Trainwreck 2 (Trainwreck #2) (22 page)

With a big hug, I take the flowers from her and inhale them. The intoxicating scent of the fresh flowers that bloom in our pasture never fails to make me sigh or make me high with lust. My eyes cutaway to my beloved husband’s. He winks. He knows what I’m thinking because he’s thinking it too.

Another voice on the verge of manhood interrupts my lustful thoughts. My going-on-twelve son, Ben. He’s still the spitting image of his father and grows more and more handsome every day. And just like his dad, he’s a girl-magnet. Ari’s enrolled him in an exclusive all-boys school in the city so he can concentrate on his studies. I told him that’s not going to keep the girls away and it hasn’t. My eyes shift to him.

“Hey, I helped.”

“So did I,” quickly interjects Ari.

“Me too!” chimes in a melodic accented voice—Kamau, who’s visiting from Africa, Ben’s same-aged best friend.

A frown curls on my little girl’s rosebud lips as she crosses her arms across her tiny chest. “But I picked the most!”

I silently laugh. Just like her father, Ben, and me, she’s fiercely competitive. Ari and I must have a dominant gene when it comes to that personality trait.

Ben, who adores his little sister, rolls his eyes with a shrug. “Whatever. Happy Birthday, Mom. Maybe I’ll let you win at Combat Wombats later.”

At the mention of the video game that’s sold millions, he marches up to me and gives me a kiss.

“Yeah, right!” I laugh out loud. Ben and I still play video games together and I never let him win if I can help it. He wants to be a game designer one day, and in fact, we’re already developing one together. I have a hunch it’s going to be a breakout success.

Yet another melodic voice captures my attention. My mother’s.

Wearing her favorite smock over loose-fitting pants and a large floppy straw hat, she’s been painting outdoors. With a bright smile, she strides my way and gives me a big hug.

“Happy Birthday, sweetheart!”

“Thanks, Mom.”

I’m thirty today. It’s a special birthday and made even more special by the fact that I have my mother here to help me celebrate. She’s now passed the magic mark and has been in remission for five years. Totally cancer free, thanks to my beloved Ari. She’s as beautiful as ever, with hardly a wrinkle, and her hair has grown long and wild again though she’s chosen to keep it silver.

I feel so blessed to have this amazing, beautiful family. Later today, the rest of the gang will be here to help me celebrate my special day—Gwen and her husband, Ari’s mother, Fernando and his spouse, Andre, Olga, and Vadim, and last but not least,
meshuganah
Mrs. Blumberg, my kids’ “third Grandma.” Luisa’s serving an extravagant Provençal dinner that she’s been preparing all week. Our beloved housekeeper-cum-nanny has been taking French cordon bleu cooking lessons, and they’ve really paid off. There’s a reason I’m a few pounds heavier.

A lot has changed over the past five years. I no longer work for Ike’s Tikes. Though I could have risen up the corporate ladder to the very top, I wanted to be able to spend quality time with my family. So, I left soon after giving birth to Rose to become an independent consultant and toy designer. Fernando, who parted ways too, is my partner. We’ve been super successful, developing and selling socially responsible toy concepts to toy companies all over the world. Ike’s Tikes is our number one client. Ike will always have a special place in my heart because he saw the potential in me and made my dream come true.

Ari, like me, wanted to spend more time with our family and ended up selling his company to a huge pharmaceutical conglomerate for over two billion dollars. The cancer drug he developed netted him a fortune and has been instrumental in the battle against cancer around the world. So many survivors like my mother can be grateful to him. Instead of being a high-powered CEO, he’s now an adjunct professor at Columbia University’s Business School. He’s loving every minute of teaching and inspiring talented young men and women to make a difference in the world. When he’s not teaching or spending time with us, he’s crusading for American health care reform and overseeing his Meds Without Borders charitable foundation.

Sometimes, it’s hard to imagine that a little over five years ago I was a total trainwreck. An utter disaster. Until I met Ari. My life, or should I say our life, is now so perfect. We split our time between our Park Avenue apartment, our house in the Hamptons, and this wonderful farmhouse. And soon our life will be even richer. And I don’t mean moneywise. Come September, we’re adopting a baby girl from China. We both wanted another addition to our family; we tried for several years, but I wasn’t able to conceive. Secondary infertility. But that didn’t stop us. While working for Ike, I had made numerous trips to China where we manufactured most of our toys. My visits opened my eyes. I fell in love with the Chinese people but was appalled by the working conditions and especially the plight of women there. Thanks to my urging, Ike, who shared my value of social responsibility, moved his business to factories that promised to pay fair wages, and simultaneously relocated some of the work back to the States. Many of his company’s toys are now proudly “Made in America.”

While in China, I also learned about the fate of so many Chinese infants, especially baby girls. Because of a one-child only law, many had been abandoned and had to live in rundown orphanages. While the law had been appealed, the orphanages were still filled with abandoned female babies. It broke my heart when I visited one. If I could, I would take all of the undernourished and unloved children home. So when Ari asked me what I wanted for my thirtieth birthday, I told him I wanted to adopt a baby from China. With the soft spot he shared in his big heart for neglected children, he couldn’t have been more excited about the idea. I didn’t think I could I love him any more than I did, but at that moment I was so bursting with love I could have exploded.

“Happy Birthday, my princess,” my wonderful husband calls out to me, bringing me back to the moment and the exciting day ahead.

“Daddy, why do you call Mommy a princess too?” asks Rose, her chocolate brown eyes wide with wonderment. “She should be the queen.”

I watch with glee as Ari swings her into his arms. “She is the queen. She rules my heart. But in my heart, she will always be my princess.”

His warrior princess
. My heart is melting.

“Children,” says my mother, “I think we should give your father a little special time with your mother on her birthday.” She turns to Rose, who’s still in Ari’s arms.
“Ma chérie
, would you like to paint with me outside?”

“Yay!” squeals my sweet little girl, squirming out of Ari’s arms. Taking after my mom and me, she’s already a talented artist. Her adorable drawings and paintings fill the walls of all our houses.

“Come on, my darling,” says my mother, taking her hand. “We’ll paint a picture for your Mommy.”

As they sprightly head outside, Ben, who’s beginning to suspect what goes on between his father and me, makes an excuse to go to his room to watch some TV with Kamau. I tell him I’ll take him up on his offer and promise to play his favorite video game later.

It’s just us. Ari and me. I soak in the man I married. My Trainman. He’s just as sinfully beautiful and sexy as the day I first set eyes on him at 30th Street Station. All bronzed and buff. An Adonis. A few fine lines around his eyes have made him even sexier if you ask me.

Not wasting a second, he takes me in his arms and crashes his lips on mine. And gives me a passionate tongue-driven kiss that sends me orbiting. It lasts for almost an eternity until he breaks away.

“Princess, I bought some champagne. Should we pop it open now?”

Tingles dance in my body as his blue eyes twinkle with mischief.

While Jo-Jo purrs, he nuzzles my neck just below my chin in that spot that gets me every time.

“Well,
Saarah?
”

“Later, my love.”

###
♥
###

THANK YOU! so much for reading
TRAINWRECK.
If you loved it, I hope you will consider leaving a review. Even short reviews help others find my books. As a special bonus, please enjoy another one of my steamy and suspenseful books. HAPPY READING! MWAH! 
♥

Gloria’s Secret

Gloria Long is the beautiful, self-made CEO of Gloria’s Secret, the world’s largest retailer of lingerie. While her global emporium is famed for selling erotic fantasies, Gloria’s emotional scars inhibit her own sexual desires. Her powerful defenses melt when she meets Jaime Zander, the insanely gorgeous advertising guru, who is determined to win not only her account but also her heart by awakening her sexuality both in the boardroom and the bedroom.

A man who has never heard the word “no,” Jaime takes his creativity to the limit to make Gloria fall apart and fall for him. But major obstacles stand in the way—Gloria’s Secret’s ruthless Chairman, who covets Gloria and is out to destroy Jaime, as well as his manipulative sexpot daughter, who wants both Gloria’s job and her hot, new love.

Complicating matters further, Gloria harbors a dark, horrific secret, that when exposed, will shatter both her empire and her life. Will she be able to have it all or will the walls come tumbling down?

Nelle L’Amour

Copyright © 2013 by Nelle L’Amour

All rights reserved worldwide.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to events, locales, business establishments, or actual persons—living or dead—is purely coincidental.

No part of this ebook may be reproduced, uploaded to the Internet, or copied without permission from the author. The author respectfully asks that you please support artistic expression and help promote anti-piracy efforts by purchasing a copy of this ebook at the authorized online outlets.

Nelle L’Amour thanks you for your understanding and support.

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Cover by Streetlight Graphics

Formatting by
BB eBooks

Proofreading by Kat’s Eye Editing

—Jean de La Fontaine

Fifteen years earlier…

D
arkness shrouds us. We prowl like two cats, my eyes darting left and right, my ears attuned to even the slightest sound.

I nervously tap my partner in crime’s shoulder. Like me, he’s clad in black sweats and a hoodie, along with black gloves and athletic shoes. Identical black ski masks cover our faces. We blend into the thick opaque air, only the whites of our eyes visible.

“Kev, I’m scared. Maybe we should back out,” I whisper. My heart’s thudding in my ears, and I can feel sweat beads clustering on my flesh.

He squeezes my hand. It’s cold and clammy beneath my gloves. “Glorious, we’ve come this far. There’s no turning back.”

Something scuttles across my shoes. I jump. Kevin beams the flashlight he’s holding onto the floor. Phew! It’s only a mouse.

The seconds feel like hours. The safe, Kevin assures me, is only steps away. It feels like miles. Kevin swings the flashlight until it lands on the huge vault in front of us. All slick, polished steel, it’s bigger than I imagined—a massive, towering fortress.

“Hold this.” Kevin hands me the flashlight. I try hard to calm my trembling hands as I watch Kevin rotate the fist-size combination lock.

Right.
Click
. Right again.
Click
. Left.
Click.
Right.
Click.

“Bingo!”

My thundering heart practically leaps out of my chest when the heavy door springs open. My eyes grow round, filling the apertures of the ski mask. Bundles of one hundred dollar bills are stashed inside, stuffing the safe to the hilt.

Kevin instantly starts shoveling them into his large satchel. I’m paralyzed with shock and fear.