by Ally Blake
She breathed out, her whole body shaking with relief.
Still grabbing hold of his lapels, she shook him too. “You, Finn Ward, are such a good man. I’m not even slightly surprised you’re staying to help your father. And you need to know that I will do everything in my power to convince you to let me reap the benefits.”
“Sweetheart,” he said, stilling her with a hand at her cheek, “you have it backwards. I can only help him because I’m staying for you.”
April breathed out hard. And laughed. She laughed so hard it hurt. Then she lifted up onto her toes and kissed him. Laughing still. Kissing more.
Happiness. That was what this was. Happiness right now.
When she pulled away, his eyes had turned dark. But a smile curved at his lips. His version of happy. She was sure. She ran her thumb over the crease, pulling away with a yelp when he nipped her nail.
Then Finn wrapped his arms tighter around her, so she was on her tippy-toes, her length pressed up against his. Her mind wheeling and spinning, all sparkly bliss.
Finn swept a hand over her hair. Once. Twice. His gaze raking over her face as if he couldn’t quite believe she was real. Then his eyes found hers again.
In that moment the world seemed to still. The white noise of the busy afternoon faded to silence. The wind died down to nothing.
And Finn said, “I love you, April Swanson.”
April’s breath caught on a hitch. She opened her mouth to tell him the same, again, and again, and always, but he sealed her lips in a kiss.
His lips closed over hers in a perfect fit. So warm, so sweet. This big strong man with the hard, rough past had such tenderness in his heart, in his touch. As he kissed her, April’s heart skittered and danced, her skin came over in waves of delicious warmth, and the backs of her eyes burned with happy tears.
When he pulled back his eyes were shining. His smile calm.
“You big softie,” April said, her voice cracking with emotion.
Finn pulled her closer, proving he was anything but. Oh my.
Squirming as heat and need swam through her, April glanced up at the police station. “Probably not the smartest place to indulge in a little public indecency. No matter how scary Hazel’s granddaughter is, I’m not sure she can get me off twice in a day.”
“Margot represented you?”
“You know her too?”
“Mmm. She’s a shark in heels. And a civil shark, not criminal. Hazel must have promised her the family estate to get her here.”
April flinched at the word criminal. To think – if not for the shark in heels she’d have been a registered felon. For snapping the penis off a statue! Hilarious as it was – from the other side – she was actually pretty glad to have come out the other end not completely good, but also not legitimately bad.
Thank goodness for Hazel, she thought, and realised she meant it. Because for all her infuriating meddling, Hazel had brought her Finn.
“Besides,” Finn said, “that’s my job.”
“Promising the family estate?”
“Getting you off twice in a—”
April slammed a hand over Finn’s mouth again as a little old couple ambled around the corner. Finn dipped his tongue into the gap between her fingers, and her flush deepened, travelling down her torso till it landed with an insistent pulse right in her centre.
She leaned in close and murmured, “Promises, promises.”
A grin creased at the corners of Finn’s gorgeous eyes, smoothing out the worry lines above and making him look devastating. Shadows still lurked behind his dark blue eyes, but she knew they always would. He would always be on the lookout for danger, always be searching to do better, to make sure he was not defined by his past. It was why he pushed boundaries, worked harder, saw deeper – all in an effort to find the light.
It was how he’d found her, after all.
Feeling like she was lit up like a lantern, she grinned. And then began to laugh. In release, in relief, in unbridled joy.
“You think you’re funny, do you?”
“The funniest!”
“Really?” Suddenly, he bent down, lifted her, and threw her over his shoulder.
April let out a whoop of shock. “What do you think you’re—”
Finn smacked her on the bottom. “You’ll shut up and enjoy it if you know what’s good for you.”
“I will not.” She yelled, “Kidnap!”
The little old couple strolling past caught her eye. And smiled.
“Really?” she asked, holding out her hands in disbelief.
The little old lady tucked her hand deeper into her husband’s elbow as they passed by. “Oh, he’s a keeper, honey. Believe me.”
At which point the little old man pinched his wife on the backside, causing her to skitter forward and giggle like a teenager.
“What is the world coming to?” April asked of the footpath. “Allowing rogues to simply steal good women off the street in broad daylight?”
Finn carefully set her back on her feet by his car.
She shook her kinky waves off her face and glared up into his deep blue eyes.
Finn tucked a strand of hair behind her hear, before holding her by the back of the neck. “I’m not that much of a rogue, you know.”
“And I’m not that much of a good woman.” Proving it, April wrapped her foot around his calf, a hand around his tie and pulled him to her and kissed him for all she was worth. With the warm metal at her back, the hot man at her front she was pretty sure she was in heaven.
Eons later, he pulled away, afternoon sun a halo around his beautiful head.
“If you’re staying you need to know some things,” she murmured.
“Hit me.”
“I’m planning to eat cupcakes. A lot of cupcakes. No more baking them and letting others enjoy the spoils. I may not be so easy to throw over your shoulder very soon.”
Finn’s eyebrow shot north. Yeah, like he couldn’t carry the whole world on his shoulders if he put his mind to it.
“I’m also going to get a loan. Find a new place to live. Somewhere with a little yard for Prince. Somewhere bigger.” Where her guy wouldn’t have to worry about banging his head on the rafters. “I got the promotion. The one that started this whole, crazy escapade. So I’ll be able to afford it. I’ll help Mrs. Parsons’ sell the place, so she can visit her sister in Germany.”
He slid a hand to his cheek, a move so sweet and tender and familiar, her heart grew half a size. “Suits me.”
“You’re not going to fight me on any of this?”
“Do you want me to?”
“No. Maybe. I don’t know. Maybe it’s a spill over from yesterday.”
“It was a pretty good fight.” Finn pushed her hair off her shoulder and nuzzled the soft skin below her ear.
“A real doozy.” April’s eyes fluttered closed as she became lost to sensation.
“Was,” Finn murmured before catching her earlobe between his teeth.
“And hot.”
He paused, lifted his head. A smile – and a question – in his eyes.
“Don’t you think? The whole time I was telling you off I just wanted to jump on you. I wanted to tear off your shirt. And suck on that pulse point on your neck that was jumping like crazy.”
Finn shook his head. Clearly thinking her daffy, but just as clearly loving it.
“All I wanted to do was keep you in that boatshed long enough to show you why you needed to stop thinking so much and simply see what I saw.”
“Which was?”
“Us. Together. No matter where. No matter how. No matter what. The first moment I saw you I knew you were a game changer. It scared the hell out of me. And then it didn’t. And here we are.”
April slid her hands over Finn’s shoulders and into the back of his hair.
They were in the middle of a busy Sydney street, in front of a bustling police station as peak hour began to heat up the roads around them. But as far as April was concerned,
the world was about two metres square and all she felt was Finn’s warmth, all she heard was his words, all she wanted was him.
“So if that was our first big fight, does that mean you foresee more in our future?”
“How about as long as we both shall live,” Finn said, smiling down at her. “We’re so good at it, after all. Can’t let that kind of talent go to waste.”
April kissed the man she loved. Once. Twice.
Said, “Okay.”
Because...how could she not?
The End
You won’t want to miss Ally Blake’s new series....
The Cinderella Project
If you enjoyed Tell Me True, you’ll love the other Cinderella Project stories!
Book 1: Kiss Me Quick
Book 2: Love Me Tender
Book 3: Tell Me True
Book 4: Hold Me Now
Coming soon
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About the Author
Australian writer Ally Blake is a redhead, a footy fan, a devotee of the language of Aaron Sorkin, addicted to stationary and M&M’s, weak in the face of Italians and firefighters, married to a spectacular and ever patient man, mum to three beings of pure delight, and a firm believer in love, luck and fairies. She is also a best-selling author with more than twenty-five fun, flirty romance novels under her belt.
Visit her website at AllyBlake.com
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