Meant To Be (Heaven Hill Series) (32 page)

“Close your eyes,” he called as he made his way back out onto the porch. His voice was pitched high, obviously excited to show her what he had brought her.

She did as he asked and sat, waiting for whatever it was he was going to give her. For some reason her heart beat wildly against her chest. Nobody had ever given her anything before. He sat something gently beside her, and then the couch dipped as he sat on the other side.

“Open ‘em up!”

It took a moment for her eyes to re-adjust to the darkness. When she saw a pink box, wrapped in a bow, her hand flew to her mouth. “What’d you do?” she asked, suspicion in her eyes.

“Guess you’ll have to open it to find out won’t you?”

Not wanting to admit that she’d never had a gift from another man before, she took her time. She savored opening the bow and then the paper. She could see the excitement in his eyes, and it made her want to just tear into it. He held his hands in his lap, almost like he was trying to keep himself from tearing it open for her. As she took the lid off the box, the musky smell of leather hit her nostrils, and she inhaled deeply.

“Seriously?” she asked as she moved back the tissue paper.

“Just wait until you see it,” his grin was contagious and she knew she wore one that matched.

She gasped as she finally pulled all the paper back, revealing a bunch of black leather. She wasn’t sure if it was a jacket or chaps or what, but her hands shook as ran her fingers over the smooth material.

“Pick it up and get a good look at it,” he instructed her.

What she thought was a leather jacket was actually a cut. It had her name stitched into it and below it sat a property patch. She sat it down on her thigh and ran her hand over the patch, trying to hide how much it shook.

Property of William Walker Jr. “Liam”

“Wow,” she whispered as she turned it around. The cut had its own colors and patches. It almost made her look like a full-fledged member.

“I also got you some leather chaps to wear. I’m hoping maybe you’ll wear nothing but those one night,” he teased, popping his eyebrows up and down.

That little shot of humor was needed. A property patch – from what she had seen – was a big deal, but she still needed him to explain to her exactly what he wanted.

“We’ll see,” she grinned at him. “So what does this mean?” she asked, holding the cut up.

“That you’re mine, and no one’s ever going to take you away from me. It means when the time is right I’ll get you a ring, and we’ll make it official in front of God and everybody. How does that sound?”

“Sounds amazing,” she breathed deeply, finally content with the direction her life was taking.

Wordlessly he opened his arms to her, and she went into them, settling back against his chest. She could feel the steady beat of his heart, the warmth of his body, and she could feel his hands as they stroked her body. It was the quiet moments like this that she loved the most. The wild man who had turned her on to her own wild side. The man who had accepted her kids as his own and the man who had completely changed her life.

“I’m really lucky that Sharon asked you to work for her,” he whispered softly in her ear. Their lives could have gone so much differently had she not answered that call or refused to help out a friend.

She giggled softly. “You don’t know how happy I am that I answered that phone call because I almost didn’t. I thought it was a bill collector and came pretty damn close to rejecting it, but something told me not to. It was obviously meant to be.”

The End

Laramie Briscoe has loved romance novels since her grandmother gave her Dorothy Garlock’s
Tenderness
as a teenager. It sparked a love of reading and writing that’s manifested into this series of novels.

An avid TV and movie enthusiast, a nail polish hoarder, an obsessive book reader, and a lover of all things that sparkle and glitter. She lives in South Central Kentucky with her husband and her cat.

If you enjoyed the story, please post reviews at GoodReads or Amazon.

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There are so many people who helped me on the journey to seeing this project through and I’m going to try and thank all of them. If I forget you, it’s because there have been so many, not because I meant to forget you!

My beta readers: Allison, Shellie, Sue, and Amy. Thank you for being honest – even when it may have hurt my feelings – and loving my characters as much as I do!

My dear friend April who has listened to me talk about this for years! She’s always there when I need someone to talk to or when I need a traveling partner. Everyone truly needs a friend like her!

My family who is nothing but supportive!

The co-workers of my day job. For a long time none of them had any idea what I was doing, but when I finally told them, they have been nothing but sweet and supportive. They have no idea how much I appreciate it!

Lindsay Hopper and Kari Ayasha: I’m so lucky to have found some amazing people to work with. I’ll never forget the chance you took on me and I hope that sometime in the future I am able to repay you for all your kindness.

Fellow author Allison Jewell: We talk about some of the craziest things that no one else but us would understand (usually involving our ‘fake’ characters). I couldn’t have decided to do this with anyone else. We’ve been through a lot in the last year and a half trying to get this going – personal and professional. Thank you for never letting me give up when I really wanted to and continuing to encourage me, even when I felt like everything else in my life was bigger than this dream.

Everyone else that encouraged me in some way: Anicee, Becky, the KIW, DJFFO, Lesslie, Carol, and Pam - thank you!

Out of Darkness (Heaven Hill Series #2)

Chapter One

F
or services rendered.

Meredith awoke sharply, feeling the dollar bill hit her again. It was the same dream every time. She always woke up when he said those words and he threw the dollar bill. Sleep never came with her and stayed with her, even when she took the pills the good doc had prescribed. Carefully, she pushed back the covers of Tyler’s bed and slid her legs to the side. Her heart caught the way it always did when she saw Tyler asleep on the floor. Maybe one day she’d be able to invite him into this bed. Quietly, she dressed and grabbed her running shoes. If she couldn’t sleep, she may as well get something accomplished.

Making her way to the kitchen of the clubhouse, she smiled and waved at those who had come to know her in the weeks she’d been staying her. It was easy to pretend with these people that nothing really had happened to her. She’d taken a leave of absence from her job and moved all her stuff into storage. Meredith had known without a doubt that she could never go back to the life that she’d had before. Any of it.

“Going for a run?” Liam asked as he spotted her running shoes.

“Yeah, is Denise up yet?”

The look that overtook his face when she mentioned his woman made Meredith sad. She had wanted that at one time and she wasn’t sure she’d ever get back to that place in her life.

“Sure is, she was on her way up here. Just text her, I know she’d love to run with you.”

It went without saying that Meredith didn’t like to run by herself and Denise usually went along whether she wanted to or not. The sign of what Meredith was beginning to understand as being a real friend.

“Will you let Tyler know where I am?” she asked, grabbing a couple bottles of water.

“I will, but you and I both know that he
always
knows where you are.”

Not long after her attack, he’d installed a special tracking program on her phone. Before it would have freaked her out, now though, it made her feel safe.

“See ya,” she called to the VP as she made her way out the back door.

As she stepped into the sunlight, she looked up. It was coming upon late October in South Central Kentucky and it should have been at least a little bit chilly, but they were in the grips of an Indian summer. For reasons she couldn’t understand, Meredith was glad. She wasn’t sure she could face a winter being cooped up right now. Being outside in this guarded place was the only way she felt safe. The only time she felt alive besides when she wrote.

Writing had become her solace. She wrote something every day. The doctor had suggested it and she had been amazed at how much she enjoyed it. Although she’d been a reporter, she’d never really been a writer. She loved it even more than the news.

“You ready girlfriend?”

Meredith smiled, the first genuine one she’d had all day as she spotted Denise coming towards her, pulling back her already short hair into the smallest ponytail anyone had ever seen.

“I don’t know why you do that, it’s not even on your neck anyway.”

Denise grinned. “Makes me feel like I’m a real athlete.”

A laugh bubbled up from deep within Meredith and she put her hand over her mouth to cover it up.

“Don’t,” Denise admonished. “It’s good to hear you laugh.”

It went without saying between the two of them that Meredith hadn’t had much to laugh about for a while.

“It feels good
to
laugh,” she admitted.

The moment got a little too heavy and Denise did what she’d gotten best at with the other woman, turned the attention away from her.

“So how far are we going to go today? Are you going to give me a heart attack or just an irregular heartbeat?” she joked.

Meredith knew just how much Denise hated exercise and that said a lot about the person that Denise was. That she came out here everyday, huffing and puffing her way through whatever run Meredith mapped out for them.

“Maybe just an irregular heartbeat. I don’t wanna kill ya just yet.”

“Thank God for small favors.”

With that, the two took off, jogging slowly, but Denise groaned because she knew that soon, they would really start running and that just plain sucked.

“Meredith go for a run?”

It unnerved Liam sometimes how quiet Tyler was when he wanted to be. Sometimes he could come in and out of a room and no one knew it. Even if the room was full of people.

“Yeah, you could just track her you know.”

“I know,” he said, grabbing his skull coffee cup. “But then I feel like I’m stalking her. It’s not a good feeling.”

“She still having trouble sleeping?” Liam asked his friend as he had a seat across the table from him.

“Yeah, she thinks I don’t know, but I hear her every morning when she wakes up. She’s having nightmares, but she won’t talk to anybody about them. I keep hoping she’ll talk to Denise.”

Gently, Liam reminded the other man. “She had a horrible thing happen to her, maybe she doesn’t want to talk to anyone about it.”