“She left,” Jenny said. “After he,” she jerked her hand at Will. “Made a wise ass comment about you rescuing Aubree from some disastrous dates. He made it sound like you were pity dating her.”
“I was being funny.” Will grumbled as he slumped into a bar stool. He took one of the beers from the case in front of him and popped the cap using the edge of the bar before taking a long drink.
“Dammit, Will.” Matthew cursed. “I like her. A lot.” He turned to Jenny. “When did she leave?”
“A few minutes ago. I think I saw her get into a cab.”
Matthew snatched his coat and shot one more warning glare toward his best friend before he rushed out into the snowy night.
“Aubree!” He shouted her name, but the streets were mostly empty, and he didn’t see her, which meant she must have gotten into a cab like Jenny thought.
Thinking she’d gone home, he ran the block back to their apartment building and went straight to her door. He knocked a dozen times, but either she wasn’t there or she didn’t want to answer. He pulled his cell phone out of his coat pocket and dialed her number. Nothing. No answer. He waited for her voicemail to beep.
“Aubree, please call me back,” he said.
Matthew stood in the hallway for what felt like forever before he turned to face his apartment just across the hall. His shoulders slumped as he headed inside. How the hell had Will wrecked this so fast? And how the hell was he going to fix it, assuming he could?
He pulled up the Meet Cute app and signed into his account, then he examined the hanky-panky challenges, looking over his options. This might be the last way to reach her since she didn’t know who had been sending her the romantic challenges. It was one last thing he could try. He chose the “Design your own hanky-panky challenge” and crafted it carefully and hit send. Now all he could do was wait and have faith.
Aubree was sitting by the fire in the Park and Field restaurant, a mug of warm apple cider in her hands as she stared off at the flickering vermilion flames. Despite the cozy warmth of the restaurant, she felt numb. Empty. Cold on the inside and out. A chasm had opened inside her chest and darkness was slowly spreading through her from that bleak fissure. She’d fallen in love with Matthew. Too fast. Too foolish.
Her phone pinged and she almost ignored it but finally curiosity got the better of her. She winced when she saw was a Meet Cute app notification. She clicked on it and saw Vesper1 had sent her another challenge. Whoever this Vesper1 was, he had sent her a string of fun adventures that had ended in heartbreak. Her finger hovered over the delete button before she finally tapped read.
Hanky-panky challenge: Love is friendship that has caught fire. If you still believe this… Give love a second chance. Give me a second chance.
She stared at the words. Give me a second chance? But ...
“Oh my God…” She murmured. She didn’t know Vesper1, he just sent her some messages for the challenges, that was it. But every challenge had led her to Matthew. She was torn between fury and confusion. Was Matthew the mysterious online user Vesper1? And if he was, why had Matthew used the app?
Aubree closed her eyes, remembering all the wonderful moments she’d had with him and how everything had been destroyed by one man’s stupid comments. Was she really going to walk away from Matthew without an explanation at least? She owed him that, but she also owed herself. She hit the accept button on the challenge and replied to Vesper1.
“Meet me at millennium Park in 20 minutes.”
She paid for her drink and hailed a cab. When she got to the park, it was filled with people and light. Snow flurries were falling from the skies in delicate swirling patterns making the night feel strangely intimate. She smiled as a couple of children in thick coats and brightly colored knit caps rushed past, shouting about building snowmen. Their beleaguered parents trudged behind them, carrying steamy cups of coffee. Ahead of her, the park was full of people enjoying snowy night and the skating ring in the distance was lit with sparkling white lights.
The closer she got to the rink, the more she could make out in the snow. A man stood with his back to her, his gloved hands braced on the walls of the rink. His dark blond hair was lightly dusted with snow, but she would recognize him anywhere.
“Vesper1?” She spoke the screen name and the man turned.
Matthew stood before her, pain in his hauntingly beautiful blue eyes.
“Aubree… Please let me explain and if you still never want to see me again, I understand.”
She nodded, keeping herself a few feet away from him. If she came any closer, she would be tempted to run into his arms, but she needed answers.
“That night you showed me the Meet Cute app, I decided to create an account. I liked you. More than liked you. That first night we met, I wanted to find a way to make you come back, but I was also worried you might not take me seriously. Most women in high-powered jobs don’t want to date a bartender. So, I used the app to find you and send you the challenge. I knew you could have gone anywhere to do them, but I hoped you would come to me. You did and as crazy as it sounds, I fell in love with you. After Lena, I never thought I’d fall in love so hard and fast again, but I did with you.” His lips curved in a soft, slightly surprised smile that threatened to break down every wall she’d tried to build in the last few hours. He cleared his throat and continued.
“Will, that man in the bar, that idiot who speaks without thinking sometimes, I told him about you, about how I met you. Will always says the wrong things at the worst times. I never thought you needed rescuing and I didn’t do any of this out of pity. I did it because I liked you and I wanted to be with you.”
Aubree processed everything he said, a little stunned. Okay, way stunned. “Did you get fired?” she asked quietly.
“What? No… Will can’t fire me.”
“He can’t? But Jenny said he was the boss.”
Matthew smiled a little. “Of her, yes. But not me. You remember I told you that my best friend was here in Chicago? That was Will. He and I both co-own Love Potion #9 together.”
“What? Why didn’t you tell me?” For some reason that upset her too. It was another deception.
“I didn’t tell you right away because I wanted you to like me for me. Unlike Will, I like doing the work behind the bar. That will always be part of who I am, and most women think that kind of job is temporary. I love making drinks, love talking to customers. I like staying engaged in the human experience. I wanted you to see that part of me first before I showed you the business side of me.”
Aubree was silent, still processing everything he’d said. So, he was the owner of the bar, but he was afraid she would judge him if he was just a bartender? She could understand that. After all, she had wondered why he tended bar when he he’d attended Cambridge and the London School of Economics.
Matthew held out a hand to her. “Will you give me a second chance? Please?”
Aubree gazed into his eyes, seeing only honesty and a tender hunger for her. A hunger that echoed the loneliness and desire within her own heart.
“If you want me, I’m yours, Aubree. You remember that quote I put on my sign? I meant every word and I was talking about you. I love you and that’s the beginning and the end of everything.”
Aubree bit her lip hard as her eyes burned. She was so afraid to believe in magic of love anymore. She was afraid to trust her heart, yet she’d began this journey to find love. What kind of person was she if she turned her back on it now? Her friendship with the sexy Australian bartender had indeed caught fire and she wanted those flames to burn even brighter. With a trembling hand, she touched his gloved palm and he pulled her slowly into his arms, the embrace full of fire and tenderness.
“I’m afraid of getting hurt,” she whispered as he nuzzled her cheek. His soft, delighted sigh filled her heart with a blinding tightness and cottony warmth.
“Me too,” he said. “But it’s worth the risk. I feel deep inside that you are the answer to every question I�
��ll ever ask. I never thought I could fall in love again this hard and fast, but I don’t regret a second of it.”
Aubree couldn’t stop the tears that followed as she clung to Matthew. “How is it possible to feel like I’ve loved you and missed you my whole life, even though we’ve only just met?”
Matthew cupped her face in his hands. “Aristotle once said love is composed of a single soul inhabiting two bodies. I believe we’ve finally connected our two missing pieces.”
A hot ache burned her throat as she pulled him down to kiss her. Explosive currents danced between them when their lips met. Snow stung her cheeks in wintry kisses. Aubree didn’t want to be anywhere else in that moment. The magic she’d forgotten to believe in long ago pulsed, and soft, seductive intimacy formed between them as their mouths met over and over in slow kisses.
“You are the beginning, the end, my everything,” Matthew murmured between fervent kisses.
“And you are mine.” She meant it to the depths of her soul.
Love is friendship that has caught fire.
Epilogue
Six months later…
Warm white sand burned Aubree’s feet as she stepped out of the shallows of the pure blue waters of the Bahamas and headed toward the white canopy bed tucked beneath a thick shelter of palm trees. Matthew stood by the bed, wearing a pair of pale blue board shorts that made him far too sexy for a public beach. Aubree was glad they’d splurged on a private bungalow overlooking the water at their honeymoon resort. She was still getting used to the elegant diamond ring and the wedding band on her finger, but she loved being married to Matthew.
“You cool off?” he asked as he wrapped her up in a red and white striped beach towel. He draped it around her like a cloak and pulled her to him for a kiss using the towel to keep her body pressed flush to him. She giggled against his mouth.
“Yes. But you’re making me hot again.”
“Good,” he chuckled, that rich sound melting her into a puddle in his arms, then he ravaged her mouth. His hands released the towel and he palmed her bottom, squeezing lightly in a way that made her moan with delight.
“Matthew,” she said when he finally let her breathe.
“Hmm?” He brushed his nose against hers. His arms banded around her as though he wished to never let her go.
“What is a Vesper?” she whispered as she kissed his neck and bit his earlobe. His skin was slightly salty from the sea and his dark gold hair was still wet, leaving the strands to curl a bit at the ends.
“A vesper?” he asked with his eyes still closed.
“Yes, what is it?”
“It’s a cocktail.”
“Of course, it is,” she laughed again.
Matthew looked down at her, mischief and love in his expression. “James Bond invented the Vesper cocktail in the first Bond book Casino Royale. He named it after the first woman he ever loved: the beautiful and doomed Vesper Lynd.”
“Vesper1,” she repeated. “One for his first love?”
“First and only,” Matthew smiled.
“Could you make me one of those?”
“Certainly, but I have another drink in mind just now.” He scooped her up in his arms and carried her back to the canopy bed.
The white curtains billowed out around them and the island breeze tickled her skin. He settled on the bed beside her and she couldn’t resist touching him. She trailed a hand down his chest to his stomach, feeling his abdomen muscles clench beneath her exploring hands. He caught her hand and raised it to his lips for a kiss before reaching over to the bedside table where a brightly-colored orange and pink cocktail with a sassy looking little umbrella propped in it sat.
“Up for a new hanky-panky challenge, wife?”
“Always…” She laughed and sipped the drink. “What is it?”
“Sex on the beach.” He was flashing her that naughty smirk that made her legs tremble in excitement and her womb quiver in anticipation.
“The challenge or the drink?” she asked.
“Both, my love. Both.”
About the Author
USA Today Bestselling Author Lauren Smith is an Oklahoma attorney by day, author by night who pens adventurous and edgy romance stories by the light of her smart phone flashlight app. She knew she was destined to be a romance writer when she attempted to re-write the entire Titanic movie just to save Jack from drowning. Connecting with readers by writing emotionally moving, realistic and sexy romances no matter what time period is her passion. She’s won multiple awards in several romance subgenres including: New England Reader’s Choice Awards, Greater Detroit BookSeller’s Best Awards, and a Semi-Finalist award for the Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley Award. She was a 2018 RITA ® Finalist in the Romance Writers of America Contest.
To connect with Lauren, visit her at www.laurensmithbooks.com
It’s Always Been You
It’s Always Been You
A Valentine’s Day Short Story
By
USA Today Bestselling Author
Jen Talty
It’s Always Been You
Copyright © 2020 Jen Talty
All Rights Reserved. This book may not be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission from the author. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the author’s rights. All characters and storylines are the property of the author and your support and respect is appreciated. The characters and events portrayed in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author.
To Stacey Wilk. Thanks for sharing your car rides. Your friendship means the world to me. You truly are the sister I choose.
Chapter One
“Can I get anything else for you?” Shelly Ambrose placed the single rose in a plastic sleeve and tied a red ribbon around the center, trying not to stare at the dashing new neighbor with the sexy eyes. She told herself she was ready for someone to ask her out on a date, and considering her favorite holiday was coming up, maybe she’d give it a go.
It wasn’t like Axel was going to waltz into the shop and do something quirky or romantic, which is why she’d broken up with him.
“This should do the trick. Thanks,” Alan said as he handed her a twenty-dollar bill. “So, do you have a special Valentine?”
“I’m flying solo this year so far.” Shelly made the change, doing her best to smile as sweetly as she could. “But it’s obvious you have one.” She handed him his change.
He laughed. “This is for my niece. It’s her dance recital tonight, and I don’t want to be the idiot who comes empty-handed.”
“You’re a sweet uncle.”
He nodded. “Speaking of sweet. Any idea where I can get a box of chocolate-covered strawberries?”
“If you have time to go downtown, The Fruit and Nut Tree has a spectacular lineup of all sorts of things,” she said. “And it’s all fresh. You can’t go wrong. Show them the receipt from here, and they will give you a discount.”
The front door swung open and in strolled Alex Giovanni, all six foot two of him, wearing his fatigues which he made look like a three-piece suit. He shoved his hands in his pockets and smiled that damn sensual smile that sent her senses into a frenzy.
“Thanks. I really appreciate it.” Alan leaned across the counter. “Hey, would you like to get a cup of coffee with me sometime?” Alan asked.
“Sure. I’d like.” Her heart thumped in her throat. She kept telling herself she was ready to date. It had been six months since she’d moved out of Axe’s townhouse. Three months since they’d had any conversation. Of course, he’d been deployed for those months, but she was ready to move on.
At least that’s what her head kept trying to tell her heart.
If only she didn’t still love the jerk. Oh, who was she kidding. Axel wasn’t a jerk, far from it. But he couldn’t do the smallest of things for her, like celebrating Valentine’s Day, and she�
��d told him if he didn’t change, she’d leave.
She stuck to her word when, six months ago, he didn’t do anything other than take her out on the boat for their anniversary.
“Great. I’ll be in touch.” Alan nodded to Axel as he meandered out the door.
“You’re really going to go out with that guy?” Axel asked.
Thank God Kendra, her longest and best friend, entered from the back room. “Axel, you’re home,” Kendra said as she rubbed her very round belly. “When did you get back?”
“Landed about two hours ago,” Axel said. “You’re looking very pregnant.”
“I’m well aware of that fact,” Kendra said. “I’m all done. Are we ready to close up?”
“Just about.” Shelly held Axel’s stare. God, how she missed being in his arms. The way he smelled. How he kissed her good morning and winked at her every night. She missed everything about him, except his inability to give her one tiny little thing. “Did you come in here for a reason? Maybe to buy some flowers for someone?”
Axel had the audacity to crack a smile.
“Of course not, because you put down the toilet seat, and that should be enough,” she said, letting out a long breath. “Why are you here?”
“I certainly didn’t come to have the same argument that we had the night you moved out. I thought maybe, just maybe, we could talk about things. Talk about us.”
Shelly shook her head. She’d wasted two years of her life with Axel Giovanni. Of course, of those two years, she’d only spent maybe a total of eight months of them actually in his presence. But that hadn’t been the problem. She understood that being in the Navy meant he’d often be deployed, especially because of his role as a SEAL. That didn’t bother her at all. Her father had also been a SEAL. She knew and actually loved the lifestyle. She spent her childhood moving from one naval base to the next. She understood the military way of life. She could get on board with that. Hell, she had only been involved with servicemen. But what got under her skin had been the way he treated her feelings and her desires. How he totally disregarded the only thing she asked him to change about himself.
A Little Bit Cupid: A Collection of Short Stories Page 39