“Okay.”
Smiling, she tucked my hair behind my ear. “I’ve wanted you since I started working on Wolf’s Landing.”
“Really?” Maybe it was a good thing it took us this long, though. I slipped my hand into hers. “And here I thought I’d be mortified if you ever caught me checking you out.”
“I caught you a few times.” She winked. “Why do you think I took you up on the drinks that first night? I had a feeling you were . . .”
“A sure thing?”
“Something like that.” She actually blushed a bit. “I was pissed off, and I was horny. And you’re hot.” She shrugged. “So . . .”
“It worked out. And now, here we are.”
“Mm-hmm.”
We locked eyes. Yeah. Here we were.
Now what?
I swallowed. “For the record, I have no idea what I’m doing.”
“Neither do I.” She kissed me softly. “All we can do is take it a day at a time and see where things go.”
Except I know where these things go. They always do.
I resisted the urge to visibly cringe.
“What’s wrong?” she asked.
So much for hiding it.
I sighed. “Look, this is a new thing for me—trying not to be so in control of a relationship. To say it’s terrifying is . . .” I swallowed. “Just . . . be patient with me. Let me know if I’m keeping too tight a grip on you.”
Natalya laughed. “Oh, I’ll let you know.”
After a second, I laughed too, then cuddled closer to her. “Guess I don’t have to worry about that, do I?”
“No.” She pressed her lips to my forehead again. “Definitely not.” She paused. “And, um, I’ll be more considerate. About how I talk to people.”
“No.” I drew back and met her gaze. “I trust you.”
“Still.” She kissed me softly, running her fingers through my hair. “I understand why it bothered you. As long as you can trust me to talk to men and to women, I’ll keep how I talk to them in check.”
This whole thing still terrified the hell out of me—insecurities were evil little bastards—but for a shot at making this work with Natalya? I took a deep breath and smiled. “Deal.”
She returned the smile and pressed another kiss to my lips.
I exhaled. “You know, I think I owe Levi a drink or two.”
“Do you?”
I nodded. “He’s the one who sat me down and got my head out of my ass.”
She laughed softly, taking my hand. “Guess I’ll have to thank him too, won’t I?”
“Probably, yes.” I paused. “Course, he owed me, considering I’ve had to do the same for him.”
“Really?”
“Yeah. He’s a great guy, but he can really trip over his own feet in a relationship. Carter has the patience of a saint, let me tell you.” I met her gaze, and my humor faded a bit. “Which I guess . . . Well, apparently I can trip over my own feet too.”
“Anyone can.” She brushed a strand of hair out of my face. “We’ll be all right. You know I’m bisexual. I know you like control.” She shrugged. “If those things become problems, we’ll talk about it.”
“Before they become problems.”
Natalya nodded. “Yes.”
Finally, that uneasy feeling in my stomach started to settle. No, this wouldn’t be perfect or easy. All my insecurities and type A, control freak weirdness wouldn’t go away overnight. But maybe now that it was all out in the open, it wouldn’t be such a disaster when a problem reared its ugly head again.
Slowly but surely, as we lay here in each other’s arms, my heartbeat slowed and the knots in my stomach unwound. After spending so much time in a relationship that was hanging by a thread, it was such a relief to feel this way. Satisfied. Comfortable. Stable.
Maybe we’d fallen on our faces a few times at first, and maybe it had taken some time and work to find our footing, but we’d made it here. And none of the stumbling and flailing seemed to matter now.
Because Natalya was here. I was here.
And she was right—we didn’t have to stick the landing. We’d fallen on our faces, but then picked ourselves up and dusted each other off. If we crashed again, we’d fix it again.
It was terrifying, but exhilarating. Uncertain, but promising.
And I couldn’t wait to see where it went.
Starstruck
L.A. Witt
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L.B. Gregg
Hell on Wheels
Z.A. Maxfield
Lone Wolf
Aleksandr Voinov and L.A. Witt
The Burnt Toast B&B
Heidi Belleau and Rachel Haimowitz
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The Deep of the Sound
Amy Lane
When to Hold Them
G.B. Gordon
Rain Shadow
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Selfie
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Lights, Camera, Cupid!
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Razor Wire
Who’s Your Daddy?
The Best Laid Plans
The Princess and the Porn Star
The Virgin Cowboy Billionaire’s Secret Baby
Writing as L.A. Witt
Starstruck (a Bluewater Bay novel)
Lone Wolf, with Aleksandr Voinov (a Bluewater Bay novel)
Rain Shadow (a Bluewater Bay novel)
Finding Master Right
Static
Running With Scissors
Hostile Ground, with Aleksandr Voinov
The Market Garden Tales, with Aleksandr Voinov
Where Nerves End (Tucker Springs, #1)
Covet Thy Neighbor (Tucker Springs, #4)
After the Fall (Tucker Springs, #6)
It’s Complicated (Tucker Springs, #7)
Writing as Ann Gallagher
Lead Me Not
Writing as Lori A. Witt
The Tide of War
For a complete list, please see gallagherwitt.com.
Lauren Gallagher is an abnormal romance writer who has recently been exiled from the glittering utopia of Omaha, Nebraska, to an undisclosed location in South America. Along with her husband, a harem of concubines, and a phosphorescent porcupine, she remains, as always, in hiding from the Polynesian Mafia. For the moment, she seems to have eluded her nemesis, M/M romance author L.A. Witt, but figures L.A. will eventually become bored with the wilds of Spain and come looking for her. And when that time comes, Lauren will be ready. Assuming L.A. doesn't have her hands full keeping track of Lori A. Witt and Ann Gallagher, which she probably will.
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Table of Contents
About Stuck Landing
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
Dear Reader
Also by Lauren Gallagher
About the Author
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Stuck Landing Page 22