All I Ever Need Is You (22 page)
Read All I Ever Need Is You Online
Authors: Bella Andre
“I’ve been wanting to dance with you again for weeks.”
Adam drew Kerry close, loving the feel of her heart beating against his as they danced to the music filtering down to their private spot on the beach.
“So have I,” she told him, “but I have so many things I need to tell you, too. Things I’ve never told anyone else. Things I never wanted to own up to about myself, not until I almost lost you.”
“You never even came close to losing me.” And it was true. “You’re the partner I never knew I needed, Kerry. The other half that actually makes me complete. You and I, we’re good alone. But together? Together we’re unstoppable. That’s why I would have worked forever to win your heart. And I would have waited forever for you, too.”
She stopped dancing, but didn’t let go of him. “That’s what I couldn’t understand.” Her eyes were so big, so full of emotion as she said, “Even now, I’m sure it’s going to take me a while to really, truly believe that you love me as much as you do.”
“So much, sweetheart.”
She smiled then, such a bright and beautiful smile that she nearly turned night into day with it. “I love you that much, too.”
“I know you do. Your love runs deep, so deep and strong that I’ve always been astonished by it.”
“I could never understand how my father...” She took a shaky breath, but pushed ahead. “How he could have left the way he did, how he could have left at all if he loved me. I know I told you I had dealt with it, that I wasn’t letting it ruin my life, but now I can see that wasn’t entirely true. Because a part of me couldn’t believe that I would ever be enough to make the people I loved stay. After he left, I think I spent pretty much my whole life trying to be prepared for everything, to make sure I could avoid every possible crisis. But avoiding all those potential falls meant I could never let myself appreciate the amazing things all around me. Most of all, you.”
“Did you just call me amazing?” he teased, wanting to see her smile again even as she got everything off her chest.
Her laughter made him happy. So happy that he wondered how he’d managed to live thirty-four years without hearing it. “Beyond amazing, Adam, enormous ego and all.”
Now he was the one turning serious. “My ego and I made a lot of assumptions about you and me, thinking that just because I was one hundred percent ready to be in love, you must be one hundred percent ready to love me back. I’m sorry for barging into your heart like a bull in a china shop.”
“You once told me that two people don’t have to be completely the same or look at everything the same way, for a relationship to work. These past weeks with you have been exciting and frustrating and happy and crazy-making. And the truth is that I can’t wait for seven more decades just like these with you. Everything might not always be calm and easy, we may get messy and raw sometimes, but I know that as long as I’m with you, they’ll always be wonderful, too. So, if you ask me, barging like a bull into my china shop sounds just perfect. I don’t want to change one single thing about you, Adam, and I couldn’t stand it if you tried to be someone you aren’t.”
A violin was playing a romantic melody, one that floated across the still lake water to them, as she said, “Marry me, Adam. Be mine forever.”
He kissed her soft then hard, teasingly then deeply, over and over again.
“Is that a yes?” she asked.
“Not just a yes,” he told her, grinning like a fool. “It’s a
hell yes
to marrying you and having picnics with our kids under the oak tree of our rambling old house during the day and making love beneath the stained-glass windows upstairs every night.” He kissed her again. “And that’s me saying yes to holding hands as we rock together on the front porch.” Another kiss, one filled with pure love. “But you should know that I’ll never stop making you blush by kissing you in front of the whole world and asking you to dance at the most inappropriate times.”
“Promise?”
“You want to know how long I’m promising you, Kerry?” He brought his lips to hers and whispered,
“Forever.
”
* * *
Back at the inn, they stripped each other so fast that the door was barely shut and locked behind them when Adam came over her on the big bed, deliciously hard and heavy as he kissed her. And kissed her. And kissed her some more, until her head was spinning even faster than it already had been back on the beach.
Every part of her wanted every part of him as he began to run those drugging kisses down over her cheek, her jaw, her neck, her shoulders.
“What are you going to plan for our wedding?” he asked her between kisses.
“Wedding?” It was hard to think straight with his tongue swirling lazily over the tip of her breast.
His laughter vibrated against her sensitive skin as he moved to tease her other breast. “You just asked me to marry you, remember?”
“Yes.” He slid his hand down over her stomach, then between her thighs.
“Yes.”
His laughter turned to a growl of satisfaction. “Maybe you’re thinking of the honeymoon, then?” he said as he began to run nipping little kisses down over her rib cage. “Somewhere hot and sunny where I can keep you naked for a week.”
She was barely able to think, let alone speak, as he dipped his tongue into her belly button. But somehow she managed, “Two weeks.”
He rewarded her excellent suggestion with another breathtakingly hot kiss, one that had her arching her hips to get closer to his mouth. Spending one night a week with Adam had been incredible. But knowing he would be hers forever? Knowing she’d be laughing, and teasing, and loving him every single night—not to mention anytime they could get away from work during the day?
Her body exploded in a kaleidoscope of pleasure, one that she was desperate to share with him. And thank God, he could read her mind just as he always did, because even as ecstasy took her over, he did, too, in one gorgeous thrust.
She couldn’t hold him tightly enough, couldn’t wrap herself around him closely enough. And this time, when he whispered that he loved her against her mouth between kisses, she whispered it right back, over and over and over again, until she knew he’d never, ever forget just how much she loved him.
Or that all she ever needed was
him
.
Drake Sullivan enjoyed Rafe and Brooke’s wedding. Not only because he got to spend time with his family, but also because the laughter all around him was a much-needed infusion. He’d tried to paint last night and had ended up with something that could have been done far better by a child. Which he’d just confirmed when Chase and Chloe’s little daughter, Emma, gave him a drawing she’d been working on at her seat during the reception. He could see the budding artist in her, from the way she watched everyone and everything around her so carefully—and from her extremely long attention span as she’d worked on her drawing with her tongue between her teeth.
She’d drawn the lake with the dock jutting out into it and the mountains rising up behind it. Her drawing was confident and, honestly, pretty damned brilliant. “This is great, Emma. Can I keep it?”
She beamed up at him. “I made it for you, Mr. Drake. You have to keep it.” She gave his legs a quick hug before running off to play with her cousins, who were calling her name from down the beach.
“Looks like you have a little admirer.” Drake’s sister, Suzanne, was smiling as she walked up to him. He showed her the drawing, and her eyebrows went up. “Wow, that’s really good.”
“Better by a mile than anything I’ve done recently, that’s for sure.”
His sister put her hand on his arm. “Your muse still messing with you?”
Drake had never believed in a muse before. Painting had always been there for him, a natural extension of himself. At least, it had been there until the past six months or so. “I’m thinking of heading out of the city for a while when I get back.”
“Montauk?” she guessed.
Drake nodded. He had a little cabin on the water there that he didn’t use nearly enough. But maybe if he got away from the noise, the activity of New York City for a little while, and surrounded himself with water and sand like this, he’d get back what he was starting to feel he’d lost.
“Maybe I’ll come visit,” she said, but he knew better. His brilliant sister could rarely pull herself away from her computers long enough to get out to the far tip of the Hamptons.
Still, he wanted her to know she was welcome, so he said, “Come anytime, Suz.”
Their brothers, Alec and Harrison, walked up to them just then. Despite their physical similarity—both of them tall and muscular, with dark eyes and hair—the luxury airline mogul and the university academic couldn’t be more different.
“Everyone, including Dad, is placing bets on who’s next,” Alec said.
Not following, Drake asked, “Next?”
Harrison clarified, “They’re betting on which one of us is going to go down in the flames of love like Adam just did.”
With his painting going badly enough that he was going to have to cancel an important exhibition soon if he didn’t snap out of it, Drake couldn’t help but feel as though he had more than enough trouble on his hands without bringing a woman into it. But his siblings? Sure, he could see one of them falling crazy in love out of the blue.
“Who’s in the lead?” he asked.
The last thing Drake expected was for Alec to grin and say, “You.”
~ THE END ~
For news on upcoming stories about The Sullivans,
click here to sign up for Bella Andre’s New Release Newsletter.
Watch for Drake Sullivan’s book (New York Sullivans, Book 1) this winter! Suzanne, Alec, and Harrison will all be getting their own stories soon, too.
TEMPT ME LIKE THIS
, the second book in Bella’s series about The Morrisons, is rock star Drew Morrison's story. It will be released August 12, 2015!
Bella is thrilled to announce two new contemporary romance series!
CAPE COD KISSES
, the first book in Bella’s new
Love on Rockwell Island
series written with NYT bestselling author Melissa Foster, will be released May 6, 2015! Sink your toes into the sandy beaches at the heart of Cape Cod Bay, where family comes first, good friends are around every corner, and true love is waiting beneath the stars.
BREATHLESS IN LOVE
, the first book in Bella’s new
Maverick Billionaires
series written with NYT bestselling author Jennifer Skully, will be released June 10, 2015! The Maverick Billionaires are five sexy, gorgeous, self-made men from the wrong side of town, who survived hell together, and now they're taking on the world.
For more information about
TEMPT ME LIKE THIS
,
CAPE COD KISSES
, and
BREATHLESS IN LOVE
, please sign up for Bella’s New Release Newsletter (
http://bellaandre.link/NewsletterSignup
) and visit
http://www.BellaAndre.com/collections
.
* * *
The following books in Bella's New York Times & USA Today bestselling series about The Sullivans are out now!
(Chase & Chloe)
(Marcus & Nicola)
(Gabe & Megan)
(Sophie & Jake)
(Zach & Heather)
(Ryan & Vicki)
(Smith & Valentina)
(Lori & Grayson)
(Mary & Jack Sullivan)
(A novella guest starring Mia Sullivan and Rafe Sullivan)
(Rafe & Brooke, The Seattle Sullivans)
(Mia & Ford, The Seattle Sullivans)
(Ian & Tatiana, The Seattle Sullivans)
(Dylan & Grace, The Seattle Sullivans)
ALL I EVER NEED IS YOU
(Adam & Kerry, The Seattle Sullivans)
* * *
Click here to download a Sullivan Family Tree!
* * *
Please enjoy the following excerpt from THE WAY YOU LOOK TONIGHT (Rafe Sullivan’s story), the first Seattle Sullivan book...
As a very successful private investigator who has caught most of the cheaters in Seattle with their pants down, Rafe Sullivan believes true, lasting love only happens once in a blue moon. Needing to get away from the city to clear his head, he finds the lake house where he spent the best summers of his life is now a wreck...but the sweet girl next door is all grown up and prettier than anything he’s ever seen.
While Brooke Jansen is happy making and selling chocolate truffles in her small Pacific Northwest lake town, she secretly longs to experience something wild. So when her favorite “Wild Sullivan” moves in again next door after more than a decade away, and sparks fly between them, she can’t stop wondering if being bad is really as good as it always seemed...and just how long it will be before she can find out.
But when their summer fling quickly spirals into deeper emotions than either of them were expecting, can they survive the heat between them? Or will Rafe make the biggest mistake of his life and end up losing the best thing that’s ever happened to him?
Enjoy the following excerpt from
THE WAY YOU LOOK TONIGHT...
A lone man had just ridden up on his motorcycle, the ends of his dark hair whipping out from beneath his helmet.
Now that
, thought Brooke with immediate female appreciation,
is what wild and free looks like.
Her parents had taught her it wasn’t polite to stare, but she couldn’t remember why that admonition mattered as she watched the man pull off his helmet and run a large hand through his hair. She couldn’t see his face yet, but she didn’t need to see his features to know just how good-looking he was. His shoulders were incredibly broad, and even from a distance she could see how big—and how capable—his hands were where he gripped the handlebars.
She was so busy reeling from a blast of pure lust for the stranger as he stepped away from his motorcycle that it took her a moment longer than it should have to realize that he wasn’t a stranger after all.
“Rafe?” His name came out as little more than a stunned whisper. “Is that really you?”
Her question was loud enough that he finally turned to face her. Only, instead of responding, he didn’t say a word, didn’t even move.
All he did was stare, but it was okay, because she was busy staring right back.
People often said memories made things sweeter than they actually were. But Brooke now knew that wasn’t true at all. Not only had she not embellished how good-looking Rafe Sullivan was over the years that they’d been apart but, if anything, her recollections had sorely underplayed just how gorgeous he truly was.
His hair was dark and just a little too long, his skin was tanned, his jaw was dark with stubble, and he was so big and tall that she knew she’d have to stand on her tippy-toes and wrap her arms around his neck to kiss him.
The thought of doing something like that had her body instantly going warm all over despite the cool breeze. She’d been little more than a baby the first time she remembered setting eyes on Rafe, but even then, he’d stood out from the rest of his siblings as more fun. More daring. And infinitely more beautiful.
When he still didn’t say anything, she took a step in his direction. “It’s me, Rafe. Brooke Jansen. Remember?”
Finally, the intensity of his dark gaze shifted into one of recognition. “Little Brooke,” he said in a low voice that rippled over her, “how could I forget you?”
She had spent far too many years squashing her wild impulses. But following a wild impulse wasn’t what sent her straight into the arms of her favorite Sullivan without a second thought. It was pure happiness at finally seeing him again.
He caught her against his chest as she hugged him tight. He smelled so good, and the bare patch of skin above his T-shirt was so warm despite the cool evening air that she couldn't resist burying her face against him. As she held on tight, she felt safer than she had in years. She’d lost too many of her favorite people from childhood, and was infinitely grateful to be given the precious gift of one of them back in her life.
She might have held on to him like that forever if it hadn’t been for her sudden realization of just how good his hard, heated muscles felt against her cold, wet, nearly bare skin.
The little girl inside her had thrown herself into his arms...but it was the woman she’d become who wanted to move even closer.
When she was eight years old, the crush she’d had on Rafe was sweet. Innocent. But what she was feeling now was decidedly not sweet.
Nor was it anywhere close to innocent.
Wild.
The thought—no, it was more desire and pure need than it was a cognizant thought—came at her in an instant:
I want to be wild with Rafe Sullivan.
Excerpt from THE WAY YOU LOOK TONIGHT by Bella Andre © 2013.
* * *
Please also enjoy the following excerpt from the first San Francisco Sullivan book, THE LOOK OF LOVE…
Chloe Peterson is having a bad night. A really bad night. The large bruise on her cheek can attest to that. And when her car skids off the side of a wet country road straight into a ditch, she’s convinced even the gorgeous guy who rescues her in the middle of the rain storm must be too good to be true. Or is he?
As a successful photographer who frequently travels around the world, Chase Sullivan has his pick of beautiful women, and whenever he’s home in San Francisco, one of his seven siblings is usually up for causing a little fun trouble. Chase thinks his life is great just as it is—until the night he finds Chloe and her totaled car on the side of the road in Napa Valley. Not only has Chase never met anyone so lovely, both inside and out, but he quickly realizes Chloe has much bigger problems than her damaged car. Soon, Chase is willing to move mountains to love—and protect—her, but will Chloe let him?
Enjoy the following excerpt from THE LOOK OF LOVE...
Chase almost missed the flickering light off on the right side of the two-lane country road. In the past thirty minutes, he hadn’t passed a single car, because on a night like this, most sane Californians—who didn’t know the first thing about driving safely in inclement weather—stayed home.
Knowing better than to slam on the brakes—he wouldn’t be able to help whomever was stranded on the side of the road if he ended up stuck in the muddy ditch right next to them—Chase slowed down enough to see that there was definitely a vehicle stuck in the ditch.
He turned his brights on to see better in the pouring rain and realized there was a person walking along the edge of the road about a hundred yards up ahead. Obviously hearing his car approach, she turned to face him, and he could see her long wet hair whipping around her shoulders in his headlights.
Wondering why she wasn’t just sitting in her car, dry and warm, calling Triple A and waiting for them to come save her, he pulled over to the edge of his lane and got out to try to help her. She was shivering as she watched him approach.
"Are you hurt?"
She covered her cheek with one hand, but shook her head. "No."
He had to move closer to hear her over the sound of the water hitting the pavement in what were rapidly becoming hailstones. Even though he’d turned his headlights off, as his eyes quickly adjusted to the darkness, he was able to get a better look at her face.
Something inside of Chase’s chest clenched tight.
Despite the long, dark hair plastered to her head and chest, regardless of the fact that
looking like a drowned rat
wasn’t too far off the descriptive mark, her beauty stunned him.
In an instant, his photographer’s eye cataloged her features. Her mouth was a little too big, her eyes a little too wide-set on her face. She wasn’t even close to model thin, but given the way her T-shirt and jeans stuck to her skin, he could see that she wore her lush curves well. In the dark he couldn’t judge the exact color of her hair, but it looked like silk, perfectly smooth and straight where it lay over her breasts.
It wasn’t until Chase heard her say, "My car is definitely hurt, though," that he realized he had completely lost the thread of what he’d come out here to do.
Knowing he’d been drinking her in like he was dying of thirst, he worked to recover his balance. He could already see he’d been right about her car. It didn’t take a mechanic like his brother Zach, who owned an auto shop—more like forty, but Chase had stopped counting years ago—to see that her shitty hatchback was borderline totaled. Even if the front bumper wasn’t half-smashed to pieces by the white farm fence she’d slid into, her bald tires weren’t going to get any traction on the mud. Not tonight, anyway.
If her car had been in a less precarious situation, he probably would have sent her to hang out in her car while he took care of getting it unstuck. But one of her back tires was hanging precariously over the edge of the ditch.
He jerked his thumb over his shoulder. "Get in my car. We can wait there for a tow truck." He was vaguely aware of his words coming out like an order, but the hail was starting to sting, damn it. Both of them needed to get out of the rain before they froze.
But the woman didn’t move. Instead, she gave him a look that said he was a complete and utter nut-job.
"I’m not getting into your car."
Realizing just how frightening it must be for a lone woman to end up stuck and alone in the middle of a dark road, Chase took a step back from her. He had to speak loudly enough for her to hear him over the hail.
"I’m not going to attack you. I swear I won’t do anything to hurt you."
She all but flinched at the word
attack
, and Chase’s radar started buzzing. He’d never been a magnet for troubled women, wasn’t the kind of guy who thrived on fixing wounded birds. But living with two sisters for so many years meant he could always tell when something was up.
And something was definitely up with this woman, beyond the fact that her car was half-stuck in a muddy ditch.
Wanting to make her feel safe, he held his hands up. "I swear on my father’s grave, I’m not going to hurt you. It’s okay to get into my car." When she didn’t immediately say no again, he pressed his advantage with, "I just want to help you." And he did. More than it made sense to want to help a stranger. "Please," he said. "Let me help you."
She stared at him for a long moment, hail hammering between them, around them, onto them. Chase found himself holding his breath, waiting for her decision. It shouldn’t matter to him what she decided.