by Stacy Gail
“I’m right here where I belong.” She curled herself over him, cradling his head to her for a long moment before sinking down with him. Settling onto his lap face-to-face as he sat back, she fisted her fingers in his hair until his gaze locked with hers. “All I ask is for a little patience. The projects I have lined up for the next six months are already committed to, and I’m honestly looking forward to getting them done. But after that...I’m here.”
“I don’t want Bitterthorn to become a prison for you.” His hands stroked down the line of her back, over her butt, up to her hair. It was like he couldn’t get enough of the feel of her. “It can be your home base, the way Alexandria is for you now. I don’t want you to stop what you’re doing. I know how much you love your work, and you’re so good at what you do.”
A thrill of gratitude and love mixed in her chest to the point of making her eyes sting. He was so sweet, he almost crushed her. “A lot of the work I do now is online and of the consultation variety, so I don’t see a massive shift in how I do things. The only difference is that from this point on, I plan to accept a far more limited amount of projects that require me to be on-site for weeks or months at a time.”
“Are you sure about this?” The worry churning in his eyes over her happiness stole Parker’s heart all over again. “I’ve thought about it, and I don’t have any real problem moving to Alexandria. I don’t have anything here worth staying around for.”
The fact that he was even thinking about it took her breath away, and she framed his face in her hands for a fierce kiss. “You have everything here, including a duty to run a newspaper that keeps people like Mayor Weems in line. That’s why she wants to get rid of you so much—deep down she knows she pales in comparison to your strength and integrity, and she can’t stand it. Your ancestors would be just as proud of you as I am.”
“Parker.” He pressed his hand over hers against his cheek before turning his mouth into it with barely leashed passion. “I would leave everything behind for you. All of this—the town, the mansion, the paper...it’s nothing to me if I can’t be with you.”
“I can’t tell you how much I needed to hear that.” Moved by the unswerving promise in his tone, she caressed his face. “I know this started out as a summer fling, and that you weren’t looking for anything permanent—”
“Neither were you. Life doesn’t always work out the way we plan.” His tongue tasted her palm before he skimmed his mouth to her wrist. “Sometimes, if we’re really lucky, it offers us surprises that are so much better than any plan we could ever imagine. You’re better than any wish I’ve ever made, or dream I’ve ever dreamed. I didn’t know I could love someone so much that I can’t envision any kind of future without you in it.”
A beautiful unfurling bloomed inside her, a purity of peace she’d never known before. He loved her. Now, with that one word expanding to fill every corner of her soul, she thought she was beginning to have some idea of why people chose to stay in one place, rather than drift throughout the world like ships without anchors. Belonging in one place had nothing to do with buildings. No matter how beautiful the structure, it couldn’t bring this perfect sense of harmony. She belonged with Chandler, just as he belonged with her.
“I’ve designed hundreds of houses,” she said, wrapping her arms around his neck. Their sighs of satisfaction mingled as they fit against each other. “I’ve tried again and again to make the perfect home. I had no idea that all I needed was you.”
He hugged her so ferociously her bones creaked. “I’m so glad you didn’t leave.”
“How could I leave? I love you. Leaving you would be like tearing out my own heart and leaving it behind.”
“Thank God.” A shudder went through him, and he rested his forehead against hers. “When you showed up at the press conference and stood up for me—even when I didn’t deserve it—that’s when I began to hope I hadn’t blown it completely with you. If you’d hated my guts, you’d have taken off the first chance you got.”
“That’s never going to happen.” She lifted her head so she could look him right in the eye. “I’m only alive when I’m with you. When I have to leave for work, I promise I’ll do everything I can to get back home as fast as I can. Home,” she added with a small laugh and brushed his mouth with hers. “That sounds nice.”
“Better than nice. It sounds perfect.” He caught her mouth even as it retreated, and there was a restless heat behind the tenderness that made the warmth between them suddenly sizzle. “You said that in about six months you’ll have all pending projects wrapped up, right?”
“Maybe not even that long.” It was hard to concentrate when his hands found the edge of her shirt and dived under it to caress her skin. “I have the Loire Valley project, then a lovely painted-lady job in San Francisco.”
“Think you’ll be too busy to plan a wedding?”
Her heart leapt so fiercely she was certain he felt it. “Does it have to be a grand affair? I’ll be marrying a man with royal blood, after all.”
He crushed her to him as her acceptance hit home. “Baby, I don’t give a damn if it’s just you, me, a couple of witnesses and anyone authorized to help us tie the knot. All I know is that I’ll do anything it takes to build a life with you.”
As he tugged her shirt over her head and his mouth again found hers, Parker realized that building a life together was that most important kind of building she would ever do.
* * * * *
Have you fallen in love with Stacy Gail’s contemporary romance? We guarantee a happily-ever-after reading experience with these titles...
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Metal Mouth. Queen Geek. Dr. Payton Pruitt heard it all growing up. But she’s over it, and attending her ten-year high school reunion is the perfect way to prove it to herself. Even if there’s only one person she’s interested in seeing in Bitterthorn, Texas: Wiley Sharpe.
Now a respected lawyer, Wiley didn’t live down to the label Most Likely to Be Slapped with a Paternity Suit. But recent acts of vandalism suggest someone still sees him as a heartbreaker, and the reunion seems a likely place to find the culprit. Instead, Wiley comes face-to-face with his old pal Payton—and is wowed not only by her transformation into a ravishing swan, but by the connection they still share.
Payton is pleased the playboy she used to tutor has grown into an honorable man, but she’s too smart to fall for a guy with roots in a place she couldn’t wait to leave. But while Payton is an academic genius, Wiley is the one with the PhD in pleasure, and he intends to use it to convince her to stay...
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Christmas is the perfect time to start from scratch
Lieutenant Sully Jax saved his unit during an IED attack, but he couldn’t save his marriage. He can’t even remember it. Recovered from his injuries, he’s come home to the family and friends he knows—and an ex-wife who’s a stranger to him.
Lucy Crabtree was heartbroken last Christmas when Sully announced his plan to go on one last tour of duty, and devastated when he asked for a divorce after he awoke in the hospital with no memory of her. She’s finally moving on from her hurt and from losing the man she loved more than anything, and her cookie-baking business is taking off just in time for the holidays. But now Sully’s back, and she can’t deny she still loves him. But how can she trust her heart to someone who breaks it every time she sees him?
Sully might not remember Lucy, but something inside won’t let her go. With every bite of her cookies, he finds a new love for Lucy, and he soon realizes he wants to rebuild his life...with her by his side.
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ISBN-13: 9781426898785
One Hot Second
Copyright © 2014 by Stacy Gail Shoeman
Edited by Andrea Kerr
All rights reserved. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of publisher, Harlequin Enterprises Limited, 225 Duncan Mill Road, Don Mills, Ontario, Canada M3B 3K9.
All characters in this book have no existence outside the imagination of the author and have no relation whatsoever to anyone bearing the same name or names. They are not even distantly inspired by any individual known or unknown to the author, and all incidents are pure invention.
This edition published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.
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