I gazed into his eyes, wondering how he’d managed to be so perceptive about me so quickly.
“Anyway,” he went on, “That stopped any ideas I had about sharing my financial status in their tracks. At least as your bodyguard I could stay close to you every day. Sometimes I could touch you.” His smile grew soft. “Helping you on with your coat.” He glanced at me then and his smile faded. “I know it’s pathetic.”
“No it isn’t.” I put a hand on his thigh, loving the hard muscles I felt there.
But he put a hand over mine. “You’re not as snobby as you think.”
I raised an eyebrow.
“You would have married me anyway.” He leant closer to whisper in my ear, “Because you know you can whip my butt.”
I laughed and shook my head, embarrassed and relieved at the same time that it had all become a joke. “You’re never going to let me forget that, are you?”
“I’m never going to let you go, Louella,” he said seriously. “You and I are made for each other and children or no children, I want you.”
I frowned. “Do you mean that?”
“I do,” he said solemnly, and took both my hands in his. “Although I do want to help you get over your aversion to babies, because I know how competitive you are, and I’m imagining you want to be the favorite aunt.”
I frowned at the impossibility of that, but I humored him by saying, “Fritha will be hard to beat. She’s demonstrative.”
His smile gentled. “You can do it. We’ll start off small with a visit to Lizzie so you can pat her little bunny while I hold him. Assuming Gisel will let me.”
“She will.” Looking into his steady gaze I could almost imagine that the fears of a lifetime could be washed away. I knew he would be endlessly patient with me, and with him there for support, it suddenly seemed possible. Everything seemed possible.
“I love you,” I said again, because those three words were the closest I could come to the feeling of home that enveloped me whenever we touched.
He kissed me and the warmth of love burned into something hotter. We were both breathing raggedly when he said, “As soon as it’s humanly possible, I want that ring followed by a wedding band.”
I knew what we’d been doing, soon, and that set off the delicious throbbing heat between us that I’d missed so much.
“And then,” he said softly, sliding his thumbs up to the sensitive skin of my wrists, “You and I are honeymooning in Maui—”
“I love Maui.”
“—and I’m not letting you out of bed for….oh, at least a week. Maybe two.”
How delicious.
I smiled and said, “Let’s elope.”
He blinked at me in surprise, then his eyes lit up. “Are you serious?”
I shrugged. “My girls are here. We can celebrate with them at the wedding and then go. I don’t need family involved. In fact, I’d rather they weren’t.” There was plenty of time to introduce him to my parents and Zachary when we were married, and on the other side of that I’d think about mending fences with my brother, because somehow being with Nicholas made me want to take the broken pieces of my life and make them whole.
But that would come later, so I said, “I want a ring on your finger before you meet the in-laws from hell.”
He lifted my hands and kissed each one in turn. “I’m holding you to that.”
“First I want to dance at Angela’s wedding.”
“That’s my plan, and I’ve already scoped out Jacks’ brother Cal, who’s your partner in the bridal waltz.” Nicholas raised a dark eyebrow. “One dance with him, and the rest with me.”
Cal was reportedly very good looking so I had to smile at this endearing sniff of jealousy. “Don’t worry,” I said. “Fritha will be all over him.”
“The rainbow tornado.” He shook his head. “But I owe her for Florence.”
“She knew you’d make me happy.”
He gazed at me for the longest time. “I’m going to spend a lifetime perfecting that.”
Then he kissed me, and the past blew away on a dry outback breeze, leaving nothing but love—and a perfect pink diamond.
T H E E N D
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Acknowledgement
As always, my biggest and best thanks go to readers who’ve given me such encouragement and feedback along the way, not to mention suggestions about further books they’d like in the series, and who should link up with whom! It’s exciting to see these characters come to life on the page, and for them to seem real not just to me, but to readers as well.
My editor Nas Dean, as always, deserves a hug of appreciation. Beta readers Lynn Brooks, Sonya Steel, Simone Miners and Helen Lacey offered valuable critique and perspective on the story.
A special shout-out to all the readers who have taken the time to leave reviews on Amazon and Goodreads. In this new age of publishing, a writer’s career can be made or lost depending on the number of Amazon reviews they receive. So taking the time to leave your response to the story means a great deal to the author who created it. A special place in heaven also for the readers who have avidly shared details of the series with their own friends and social networks. A big cyber-hug from me.
Last, but by no means least: family, friends and colleagues. Like the girls in my books, these close connections mean the world to me. Without the encouragement I’ve received, it would be very difficult to sustain the long hours of writing that have gone into this series. And there are more books coming! So please keep the reviews, emails and social media contacts coming. They’re creative oxygen to me right now, and I appreciate them so much!
About The Author
Louise Cusack lives in Australia, in a tiny fishing village on the southern tip of the Great Barrier Reef. She’s a long-time vegetarian and caffeine addict with an obsession for finding the tiniest shred of romance in any story (and wallowing in it) alongside an unholy addiction to any franchise that begins with the word Star (Wars/Trek/Gate - you get the idea). There’s something about a man in uniform…in space.
Her own novels are about curious women who get themselves into unlikely situations—whether that’s an everyday woman from our world falling through a portal into a sepia kingdom, an amorous mermaid who gets herself stranded on dry land, or more recently, a perfectly ordinary house-sitter who finds herself husband sitting instead!
Louise doesn’t care what genre she writes in so long as the characters are endearingly real, the heroes are scorching hot and the sex is good!
OTHER NOVELS IN THE SERIES:
Book 1: HUSBAND Sit
“Crazytown. I loved it!” NY Times & USA Today Best Seller Kylie Scott.
Jill Wilson is the wildcard, fresh out of a ten-year relationship so boring she slept through half of it. Thirty-something, no children, no house, blah. The glamorous potential she and friends shared as starry-eyed schoolgirls feels very far away, until an unlikely job appears—Husband Sitting—being paid by rich wives to keep their cheating husbands ‘happy’ at home while they skip off on vacation.
Not the sort of job a nice girl would do, but the ten thousand dollar a week pay check is exactly what Jill needs to stop her little sister ending up in a Bangkok jail. And maybe, just maybe, the sex sounds exciting too, so long as her friends don’t find out. Unfortunately, there’s one complication: gorgeous Finn with his sexy green eyes and his gigantor… you know.
Love was definitely not in the contract, so in desperation to wipe Finn from her memory banks, Jill embarks on a bed-hopping frenzy. After all, the best way to get over one man is to sleep with another. But will Finn let her go? And as her emotional bag
gage arrives with an over-weight tag, can she believe in the fairytale of imperfect people ending up perfect together?
Crazy meets desperate in this erotic romp that nails the highs and licks the lows of one woman’s struggle to reach sexily-ever-after with the man of her dreams.
Author’s note: Due to strong language and sexual content, this book is not intended for readers under the age of 18.
“Hold onto your panties! Husband Sit by Louise Cusack is sexy and titillating from page one. But its more than that. It’s also funny and has a surprisingly deep emotional core that sneaks up on you. It’s utterly unique. Amy Andrews, award-winning USA Today best-selling author.
Available for purchase on Amazon Kindle
Book 2: HUSBAND Stay
Angela Lata is the quiet friend, who only ever wanted two things out of life: a singing career and children. So she’s entitled to a little craziness after discovering that her cheating husband had a vasectomy before their wedding. Still, that’s no excuse to succumb to sexy man-whore Jack, even if he is so gorgeous she can barely breathe in his presence. Hadn’t she learned anything from her girlfriend’s example? The best way to get over one man is NOT to sleep with another.
The trouble is, Angela has never had good sex, let alone great sex, and on the eve of her diva dreams coming true, Jack promises her both. All it takes is one night with him to ruin her completely. Every date afterward suffers in comparison, and with her biological clock ticking loudly and her career not living up to her expectations, what she needs is father material, not pleasure-on-tap.
Tradition meets testosterone in a clash of expectations as unlikely lovers struggle to uncover what they really want from life—and each other.
Available for purchase on Amazon Kindle.
Book 4: HUSBAND Rollover
Fritha Wynde is the free-spirited friend, sleeping with whoever grabs her fancy, especially if the grab feels good! She has work that she loves, friends who will let her wear rainbow-colored bridesmaid dresses, and girlfriends’ babies to cuddle. There’s not a thing about her life that she wants changed, until trouble walks into her feel-good teahouse, Bohemian Brew.
Trouble is a six foot two restaurant critic—Max—who has the audacity to ridicule the Banchee Tea, her signature brew, in his annoyingly sexy Brit accent. It’s time to retaliate and a low blow is in order—below the belt to be exact—but when Max discovers how delicious Fritha is, he’ll do anything to have her, including rolling over and playing dead.
Prude meets promiscuous in the fourth book of the Husband Sit Series, bringing all four girlfriends together as Fritha tortures the one man who grabs her fancy along with her heart.
RELEASING September, 2016
Husband Heel (Husband #3) Page 28