by Lucy King
‘I didn’t mean to.’
‘I know. But you did, nevertheless, and that was when I began to panic.’ He pulled her closer and she had to fight back the temptation to lean in further and snuggle because he was so warm and hard and smelled so gorgeous, and it had been such a long time.
‘The thing is,’ he continued while her body sizzled with every brush against his, ‘I’m something of a control freak. When Natalie told me what she’d done and why, I went slightly off the rails. Actually,’ he amended, ‘not slightly. I careered off them so spectacularly I was lucky not to end up with a criminal record.’
Zoe pulled back a little and stared up at him in astonishment. ‘Really?’
‘Absolutely. Remind me to tell you about it some time. Anyway, it scared the living daylights out of me so I did everything I could to protect myself from it happening again because I didn’t want to feel like that again.’
‘No, well, I can see why.’
‘Actually I still don’t, which was why I behaved like a total jerk after the wedding. I’d just realised that I was in love with you and it scared the hell out of me, which was why I so badly overreacted.’
Her heart lurched and then began to bang crazily against her ribcage. ‘You’re in love with me?’
‘Completely and madly. I thought I could protect myself from you, but what I failed to realise is that with you, I have no protection and I have no defence.’
That was just about the loveliest thing she’d ever heard. ‘Do you mind?’
‘Not any more.’ He looked deep into her eyes and her heart melted. ‘You have no idea how sorry I am for the way I behaved.’
‘It can’t be as sorry as I am for the article,’ she said, her throat suddenly tight.
‘You haven’t had the experience with the press I have,’ he said earnestly. ‘I should have thought about that.’
‘And I should have been more aware,’ she said, and took a deep breath. ‘But the reason I wasn’t thinking straight was because I’d just realised how much I loved you and so that Lizzie woman caught me at a particularly vulnerable moment.’
His face lit up. ‘You love me?’
‘Completely and madly.’
He buried his face in her hair and muttered, ‘Thank God for that,’ and then he was kissing her like a man starved and she was clinging to him and kissing him back just as fiercely.
When they broke for breath she could feel his heart jackhammering against hers and she held him close. ‘God, I wish I could undo what I did,’ she said huskily.
‘I don’t,’ he said to her surprise. ‘What you did wasn’t any worse than what I did when I refused to let you go the night of your reunion. I made you face your demons, and you made me face mine. You’re a brave woman, Zoe Montgomery.’
‘You’re no coward yourself.’
‘I know.’ Dan shot her a quick grin. ‘I ripped up the confidentiality agreement, you’ll be pleased to hear. How brave is that?’
‘Are you sure?’
‘One hundred per cent. I’ve no doubt that we’ll both let each other down repeatedly in the future, and on occasion drive each other nuts, but isn’t that all part of a relationship? The highs and the lows? The good times and the bad? Wouldn’t it be rather dull to just trundle along without any of the soaring happiness and the deep despair along with all the other bits in between?’
Zoe compared the way her life had been before she’d met Dan, and the way it had been after and figured there was no contest. ‘I think it would.’
‘I’m glad you say that because I’ve been thinking that our relationship might have briefly started out as a charade, but the irony is that you are the east to my west and the north to my south.’
‘Weren’t you the east to my west and the north to my south?’
He thought about it for a second then grinned. ‘Does it matter which direction we’re going in as long as it’s the same one?’
‘Not really,’ she conceded and then took a deep breath. ‘Are we? Going in the same direction, I mean.’
‘I hope to God we are.’ He looked deep into her eyes. ‘Because I absolutely adore you.’
As he lowered his mouth to hers she slid her arms around his neck and kissed him with everything she felt. She was so deliriously happy, so caught up in the kiss, in him, so barely able to believe that things had turned out this way, that she didn’t hear the clock strike twelve. She didn’t hear the cheers and the clapping and she was hardly aware of the loud drunken rendition of ‘Auld Lang Syne’ being sung around them.
It was only when she felt something flutter against her face that she opened her eyes and pulled away.
Looking up and around at the glitter that was floating down from the ceiling, Zoe laughed. ‘We’ve had the song and the grappa, and look, now we have the snow.’
‘So we do.’
She kissed him again and then murmured against his lips, ‘Happy New Year.’
‘I think it will be...’ He paused then took a deep breath. ‘Especially if you married me.’
Her heart skipped a beat and then began to race. ‘Is that a proposal?’
‘Yes.’
A surge of brilliant happiness burst through her and Zoe felt her mouth break into a wide delirious smile. ‘My second in three months. A record.’
He brushed a silver star off her nose and shivers ran through her as much at the look in his eye as at his touch. ‘Well, what would you say to trying it for real this time?’
‘I’d say your mother’s going to be thrilled.’
* * * * *
Keep reading for an excerpt from Too Much of a Good Thing? by Joss Wood.
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ONE
‘Laptop and mobile chargers packed? Did you check the oil in the car?’
Lu Sheppard stood in the east coast early-morning sunshine and, because she knew that throwing her arms around the hairy knees closest to her and hanging on tightly wouldn’t be appreciated, jammed her clenched fists into the pockets of her faded denim shorts. Turning her head away, she swallowed furiously before digging deep and yanking out her patented, much practised I’m-OK-you’re-OK smile.
‘Lu, you did,’ answered Daniel, the younger of her twin brothers. ‘Twice.’
That was right. She had. And she’d ticked it off on the list she’d made for them. Not that either of them had looked at it. Lord, how was she going to do this? These boys had been her life and her focus for the past decade. How was she supposed to just let them get into their car and drive across the country to university and, to all intents and purposes, out of her life? She’d yelled at them, cried with them and cried over them. She’d provided meals and lifts, helped with homework and bugged them to talk to her. She’d been father, mother, sister and friend.
She was twenty-nine years old and not only was she unable to stare empty nest syndrome in the eye, it was also kicking her non-sexy butt. But, like so many other emotions she’d experienced over the past ten years, the boys didn’t
have to know that...
Daniel leaned back against the door of his jointly owned car and cleared his throat. Lu saw the look he gave Nate and felt rather than saw the nod Nate gave in reply. Nate moved to stand next to his non-identical twin, equally tall, equally good-looking.
Daniel cleared his throat again. ‘Lu, we are grateful that you stepped up to be our guardian when Mom and Dad died. If it wasn’t for you we would’ve ended up with some crusty relative who probably would’ve shipped us off to boarding school and holiday camps.’
Since their parents had both been only children, Daniel’s comment wasn’t far off the truth. All their relatives were old, crusty, and generally waiting for the light in the tunnel.
‘But it’s time for a new start...for us and also for you.’
Huh? ‘What do you mean?’
Daniel rubbed his jaw. ‘We think it’s time for you to do all the things you couldn’t do because you were raising us.’
Lu frowned. ‘Where is this coming from, guys? We talked about this—about you two leaving.’
‘Sure—about what uni was like, how we felt about leaving, what we were getting into. But we never spoke about you.’ Nate chipped in.
Lu’s expression was pure confusion. ‘Why did we need to? My life isn’t changing.’
‘It should,’ Nate retorted.
‘But why?’
‘Because nothing about your life is normal for a single woman of your age! When did you last have a date?’ Nate demanded.
Lu couldn’t remember. It had been a while—six, eight months? She could barely remember the man, just that he hadn’t been able to wait to get rid of her after she’d told him that her twin brothers lived with her and she was their guardian. She couldn’t blame him; his had been the standard reaction from the very few men she’d dated over the years: shock followed by an immediate desire to find the closest exit.
Add a large house, two dogs, an enormous saltwater fish tank, three corn snakes—no, they’d been moved to a reptile centre when she’d refused to look after them after the boys left—and cats to the pile of her baggage, and it was no wonder her dates belted away.
‘We need to talk to you about...you,’ Nate said.
‘Me?’ Lu yelped as she pulled a band from her shorts and finger-combed her straight, mouse-brown hair into a stubby pony.
Uh, no. She looked after them—physically, mentally—they didn’t look after her. That was the way their little family worked.
‘Look, Lu, we’re not only leaving, we’re leaving you. You know our plans: degrees, then we want to travel. We have no idea where we’ll end up but there’s a good chance it won’t be here,’ Nate continued. ‘That being said, it would be a lot easier for us if we knew that you were happy and busy and had a full life of your own. Take this house, for instance; we don’t want you hanging on to this mansion in the hope that one of us will want it one day. And right now it’s a huge house for you to live in by yourself.’
Dan jumped in. ‘We’re not asking you to sell the house, or anything like that... We just want you to know that we are cool with whatever you want to do with it: sell it, rent it out, start up a commune...’
Lu sat down on the steps leading to the front door and rested her forearms on her thighs. Nate sat down next to her and draped a muscular arm around her shoulder. ‘Just please don’t become a crazy lady who rattles around here talking to herself and rescuing cats. That was the first thing we wanted to mention...’
There was more? Really? Good grief!
Daniel dropped to his haunches in front of her and pinned her with a look that went far beyond his eighteen years. ‘Lu, you are going to be on your own for the first time since you were roughly our age.’
Well, yeah. That was why empty nest syndrome was wiping the floor with her face.
‘We want you to have some fun—to live your life.’ Daniel raked an agitated hand through his hair, which desperately needed a cut. ‘You need to stop being so responsible, to take a breath. To do the things you should’ve been doing while you were raising us.’
Lu cocked her head. ‘Like...?’
‘Like clubbing and—’ Daniel looked at a point beyond her shoulder and blushed ‘—hooking up.’
Hooking up? Heavens, if she couldn’t remember when last she’d had a date, she’d had absolutely no idea when she last had sex. She suspected she might need a high-pressure cleaner to remove the cobwebs.
‘So, here’s your “to do” list. We want you to try new things like...skydiving or learning to surf. Pottery classes or dance lessons,’ Nate suggested.
Daniel, her brand and fashion-conscious brother, winced at her faded purple T-shirt and battered jeans. ‘Some decent clothes would also be a good idea.’
‘I have decent clothes!’ Lu objected.
‘Then wear them!’ Daniel shot back. ‘And your hair needs a cut and you could do with a facial. You need a lifestyle makeover.’
Since their words plucked a chord somewhere deep inside her, she suspected that they might be right. But she certainly didn’t have to like it.
Lu growled. ‘I hate you.’ She glared at Daniel. ‘And you.’
‘No, you don’t. You love us.’
Nate grinned and her heart flipped over. God, she did. So much. How was she supposed to let them go?
‘You should go clubbing. Somewhere hip and fun. You’ll have to dress up and make an effort.’ Nate said. ‘Makhosi will take you, Lu.’
Of course he would. Clubbing was her oldest and best friend’s favourite way to blow off steam.
‘But she has to have a makeover first. I wouldn’t be seen with her with that hair!’ Daniel added.
‘Hey!’ Lu protested.
‘Haircut, highlights and a makeover,’ Daniel stated, and Lu glared at him. ‘As Mak has said, more than once, that hair of yours is a disgrace: much better suited to a prissy librarian who doesn’t curse, drink wine and who has never had a Big O in her life.’
Well, that sounded like her. Not the wine and the cursing part, but the Big O was definitely true. Could she be so damn emotional because she was sexually frustrated? It would be easy to shift the blame, but the truth was that sex had been scarce—OK, practically non-existent—for most of this past decade, so she couldn’t blame her weeping on that.
Empty Nest Syndrome: two. Lu: nil.
And when had her brothers become old enough to mention her orgasms—or lack of them—anyway?
Nate leaned back and put his ankle on his knee. ‘But, Lu, more important than anything else...you should get a job.’
Dan shook his head. ‘Not that she uses any of it, but there is enough money coming in from the trust. She doesn’t have to work if she doesn’t want to.’
No, she didn’t... If she could bring herself to use the money for anything other than the essentials that kept body and soul together. She had never felt comfortable using her parents’ money for anything other than food, shelter and transport.
His brother sent him a you’re-a-moron look. ‘Not for the money, dude. Because it’s something to...to get her teeth into.’
‘Oh, right. Good point.’
Lu lifted her fingers and started to tick their demands off. ‘So, you two think that if I find a job, go clubbing, have a makeover, learn how to surf—’
‘And skydive,’ Nate interjected.
‘Dream on.’ Lu glared at him and continued. ‘Go to pottery and dance lessons then I won’t have time to mope?’
Lu stared past their car down the driveway. The thing was they could be right. The distraction of getting out and about might keep her from going off her head worrying about them. It wasn’t a bad idea.
Lu nodded slowly. ‘I’ll think about it.’
‘Promise you’ll do it.’ Nate insisted.
‘I promise to think about it.’
‘If you do it, we promise to come home in three months’ time,’ Nate said slyly.
‘You’re blackmailing me with a promise to come home?’ Lu’s mouth dropped open. ‘You little snot!’
Nate just grinned and looked at his watch. ‘We need to get going, Lu.’
She couldn’t bear it. She really couldn’t. She struggled to find the words and when she did they were muffled with emotion. ‘Call me when you get there. Drive carefully.’
Nate pulled her up, cuddled her, and easily lifted her off her feet before placing a kiss on her cheek. ‘Love ya, sis.’
When Nate released her, Daniel held her close. ‘Take care of yourself. Have fun. Please, please have some fun,’ he told her. Daniel let her go and hopped into the passenger seat. ‘We’ll call you when we get there.’
Lu nodded, touched Daniel’s arm resting on the windowsill of the car and blew Nate a kiss.
Her boys...driving off to start their new life...
Lu watched their car turn into the road and sat down on the stairs, holding her face in her hands as she watched her two chicks fly from her very large and now very empty nest.
They would be fine, she assured herself. As for herself...she wasn’t quite sure.
* * *
Two weeks later, in the VIP area of Go! on a very busy Friday night, Will Scott placed his elbows on the railing and looked down at the gyrating masses below him. It was nearly midnight and he’d been thinking about leaving the club for the past half-hour. He could walk down the block to the boutique hotel he’d booked into two days ago and in fifteen minutes could be face-down on the monstrous double bed.