I could barely breathe.
“Do I get to wear it?” He arched a brow. I could only nod at his beautiful face, sliding the bracelet on his wrist.
Seeing those restrung pastel pieces back on his wrist, only missing the one F now on my bracelet, something clicked into place. The final broken part of us fit back together.
He kissed me again, pushing me back into my room. The door slammed shut behind us on a seaside summer night. I wrapped my arms around Theo as he carried me to bed.
My best friend. My tormentor. My bodyguard. Now my fiancé.
My everything.
Epilogue
ABIGAIL
Two months later
I tried to focus on the girl talking to me as we walked to our next class. I had just finished my first of the semester, attending the college Theo had applied to for me. College. I was mid-conversation with her when all of a sudden I was yanked by the wrist into the girls’ bathroom.
I stared at the door a moment, lips parted, before turning into the eyes of Theo. He leaned against the sink, one leg propped, green eyes bored.
“I was talking to someone,” I said at last.
“Tough shit, Reject.” He snatched my wrist, spinning me around so I was pressed between him and the sink.
I looked around at the pink tiles. “Did you go in the wrong bathroom, dog?”
He kneed open my legs. “No one’s going to think twice about your bodyguard accompanying you.”
“You’re not my bodyguard anymore.”
“Hmm… tyrant? Tormentor?”
“Nope,” I said.
“No?” He leaned over, biting my neck. “Best friend?”
“Closer…” A smile twerked my lips.
Theo engulfed me. His muscular arms on either side of me, his green-eyed stare digging into me, his big hands on the sink, finishing the cage. My space, my air, everything.
“Husband, then?”
Warmth filled my gut almost as much at the word, as the way his lips soothed his bite. Husband. Theo Hound was my husband.
“Shouldn’t you be in class?” I all but breathed.
I wasn’t the only one pursuing their dream. Theo was finally getting his degree in social work so he could help children like himself.
“I have a surprise for you,” Theo said, voice gravelly. He pulled back, eyes dark in the way I loved. The way that said he was about to fuck me in a bathroom, and I was going to let him.
But then he stepped away.
He grinned at my face, tracing his knuckles along my jaw. “If we don’t go now, you’ll miss your next class.”
I seriously contemplated it, but in the end, I let him lead me out of the bathroom.
After a short taxi ride, we arrived at a tall, jutting skyscraper in the middle of Manhattan. After the doorman opened one of the gilded double doors, I followed Theo, confused and a little wary, into a polished foyer.
“Are we meeting someone?” I asked.
He looked at me with a small smile. “I’m not ruining the surprise.”
We rode the elevator to the top floor. The doors opened on an empty, vaulted ceiling apartment sweeping what appeared to be the entire floor. It had views stretching all the way to Central Park.
After the doors nearly closed on me, Theo dragged me to the center.
“I would’ve asked if we were burgling, but…” I gestured at the lack of furniture, the barren hardwood. “What is this place?”
Theo watched me softly. “Every hero needs a lair.”
“This isn’t a lair, it’s—wait, this is your place?”
He came to me. “Our. It’ll be nice not living with my mom.”
My palm pressed to his cheek. “I don’t mind.”
“I’d like to fuck you anytime, anywhere,” he practically growled. “I don’t need to feel like a teenager, waiting to fuck you in my bedroom when my mom is gone.”
I smiled, remembering the past two months.
“I like fucking you in secret.”
Then his lips were on my neck. Theo never stopped touching me now, like he’s making up for years he could’ve been. Sometimes it was an innocent touch, a hand on the back of my neck, a kiss on my forehead. Sometimes it was ravenous, wild, teeth and tongue and bruising hands.
And… yeah… it’s a little uncomfortable when you’re living with his mom.
“Not to mention…” He gripped my hand, dragging me out of the main room to the only decorated room.
I nearly lost my breath.
A nursery.
Theo embraced me from behind, surrounding me with his warmth, his palms landing gently on my belly, nearly encapsulating the entire thing. He buried his nose into my neck, lips warm on the flesh when he spoke.
Theo kissed up and down my neck. “It’s gender neutral.”
Gray-and-yellow chevron walls, a softly colored crib with a mobile hanging above, even a fully stocked library next to a rocking chair. Swans dangled from the mobile, laces tied the crib together in pretty bows, and a Crowne Point blanket hung over the rocking chair.
They were little bits and pieces of us, of our relationship, incorporated into our future. I blinked away tears.
“If you don’t like it—”
“I love it.”
Theo, who always acted so uncaring, but always cared the most.
We were so young, and probably not ready in any sense of the word, but nothing had ever made more sense, had never been more right, until that little stick said pregnant. All my insecurities, my need for love, vanished. I said I would give all the love I’d always needed, the attention I’d always craved. I would make sure he or she would grow up never knowing that void.
Theo was the same. That fear of abandonment, that ache of being left, they would never know it. Every hurt lashed on us had been leading us to this moment.
It was perfect and right and whole.
“We’re close to your school, and just two hours from Crowne Point, so you can still visit your family on the holidays and get Crowne Drive-In Diner on the weekend, and when you finish, you can open up that shop you’ve always dreamed about, because you will open up your shop—” He ended abruptly, as if realizing he was rambling.
“How can you—err, we—afford this?”
Theo was quiet, and I pulled out of his embrace, coming to a conclusion. His mom lived in a swanky house, nothing compared to what I’d grown up in—but then, I was the one percent of the one percent.
“Wait…” I bit the inside of my cheek to stop from smiling, but it was pointless, because a mischievous smile lit up my face. “Theo Hound… are you a trust fund kid now?”
He barked a laugh. “Hardly.”
“Theo Hound, who always made fun of us. Theo Hound, who always looked down on us. Theo Hound is now one of us—”
He gripped my cheeks, pulling me in for a harsh kiss, cutting off my words.
When he pulled back, I was dizzy.
“Now I’m the poor one,” I whispered.
He caressed my cheek. “I’ll be sure to treat you as well as you treated me.”
My eyes grew even wider, and he grinned. He pulled me into an embrace, into his chest. I turned my head on his soft shirt, taking in our new apartment.
“This feels like a happily ever after,” I said suspiciously against his chest.
“No way,” Theo said, and I lifted my eyes to his. “This is a happily ever after, Abigail.”
I let that sink in as he wrapped his arms around my waist, pulling me tighter against him. Theo’s heartbeat thrummed steadily against my ear.
“Truth or promise?” I asked against it.
He grinned against my forehead. “Promise.”
“Promise you won’t break my heart?” I asked.
“Promise.”
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Beast sneak peek
Here’s a bonus preview of my dark and dirty mafia romance loosely based off Beauty and the Beast. For those who love dark romance, strong heroines, and mean, mean alphaholes.
“Take me,” she said, voice unwavering.
“And what will you offer?” His voice was low and gravelly. It was cruel.
“My life for his debts.” Her voice was steady even though the crystal pools of her eyes rippled. She was frightened. Good.
The Beast, as he was called, was going to kill her father. He’d racked up a series of irreconcilable debts. While some were to banks, most were to unsavory types like the Beast. Her father’s debt was past payment, past broken kneecaps and threats. There was no way he could pay it off, and if he couldn’t pay it, well…there was no point to his existence anymore.
Like a honeybee that couldn’t make honey.
That was the tacit agreement made months ago when Antonio Notte borrowed money from the Pavoni Family. When you took money from the biggest crime family in the world, if you stopped producing honey, they crushed you like a bug underfoot.
The Beast walked around the small New Jersey home touching things as he went. He didn’t normally go on routine collections; he was past his cracking-skulls days and now wore suits, no longer bloodying his knuckles. Yet earlier that day when the Beast stared out the windows of his Tribeca penthouse, he hadn’t felt luxury—he’d felt like a caged bird. So, he’d called his next in line and asked what was happening out on the streets.
Suddenly he found himself in New Jersey, a cowering man at his feet while to his left was the man’s daughter, who refused to cower.
Beast lifted his finger from the linoleum-wrapped countertop. Nothing in the house was new. The linoleum was peeling. The fake wood on the cabinet was coming up like paper. It smelled faintly of old earth.
Clearly Notte hadn’t used the money to redecorate.
The Beast had come expecting whining, blood, and splatter. Instead he got a girl with long, curling, chocolate hair and stone in her eyes. Her collarbone protruded gently from honey skin, sticking out defiantly with challenge to match her folded arms. Stepping around Notte’s prostrated body on the ground, Beast walked closer to her and placed a single finger on the protruding bone. She swallowed as he ran a finger down the wing, feeling the smoothness against his rough skin. Harsh laughter erupted behind him—his men enjoying the show. Beast raised a hand that quickly shut them up.
She swallowed again and smacked his hand away. The Beast smiled, but only a fool would think it was anything other than chilling. The smile was lazy and crooked, his teeth pearly white. Something in that smile betrayed pure wickedness, an evil born and not begotten.
“My life for his,” she repeated.
“Frankie!” Notte protested, but it was limp, like the way he lifted his head from the floor but couldn’t quite manage to get back to his feet. As the old man voiced his plea, he still remained where he’d been since Beast came through the door: on his knees.
“Frankie?” The Beast murmured her name, as if trying the taste on his tongue. It was a decidedly masculine name, and she was quite feminine looking. Notte reached for Frankie's arm impotently. Maybe the penniless fool realized if he did nothing save sit on the floor while his daughter traded her life so he could live, he wouldn’t be able to sleep at night.
“It’s finished.” The Beast grabbed her arm and dragged her out the door. “Come now, Frankie.”
She belonged to him.
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Acknowledgments
With each publication, the list of those I’m grateful to expands and grows. My team—my tribe—is as essential to this process as writing the book.
Those I’m forever thankful to for helping me bring Heartless Hero out into the world includes, but isn’t limited to:
My betas, who read my raw writing and gave me great feedback. Sonal, Kris, Kat, Nikki, Sarah G. S., Caoimhe, and Sarah G!
The Diehardy Girls, who promo their asses off and are just, in general, an amazing group of people.
My reader group, GetHard. You continue to be a safe and welcoming place on the internet.
My PA, Melissa! A brilliant twist-of-fate brought you into my life and I couldn’t be happier. You work so hard and your passion is so bright. You’re just the bee’s knees.
My editors, James Gallagher of Evident Ink, Ellie with My Brother’s Editor, Amy Halter, and Becca with Edits in Blue. You all polish my story so it can become what I dreamed it would.
My cover designer, Hang Le, who blew me away again with such an amazing cover.
Sarah with Teasers by the Modern Belle, who continues to make stunning graphics that capture the essence of the story.
My promo team, Candi Kane, Give Me Books, and Essentially Chas, who work hard to make my release a success.
The bloggers and bookstagrammers who sign-up, promote, and devote their free time. Your passion always blows me away. I’m so grateful to everyone who signed up to promote me.
The authors in this community, who build up instead of tear-down.
My husband, family, and my friends.
Last but not least, you, the reader, the reason I publish!
And to everyone and in-between…I love you!
Now this is a little different but, I want you to write your name in, whether it’s in ink in your paperback or a highlight on an ebook…
__________________________________
Because thank YOU for helping me on this journey and continuing to support me.
Heartless Hero Page 31