by Lindsey Hart
“So you’d be willing to relocate, because I’m not leaving my friends.”
“I would. I can work remotely. Most of my work is done from home anyway. It would be nice, to have a fresh start. If you’re willing to have me.”
“San Diego is really nice,” Mandy insisted.
“It’s extra nice. There are always things to do.”
“Please let us tag along with you.”
“You guys make the cutest couple,” Jaz pushed. “Please, tell him yes. Tell him that you want to stay married, because I’m rooting for you.”
“You just want shoes,” June shot back, but she wasn’t really mad.
Jaz grinned back. “Maybe, but most of all, I want to see you happy.”
“I know we only spent a few days together,” Brock jumped in, sensing June’s resistance weakening. “But I know it’s different with you. I feel this connection that I’ve never felt with anyone. It feels so right whenever I’m with you. I had an amazing time. I haven’t had fun like that in a very long time. It was you. It was your friends. It was everything. I don’t want to give it up. I don’t want to lose you and lose that. I know we can only try, but if I don’t do that, if I don’t tell you how I feel now, I’ll spend a long time regretting it.”
June rolled her eyes. “You’re just in it for the sex.”
Brock grinned. “I’m not. I promise. I mean, that’s good too, but it’s more. It’s so much more. I want that chance to actually lose myself in you. All of me. I want to fall in love. Even if that sounds corny and cheesy and lame. You’re under my skin. You’re here,” he placed his hand over his heart. “I want to keep you there.”
Jaz and Mandy hung on his words. Jaz had gone doe eyed and Mandy’s lips were pressed in a hard line, but her eyes were welling up with tears. Obviously, he’d won them over. Ultimately though, June was going to make her own decision no matter what her friends thought. He turned his gaze back to her. She sighed and threw her hands up.
“Alright, alright. You win. I’ll give you another chance. Although that was really lame and corny and cheesy and all of it. You can’t win my heart with flowers and chocolates. I don’t need things. I’m never going to use you for your money. Well… not much at any rate. I can’t say the same for Jaz and Mandy.” She shot him a coy smile and he had to laugh.
He stepped forward, wrapped one arm around June’s waist and tipped her face up with the other. “I’m sorry. Truly. I promise not to keep things from you in the future.”
June’s eyes flashed. “You better not.”
“I promise I will do everything in my power to make this work.”
“You said that already.”
“Just kiss her!” Jaz yelled at him.
“Yeah, kiss her. I think she’s got the gist of it,” Mandy agreed.
Because there really was only one thing left to do, Brock bent his head. He didn’t hold back. He claimed June’s lips with all the scalding heat he usually saved for when they were alone. Jaz and Mandy actually cheered and clapped. When he pulled away, June wrapped her arms around his neck and brought his face back down. She stood on her tip toes and kissed him again, until they were both breathless.
“You’re right on time,” she grinned when she’d regained her ability to speak. “You can help me carry my bags up. I live on the third floor and there are a lot of stairs.”
He bowed low and offered her a silly, huge, face splitting grin. He couldn’t think of anything he’d rather do. “You don’t want to make a bet of it, do you?”
“I think I’m done with bets for now,” June laughed. “At least until we get up to the apartment. After that… who knows. I might be able to find a deck of cards. You owe me a game of strip poker after all.”
Brock nearly tripped over his feet in his eagerness to grab June’s bags. Mandy and Jaz grinned and muttered something about taking it easy and not falling on his face.
“That’s one game,” he assured June as they walked up to the door together, “that I’d be happy to lose.”
EPILOGUE
Brock
“Does this dress make me look fat?”
Brock turned, studying his wife as she walked into the bedroom. She had on a long flowing maxi dress, one hand on her very pregnant belly. “Is that a trick question?”
She scowled at him. “Of course not.”
“Honey, I don’t think pregnant women can be fat. I mean, you have a baby growing inside of you. If you look like you’re going to topple over because that belly defies gravity, no one is going to say that counts as fat.”
“You dork,” June rolled her eyes, but she cracked a smile. “You’re supposed to tell me that I’m beautiful and dreamy no matter what.”
“You are beautiful. You are sexy. You are kind funny, witty, smart, and a whole host of other amazing things. I could go on all day naming them, but then you’d be late.”
June swatted at him. “Don’t think that flattery is going to get you back into my good graces. I look like a whale and I know it.”
“A very pretty, sexy whale.” Brock set his hand on her stomach. “That’s my daughter in there and you’re growing her. I know that you were sick, that you’re uncomfortable now, that you think you’re never going to fit back into your jeans. Who cares? You’ve created a life. From nothing. It’s incredible. Your body is doing this miraculous thing and that is the most beautiful thing in the entire world.”
“Stop it.” June sniffed. “Seriously. Don’t act all empathetic and reasonable. You should have just said I was fat and let me yell at you.”
“You can yell at me if you want,” Brock chuckled. “But you should put on a smile. Your friends spent a lot of time planning this baby shower for you.”
“I know. I told them that I don’t need anything, and they know it, but they still insisted.”
“They’re doing it to make you feel special. The gifts they give you are going to be worth far more than anything we could ever buy.”
“I know, I just feel bad. I don’t need things.”
He didn’t point out that was the very reason he hadn’t told her that he had money in the first place. She’d learned, over the three years they’d been together, that life wasn’t always easy, just because there was a big bank account in your name. They’d had to fight for their relationship like any other couple. They’d had their arguments and their rough patches, but they’d also learned the sheer joy of finding that person who both frustrates you and completes you. Even if he pissed her off, there were far more times when he made her smile.
After two years, they decided they weren’t going to break up, that they actually enjoyed being together and that they had a future they both definitely still wanted to work towards. He’d brought up kids, since their relationship was so solid. June thought it was a great idea. They’d both enjoyed trying. That was probably the best part of the pregnancy. After two months, June found out she was pregnant.
Brock learned the true meaning of joy and fear when she came out of the bathroom, waving that stick in the air, all smiles, tears streaming down her flushed cheeks.
“You’re going to have a great time. Jaz promised you the best cake.”
“Oh god,” June groaned. “I seriously don’t need to eat that. Look at me.”
Brock dusted a kiss on top of June’s hair. She’d curled it and it hung down in long waves over her shoulders and down her back. He swatted her playfully on the ass. “You better get going or I’m going to take that dress off of you and have my way with you and you’ll never make it there. I’d have a year’s worth of sucking up to Jaz and Mandy to do to get them to forgive me for that one.”
“Don’t tempt me. Most people wouldn’t desire their wives when they are the size of a house.”
“Then those people are fools. I’ll always desire you. You’ll always be beautiful to me. Here. Now. Tomorrow. Next year. When you’re ninety and wrinkled beyond recognition.” June swung at him, but he sidestepped the blow. “My god. Pregnancy mak
es you violent.”
She snorted. “When you have a living being crushing your internal organs, you might be violent too.” She laughed after, and her shoulder pressed in, admitting defeat. When she glanced back up at him, her eyes shone. “I’m so happy, Brock. Even If I think I’m fat. Even if I do worry about none of my jeans fitting again. Even if my body is changing and it’s scary and amazing all at once. Even if I’m terrified of birth. Even if I feel bad my friends went to all this trouble for me. Even if I pretend not to be. I’m so insanely happy about all of this.” She blinked hard, but a few errant tears spilled down her cheeks. He stepped in and brushed them away with the pad of his thumb.
“I know, my love, so am I.”
“When we got fake married, I remember waking up next to you and just panicking. I can’t believe we’re here now. It’s only been a couple of years, but it feels like forever. In a good way.”
“Glad you clarified.”
June wrapped her arms around Brock’s neck and he gave her a slow, lingering kiss that left little doubt that he was indeed serious about making her very, very late for her baby shower. When she pulled away, she smiled softly at him, all the love on earth etched into her features. She was so beautiful, so very beautiful, it hurt. In a good way. Always in a good way.
“I love you. I’m really glad that I lost that bet that night and we wound up married to each other in the most wild, crazy, unexpected turn of events.”
“Me too. God, me too.”
She winked at him then, before she turned, grabbed her purse off the bed, and waved. He stood still, watching her go, wondering what the heck that meant. Had she remembered something about that night? She’d lost to him… didn’t she?
Brock let out a slow, deep laugh. Either way, win or lose, he’d hit the ultimate jackpot that night, every single night after, and every single night to come.
LOVE CONTRACT
Available in the kindle store HERE
3 dates for one million dollars. Those were the conditions he stipulated on the contract.
Do I turn him down? Of course not, even though I have all these good reasons why I should:
Reason #1: I barely know the guy.
Reason #2: I have absolutely no idea why the hell he wants a date with ME of all people. It was not like there was anything special about me. No illusions there, thank you very much.
Reason #3: He was my Best Friend's Brother for god’s sake. Totally off limits!
Reason #4: Did I mention he makes my heart flutter like crazy? I definitely do not want to end up with a heart attack before I'm even out of my twenties.
See, I should have turned down his offer ...
BEASTLY LOVE BOXSET
A Romance Collection
FREE in KU
An amazing retelling of your favorite fairy tales in Modern Contemporary with guaranteed HEA!!
LINDSEY HART
Book 1 – Captivated by The Beast
She was going to be spending one whole month alone with this man. He was the artist and she had been paid to be his model.
But what secrets was he hiding? Why was he living here in this mansion all by himself?
Did he really need her here just to paint her portrait?
Book 2 – Beautiful Encounter
A modern-day retelling of The Little Mermaid.
She had been there on that day when he nearly drowned. She'd watched as he gave his heart away to her best friend. But now he was back again.
Book 3 – A Husband for Beauty
He was her husband. That's what everyone said. But she has no memories whatsoever of having married this hunk.
Exclusive Content!
Book 4 – Beauty & The Jerk
Stephane Hayes.
A Billionaire. A Hunk. A Playboy. And a Huge Jerk!
Mia still remembered that time he called her an ugly little duckling. Admittedly, they had been kids but that comment still rankled.
Meeting him again thirteen years later had not changed one thing. She still hated him.
And she hated even more seeing him flirt with her sister.
"Why don’t we play a little game?” he asked.
“What sort of game?”
“A challenge,” Stephane said, his eyes glittering. “I’ll stay away from your sister. But only if you can resist me for the rest of the trip.”
The nerve of him. Well, she was about to show him just how much of a loser he was. He thought he was God’s gift to woman. Time for a rude awakening. There was no way she was going to be letting herself be seduced, come hell and high water!
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