by Kate Hunt
I pull her toward me and we kiss. It’s so sweet. So tender.
“I love you, Sophia,” I say. “I know that might be crazy to say, because we only met a handful of weeks ago, but—”
She laughs with joy. “No. It’s not crazy. I love you, too.”
Just then, Penelope comes running up to us. “You guys are so slow!” she complains.
“Sorry, Pen,” I say, holding back a laugh.
We start walking again together, this time with Sophia’s hand in mine. It couldn’t be a more beautiful night. When we reach Sophia’s car, I give her another kiss and ask when I can see her again.
“I mean, I could come over tonight,” she says, the corner of her mouth lifting.
My body hums with desire for her.
“Well, I’m not saying no to that,” I say.
Chapter Nine
Sophia
1 Year Later
Penelope sighs as I slather sunscreen on her arms for the third time that day.
“I know it’s annoying,” I say. “But that sun is really a scorcher. You’ll be thankful later that you didn’t burn.”
“Yeah, I know,” says Penelope. “Hey, can I have another one of those fruity drinks?”
“Of course,” I say. “I’ll order one for both of us.”
Freshly sunscreened, Penelope runs off to play again on the beach. I reapply sunscreen to myself, too, then lay back again on the lounge chair and sigh with happiness. It’s truly paradise on this private island.
“Did I miss anything?”
Lucas lowers himself into the lounge chair beside me. He’s so gorgeously tan that I feel giddy at the sight of him—and we’ve already had sex twice today.
“Nope,” I say. “Just perfection and more perfection.”
“Yeah? Do you like it here more than our last vacation?”
“I love everywhere we go. But that’s because I’m with you.”
“Aw,” says Lucas, and leans over to give me a kiss. Then he leans down and kisses my barely-there bump. “How’s baby boy doing?”
“He couldn’t be better,” I say.
The last year has been a whirlwind, between the two of us getting engaged, me moving in, us getting married, and then getting pregnant. Not to mention the solo show at the gallery that I’ve been prepping for.
It’s been so wonderful, though. I couldn’t ask for more.
And while it’s been nice to know how financially secure we are, and it’s been really nice to go on lavish vacations like this, learning about Lucas’s wealth hasn’t changed things between us. I mean, when I first saw the balance in Lucas’s bank account, I almost fainted, there were that many digits to count. But after a while, I got used to that long, long row of digits. And, eventually, I stopped thinking about it. Because money’s great, but love is what’s really important.
And it’s love—deep, all-encompassing love—that I feel now as Lucas kisses me again.
“I love you so much, Sophia,” he says. “I can’t even tell you how much.”
“I love you, too,” I say. “Just as much. Actually, probably even more.”
“Not possible.”
“Oh yeah? How are we going to settle this?”
“Hmm,” says Lucas. “I dunno. But I know a way or two we can express our love.”
“Do tell.”
“Well…it begins with taking that pretty little swimsuit of yours off…”
I bite my lip. “Oh, God. I can’t wait for tonight.”
“Me either, Sophia,” he says, and presses his sweet lips to mine.
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Sneak Peek: Take Me
In some ways, I’m a typical college student. I pull all-nighters. I’m broke. I’ve eaten more than my fair share of ramen noodles. But in other ways, I’m the furthest thing from a cliché. I don’t party. I don’t have random sex. (In fact, I’ve never had sex at all.) And, believe it or not, I actually love going to class. This most recent semester—spring semester of my junior year—I got to take some some amazing classes, like “Forbidden Romance in Literature” and “Heroes and Villains.” Maybe it’s super nerdy of me to admit, but I’m actually sad that the semester is over.
If it were up to me, I would take classes this summer. But it’s not up to me. For better or worse, my older brother, Jake, is in charge of the money that funds my education, and he has insisted that I spend the next couple months doing two things: having fun and working a summer job to “get some real-world experience” and “build my character.”
Ugh. Older brothers, right? They’re so annoying.
Even more annoyingly, Jake has set up a summer job for me, which I’m on my way to right now. I guess I should just be glad that he’s not making me be an intern or something at the police station where he works. Still, I’m not exactly excited about the job he did set me up with.
I’m going to be working in an ice cream shop that Jake’s friend owns. Apparently, it’s in this boutiquey part of town and is super popular. When I looked up the website, there was one never-ending page dedicated to photos of the ice cream that people have posted on social media. Honestly, I got pretty overwhelmed looking at it. I couldn’t stop thinking about how I was going to have to learn to produce those perfectly photogenic ice cream scoops. And I also couldn’t stop thinking about all the rich, skinny girls who I was going to have to serve. They’re all going to be on one side of the counter, taking selfies with their ice cream—so tall that their heads will practically hit the ceiling—and I’ll be stuck on the other side of the counter, barely able to see over it, my thick thighs rubbing as I frantically run back and forth between flavors.
Around that point in my spiral of anxiety, I decided I needed to stop looking at the website. But first, because my curiosity temporarily outweighed my nerves, I clicked on the “About” page.
And, well, that was a big mistake. Because the page that loaded showed a photograph of the guy who owns the ice cream shop—my brother’s friend—and that photograph made me feel weak in the knees. Shane Armstrong’s official title was Founder and Owner of Sweet Cream. But it also should have said Superhunk. Damn, the guy was hot.
Which wouldn’t have been such a bad thing if he wasn’t going to be my new boss.
Click here to get your copy of Take Me
or
Get the Alphas Forever series bundle here
Also by Kate Hunt
Ripley Brothers Series
Benefits (Book 1)
Rocked (Book 2)
Alphas Forever Stories
Take Me
Fired Up
Coupled
Paradise
Alphas Forever 1-4
Other Stories
Can’t Have Him
Thank you for reading!
If you enjoyed the story, please consider leaving a review. It helps indie authors like me so much!
xo,
Kate
