Boarded by Love (64 page)
Authors: Toni Aleo
Tags: #Literature & Fiction, #Genre Fiction, #Contemporary, #Romance, #New Adult, #college, #Hockey, #Sports
“More idiots,” she says with a shake of her head.
“For sure,” I sigh. “It’s so annoying.”
When my computer signals that I have another call coming in, I say, “Hey, let me let you go. Jude is calling.”
“Okay, babe, talk to you later. Bye!”
“Bye! Love you, Sawyer! Love you too,” I add quickly, and she laughs.
“We love you, bye!”
I smile as I switch over to Jude’s call. When his beautiful face comes on the screen, I get a little breathless, like I always do. He’s all smiles, but I notice right away that his right eye is almost swollen shut.
“You’re an idiot,” I say with a shake of my head.
“Wasn’t my fault!” he says as he walks wherever he’s going.
“Such a pretty face and you let him mess you up! And why the hell haven’t you called me until now? It’s been like four hours? Did you have to get right on the bus or something? Where are you? Why is it so loud?”
“’Cause I’m here to surprise you,” he answers just as the door opens and he’s standing there with a bouquet of red roses.
Squealing, I jump out of my chair and rush to him, wrapping my arms around him. Kissing his lips, I melt against him but then remember I’m mad at him. Pulling away, I smack him in the middle of the chest and he gives me a shocked look. “Jude! You can’t fight my uncle!”
“Shh,” he says as he grins, wrapping his arm around my waist and carrying me into the office. Kicking the door shut, he throws the bouquet down before holding me up with both hands and walking me to the desk. I know what he’s about to do, and while I’m game for that since I haven’t seen him in two weeks, I need to reiterate that he cannot fight my uncle. As his mouth meets mine, I sorta forget what I need to reiterate and get lost in the way his mouth moves against mine.
Things have been perfect between us. Even the fights we have over stupid crap are amazing because they are with him, and the make-up sex is unbelievable. Well, any sex is unbelievable, but still, I’m so freaking happy I could scream. Moving his hands up my corset, he kisses the tops of my breasts and says, “Fuck, you are hot in this thing.”
“Thanks,” I grin as he kisses up my neck to my jaw. “But seriously, Jude, no more fighting, promise me.”
“I promise,” he says roughly against my jaw.
Holding his face still, I pull back and ask, “Why were you fighting anyway?”
I feel his hands leave my body, and a second later he says, “Because of this.”
He looks down and so do I to see the most stunning diamond ring. Gasping, I cover my mouth as my eyes fill with tears. Through my blurry eyes, I take in the rose gold band and the large diamond that is surrounded by little diamonds.
“Oh Jude,” I gasp, and he smiles before dropping between my legs to his knees.
“I asked him if I could marry you. I’ve been asking since the day of the draft, and he has said no every time. Today, I decided I couldn’t wait any more, not when I know my girl walks around looking this hot. I gotta put a ring on it, keep all the men away,” he teases, and I laugh through my tears.
“Jude, there are no other men.”
“I know there aren’t,” he says and all the laughter is gone as his eyes meet mine. “I want to marry you, Claire, and I finally have Phillip’s permission. Took me getting my ass kicked, but hey, I’ll do anything for the girl who, every time she looks in my eyes, makes me feel like I’m being slammed into the boards. I can’t live my life without you because you are my other half. So what do you say? Wanna marry me?”
I’m nodding before the words fully leave his lips. “Of course I do!”
Sliding the ring on my finger, he grins widely at me before pressing his lips against mine and kissing the hell out of me. Smiling against my lips, he presses small kisses all over my mouth before pulling back to look into my eyes. Moving my fingers into his hair, I say, “So you’ve wanted to marry me since the draft?”
“I’ve wanted to marry you since I saw you in those geeky black glasses. I love you, Claire.”
“I love you,” I say, meeting my lips to his.
Pressing his head to mine, he locks his eyes with mine and I can’t help but smile. I thought I was happy fifteen minutes ago, but right now I am ecstatic. I have the dream job, a healthy, beautiful family, and now a hot hockey-player fiancé. I’m living all my dreams because of the man who is staring into my eyes with a hunger that can’t be touched, and while this would be a great moment to let him have his way with me on this desk, there is still one more thing that needs to be said.
“But still no fighting with your soon to be uncle-in-law.”
I smile, expecting him to laugh with me, but his eyes stay serious as his mouth curves up just a tad. I love the little half smile he does. Hell, I love everything about this man and I will for the rest of my life.
Leaning into me, he whispers, “I don’t have to fight anymore. I won the ultimate prize.”
As my eyes swim with tears, I nod slowly because he’s not the only one who won.
I did too.
The end!
I hope that you enjoyed the spin off series from the Assassins. I was beyond excited to write Claire’s book and what better way than to a spin off series! I love this book. It is probably one of my favorites, up there with Taking Shots. I enjoyed writing Claire’s spunkiness and Jude’s strength. Together they burned the pages but then at the end, I don’t know about y’all but I was bawling. My heart was invested and I hope that yours was too, because that means I did my job. I thank you for reading this book and taking the time to spend with my characters. I hope they brought you a lot of enjoyment.
Without you, I wouldn’t be in the business. I would probably be writing but just storing my books on a hard drive and living my life. I honestly can’t thank you enough for the time you spend messaging me, emailing me and supporting me. Your love and support is so overwhelming but so much appreciated. I consider you a part of my family and believe me, I will never forget the reason why I spend hours away from my family and friends, the sleepless nights, the headaches from staring at the screen so long.
Its because of you.
So thank you.
Also I want to thank my family, Michael, Nick, Noey, Mikey and Alyssa: thank you for your undying love and support. Couldn’t do this without you.
To my mom, who even in heaven is my biggest fan, I love you so much and miss you more than anything.
To my friends, Nortis, Bobbie, and Stacey: I know I get a little crazy around my deadlines, thank you for being so supportive and loving me even when I’m not there.
To Damaris: thanks for working so hard to make my books successful. Couldn’t do it without you.
To Lisa: Thank you for coming in and editing the hell out of this book! You rock my love! And I am so thankful for our friendship.
To my beautiful amazing betas: Laurie, Lisa, Althea, Lisa, Mary, Susie, Lisa, Janette, Heather, and Kara: I couldn’t write this book without you. Thank you.
To my family, thank you. I love you and can’t thank you enough for being so supportive.
To Sommer: Thank you for a beautiful and amazing cover!
To Toski: Thank you for making this happen. I love this shot of Brandon and couldn’t have it without you.
To Brandon: Thank you for being my model and also my friend.
To Elli: Thank you for bring me Brandon and becoming my friend.
To anyone else I missed, thank you. You will always be apart of my heart. All of you. Thank you.
A Very Hockey Holiday (Assassins 6.5)
Laces and Lace (Assassins 7)
Becoming the Whiskey Princess (Taking Risk Novel 2)
Clipped by Love (Bellevue 2)
And a brand new series is coming in 2015 from Toni Aleo
The Spring Grove Novels
Bring on the cowboys!
Make sure to check out these titles and more on Toni’s
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Copyright © 2014 by Toni Aleo
This book, Boarded by Love is a work of Fiction. Any names, characters, places and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
All rights reserved. Except as permitted under the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the author.
Table of Contents
Title Page
Books by Toni Aleo
Dedication
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Chapter Twenty-Four
Chapter Twenty-Five
Chapter Twenty-Six
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Chapter Thirty
Chapter Thirty-One
Chapter Thirty-Two