by Angel Payne
“Not in the least. But how else would you have known if we didn’t talk about things? Do you see my point?” I shot up a hand, snatching her wrist before it descended into the new smack she intended for my chest. “No. Don’t try to deal with this by fighting your way from it. You’re stronger than that, Margaux.”
Her shoulders slumped. I relented my hold. She yanked back her hand as if I’d fried it, curling it against her upper chest.
“But I’m good at fighting.”
“I know.”
I felt shitty for harshing our afterglow, but only for a minute. We needed to do this, even if it irked and twisted and felt uncomfortable. Little by little, we were finding our way.
“I don’t know how to do things in a lot of other ways.”
“I know that too, princess. But we’ll both learn.”
She peered at me, eyes huge. “But you’ve got so much more of it figured out.”
“Not true. At all.” I shook my head. “I’ve got weak spots too, sugar. Lots of them.” Wasn’t that the fucking truth?
Her eyes pooled and glimmered. “I’m sorry, Michael. So sorry.”
I gathered her into my arms. “Whoa. What’s all this? Tears?”
“I’m so fucked up, Michael! I don’t know how to do all this. This girlfriend thing, you know? I’m going to make mistakes. A bunch. I have issues, more than the quick T-shirt slogan kind. Mommy issues. Hell, probably Daddy issues, too. Maybe you were smart to have run when you did.”
I yanked her chin up with a fierce tug. “I love you, Margaux. You. I wasn’t searching for perfect, okay? I was searching…for you.”
She sniffed. “I don’t deserve you.”
“Now that’s fucking funny, because right now, I feel like the luckiest man on Earth. And for the record, anytime you want to play kitty, I’m game.”
“What about schoolgirl?”
I gulped. Could she have asked that in any sexier a voice? “Well, that isn’t my chalk stick popping up in approval, sugar.”
The next moment, she looked like she wanted to get started on that one right away. “Ohmigosh.” She jerked up in my lap like a fifteen year-old who’d scored Comic Con passes. “As long as we’re doing the honesty thing, I have to tell you something.”
I sighed. “It’s all right. I already know you snore.” I’d known since the red eye we’d been on to Tokyo last year, actually.
“I do not snore.”
“So that wasn’t what you needed to tell me?”
“I do not snore!”
“Margaux?”
“What?”
“Want to spit out what you were going to tell me?”
She blinked. “Right. Okay. I told you I wasn’t good at this shit, didn’t I?”
I hauled her in for a fast but mushy kiss. “You’re doing just fine. Breathe and take it easy.”
She complied with a long, soft sigh. “All right. This may sound a little crazy.”
Not any crazier than how she’d strong-armed past TSA this afternoon. Lovable little loon.
“Something weird happened at the press attack this afternoon.”
I sat up a little. Now she had my attention. And the full alert of my ape man protective mode. “Oh?”
“I…saw someone.”
“Trey?” I seethed. A possibly worse answer stabbed. “Doug?”
“No, no. A woman. A stranger, actually…but not.”
I stroked her shoulder with my knuckles. “How do you mean?”
“I was answering a question and made eye contact with her. She smiled at me and I wanted to look longer, but when I scanned the crowd again, she was gone.”
“So how is that weird? The airport is a very busy place. San Diego is the eighth largest city in the country. It’s an international airport.”
She rolled her eyes. “Okay, Mr. President of the Tourism Authority. That was kind of creepy.”
“But sexy.”
“Kind of.”
“But this woman…she resonated with you. Why? Can you peg the connection?”
She licked her lips. Took my hand. “She looked exactly like Caroline.”
My brows shot up. “Whoa.”
“Yeah. Whoa.”
“Are you certain?”
“Of course I’m not certain. It’s also been over fifteen years. But here’s the stranger part. I’m pretty sure I’ve seen that woman before. Every few years, she shows up at the same event as me. Press conferences, society parties, client events…it’s random, just out of the blue. I never know when or where, but I catch a glimpse of her in the crowd and when I look again, she’s gone.”
“Well, have you ever tried to find Caroline? Like, hiring someone to track her down?”
Now she gaped like I was the crazy one. “Duh. But like my birth mother, she’s disappeared off the face of the earth. I’m sure Andrea had her erased, too.”
My gut clenched. “Bitch.” I cupped her face, brushing a thumb across her cheek. “But you still don’t have closure, and that sucks.”
She surprised me with her reply. A brightened smile and an “aha” look came before her exclamation. “Hey. Maybe Killian has some different resources for this than I do. I wonder if he’d help? After he’s over wanting to cut off my nipples about this whole Trey mess.”
I growled. Hard. “No more throwing your nipples under the bus today, woman. Or any other part of yourself, for that matter. Killian is going to understand, okay? Just explain to him how you tried to screech the brakes on the Trey train by yourself. Which, by the way, was the dumbest thing you ever—”
A flying cat cut me off. More accurately, a blonde kitty bombshell launching herself at me all over again, filling my arms like the fiery, feisty little feline I knew—and loved. Ohhh yeah, how I loved her.
“I’m not perfect, Michael, remember?”
I tangled my hands in her hair, filled my senses with her scent, and curled her tight against my body. “Yeah. I remember.”
“But I am yours.”
“Mmmm. Now that I really remember.”
I held her even tighter. Like bottling lightning? Grabbing fire? Pinning a cloud down? Perhaps. Probably. But I had to believe that finally, fate—and love—were on our side. What other explanation was there for how this apple farmer’s son had finally found the other half of his soul in the world’s highest ivory tower, in the heart of a magnificent, maddening, magical, not-so-perfect princess?
I’d spend the rest of my days fighting for that love. Telling her, each and every day, how I’d never take it for granted, or stop working to make it better. To make us better.
We wouldn’t always get it perfect.
But we’d always make it right.
And for now, that was all that mattered.
The End-ish
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OTHER BOOKS IN THE SECRETS OF STONE SERIES:
BOOK 1: NO PRINCE CHARMING
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BOOK 2: NO MORE MASQUERADE
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BOOK 4: NO MAGIC MOMENT
Coming in Fall 2015
OTHER WORKS BY USA TODAY BESTSELLER ANGEL PAYNE
The Cimarron Series
BOOK 1: INTO HIS DARK
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The W.I.L.D.
(Warriors Intense in Love & Domination) Boys of Special Forces series:
Book 1: SAVED BY HIS SUBMISSIVE
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Book 2: HANDCUFFED BY HER HERO
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Book 3: SURRENDERING TO HER SERGEANT
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Book 4: A WILDER WONDERLAND: SEXY STORIES OF THE SEASON
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Book 5: WET FOR HER WARRIORS
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Book 6: HOT FOR HIS HOSTAGE
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AND COMING JUNE 16, 2015:
A WILDER KIND OF LOVE
W.I.L.D. Boys of Special Forces, Book 6.5
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Dan Colton was once the CIA’s golden boy, a get-things-done cowboy who believed forgiveness was better to ask for than permission. But performing the devil’s work was always easy with his angel’s face, a damn good asset to have whether he was charming agency superiors…or training submissives in his darkest dungeon role plays.
Until his face was taken away.
An act of ultimate bravery spit Colton back out as a bitter, half-burned shell of the person he used to be, unsure of how to relate to the world without his physical calling card. His only condolence is dreaming of revenge on the bastard responsible for the fire that disfigured him but when even that plan backfires, he is a beast without any prey—tormented by a beauty he cannot touch.
Wyn Lesange, known around the CIA’s Vegas office as “The Laser”, has only one Achilles heel—in the form of the brooding agent who once wouldn’t give her the time of day. But since Dan Colton’s accident, they’ve become friends, even trusting each other with some of their kinkier secrets. What are friends for, right?
Wrong.
Now Dan has become her greatest joy, toughest torment, and most sinful desire. Thoughts of surrendering to his passionate brand of domination consume her more and more…but it’s clear Dan thinks of her as nothing more than the brainy analyst in the next office over.
Seeking to assuage her need for the submissive dream, Wyn takes matters into her own hands and journeys in disguise to one of the desert’s most elicit kink clubs. When the Dominant she meets there is also beneath a mask, his voice so alluring and familiar, she wonders if karma has conspired to fulfill one of her deepest fantasies…and what price she’ll have to pay for it come true. Is she willing to sacrifice everything she’s built in a friendship with Dan, for one night in his dungeon?
USA Today Bestseller Angel Payne and Victoria Blue, one of the brightest new talents on the romance scene, met on Facebook and decided there weren’t a lot of other people around who shared their crazy ways of looking at life and the world. A friendship was instantly born—and two years later, a writing partnership, as well. Both authors live in Southern California, where they share a mutual love for the ocean, sunshine, cute shoes, pop music, crazy memes, and sushi. They also love to hear from readers like you!
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