WMIS 04 Rock With Me (37 page)
“Yes, we definitely have,” I nod and tilt my head at him. “Are you happy?”
“Oh sunshine.” He sighs and pulls my hand up to his lips, brushes them over my knuckles
and smiles widely at me. “Happy doesn’t begin to cover it.”
Epilogue
Two Months Later
~Leo~
God, it’s good to be home. We left Atlanta immediately after the show last night and
flew straight home, arriving at SeaTac at around two in the morning.
Sam and I still haven’t slept.
Instead we’ve made love, cooked breakfast, fucked on the kitchen counter, and gone
back to bed, lounging and enjoying each other after being apart for two weeks.
Two weeks at a time is all I’m willing to do.
“Oh, look!” Sam is sitting with her back propped against the headboard of her bed,
her Sunshine Tour t-shirt on and her iPad in her lap. “There’s a picture of us on
Yahoo!
.”
The cat is curled on my stomach, purring as I pet him, my other hand tucked under
my head. I’m staring at the ceiling. I don’t bother to look over at the iPad.
“Are we naked?” I ask, only half kidding. I’m terrified every day of the photos Melissa
threatened us with showing up somewhere.
“No, thankfully not.” Sam laughs and pushes her fingers through my hair. Fuck, I love
it when she does that. “This is from the show in Phoenix last week. Wow, they even
printed my name under it, not just ‘Nash’s girlfriend’ or ‘Luke Williams’ sister.’”
I push the cat off my belly and turn over, cradling my head in my arms and sigh as
Sam traces the sun on my shoulder blade.
“Oh, these are cute,” she murmurs. “God, look at that bag. The new Michael Kors line
for the spring is to die for.”
“Are you shopping now?” I ask with a chuckle.
“Yeah, I don’t spend too much time on the rags, I just want to make sure my hair looks
good in the photos.” She smirks. “Oh, fuck me, those shoes are going to be mine.”
As she goes on and on about shoes and bags and whatever the hell else she’s shopping
for online, my mind drifts to later tonight. I think I’ll take her dancing. She loves
to dance, and watching her sweet ass move makes me crazy.
On second thought, I’d better not. I’d have to kill every fucker who looks at her.
“I think I’m outgrowing my closet,” she mutters.
“Mmm hmm,” I mumble, almost falling asleep from the gentle sweep of her fingers over
my back.
“I think I need to look into building a new one.”
“Wait, what?” I push up onto my elbows and stare up at her. “What are you saying?”
“I need a bigger closet,” she repeats as I pull the iPad out of her hands, set it
on the bedside table and pull her down into my arms.
“Keep going,” I mutter and tuck her soft blonde hair behind her ear.
“Well, maybe we should start looking for an architect.” She bites her lip and eyes
me speculatively, and I want to crow in happiness, but I just nod thoughtfully.
“You want to remodel your apartment?”
“Don’t be an ass.” She smacks my arm and then traces my tat there. The woman is forever
touching me.
I hope she never stops.
“What are we hiring an architect for, Samantha?” I ask and nuzzle her nose.
“Well, we’ll probably also need a kitchen.” she shrugs. “And a place to sleep.”
“What else?”
“It takes months to build a house.” She lowers her gaze to my chest and I tilt her
chin up to meet my gaze. “I don’t want to move all of our stuff into either this apartment
or your townhouse. I’m not quite ready, and besides, I think we should start somewhere
fresh.”
“Okay.”
“But by the time we find and hire an architect, approve plans, and the house is actually
built, I think we’ll be more than ready.” The last few words are whispered.
“I’m gonna rush this process, sunshine. I’m warning you now. The contractor is going
to hate my guts because I’ll be pushing him to finish every day.”
“I’ll warn Isaac,” she responds dryly.
“Are you sure?” I whisper.
Please, God, tell me you’re sure.
“Yeah, my shoes are really over-crowded in this closet. They deserve better.”
“I’ll give them whatever they want.” I chuckle. “Sam, I want to give you the world.
I love you so much, and I want to be with you, every day.”
“We can start with a big ass closet and sunken bathtub,” she grins and runs her thumb
along my lower lip. I kiss the pad of her thumb softly. “I love you too, Leo Nash.
Every damn day.”
The End
The With Me In Seattle Series continues in book five, SAFE WITH ME, Caleb and Brynna’s
story. Watch for it in the summer of 2013.
Acknowledgements:
To my husband: Thank you. I love you, handsome.
My Naughty Mafia girls: Michelle Valentine, Kelli Maine and Emily Snow. Thank you
for the love, the laughs and for your friendship. I love you guys.
To my beta readers: You know who you are. Thank you for being brutally honest and
my biggest supporters. I couldn’t do this without you.
Renae Porter: You are amazing. Thank you for another beautiful cover.
Linus Pettersson: You were such a joy to work with! Thank you for sharing your talent
with my readers and me.
Sulan Von Zoomlander: I couldn’t have asked for more in a musician to inspire this
character. I appreciate the many hours of answering all of my incessant questions,
and I appreciate your sense of humor. Thank you, for everything.
To the many authors who have become so much more than colleagues: Thank you for your
friendship and your support. The indie community is wonderful.
To my publicist, Kelly Simmon of InkSlinger: You’re the best and were worth the wait.
Thank you for all of your hard work!
To all of the bloggers who continue to work tirelessly to support and promote my books:
THANK YOU! You do so much for this community, and it does not go unnoticed. I’m so
very thankful for all that you do.
And, as always, to YOU, the beautiful reader holding this book in your hands. Thank
you, from the bottom of my heart, for reading my stories. I hope you enjoyed reading
it as much as I enjoyed creating for you.
Happy Reading!
Kristen
I am pleased to offer you a sneak peak at USA Today and New York Times Bestselling
author Lauren Blakely’s sexy upcoming release,
Trophy Husband
, releasing May 21, 2013!
TROPHY HUSBAND
By Lauren Blakely
Copyright 2013 by Lauren Blakely
All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no
part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval
system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying,
recording, or otherwise) without the prior written permission of both the copyright
owner and the above publisher of this book. This is a work of fiction. Names, characters,
places, brands, media, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination
or are used fictitiously. The author acknowledges the trademarked status and trademark
owners of various products referenced in this work of fiction, which have been used
without permission. The publication/use of these trademarks is not authorized, associated
with, or sponsored by the trademark owners.
Prologue
Present Day
The stars twinkle and the night air is warm as we leave the Tiki Bar and walk slowly
up Fillmore. At the top of the hill, I see my friend’s maroon Prius that I’m tasked
with driving home tonight. I point to it.
“These are my wheels.” I click on the key to unlock the car. Then I reach for the
door handle. But it doesn’t open. I try again. Same thing happens. “Damn. What is
up with these hybrids?”
“They have to calibrate to your heart rate.”
“Then how the heck am I supposed to drive it home?”
“I know a trick,” Chris says.
“You do?”
“Want to give me the keys and I’ll show you?” he asks, holding open his palm for me.
But before I can pull away, he closes his fingers over mine, gripping my hand in his.
That’s all it takes. Within seconds I am in his arms, and we are wrapped up in each
other. His lips are sweeping mine, and I press my hands against his chest, and oh
my. He does have the most fantastic outlines in his body. He is toned everywhere,
strong everywhere, and I am dying to get my hands up his shirt, and feel his bare
chest and his belly. But if I did, I might just jump him right here because I am one
year and running without this. Without kissing, without touching, without feeling
this kind of heat.
He twines his fingers through my hair, and the way he holds me, both tender and full
of want at the same time, makes me start to believe in possibilities. Start to believe
that you can try again, and it’ll be worth it. His lips are so soft, so unbearably
soft, and I can’t stop kissing and tasting him. He has the faintest taste of Diet
Coke on his lips, and it’s crazy to say this, but it almost makes me feel closer to
him. Or maybe I feel closer because he’s leaning into me, his body is aligned with
mine, and there’s no space between us, and I don’t want any space between us. I want
to feel him against me, his long, strong body tangled up in mine, even though we’re
fully clothed, making out on the street.
He breaks the kiss. “I wanted to kiss you all night.”
“You did?”
“Yeah, that key thing was just an excuse. Sometimes you just have to hit the button
a few times to get the car to open.”
I laugh. “So you said that to kiss me?”
He nods. “Totally.”
“I’m glad you tricked me,” I whisper, as he bends his head and kisses my neck, blazing
a trail of sweet and sexy kisses down to my throat, and it’s almost sensory overload
the way he ignites me. Forget tingles, forget goosebumps. That’s kid stuff compared
to this. My body is a comet with Chris. I am a shooting star with the way he kisses
me. I don’t even know if I have bones in my body anymore. I don’t know how I’m standing.
I could melt under the sweet heat of his lips that are now tracing a line down my
chest to the very top of my breasts as he tugs gently at my shirt, giving himself
room to leave one more brush of his lips. Before he stops.
He looks at me and the expression on his face is one of pride and lust. He knows he’s
turned me inside out and all the way on.
“That was so unfair of me,” he says with a wicked grin. “Getting a headstart like
that on all the other candidates.”
How can there be any other guys after a kiss like that? It’s a kiss to end all kisses,
it’s a sip of lemonade in a hammock on a warm summer day. It’s a slow dance on hardwood
floors while a fan goes round overhead, curtains blowing gently in the open window.
If he feels half as much for me as I do for him, then I want to sail away with him
in the moonlight, and that scares the hell out of me. I have to extract myself before
I let this go any further. I don’t mean the contact. I mean the way my aching, broken
heart is reaching for Chris.
Chapter One
Four weeks ago…
I used to have sucky parking karma, the kind where every single time I needed a spot,
and especially if I was racing to a lunch meeting, the only one I could locate would
be in the next county, and in some cases, the next time zone.
Then one year ago, a miracle occurred. No, my ex-boyfriend didn’t fall back in love
with me and announce it was all a joke when he eloped with some chick in Vegas at
his bachelor party the night before our wedding. But another miracle transpired. Since
then I have never failed to land a parking spot on the same block as my destination.
I am quite sure this is the universe’s way of making up for precisely how he said
sayonara – via voicemail mere hours before I was about to walk down the aisle.
And because of this awesome, amazing, powerful parking karma I no longer worry that
I’ll drive around scouting out a spot in the city of San Francisco, even though time
in this city can truly be measured by the quest for a parking spot.