Secrets (Hope Bay)
Page 32
She giggled, clapped a hand over her mouth. “I just…” She dropped her hand. “Can we really accept it?”
Shane tucked the mobile into his pocket. “I know Mum and Dad.” He looked around again. “They gave this with love.” He showed her the papers that she almost knew off by heart already. “They gave us the home they know we both wanted.”
“So we’re taking it?”
A smile hovered around his mouth. “You think they’ll let us refuse?”
“No.” No, they wouldn’t. She knew Doc and Mrs A. This gift was non-returnable. “No, they won’t let us refuse.”
“If we refused, if we walked out, it would crush them. Hurt them.”
“Because it’s a gift of love,” Emma said.
“Yes. Because it’s a gift of love.”
They both looked around again, back at each other, and smiled.
Hugely.
“Oh my God,” Emma said. “We have a nest!”
Shane burst out laughing. Then he picked her up and spun her around, making her squeal and laugh just as loud. When he let her feet touch the ground, he swung her into a wild, very uncoordinated polka around the kitchen and out into the hallway, right down to the bedroom where he danced her inside, stopping at the bed to drop down onto it on his back, pulling her atop him.
Breathless, still laughing, they lay there until they got their breaths back.
Gradually their laughter calmed and they grew happily quiet.
Emma rested her chin on her folded hands atop his chest, enabling her to meet his gaze from where he lay with his head propped on a pillow.
CK jumped up on the bed to pad to the head of the bed and sit on a pillow. Treading her paws, she purred happily.
Shane glanced at her, smiled, and then returned his attention to Emma. “I love your cat.”
“Yep,” she replied happily.
“I love your Pavlova.”
“Yep.”
“And, Emma Armand,” his voice softened, “I love you.”
Shifting, she crawled up until she was on eye level with him, balancing on her hands, her lower body pressed to his.
Lazily, he shifted his legs, one jean-clad leg bending to press against her side as her hips slid into the hollow V of his parted thighs. Hands behind his head, he studied her with amused tenderness. “Got something to say to me, my sweet Em?”
“I love you, Shane Armand,” she replied.
“Yep.”
“No secrets between us.”
“Nope.”
“Ever.”
“Agreed.”
“Then,” she whispered, lowering her head to brush her lips across his, “I suggest we seal that promise with a kiss.”
“Best idea ever.” His voice was growing husky.
Their kiss was gentle, sweet, almost achingly tender in its shared cherishment. Gradually the kiss grew deeper, longer, a little hotter.
Shane moved, rolled Emma beneath him, taking over the kiss, leading her, their breathing becoming a little more ragged as their hands shifted, moving across each others bodies.
As Emma arched beneath his touch and moaned, CK gave a disgruntled meow, the sound of her thudding heavily to the floor making them pause.
Shane lifted his head. Heat burned in his eyes, but amusement added a twinkle. “How the heck does that lanky cat make herself heavy enough to actually thump onto the floor?”
“She has her ways.” Emma grinned. “We’ve upset her. You know what that means, right?”
“I know.” He sighed. “I’ll have to roast her a chicken, won’t I?”
“If you want to soothe her injured feelings, yes.”
“The things I do.”
“Mmm.” Linking her hands behind his neck, she smiled wickedly. “Speaking of things…”
His eyebrows waggled mischievously. “Yes?”
“Let’s do those naughty things we do so well together.” She lowered her eyelashes alluringly, knowing he liked the sweep of her eyelashes, found it sexy when she peeked up at him with heated, teasing invitation. “Now, Mr Armand.”
“Mrs Armand,” he purred with a very satisfied gleam in his eyes, “excellent suggestion.”
###
Interested in Aaron Well’s story? You can find his story, as well as his brothers Luke and Blue, in The Wells Brothers trilogy.
**
A week at a dilapidated mansion planning the restoration of Victorian era gardens was a prime contract for landscaper Ben Wells. Finding his employer and her irritating, curvy niece already overseeing the packing of mouldering antiques and planning some ghost hunting was disconcerting.
The heat of desire, the emergence of a scandalous secret from the past…
Talk about unexpected…
Being a whistleblower takes guts. It can also leave you scarred.
Whistleblower Shea Winters bore the consequences of an act of honesty, now she makes a living running a scam with her brother’s help.
Security expert Aaron Wells investigated her, is intrigued by her, and can’t deny the attraction he feels for the pretty scammer.
But being a whistleblower can also have dangerous consequences.
Very dangerous…
Home on leave, Blue didn’t expect his first meeting with his curvy housemate to happen in quite the way it did - on his back, bare-arsed naked, with just a towel to conceal his modesty. But it did, he has, and now this down-on-his-love-luck Aussie soldier has a mission he didn’t expect.
Will he recognise it, pursue it, and win it?
Or will his chance at true love pass him by?
~*~
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BIO
Angela Verdenius lives in Australia, where she is ruled by her cats, adores reading, and thinks a perfect day is writing and drinking Diet Coke, followed by reading or a good horror movie.
To date, she has written numerous novels in sci-fi romance, BBW contemporary romances, 2 novellas, and several short stories, one of which is a zombie story she had great fun writing (because zombies rule and are the coolest of the monsters).
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Keep reading for a list of all available books in both ebook and print.
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Other Books by this Author
Contemporary Romances
Big Girls Lovin’ trilogy
Doctor’s Delight
Cop’s Passion
Vet’s Desire
The Lawson Boys duet
The Lawson Boys: Alex
The Lawson Boys: Marty
The Virgin Sex Queen
The Mackay Sisters duet
Call on Me
Lean on Me
Seducing Sam
Adam’s Thorn
The Goodbye Girl
Gully’s Fall series
Burn for You
Fall for You
Lie to Me
Fly with Me
You’re the One
Second Chance
Promises
The Wells Brothers trilogy
The Wells Brothers: Ben
The Wells Brothers: Aaron
The Wells Brothers: Blue
Echoes
Hope Bay series
Secrets
Novellas Contemporary Holiday Romance
Christmas Blue at Flynn’s
Heart & Soul sci-fi romance series
Outlaw
(17 more in the series coming - check the website for progress)
Novellas sci-fi
Operation Seduction (BBW)
Blast from the Past
Free Short Stories
Zombie Hospital
Perceptions
Novellas Written as Ang Kemp
Devilish Men series
Devil in the Kitchen
Devil on a Hunt
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Angela Verdenius, Secrets (Hope Bay)