Long Gone Girl (13 page)

***

Jett stood on the porch of No. 11 Elmwood Drive,
practically sweating bullets over whether Ginny would come to the
door. At the sound of footsteps, he swiped off his aviator
sunglasses and tucked them into the pocket of his leather jacket,
ran a hand through his hair and wiped his damp palms down the front
of his jeans. Planted a half-smile on his face. And swallowed when
a shadow appeared behind the curtained glass panels to the side of
the front door, before it swung open.

It was Ginny. He permitted himself to blow
out a small sigh of relief. First hurdle passed. If only he could
manage the next few without stumbling.

“Hey. Thanks for seeing me,” he said softly,
taking in Ginny’s uniform, the tight set to her mouth and the
shadows of fatigue under her hazel eyes.
Crap
. She
had
pulled an all-nighter like her mother had said. “I
really appreciate it. You must be beat.” Okay, so the hurdles would
be on an uphill track. But there was no way he was going to bug out
now.

She shrugged. “A little.” She tucked a
wayward strand of hair behind her ear. His fingers itched to pull
it all out of that severe nurse’s bun she had it scraped into, and
set those lustrous, rose-gold waves free. Wind a silky hank around
his fist and haul her in for a kiss.
Maybe later.
If he was
that lucky and she didn’t boot him to the curb.

He was staring at her like a prize idiot and
her forehead dipped into a frown. “Jett, why are you here? My mom
said you had something for me?”

He swallowed and cleared his throat.
“Yeah…if you’d give me a just a second…” He stepped down off the
porch and reached behind the boxwood hedge at the end of the
colonnaded banister rail. “These are for you…”

Ginny’s mouth dropped open and her eyes
widened. “Oh my God. Jett…” She reached out and took the massive
bunch of red roses from him. It was so big, she had to cradle it in
both arms. She buried her face in the blooms, inhaling their heavy
perfume, then raised shining eyes to his. “But there are so
many…I…I’m speechless…”

Jett released a shaky breath of pure relief.
Ginny speechless and looking wondrous was good. He could work with
that.

He took a step closer and held her gaze.
Drew a fortifying breath and prayed he would get this right.
“There’s supposed to be one for every time I’ve thought of you this
past week… It’s basically a million short, but that’s all the
Ridgewood florist had. Ginny…” He brushed her flushed cheek with
the back of his fingers. “I can’t stop thinking about you. I’ve
tried so damned hard. But I just can’t let you go. Not again. Not
without fighting for you. I know you want to move on from
Ridgewood. Have a career. But if there’s any chance at all, for an
‘us’… I’ve fallen head over heels in love with you, Virginia Rose
Williams. And I just had to let you know.”

***

Oh
.

Ginny took a deep breath, struggling to
control the crazy tap-dancing of her heart.
Jett loves me.
He really wants more. An ‘us’.
The boy she’d secretly
yearned for in high school, the man who’d charmed his way back into
her good books and had then swept her off her feet last weekend,
was laying his heart at her feet. Even after she’d turned him
away.

And there really was no reason in the world,
other than her grim stubbornness to be independent, that was
stopping her from having both a career and someone like Jett in her
life.

She’d be insane to turn him away again. He
was definitely a chance worth taking.

Tears of wild happiness suddenly misted her
vision. If her hands were free she would have pinched herself to
make sure she wasn’t dreaming. “Jett…I think I’m falling for you
too—”

Jett kissed her. Caught her face between his
large warm hands and slanted his mouth over hers. A slow,
heart-melting, reverent kiss. A kiss that spoke of joy and
tenderness and the promise of beautiful, bright things to come. The
scent of crushed roses rose up around them. But right at this
moment, with Jett’s hands in her hair and his tongue twining with
hers, she didn’t care if the roses ended up a little worse for
wear.

When at last Jett released her mouth, he was
out of breath and his blue eyes glowed as brightly as the blue sky
behind him. “Even if we just start dating, Ginny, whenever we’re
both free. We can take things nice and slow. Whatever you
want.”

Ginny smiled. “Nice and slow sounds good.”
They could make this work. She knew they could. LaGuardia Airport
wasn’t that far from Mount Sinai after all. Perhaps they’d both end
up living close to each other in Lower Manhattan… But she was
getting ahead of herself. Hadn’t she just stated slow was good?

Jett took the slightly disheveled bunch of
roses from her and laid them on the porch. When he straightened, he
slid his arms about her, pulling her against the hot hard length of
his body. Her pulse raced and her lower belly quickened.

Jett’s gaze drifted from her eyes to her
mouth. “Nice and slow appeals, huh?” I think I can go with that,
Nurse Williams.”

Ginny licked her lips.
Oh my
. “How
about you show me, Captain Kelly.”

This time when Jett gathered her close in
his arms and lowered his head to kiss her, as blissful warmth
suffused her whole heart and soul, she realized she finally felt
like this was where she belonged.

That maybe here, right in Jett’s arms, was
home.

Thanks for reading!
If you enjoyed Long Gone
Girl, please help other readers find it, too. Consider leaving a
review wherever you bought the book.

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www.AmyRoseBennett.com

www.BluestockingBelles.com

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I'd like to thank the
very talented, savvy, and uber-efficient Mari Christie for so ably
assisting me with my first foray into self-publishing!

And of course a huge thank you goes to my wonderful
family for their unflagging encouragement and support during my
ongoing writing journey. And I assure you all that I do love you so
much more than my laptop!

Amy Rose Bennett has always wanted to be a writer for
as long as she can remember. An avid reader with a particular love
for historical romance, it seemed only natural to write stories in
her favorite genre. She has a passion for creating
emotion-packed—and sometimes a little racy—stories set in the
Georgian and Regency periods. Of course, her strong-willed heroines
and rakish heroes always find their happily ever after.

Amy is happily married to her own Alpha male hero,
has two beautiful daughters, and a rather loopy Rhodesian
Ridgeback. She is a Speech Pathologist, but is currently devoting
her time to her one other true calling—writing romance.

www.AmyRoseBennett.com

Fraternizing with one’s footman—no matter how
young and handsome he is—is
not
the
done thing…but Lady Wells is going to do it anyway…

Bianca, The Dowager Countess of Wells, secretly lusts
after her much younger, rakishly handsome footman Harry Blake. Even
though he has been in her employ for six months, she has not
succumbed to her indecorous urges to take him as a lover… until one
wicked night at an isolated country inn when she throws caution to
the wind and offers Blake a wholly improper proposition.

Harry Blake, the bastard son of a duke and governess,
is the epitome of the perfect footman, except for one thing—he
fantasizes about seducing his beautiful mistress. When Lady Wells
proposes that they become lovers for one night only, he is torn.
Even though he wants her with every fiber of his being, he suspects
that forbidden fruit once tasted, can be awfully addictive. He
wonders if one night of passion will be enough, for either of
them—especially now that he realizes he might very well be falling
in love with his bella Bianca.

But when all is said and done, Blake can hardly
refuse such a tempting proposition, no matter how unwise or
improper. He just prays that he can put a smile on his mistress’s
beautiful face…

Copyright

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three