Table of Contents
Other books by Christine Bell
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Acknowledgments
About the Author
Down for the Count
Dirty Trick
Falling for the Marine
Wilde for Her
Game for Trouble
Seducing Her Rival
Crash into Me
Other books by Christine Bell
Dirty Trick
Holding Out for a Hero anthology
YA books by Christine O’Neil
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used
fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.
Copyright © 2013 by Christine Bell. All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce, distribute, or transmit in any form or by any
means. For information regarding subsidiary rights, please contact the Publisher.
Entangled Publishing, LLC
2614 South Timberline Road
Suite 109
Fort Collins, CO 80525
Visit our website at
Brazen is an imprint of Entangled Publishing, LLC. For more information on our titles, visit
Edited by Kerri-Leigh Grady
Cover design by Heather Howland
ISBN 978-1-62266-354-5
Manufactured in the United States of America
First Edition October 2013
The author acknowledges the copyrighted or trademarked status and trademark owners of the following wordmarks mentioned in this
work of fiction: iPhone, “Two Princes,” Chiclets, “Bad Boys,” Cops, Magic Mike, Fifty Shades, NFL, Sports Illustrated, Jell-O,
Hallmark, Jack Daniels, Three’s Company, Band-Aid.
To my sister Nicole. You’re the most beautiful girl in Stratford.
Chapter One
Lacey Garrity—soon to be Thomas, once she got hitched next week—erased the last of the math
problems from the chalkboard and turned to face the students.
“Okay, guys. If any of you need extra help before the test let me know. If not, focus on the last two
chapters and do your sample tests, and I’m sure you’ll all be fine.”
A few of the kids shifted in their putty-colored chairs, like a heat of runners taking their marks. It
was Friday, and this group had already gone the extra mile by staying almost two hours late—during
summer school, no less—to get algebra help for next week’s final. She’d reached the end of their
attention span, and she didn’t blame them one bit. She was on the same page. Galen would be home in
an hour, and they were going to put some steaks on the grill. Then, if she was lucky…
She grinned. “I can see you guys itching to get out of here, so go.”
All twenty of the fourteen-year-olds stood at once and made a mass exodus toward the door—
which was why it was so strange to see one of them fighting her way back in through the crowd, like a
salmon heading upstream in a river surrounded by bears.
“’Scuse me. Pardon me.”
Ah, not a student at all, Lacey realized when she heard the exasperated voice. It was her best
friend and sister-in-law to be, Cat.
“Jesus, watch the kicks, Junior. These are Jimmy Choo’s and cost more than a year’s supply of tater
tots and chicken patties at this place.”
The kids ignored her, barreling out of the room like it was on fire, which was good. The less time
they spent around Cat the better.
Lacey crossed her arms and gave her friend the stink eye.
“Damn, they’re making ‘em so much taller these days, huh?” Cat said, peering up at Lacey and
blowing a chunk of copper hair from her eye.
“Yeah, it’s not that you’re freakishly short, it’s just that they’re mutant giants.”
Cat shot a finger-gun Lacey’s way and grinned. “Touché. I love when you get mouthy with me.
Now, listen,” she leaned in and took a furtive glance behind her at the last of the kids exiting the
room. “I know you said you didn’t want me to, but…I did something.”
Her gamine face scrunched like she expected—and deserved—a slap upside the head. Lacey’s
Spidey senses started tingling. This was going to be bad. And if Cat thought it was bad? It was really
bad.
She narrowed her eyes and leaned closer, hoping she looked as menacing as she felt on the inside.
“What did you do?” she demanded.
Cat put her thumb and forefinger to her lips and twisted, making the universal sign for putting it in
the vault and throwing away the key.
“If you don’t tell me, I’m going to call Shane and tell him you shrank his New York Giants jersey
on purpose.”
Cat had the balls to look wounded, and Lacey wanted to chuckle, but if she showed any sign of
lightening up, her friend would sense it and take that as her giving in, and she was so not on board
with whatever scheme Cat was cooking up.
“Threaten me all you want,” Cat said. “I’ve already said more than I’d planned to. I did it because I
love you. Remember that when things get weird and possibly a little scar—”
Lacey’s world went dark as something—a hat? A hood?—was thrown over her head. She yelped
and clawed at the cloth with her fingers, heart slamming against her ribs as she wriggled to get loose.
“Damn, she’s stronger than she looks,” a soft voice muttered near her ear.
She stilled. “Courtney?” she whispered furiously.
“Noooo,” the voice responded, taking on a forced, ghost-like quality. “What makes you say that?”
Lacey shoved her away and tried to remove whatever was covering her eyes. “Lilac Dreams. I
bought you that perfume for your birthday two months ago, remember?”
Wiry little arms came around her then, pinning hers to her sides, waist-high. Cat.
“Look, we can do this the easy way or we can do it the hard way,” Cat grunted, “And I’m sure you
know which I prefer, since I haven’t gotten a chance to kick your ass since eighth grade. But no matter
what, you’re coming with us. A lot of people are going to be seriously disappointed if you don’t, so
stop being a pain in the ass.”
Lacey ceased struggling and blew out a sigh. Way for her lifelong friend to play on her Catholic
guilt. She hated letting anyone down, even if the alternative involved agreeing to her own assault,
kidnapping, and several counts of borderline bad-touching.
Still… “Guys, I told you I didn’t want a bachelorette party, and I meant it. It’s just not my thing.
Galen and I—”
“Are going to be chained together for the next seventy years. And if you and my blockhead brother
don’t spend a little time apart now and then and give yourselves a chance to miss each other, then
you’re going to be bored in ten.”
That was where she had it wrong. Lacey would never be bored of Galen. He was like a beam of
light, and she was never more alive than when they were together. When he’d rescued her from her
cheating groom just over a year ago at her first almost-wedding, she could never have imagined when
she climbed onto the back of his motorcycle that they were going to end up on her honeymoon in
Puerto Rico, and then falling in love, but that’s exactly what had happened. They’d been going strong
ever since. Now they were getting married in eight days, and she’d never been happier. Maybe lately
things had been strained, but it was nothing that couldn’t be fixed. And they would fix it. She just had
to work up the nerve to tell him how she was feeling. Maybe tonight was a good night for that. Which
meant trying to get out of whatever these two bozos had planned for her.
She squinted hard, straining to see through the thin black material, ready to beg if she had to. Was
there anyone else in the room? She’d only heard the two sets of footsteps and two voices. If she
wanted, she could knock shrimpy Cat out of the way and make a run for it. Courtney was the newest
addition to their crew of friends and probably wouldn’t even chase her down. Although, tearing ass
out of her place of work with a hood over her face and two crazy friends hot on her heels wasn’t
something she was really willing to risk either. That had disciplinary action written all over it, and
she’d just landed this job.
“Please just go along with us. For me,” Cat added softly.
After twenty years of friendship, which basically consisted of her letting Cat boss her around, it
was tough to say no. Especially when she was asking so nicely.
If you didn’t count the hood and the half-nelson.
She blew out a defeated sigh. “Fine.” It was one night. She could put up with just about anything for
one night, couldn’t she? “But can we take this thing off?”
A duet of “no” from her “friends” re-affirmed that, wherever they were headed, it wasn’t going to
be something she would have agreed to, like hitting Sully’s for a couple margaritas. That could only
mean one thing.
Strippers.
Thirty minutes later, the hood had been replaced with a more reasonable, narrow strip of cloth as a
blindfold, and the three of them sat in the back of a rented limo that smelled like new car and betrayal.
The unseen driver was apparently named William, and her friends seemed to love him.
“Can you hook this up and put on the ‘Lacey’s Last Stand’ playlist, William,” Cat said, jostling
Lacey’s arm as she leaned forward, presumably to hand him her iPhone.
“Sure thing, missy,” he said.
A chilled, narrow glass was shoved into her hand, and she closed her fingers over the stem.
“To Lacey,” Courtney cheered.
Cat echoed her, just as the strains of “Two Princes” thumped through the car. Lacey held the glass
to her lips and took a long sip. Crisp, icy, sweet-tart champagne slid down her throat and tickled her
nose.
“This is going to be the best night of your life!” Cat yelled, and started singing along to their
favorite karaoke song.
The music and Cat’s infectious, party-time enthusiasm was rubbing off on her a little. Maybe it
would be fun. Friends, good booze, great music. How bad could it be?
…
Bad.
Lacey stared up from the vinyl chair she’d been deposited into, blinking blearily as her eyes
adjusted to the dim light. It was really, seriously, super bad. A mammoth of a man stood holding the
blindfold he’d taken off her and grinned. His teeth were perfect, white Chiclets against leathery
tanned skin that was oiled like a Christmas turkey. She tried to keep her focus on his smiling blue eyes
because if she let them drift down…
“I’m Thor,” he boomed, treating her to a wink.
“I bet when he’th done with them, all the ladyth are thor, am I right, gang?” Cat deadpanned.
Courtney gave her a high five, and, to his credit, Thor laughed out loud. Lacey, however, ignored
them. She looked around, trying to get her bearings. There was a lot of chatter, but she couldn’t
determine where it was coming from because it seemed like just the four of them were in the room.
Not room, she corrected mentally as she took in the wide, red velvet curtain in front of her. Part of a
room? She looked to her right and gasped. Stage and lighting equipment, a DJ booth fitted out with
said DJ to the back right. Holy crap on a stick, they were backstage somewhere. Panic threatened, and
Lacey bit her lip and forced a smile.
“Hi Thor. Um, listen, I think we may have a little problem here.” She started to stand, but Cat
stopped her with a hand.
“I had a feeling you were going to say that,” Cat said, shaking her head in disgust. She broke eye
contact with Lacey and then nodded. That couldn’t be good. Before Lacey could react, her arms were
wrenched behind her back, and she felt something close around her wrists.
“Jesus, did you seriously just handcuff me?” she asked, craning her head to get a look at her
assailant.
“I did, ma’am,” a low male voice purred. “Because you’re under arrest, and I’m taking you…in.” A
second giant oily man in a policeman’s cap and a holster seemingly only held in place by his
enormous, banana hammock-covered man-meat leaned over her and did a shimmy.
Surely they were kidding right? There was no way they’d really do this to her.
“Clear out, girls.” Thor waved Cat and Courtney toward the narrow set of stairs heading off stage.
“No! No, get back here, you bitches,” Lacey called, but no one heard her over the thumping bass of
the R. Kelly song the DJ started spinning.
The chattering from behind the curtains amped up to a roar and Lacey froze as the curtain slowly
parted. The stage lights hit her in the face, and she was temporarily blind again. Perfect. Now if only
she was deaf to the music and excited chatter, she could pretend she was just standing in front of a
firing squad instead of here. Doing this.
“How are all you sexy ladies feeling tonight?” Thor shouted into the mic. The sexy ladies—what
sounded like a hundred of them or more—whistled and stomped.
She briefly considered running, chair and all, off stage, but with her work shoes still on, that was a
recipe for a broken ankle for sure. She could barely run in sneakers, never mind two-inch heels. If she
made it through this without literally dying of embarrassment, she was going to ring Mary Catherine
Thomas’s neck with her bare hands.
“Tonight, we have a special lady here. Meat Market ladies, give a warm welcome to Lacey!”
Shouts, screams, and wolf whistles rent the air. “Little Lacey is getting married next week. You know
what that means, right?”
Apparently they did, because the whole room went ape-shit.
“We’ve got to make sure that tonight, all her Meaty dreams come true.”
Lacey opened her mouth to correct him and explain that she wasn’t really the “Meaty dreams” type,
but a semi-hysterical burst of laughter came out instead. Officer—she peered at the sticker of a star
stuck directly to his chest—Steele leaned in and gave her a wicked, toothy grin. This was happening,
and there wasn’t one damn thing she could do about it.
“Hit it!” he called to the DJ. The music changed to the “Bad Boys” theme from Cops, which was
apparently his jam, because he started gyrating his face off.
What to do now? Dimly, she heard Cat scream her name, “Come on Lace, don’t be a party pooper!”
Party pooper indeed. Easy for her to say when she hadn’t been accosted at work and kidnapped like
some sort of international spy. Still, maybe it was the glass and a half of champagne. Maybe it was the
enthusiasm of the crowd. Maybe it was a release of the stress that had been ever-present the past few
months, but she managed to not leap to her feet and run out of the place screaming, even when the poor
man’s Magic Mike came at her and wrapped his arms around her hips, lifting her in the air. His face
was pressed against her stomach as he carried her like a prize pig around the stage. Cat’s screams had
amped up to an ear shattering level, and the whole place was electric with energy. It wasn’t fun,
exactly, and there were about ten million places she’d rather be…like purgatory or the dentist maybe,
but even she could see the humor of the situation. Sort of.
By the time the song was over and she was deposited back into her chair, she was smiling. Okay, so
the part where he’d flopped his man business in her face hadn’t been all that great, but the crowd
reaction was fun, and if she could wriggle out of these cuffs and get her hands on another glass of
champagne, this night might not be a total bust. A few seconds later, two beefy guys dressed as Roman
gladiators came and lifted her, chair and all, to carry her off stage.
Officer Steele strutted over, grinning. “Did you have fun?”
Yes, I truly appreciate having your man-junk in my face in celebration of my upcoming nuptials,
sir. “Yes, thank you.” She grimaced at the schoolmarm tone and gave herself a mental eye-roll. What
a nerd. He took it in stride, though, and laughed as he unlocked her and then pointed her in the
direction of her friends. She kept her gaze trained on the walls as she went, focusing on the photos of
beefcake past plastered all over them, in hopes of avoiding eye contact with any of the patrons who’d
just witnessed her humiliation. That lasted all of ten seconds as a group of ladies came over shouting
their congratulations and patting her back. She’d barely managed to escape them and their bawdy
jokes about her wedding night when Courtney walked up, with a tentative smile and a full flute of
bubbly. “Here. Peace offering.”
Lacey took it and fanned her boiling cheeks before swallowing a big sip.
“I think you’re going to have to keep it coming if you want to me to get over this one.”
“You know this wasn’t my idea, right?” Courtney’s heart-shaped face was scrunched with worry as
they weaved their way to the round lacquer table where Cat had been sitting a second before. A
couple ladies patted her back and wished her luck as she passed, and she smiled and waved.
Lacey gestured to a chair, and Courtney sat. “Listen, Cat and I have been friends for twenty years.
She’s been dragging me into her crazy our whole lives, so I know exactly who the mastermind was.”
Courtney‘s face collapsed with relief. “I was afraid you’d be mad, but Cat said you’d forgive us.
Plus, she said it was on your bucket list to come to one of these clubs.”
Lacey narrowed her eyes. “Wait. I don’t have a bucket list. Cat is the one who—”
“I made you one,” Cat said as she bustled across the checkered faux tiles with three shot glasses
full of pink liquid. “Like four years ago. You’ve already crossed eighteen things off it.” She set the
glasses down and held her hand up for a high five. Lacey skipped the high five, glaring at her instead.
“You made me a bucket list?”
“Yep.” She sat down and chair danced, not even having the grace to look contrite.
“You realize that a bucket list is a list of things a person wants to do before they die, right? It’s not
supposed to be a list of things Cat thinks you should do before you die.”
Cat shrugged her slim shoulders. “Six of one, half dozen of the other.”
“No. No, not really,” Lacey began and then thought better of it. What difference did it make? This
was the last week of her single life and their lives together as single besties. If Cat wanted to spend it
with her in a kitschy strip club, she was going to make the best of it. The hard part was over. She’d
taken her lickings—albeit under duress—and now she could sit back, have a few drinks, talk with her
friends, and ignore the gyrating men on stage. Then tomorrow, when she’d slept off her hangover, she
could talk to Galen about the issue she’d been putting off for so long now. The only thing that would
have been left on her real bucket list, if she’d had one.
She shook off the sudden melancholy and pasted on a smile. “These shots aren’t going to drink
themselves.”
Courtney and Cat both whooped and grabbed their glasses. “Down the hatch,” Lacey said, and they
drank. That shot was the first of many, and by the time the dancers had packed away their oil and g-
strings, Lacey was well and truly drunk.
“So who else is coming?” she asked idly, counting the glasses in front of her. She’d drunk more
than her fair share, but kept losing track.
“No one, why?”
She leveled Cat with a frown. “You said I’d be letting people down if I didn’t come along,
remember?”
Cat shifted in her seat and nodded, motioning to the strangers milling around. “Yeah. All these nice
ladies were waiting on you. Not to mention old Officer Steele and Thor.”
She reapplied her lip gloss casually, and Lacey tried to muster the will to strangle her, but it never
came. Heck, who cared? She’d gotten through it, and now she was pleasantly buzzed and having a
great time with her friends. She gave up with a snort and slumped back, her attention caught by the
black hood on the corner of the table.
She picked it up and shook it out to see it more clearly. “Wow, this thing is pretty fancy for a gag.
What’s that made of, velvet?”
Cat shrugged. “I guess so.”
“Where did you even get it?”
“Rafe let me borrow it. He was there when we were telling Shane about our plans. We were just
going to go to the dollar store to get a cheap mask, and he offered to let us use his stuff.” Cat scooted
in closer and looked around before whispering so loud, anyone who wanted to listen would have
heard her anyway. “He came back with all kinds of stuff. Restraints, a hood, the blindfold, you
should’ve seen it all.”
Rafe was a friend of Galen and Cat’s boyfriend, Shane. He was a detective at their local Police
Department, so the cuffs made sense. But the hood?
“Why would he have all that stuff?”
“Rafe has…interesting taste,” Cat said, her green eyes going comically wide.
“What does that mean?” Courtney asked, dragging her bar stool closer, curiosity lighting her face.
“Well,” Cat gave a furtive glance around before continuing. “I guess he likes it rough and wild.”
Lacey mulled that over for a second then shrugged. Probably a well-placed tie around the eyes and
some spanking. That wasn’t so wild. Heck, she was a notorious prude, and she and Galen had done
that plenty of times, the old slap—
“With cat-o-nine-tails and public sex.”
Oh, snap. Well that was different.
“He wouldn’t give me all the details—and believe me”—Cat rolled her eyes—“it wasn’t for lack
of trying.”
Courtney sat back with a thud, her cheeks highlighted with twin flags of red. “For real? I thought
that kind of stuff was just in books and movies.”
“Nope. And apparently, it’s not just a preference.” Her friend let that sit for a second before
delivering the knockout, pounding her fist on the table for dramatic effect. “It’s a requirement.”
“What is?” Courtney asked, her face a mask of shock.
Lacey didn’t know whether to give her earmuffs or a cigarette. She weaved on her seat a little,
forgot what they’d been talking about, and idly wondered if they served French fries. Pink shots and
bubbly were a surprisingly potent mix.
“Submission.” Again with the Hitchcock drama, and Lacey found herself grinning like a fool.
Courtney let out a squeak. “Like,” she glanced around and dropped her voice low enough that Lacey
had to close one eye and try to lip read. “Fifty Shades?”
Right. Rafe. Kinky. Check. She wondered about those fries again and then reluctantly focused back
in on the conversation. It was a pretty juicy bit of gossip.
“I didn’t read that book,” Cat said, “But I’ve been around him and various girlfriends before—”
“Me too,” Lacey cut in. “And he never seemed like he’d be into that or anything. He’s just…
regular.” Then again, how would she know what he did in bed? She was pretty sure he didn’t know
some of the freaky stuff she and Galen did. She paused to wave at the waitress and flag down another
round. If she couldn’t have fries, at least maybe she could get one more little drink—
“Well, well, well,” a low voice whispered in her ear. “I hear you’re getting married, but maybe
one last fling with a stranger would be—”
Her heart stuttered at the feel of a hand on her thigh. Lacey whipped around and popped the handsy
stranger right in the gut.
“Jesus, squirt, what’s up with that?” Galen growled, rubbing his stomach. “I thought you’d be happy
to see me, and instead I get one to the bread basket. How’s that for a welcome?”
Her soon-to-be husband, ex-boxer, and current fox, Galen Thomas, towered over her. She really
must have been buzzed if she hadn’t sensed him because she sure as hell sensed him now. Her whole
body lit up like a glow stick.
She stood and leaned into him. “Hi, baby,” she cooed, and then hiccupped.
He tugged her tighter against him and patted her bottom. “I’m going to kill my sister for this if she
got you too drunk to enjoy what I’m going to do to you when we get home,” he murmured, then bent
low to take her mouth in a slow, sweet kiss.
“Oh, for fuck’s sake, can’t we have her for one night?” Cat groaned.
Galen pulled back with a reluctant sigh. “You’ve had her for hours. And when Shane told me what
your plans were, I knew my damsel was in some serious distress, so I came to rescue her. If you don’t
like it, you can kiss my—”
“Take it easy there, buddy.” Shane came up behind them and grinned. “She may be your sister, but
she’s my lady now, and I can’t have you cursing at her.”
Cat waggled her tongue at Galen and then ran up to plaster herself against Shane. “I didn’t know
you were here, too. I guess we can let it go, then.”
Rafe brought up the rear and gave the group as a whole a casual wave. “I’m pretty sure me being
here breaks some sort of law,” he said with a crooked grin.
By now the show was over, so the place had turned into a pretty standard dance club, albeit every
so often an oily half-naked guy would walk by. Funny enough, Lacey realized through her cozy,
alcohol-induced haze, had Rafe brought his cuffs he would’ve fit right in. At a solid six feet with coal
black hair and eyes to match, he looked both sexy and kind of dangerous. She’d never really seen him
in that light before, but now with all the talk of him and the spankings and the toys, she imagined some
girl would find herself pretty lucky. And judging by the look on Courtney’s face, she was torn
between thinking the same thing and the exact opposite.
Interesting.
Lacey stepped away from Galen and waved them all to grab some chairs. “They might as well stay,
right guys?” she asked, sending Courtney a pouty face.
She nodded, although reluctantly. “Sure.”
Lacey hated making her feel like the fifth wheel, but maybe if she played her cards right, she and
Rafe could find some common ground.
“So, Rafe, I hear you like to tie women up?” Courtney said, an innocent expression on her angelic
face. She popped a maraschino cherry into her mouth and chomped down. So much for playing cards
right. That sounded downright confrontational.
Rafe reclined back on his chair, and a slow smile spread across his lips. “Did you, now?” He
spared a dead-eyed glance at Cat, and she shrugged.
“What? You didn’t say it was a secret, and it’s way too juicy to keep to myself.”
Shane tugged at a red curl hanging over her eye and shook his head. “It makes my blood run cold
imagining what you tell people about our sex life.”
Cat grinned and leaned in to kiss him on the mouth. “It shouldn’t. You should be very proud.
They’ve heard nothing but good things, right ladies?”
Galen was rubbing Lacey’s back in slow circles and she was too mesmerized to answer properly,
so she held up her index fingers, gauging about eight inches apart.
Courtney cracked out a laugh, and the guys all groaned.
“I knew you shared notes about that,” Galen said, shaking his head. “It’s a man’s personal business,
you know. A lady shouldn’t kiss and tell.”
“I think the saying is that a gentleman shouldn’t kiss and tell,” Courtney said, taking a long gulp of
her mai tai. “Nobody ever said anything about a lady. But back to Rafe.” She pinned him with her
clear, hazel gaze and asked him again. “What’s the deal with you and the BDSM chatter I’m hearing
tonight?”
The others got quiet, and Lacey wondered what the heck was going on. They’d been joking around
about it, but suddenly Courtney’s interest seemed like more than just idle curiosity and tipsy
conversation. She was a confirmed bachelorette and had insisted that she wasn’t in the market for any
kind of relationship with a man. So why the sudden concern about Rafe’s sex life?
Rafe gave her a long, hard look and even from the sidelines, Lacey found herself wriggling in her
seat. The two had only hung out in the group a handful of times, and Lacey didn’t recall this tension
between them before, but maybe she just hadn’t been looking for it. Now, even Galen and Shane were
paying attention.
“What do you want to know, Court?”
The words were spoken softly, like a challenge, and for a second, it looked like her friend might
back down. But she threw her shoulders back and met him head on.
“Does it make you feel more like a man to dominate your lover?”
Cat winced with a whispered, “Day-um,” and the rest of them waited silently for Rafe’s response.
“No more than it makes my lover feel more like a woman when she submits to me.”
Courtney’s mouth formed an “o” before her eyes narrowed. “That’s what you like to tell yourself,
I’m sure. But don’t you worry that doing things to a woman when she’s helpless and fantasizing about
hurting her is a gateway to abuse? I have to wonder if it starts with a spanking in a bedroom and leads
to a beating out of one.” Her questions were harsh, but the way she licked her lips nervously when she
delivered them took away some of their fire.
Rafe seemed to consider her words but then shook his head. “Nope. You can wonder all you want,
but if I deliver pain, it’s only to intensify the pleasure later. I would never harm a woman, and I spend
a lot of my work day hunting down men who do.” He pushed back his chair and stood. “Now, if
you’re through grilling me about my sexual practices, which you have no understanding or knowledge
of, then I’m going to get myself a drink. Unless what you’re really asking for is a lesson? In which
case,” he glanced at his watch and then locked gazes with a shaken Courtney. “You can pick up that
hood and those cuffs, and I’d be glad to take you outside in the alley and give you the best ten minutes
of your life.”
She stuttered and flushed, but then got hold of herself and flashed him a tight smile. “As tempting as
that is, if ten minutes is all you’ve got in you, I think I’ll pass.”
His responding grin was positively lethal. “Ten minutes isn’t all I’ve got.” He bent low until his
face was level with hers, and they all leaned in to hear his softly spoken words. “Ten minutes is all
you could handle.”
Chapter Two
“Whew,” Lacey groaned, fanning her face as she leaned out the window two hours later. “That was
something, right?”
Galen kept his eyes on the road and nodded. “Yeah, it was something all right.”
“I mean with Court and Rafe. What was up with that? There were sparks flying like crazy. I just
don’t know if they were the good kind or the bad kind.”
“I think they were a little of both.” It had been a fun night, in spite of the tension between their two
friends, but things with him and Lacey had been tense since this last round of fertility drugs had failed,
and more than anything they needed some time together to bridge the gap that had been forming
between them. Now, his wife-to-be was buzzed and amped, and he couldn’t wait to get her home.
“I was so shocked to hear about Rafe and his…preferences. Crazy, right?”
Galen shook his head and took one hand off the wheel to lace his fingers with hers. “Nope. I knew
already.”
“You knew? Why didn’t you tell me?” Lacey asked, shifting to face him with an indignant frown.
Galen thought about it and then shrugged. “What possible reason would there be for that
discussion?”
It wasn’t really anyone’s business what Rafe did behind closed doors…or in public, as it were, but
still, he knew she hated being the last to know.
“We’re supposed to tell each other everything!” She slumped back into her seat and crossed her
arms to sulk.
“Well then, let me tell you everything.” He proceeded to go through his workout for the day, what
he ate, the conversation he had with his manager at the gym, and his discussion with the dry cleaner
about the NFL draft, and within three minutes, his fiancé was dead asleep.
He tucked a honey colored lock of hair behind her ear and grinned. He had big plans when they got
home, and if she didn’t wake up by the time they got there, they’d have to be postponed. But it was
hard to be annoyed with her. She was so damned cute when she was drunk. She let out a soft snore,
and he took that as his cue to drive a little slower so she could work in a power nap.
He pulled onto the main road and headed toward their house, which would officially be their first
home together as a married couple. It was a nice place, especially since Lacey had moved in. She had
great taste, and even though he’d had to give up his Sports Illustrated collection and move his keg-
erator into the basement, he still preferred it now to life BL.
Life Before Lacey had been pretty empty. He loved his parents and sister and had a great core of
friends with Shane, Rafe, and some of his old boxing buddies, but he’d never had a partner before.
Not like this.
Which was why it was especially hard to see her so down lately. He knew the baby thing was
weighing on her, but they were both young, and they had plenty of time to work on that some more.
Once they’d found out their window of opportunity was closing due to Lacey’s medical issue, they’d
done everything they could to get themselves into a position to be parents ASAP. Signed up with an
adoption agency—and nearly had gotten a baby, but that had fallen through— and had just interviewed
with another expectant birth mother and were waiting to hear. Not to mention the three rounds of
fertility treatments that hadn’t taken. They were doing everything in their power, and the rest was out
of their hands. Now it was just a waiting game.
His fiancé shifted in the leather seat and muttered something about “adding more gerbera daisies,”
which he assumed was some reference to the wedding flowers. As much as he hated all the fussy
details and didn’t know a Jordan almond from a French twist, he’d been doing his share, because the
last thing he wanted was to add to the stress she’d been under.
It was such a relief to see her without that cloud of low-level sadness hanging over her for the first
time in weeks, and he’d do just about anything to keep it at bay. So if they needed more gerbera
daisies, he was on it.
She hunkered lower in her seat, murmuring his name on a breathy sigh, and he relaxed a little. She’d
be fine. They just needed to shut everything and everyone else out for a while and remember how
much they loved being together. The baby would come in time, one way or another. He’d see to that.
In fact, if—
Nope. He wasn’t going to get either of their hopes up on “ifs.” Instead, he’d focus on the definites.
And he definitely loved the shit out of his woman. Now, if he could just get some eggs and coffee into
her, there were some good times waiting for them at home. Soft bed, hard sex. It was about to go
down at Casa de Thomas. And then afterward, when they were lying in bed, he would try to talk to
her again about how she’d been feeling instead of trying to keep it all bottled up, and they could work
through it together. They had to, because she was starting to scare him.
By the time they pulled into the driveway twenty minutes later, her snoring had become constant,
and he’d almost scrapped the idea of hot sex altogether. Until he picked her up in his arms, and she
buried her nose in his neck and pressed her soft breasts against his chest. Time for breakfast.
She murmured softly as he carried her up the cobblestone walkway to the front door.
“Lace,” he whispered, and pressed a soft kiss on the forehead. “Babe, it’s time to wake up.”
She stirred and peered at him through bleary eyes. “I didn’t know you worked here,” she mumbled,
then promptly closed her eyes again. He bit back a chuckle and tried again.
“Come on, I’ve got to put you down so I can unlock the door.”
This time, she opened her eyes and seemed to focus, her amber gaze locking with his. “Hey there,
handsome. When did you get here?”
“I live here. And so do you. We’re home, squirt. Now come on, stand up for me, all right?”
He swung her so that her feet touched the ground and waited while she got her balance.
“I’m A-okay, Captain.” She lifted a hand and popped off a snappy salute, then veered to the side,
about to take a header into the potted plants on the porch.
He grabbed and steadied her. “Easy there. Let’s take it one step at a time. You hold onto my back
while I open the door. Deal?”
She nodded and wet her lips, then lunged forward to plaster herself against him like a baby possum.
He pulled the keys from his pocket and found the right one, trying to ignore the crush of her full
breasts against his back. She was in no condition for anything he had planned, so he might as well get
it out of his—
“Are you going to give it to me tonight?”
He froze, hand on the doorknob. “Give what to you?”
“You knoooow,” she said. “It. The hot salami. The long dog. The hot-beef injection. The wizard’s
staff. The one-eyed Willy.”
She seriously needed to stop hanging out with his sister. “Ah, well, that depends on a few things.”
She hoisted herself up by his shoulders, wrapping her legs around him, then started climbing him
like a tree. A second later, she made her way around to his side, clutching his middle with her thighs.
“What things?” She craned her neck around so she could see his face and blinked up at him owlishly.
“Things like whether or not you can walk on your own two feet. Or, say, if you know your name.”
To his amusement, she looked totally offended and released him, dangling her legs before she let go
completely.
“Test me, Your Officership.” She set her chin to a mulish angle and closed one eye, focusing on his
face.
“Test you at what?” he asked, too curious to see her next move to stop her.
“Walking a straight line.” She held both arms out to the side and made to touch her nose, but
promptly poked herself in the open eye. “Ah, fff-udge. That hurt.”
He reached for her to stop the madness, but she backed away.
“It’s cool. I’m fine. I can still do the walking thing.” She straightened her shoulders and blinked
back the tears in her just-poked eye while muttering, “Stop showing off, Lacey. Stick to the basics.”
She took a deep breath and started toe-heeling it across their front porch. He stayed close behind,
ready to catch her if she fell. She made it a good ten feet, and although the line was more serpentine
dodging-a-bullet than a straight path, he slow-clapped for her when she stopped and bowed.
“How about that? Bet you didn’t see that coming.” She looked very pleased with herself, so he bent
low and kissed her senseless. When he finally came up for air, her hands were fisted in his hair and
she was breathing hard.
“That’s nice. Let’s do that again,” she whispered.
He chuckled even as his blood heated, and he led her into the house.
“Why don’t you sit down and tell me about your night while I make you some eggs?” He tossed the
keys into the wooden bowl on the side table then crossed the room to the fridge.
She pulled out one of the walnut kitchen chairs and settled in with a sigh. “Sounds good. As long as
you promise we can do the tube steak boogie after.”
He chuckled and nodded. “Deal.” He dug through the stainless steel refrigerator,pulled out some
butter, eggs, and cheese and then deposited his haul onto the marbled granite island.
“So The Meat Market, huh? Is that going to be your new hangout?” he asked with a grin as he
cracked the eggs into a ceramic bowl and started to whisk them together.
“Well, apparently it was on my bucket list, but I’m going to have to say no. I can’t speak for your
sister and Courtney, though. They seemed like they were really enjoying themselves.”
He could only imagine. Good thing Shane was used to Cat’s insanity, or else she might have found
herself looking at some serious groveling. When they’d walked in, his sister was in the midst of a
drinking contest with a guy named K. Long. He only had to stand for them to figure out the origin of
the name. Galen wasn’t a hater and had never had any complaints, but damn, the guy looked like he
was packing a pony in his pants.
He slid four slices of bread into the toaster, and then popped a pod of Columbian roast into the one-
cup coffee maker.
“So where did you guys go before that? I hope they at least fed you…”
Lacey’s face scrunched in thought and then she shook her head. “I don’t think they did.” She held up
a finger. “Wait. They did. If you count lime Jell-O shots.”
He didn’t, and annoyance pricked him. When he saw his sister, he was going to ream her out for it,
whether Shane liked it or not. Cat knew Lacey was a total lightweight, and she should have kept a
closer eye on her. Luckily, once he’d gotten there, he’d had the bartender switch her to virgin drinks,
so the worst of it should be over soon.
He sprinkled the eggs with salt and pepper, added some shredded cheese, and then folded the
cooked eggs in half to make a perfect omelet big enough for two.
He made his way over to the table and gestured for Lacey to hold out her plate. She did, and he cut
the omelet in two and slid half onto her plate.
“Oh, that smells so good,” she groaned.
Her enthusiasm gave him hope. It had been almost two weeks since the last time they’d had sex, and
he missed it. He missed her. The way she smelled, the way her smooth, trim body felt against his. It
wasn’t just the release—although, fuck, that part was good. It was the closeness. Damn, did that make
him sound like a sap.
He piled the rest of the eggs on his plate and went to snag the toast. With a quick slather of butter, it
was ready to go, and he carried it to the table to add to the feast.
Lacey had already plowed her way through a third of her omelet and seemed to be picking up
steam. “Seriously. This is the best food I’ve ever eaten. You should be a chef.”
He snorted. “I can only make three things. Eggs, steak, and grilled cheese. What kind of restaurant
would that be?” He forked up some eggs and started eating.
She was right, they were pretty damned good.
“The best one in the world. At least, for after hours. You could cater strictly to drunk people with
questionable palettes,” she said before digging into her toast.
They ate in companionable silence, and he urged her to drink her coffee. A few minutes later, their
late night breakfast was obliterated, and he sat back in his chair, full and satisfied.
Almost.
“How you feeling?” he asked, hoping the desperation didn’t show on his face. Lacey was the best
girlfriend in the world, and their sex life was better than any he’d ever experienced. If she was going
through a hard time emotionally, he was hardly justified in being upset or begging—
“Actually,” she said, pushing her chair back from the table with a screech. “I feel a lot better.” She
stepped behind him and wrapped her arms around his neck, dipping her head low to catch his earlobe
between her teeth.
He dropped the napkin he’d been holding and let out a hiss. Oh, thank god.
He made to stand so he could implement plan “Blow Lacey’s Mind”, but she put her hands on his
shoulders and pressed him firmly back into his seat.
“Give me a minute, would you?” she asked softly, her eyes making sexy promises that made his
pulse pound.
He would give her just about anything at that point but settled on a nod. His cock had already gotten
the memo that things were about to get popping and was pressing insistently against the fly of his
jeans. He couldn’t wait to be inside her. Feel her tight, wet heat closing over him, and the slow drag
of soft flesh against his. Maybe she wanted time to change into a negligee that she’d bought when they
went to New York. His blood pumped hard as he recalled the way the black silk skimmed her curves,
ending right where her thighs began, so he could see her—
“Move your chair back.” She ran her hands through his hair and gave it a tug.
“What do you mean?”
She dropped to her knees and stared up at him, her eyes wide and hot. “I mean like slide your chair
back so I can fit right”—she leaned forward and slid her hand around to his cock—“here.” She patted
him and her lips stretched into a knowing smile. “Apparently part of you is way ahead of the rest of
you.”
He pushed his chair out, hard enough that he nearly knocked the table over, and turned it until he
faced her.
“Now what?” he asked through gritted teeth. Was she going to give him a lap dance? Sit on him and
grind against him?
“Unzip them.” The demand in her voice was something he’d never heard before, and he narrowed
his eyes at her.
“Lacey—”
“Do it. You always get to be the boss, now I want to be the boss for once.”
Well, well, well. Little Lacey Drawers was feeling tough. He’d just have to make sure he was—
what had Rafe called it when he was telling them why he and his latest squeeze hadn’t clicked?—
topping from the bottom. He liked being in control, and he wasn’t going to apologize for it, but if she
wanted to take a spin at calling the shots, he’d give her a go at it. It wouldn’t be the first time,
although usually, it didn’t take but a well-placed nibble or a flick of the tongue to get her to change
her mind. Tonight would be no different.
“I’m at your mercy, love,” he murmured and settled back, trying to keep his muscles loose. They’d
been coiled tight since he’d convinced her to hit the dance floor with him and she had started
shimmying and swaying in her sexy librarian work clothes. Now, he needed to chill, let her play for a
while before he hit the point that he had to take the reins and drive them both over the edge.
Lacey stared at him for a long moment, suddenly seeming unsure. She wet her lips and jerked her
head at him. “Well? I said unzip ‘em.”
Indeed she had. Galen reached for the button of his jeans and tugged. It came open easily, and he
slid one hand down the front of the worn denim. With her eyes locked on him, he couldn’t resist
sliding his hand lower to stroke the length of his cock one time. Her eyes went glassy, and he groaned.
She always had liked to watch him, but this wasn’t the time to take matters into his own hands.
“Do it again,” she whispered and leaned forward to grip his thighs with her warm, soft hands. Her
face was close enough that the fall of honey waves brushed his hips.
He obliged her, first yanking the zipper down and freeing the throbbing cock from its prison. He
circled the shaft with his fist and stroked upward, squeezing when he reached the broad head.
“Mmm,” she moaned and then leaned toward him. The breath suspended in his lungs as she flicked
her tongue out and rubbed it across the tip of his cock.
Fuck, her mouth was hot. It felt like months since she’d sucked him off, but it’d probably only been
a couple weeks. Before he could think on how lucky he was, she dove forward and took him deep.
She shoved his hand out of the way and took him deeper still. He let out a choked groan. “Jesus, babe,
slow it down.”
She pulled back and met his gaze. “You’re on my time right now, so I’ll let you know when it’s
time to slow down. How’s that, big guy?”
Hard to argue when the sexiest woman in the world was on her knees in front of you, her mouth
already red and a little swollen from having your dick in it. He wised up quick and shut his mouth,
settling back again to give her better access. “Sorry,” he rasped out, taking a breath to try and get his
pounding pulse back under control.
She didn’t give him the chance as she leaned in and took him into her sweet mouth again. It was all
hot breath and soft tongue and incoherent sighs. He wanted to watch her so bad. To see every second
of her plump lips closing over his thickness. Her cheek bones going sharp as she increased the
suction, taunting him with the tender flesh of the inside of her mouth. But his lids drifted closed, the
lure of total oblivion, the need to just feel too strong to fight.
Her fingers dug into his thighs as she found her rhythm, up and down. Fast then faster. She swirled
the tip of her tongue over the swollen head as she passed, sending a bolt of pure lust through him, and
he held his breath. Shit. His balls went tight, and he slid a hand into her thick mane of hair.
“That’s enough, Lace.” The words sounded like they’d been dragged over a field of glass, broken
and guttural. Because he didn’t want her to stop. He wanted to grab the back of her head and urge her
on. Beg her to never stop. To flex his hips and quicken the pace until he exploded in a hot rush of
liquid, emptying himself into her throat.
She pulled back, gave him one last long lick and peered up at him. “Now I want you inside of me.
But I don’t want you to come because I’m not finished here. Understand?”
His cock pulsed and jerked, a pearl of translucent liquid leaking from the slit at the tip. It must have
caught her eye because she stared down, mesmerized.
She was halfway to his lap, ready to suck him into the crazed tornado again, but he stopped her,
cupping her chin in his hand.
“If you want me inside you, you’d better quit while you’re ahead,” he whispered, and leaned in to
kiss her. She opened her mouth to argue, but he was beyond the point of reason. He stood, drawing
her up with him, and slid his hands downward to cup her sweet, round ass.
“Play time is over, babe.”
He bent and hoisted her up, forcing her to wrap her thighs around his waist to keep herself from
falling. She squealed and slid her arms around his neck.
“I got you. Let’s get you upstairs. I have something I wanted to show you.” Galen carried her down
the hall and kicked open their bedroom door. They stepped into the room, and he flicked on the light
with his elbow.
She froze in place and gasped. “Holy mother of god.”
Chapter Three
Lacey stared at the array of stuff on the bed in shock. Apparently Cat hadn’t been the only one talking
to Rafe. There was what looked like a giant vibrator/dildo combo on her pillow, and the rest of the
bed looked like the sex store had been having a clearance sale and Galen had decided to wipe them
out.
“What is all this stuff?” she whispered, trying to take it all in. She jiggled and wiggled until he set
her on her feet again.
Galen took her by the shoulder and turned her to face him. “I know things have been strained
between us. I wanted to take care of you. Help you relax.” He traced the line of her neck with his
forefinger and stilled her heart with the vulnerable, sweet look on his face.
Leave it to Galen to bring a bunch of sex toys into the bedroom and help her relax by popping off a
row of orgasms. The pull low in her stomach made her wonder if he might not have it right, though. It
had been a long time since they made love just for the sake of it. Since before the last round of shots.
Maybe this was the way to get back to where they’d started before the stress of the wedding and the
difficulties of trying to start a family.
Galen shifted from foot to foot, his gaze never leaving hers. Whether or not this worked, even
temporarily, the fact that he was trying made her love him a little more than she did even an hour ago.
She took a tentative step toward the bed and scanned the items before blowing out a sigh. “Alrighty,
then. What have we got?”
He pulled up beside her and ticked off the list on his fingers. “Let’s see, that there’s your standard
variety vibrator. That’s some warming lube. That,” he pointed to a small, round device that looked a
little like a pacifier, “is a butt plug—”
She held up a hand to stop him right there.
“That’s a what now?” She eyed it with dawning horror.
“Look, I went in and asked the lady behind the counter to give me the works. Everything she thought
a woman might want but be afraid to ask for.” He shrugged helplessly. “I took the bag, and gave her
the money.”
“So what are you supposed to do with it?”
He eyed her incredulously. “For real? It’s called a butt plug. What do you think you’re supposed to
do with it?”
She scratched her nose and nodded, trying not to let the apprehension show. “Okay. I’ll do it. But if
it hurts, just let me know and I’ll take it out, stat. Don’t be a hero.”
He gaped at her and shook his head. “Aw, no. Sweetie. That’s not for me.”
The last of her buzz faded, and she took a step back. “Nope. Not going to happen.” They’d had
some incidental contact in the butt area, but that thing was the size of a Ring Ding. There was no way
that was going anywhere near the backdoor.
“Fine. Butt plug is off the table. Now come on, there’s tons of other stuff that you’d probably really
like if we gave it a go.”
She craned her head closer but didn’t step in, like she was peering into the cage of a lion. “What
about that?” she asked, pointing to a small, pad-like device with a single button on it.
“That’s just a different kind of vibrator.”
That might be okay. “And those?” she gestured to what looked like a bag of ribbons.
“Those are restraints.” His voice went dark and husky, and suddenly those looked kind of
interesting, too.
“Okay.” She turned to face him. “Since I’m the boss tonight, I’m going to pick the things I want to
try and we’ll put the rest away for further consideration. Deal?”
He nodded. “Deal.”
She strolled around the bed, amazed at the array, and at the way she could almost feel her fiancé
willing her to pick up certain items. His breath went fast when she bent to get a closer look at a pair
of fur-lined cuffs. And when she picked up a wide, flat plank that was obviously some sort of paddle,
he actually stopped breathing altogether. Very interesting. She kept that, and with a silent prayer for
courage, took up the restraints, the cuffs, and the vibrator.
“Okay. Ready,” she announced.
He stepped in and swept the rest of the stuff onto the floor. “I’ll put it away later. I can’t wait
another second to get you between those sheets,” he said softly.
Her heart stuttered, and she wanted to cry. When was the last time he’d looked at her exactly that
way? Like he couldn’t wait to tear her clothes off? Maybe it was more recent than she thought, and
she just hadn’t been paying enough attention to him to notice. Not tonight, though. Tonight, she was
with him one hundred percent. Fully engaged and present.
He took the items from her unresisting hands and set them on the bedside table. “Lay back and let
me undress you,” he murmured.
She sank onto the bed and swung her legs over the side. He knelt next to her and began unbuttoning
her blouse, stopping to drop a sucking kiss to every inch he exposed. “I love when you wear clothes
like this. You’re my own sexy schoolteacher.” Another kiss, this one over the peach silk of her bra.
“When you’re getting dressed in the morning, walking around in your skirt, putting on your earrings,
fixing your lipstick, it takes all my strength not to follow behind you and undo all the things you’ve
just done.”
He lifted her arms high over her head, and picked up the cuffs clicking one over her right wrist then
the other over her left.
“Leave your hands over your head,” he said.
Her stomach was exposed now, and the icy blast from the air conditioning sent a shiver through her.
He leaned in to trail his fingers over ribcage, and then lower. He unzipped her skirt, pressing his lips
to her calf as he slid the fabric down her body.
“I want to tie your legs open wide,” he said, his voice silky as he slid her panties off. “And then I
want to fuck you until you scream.”
She’d been on the business end of that promise before, and it wasn’t an idle one. Her legs started to
tremble as he picked up one of the restraints and looped it around one ankle to tie the end to the bed
rail.
Okay, not too tight. That wasn’t so bad. Grasping her other foot lightly, he ran his thumb over her
insole as he looped the second length of silk around her ankle. She swallowed hard as he used it to
spread her legs wide. Then wider.
She resisted the urge to fight him. To close her legs and hide herself from his heated gaze.
“You’re the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen. Don’t hide from me,” he ground out. Heat and
wetness rushed to her core at his words, and she relaxed, letting her muscle go limp again. She trusted
him and needed more than anything to let go. Take this break from reality for just a little while.
“There you go. That’s so good, babe.” His soft praise made her go weak inside, and she let her
eyelids drift shut. His fingers were like feathers, drifting over her skin, so light, like a whisper. When
they drifted between her legs, she held her breath. A low buzzing sound reverberated through the
room.
“Oh!” The sensation was electrifying. A pulse of energy directly on the bundle of nerves was
almost too much. She moved her hand to stop him but the cuffs pulled at her wrists. And then the urge
to move away was gone. Pleasure radiated from the vibrations, between her legs, down her thighs.
She strained toward it now, unable to look away.
He climbed onto the bed, positioning himself between her legs, thick cock bobbing as he moved.
He laid the vibrator so it stayed in place against her clit and jerked his jeans farther down his thighs.
“Just for a second,” he bit out. “Need to be inside you for one. Second.” He leaned down to rest on
one forearm as he slid the head of his cock into her. The breath whooshed out of her lungs, and she
thrust up toward him. If he came the rest of the way in, and the vibrator kept doing what it was doing,
she was on track for the mother of all orgasms.
But he didn’t. He played with her, working the thick head in and out, using his hand to massage her
with the vibrator until her whole body was quaking. Heat collected at her center and a pulsing need
began to throb low in her belly.
“I’ve been thinking about this for a week. Getting inside you. Your legs wide open for me.”
His voice was lower than the Galen she knew. Dark with need, and it was driving her insane.
He pulled away, and she whimpered at the loss, but it was short-lived as he jerked forward, sliding
all the way in. The click of a button and suddenly the pulses from the vibrator increased, stealing her
breath in tandem with Galen’s thrusting hips. He hammered into her, hard and deep, and the sensations
all melded together until she was a mass of ache and need.
“Mmm,” she moaned, the tension coiling tighter, the heat flaming hotter. His teeth closed over the
cord in her neck, and she screamed as the waves crashed over her and light pulsed through her.
“Yeah, yeah, yeah,” he chanted, riding it with her, slamming his hips against hers as he came.
Their labored breathing filled the room as they came down from the high, and she slung her cuffed
arms around his neck as he pulled away and turned the vibrator off.
“That was a very nice surprise to come home to,” she said, nestling her nose against his warm
shoulder. She hadn’t felt this relaxed in ages.
He chuckled, pulling away from her grasp to gently untie her and unlock her cuffs. “I’m glad you
liked it.”
She had. And she didn’t even have to face the dreaded paddle. She felt like she’d dodged a bullet
there.
“And hey, we can just bring the rest to try on our honeymoon.”
She eyeballed him, wondering if he was serious.
”That would be an interesting security check,” she admitted with a grin.
“It’s totally happening, so get your pretty head around it.”
He pulled her onto his chest, and she snuggled in close, listening to his heartbeat slow as he nodded
off. She hugged him closer for a second and breathed in his scent.
Paddle or no paddle, one thing was for sure: she never really had to fear. Galen would take care of
her. She knew it with all her heart. That kind of love was rare, and more than enough to hope for in a
lifetime even if they never had a baby. But she couldn’t deny the little squeeze her heart gave at the
thought. They still had one person considering them for a possible adoption, so it wasn’t like they’d
lost hope yet. Everything was going to be fine. She was sure of it.
And still, sleep was a long time coming.
…
When she woke up the next morning, Lacey found herself nose to nose with a note on the opposite
pillow. She stifled a yawn and then opened it.
Went for a run before it got too hot. Be back with bagels.
Perfect. She scooted to the side of the bed and rose gingerly to her feet, both surprised and relieved
that, aside from a slight headache, she was hardly hung over at all. That’s what the love of a good man
did for you. She smiled as her thoughts went back to the night before. From coming to The Meat
Market to make sure she wasn’t miserable to making her breakfast and setting her up with water and
aspirin before bed, Galen had taken care of her the way he always did. The way she hoped she did for
him. Plans for a fancy lunch spread filled her head as she made her way to the kitchen for her morning
coffee.
He’d loved the pasta salad she’d made for Cat’s picnic a few weeks ago, so that and roast beef
sandwiches on thick slices of fresh pumpernickel from Balducci’s would be perfect.
When she passed by the telephone and noted the blinking message light, she picked it up to listen
while she made her grocery list. Galen liked Swiss on his roast beef, so—
“Hi, Galen, Lacey. This is Stella Martin.”
She dropped the pen in her hand and gripped the phone more tightly. Please god, please…
The deep sigh that rang over the line said it all and sent her stomach into a nosedive, but she forced
herself to listen to the words. “I tried your cell phone, but it went straight to voice mail too. I’m sorry
to tell you that Sarah has made her decision and unfortunately, has selected another family. Now
remember, sometimes it takes several—”
The rest of it was nothing but jumbled sound as she set the phone down on the counter. Again.
They’d tried and failed again. The first time, with Katya, she’d just changed her mind altogether about
the adoption. That had been rough. She closed her eyes to ward off the pain of that memory. But this
time, what did this other family have that she and Galen didn’t? Was it that they weren’t married yet?
Or maybe she’d just tried too hard at the interview? She recalled Sarah’s face from their meeting
three weeks before, and she’d seemed to like them. What could have gone wrong?
Tears filled her eyes and spilled over. How strange that just a year or two ago, she’d never even
given a second thought to the possibility that having children would be anything other than an at-will
prospect. She’d stop using birth control, and then she’d get pregnant. Easy peasy, lemon squeezy.
Then, lather, rinse, repeat until she’d have a houseful of kids running around, creating laughter and
chaos wherever they went. How could she have been so naive? She’d done everything according to
plan. Gone off the Pill in order to give her body a chance to get regulated again for a while, and even
started taking pre-natal vitamins. She had all her ducks in a row so that her body would be in the best
possible shape for them to start trying right after the wedding. And then? Her body had betrayed her.
Her monthly schedule that had been like clockwork while she was on birth control became a crap
shoot, and she knew something was wrong.
She pressed a hand to her stomach and blinked back the tears. And worse, how was she going to
tell Galen? They’d been so hopeful this time, and the wedding was only a week away. How could she
tell him now?
She wouldn’t. Better to wait until after the wedding. There was no point in ruining his day. If he felt
anything like she did after hearing the news, putting it off for a few days was a kindness she wished
Stella had given her.
She leaned against the granite countertop for support as she ran over what the next steps would be
for them. They’d explored so many options already, and it seemed like every door was slammed
louder than the last.
They’d just keep trying.
Resolved, she straightened and grabbed the list from the table. Galen was a fighter, and this last
year, he’d taught her to be one, too. They would get through this together.
Still, she couldn’t stop that ugly, insidious little voice that whispered…
What if you can’t?
…
“Cinnamon raisin, plain, sesame, I got ‘em all, baby.”
Galen tossed the bursting paper bag onto the kitchen island and tugged Lacey’s ponytail from
behind. She turned off the faucet where she’d been rinsing their breakfast pan from the night before
and faced him.
“Uh, yeah, sounds good.”
The lightness in his chest that had been there all morning disappeared when he saw her face. Gone
were the pink cheeks and the soft smile playing around her full lips while she’d slept that morning.
Her eyes looked sad now, her shoulders were slumped, and her voice was dull.
He pulled her into his arms and squeezed, pressing his nose into her hair and breathing in her
familiar scent. “What’s the matter, babe? Talk to me.” Please.
She hugged him back, but stiffly, and then pulled away. “Just the stress of the wedding and the new
job all at once. I’ll be fine in a week or two once things die down.”
Lies.
The still-warm bagel he’d scarfed down on the way home sat in his belly like a rock. Whatever she
was saying about it now, he knew that Lacey had been looking forward to their wedding day since
he’d first proposed. Sure it was a busy time for them both, but she’d always been the type of person
who thrived on this shit—organization and lists and lace. And she’d been over the moon when she’d
landed her first teaching job. This should’ve been the happiest time of her life. Was this all about
their baby trouble, or was something else happening here? Had she changed her mind? He swallowed
hard and decided that he’d been patient long enough. Time to push her into talking to him.
“I don’t buy it, Lace.”
She bit her lip and made a show of getting herself a bagel from the bag. “What don’t you buy? This
is a stressful time. It happens.” She shrugged and tore the bread in half before stuffing a hunk into her
mouth.
“Is this about the baby or is something going on about us that we need to talk about?”
She chewed for long enough that he wondered if she’d ever stop, and then she swallowed before
meeting his gaze. “I’m fine. I’d be even finer if you stopped asking me what’s wrong.”
And maybe I’d stop asking you if you didn’t have tears brimming in your eyes half the time, he
wanted to shout.
But he didn’t.
Instead, he stared at her helplessly, and she glared back, arms crossed over her chest defiantly.
Good. He could take mad a lot easier than sad. If only he believed that’s what it was instead of a
bone-deep despair that she was unwilling to share with him.
He glanced at the kitchen clock and swore under his breath. “I’ve got to call Shane and cancel. I
was supposed to help him install a bathtub today and—”
“No, go!” She cleared her throat and lowered her voice, running a hand through her hair. “Don’t
cancel. You should definitely go help him. It wouldn’t be right to bail last minute like that.”
The relief on her face at the thought of getting rid of him for a few hours made his stomach clench
again, and in spite of his instincts warning him to tread carefully and give her space, he couldn’t help
but press a little.
“Why?” He kept his eyes locked on her telltale face. “We can do it another day. I’d rather be with
you.”
I’d rather be with you too, he willed her to say. That would have been the instant reply a few
months ago. Now, it was just dead air between them, and his gut pitched so hard, he wondered if he
might be sick. Finally, she spoke.
“I’d…rather be with you too,” she swallowed hard, “but there’s still a lot to be done. I was going
to head out and pick up the groomsmen’s gifts anyway. We’ll meet up for dinner later, okay?”
The words were right this time. She even managed a strained smile when she said them. But that
long pause before she’d answered…That hesitation was killing him. Was that how things were going
to be now? She wouldn’t talk to him, she didn’t seem to want him around, and the only time they’d
slept together was when she’d been half in the bag.
What was happening to them, and how the fuck was he going to stop it?
…
“Remind me next time to ask you if you have the air conditioning hooked up before I agree to help you
with any more projects, bro,” Galen griped, taking a long pull off a sweaty bottle of water.
It was a hellish ninety degrees outside and at least five degrees hotter in the bathroom where he and
Shane were attempting to install a fancy, claw-foot tub that Cat had decided was a “must have.”
“Sure. And the next time you need me to move a sectional, make sure to tell me that it’s going to be
an all-day affair since your wife-to-be will want to see it in every imaginable position, in every
possible room of the house, before having us put it back where it was to start with.”
Galen couldn’t fault him there. That had totally happened a couple months back and the beer and
burger he’d supplied hadn’t made up for the emotional trauma.
He yanked the sweat-soaked t-shirt over his head and used it to wipe his face. “You think you’ll be
ready to move in by fall?”
Shane and Cat had picked a turn of the century fixer-upper since Cat had always wanted to live in a
haunted house and Shane had always wanted to do whatever Cat wanted.
“Hope so. I’m getting sick of driving all over town back and forth.” Shane bent low and started
piping caulk around the drain of the tub. “Plus, I think I found a dog, and we need the space. It’s a
golden retriever that lives next door to my parents. The people are getting too old to take care of him
and are looking to find him a good home. Cat is talking about pot-bellied pigs, and there’s no way
that’s going down. If I get a dog now, I’ll have squatter’s rights and she’ll back off.”
The words “back” and “off” weren’t in his sister’s vocabulary, but he let his buddy hold onto the
dream.
“Any news on the baby front?” Shane asked, looking up from his finishing work.
Galen hesitated and shook his head before taking another swallow of water. He’d considered
telling Lacey this morning about the email he’d gotten the other day, but there were still a million
things that could go wrong, and the look on her face when he’d come home from his jog had only
cemented the fact that she couldn’t take another let down. At least this time, if it didn’t work out, it
would only be his heartache.
So it was back to the waiting game. It seemed like they were always waiting for something lately.
Ovulation, a phone call, a letter, an interview. Every month, when his broken-hearted fiancée walked
out of the bathroom with that look on her face, he wanted take her away from it all. To just be like
fuck it and forget the whole thing. If he could be with her forever, he’d die a happy man. But he knew
how badly she wanted a family, and if he was being honest with himself, he’d never imagined his life
any other way. So they kept on keeping on. Even when shit got hard.
“Nothing yet. I think she’s still caught up with what happened when Katya changed her mind.”
That had been a rough one, too. So close, yet so far. It had been their first try at adopting. They felt
like the gods were smiling down on them when they were picked by a teenage mom-to-be who was
due to give birth in the spring. A week before her due date, she backed out, saying that she and the
baby’s father were getting back together and had decided to raise the child themselves. Lacey had
been inconsolable, and they had seriously considered pulling their name from the list. But in typical
delicate-on-the-outside, steel-on-the-inside Lacey fashion, she rallied and a couple weeks later, she
was back in the saddle.
Still, he could see a hairline crack in that steel that hadn’t been there before, and a part of him
wondered how many more blows she could take before she shattered. But maybe this time…
He shut off the hopeful feeling blooming in his chest and stood abruptly. “It’ll be fine. We’ll get
through it.”
“Well, we’re all pulling for you,” Shane said, and then, clearly unsure of what to say next, promptly
changed the subject to baseball.
As they talked and tossed insults at one another’s favorite teams, Galen’s thoughts went back to
Lacey. It had been so hard to leave her, but until she was willing to open up, there wasn’t much more
he could do. Maybe she was right. With only a week until the wedding, things were getting hectic.
After that, they’d have some uninterrupted time alone for their honeymoon. He pinched his eyes
closed and pictured him and Lacey, arms wrapped around each other on the beach. When he opened
them, he was resolved. She could hide her head in the sand now, but they’d find their way back to
each other in the same place they’d started. Puerto Rico.
And everything would be okay.
It had to be.
Chapter Four
The rest of the week went by in a whirlwind, with one appointment after another. Last-minute fittings
with Cat, who had designed and sewn her wedding gown, and then going over final guest lists and
seating arrangements kept Lacey busy. Exactly the right amount of busy that she didn’t have time to
think about that devastating phone call from Stella Martin or the near blowout with Galen afterward.
Much.
Except every time she laid eyes on him, she wanted to tell him. And every time they lay in bed at
night, ignoring the elephant in the room, and she opened her mouth to do it, the words froze on her
tongue. How could she break his heart just so hers didn’t have to be the only one breaking? Just a few
more days. Once they got through today and the five days in Puerto Rico for their honeymoon, she’d
tell him. She knew Galen better than she knew herself, and he wouldn’t be mad at her. He would only
be sad that he hadn’t been able to share the pain and support her. It was exactly that sweet
selflessness that made her keep her mouth shut. She was going to find a way to make this the best day
of their lives in spite of the news hanging over her.
“I forgot to ask you, how was The Admiral when you told her that you didn’t want to have the
rehearsal dinner at the yacht club?” Cat asked, shoving another bobby pin into her hair and examining
her work.
Cat’s pet name for Lacey’s mother was an apt one, and she’d responded exactly as Lacey had
expected her to. With disdain and annoyance. “About the same as she was when I told her we were
having the wedding at your parents’ lake cottage.”
Cat pulled the last of the pins from her pursed lips and let out a low whistle. “Well, she handled
herself well last night. I saw her talk to three of my relatives and none of them left crying, so that was
a bonus.”
Actually, it had gone pretty smoothly, now that she thought about it. Even the fire Rowena had spit
initially over the issue of where to have the wedding had seemed a little less passionate than usual.
Sure, there were a few half-hearted insults about the “stock” Galen came from and her friend’s
expecting better than some “crawdaddy shindig” at a “shack on a pond”, but it felt a little phoned in.
Maybe it was resignation, or age, or maybe she was just tired from so many daughterly
disappointments. Whatever it was, Lacey wasn’t about to complain.
Cat turned her to face the three-way mirror and smiled. “You look like a motherfucking princess.”
Lacey stared at her reflection and her eyes stung. This dress was everything her last dress hadn’t
been. The other had been quiet, tasteful and sophisticated, just like her mother had wanted. This was
celebration. The silvery-white lace fit her like a glove to the waist where a baby-blue sash sat, tied
into a neat bow in back before the whole thing exploded into a princess ball gown with wads of tulle
and sparkle. It was fabulous.
“You are the best friend anyone could ever ask for,” she whispered.
Cat sniffed suspiciously and turned away, muttering about allergies, which made Lacey smile. Cat
had always been the tough one. The one she could count on to hold her up when she was falling.
“We didn’t get picked.”
The words were out before she could stop them, and Cat straightened, the question plain on her
face.
“For the baby. The girl Sarah we interviewed with.” She swallowed the lump in her throat and
pressed on. “She picked another family.”
“I’m so sorry, honey.” Cat held out her arms and Lacey stepped into them, letting her friend’s hug
warm her from the inside out. It was such a relief to say the words out loud. Like maybe she could
start to get past the disappointment now that she’d acknowledged it.
“So what now?” Cat asked, plucking a tissue from the coffee table and handing it to Lacey.
“Now I don’t know. I haven’t told your brother yet. I want to wait until after the honeymoon.” She
dabbed at her eyes and forced a smile. “He’s going to say he’s fine because he won’t want me to feel
worse, but it’s weighing on him, too, all this stuff.”
Cat nodded. “I get that, and I don’t blame you for wanting to keep it quiet for a few more days, but
don’t wait too long.”
“I won’t. I just want him to enjoy this week without worrying about me.”
“Okay.” Cat gave her a reassuring smile. “Now let’s get this show on the road. Fifteen minutes.”
Cat hit her with one last blast of hairspray and slid the sheer veil over her face. “Yep. Perfect.”
The two stood back and admired their handiwork, and Cat motioned for Lacey to spin in a circle.
She must have passed muster because her friend’s eyes filled with tears.
“Lace, seriously, you look—”
A sharp knock sounded at the door. “Come in,” Lacey called.
“Unless you’re Galen,” Cat yelled, dashing her hand across her eyes.
The door swung open and The Admiral swept into the room. She looked fabulous. Her white-
blonde hair was in a looser coif than the one she usually wore, and her ultra-slim, ramrod straight
frame was accentuated by a fitted cream-colored suit that fit her like it had been sewn on by a team of
captive birds. Too bad her face was far more wicked-stepsister than Cinderella.
“Mary Catherine, give me a moment alone with my daughter.”
Rowena didn’t wait for a response in spite of the fact that they were in Cat’s parents’ house and she
was the one intruding. She just crossed the room and stood next to her daughter, waiting for her friend
to leave. Cat’s face went flush, but she nodded and pasted on a smile that was more a baring of teeth.
“Absolutely, ma’am.”
Lacey gave her a grateful smile. “I’ll be out in a few minutes. Can you make sure Uncle Roscoe
didn’t start eating the wedding cake?”
“Yeah, sure thing,” Cat said, and headed out.
“You look very nice today,” her mother said stiffly.
High praise. It was a shock she managed to hold in her tears at this Hallmark moment. “Thanks,
Mother.”
“I wanted to speak with you about something, if you’ll permit me a minute or two.”
Her wedding was scheduled to start down on the dock by the lake in fifteen minutes, but since her
mother had made the effort, she wasn’t about to cut her off.
“Sure, what is it?”
“I just wanted you to know that…” She twisted her hands together in a nervous gesture that almost
made Lacey feel sorry for her. She’d never seen her mother so ill at ease. Scratch that. She was never
at ease. She was typically locked up tighter than Fort Knox, but she looked so anxious and out of her
element. “I know I was never good at it. I’m fully aware of that, you know.”
“What are we talking about here, Mother?” Lacey asked carefully. She gently took Rowena’s arm
and led her to a small velvet settee in the corner, where she sank down gracefully and crossed her
legs. Lacey pushed the bulky dress to one side and sat across from her.
“Parenting. Motherhood. I sucked at it.” She let out a short, bitter laugh. “I remember the day I
brought you home. You cried, and I gave you a bottle of formula. Once you finished eating, I burped
you. Would you believe that was what I was good at? You let out a belch that shook the walls.” Her
steely gray eyes shimmered with tears and Lacey felt the same filling her own. Her mother. The
Admiral. Crying?
“My first thought was, ‘Look at me. A natural. I’m succeeding at this, like I do at everything else.’
And then you started to scream.” Her lip curled in distaste, and Lacey’s tears dried. “You squalled
for three straight months, and I swear, I thought I would go crazy. Your father took over, and he was
so good at it. He never got angry or upset. He just walked you around in circles, for hours some
nights, until you stopped. I didn’t have the patience for it. I knew then that I’d made a mistake.”
Shocking that after all these years of subtle—and not so subtle—jabs that they could still hurt, but
damn it, they did. Lacey shifted in her seat and tried instead to picture Galen’s face when he saw her.
He’d be so happy, and they would exchange their vows, and they would—
“Not for having you. But for thinking I’d know what to do with you.” Her mother leaned forward
and reached out to take her hand. Lacey pulled away instinctively. All her life, whenever she’d gone
to Rowena for comfort when she was hurt or sad, her mother invariably drew back. Any contact was
incidental or forced when they were in public. This time, though, Rowena held firm.
“I want to apologize to you.”
Lacey stared at her mother, her brain buzzing a thousand miles a minute. Apologize? Apparently it
would be a day of firsts. Unless of course this was a typical backhanded insult thinly veiled by the
“apology.”
“I failed you. I made a choice to have you; you never chose me. And I failed you.” Her slim fingers
crushed Lacey’s and her thin upper lip trembled. “I would do just about anything to fix it. The part
that’s broken in me. But it’s too late for that. You’re grown now, and I was too stubborn to change
when it would have mattered for you.”
Lacey wanted to say something. To tell her that it still mattered. That it would always matter. If she
could have some kind of relationship with her mother, it would fill a huge hole that had been present
in her life for so long. But she couldn’t say the words. Maybe Rowena was right. Maybe it was too
late. She stayed silent, and her mother’s sad but accepting gaze flickered away from her own.
“I have to live with that. And frankly, that’s not why I wanted to speak with you. I just wanted to
tell you on your wedding day that I’m proud of you. And that you’re nothing like me. If you decide that
you want to be a mother one day, I didn’t want me to be the reason you didn’t do it. I didn’t want you
to look at me, and our relationship, and promise yourself you would never…” She paused and cleared
her throat before she continued. “That you would never do that to a child, you needn’t worry. You
don’t have it in you. You’re loving and sweet and selfless, just like your father.” She squeezed
Lacey’s hand again and then rose. “I know deep in my tiny old heart that you will be a wonderful wife
and an even better mother. And if you give me half the chance, I think I could whip myself into good
enough shape to be a half-way passing grandmother, as well.”
Lacey kept her gaze locked on the gleaming pine floor, afraid if she looked up, she might burst into
tears and undo two hours of makeup and hair.
“I’ll let myself out. And you fix your rouge and maybe reconsider that garish shade of lip gloss,
hmmm?”
With that, Rowena strode from the room and closed the door behind her. Lacey stayed seated for a
long time, replaying the world’s weirdest mother-daughter wedding speech of all time in her head.
She’d never confided in her mother about her problems conceiving or even that she and Galen wanted
to start a family right away. They didn’t have that kind of relationship, and her mother would have
been horrified if she’d known that Lacey’s fertility issues meant that time was of the essence, and
they’d had to start trying before they even got married. So to have her come forward now and give her
blessing for a baby that Lacey might never be able to have, after being so vocal about her disapproval
of…well, everything else in her life, it was bittersweet. In baseball terms, it was much more like
hitting a single than a grand slam, but compared to where they’d started, she’d take it. Maybe, in the
years to come, they could build on this small but seemingly heartfelt attempt at connecting and make
something worth having one day. Lacey sniffed and patted a tissue on the corners of her eyes.
Ironic, though, that it only added to the feeling that today, on what should be the happiest day of her
life, she was a total failure. She was failing Galen. Now, she was even failing her mother.
All the emotions she’d managed to keep in bubbled to the surface, and she sobbed like her heart
was breaking.
…
Galen stood with Shane by his side, staring impatiently at the pathway, shifting from foot to foot. The
wedding march had been playing for longer than he’d expected, and frankly, he was getting a little
nervous.
Then, there she was. His beautiful bride wrapped in white lace, on her father’s arm, weaving their
way toward where he stood on the dock. The crowd turned in their little white chairs, whispering and
snapping pictures. It was a surreal moment for him as he met her bourbon colored eyes through her
veil. She was still fifteen feet away, and he wanted to run over, scoop her up, and carry her the rest of
the distance because he literally couldn’t wait to slip that ring on her finger. She was his. He was
hers.
He’d taken a dozen blows to the face from Manny Hermosa in a heavyweight title fight and hadn’t
shed a tear, but now, his eyes burned and his vision went a little blurry. Lacey Garrity had laid him
down for the count, and he loved her like crazy.
Finally, she was standing there, staring up at him, and his whole world felt right. Her father
released her arm and took his seat, and Galen took her hand in his. The minister spoke.
“Dearly beloved…”
The sun was shining, the birds were singing, and all he could think of was the crumpled piece of
paper in his pocket. He hoped he’d managed to get it right.
“Lacey would like to say something to you, Galen.”
He squeezed her hand and let it go so she could get her piece of paper, but she didn’t have one.
Instead, she met his eyes through the thin, transparent veil.
“Galen, before I met you, I was afraid. All the time, of everything. I didn’t want to run because I
was afraid to fall. I didn’t want to reach for my dreams because I was afraid to fail. I didn’t want to
fall in love because I was afraid to get hurt. And then there was you. And you pushed me to do all
things I was scared to do. And when I fell, you were there to pick me up. And when I went for my
dreams, you supported me and cheered me on.” She gripped his hand tightly and her voice went thick.
“You are my rock and my roll. My safety net and my high wire. I love you now and will love you
forever, with all of my heart.”
Her words rocked him back on his heels, and he had to swallow the lump in his throat before he
could even look at her again. He hadn’t realized how badly he’d needed to hear those words after the
past few months. It was like being woken up from a bad dream.
“Galen?” The minister said, urging him to begin with a gentle smile.
He cleared his throat and pulled out the vows he’d written, not surprised at all to see his hands
were shaking. “When I was a little boy, all I ever wanted was this set of walkie talkies that Micky
Adler had. They were black and silver, with all these cool buttons, and they were huge, like two
bricks. You’d hold them to your ear and sometimes they were even clear enough that you could hear
what the other person was saying. I dreamt about them. I thought about them every waking second.
And, after six months of hard wishing, my mom and dad bought them for me for Christmas. It was the
happiest day of my life. Until now.”
There were some chuckles, but Lacey’s eyes filled with unshed tears that made his heart kick.
“Lacey, you are everything I’ve ever dreamed of and everything I was too stupid to even dream of.”
Her cold hand gripped his tighter, and he gave it a re-assuring squeeze. “I still can’t believe I got you.
It’s better than Christmas. Better than New Year’s, or my birthday. It’s a wish come true. I can’t wait
to see our lives unfold together. To watch our children, the ones we make or the ones we’re honored
enough to choose, grow and learn. To—”
Lacey’s lips quivered, her smile crumpled, and his world shook. “I- I can’t do this,” she
whispered, a wild light in her eyes. And then…she ran.
He stared after her for a long moment, dumbfounded. What the fuck had just happened?
“Not again,” Lacey’s Aunt Charise muttered.
Cat silenced her with a death stare before stepping up to the altar. Lucky thing, because Galen was
frozen to the spot and his brain was melting down. What did she mean, she couldn’t?
“Ladies and gentleman,” his sister said smoothly, taking his arm and leading him off the dock.
“Please help yourself to more hors d’oeuvres in the tents behind you while Galen and his bride have a
little chat. I’m sure you all agree, this heat can make you say some crazy things, am I right?”
The guests mumbled to each other and seemed at a loss but eventually stood and picked their way
over to the tents.
“Go get her,” Cat hissed.
He nodded, on autopilot, and started toward the house. He’d hoped his reassurance that they would
have a family, come hell or high water, would have made her feel better, but clearly that wasn’t the
case. What if she’d left for real? What if she really didn’t want to marry him anymore? His stomach
turned, and he shoved the idea away, focusing instead on the ground in front of him. The smooth, worn
wooden path leading to the light blue saltbox he’d spent most of his summers in.
Summers with Lacey.
Jesus, what would he do without her?
He pushed open the door to his parent’s cottage and made his way up the steps, praying with every
one that she was there. That she was waiting to talk to him and hadn’t taken off for good. The
bathroom door was closed, and the sight made his whole body shake with relief. They always left it
open, so someone was in there.
He approached the door, fist extended to knock, when he heard it. His beautiful wife-to-be, crying.
Not a good, “I’m emotional because I’m getting married” kind of cry. This was heartbreak, and his
stomach clenched just hearing it. His first instinct was to kick the fucking door open and put whoever
was responsible flat on their back, but he stopped himself at the last second. Clearly it was him.
That’s why she’d run away. But surely the fact that she stayed meant something?
He swallowed the bile that burned his throat and replayed the last few days in his head. What had
he done to hurt her so badly? She’d been pretty distant, but damn it, he’d tried. Maybe he hadn’t tried
hard enough.
Maybe giving her space had made her think he didn’t care? God, they were partners, and he’d
failed her before they even made it official. Maybe she was afraid that was a bad omen for the rest of
their lives together.
He raised his fist and knocked on the door.
A hiccup, the honking of a blown nose, and then a soft voice. “Who is it?”
Heart in his throat, he responded. “It’s me.”
The long pause was like a rabbit punch to the kidney. Jesus, she didn’t even want to talk to him
now?
“You’re not supposed to see me without my veil until we’re married, and I lost it on the path
somewhere.”
He sucked in a steadying breath as fresh hope came rushing in from all sides. If she actually
planned on not going through with the wedding, it wouldn’t matter whether he saw her with her veil or
not. He’d take that as a positive sign.
“So take off your dress, too. Then I won’t see the whole thing together.”
She let out a short, watery laugh and footsteps sounded. “It’s not as easy as you might think.”
She was close now, and he imagined her face pressed to the door. He laid a hand on it, wishing he
could touch her. Hold her. Make her feel better. “I’ll close my eyes and help. If I recall, this wouldn’t
be my first time helping you out of a wedding dress, babe.”
Had it been a year and a half ago the day she’d found Marty banging her friend in the linen closet of
their reception hall and he threw her onto the back of his bike to escape? She’d been so hurt and lost.
“And if I recall, that dress ended up in pieces,” she reminded him, her voice going soft.
“Come on. You can’t blame me for that. There were two thousand buttons the size of peas and I
have these giant mitts that are perfect for busting jaws but not so much for unbuttoning wedding
dresses.” If he could keep her talking and make his way into the room, they could work this out. There
was nothing they couldn’t beat together.
“Exactly why you’re not helping me with this one.”
He could hear her breathing just on the other side of the door, so he knew she didn’t want him to
leave yet, but she was firm about the wedding dress and veil deal.
“How about I promise to keep my eyes closed?”
She stayed quiet for a while and then blew out a breath. “Okay, but if you look, you’re cursing our
marriage to certain doom. Do you understand me?”
Well shit, no pressure there. “Yep, got it.”
He closed his eyes and heard the door open.
“Come on.” She took his hand, and he flinched. Hers was ice cold. So maybe this was just a case of
nerves? Sweet Jesus he hoped so. That would be the easiest thing to deal with. A few shots of Jack
Daniels and some encouragement, and they’d be on their way. No matter what, he couldn’t imagine
leaving this place without her.
She led him down the stairs, and he resisted the natural instinct to open his eyes to watch her ass
sway. It was tough to fight years of conditioning, but he kept reminding himself how important it was
to her that he not see her.
“Sit down,” she instructed.
He felt around behind him with his foot and lowered himself onto the small couch. A second later,
she was climbing into his lap and burying her face in his neck. Yes. He breathed in the fresh scent of
her and squeezed her even closer. They were crazy about each other. What could possibly trump that?
There was nothing so bad that they couldn’t get through it.
“Talk to me, babe.”
She shifted and lifted her head, her dress crinkling as she moved. “What if I can’t do it, Galen?”
“Marry me?”
“No, dummy. I mean have a baby. What if,” she paused, and swallowed loud enough that he could
hear it in the silence of the room. “What if my body can never do it? It’s been months and months of
trying, fertility treatments. Already, it’s taking a toll on our relationship. Our sex life took a major hit;
I’ve been depressed and feel like a failure every month. My cycle is just getting more and more
sporadic.”
She tucked in closer, and her voice dropped to a miserable whisper. “What if I’m broken, and no
matter what we do, I can’t get fixed?”
“We have the adoption agency working for us. We already have one possible—”
“They called.” The words sounded like they were torn out of her, and he froze.
“Who called?”
“The agency. Sarah picked another family.”
The words punctured his gut, and he sucked in a breath. “Okay.” He had a million questions. When?
Why? And why hadn’t she told him so they could face it together? But now, none of that mattered. He
pushed back his sadness and focused on not fucking this up even worse.
If things worked out the way he hoped…
But he couldn’t count on that. Not yet. So he’d have to just speak from the heart and hope it was
enough. “I know that breaks your heart, and mine, too, but it’s going to be okay. You’re everything
I’ve ever wanted in a woman. Everything. I know how badly you want a house full of kids, and I want
more than anything to give you that. I’m going to give you that, one way or another. But if we never
had kids? I swear to God, Lacey, all I need to be happy is you. That’s it.”
He could feel the hot tears soaking his shirt, and he cursed himself for making the promise not to
look at her.
“You say that now. But what about later? What if it’s harder than you think? What if nobody ever
picks us? Are you going to resent me? Or regret marrying me? In your vows, you said—”
Her voice still shook, and she paused on a sob. He wanted to tear the walls down. How had he
gone so wrong?
“I didn’t get to finish my vows before you ran away. Yes, I talked about wanting a house full of
love and children. I still want that. I know you do, too, and I’d move heaven and earth to make you
happy. But if it takes a decade, I will still spend every day of that thanking god that I have you.
Nothing will ever change that. I have faith in us. Now you need to have faith in us, too.”
She kissed the corner of his mouth, then dead center. The salt of her tears still made him want to
break stuff, but he felt calmer. More focused. It was going to be okay. As long as she still loved him,
they would be okay.
She pulled away and sniffled. “Okay. Okay, I believe you. And I’m sorry to be such a drama queen.
It’s just, the call and then stress and the nerves. But I love you, and I feel the same way you do. We’ll
get through this, whatever happens.” She kissed him once more and patted his shoulder. “I love you so
much, and I’m sorry I ruined our day.”
“It’s okay.” She slid off his lap, and he pushed himself to his feet, careful to keep his eyes squeezed
shut. “I think it’s kind of our thing now, ruining weddings. Let’s just own it.”
She turned him to face the other way and gave him a little shove. “Okay. My mother is going to have
a field day, though. Now go figure out how to dry off your shirt. And wipe your mouth, too.
Apparently that shade of lip gloss is pretty ugly. I’ll meet you at the altar.”
She led him back to the door, and to his relief, her hand was warm and soft in his. Everything was
going to be okay, for today at least. And maybe, if his plans came through the way he hoped they
would, everything would be even better soon…
…
The next half hour went by in a blur. There was a mopping and repairing of the face conducted by Cat
and Courtney, the locating of a slightly muddy veil, and then a march down the stairs, followed by a
far more terrifying second one down the aisle. And once again, Lacey stood in front of the minister,
holding her bouquet of flowers in a death grip. If roses produced juice, she could have provided their
wedding party with some refreshing beverages by now.
The blood buzzed in her ears as Galen turned to face her and Cat stuffed a ring into her hand. This
must be it. She cleared her throat and waited for her cue. The officiant mumbled something, but the
next words stood out loud and clear. She was both surprised and grateful at the feeling of total calm
that fell over her.
It didn’t matter what else was wrong; this much she knew was right. They’d deal with whatever
came next together. If that meant them giving up on the dream of having a baby, then so be it. Her heart
gave a painful squeeze at the thought, but she shoved it away. The love of her life had something to
say to her.
“I, Galen, take you, Lacey.” Galen’s gorgeous brown eyes gleamed suspiciously as he spoke, and
the glow that had started as a tiny ember in her heart spread outward. She didn’t take her eyes off him
until he slid the circle of gold onto her finger.
Now her turn.
“To be my lawfully wedded husband. To have and to hold, from this day forward, for better, for
worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and cherish till death do us part.” She
repeated the words, completing the ritual. And when she slid the ring on his finger, the guests erupted
into cheers.
“I now pronounce you husband and wife. You may kiss the bride.”
Galen tugged her close and bent low, lifting her veil. He kissed one corner of her mouth, then the
other, before kissing her full on the lips. “I love you, Mrs. Thomas,” he said with a grin. He scooped
her up into his arms, and she let out a squeal.
“You’re not supposed to carry me yet!”
“I’m your husband now. I can carry you if I want to.”
She was pretty sure that hadn’t been part of their vows, but she wasn’t about to argue. He cut
through the crowd, who wolf-whistled and only encouraged him, and carried her into the center tent,
to set her on the dance floor.
The beginning of their wedding song began to play, and she wrapped her arms around his neck.
They danced, bodies swaying together in perfect rhythm, and everything felt so easy. It wouldn’t
always be that way, but for tonight, it was enough.
After dinner and a lovely champagne toast delivered by Shane, everyone got a little loose. She and
Galen were grinding on the dance floor when the DJ called her over to a chair in the center.
“Mrs. Thomas, I think you know what time it is.”
She was a little buzzed and made to look at her watch. With a sad sigh, she realized that it was
almost over.
“Time for the bouquet and for that garter belt to come off!”
She’d forgotten all about that. The DJ called for all the single ladies to come on stage, and Cat and
Courtney wound up in front. Lacey eyed them and estimated the angle she’d have to throw the bouquet
to get it straight to Cat, and then she spun around. The crowd cheered, and she let it rip. She turned
around just in time to see Cat slip on a napkin and Courtney reach up a hand instinctively to avoid
taking a bouquet straight to the face.
Cat righted herself and busted out laughing at the horror on Courtney’s face.
“Aw, honey, it’s just an old wives tale. You’ll be fine.”
Courtney nodded, looking dazed.
Next it was up to Galen to get the garter. He led Lacey to the chair of honor. She peered down at
her husband, who looked extremely pleased to be kneeling between her legs, and grinned. “I put it up
high, handsome, so you might be there for a while.”
His smile in return was ripe with promise, and a little shiver went through her. “Man’s gotta do
what a man’s gotta do.”
And boy, did he. He slid his hands slowly, excruciatingly over her ankles and then higher to trace
the muscles of her calves.
“You know there’s only one, right?” she asked breathlessly.
“How would I know that unless I checked?”
Their guests started hooting and screaming and by the time he’d retrieved his prize, Lacey had
broken out in a fine sweat. He bent low and pressed a kiss to the inside of her knee. “I think we need
more of these,” he murmured, and then stood, twirling the blue garter on his finger.
“Single guys, front and center,” he called. The men lined up, and when he tossed it over his
shoulder, it was headed straight for Shane. Then, a hand shot out and snagged it from mid-air. Lacey
gasped as Rafe held his prize aloft. She shot a glance at Courtney, who looked like she’d been gut-
punched. She wet her lips nervously and seemed to be considering whether to back out or not when
Rafe turned toward her with a mocking smile.
“Ready for me, Court?” he asked. He didn’t wait for an answer and instead walked toward her.
Walked? Hell, he stalked, like a lion approaching his prey. Even Galen was impressed.
“Damn, is he going to put the garter on her or eat her?”
Lacey shrugged. “Maybe both, if she’s lucky,” she whispered. Her husband chuckled and pulled her
closer to settle in and enjoy the show.
By the end of the night, Lacey’s face hurt from smiling. They’d waved goodbye to their friends and
family and climbed into their limo. In less than two hours, they’d be on their way to Puerto Rico. Five
days of sun. Five days of fun.
Five days of breaking away from the reality that they were still no closer to having a baby than
they’d been almost a year ago.
Chapter Five
Lacey opened her eyes as the cool breeze tickled her cheeks. God, she loved it here. They’d been in
San Juan for four days now, and she’d never been happier. The first time they’d gone, a year before,
they’d met another couple on their trip. They’d gone back to their villa, and during a Three’s
Company style misunderstanding, she and Galen had been propositioned by them to engage in some
down and dirty partner swapping. So when their car on this trip had pulled up to the same Grotto
Villa that couple had stayed in, Lacey about had a heart attack.
Galen laughed his ass off when he realized her first thought was that he’d changed his mind and
wanted to take them up on it. Come to find out, he’d rented the villa because they’d had their first kiss
in the grotto-style pool. How romantic was that?
She let out a happy sigh and rolled to the side to plant one on her brand spanking new husband. The
only sign he’d ever been there was the dent in his pillow, though. She pushed herself onto one elbow
and listened closely. Waves lapping against the sand outside her window? Check. Low hum of the
ceiling fan? Check. Hot man in shower? She strained hard to hear it, but nope. She hopped off the bed
onto the warm, terracotta tiles and padded out of the room into the main part of the house. By the time
she reached the lanai, she could hear it. The low male voice singing what sounded like a Katy Perry
song.
She closed the door gently behind her, maximum stealth engaged. He kept on singing, so she was
pretty sure she was in the clear.
She pulled the baby-doll nightgown she’d donned when they arrived over her head and tossed it
onto one of the lounge chairs before padding across the cobblestones to the pool on her tiptoes. She
found herself staring at the backside of a tan, buff, sexy, and mostly naked man standing under one of
the manmade waterfalls. His broad shoulders tapered down to a lean waist that he’d maintained even
after he’d retired from boxing. The thickly corded muscles that ran down the sides of his back were
still lean and strong from hours at the gym. She slipped into the water, wading toward him, closer and
closer. Her tongue stuck to the roof of her mouth as she reached out a hand to—
“You’re really taking your time about it, aren’t you?” He growled and turned to face her. Either
he’d woken up with morning wood or he’d known she was there the whole time because his shaft was
stiff and at the ready. She stepped up onto the ledge next to him and he moved closer, crowding her
until her back was against the rock face.
“You think you’re pretty sneaky, huh?” he asked, stepping to one side so that the cool water sprayed
the front of her body. She gasped as the rush battered her hard nipples.
“I love that. So sensitive,” he whispered, dipping his head to suck one pebbled tip into his mouth.
She tensed and clutched his head to her, shocked that she could want him…need him so quickly. If he
lifted her up right now, spread her legs and slid deep inside her, she would have been more than
ready.
He released her nipple with a soft pop and nuzzled her. “I bet you thought you’d come out here and
land yourself a quickie, didn’t you, Mrs. Thomas?” he whispered.
She wanted to answer him, but he stole the words from her mouth when he cupped her center with
his hand and slid a finger into her in one sure move.
“Ah, yeah,” he groaned in approval. “I think that is what you wanted. But guess what, babe?”
She didn’t want to guess. She wanted to—
“It’s not going down like that this time.”
He dropped a kiss to her shoulder blade, then to the crease between her breasts, then lower. One on
each rib, one over her navel, then one on each hip. He stopped there and let his teeth sink in just how
she liked it. She gasped.
“Mm,” she murmured, slipping her hands into his hair and pressing him closer. He wrapped his
strong arms around her thighs and murmured her name.
“Come with me,” he demanded. His tone sent a thrill straight to her core. As sweet as he could be,
once the clothes were off, her man had no qualms about taking the reins. She had to admit, she liked it.
He stepped down into the water to his waist and took her with him. He cradled her to his chest and
lazily walked them to a wide, flat sunning rock in the center of the pool then lifted her with ease onto
the warm, flat stone.
She laid back, letting her knees fall open.
“Jesus, you’re beautiful.”
She pushed back the nerves that still made a quick appearance now and then, and opened her eyes
to watch him. His jaw was tense as he stared down at her like he wanted to consume her. The heat of
the smooth rock seeped into her muscles, making her feel relaxed and languid.
He leaned in to flick his tongue out, tasting the knot of nerves that pulsed to the touch.
She gasped. One light touch, and languid flew out the window. She strained toward to him,
desperate to get more of his magic mouth.
“I love watching you squirm like that, so if you’re trying to rush me, you’re doing it all wrong,” he
drawled.
In spite of his tough words, she could hear the tightness in his voice, and she knew with just a little
more effort…she wriggled her hips and whispered the word he loved to hear.
“Please.”
With a growl, he pounced on her. His fingers gripped her hips as his hot tongue lashed at her. She
wrapped her legs around his neck, squeezing his face with her thighs and urging him on. This was
exactly what she needed. Puerto Rico. Sun. Water. Her man. A week to lose herself and remember
exactly how good it all was, baby or no. A lifetime of Galen was no hardship.
He sucked her clit into his mouth and bathed it with the tip of his tongue until she was pleading
wordlessly for mercy. Just a little faster. Just a little harder.
“Oh God.”
He lifted her, kneading her against his face until the pressure became too much to bear, and she
shouted his name. Her whole body flexed and bowed. Her legs shook with the force of it as she came
hard against his mouth. He held her close until she stopped shaking, murmuring praise against her hip
as he set her back against the rock. Her breath slowed, and she waited for him to come up there with
her. To slide deep inside her and start the storm all over again.
“Whatcha waiting for, Mr. Thomas?” She asked when she could form a sentence.
She ran a lazy hand across his broad, tanned shoulders.
He climbed onto the rock, peppering her warm skin with cooler water. “I was trying to give you a
second to prepare for this.”
He lay on top of her, covering her sun-warmed body with his chilly one, and she squealed. “Off!
Off! I give!”
He laughed and rolled to his side, pulling her on top of him. “Forget it now. You asked for it.” She
straddled him and sat back on her heels, glaring down at him.
“I was a little brain dead and didn’t think it through. You could’ve warned me.” Already, though,
her body was warming his, and the urge to toss him back into the water was fading fast. He ground his
bathing suit-clad groin against her, and she flexed back as the tingles started flowing again
“Seems like you’ve got something for me, husband,” she whispered. He treated her to a lethal grin
and reached between them, tugging down the front of his shorts. His cock sprang forward, hard, thick
and ready.
“Mmm.” She cupped his balls in her hand and squeezed, a sizzle running through her when he
groaned.
The stone was rough against her knees as she rose high to take him in, but the sting was fleeting. She
slid down over him, relishing every inch as he filled her. She rocked forward, seating him deeper,
and he pulsed his hips to meet her.
“God, that feels good.” It was slow at first. The edge was off, and she wanted to enjoy every thrust
—the pulsing inside her, the catch of his breath when she rolled her hips just right. But then he
reached up and cupped her breast, tweaking her nipples between his thumb and forefinger, taking
control, moving his hips faster and faster. Then it was all heat and need as she slammed down on him.
“That’s it,” he said through gritted teeth. “Take what you want, babe.” He released her breasts to
grip her hips and used them to work her over him, the pace almost punishing. But he knew, because
then there it was. Right there. She arched into him, the feel of his swollen cock taking her over the
edge, sending her body clenching and pulling at him as she came.
“Fuck,” he grunted, and exploded right behind her, the hot spurts of liquid filling her.
When she finally got her breath back, she pulled in closer and burrowed into her spot in the crook
of his shoulder. Absently, she caressed the firm muscles of his abs, relishing the heat and play of
muscles even now. She loved this man. There were thousands, no, millions of people who didn’t even
have that. The love of a good man. She needed to stop dwelling on the things she didn’t have and start
focusing on the positive.
“I love you, Galen.”
He shifted and trailed his thumb over her collarbone before responding. “I love you, too, babe. And
there’s something I want to give you.”
She slid away, and he led her back through the grotto pool and onto the lanai where he wrapped her
in a fluffy white towel.
“Wait here.”
She sat on one of the cushioned chairs, soaking in the warmth of the sun and the scent of the hibiscus
flowers.
She was so relieved that, even after her flip out, they were okay. Maybe it was better to just leave it
at that, skip all the horrible ups and downs, and just get off the roller coaster for a while. Every day
the phone didn’t ring, she felt a little more hopeless. Maybe it was time to just focus on her and
Galen, and some day, if they were meant to be parents, it would happen on its own.
Galen came out onto the lanai with a box in his hand. His half-naked body rendered her speechless
for a second. Thick-cut muscles covered long, loose limbs, and he looked like a frigging statue. No
matter how many times she’d seen him, no matter how many times she’d touched, kissed, bit, or licked
him, she’d never get used to it.
She flopped back against the chair and sighed.
“I want to talk to you about something.” He pulled a chair up close to hers.
His tone was so solemn she instantly stiffened. “It sounds serious.”
“It is,” he said with a nod. His jaw was tense, and she wondered if maybe he’d been thinking the
same thing she had. Taking some time away from starting a family? The thought made her inexplicably
sad.
“I did something. Without talking to you. If it was a mistake, I apologize, but I want you to know I
had you on my mind the whole time.”
Lacey drew back like she’d been slapped, and a chunk of ice wedged its way into her chest. Why
did that sound like a betrayal? “Y-you didn’t cheat on me, did you?” she whispered, shock and denial
warring for center stage.
His eyes widened, and he shook his head furiously. “Jesus, no. I would never do that, Lace. No.”
He ran an exasperated hand through his hair. “I keep screwing things up and saying things wrong
lately. It’s not that, though. Never that.” He slid on the shorts and sat on the floor next to her.
The ice started to dissolve, but her whole body was still tense, on high alert.
“What, then?”
He held out the wrapped box. The happy peach- and green-striped paper didn’t seem like it carried
bad news, and she stared at it. “What’s that?” she asked slowly, confusion clouding her already
overloaded brain. They needed to have a serious talk, and he was giving her a present?
“I want you to open it first.”
She wrapped the towel more tightly around her body and took the rectangular package from his
hands. It was heavier than she expected, and she resisted the urge to shake it. Usually, when he gave
her a gift, she weighed it, turned it this way and that, and tried to guess the contents. It drove him nuts.
But not this time. His heart was all over his face, and she knew whatever it was, it was no time for
teasing.
She tore the paper away and crumpled it into a ball before looking down at a plain brown box.
“Go ahead,” he urged.
Why did she get the feeling that, once she lifted the lid, everything was going to change? She
hesitated, and felt his body stiffen. Like a Band-Aid, she counseled herself silently, and yanked the top
off the box.
A photo album sat inside, a picture of the two of them behind a plastic sleeve right on the leather
cover. Okay, so that wasn’t so bad. It was actually really sweet and—
“Take it out and open it.”
She pulled the album out and set it on her lap. The first few pages were loaded with pictures of
them as kids. Cat was in some of them; some were of them in school plays or on Thomas family
vacations. The later ones were of her and Galen. Their first day as a live-in couple, pictures from
their last visit to Puerto Rico. It was a history of them. She was already welling up when she turned to
the last page, blown away by the thoughtfulness of his gift. There, a photo of a baby stared back at her.
She squinted hard, trying to determine who that was. Not her. She’d never had black hair like that.
And her cheeks had never been so round and perfect. Not him either. At about three months old, the
face was already too feminine to be a boy. Who then?
“I don’t—”
“That’s Melina,” he said softly. “Katya’s baby.”
Emotions swamped her, and she reached a shaking finger out to trace her face. She’d wondered—
for the past few months, she’d so wanted to know what the baby that had almost been theirs looked
like. And here she was. So beautiful, so perfect, it was like the wound was torn open all over again.
Tears clogged her throat, and she shook her head furiously. “I know you thought this would be nice, so
we could at least see her, but I can’t—”
“She’s ours, Lace.”
The words battered at her broken heart, but she couldn’t process them. “She’s not. Katya changed
her mind and—”
“They called a new agency three weeks ago to start the process again and asked for us by name.
Apparently her boyfriend is back in jail, and Katya wants to move back to Budapest to marry her high
school sweetheart. She doesn’t want to take the baby with her. I didn’t want to tell you until it was a
sure thing. I couldn’t put you through that. But I got the call this morning. It’s a done deal. If we still
want her, she’s ours. We can get her on Friday.” His strong throat worked, and he paused. “Tell me
you still want her, babe. Because that face is fucking killing me.” He stared down at Melina’s picture
and traced the shape of her chubby little lips. “I feel like she’s already mine.”
The feelings inside her couldn’t be contained. Tears streamed down her face unchecked. She set the
book carefully to the side and launched herself at her husband.
“Yes, I still want her!” She was elated, excited, and terrified all at the same time, and her mind was
moving so fast, she couldn’t keep up. What if something fell through? What if it was all snatched away
again?
Galen squeezed her tight, and her fears fell away, leaving nothing but pure hope and happiness
behind. She wasn’t alone, and whatever happened from here on out, they’d face it together. He was so
strong, and now, so was she. But together?
They were unstoppable.
Wrapping her arms tightly around her husband, she held him close. She would love this man
forever, through thick and thin, and couldn’t wait to spend the rest of her life showing him how much.
Acknowledgments
As always, thanks my editor Kerri-Leigh Grady for being an all around ninja bad-ass. I shudder to
think of what my books would look like without you. XOXO
And to Allison Gatta, for all of your hard work on this book as well as the much-needed estrogen
you bring to the sausagefest that is our house. <3 you.
About the Author
Christine Bell is one half of the happiest couple in the world. She and her handsome hubby currently
reside in Pennsylvania with a four-pack of teenage boys and their two dogs, Gimli and Pug. If she gets
time off from her duties as maid, chef, chauffeur, or therapist, she can be found reading just about
anything she can get her hands on, from young adult novels to books on poker theory. She doesn’t like
root beer, clowns, or bugs (except ladybugs, on account of their cute outfits), but lurrves chocolate,
going to the movies, the New York Giants, and playing Texas Hold’em. Writing is her passion, but if
she had to pick another occupation, she would be a pirate…or, like, a ninja, maybe. She loves writing
fun and adventure-filled romance stories, but also hopes to one day publish something her dad can
read without wanting to dig his eyes out with rusty spoons.
Christine loves to hear from her readers and can be contacted through her website,
Find out where it all began in...
book one in Christine Bell’s Dare Me series
“Every erotic romance reader needs Down for the Count.”
- Tiffany Reisz, author of The Original Sinners series
When Lacey Garrity finds her groom in flagrante delicto in the reception hall closet with her
bridesmaid, she’s saved by her best friend’s older brother—childhood tormentor, crush, and boxing
bad boy Galen Thomas. Galen’s solution is both exciting and dangerous. What better way to forget the
mess of her life than go on her honeymoon with a hot guy who can’t promise anything beyond today?
Galen had been counting on Lacey’s wedding to put her out of reach—and out of his mind—once
and for all, but their steamy Puerto Rican escape is testing all his boundaries. Now that Lacey’s
embracing her inner bad girl, Galen is tempted to throw in the towel and claim her for himself. But
with the biggest fight of his career on the line and an important business merger threatening to derail
Lacey’s resolve, their romance might be down for the count before it even begins.
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Check out Christine’s newest release...
the first book in the Perfectly Matched series
This matchmaker’s about to meet her match…
Grace Love is lousy with men. She can spot a match for someone else a mile away, and her balls-on
instincts are why her matchmaking business is thriving, but finding her own Prince Charming? The
only guy who makes her sixth sense tingle is her playboy best friend, Trick, and no way is she risking
their friendship, no matter how hot she knows the sex will be.
SWAT officer Trick Matthews is a patient guy, but Grace’s inability to see what’s right in front of
her is grinding on his last nerve. Yeah, he blew his shot at breaking out of the friend zone when he
tamped down the urge to lick her from head to toe the day they met, but he’s got a plan that’ll change
her mind. Incognito at Salem’s hottest Halloween party, he’ll show her exactly how good they could
be…and that he’s the man for her.
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Also releasing this month...
the next book in the McCade Brothers series by bestselling author Samanthe Beck
Pretending to be in love has never felt so sexy.
USMC helicopter pilot Michael McCade has two goals: Get his damn back into alignment and keep
his nose clean until his commanding officer clears him to fly again. The doctor-recommended
massage therapy seems like a necessary step toward returning to the cockpit, but when his too-hot-to-
handle neighbor, Chloe Kincaid, turns out to be his masseuse, he strays from the straight and narrow
in a major way.
Chloe Kincaid is looking for a simple, no strings attached, ego-boosting hook up. But when her
positively panty-melting neighbor, USMC Major Michael McCade, (aka “Major Hottie”), shows up
on her massage table, she lets desire get the better of professionalism. Now they’re pretending to be
engaged to avoid a whole lot of unanticipated consequences of a momentary lapse in judgment. But
can a girl who avoids attachments at all costs fake an engagement to a straight-arrow soldier without
falling hard?
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Also releasing this month...
Wilde for Her
the second book in the Wilde Security series by romantic suspense author Tonya Burrows
Friends with benefits just got hotter.
Former homicide detective Camden Wilde has been in love with his ex-partner, Eva Cardoso, for
longer than he cares to admit. Not that it matters. She’s shoved him into the friend zone, and after
living through the hell of his parents’ violent deaths, Cam’s unable to give her the idyllic life she
secretly desires.
Eva’s never met a person who hasn’t let her down. Cam may be sex personified, but he’s the only
man she can trust, and there’s no way she’ll risk their friendship on the off-chance they could be more.
Especially not after the one scintillating night she’s trying—and failing—to forget.
When a murder-for-hire contract on his head lands Eva on his doorstep, Cam knows it’s time to put
up or shut up. He’s done biding his time, and he’ll be damned if he lets the delectable detective ignore
what’s between them, no matter the cost.
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Also releasing this month...
Game for Trouble
the next book in the Game for It series by USA TODAY bestselling author Karen Erickson
He’ll play dirty to get what he wants...
Willow Cavanaugh would be happy if she never saw cocky football star Nick Hamilton again. Sure,
their fling was the hottest she’d had, but he’s way too much of a playboy to settle down with one
woman. Plus, she’s got her heart set on a piece of real estate for her catering business—and Nick
owns that property.
Nick may be at the top of his game, but all he wants is a second chance with Willow. When he
offers to sell her his commercial space if she agrees to a series of dates with him, their chemistry is
so scintillating that jumping back into bed seems like an inevitability. But Willow’s decided all’s fair
in sex and blackmail. Little does she know, Nick’s playing to win…and she’s the prize.
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Also releasing this month…
Seducing Her Rival
the Brazen debut from multipublished author Seleste deLaney
She’s trapped with a man she hates…and can’t resist.
When cruise ship turbulence sends children’s charity guru Mercedes Vega—and her tropical cocktail
—flying into a mysterious stranger, she’s convinced her free vacation is a dream-come-true. But
Lucas Bellamy isn’t just sexy as sin and richer than God. He’s her business rival, determined to
outbid her charity for the land she desperately needs…a fact she doesn’t learn until after a night of
mind-blowing, toe-curling sex. Unwilling to give up, she formulates a plan to make the charming
playboy fall in love with her and back out of the property deal.
Lucas is drawn to Mercedes, but he won’t stand down—after all, he has promises of his own to
keep. But one scintillating night with the enigmatic brunette leads to another, and before long, it’s
unclear who’s seducing who, leaving Mercedes wondering whether the man she’s supposed to hate is
the only salvation from her past.
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Also releasing this month…
Crash into Me
the first book in the new Shaken Dirty series by bestselling author Tracy Wolff
She’s totally off-limits, but this rocker wants a taste…
Jamison Matthews has lusted after Ryder Montgomery since she was a preteen. But now that Ryder
and her brother’s band, Shaken Dirty, has made it huge, she’s just one of many pining for the brooding
lead singer. Too bad Ryder still sees her as a little sister. Not that it matters. Her brother would never
allow it, and the last thing Jamison wants is to be another notch on a rock star’s bed post. Even if it’s
Ryder’s.
Ryder doesn’t deserve happiness. After his fame destroyed his last girlfriend, he swore he’d never
fall in love again. So when Jamison, the girl he’s been in danger of loving for years, joins the band on
the road, he’ll do anything to deny the sparks between them—even after one hot night together. But
Jamison is determined to show Ryder that he’s worthy of love— her love—and that she’s all grown
up…and ready to play.
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