“It’s already done. The only thing I want in this world is you. The rest of it.” He lifted his hand. “It’s up in smoke.”
“OK.” I grinned, excited butterflies flapping in my stomach.
“OK?” he asked, looking at me closely.
“Yes, I’ll run away with you.” I stood there smiling like an idiot, stunned at what he’d done so we could be together.
He chuckled. My God, I missed that chuckle. “Then get your stuff, duchess.”
“Oh!” I snapped out of the trance and spun around to do exactly that. At the same time, Aunt Maya came rushing down the stairs with a duffel bag in her arms.
“I grabbed everything I could from your drawers, and anything else that would fit in the bag. I also got you this,” she gasped, out of breath from racing around. She held out a rolled-up wad of cash. “It’s only five grand, but I want you to have it. Go. Live. Be happy.”
I took what she was offering, caught up in the moment before the thought hit me. “But what about you, Aunty?”
She shooed me away. “What about me? I’ve already lived my life. And it’s been a wonderful one. Now go live yours. I’m fine here. I have my cats. I have friends. I’ll be fine. Just please don’t ever tell me why you had to make everyone think you were dead, young man. I’m too old to be like one of those Orange is the New Black girls. I want to tell them honestly that I had no clue what you were into, but I’m assuming it has something to do with my niece’s robbery?”
Nate opened his mouth, then closed it and smiled at her, shaking his head. “Best you don’t know,” he replied with a wink.
“He’s a thief like Pierce Brosnan in The Thomas Crown Affair, isn’t he?” she said with a whimsy in her voice I’d never heard before.
“How did you figure that one out?” I asked, stunned that she’d never said anything if she did. My aunt wasn’t one for tiptoeing.
“Because when you introduced him, I noticed that he looks a little like Hugh Jackman in your police sketch.”
“You never said.”
She ran her hand down the side of my face, tears in her eyes as she smiled. “That’s because you were so happy, and I could tell you loved him.”
I hugged her tight. “I’m going to miss you.”
“I’ll be glad to see the back of you,” she joked, wiping at her eyes as she smiled and blew kisses, then waved us both out the door. “I love you, caterpillar.”
I could barely see her through my happy tears, but I blew kisses back. “I love you too.”
“Ready?” Nate said as he threw my duffel in the back of the car.
Nodding, I climbed into the passenger seat and turned to get my last glimpse of Aunt Maya as we drove away.
“Will I ever get to see her again?” I asked once we were on the road and I couldn’t see her anymore.
“I don’t know, duchess. Maybe someday when all this has settled down.” He rested his hand on my thigh, giving it a light squeeze. “Regret leaving with me yet?” In response, I wrapped myself around his arm and pressed my face against his warm skin.
“I could never regret you, Nate. I’ve missed you so much.”
“I missed you too, duchess. So fucking much.” My entire body hummed with joy.
“And what about Goliath? Did he miss me?”
Nate chuckled. “You have no idea,” he responded, leaning over to kiss the side of my head. “I’ll show you how much he missed you when we get to where we’re going.”
“And where is that?”
“A little town at the very bottom of the country. It’s called Portland, and Nathan Duke and his wife just bought property down there.”
“Nathan Duke? That’s your new name?” My smile grew wider.
“Of course. Every duchess needs her duke.” I loved it.
“I still can’t believe you’re doing this for me,” I mused, biting at my lip in amazement as I looked out the window at the passing scenery. He was everything I wanted, and all that I needed.
“I’m not doing it for you, duchess. I’m selfishly doing it for myself because I can’t stand living another moment without you.”
“What would you have done if I said I didn’t want to come?”
“That wasn’t an option. I’d have gone caveman on you and slung you over my shoulder. You belong to me. You’re my wife.”
“Actually, I’m a widow, it seems.”
“No, you’re my wife.” He pulled out an envelope from the centre console and handed it to me. Inside, there was new identification for the both of us—Mr and Mrs Nathan and Hannah Duke.
“How did you manage to do all this?” I asked, astounded at the quality of the fake IDs as I sifted through them.
“I paid a lot of people a lot of money.”
“And what happens to everything you had before? Your house, my apartment?”
“Our house. It’s all being taken care off. Toby is helping out. We’ll be sitting pretty, the way a duke and his duchess should.”
“And when we get to Portland, we’ll work like normal people do? No more stealing, no more growing poppies or any other sort of drug farm?”
“Straight as an arrow. I was thinking maybe a bookshop would be nice.”
My eyes lit up. “Will it have a ladder that moves? Except this time, I think we should refrain from any sort of hard fucking on it. And maybe get an actual builder on it.”
“It can have anything you want—a coffee shop, a section for classic DVDs. We could even have a mini theatre—show old movies, put on plays. You’d be in your element.”
“That does sound like a dream,” I gushed, my heart so full and hopeful that I feared I was about to wake up from said dream.
“Sure does. My dream is to spend my life with you. Everything else is a cherry.”
“And kids. Will we have kids in this dream?”
He glanced at me and smiled, devastating me with how handsome he was. “Is that something you want now?”
“Yes,” I replied. “I’d love to have little Nates and Hollands, I mean Hannahs with you. There’s nothing standing in our way anymore.”
“Then we’ll get started on that right away.”
I squealed with happiness. “Pinch me, quick!”
“What?” He laughed.
“Pinch me.” When he wouldn’t, I did it myself. “Ow.” I blinked a few times and looked around.
“What the hell was that for?”
“I had to make sure this was real.”
“Oh, it’s real, duchess. But in about ten hours’ time, you might be questioning your reality while I rock your fucking world.”
“Promise?” I laughed.
“Goliath has really missed you.”
“And I’ve missed him. But I missed you more.”
“Me too,” he said, just as we turned to merge onto the highway that would pave the road to our new life. A life where we could have everything we ever dreamed and then some.
I turned around, watching Melbourne recede in the rear window.
“Goodbye, my old life,” I whispered. Then I took my husband’s hand and kissed his knuckles. “Hello, my world.”
As I settled into my seat, ready for the long drive to our new home, I couldn’t wipe the smile from my face. Some people would call me foolish for giving Nate a second chance after the way we met and the way we left things, but the man owned my heart, just as I owned his. And now that he’d given up a huge part of his life to start fresh with me, I didn’t feel foolish at all. I felt willing to do the same. Nate told me months ago that he didn’t understand what love was. Now he did. Truly loving someone meant moments of sacrifice. Moments of allowing the other to grow and flourish, rather than holding ties over them. My husband loved me, loved me enough to let me go, loved me enough to relinquish the ties that had bound us. He’d given me the fairy tale by setting us free. I felt hopeful for our future but most of all, I felt unconditionally loved.
* * *
THE END
* * *
/> Continue following Nate and Holland in Sam and Alesha’s story Fools Rush In, releasing June 21st 2018
* * *
www.lillianaanderson.com
Also by Lilliana Anderson
The Confidante Trilogy
Confidante: The Brothel
Confidante: The Escort
Confidante: The Madame
* * *
Beautiful Series
Too Close
A Beautiful Struggle
Phoenix
A Beautiful Forever
Commitment
A Beautiful Melody
A Beautiful Rock
Devotion
A Beautiful Star
A Beautiful Taste
A Beautiful Danger
* * *
Entwined Series
Our Hearts Entwined
Our Lives Entwined
* * *
Drawn Series
Drawn
Drawn 2 – Obsession
Drawn 2 – Redemption
* * *
Drawn to Fight
Zac & Evie
Hugo & Meg
* * *
47 Things
47 Things
One More Thing
* * *
Cartwright Brothers
Fool Me Twice
* * *
Standalones
In the Wind
Till There Was You
Never Again
* * *
For information on upcoming releases visit
www.lillianaanderson.com/preorders
About the Author
Bestselling Author of the Beautiful Series, Drawn and 47 Things, Lilliana has always loved to read and write, considering it the best form of escapism that the world has to offer.
Australian born and bred, she writes New Adult Romance revolving around her authentically Aussie characters with all the quirks you’d expect from those born Down Under.
Lilliana feels that the world should see Australia for more than just it's outback and tries to show characters in a city and suburban setting.
When she isn't writing, she wears the hat of 'wife and mother' to her husband and five children.
Before Lilliana turned to writing, she worked in a variety of industries and studied humanities and communications before transferring to commerce/law at university.
Originally from Sydney's Western suburbs, she currently lives a fairly quiet life in suburban Melbourne.
For more information on Lilliana and her work:
www.lillianaanderson.com
[email protected]
Acknowledgments
AS ALWAYS, there are people to be thanked! Many sets of eyes go in to the creation of each of my books and I am very grateful to every person who takes time out of their lives to help me.
To Marion Archer, Tammie Lee, Cyndi Hart-Duplessis, Marissa Burns and Mary Sart, thank you so much for beta reading and giving me excellent feedback to work with. I can’t tell you how much I appreciate your sage advice. To my editors at Hot Tree Editing, I thank you all for your keen editing eyes and funny comments. Helena Cullen and Margaret Neal, thank you for helping to proof the final copy—hopefully we got them all!
To my team of sharers, you’re all so wonderful. I don’t ask you to do what you do, but you see something I post and share it far and wide. I’m eternally grateful. Thank you all so much. I love you all!
To every blogger and reviewer who has an ARC or has signed up to post about my book – I thank you too. You are the first step to announcing my work to the world. No author can do this without you xoxox
Also, a big thank you to my husband for putting up with my bitching and moaning and his unending support and encouragement.
Thank you to my kids for being so patient while I stare at a computer screen and finish typing out a thought. I love that you all come and sit with me while I work just to spend a bit of extra time with mummy!
And of course – thank you to all of my readers. You are the most important of all. Without you, I would be writing to the crickets.
Mwah! xoxox
Fool Me Twice_a Cartwright Brother Romance Page 25