by Fiona Murphy
“Declan, I love you. I love the way your mind works, all the research, the careful plotting and planning. I would have been overwhelmed and terrified if you laid it at my feet. I guess I’m just still a little shocked that you are willing to give up it all for me.”
“Miranda, I told you. You’re my heart, and to walk away from you isn’t an option for me. I had long ago considered this life more than I could bear till I was into my old age. That’s why I did the buying that I did. Only one of the duplexes and one of the houses still have a mortgage. I formed a limited partnership that has nothing to do with my family’s business. I can offer you and our children an extremely comfortable life without having anything to do with my family. I want that for us. What do you say? Denver has an excellent school system and almost a hundred more days of sunshine than Chicago.”
“Oh, Declan, thank you for all of this, for knowing and not making me ask for what I wanted. I wouldn’t have ever asked you for any of it, because even though I did want a baby as well, I love you so much that your love would have been enough for me. I don’t care where we go, only that you’re there.”
Chapter Thirteen
Ten years later
“Daddy! Mommy says the baby is going to come on my birthday and I have to share my toys with him.”
Miranda watched from her place in the rocking chair as her husband soothed Brenna, a five-year-old who shared her father’s amber eyes and raven-dark hair. She was loath to move, as it had taken nearly an hour to get two-year-old Thomas to sleep, and he had a habit of waking up once he was laid down in his crib. Declan eyed her and carefully navigated his way through the toys scattered over the floor to give her a light kiss.
“How are you feeling, my love?”
“A little tired, maybe. You’re home early. How are things at the pub?” Although they were nicely supported by the homes Declan owned, he had grown bored by the lack of daily business. After a long talk, Miranda had agreed to him opening a pub that he ran with Mark, who had followed them to Denver, along with his wife. The pub’s sole business was food and drink, a solemn promise from Declan. Dolly had remained behind in Chicago, to look after the home that Paul now occupied. Her granddaughter, Hannah, had gladly come along with the intention of taking her grandmother’s place.
His eyes darkened. “Where’s Hannah and Susan?”
“Hannah is at the store getting items Colin needs for his school project but didn’t tell anyone until it’s due tomorrow. Susan is in the kitchen making dinner.”
Nine-year-old Colin came in, screeching at the top of his lungs about Natalie ruining his comic books. Natalie followed, begging for forgiveness. Only a year younger, Natalie clung to her brother, and was distraught whenever he was angry or unhappy with her.
“That’s enough, Colin. You know Natalie did not ruin your comic books on purpose. Come along, the lot of you. Mom needs to rest. Let’s see if we can find a movie you haven’t seen.”
Miranda heard him settle the kids into the family room with a movie. He came back moments later and took Thomas from her. The baby quickly settled on his shoulder, and Declan pulled her up after him. Miranda followed him up the stairs and into the nursery. Declan laid Thomas down with gentle, practiced hands. He turned to see her watching him, and he caught the light in her eyes.
“Sweetheart, you need to rest.” His hand at her back, he guided her to their bedroom.
Once the door was closed, she turned in his arms and pulled him down to her. His kiss went quickly from soft and languid to hot and hungry. He backed her up to the bed and followed her down. His fingers ran over her swollen breasts, and he watched as they leaked in preparation for their child, now almost a week overdue. He shook his head, and his hand found the mound of their kicking baby. He smiled. “You are going to sleep and I am going to die slowly holding you while you sleep. And I mean it this time, my lovely Miranda, this babe is the last.”
She sighed. “I am a greedy thing, aren’t I? I have so much more happiness than I thought could have. Have I thanked you for that lately?”
His arms tightened around her. “No thanks needed. Your smiles and happiness show me every day. Now sleep, my love, and let me hold you.”
With his heart beating below her ear, she drifted off, content in his arms.
His Under Contract
Holly
As a kid with a Marine for a father, and a doormat stay-at-home mother, I didn’t have huge aspirations for my future. Maybe a teacher—working with kids, and then enjoying a summer break. However, I didn’t think I would end up a housekeeper scrubbing floors. It doesn’t matter if the floors are in a million-plus dollar condo, in one of Chicago’s most exclusive addresses. I’m still on my hands and knees for one of the most obnoxious assholes I’ve ever met. The jerk believes his own press as one of the biggest rainmakers in Chicago. A lawyer specializing in business and sports contracts, Ethan Bishop is sought after in the boardroom and the bedroom. While even his sister thinks he’s best taken in small doses, she offers me a job I can’t refuse, not if I don’t want to go back to my parents with my tail between my legs. I need this job, and it’s not like it’s forever, just until I’m not on the edge of poverty. Let him be the unrepentant manwhore who didn’t do repeats. It’s better for him not to be at home, so close that my stupid body goes nuts when I even think of him. It’s better this way, because he could never want me. I’m a plus size not a size two model he’s used to having. I’m safe, it doesn’t matter how badly I want him, he doesn’t want me. Does he?
Ethan
In my world, the stakes are high, million dollar high, so no, I’m not nice. I don’t say please or thank you and I never apologize. If you have a problem with that, it’s your problem not mine. I didn’t make partner at one of the biggest law firms in Chicago at only thirty-two with my winning personality. I’m on top because I make money for my clients, whether it’s a high stakes takeover, or a player getting paid every dime he’s worth. My clients come out on top. I have worked hard for the life I have, the million-dollar condo, the Ferrari in the garage, and the hottest woman on my arm and in my bed. So, if my bitch of a new housekeeper wants to look down on me, like I give a fuck. My one weakness, my little sister parked me with a housekeeper who is far from perfect. Okay, she has the cooking and the cleaning down. But damn, does she have an attitude and a mouth on her that smiles even when she’s insulting me. It’s a good thing she isn’t my type, or I would make her pay the best way possible. At least, I’m trying to tell my cock she’s not my type, only the asshole has had his own idea since he saw her. It won’t last long though, it never wants any woman for long. When she offers herself to me, it’s with a contract where I hold all the control, all I have to do is sign.
His on the Rebound
Sarah
Hell... I’m going to hell. I can hear the nuns now, condemning me, and I deserve it. How could I have let Maxwell Brandt kiss me? A man I found disgusting at the way he treated woman—as if they were disposable, to be used then thrown away. It didn’t matter who he was, or how much money he had. He was a horrible person. Who the hell am I kidding? I’m just as bad because I let him kiss me. Then I did the unthinkable and kissed him back, with a hunger I’ve never felt before. All of this while my fiancé was in the same house. It was a horrible mistake, one that can never happen again. I love Kevin. I want to make a life with him, not be used by a man who won’t remember my name a month from now. What Kevin and I have built is real and I’m not throwing it all away. It didn’t matter if no other man, including Kevin, had made me feel the way Max did, it was wrong. Despite the fact Max keeps coming back to entice me, I stand firm. I won’t cheat on Kevin. I won’t become that person, no matter how badly my body wants him. I don’t want to want him.
Until the moment he drops a bomb that destroys everything. Kevin has been cheating. His words destroy the illusion I’ve been hiding behind, because I know he’s telling the truth. Knew it in the way Kevin has gradually been pulling away,
his late nights out with the guys, his disinterest in me, and the way he’s twice pushed back the date of the wedding. I hadn’t wanted to believe, had been willfully blind to preserve the promise of a future with a man I believed I loved. All I want is to hide and lick my wounds, but Max won’t let me. With Kevin gone, he demands I fulfill the promise of that kiss. I don’t understand how a man like him wants a plus size woman like me, when my own fiancé refused to date me before I lost weight. Yet, he does, refuses to go away. In a rush of anger, pain, and hunger, I give in. The feeling of being wanted by a man like Max wiping away the humiliation of Kevin’s betrayal. Maybe a fling, a rebound affair, is exactly what I need. No promises, no expectations, and no broken heart. At least, that’s the way it started.
Max
Out of curiosity, to get a look at the fiancée who put up with a cheating weasel like Kevin Jarvis, I find myself looking into the bright green eyes of a woman who makes my body hard with longing. Then the weasel does the unimaginable and introduces green eyes as his fiancée. Even though she looks at my hand like it’s a grenade about to go off, she takes it and we both feel the attraction. We’re both in deep shit now, because I know she feels what I feel and I’m about to go after her, fiancé or not.
I don’t care if she stays with Kevin. I just want her body. Besides, it won’t last long, desire never does and I don’t want her clinging after it’s over. Only, the bitch keeps pushing me away, denying us both the satisfaction our bodies crave. Her sanctimonious refusal as she uses Kevin and her engagement ring as a shield pisses me off. I didn’t want to drop a bomb, but if it gets me what I want, her in my bed, then I’m not going to flinch from it. I need her to satisfy this craving that’s eating me from the inside out. I’ll make her pay for making us both wait. I’m not her asshole ex, and I’m sick of paying for his stupidity. Her body makes my cock ache and I want her exactly as she is. Only, inch by inch I’m consumed by my need. I warn myself to pull away, sure this won’t last, can’t last. But letting go isn’t an option, no matter how hard I try.
The Gangster’s Girlfriend
Miranda Beckett was born and bred in Chicago, and with that comes the knowledge that the city, built firmly on criminal enterprises by every group that could gain ground, is still a city where crime is as much of the economy as the retail shops and hotels that line Michigan Avenue. Just like others in Chicago, a blind eye is a content eye—until it’s all brought into sharp focus by her younger brother one late night. She hasn’t seen her brother in years and the last time she did, she’d told him she never wanted to see him again, so she knew it was desperation that led him to her door. Before, he’d flat out stolen from her, but now, he’s pleading for the money. He pleads for the money that he owes the head of the IRA in Chicago, and then he threatens that Declan Kelly knows about her and that she has the money, and if she doesn’t give it, then Kelly will come for it himself.
Miranda refuses her brother and she knows she’ll be able to refuse Declan Kelly when the time comes. But she’s wrong, so very wrong. It isn’t money Kelly wants, it’s her... her expertise as an accountant to audit his books and find who is stealing from him... that’s it, he tells her but his eyes tell her there’s more.
Without being quite sure how and why she agreed, a deal is struck and Miranda wonders how long she can fight the need for a man she can’t have. It’s one thing to know what Declan Kelly does, and another to allow herself to become involved with him. She is sure she can keep Declan at bay, she has plans to become a gangster’s girlfriend or lose her heart to him. But she’s wrong, so very wrong.
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His Healing Touch
Maggie Pruitt can take care of herself, thank you very much. She doesn’t need the drool worthy ER doctor carrying her away from her problems. Although she is pretty impressed he’s strong enough to carry her size fourteen muffin-topped butt away if he wanted to. She’s been taking care of herself for years and she doesn’t need anyone’s help.
Okay, maybe just this once and just until she can walk without crying. Besides this is a one-time kind of thing. It’s not every day a nearly one hundred pound Rottweiler takes off on her without warning. As soon as her right ankle doesn’t stop exploding in pain when she steps on it and her left knee stops feeling like it’s being poked with a sharp object she’s out the door.
She’s gone this long alone and really she’s happier that way, really. She doesn’t need some man to complete her. Now if it’s sex he’s after (with her?) that’s something she’s very willing to have the doctor’s healing touch for.
Because as far as everything else in her life is concerned she’s fine. Really.
Rafael’s Woman
Carrie Whitney’s young twin brothers have messed up one too many times and if she can’t get Rafael Castillo to change his mind then they are going into juvenile detention and they’ll be lost to her. She has no choice but to go to Rafael to beg for her brothers to be given another chance. Nothing goes as planned, and in a whirlwind of tears and accusations Carrie finds herself in the arms of a man she knows has the power to make or break her world. He wants her, short and chubby Carrie never believed a man like him could want her but she knows it from the look in his eyes and his touch. Never expecting to find someone like him, she is willing to take him anyway she can get him. Too soon and yet not soon enough she’s begging him for what she knows he’s only prepared to offer her. A relationship based only in her bedroom, no promises, no holding hands and she’s sure she can hold out long enough until he figures out he cares about her the way she knows he does. Yet, as the weeks turn into months without the words she needs Carrie isn’t sure she can continue. Far too quickly the question becomes, has she read into his touches and kisses more than there was or does he love her as much as she loves him? If he does love her then why won’t he move them out of the bedroom into the world outside of it and if he doesn’t how long can she continue to simply be Rafael’s Woman?
Rafael Castillo wasn’t expecting the tiny woman with the bright blue eyes to turn his world upside down and he doesn’t like it. It doesn’t matter what he wants, family expectations mean a woman like Carrie is off limits. She’ll want and deserve marriage and she isn’t the type of woman he’s expected to marry. Her offer of a sex only relationship is a blessing and curse, he doesn’t care what she says he can see the love in her eyes. Lying to himself he takes what’s offered and plunges deep into something he never thought he’d feel or know again. He’s always disdained the hot-headed Latin stereotype so why the hell does the idea of sharing or seeing Carrie with anyone else but him send his temper soaring? This wasn’t the way it was supposed to go and now that he’s lost in her beautiful body the way out of their nights locked in her room away from the pressures of expectation is harder to find.
His Hidden Agenda
I hate him, I hate him, I hate him. He’s always so charming and gorgeous and everyone in the office loves him, but not me. He’s my competition and I hate him. I deserve the promotion, I’ve given not just my nights, but my weekends and even my marriage to this company, and I deserve the promotion. Only, it’s Alex my bosses are patting on the back and taking meetings with. I’m positive the only reason Alex is nice and smiling to me is because he’s trying to throw me off my game. Men as gorgeous as he is don’t let their eyes linger on fat girls like me. He’s blueblood, I’m south side Chicago, below the poverty line, he’s Harvard and I’m night school six years to get a degree; on paper, it’s laughable. He can’t really want me, there has to be something he’s hiding, a hidden agenda only he knows.
There is, and when I finally find out, I’m going to have the hardest decision I’ve ever had to make. The company I’ve put my life into—or a chance at the kind of love I never believed existed before.
His Hostile Takeover
Ellie Shaw has been in love with Greg Turner since she first met him at sixteen. It do
esn’t matter that now at twenty-four, he still treats her like a kid sister, Ellie still loves him. So why did her body go haywire when she first met Dmitri Markhoff? Dmitri was taking over the company she had worked so hard to keep going, Ellie wasn’t part of the bargain. Okay, she needed the job of personal assistant that he was offering, and it was only for three months. That was more than enough time to save while she found another job, because her time with Dmitri wasn’t guaranteed. She loved Greg, hormones and never having been touched were all that was making her feel the way she did about Dmitri. She was sure of it.
Dmitri Markhoff is a ruthless corporate raider and had long given up on soft feelings for women. He enjoyed their bodies and paid for it in diamonds and other trinkets. All he wants is Elise’s body, love isn’t something he’s looking for. When he figures out that Elise is untouched his body goes into overdrive. Even though he’s aware that keeping her is wrong when all he wants is sex, he’s having the hardest time letting her go.
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His Next Chapter
Lukas Everett is Avery Parker’s new reclusive landlord. He’s gorgeous but damaged, as damaged on the outside as Avery is on the inside. A car accident that killed his wife left him with physical scars that cause him to hide from the world. Avery hasn’t had it easy in her few physical relationships and isn’t looking to get involved with anyone, let alone someone as cold and hard as Lukas. Lukas seems just as intent at keeping her at bay even though she knows he feels the same longing she feels. With her mind telling her to run and her body begging her to stay, Avery accepts his job offer and she finds Lukas doesn’t just own properties, but is a writer she herself has enjoyed. It isn’t long before Avery demands all the passion she sees in Lukas, but will she just be the next chapter in his story or will they find their own happily ever after?