Inside the Lines: Without a Trace series, a contemporary erotic romance novel (25 page)

His hands seek out flesh, slipping beneath my hoodie. I unzip it for easy removal, and then tug at his t-shirt. We’re naked and breathless in less than a minute, and when he lifts me, I wrap my legs around him. Pressing me against the foyer wall, he slides into me slowly.

“Holy fuck,” I whisper against his neck, feeling impossibly full. I gasp when he starts to move, but then he kisses me, holding my ass so he can reach into me even deeper. I cling to him, unable to take a full breath as sensation takes over.

Sandwiched between him and the wall, I can’t move as he pulls out, then drives into me again, this time with force. He cups my jaw, looking into my eyes as he thrusts again. And again. Until finally his mouth savages mine as we get lost in the rhythm.

When the intensity is too much, he carries me to the couch. I straddle him and sink my fingers into his hair, pulling his head back so I have unrestricted access to his mouth. With punishing slowness, I rock my hips, reveling in the feel of him, the slick connection that’s driving our desire. When I can no longer take anymore, I ride him hard, overtaken by white-hot pleasure as his hands curl over my shoulders, holding me against him as he finally shudders his own release.

When I slip off of him, he pulls me down to the couch, stretching out beside me.

“That was a lot easier than starting the conversation.” He lifts up on one elbow so he can trace my cheek with a finger. “But I still have a few things to say to ye.”

“I’m listening.” I reach for the throw on the back of the couch and spread it over us.

He ponders for a moment. “Aye, well, ye see, when ye came to Scotland—and I ken it was no small feat for ye. I remembered that ye hated to fly. So I knew a powerful thing drove ye to see me. But, damn, Lux, ye messed me up, love. I withdrew my application to college, left my internship, and went home, just to figure out how to get over ye. My poor mother had to put up with me living back under her roof—and believe me when I say, she had no love for her prodigal son taking up in her newly furnished sewing room.” He chuckles, but then sobers. “I’d just started seeing someone, and there ye stood, reminding me all too well of how much I still cared for ye.” He tangles his fingers with mine, then presses my knuckles to his lips. “It killed me to watch ye go, but ye had truly shocked me. I had no idea ye still even thought of me.”

“God, Fin, I am so sorry. I don’t even have a good excuse—”

“Hush now.” He covers my mouth with our joined hands. “Let me finish. As I was saying, I’d just started seeing someone. And she is a verra nice woman. So I couldna even entertain what ye’d said until I figured out what I was doing with her, ye see.”

My heart squeezes at the thought of him with someone else. “I take it that’s addressed, then?”

A corner of his mouth turns up as he gazes down at me. “She is a verra nice woman, but she’s not ye, Lux. And I knew I was leaving, ye ken? So how fair would that have been?”

“Leaving for?”

He exhales, then kisses me hard on the mouth. “If ye’d let me finish what I was saying, this would be a lot easier.”

I chuckle, then nod. “Proceed.”

He looks at the ceiling. “Dammit, woman, I can’t remember where I was.”

“You were saying something about another woman.”

“Ye would remember that part, eh? Aye, I had to straighten out that part of things, which was easy enough. We’d been out a few times while I was home, but since I was returning to the States, there wasn’t much more discussion to be had. And before ye ask, I was accepted at Cornell’s veterinary program. I started in January.”

“That’s awesome! Congratulations!” I lean forward to kiss him, and he indulges me, but then pushes me back.

“But as I was saying…fuck it, I can’t even remember what I was going to say.”

He thinks for a moment, and I revel in the warmth of him beside me. I have no idea what happens next, but this feeling, the rightness of him beside me is all I need for now. I draw his face down to mine, kiss his lips with as much gentleness as possible. “I love you, Fin. I am sorry that I—”

“Stop. I dinna want to hear that ye’re sorry. Ye already said it. This isn’t all yer fault. Ye dinna ask to be hurt or mistreated. And I know ye dinna mean to take it out on me. I’m only sorry that it happened to ye.” He lifts my hand and kisses my palm before laying it over his heart. “I’ve loved ye since the first night ye yelled at me in the hotel.”

“Oh God,” I say, my cheeks heating up. “I was such a shrew.”

“Aye, but I was determined to make ye
my
shrew,” he teases.

I stick my tongue out at him, but then he kisses me until I can’t take a full breath.

“Unfair diversion.”

He smiles at me. “So, I have a plan in mind, if ye’re game?”

I nod, feeling a warm flutter in my heart.

“We start fresh. Give this another good go. But,” he punctuates the word with a hard gaze, “we have to promise two things to each other.”

“Agreed.”

“I dinna even tell ye what they are yet.”

I grin, but then count them off on my fingers. “One: I will always respond to your texts or calls, even if only to say I can’t talk right now. And two, I will tell you when something upsets me, even if it seems minor.”

He blows out a breath. “Damn you, woman. Did ye turn psychic on me while I was gone?” He kisses me hard, then hops off the couch. “I nearly forgot. I have a present for ye.” He returns moments later with his backpack. “I dinna know when I bought this over a year ago that it would end up having as much meaning as it does.” He withdraws a long white box, similar to what flowers might come in, but not quite as wide or long, with a dark blue ribbon tied around the middle.

He hands the box to me. “Do ye remember our first date?”

I finger the ribbon. “You mean when we went to the kid’s restaurant?”

He chuckles. “Aye, well, that’s not the part I meant.” He gestures to the box. “Open it.”

I eye him with mock suspicion as I untie the ribbon. Amid tissue paper lies a beautiful leather cuff with a hand-painted peacock feather, nestled beside the real thing.

“Ye said that night that the peacock represented rebirth, another chance to get things right,” he says softly.

The cuff’s leather feels like butter, and I handle it gently, admiring its beauty.

His fingers graze my shoulder, outlining the curves of my tattoo. “Perhaps that’s what we do now.”

I fasten the cuff around my wrist, then lean forward, pressing my mouth to his in a slow, sensual kiss. “You are my rebirth.” I smile through the tears that threaten. “I’ve never met anyone who loves the way you do, without reserve or fear. And I want to be able to give you that in return.” I press a finger to his lips when he starts to say something. “I lost myself somewhere along the way, and you showed me the way back. It took me a little while to find it,” I grin wryly, “but I did. It’s my goal that you will never have to doubt my love for you again.” When our mouths meet, a promise lingers, and I sink into it happily.

A cry from the kitchen informs me that I have ten seconds before I’m cleaning up a mess. “Crap. I’m coming, Tag!” I call out to the puppy. “We have a puppy now. Technically, Noah does.”

“Is that so?” Fin watches me curiously as I struggle back into my pajama pants and hoodie as I rush towards the kitchen. I manage to let Tag out in time, and Fin joins me as I walk the puppy down the block.

“Did Noah know you were coming?”

He slides an arm around my waist. “Aye. He warned me I might have waited too long. And he said something about not hurting ye, or he’d shove his foot up my arse, I believe was the way he worded it.”

I grin. “That sounds like Noah.”

“He loves ye, as though ye were his sister.”

Reaching down, I extract a leaf from Tag’s mouth. “Honestly, I couldn’t ask for a better family. Noah and Ella, Zi and Blue—whom you’ll have to meet,” I lean against him, looking up into his eyes. “And you. I don’t think it gets much better.”

He brushes his lips against my forehead. “Aye, and ye’ll have a whole new family to meet in Scotland. Not to mention, quite a few of ‘em remember you from your run across the field on Christmas.”

“Oh God.”

He chuckles against my hair. “Ye definitely intrigued them.”

“You have school for at least four years, right? Plenty of time to forget about that.”

He chuckles. “Och, did ye learn nothing in history class, love? Scots have terrible long memories.”

I am so screwed.

The End

The second book in the Without a Trace series,

coming in Summer 2015!

What if I’ve been wrong about everything...

And he’s the only thing that’s right?

I’ve never believed in love at first sight, which is probably why I write mysteries, and not romances, for a living. Besides, I’m too focused on expanding Elementary, a mystery dinner party business I own with my brother Noah. I don’t have time for romance.

When the handsome and successful Ian Crane books our services, I can barely keep my wits about me. He’s setting fire to all my rules, and I can’t resist his flames.

I don’t recognize the woman I’m becoming, but I don’t want to go back to who I was. There’s a part of me that can’t help wondering, what if he’s too good to be true? Because if he is, my heart will be nothing more than ashes.

Ella and Ian’s story

coming in Summer 2015!

Read on for a sneak peek...

Crossing the

Line

CHAPTER ONE

What if?

I’ve always believed that we have a soul mate, and that when we meet them, inside, we’ll know. Crazy, isn’t it? Surely we’d have been born with some kind of homing beacon, something to lead us to them, if that were the case?

Yet I can’t shake it. Every time I meet an old couple who’ve made it through the storms, or two people who have that unique bond where they finish each other’s sentences and seem to live only in their shared world...I’m convinced I’m right.

The problem: what happens when you’ve already met them, and now they’re gone?

“You’re sure you don’t want to join us afterwards? Meet-and-greets only take a half hour, max.” Noah glances at me from across our desks in our dining-room-turned-home-office. We run a dinner-theater company—Elementary—out of our apartment, and while we’ve got a ways to go before we’re a success, we’re finally in the black—enough that Noah and I can work for ourselves full-time, rather than have side jobs to pay the bills.

“I’ve got the meet-and-greet with Ian Crane tonight, a marketing event in the morning, two meet-and-greets tomorrow, and last-minute planning for the party on Saturday.” I look up into my brother’s deep blue eyes, ringed with silver, just like mine. “I’m absolutely positive I don’t want to meet you and Lux at some dance club or murky bar, wherein y’all will pick up bed partners and I’ll come home alone. Weird how it just doesn’t appeal to me, eh?”

He sighs dramatically. “Sister dear, you put a little bit more effort into that sexy secretary look you’ve got going on there, and you’ll also be coming home with a little something warm for your very cold bed.” He points a finger at my nose. “And you forget, Lux is off the market. She and Evan are doing the holy handholding.”