have to change.” I kiss him again before rushing to make myself presentable in a blue dinner dress and put my hair in a ponytail because there is no time to make it look good.
Some makeup makes me look more alive, and perfume makes me feel less like the lab. Alec has wine chilling on the table and the oven keeping the food hot. A knock at the door makes me jump. He grins and takes care of everything.
My parents look the same. Mom is overdressed, Dad is all sweet and getting older. I know they are proud of me about the job, and it seems Mom has less to say over dinner about me.
“I’ll get the cheesecake.” I stand after we finish the main course.
“I’ll help you.” Mom surprises me.
Once in the kitchen, she kind of corners me by the island.
“You look happy, honey.”
“I am.” I smile at her.
She tucks hair behind my ear and smiles at me.
“I’m happy for you. And I am proud of you.”
“Really?”
She giggles, and it isn’t pretend. “Yes, honey. I love you very much, and I know I have been… you know. I’m sorry about that, but I want us to get past that and start fresh.”
I smile softly. “Okay then.” I cut four slices and plate them.
“And Alec, he seems so great.”
I smile wider. “Yeah, he is. I love him.”
“I know, he loves you, too. It’s obvious.”
I giggle like I’m nervous, but I’m just weirded out that others can see it. Either way, I know it better than I know myself. We’re happy and in love, and nothing will change that.
The house is so full that I wonder how it hasn’t exploded. If Haley were here, she would have a field day, but she is off doing better things as an algebraic researcher—I don’t even know what it means.
“Don’t be so nervous,” Alec whispers in my ear and then kisses my cheek.
“I’m not.” I lie, straightening out my red Christmas dress for the thousandth time.
“Okay, sweetheart.” He laughs and tugs me into the living room.
I try to remember each of them, but it’s hard. Brant is easy because he looks like the music star that he is. He is charming and easygoing, but he doesn’t look all there. Alec shakes his head, and so I don’t ask. But Fletcher is very present and very… very much a football player, I guess. Gorgeous as well.
“You’re prettier than I guessed you’d be.” Evan hugs me, and Alec scowls behind him. I laugh and hug him back not knowing if I should thank him.
Dylan and Carson are a little more normal, but also… really hot. Even still, I only have eyes for my Alec. Jeffrey looks like a doctor even in dress clothes. And Grayson doesn’t have his uniform on, but he looks very much like a soldier with his buzz cut.
“Is that it?” I ask Alec softly where we sit on the couch.
“Yeah.” He smiles sadly.
“Except Isaac?”
He nods. They have been looking for a year and still no luck. I smile softly at him and hold his hand. When I meet his mom, all the nerves come flooding back. She hugs me so tightly I can barely breathe, and she smiles like I’m her own kid… it makes me feel so accepted.
“I never thought Alec would bring a girl home first,” she teases him. I laugh both at her and his mortified expression.
We have dinner in the large dining room, and I watch Alec and his brothers act like… well, brothers.
The night dies down, and Alec takes me on a long walk around their estate. It’s beautiful, and I love all of the flowers like he told me I would.
“See? It wasn’t so bad.” He stops at the gazebo and holds me close. I inhale his scent, rest my head on his heartbeat.
“Yeah. I guess not. They all seem so great.”
He chuckles. “When they behave.”
“You had some digs, too.” I grin up at him.
“I’ve learned.” He smirks and kisses me softly.
“What do you want for Christmas?” I ask him aimlessly.
“I’ve got it already.”
I smile up at him. “What?”
“You, sweetheart.”
I swell up, and my heart flutters as he kisses me softly and tenderly releases me.
“Unless you agree to marry me. That would be a pretty good gift, too.”
I freeze, looking up at him in shock. “What?” I gasp.
He grins and pulls away to reach for something in his pocket. I step away covering my gaping mouth in my hands as he takes out a small silver box. And kneels.
My head spins.
“Mia Lane, I love you so much, and I want you forever. Will you be my wife?” He blinks his intense gray eyes and opens up the box to reveal a perfect, teardrop diamond, but it isn’t what I care about. I am most taken by a new look I haven’t ever seen in his eyes before.
“Yes, Alec. Yes,” I say, and he slides the ring on my finger and makes me the happiest woman ev
er. In all the time, in all the world… no one can ever be as happy as me.
I kiss him, and he swings me in his arms as he laughs. It’s like all our time comes back to us, everything we fought for and wanted so badly. It’s all ours—his heart is mine and mine is his.
This is truly the beginning of us.
The End.
Page ahead for a Sneak Peek of Wilde About Brant - Book Two of The Brothers Wilde Series. Available August 31, 2018!
Wilde About Brant Book Two Sneak Peek!
Chapter 1
Brant
Maybe I get off on people screaming my name. I can’t tell if they’re angry or don’t even like the music, all I know is my name is on replay for hours on end. And by the end of the night, when the live band is no longer in tune, and even I can’t hold my notes, they still beg for more.
My fans love me more than anyone ever has, and they don’t even know who I really am.
The tour has been long, different than the others because of what happened, but I still got through it—nine months, fifty cities in all fifty states, encores for the big ones. Needless to say, I’m fucking exhausted. The rush here, the wave of the crowd, their cell lights flashing in the mob of the crowd, and the heat of the stage lights shining down on me… it’s the safest addiction I’ve had. Not the only one—but the safest.
“Thank you, Nashville!” I don’t hear myself shouting since I’ve taken out the pesky little earpiece. But I hear the crowd respond, still shouting as I walk off the stage. The arena is huge but normal for me. Sold-out audience, of course.
I get ushered down through backstage by the stagehands until I find the familiar hallway with the back-stage pass line already long and crazy. My executive assistant, Julia, is right there to fill me in as always, and I accept the compliments I always get.
‘Great show, Brant,’ ‘You outdid yourself this time’, ‘Couldn’t stop singing along’… whatever. At this point in my career, the people complimenting me backstage are nowhere near as genuine as the ones in the crowd, or even the people backstage who just want to say they met me.
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