After Love (26 page)

He could tell this was difficult for her, and he covered her hand with his.

“I couldn't stand to see you like that. It reminded me of…of Mike. I didn't want to go through that again…so I ran.”

“That's okay. I understand,” he tried to reassure her.

“No, it's not. I picked up Harley from my friend's office and brought him home. But he was listless and didn't seem to care about anything. I realized that was exactly how I was feeling. Harley didn't want to live without you.” She met his gaze hesitantly, almost shyly. “And neither do I,” she added softly.

Nick's heart monitor started beeping faster again. “You don't know how much I wanted to hear that.”

Her expression brightened. “Oh God, really? I was so afraid you wouldn't care.”

“You know the last thought I remember going through my head before I passed out?”

“What?”

“Regret that I never told you that I love you. I know we've both sworn off love, but Jamie, you've shown me that loving someone so much that it hurts isn't a myth. The sex was fucking great, but I liked just hanging out with you, talking and laughing. When I wasn't with you, I was thinking about you, and when I
was
with you, I couldn't get enough. It's never been that way with anyone before.”

She smiled with relief. “I tried so hard not to fall in love with you. I felt like I wasn't respecting Mike's memory. But you brought me back to life. Ever since he died, I'd been moving through my days like a sleepwalker, staying busy so I wouldn't think about my loss. Then you roared in, so big and strong and full of energy. It was like I took my first deep breath in years.” Her cheeks flushed as she added, “I thought it was just because I hadn't had sex for so long, and if I slept with you, that would be enough. But it wasn't.”

He grinned. “I was willing to take what you wanted to give me.”

“It wasn't until I almost lost you forever that I realized that loving you is worth the risk,” she admitted, gently squeezing his hand. “I know your job is dangerous, and I'll never stop worrying about you every time you're not with me, but I'd rather have a few wonderful days or months or years with you than never see you again.”

He pulled her toward him, and she carefully crawled onto the bed next to him, trying not to touch any of his wounds. He was so anxious to hold her, he ignored the pain, cradling her body against his. As soon as she was close enough, his hungry lips captured hers in a deep, delicious kiss. “Hmm…even better than I remembered,” he murmured, not removing his mouth from hers.

“I've missed you so much,” she whispered. “I meant it when I said I wanted you to move in. I bought new furniture for my bedroom and repainted it a nice shade of blue. You can have it all for yourself or…”

“Darlin', I think I'm going to need round-the-clock care for”—he kissed her again—“the rest of my life.” He pushed her away just enough so he could look into her beautiful blue-green eyes. “I love you, Jamie Chambers.”

She exhaled a happy sigh. “And I love you, Nick Archer. Too bad it's going to be months before I can show you how much.”

“Luckily I'm a fast healer.” He pulled her back for another long, passionate kiss.

Harley looked up at his two favorite people in the whole world. He knew it would be a full-time job taking care of them, but he was up for it. His lips spread in a happy doggy smile. People were so easy to train.

All my life I've had a dog by my side. This book is dedicated to all of my best four-legged friends, including my two current buddies, Karma (a Yorkie) and Alex (a German shepherd whose personality is a lot like Harley's). Also, always in my heart and never to be forgotten are Kelly, Bingo, Kiwi, Holly, Tabu, Tigger, Elsa, Jake, Magic, Cricket, Tina, Blackie, and Cindy Lou. I have a plaque that says
MY GOAL IS TO BE AS WONDERFUL AS MY DOG THINKS I AM.
I try.

After Love

After Midnight

Cries in the Night

Deep Night

Due Dates

Killer Date

Worst Date Ever

Life's What Happens

Oh My God (OMG)

Be Right Back (BRB)

Believe It or Not (BION)

Rest in Peace (RIP)

K
ATHY
C
LARK
has always been a storyteller. She published her first book when she was just four years old….Okay, it was self-published (way ahead of the trend).
The Little Black Horse That Ran Away
was self-illustrated and completely sold out of its first printing (one copy to her mother).

Years later, Kathy's first official book was published by Dell. Since then she has had a total of twenty-six novels published by Random House, Dell, Crown, and Harlequin and seven novels self-published on Amazon.

Bob Wernly (Kathy's husband) came from a corporate background, which doesn't usually encourage creativity. When he and Kathy came up with the idea for a young adult series, a new team was born. Since 2012 they have written three adult romantic suspense novels in the Denver Heroes series, three new adult romantic suspense novels in the Scandals series (all under the name Kathy Clark), and four YA time travel/romance/mysteries in the See You Later (CUL8R) series (under the pen name Bob Kat). Their books have been honored with numerous awards, including Best Indie Book of the Year, Reader's Favorite, and Colorado Humanities awards.

TheThrillOfSuspense.com

@93NightWriter

Bring in the New Year with a new romance from Loveswept—all are specially written with you in mind, so I know you'll find a story that's a perfect fit.

Elisabeth Barrett returns to Briarwood, an unforgettable place where legacy and longing make dreams come true, in
The Best of Me.
USA Today
bestselling author Jamie K. Schmidt follows with the first book in her new Hawaii Heat series,
Life's a Beach,
an irresistible tale of second chances. The bad boys of baseball only get better with Katie Rose's fourth book in the Boys of Summer series,
The Heat Is On,
where a homegrown baseball star returns to snag the one that got away.
USA Today
bestselling author Mira Lyn Kelly finishes her Dare to Love series with
Now and Then,
a steamy short novel of lost love, second chances, and hidden dangers.

New York Times
bestselling author Kathy Clark releases
After Love,
book one in the suspenseful Austin Heroes series. Cecy Robson's
Of Flame and Promise
kicks off a sizzling new series in the Weird Girls saga as Celia's sister Taran fights to have it all. Jessica Lemmon introduces the ultimate bad boy in
Forgotten Promises,
and Gina Gordon starts her powerful, deeply sensual series Body & Soul where one woman discovers the courage to face life's greatest challenges in
Naked
.

Let's get sweet with
USA Today
bestselling author Laura Drewry and her latest,
Off the Hook,
part of her Fishing for Trouble series, and Zoe Dawson and her first Laurel Falls novel,
Leaving Yesterday,
for fans of small-town romance. Sidney Halston's fans will be happy to know another mixed-martial-arts story is en route with
Fighting Dirty,
and then Claire Kent has you
Taking It Off
with a male stripper—yum! Adding to this
USA Today
bestseller list is a fast MC story from Maisey Yates,
Strip You Bare.
And Sawyer Bennett is bundling her books from her
New York Times
bestselling
Cold Fury Hockey
series.

Looking for a few historical romances? Lavinia Kent releases a Regency favorite in
Ravishing Ruby,
Sharon Cullen brings you back to Culloden in
Sutherland's Secret,
and Pamela Labud's Hunt Club series begins with
To Catch a Lady—
all with heroes to die for.

That's it for this month—but February is bigger and better than ever before. Hope to see you soon.

~Happy Romance!

Gina Wachtel

Associate Publisher

by Kathy Clark

Available from Loveswept

“Break's over. Back to work. We need to get this section done before dark.” The job foreman tossed his empty Coke can in the back of the pickup truck and put his hard hat on. The half dozen other men on the crew reluctantly stood and stepped out of the shade of a front-end loader. Even though it was only June, the temperature was already in the upper nineties, promising a brutal summer ahead.

Two men wearing orange vests moved their surveying equipment into position. One man peered into the laser level, then straightened. “This would be a lot easier if you guys could move that pile of brush out of the way,” he called.

The foreman waved at the loader operator and pointed to a twenty-foot-tall stack of dried mesquite, scrub oak, and cactus. “Load that into the dump truck. We might as well get it out of here now.”

The dump-truck driver backed up next to the pile, and the front-end loader moved into position. The rest of the crew stood back and watched as chunk-by-chunk the debris was transferred into the back of the dump truck.

One of the surveyors looked around at the one-hundred-acre tract that they were subdividing. “I can't believe they're putting in another neighborhood…especially way out here in Dripping Springs.”

“Yeah, the Austin area's booming,” the foreman confirmed. “I heard the guy who owns that vineyard on the left offered big bucks for a piece of this property, but the owner knows he can make more by building luxury homes on small acreage.”

The two men studied the vineyards that stretched along the boundaries of the land they were clearing. Row after row of well-groomed vines, loaded with clusters of green grapes, were planted north to south to soak up as much sun as possible. A split-rail fence divided the two vineyards that, otherwise, looked identical. In the distance, several large stone buildings were visible on the property directly in front of them.

“Me, I'd rather live on a place like that. Can you imagine looking out at that every day?” the surveyor asked.

“Not to mention all the wine you can drink,” the foreman added with an envious chuckle.

The operator scooped up another bucketful and started to lift it when the supervisor glanced over his shoulder. He turned and ran to the front of the machine.

“Stop, stop! What the fuck is that?”

That got everyone's attention, and they gathered around the bucket, peering inside. There, nestled among the broken branches and twisted tree trunks, was what appeared to be a human skull. It was dark brown, stained from being buried under a layer of dirt and rotting plants for years. The jawbone had separated and slid off to the side in a macabre grimace.

“Fuck!” The foreman shook his head. “If this is some sort of ancient burial ground, we're fucked. The boss is going to shit bricks.”

“I heard of a project down at Marble Falls that got completely shut down,” the surveyor commented. “What was supposed to be a new Wal-Mart is now an historical dig site, swarming with archeologists and historians.”

“Damn shame. I like Wal-Mart,” one of the laborers commented.

“Yeah, well, I like my job, and finding a body is a fucking ball-buster,” the foreman grumbled.

“I could dump this and cover it back up,” the loader operator suggested. “Someone will find it later, but by then we'd be through here. Besides, it's probably an illegal who didn't make it to the Promised Land, which will make him just another Juan Doe in the morgue.”

The foreman seriously considered the option. It would definitely buy them time. Dozens of Mexicans who managed to make their way across the border died before reaching family or friends. Their bones littered the Texas countryside all the way to El Paso, so this could easily be an unfortunate traveler. Besides, this looked old. He hadn't seen any skulls in his life, but he knew this one wasn't fresh. What harm would it do to delay discovery for a few more months?

But, in the end, he was an honorable man. This was a human, and whoever the poor sap was, he or she didn't deserve to spend another day out in this field.

“Hey, look at this,” the surveyor said as he bent over and picked up a small object. He held it out on his open palm. “I think this rules out an ancient burial ground
or
an illegal.”

Even after countless years in the ground, the huge diamond in an elaborate platinum setting captured and refracted the sun's rays into a thousand rainbows.

The foreman stared at the ring and felt a little less sympathetic. Whoever could afford an expensive rock like that wasn't some transient who wandered out in the brush and died. With an unenthusiastic sigh, he pulled out his cellphone. “I'm going to call the local authorities, but I know this is too big for them. I'm sure they'll turn it over to the Texas Rangers. Shut it down, boys.”

The loader operator shut off the engine and climbed out of the cab, and the dump truck driver did the same. All the men migrated back to the shade of the huge machinery and dropped to the ground. They waited until the foreman ended the call.

“I'll stay here, but you guys might as well leave,” he told them. “Check with the office tomorrow for your job assignments. This site is closed indefinitely.”

The dump-truck driver tossed his hard hat into the cab and slammed the door. “I'm heading for Broken Spoke for a beer.” Several men murmured their approval, and he led the mass exodus toward the crew pickup truck. The foreman pulled a bottle of water out of an ice chest and settled down for a long wait.

Inside the bucket, the skull stared with empty sockets at the blue sky above. He couldn't speak, but he had a story to tell.