First Edition
From Ice to Flames
Copyright © 2018 A.M. Hargrove
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used factiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in form or any manner whatsoever by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or a book review. Scanning, uploading and distribution of the book via the Internet or via any other means without permission is illegal and punishable by law. Please purchase only authorized electronic editions and do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials. Your support for the author’s rights is appreciated. For information address to A.M. Hargrove LLC All rights reserved.
Cover design by Letitia @ RBA Designs | Romantic Book Affairs
Photo by Wander Aguiar
Cover Models: Forest Harrison and Ella
Editing services by My Brother’s Editor
“A dog is the only thing on earth that loves you more than he loves himself.”– Josh Billings (humourist)
This book is dedicated to all pet lovers and owners of them, who take time out of their days to to give their love to them.
Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Chapter 41
Chapter 42
Chapter 43
Chapter 44
Chapter 45
Chapter 46
Epilogue
Acknowledgements
Stalk Annie
About The Author
A Sneak Peek … From Ashes To Flames
Chapter 1
Coming Soon … From Smoke To Flames
Chapter One
Milly
What in the world had I been thinking? Moving away to clear my head and get Harry off my mind was one thing, but all the way to New York City? I seriously had a screw loose and knew exactly where it was. In my brain! After living my entire forty—ouch, it hurt to say that—years in suburbia, and enjoying all the conveniences it offered, I was now schlepping all over the place, running errands, and dragging groceries home in one of those silly looking carts. That is when I remembered to take the darn thing to work, which was usually never.
Which brought me to my current dilemma. My arms were loaded down with an impossibly huge number of items when my phone rang.
“Shit, shit.” I dug into my pocket, juggling my bags, fingers clutching onto my lifeline.
“Hello,” I huffed.
“Good Lord, Mills. Are you having sex?”
“Gee, you’re so funny. I just stepped off the elevator carting a haul of groceries and I’m trying to get to my apartment door, which is approximately three hundred thousand miles away.”
My sister cackled.
“This is not funny, Ellerie. Why did you let me do a harebrained thing like move up here? Not to mention I’m freezing my ancient, underused vagina off. It’s colder than hell in New York.”
“Hell is hot, not cold.”
“Whatever.” I struggled with the phone under my chin, my bags in hand, as I fished for my stupid keys.
“And hey, moving there was your idea. I was the one who tried to talk you out of it. Remember? I was the one who moved back to Atlanta from Manhattan.”
“Don’t remind me.”
“Besides, your vagina isn’t ancient. You’re only forty. You’ve got a good forty years of use left in that thing.”
“Yeah, well, at this rate, it’ll be frozen solid and put out to pasture before I hit forty-five.”
“Ahh, come on, baby sis. It’s not that bad.”
“You only say that because your husband didn’t walk away from you after almost twenty years of marriage.”
Suddenly, the load I’d managed to juggle came crashing to the floor, apples rolling every which way, followed by lemons, tomatoes, and the rest of everything I’d purchased.
“What the heck was that?” Ellerie asked.
“Ugh. I just lost all my shit.” Kneeling down, I gathered up the runaway items and began stuffing them back into one of the bags.
“At least it wasn’t eggs. That could’ve been a catastrophe.”
“True.” I was just pushing the last of the escapees in when I noticed a pair of feet in my vision. Large feet. Positive they were attached to someone, I glanced up and had to crane my neck to see exactly who owned them. And oh what my eyes beheld. Tall, brown hair, and just yum.
“Uh, Ellerie, let me call you back.” Shoving myself up, I stared at the owner of said feet as he held out a jumbo box of tampons.
“I believe these belong to you.”
Eyes that reminded me of a frosty blue sky on a cold winter day gazed at me with undue curiosity. But these eyes weren’t the least bit icy. They were warm. No, make that scorching. In fact, I slid a finger under the neck of my sweater because the temperature must’ve climbed to ninety degrees in here. Was that sweat on my upper lip? Oh for Pete’s sake, that was all I needed—to have a hot flash in front of this sexy guy. Wait—I didn’t have hot flashes. Was this just a heated moment of lust flaring in my deprived loins? Deprived loins? I really needed to lay off the historical romances.
“Oh, thanks.” I grabbed the extra-large box of tampons from him and stared. It was more like ogled the man. Thick hair that practically begged my fingers to run through it was artfully messy, and full lips threatened to turn up into a grin. A strong jaw was balanced by chiseled cheeks, and in the middle sat a perfect nose. Oh, how I adored perfect noses. Not too big, not too small, but exactly the right size for his face. But those blue eyes were what fixated me. Jeans hugged his sexy hips and he stood with his feet slightly separated in a stance that imparted complete confidence. Then the skies parted as the heavens opened, and the sun’s rays beamed down directly into the dim apartment hallway when the man smiled. Oh, God. His perfect teeth sparkled, and I was speechless as I gawked at him. Who was this flawlessly formed human male with such an arresting face? Was it possible he lived on this floor?
“Are you okay?”
His voice was like a choir of angels—hot, muscular manly angels with thick thighs and large impressive wings—not the pudgy cherubic kind with those cutesy fluffy feathers on their backs you see in those frescoes in art books. I was certain his body was honed to perfection by hours and hours of gym workouts. He was probably someone famous. Or maybe even one of those popular underwear models I fantasized over while using my favorite rabbit vibrator.
“Sure. I’m fine. Yep. Good here.” I swallowed the lust that had overtaken my sensibilities and repressed the urge to fan myself. “You? How are you? Because you appear to be, um, really fine.” What the hell was I saying?
He smiled again. I may have had a teeny tiny orgasm. Maybe. “I’m great.“
You certainly are.
“Well, have a nice day.” He dipped his head and walked by. I inhaled as much air as I possibly could because he smelled delicious. Like … soap. Manly masculine man soap. The kind that only an extremely hot and sexy guy would use.
The elevator dinged and as soon as the doors closed, I fell to my knees and praised all sex gods. It took a couple of minutes to collect myself. Oh, my, gawdddd. I needed to get a hold of myself. That brief encounter with the hot underwear sex god model slash muscular angel from heaven had completely incapacitated me.
After wrestling the groceries back into their bags, I stumbled into my apartment, dizzy from my post erotic event, and unpacked everything. It was then I realized what he’d handed me—that gigantic box of tampons. Shit. Shit. Shit. Why couldn’t I have been one of those super cool girls who only bought nifty things, like super expensive wine? Or imported cheese from France or Italy? Or even liver pâté, although the thought of liver made me shudder. But, no, I had a stupid box of tampons the size of Alaska.
I called Ellerie back in a fluster. “You won’t believe what just happened.”
I didn’t need to have the phone in my hand to hear her laugh. I heard it all the way from Atlanta.
“At least it wasn’t poop medicine or something for hemorrhoids.”
I sucked my breath in. “Stop! That’s a positively horrid thought. And I don’t even have hemorrhoids.”
“Right? But what if you did? And you just stood there staring at him like an idiot?”
“Well, yeah. He hypnotized me. Spelled me. I couldn’t help myself.”
“You didn’t bother to introduce yourself?”
“Of course not. I’m an idiot. Why on earth would I do something as intelligent as that?”
“Well, if he’s your neighbor, you’ll have other opportunities.”
Then I thought of something. “Oh God. That means I’ll have to be prepared at all times. No going out looking like a slob. Ever. I’m going to have to dress up to do my laundry.”
“Oh, Milly, you can’t worry about it. And when do you ever look like a slob?”
“All the time. But especially after one of my gigantic cry sessions.”
Ellerie was quiet a second. “I wish I was there for you.”
“You are. All I have to do is pick up the phone.”
“No, I mean really there. So when you have those moments, I could hug you and tell you it’s going to be fine.”
I sucked back a sob. “Am I so bad, Ellerie? I mean, I know I can be hard-headed and bossy sometimes. But I did try. I honestly did.”
“I know you did. For years. I didn’t live with the two of you so I can’t really say, but something happened to Harry when his best friend died. Mills, I don’t think there was anything more you could’ve done. John and I talked about how much he had changed. You even tried therapy, but I think he needed it alone. And you can’t force someone to do it.”
“I have this book—”
“Mills, how many books have you bought?”
“I can’t say. A bunch.”
“How many did he buy?”
“I don’t know. I never asked.”
“My guess would be a handful compared to the several dozen you own. Look, all I’m saying is you can look at yourself in the mirror and know you did everything you could. But in the end, if both people don’t work at it, a marriage can’t survive.”
“You’re right. I guess he didn’t want me anymore.” A sniffle escaped.
“Hey, but isn’t it better to move on than to stagnate in that?”
“Yeah, but it still hurts my heart.”
“Here’s what I want you to do. Be on the lookout for hot and sexy. Then think of things you’d like to do to him.”
“Ellerie, I don’t have to think. My body does that automatically.”
She giggled and I went along with her.
“I gotta run, baby sis. My pups are barking, and they need a walk. And the kids are starving.”
“Ooh, you make me miss my Big Dick.”
She cracked up. “You know I could take that a couple of ways.”
“I told that idiot not to name him that.”
“So, why don’t you just get another dog?”
“I don’t know. Training a puppy is a lot of work.”
“Think about it.”
“Maybe. But I gotta go. I left all my groceries out on the counter.”
“Call me tomorrow. Love you.”
“Back at you.”
I finished putting the rest of the groceries away and thought about getting another dog. But Dick was special. I fought hard for him, but in the end, I let Harry keep him. He had the big yard that Dick loved and needed.
Saying goodbye had nearly broken me. It was bad enough with that other big loss and then the divorce … but the dog … ugh, I can’t even imagine how hard it is for parents with kids in a custody battle.
It was late February and I was getting cabin fever with this cold weather. Maybe I’d take a walk in the park this afternoon. I’d purchased a Canada Goose coat after I’d moved here because I wasn’t very tolerant of the freezing temperatures. Surely, I could manage it wearing that thing.
I peeked out the window to see bright sunshine and about that time, my buzzer rang. It was odd because I hadn’t been here long enough to make many friends and only knew a couple of people from work. My friend Ava was busy, so I knew it wasn’t her. Pressing the button, I asked, “Yes?”
“Ms. Fremont, you have a delivery. May I send him up?”
“Um, I guess that would be okay. Does he look safe? I mean does he look like a serial killer or anything?”
The security man chuckled. “No, ma’am. He looks fine.”
“Take a picture just in case something happens to me. But you can send him up.”
I’d chosen this building for that very reason. Not being familiar with Manhattan, I didn’t want to move here without some assurances of safety. Soon my doorbell rang, and I looked out the peephole, only to see the back of a man’s head. Hmm. Not very easy to tell if he had a giant knife or something.
I opened the door and got the shock of my life.
“Surprise.”
Then I was knocked on my back by a slobbering one hundred and sixty pound furry mastiff.
“Dick, mind your manners,” Harry said.
When I was able to move the gigantic pooch aside, and only after he had completely covered my face and head in his greeting of slobbery kisses, I stood up and asked, “What the hell are you doing here, Harry?”
“Yeah, I know. I should’ve called. But Mills, I’m in a huge bind. I need your help and I know you love Dick as much as I do.”
“What does this have to do with Dick?”
“I’ve accepted a job in London and I’m leaving today.” He was smiling in a way I hadn’t seen in years. Harry was … happy. And I was … crushed.
“That’s … fantastic.” My artificial grin didn’t reach my eyes.
“It is, but I can’t take Dick.”
“No Dick?”
“No Dick.”
Dick stared at me with his soulful beady eyes. The thing about a mastiff was, they had huge heads but little eyes. It was kind of funny, but it made their eyes look really sad.
“This is where you come in.”
“Me? Harry, would you take a good look at this apartment? You were right. Dick needs a yard. Room to expand.” Room to expand?
“Yes, well, at this particular time, that’s something I can’t worry about. I know you love him and will care for him. I just can’t put him in the shelter. God forbid no one would want him.”
Dick’s eyes begg
ed me to take him in. “Oh, my sweet Dick. Come here.”
Harry let his leash go and Dick galloped into my apartment, mowing down everything in his path. His tail whipped all the items off my coffee table in seconds and all I could do was hug the monstrous hound.
“I’ve missed my sweet boy.” Then I sniffed. “What’s that foul odor?”
“Well, he rolled in something in the yard, right as we were leaving. Sorry.”
“Ugh. It’s offensive.”
“Yes, I know. I just drove fourteen hours in the car with him.”
“You drove?”
“Yes. I was going to ask—do you want the car?”
“Harry! When are you leaving?”
He checked his watch and said, “Five hours, so I don’t have much time.”
“And you waited until now to tell me this?”
“It just sort of fell into place.”
I massaged the place between my eyes. “Let me call the guy downstairs to see if you can leave the car.”
“You don’t understand. Mills, I’m not coming back. I’ve already arranged for the garage.”
“You—you’re leaving for good?”
“Yeah. I, uh, this is a new beginning for me. Just sell it if you don’t want it. I’ll sign the title over to you now.” He waved it in his hand. “You have my number and can reach me with any other legal stuff. My lawyer knows how to get in touch with you too.”
“Harry, are you sure you want to do this?”
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