by Jo Raven
Not sure I believe that last one, but a ghost of a doubt stirs in my mind.
What if she’s right?
Yeah, right. Whatever.
But she wouldn’t lie to me, would she? Ev isn’t like that. She really thinks it’s not my fault, and now my heart’s racing for a different reason.
“… talk to a counselor,” she’s saying. She puts a warm hand on my cheek. “Are you listening to me, Micah Owens, or am I talking to the walls?”
I shake my head, and a bark of laughter escapes me. “You think a counselor can help me?”
“Maybe. You lose nothing by trying. At least you’ll get to hear from more than one person – that’d be me – that you should stop feeling bad about the hell of your past, and that your guilt is misplaced. That you should be glad you survived.”
“You think?” Doubtful – and yet more hopeful than ever.
“I think, yes.” She smiles, and my eyes burn like fire. “So can I?”
“What?” I wipe a hand over my face, and it feels wet. My voice cracks a little. “What, Ev?”
“Move in with you.” She now cups my cheeks in both hands and plants a soft kiss on my mouth. “Please?”
I laugh again, no idea why. I feel so happy all of a sudden, it’s like a punch to the gut. I feel dizzy, vaguely sick, terrified, and light like a hot-air balloon.
“I love you,” I whisper, and haul her back into my lap. I guide myself into her and she gasps, her eyes flying wide as I slide deep into her in one long thrust. “More than anything and anyone. More than my life. You keep saving me, Evangeline Kingsley, every year, and every month, and every day.”
“I’m yours,” she says, and when I rock inside her, she moans, a throaty sound that shoots straight to my cock. “Love you more every day, every month, and will love you more with every year that passes.”
I want that. To be with her for the rest of my life. The realization dawns that I don’t just want her to move in with me. I want to marry her and have children with her. Grow old with her.
Jesus. Talk about a revelation. But one thing at a time.
I lift up on my elbows and grab her hips, then I flip us over so I’m looking down at her, pushing into her, buried to the root in her velvet heat. Her eyes fly wide and I grin as I raise her legs and wrap them around my waist. I bent my head until our foreheads touch and push deeper, a roll of my pelvis that has her gasping.
“Hold on tight,” I say against her parted lips and pull back, then thrust back into her slick core. Again and again I slide into her, and she meets my thrusts, holding on to my shoulders and rocking up. The world narrows down to my girl, to her panting breaths, her half-lidded eyes, her silky skin.
“Micah…” she whispers my name, and then cries out, clenching around me.
This time she really knows me, knows all about me, and I sob out her name as I come undone, spilling inside her. Claiming her, marking her. Wanting her like no other girl, ever.
All the things I never said are now laid out in front of her, and in spite of them, she still chose me, still loves me.
And I love her more than ever.
Micah and Evangeline have their own novel, recounting how they met and fell in love. Their story is Book 1 in the Damage Control series:
MICAH
(Damage Control, #1)
There’s me: Micah Owens. Tattoo artist at Damage Control. No parents or siblings. A past that still gives me nightmares.
And then there’s her: Evangeline, the girl who saved my life and haunts my more pleasant dreams. Only she doesn’t know who I really am, and telling her might well send her fleeing for the hills. She deserves better than a loser like me. She’s pretty. She’s clever. She’s goddamn sexy and has a heart of gold.
Which is why I can’t tell her. A smile from her and I’ll do all I can to make her mine – including pretending to be someone I’m not, someone worth having.
Isn’t love weird?
On AMAZON: http://amzn.to/1HJDqAR
AUTHOR BIO
Jo Raven is a New York Times and USA Today bestselling author, best known for her series Inked Brotherhood and Damage Control. She writes edgy, contemporary New Adult romance with sexy bad boys and strong-willed heroines. She writes about MMA fighters and tattoo artists, dark pasts that bleed into the present, loyalty and raw emotion. Add to that breathtaking suspense, super-hot sex scenes and a happy ending, and you have a Jo Raven® story.
Find all my books here▶ http://joraven.com/books
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What comes next?
▶ JESSE (Damage Control #2)
Returning to Madison hurts. I thought I’d left my past behind, but the past goes on living. I carry it inside of me, it’s a piece of me. People have marked me in indelible ways and I drag the shreds of my soul behind me, trying to put my pieces back together. I’m not the Amber I used to be. I fly under the radar, try to be invisible.
It doesn't always work. Drawing attention scares me. It always spells trouble. Returning to my home town is a last ditch effort to lay my demons to rest and start anew, for good this time.
Meeting Jesse Lee wasn’t in the plan. Yet here he is with his heart-stopping, sexy grin, handsome like a god, shining bright. He’s full of life, full of heat, packing the energy of a thousand suns in his gaze and muscular body. Jesse burns, and the pain of being near him is sweet.
But he’s foiling my plans. It’s hard to remain a ghost when he’s around. Hard to avoid his attention, to remain invisible. He sees me, really sees me, and behind his bright radiance, I can see shadows from his own past crowding in. He’s swimming hard to stay afloat even as he reaches for me.
What is he afraid of? And how can he save me from drowning when he can’t even save himself?
ON AMAZON: http://amzn.to/1K8YdPv