by J. S. Scott
I leaned back so I could see him, swiping a tear from my cheek. “I wasn’t going to marry him, Zeke. When I got up the morning of my wedding, I was sick to my stomach. And once I was in the church putting on my wedding dress, it suddenly dawned on me that I couldn’t go through with the wedding because I didn’t really love Stuart. I was going to talk to Stuart so we could end it when his brother found me.”
“So you really wouldn’t have gone through with it?” he asked in an incredulous baritone.
I shook my head. “But I guess I had backup just in case I changed my mind. It’s good to know you had my back.”
I stroked a hand over his whiskered jawline, my heart so full of love that I never wanted to stop touching the amazing man I’d married.
“Maybe I was a little late, but I finally realized that I was lying to myself if I thought I was going to sit through the ceremony while you married somebody else. And somebody like Stuart? Not happening.”
“Exactly how long were you lying to yourself?” I asked curiously.
“Years,” he replied.
“I offered myself to you once, but you didn’t seem to be interested.” That night didn’t hurt anymore, but I wanted to know exactly when we stopped really listening to each other.
“Your twenty-first birthday,” he said in a raspy voice. “Jesus, Lia. Did you really think I was going to take advantage of the fact that you were hammered? I was your friend.”
“I knew exactly what I was doing, Zeke.”
“You never mentioned it when you were sober,” he grumbled.
“I was embarrassed. But I knew what I wanted. I just thought that it wasn’t going to happen.”
“Even then, I wanted it to happen,” he admitted. “But I wasn’t about to fuck you when you were two sheets to the wind, sweetheart. I cared too much about you to do that.”
“We’ve really been dancing around each other all these years,” I said with a sigh.
“Pretty much,” he told me. “Why do you think I wanted to be the one to take you out on your twenty-first birthday? I didn’t trust any other guy to be around you when your guard was down. But when you didn’t talk about what you’d said the night before, I thought you’d forgotten everything that had happened while you were drunk.”
“I never forgot,” I confessed. “I was embarrassed because I thought you didn’t feel the same way. After a while, I guess I buried it because I already assumed you didn’t want me, and I didn’t want to lose our friendship, too.”
I squeaked as he stood up and dropped my ass on the table.
“Assumptions have gotten us both into trouble,” he said roughly.
I nodded as I gazed up at him. “I know.”
“No more guessing for either of us. If we want to know something, we ask.”
“I’ll talk to you,” I agreed.
“And I want you to trust me, Lia. I want you to know that there isn’t another person in this world as important to me as you.”
“I shouldn’t have accused you of seeing Angelique,” I said remorsefully.
“No, you shouldn’t have. But I get feeling possessive. In fact, you make me pretty damn crazy.”
I opened my mouth to answer, but the words were stifled as his mouth covered mine.
Wrapping my arms around his neck, I let myself get lost in Zeke.
I wanted to climb inside him, and never come back out again. He surrounded me in passion and love so completely that I couldn’t get close enough.
“Zeke,” I panted as he released my lips. “Fuck me.”
He pushed me back so I was sprawled out on the kitchen table like a buffet.
“You know, this whole bossy thing you’ve got going on makes my dick so damn hard that I can’t think,” he rasped as he pulled off my shorts.
He pulled me up and I wrapped my legs around his waist. “I’d be more than happy to give you a boner any time you want,” I whispered against his neck.
“Do you know why it turns me on?” he questioned.
My body was taut with need, but I asked, “Why?”
“Because I know you’re happy. I know that Stuart didn’t fucking break your spirit. I know that you’re feeling confident again. And I know that you fucking love me.”
He moved back and surged inside me with a force that made me suck in a breath as he lodged himself deep.
“Yes,” I said breathlessly. “I do love you, Zeke. So much.”
“I love you, too, baby, even if you do make me lose my damn mind.”
I melted into him then, luxuriating in every frantic thrust of his cock.
Now wasn’t the time for anything except the frenzy of joining us together. And I wanted it just as hard and hot as I could get it. “More,” I pleaded, my legs tightening around his waist.
He gave me more. Zeke gave me everything, and I felt myself hurtling toward climax as he grasped my ass, his cock pummeling into me with satisfying urgency.
Zeke was mine, and I felt it with every single movement he made.
He claimed me as his.
And I took what I’d wanted for so damn long, my body finally imploding as I shuddered through my release.
“You were always meant to be mine,” Zeke growled as he started to come. “Always. Fucking. Mine.”
I clung to him, my breathing ragged as his words sunk into my soul.
Maybe I hadn’t known it when I was a kid, but I knew now that Zeke had always been my destiny.
My Grandma Esther was right.
“We were always meant to be together,” I said breathlessly as I rested my head on his shoulder, our bodies still connected as we tried to recover from the quick, intense experience we’d just shared. “My grandma was right.”
Zeke stroked a hand over my hair. “Maybe it was easier to see from the outside. But we always made sense, sweetheart. We just took the hard way to find each other.”
I moved back and kissed him, a long, slow, exploring embrace that left me raw and vulnerable.
I put my arms on his shoulders, our faces still close together as I whispered, “I should have known from the moment you put Bobby Turner on the ground for trying to feel my boobs.”
“I never knew his name, but I hated that little bastard,” he said sternly. “You were only fourteen.”
“And you were my hero,” I shared with a smile.
“I always want to be your hero, Lia,” he said earnestly.
“You never stopped being one to me,” I answered. “I love you, Zeke.”
“I love you,” he answered immediately.
I hugged him tightly as he picked me up from the table and headed for the master bedroom.
“I don’t think I’ll ever look at breakfast the same way again,” I muttered.
Although Zeke and I had tried out almost every surface of the penthouse, we’d never christened the kitchen table.
I smiled as he started to laugh, a sound that boomed through the house so loudly that my heart started to gallop wildly.
It had been a long time since I’d heard Zeke laugh like he was the happiest guy in the world.
Maybe I’d never heard that.
“I’m going to make you so happy,” I promised. “We’ll eventually forget all the hard stuff.”
“I’m already happy,” he rumbled. “And I’ll have one more hard thing for you to deal with in another minute or so.”
He dropped me on the bed, and I looked up at him.
His eyes were so full of love that I felt like I could hardly breathe because I loved him just as much.
“Bring it on, stud,” I dared.
He shot me the wicked grin I adored, and he did.
EPILOGUE
Lia
A few months later…
I stood in the entrance to the living room, wondering how in the world I was ever going to break the news I had to Zeke.
Not that I didn’t know that he wouldn’t be angry.
But it was pretty unexpected, and I wasn’t quite sure I completely
absorbed the information myself.
He was on the phone, and I listened to his conversation unabashedly since he was discussing a wedding.
“Do you really think he’s actually going to get married this time?” Zeke asked, sounding bemused.
He listened to whoever was on the other end of the conversation, and then he looked up, smiling broadly as he saw me step into the living room.
My heart skittered just like it always did every single time I saw my handsome husband. I was pretty sure I’d never see him shoot that grin at me without my heart speeding up.
There was no getting used to this man who loved me, and there was no way I was ever not going to feel like the luckiest woman in the world every time he looked at me like I was the most important person in the world to him.
I’d waited too long for him to be mine to ever take him for granted.
“Okay,” Zeke said into his cell. “I’ll let you know when he calls. And yeah, I’ll be there. Hopefully Lia can come with me.”
He said his good-byes and turned his phone off.
“What was that about? Is somebody getting married?”
“Yeah,” he answered. “One of my friends from Harvard. That was my buddy, Barrett. He just called to let me know that we’d be getting an invitation from our mutual friend, Paul.”
I hadn’t met any of Zeke’s old friends from Harvard since they were out of state, but I knew he maintained those relationships as often as he could. “That’s good, right?” I asked because he didn’t look like he was thrilled with the news.
“It will be great if he finally finds the right woman,” he said thoughtfully. “Paul is kind of the male version of the Runaway Bride. He’s tried this a couple of times and never went through with it. Barrett and I are hoping that he finally ties the knot.”
“Are we going?” I asked as I sat next to him on the couch.
He smirked. “Up to you. It might all be for nothing. But he’s doing a destination wedding somewhere tropical.”
“We’ll go,” I said immediately. “I want you to be able to keep in touch with your friends. And I’m not going to object to going somewhere exotic and tropical with you. When is the wedding?”
“I’m not sure. But pretty soon, according to Barrett. Why? Are you planning on leaving me?” he joked.
“No,” I said hesitantly. “I asked because I want to make sure I can travel. Oh, damn. I don’t know exactly how to say this, Zeke.”
He lifted a brow. “What? Are you okay, baby?”
“I’m pregnant,” I said in a rush before I could stop myself. “I know we didn’t plan this, but I know we both want to have kids someday. My body just jumped the gun. Maybe the Pill is ninety-nine percent effective, but I guess I’m the other one percent. I’m sorry.”
“Don’t,” he said as he pulled me into his lap. “Don’t ever be sorry about getting pregnant. I was there, too, and it wasn’t your fault. I’m happy, sweetheart. I guess I’m just…stunned.”
I wrapped my arms around him. “Me, too.”
“How far along?” he asked, his voice getting more serious. “Is everything okay? Are you and the baby okay?”
“God, I love you,” I said with a groan.
I should have known that Zeke’s first concern would be for me and our unborn baby’s health.
He rocked me like I was a child, and the motion felt so good. “Both of us are fine,” I informed him. “And I’m only about a month and a half along. I get a little queasy at times, which is why I finally went and got checked out. I guess we celebrated a little too hard on your birthday.”
I’d given Zeke anything and everything he’d wanted for his birthday, and almost every item had involved some kind of sex. Not that I’d had any complaints about his dirty mind.
“I think we should buy a house so we have a yard, and we need to get a room ready. Are we going to find out if it’s a boy or a girl? Not that I really care, but it would be nice to know in advance—unless you want to be surprised.”
I smiled at his harried expression and frantic tone. “I’m not delivering tomorrow, Zeke. We have at least seven months. And the baby isn’t going to care if we live in a condo or a house. We’ll figure everything out as we go along.”
“Are you happy?” he questioned in an uncharacteristically vulnerable voice.
I nodded. “Very. I mean, I wouldn’t have planned it this way. I’m getting ready to open another store, but we’re doing so well that I can get another manager, so yeah, I’m ecstatic.”
Knowing that my body was sheltering a baby that Zeke and I created with love could never be a bad thing for me. It was a miracle. And I couldn’t see it any other way.
Zeke stopped rocking and just held me. I put my head on his shoulder as he said, “I’ll take good care of you, sweetheart. Never feel like you’re doing this alone. I love this baby already.”
He put a gentle hand on my still-flat belly, and my heart almost exploded.
I put my hand on top of his and sighed.
It was going to take some time for us to get used to the fact that we were going to be parents, but very little scared me anymore.
I felt like Zeke and I had gone full circle together, and there wasn’t much we couldn’t handle in the future as long as we did it together.
“Are you hungry?” he asked. “You should eat.”
I shifted on his lap and straddled him. “I’m not hungry for food. I’m afraid that pregnancy seems to make me crave sex and not dinner right now.”
My hormones seemed to be raging, and the only thing I really thought about was getting down and dirty with my husband.
He lifted a brow. “You sure?”
I nodded, amused by his uncertainty, something that I never saw on his face. “It’s perfectly safe to have as much sex as we want.”
“Then I’m your man,” he told me in a sexy baritone that made all of my hormones stand up and pay attention.
“Yes, you are,” I said right before I leaned down and kissed him.
Zeke Conner was always going to be my man, and as he wrapped his arms around me, holding me protectively, I was pretty damn glad I’d gotten dumped at the altar.
It wasn’t the wedding itself that had really mattered.
Happiness was all about just marrying the right guy.
~ The End ~
Please continue for a sample of Jett & Ruby’s story, Billionaire Unloved
PROLOGUE
Jett
Over Two Years Ago…
“I can’t believe you did this to me,” my fiancée screamed at me. “I can’t marry you like this. I can’t even look at you, much less have sex with you. You’re…disfigured.”
Lisette’s face was almost purple as she backed away from my hospital bed, an imperfection I knew she’d hate if she knew her face was that color.
Her words hit home, but I was fucking hurting, and it wasn’t my heart that was causing me excruciating pain. It was my messed-up body and leg that were causing me so much agony that I wished I could be put out of my damn misery.
“I can’t have this discussion with you right now, Lisette,” I said through gritted teeth.
“There’s nothing to discuss. I can’t be married to a man who is never going to be able to go to social events and dance with me. Instead of being envious of me, my friends will feel sorry for me because I’m married to somebody who’s disabled. I can’t stand being pitied. You know I want to be revered. I deserve it,” she said with a small huff of displeasure.
Jesus! How had I never noticed what a superficial woman my own fiancée was, or how petty?
Probably because I haven’t had much time for anything other than work.
Lisette and I got together for sex and parties.
Generally, I wanted the sex, so I took her wherever she wanted to go.
She hadn’t demanded anything more of me than that, and I hadn’t needed anything else. Sure, we had talked about setting a date for our wedding, but Lisette had been pretty h
appy about the expensive diamond I’d put on her finger, and the date hadn’t seemed all that important to either one of us. I was starting to think she loved the idea of the expensive ring more than she wanted to be married to me.
Maybe the delay had been a blessing since she was in the process of dumping me while I was still trying to recover from my last surgery.
According to my two brothers, she hadn’t been able to come see me earlier because she couldn’t tolerate sick people. But she’d run her ass up here in a hurry as soon as I was conscious to break our engagement.
Okay. Yeah. Maybe I’d known that she wasn’t exactly an intellectual, but I wondered why I’d never realized how narcissistic she was.
Maybe because I’d never done something she didn’t approve of before.
I’d never told Lisette about PRO, the volunteer organization that my best friend, Marcus Colter, headed up to rescue kidnapped victims and political prisoners in hostile countries.
Maybe the fact that I’d never trusted her enough to tell her about PRO should have been a big red flag, but I’d told myself that she didn’t need to know, and that PRO was a secret group. The team had all kept a low profile.
Honestly, I’d pretty much known that she just didn’t give a damn, but I’d never admitted it to myself. Funny what nearly dying will do to a guy. I was thinking about all kinds of shit I never had before.
Strangely, Lisette had never even asked how I’d gotten into a helicopter crash in a foreign country. Obviously, the only thing that mattered was how my injuries affected her.
“I suppose I should return the ring,” she said in a nicer tone.
“Like I said, we can discuss it later.”
“I want this over,” she said. “I don’t want to marry you.”
Yeah, I’d pretty much gotten that point, but I couldn’t say that her words didn’t still hurt. I was in a pretty vulnerable position, and the fact that my fiancée couldn’t stand to be with me was a bitter pill to swallow right now.
I looked bad. I knew that. When our helicopter had gone down, I’d been on the side that hit the ground, and my whole body was torn up from one end to the other. My leg had gotten mangled, and the doctors were still trying to put it back together.