For A Reason

by T. N. Cole

  She didn’t go quietly though. “You owe me, Katelyn! You and your cousin are just the same! You both owe me! And you both abandoned me. This is all your fault!” She continued to howl as she was shoved into a room.

  The police officer released Tristan from his hold, and Tristan went straight to where I was standing, trembling in shock. “Kate, love, don’t let her get to you.” He pulled me into his arms and hugged me tightly against him.

  I wrapped my arms around his waist and nuzzled his chest as I shuddered. He stroked my hair soothingly. “What’s going to happen now?” I wondered as I tilted my head back to meet his eyes.

  He kissed my forehead. “I—”

  “All right, where’s the bitch?” Mel stormed up to us. She was dressed to kill in head-to-toe black.

  “Mel? What are you doing here?” Tristan asked incredulously.

  She whipped off her oversized sunglasses. “Kate texted me that there was an incident involving my mom,” she said matter-of-factly.

  “But you’re supposed to be in Milan!” I interjected. “I didn’t think you were in Texas, and I definitely didn’t expect you to come storming down to the precinct.”

  “Nice to see you too, cousin,” she smirked.

  I rolled my eyes and hugged her. It really was good to see her. After she had all but kicked me out of Paris on a plane with Tristan, we had kept in touch. We certainly weren’t as close as we were when we were young, but it was a start. She had cut off all ties with her mom after the will reading disaster. She checked in weekly, always in a different country. When I asked why she didn’t just come back to Texas, she said she had to do some “soul-searching.” Which she now appeared to be lying about.

  She pulled away and placed her hands on my shoulders. She looked me directly in the eye, and she could see I was brimming with questions. “I’ll explain later, but basically I’ve been tracking my mom. I knew she was going to lose it soon, and I’m sorry I didn’t catch her before she tried something. I gotta go take care of this. This has to end. Now.” She smiled at Tristan over my shoulder, who nodded back at her. “Nice to see you, Westdyke. You too, Carly. And Adam, right?” She waved at them both, and they hesitantly waved back in astonishment. She slipped on her sunglasses, rolled back her shoulders, and strode toward the room Nora was being held in.

  “Wait!” I called after her. “What are you going to do?”

  “Make sure she goes away for a very, very long time,” she replied in a hard tone. “Don’t worry. She won’t be bothering any of us ever again.” And with that she disappeared into the room.

  Three years later

  "WANNA JOIN ME IN the shower?" Kate asked as she wrapped her arms around me from behind, resting her head on the back of my shoulder.

  I smiled but pretended to be preoccupied. "Go ahead, love. I'll join you in a minute. Just have to respond to some emails."

  She nuzzled me before loosening her grip and stepping back. "Baby,” she groaned. “You said no emails!” She sighed. “Okay, but if you change your mind, you know where to find me," she murmured in a seductive tone.

  To keep up the disinterested act, I simply nodded. "Yeah, sure Kate, later."

  I heard her pad over to the bathroom, and seconds later, I heard her start the water. I waited a few minutes until I heard the shower door close.

  Then I placed my phone back on the nightstand and got to work.

  Kate and I were on vacation in the Bahamas. I had just finished my second year of med school and I was starting rotations at the hospital in two weeks. Kate was now a senior, working to finish her degree in psychology. After weeks of barely seeing each other, I had demanded that we take this trip together before the start of my new job. We had moved to an apartment that was closer to both of our jobs in the city.

  Adam and my mom had gotten married a couple of months after Nora’s attempt on her life. Adam realized that he wanted to spend the rest of his life with my mom, and after asking me for my blessing—something I would never forget—she readily agreed. Kate and I were the only two in their wedding party, and the small, summer wedding took place on Adam’s ranch.

  Mel had made good on her promise, and Nora had been locked away for a long time. Apparently, Mel had given her the choice of life in prison or life in an asylum and Nora chose the latter. No one had seen or heard from her since.

  As for Mel, she was off conquering the world. The world of graphic design, that was. She had founded her own company, and she was now in the middle of expanding her business globally. She and Kate were best friends now, and unsurprisingly, Mel and I had become good friends as well. Hey, Kate was the most important person to both of us, so we were bound to get along eventually. Her love life? Too complicated. She had yet to find a man who could handle all of her woman-ness.

  This was our fourth day in paradise. We were having a blast away from the craziness that was our lives back home. I had rented a condo for two weeks, and I was very much enjoying being around Kate 24/7—no distractions, no interruptions.

  We had just come in from swimming with the sharks. And I had a little surprise to set up for Kate.

  Twenty minutes later, the shower was still running. Not one to disappoint my girl, I stripped off my clothes as I headed to join her, leaving a trail of clothes across the bathroom floor.

  I paused to appreciate Kate's silhouette through the steamed up glass of the shower. My attraction to her hadn’t lessened at all in the past three and a half years that I had known her, and I knew that it was never going to. She would always be the sexiest and most gorgeous woman to me. My perusal was brief as I was eager to join her.

  She didn't turn when I opened the door, only continued to wash her hair. I pulled her back against me, wrapping my arms around her and resting my head on her shoulder so that my lips were at her ear. "You're so beautiful," I whispered.

  She melted into me at that and placed her hands on top of mine. "Glad you could join me," she teased as she pressed her backside into my growing cock.

  I hid my smile. "Already? Really?"

  "Well, he doesn't seem to be arguing."

  "Of course, he isn't. He's always ready to go for you."

  "Sounds like a hard place to be. Want me to help you take care of it?" She spun around to look up at me with heated eyes. One of her hands slid between us to wrap around my dick. She squeezed firmly, eliciting a groan from me.

  "Turn around and hands on the glass in front of you," I rasped in her ear. She hesitated for a split second before doing as I instructed and planting both palms on the shower glass. She looked over her shoulder and arched her back, silently begging me to touch her.

  "I have plans for you later, sweetheart. So this is going to be fast. Fast and hard."

  She didn't verbally acknowledge my words, but I could see her breath quicken in excitement.

  I slapped her ass on the right cheek. "Do you understand, Kate?"

  She nodded and breathily voiced her approval.

  I palmed her ass, rubbing soothingly where I had hit her. I reached farther down and hummed in approval. I licked her off my fingers. "You're already wet for me, babe. Is that because I spanked you?"

  She only pushed her ass even more toward me in response.

  "Spread your legs wider, baby. I need to taste you first."

  Kate widened her stance, and I quickly bent down and buried my face in her pussy. She responded with an immediate moan. I pushed my tongue into her a few times. Next, I licked down her slit to suck on her clit but not hard enough to make her come just yet. I repeated the motion two more times, until I heard her groan. "Tristan, please. I need you inside me."

  My dick twitched in pleasure, and I knew I couldn't wait anymore.

  "Give me one, baby. Then I'm going to fuck you hard so you'll be satiated until later tonight when I can bury myself in you all night long." I growled before I thrust two fingers inside her and sucked her clit. She screamed incoherently, her voice echoing off the bathroom walls.

  I quickl
y got out from under her, and I thrust inside her in one swift movement. My eyes rolled back as she continued to spasm around me. I held on to her hips, so her grip wouldn't slip on the wall. This would never get old.

  She moaned my name, and I started moving quickly. I wasn't going to last much longer.

  "Are you almost there, babe?" I panted, not slowing my movement.

  "Almost there," she managed to get out.

  "Take one hand off the wall and touch yourself. Get there so we can go together. Now, love." She quickly obeyed. It was my turn to groan out her name, and on impulse, I spanked her one more time. That was the trigger. I felt her walls clenching around me as she fell apart again with my name on her lips. "Kate," I groaned and quickly followed.

  I continued moving lazily inside her until our breathing slowed down. I slipped out of her and turned her around, wanting to feel her lips.

  She looked up at me through hooded eyes as I claimed her in a crushing kiss.

  Kate wrapped her arms around my neck to pull me closer, and I could feel our hearts beating rapidly against each other. I broke away to rest my forehead against hers. "I love you," I whispered.

  She pulled me down to her lips, then responded, "Love you more, Tristan."

  Before we could start on another round in the shower, I quickly washed and rinsed both of us. When we were done, I wrapped a towel around my waist and gave her two towels, one for her hair and one to dry off.

  "Where are we going tonight, babe? I need to figure out what to wear,” she quipped as she opened the door to move to the bedroom. Then she gasped. "Tristan! Oh my god! What is all this?"

  I chuckled and followed her into her bedroom where she was standing in front of the bed. She was reading the note I had left on top of the outfit I had laid out for her to wear tonight. She was gorgeous in the candlelight from all the tea lights I had lit around the room. She looked up from the note with tears in her eyes and scanned the room littered with rose petals and candles before settling her eyes on me. A split second later, she had thrown herself into my arms. "When did you do all this?" She sniffled as she buried her face in my neck.

  "When you went to shower." I laughed as I caught her and rubbed her back gently.

  “But what’s all this for?” She leaned back to look at me.

  I leaned forward and nuzzled my nose against hers. “I just love you and want to make you happy. That’s all, baby.”

  She wiped at her eyes. “I think you make me fall in love with you more and more each day.” She smiled at me in that way that still made my heart skip a beat.

  “Perfect. That means I’m still doing my job right,” I murmured as I kissed her. “Now get dressed before I become too tempted to imprison you here and make love to you all night. I have plans for dinner.”

  “Fine,” she sighed dramatically. “But I highly doubt that your plans could be better than being ‘imprisoned and made love to all night.’” She winked at me and strode away to get ready.

  I slapped her ass playfully before she got too far. “Oh, I’ll still keep you up all night, love. We just have to go out in public for a little while first.”

  “This is amazing.” Kate let go of my hand to twirl further into the middle of the villa.

  “Not as amazing as you,” I responded reflexively.

  She rolled her eyes and grinned at me. “Always the charmer.”

  “Why else do you keep me around?” I winked and sat down on a purple pillow.

  The villa extended far out on the ocean, connected to land by a long wooden dock. I had arranged for us to have dinner here while the sun was setting over the water. The meal was set up on the floor with a candlelit table and floor cushions for us to sit on. There were pillows everywhere, along with candles and flowers. They had done a very good job at following all my directions for the romantic setup.

  Kate flopped down opposite from me. She was stunning with her long hair falling down around her in gentle waves. She wore a short, loose purple dress over her white string bikini. The whole time we were here, we agreed to always wear swimsuits under our clothes. It was beneficial to the both of us in so many ways—hey, it actually wasn’t my idea, but I almost wished it was. Kate was also already getting a golden glow to her skin from all the time we had been spending out in the sun.

  Two waiters came to serve us. One brought out our meals and the other poured us wine and switched on the music. I nodded at the both of them and they left, leaving us alone.

  Kate took a sip of her wine. “Did I already tell you how sexy you looked tonight?”

  “The wine couldn’t have gotten to you that fast, baby.”

  She giggled, and the sound melted me. I cleared my throat. “Yes, you did. But next to you, I am nothing. You’re gorgeous. Devastatingly gorgeous.” I loved that I could still make her blush after all this time.

  After we had eaten, I stood up and held out my hand, asking her to dance. She rested her head on my shoulder and looped her arms around my neck. I held her close as we swayed to the music. We slow danced as the moon rose, and I knew that this was the moment. I didn’t know when I was planning to ask her, but I knew it would be on this trip. I had planned several romantic events, such as this one, and was waiting for when the moment felt perfect.

  “Kate?” I kissed the side of her head.

  She hummed lazily in acknowledgment.

  I stepped back and reached up to unlock her arms from my neck. She looked at me in confusion, but I continued. Reaching into my pocket, I pulled out the small box as I got down on one knee. My pulse was racing with both excitement and nervousness. She gasped and covered her mouth. Her eyes immediately began to fill with tears.

  “Katelyn Blair Sharp, my heart recognized you from the moment I met you. Four years ago, I would have never believed that I would be asking the love of my life to marry me under the light of a thousand stars. Four years ago, I wasn’t even a whole man. I was just a shell of a person, and then you barged into my life and forced me to wake up. You made me want to live my life. Before I even knew I was in love with you, I already knew I had to be with you. For always.” She was holding back her sobs now. Her tears were falling quickly and I fought the urge to wipe them away as I continued shakily. “I can’t live without you. Every day, I wake up to hear your adorable laugh, to see your beautiful face, to witness that smile that makes my heart race, to show you how much I love and adore you. You taught me that everything happens for a reason. And you are my reason for everything. So, love, will you marry me?”

  She laughed and nodded frantically. “Yes, yes, and a million times yes!”

  I pushed up off the floor and slid the ring on her finger. She glanced at it before she threw herself at me, kissing me forcefully. I hugged her tightly, lifting her off the ground.

  She had to pull away to breathe. “I love you so much, Tristan. For always.”

  “I love you more, Kate.”

  I lowered her so I could wipe away the happy tears that wouldn’t stop leaking from her eyes. She covered my hands with her own and kissed both of my palms.

  “Well, this was great and all, but now will you finally take me back to the condo and make love to me all night like you promised?” She smiled at me both teasingly and seductively in a way only she could pull off.

  I smirked. “My apologies, milady. Why don’t we start round one right here?”

  She squealed as I picked her up bridal style and carried her over to the makeshift bed set up in the villa.

  “I don’t think I’ll ever get used to this,” she said breathlessly as I slipped off her dress.

  My heart pounded as it started to sink in that she had actually said yes. She would be mine forever. I stroked her cheek reverently and looked deep into her dark brown eyes. “I know I’ll never get used to this. You. Loving you. Which is good because I’ll be doing this for the rest of my life.”

  The End

  First of all, I have to thank my Mom. My best friend, cheerleader, inspiration, and strength
. Not a day goes by when I don’t appreciate you and everything you do for me. I would be lost without your guidance, empty without your laughter in my life, and useless without your love and support. I love you!

  Kelly Adamo, Aimee Duong, Kimberly Haught, Ces Jaurigue, Andrea Johnston, Heather Lyons, Mandee Migliaccio, Paolo Santos, Stephanie Spillane, Jessica Varga, and Cousin, thank you for all the feedback, love, and time you’ve given Tristan, Kate, and me. Without you guys, I don’t know if I would have ever finished this book. Aimee, I don’t think this would have ever been a story if you hadn’t read that prologue and told me to do something with it. Kelly, you’re awesome for proofreading for me. And a shoutout to Jenny Shinkar, for your cameo as a character who is the complete opposite of you.

  A special thanks to Andrea, who wrote her debut novel, Life Rewritten, at the same time that I wrote For A Reason. Your comparison of Tristan to your number one book boyfriend, Cam, is a moment I’ll never forget. I couldn’t have gone through all this craziness without you. We did it!

  For all my friends and family who have supported me through this journey. Paolo, Marco, and Dad, thanks for all your love and support. Tita, I know you’ve never finished a book in your life, and I’m so happy that this one was your first. Heather, even though I’m not your personal assistant anymore, I will always love you. Thank you so much for your feedback and love. To all my other author friends, SL Scott, ME Carter, your friendship means more than you know. And to that special someone, for being nothing but encouraging, enthusiastic, and proud ever since I told you about my secret project. Sometimes nothing is everything.

  I’m also eternally grateful to everyone else who helped make this book happen. Erin Spencer, my publicist and good friend, and Southern Belle Book Promotions, you rock. Najla Qamber for designing my amazing book cover when I gave you virtually nothing to go by. Stacey Blake for my fantastic formatting. And, of course, Jenny Sims of Editing4Indies for changing up all my periods and commas and teaching me all about grammar.