“Your dirty building manager will discuss payment plans with you tomorrow night.”
“Tomorrow? Not tonight?”
He took her glasses from her fingers. “Tonight, your favorite professor is going to give you a chance at a very special extra credit assignment.”
“Oh? You like these glasses?”
He moved in, nearly on top of her and said roughly, “When you wear those glasses it makes me want to bend you over my desk and spank you with a ruler before making you write I love big cock one hundred times while I eat your pussy. Of course, you have to finish the assignment before I let you come.”
She was breathing fast as she took the glasses from him, put them on and pushed them up her nose. She looked up at him. “Duly noted, Professor Moreau.”
“Detention starts at nine,” he nearly growled, his entire body hard. “Don’t be late.”
“Of course not. I just hope I have time to find my plaid skirt and Mary Janes.”
“Put your hair in a ponytail, too.”
“Yes, Sir.” She gave him a sassy smile, then turned and called, “Kids! Dinner time!”
A date for hot role-playing sex after dinner and story time with their kids.
He loved his life.
Six months later
* * *
The music swelled and Caleb turned to face the doorway in the community center where Lexi would be entering.
The place looked nothing like the room where the support group met every week.
There were white flowers and tall candelabras everywhere. Rows of chairs draped in white and tied with big white bows filled the room and held every person that he loved in the world. His parents were in the front row with Amber and Greg. The rest of the chairs were filled with the members of the support group and all of the firefighters from Engine 29 as well as all of the St. Michael’s ER staff that could get off work. A white silk runner led from the main doors to the wooden arch where Caleb stood, in a tuxedo, with James at his side.
Ashley, their maid of honor, was at the back of the room, whispering to Shay and Jack.
Caleb felt his chest swell with pride and love as they started down the makeshift aisle.
“Is Jack growling?” James asked him after they’d taken a few steps.
Caleb chuckled. “Yep.”
“Because?”
“He’s the ring bear.”
James thought about that and then grinned. “Of course he is.”
Jack stopped next to Logan and not only growled but also curled his paw and swiped his claws at Logan. Logan recoiled in mock terror and Jack grinned before continuing up the aisle, looking entirely too pleased about his role in the wedding. He went to sit next to his grandfather until they needed the ring. Caleb gave him a big thumbs-up. Then he focused on Shay.
Shay was walking down the aisle with her brace on her left foot. She was doing great. Her gait pattern—according to Lexi, who said it was according to the therapists—was much improved.
But, just as he thought everything was going to go off without a glitch, Shay stopped. And sat down.
She tugged her shoe off, unstrapped her brace, and took it off. “I’m done,” she announced.
Caleb blew out a breath. He didn’t care, of course. The room was full of people who loved Shay no matter if she was wearing a brace. Or not. But he’d kind of hoped this would be the first time Shay wore the thing as long as she was supposed to.
He started to take a step toward Shay, but before he’d even shifted his weight fully, Lexi appeared at the back of the room.
She headed down the aisle in front of her maid of honor and was already to Shay before Caleb was even able to recover from seeing her in her wedding dress.
She was stunning. Her shoulders were bare and the bodice of the gown clung to her breasts—his favorite of her curves, though he really loved them all—showing a lot of delicious cleavage. The skirt flared just below her hips and Ashley rushed to pick up her train as it dragged behind her.
Unconcerned about her dress, Lexi knelt next to Shay, talking softly. Shay handed her the brace and Lexi stood, picking Shay up in her arms.
And that was how his bride approached him. Love shining in her eyes and his niece in her arms.
“Well, we almost made it,” he said, kissing Shay’s head, then taking her from Lexi and setting her down.
“Sometimes we all need to be carried part of the way, right?” Lexi asked him.
Love welled up inside him and he grabbed her hand, pulling her close.
“Hang on there,” the minister said, clearly reading Caleb’s intentions. “We’ve got some vows to say first.”
Caleb gave a little growl, his eyes never leaving Lexi. “Okay, but let’s get going.”
Everyone laughed and Caleb and Lexi turned to face the man who would make their marriage official.
They went through everything they’d rehearsed and then it was time for the rings.
“You’re up, buddy,” Caleb said to Jack.
The little boy hopped up from his chair and came forward, digging in his pocket for the rings.
He produced them a moment later.
Covered in peanut butter.
Lexi and Caleb looked from the rings in Jack’s palm to one another and burst out laughing.
“The snack holes are a work in progress,” Caleb said with a half smile.
Lexi watched him take an offered tissue from his mother and wipe the rings clean. Or as clean as they could get them at the moment.
As he slid the sticky diamond onto her finger, she looked up at him. “Life will always be a work in progress. But it’s our work in progress. For better or worse, in sickness and in health, with leg braces or peanut butter, for as long as we both shall live.”
Caleb cupped the back of her head and leaned in, but with his lips still a few centimeters from hers he said, “Come on, say it, Padre.”
The minister sighed. “You may now kiss your bride.”
And he did. Nice and slow and easy.
Thank you so much for reading Caleb and Lexi’s story! I hope you loved Nice and Easy!
Now, keep an eye out for the spin-off series, Boys of the Bayou…coming soon!
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This series is small town, hot-country-boys-with-Louisiana-drawls, crazy-falling-in-love fun! Josh, Owen, and Saywer Landry are meeting the women who are going to bring them to their knees!
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If you're a fan of my Billionaires in Blue Jeans, Sapphire Falls, or Taking Chances series, you're gonna love this one!
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Click HERE to learn more!
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And if you want to be one of the first to know about the news and details (including release dates! Hint: this spring!) for this new series, sign-up HERE!
And don’t miss the FREE Boys of the Big Easy series prequel novella, Easy Going!
Read on for an excerpt from
Easy Going, the free series prequel!
Easy Going
A sexy, New Orleans bartender.
A little jazz. A few beignets.
And ONE very hot weekend.
* * *
Just one.
* * *
Supposedly.
Excerpt
* * *
“What can I get you?” Then he glanced at Addison. “And please don’t say a hurricane.” He gave her a wink.
* * *
She smiled. “You don’t know how to make a hurricane?”
* * *
He chuckled. “You can’t get your liquor license in New Orleans without proving you know how to make a hurricane.” The drink had been invented at one of the most famous bars in the Quarter, Pat O’Brien’s, and they served them by the gallons over there. But they didn’t make the best ones. Several places served them and a few even did it pretty well. Pierre Maspero’s, for instance. But no one could touch the recipe Ellie Landry used at her tiny dive bar just outside the bayou town of Autre, Louisiana.
&nb
sp; * * *
So Gabe didn’t even try.
* * *
“If you want a hurricane, I’ll take you to the best place for them in Louisiana,” he said. Though why he’d said “take you” instead of “send you,” he wasn’t sure. “Just like if you want gumbo, I won’t serve it to you, because if you’re gonna eat gumbo, you’re gonna do it right and that means havin’ my grandma’s. Now,” he said, taking out a glass and filling it part-way with lemonade. “If you want a Pimm’s cup that will make you wonder how you ever drank anything else, or seafood pot pie that you’ll dream about, or brown butter pecan pie that you’ll want to roll around in, then you’ve come to the right place.”
* * *
Addison looked at Elena with wide eyes. “Brown butter pecan pie?”
* * *
Elena laughed. “Yeah. And it’s that good. It’s how Gabe and Logan get all the ladies.”
* * *
Addison looked back at Gabe. She lifted a brow. “Which one are you?”
* * *
“Gabe.” He pointed behind her. “That’s my brother Logan.”
* * *
Addison glanced over to where Logan was setting plates of food down in front of customers. She looked back. “You both need pie to get ladies?”
* * *
“No one said need,” he told her with a grin.
* * *
“What do you know about pralines?”
* * *
“I can make you a praline milkshake that will make you want to propose to me,” he told her honestly.
* * *
“Huh. What’s in that?”
* * *
Playful. That was exactly his impression of her from the texts, and he couldn’t begin to describe how amazing it was to find out she was the same in person. “Whiskey, caramel, ice cream and—”
* * *
“Say no more,” she said. “I want that.”
* * *
“You got a ring in your pocket?” he asked.
* * *
She laughed. “Maybe we New York girls are harder to impress than the girls you’ve been feeding whiskey to.”
* * *
Grab Easy Going right now!
About the Author
Erin Nicholas is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of over thirty sexy contemporary romances. Her stories have been described as toe-curling, enchanting, steamy and fun. She loves to write about reluctant heroes, imperfect heroines and happily ever afters. She lives in the Midwest with her husband who only wants to read the sex scenes in her books, her kids who will never read the sex scenes in her books, and family and friends who say they’re shocked by the sex scenes in her books (yeah, right!).
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Find her and all her books at
www.ErinNicholas.com
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And find her on Facebook, BookBub, and Instagram!
Boys of the Big Easy
Easy Going, series prequel (FREE!)
Going Down Easy
Taking It Easy
Eggnog Makes Her Easy (Christmas novella)
Nice and Easy
Nice and Easy: Boys of the Big Easy book three Page 26