“I’ve missed you so much.” I press my head into his shoulder, breathing him in.
He strokes my ponytail. “I couldn’t bear to be away for one more bloody minute. Where you are, I need to be.”
I raise my head, my body sliding down his as he lowers me to the ground. Our eyes connect and I’m mesmerized.
“I love you, too. I’m sorry I didn’t say it before I left, but I felt it.”
Asher looks up to the ceiling, letting out a breath. “You don’t know what it means to hear you say that.”
His hands cup my cheeks, rubbing my skin and looking straight into my eyes. When our lips connect again, it’s as if we both haven’t taken a breath in quiet some time.
It’s not a fairy tale, so far from it with my sweaty gym clothes and our franticness to be alone in a building with hundreds of students. But I wouldn’t have it any other way.
When Asher had said that I’d taught him there were more important things than power and money, I knew he’d taught me too. Before I met him, I didn’t have a clue what love was. Not passionate, all-consuming, companionable, can’t-live-without-it love. He’d taught me many things about myself, but how to truly love, through flaw and fear, was the most important lesson of all that we’d learned together.
And as we walked hand and hand into the brisk winter night, I looked at the place that used to be my home. The one that just hours ago, felt so strange and lonely. London had felt like that too.
But with Asher by my side, that emptiness no longer existed. Being invisible, floating through life, hadn’t made me happy … and neither had money or status. He was the thing that made it all worth it. And now, we had a completely fresh start to do just that.
Be happy.
About the Author
Author of romance novels such as Red Card and All the Frogs in Manhattan, Carrie Aarons writes sexy, swoon-worthy, sarcastic characters who won't get out of her head until she puts them down on a page.
Carrie has wanted to be an author since the first time she opened a book, and can’t imagine a better or more maddening profession.
A lover of good manicures, Riesling and the beach, she enjoys chasing her puppy through the dog parks of New Jersey, or trying to make her husband binge watch the latest Netflix craze.
For more information:
www.carrieaarons.com
[email protected]
Also by Carrie Aarons
Ghost in His Eyes
He was as magnetic as a deadly hurricane to the shore.
Carson Cole was my first love. The boy I'd shared my whole self with.
He was the man who'd taken the other part of my soul and drowned it in the sea we'd grown up in.
And now he's back. Ten years later, and the demons of our past are still haunting every breath trapped between us.
She was as wild as the horses who owned the beach highways we drove down.
Blake Sayer was the beautiful daredevil who had me wrapped around her finger from the time we were seven.
Until a horrible accident stole every piece of joy from her life.
Ten years later, she's a shell of the girl she once was, and it's all my fault. The whispers of our history shackle her to the island I left behind.
Just like lost years and unspoken words, love had slipped from our fingers like grains of sand. We’d barely made it out alive last time, was it even possible to reconstruct the shattered pieces of us?
All the Frogs in Manhattan
You know how Cinderella had the whole glass slipper, pumpkin carriage, fairy godmother thing?
Yeah…with foot-destroying stilettos, Uber, and a Twitter horoscope, my life is far from a happily ever after.
In fact, instead of Prince Charming, I end up dating every slimy, scaly, brainless frog in the kingdom of Manhattan. And by frog, I mean all of the stereotypical bad guys that Mom and Lifetime movies warned you about.
The meathead player.
The mommy's boy.
The namedropper.
The cheapskate.
If they suck at relationships, I’ve probably kissed those cold, clammy lips in the hopes of finding love. Until one day, when one man with commitment issues offers to help me find the Romeo to my Juliet.
But what happens when the frog, who was never supposed to turn into a prince, kisses you at midnight? Ok fine, he propositioned me for some afternoon delight after brunch, but not everything can be straight out of a fairytale.
On Thin Ice
Nathan Rush is a small town man who has never dreamed of a bigger life.
Until, that is, the only surviving heiress of America's richest family lands on his doorstep. Nathan is the groundskeeper at Hollis House, the Valon family's upstate New York mansion just outside of Harlin Falls, the quiet, sleepy town he was raised in. He's an honest, hard-working man who wants nothing more than a beer and a hockey game on TV at the end of the night. Except, when the ice princess starts to melt, Nathan pictures his future in a way he never has before.
Camille Valon's life has taken place in the spotlight.
Until, that is, her parents are murdered in a mysterious Christmas Day fire. Now all she wants is to flee the prying news cameras and slow-moving investigation. She's an upper crust ice princess who is good at keeping everyone at arm's length. Grief-stricken and still fearing for her life, Camille arrives at her family's safe haven estate with secrets and a chip on her shoulder. What she didn't count on was the kind, ridiculously attractive man who caters to her every need.
As the months go by, and an impending threat grows closer to discovering Camille's location, the line between employer and employee becomes dangerously blurred. Nathan and Camille could be each other's saving graces, if only they'd put aside their visions of a perfect life and take the chance fate has put right in front of them.
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