“I’m freezing my ass off out here.”
That voice. I squeezed my eyes shut.
“What are you doing here?”
“Since I don’t think your phone’s broken, I thought it’d work better than calling.”
“No. Greedy whores don’t always answer their phone.”
“Come on, Mara. Look at me.”
I opened one eye and glared at him through it.
Contrite Wes was not who I was expecting. Sleet peppered his face, but he didn’t flinch.
“Fine.” I gathered my things and got out. He closed the door behind me and ripped his J.Crew coat off to hold over me as a makeshift umbrella.
Why’d he have to go do something sweet?
I got us inside and took his coat. It didn’t get hung up with my coat. I draped it over the end table next to the front door.
Right eye twitch. I counted it as a win.
He went to the couch we’d had some amazing sex on and settled in. A briefcase I hadn’t noticed before rested at his feet.
I stayed standing and ordered my muscles not to fidget under his scrutiny.
“You look good. Where are you working?”
“I’m not.”
“I’m sorry.”
I shrugged and crossed my arms. “It is what it is.”
“No, I’m sorry for the way I treated you.”
“When?”
He winced. “Everything. No, I don’t regret our time together, but I’m sorry for how it began. For the lies, for the insults to your character.”
This conversation was going to destroy me later, but I’d hold it in until he left. Wes in my house scrambled my good sense. How right it felt shorted my you should know better wiring.
“Okay. You can go now.”
“A few more things, please.”
“Wes, I—”
He lifted the bag and grabbed some papers.
“I hate that bag,” I blurted.
“I don’t blame you.” He held them out to me.
“No offense, but this scenario didn’t go so well last time.”
He set them next to him on the couch. “It’s the same contract you were going to sign with Sam. I halted the demolition and the mall is yours for a dollar.”
I barked out an angry laugh. Was he serious? Was this a last attempt to prove I was the greedy whore he’d always thought? I made a beeline for the papers and in front of his face, I ripped them in half. Ripped them in half again, then again, and shoved the shreds into the offensive bag.
He pressed his lips together through the whole show. “It was yours, no strings.”
“Oh, there are strings, Wes. I don’t want to give you my signature as proof that I’m willing to use men for personal gain.”
“I don’t think that,” he whispered. “I’ve changed—”
“I’ve changed, too. I know better than to trust a guy who wields his power over me.”
“Fair enough.” He withdrew another sheet of paper.
I envisioned burning that bag in a tiny bonfire. “Oh god. What now?”
“Have a seat.”
“No.”
“I talked to Jake Johannsen.”
The shock buckled my knees. I pivoted to land next to him on the sofa. I’d been struggling to move on and he’d been continuing his mission to ruin me. Wasn’t my store enough, he had to dredge up the humiliation of my past—again?
“I’m sure his side of the story differed from mine.” I couldn’t look at Wes.
“Not when I told him I could arrange for his entire career to be audited.”
That…wasn’t what I expected to hear. “What’d you do?” I breathed.
“I did what I’m best at—wielded my power. He confessed everything.” His smirk was the same one I’d seen on the plane when he’d thought he’d cornered me. “But I’m having him audited anyway.”
A laugh escaped, but I sobered. “He’ll just lose his job at the worst. It won’t save others.”
“I’m paying for the representation of any of his victims who want to take legal action.”
My world slowed. Wes championing me was different than him taking the word of women he’d never met. Paying their legal fees.
“Why would you do this?”
He adjusted until he faced me. His large, capable hands wrapped around mine and it was the first time in weeks I’d felt some of the stress of my life abate.
“I’d like to think it’s because it’s the right thing, but I wouldn’t have known about it if it weren’t for you. I want you back, Mara.”
My head was shaking and I didn’t realize it until he cupped my face.
“Your diploma should arrive in the next six weeks.”
He grew blurry as I gazed at him through a pool of tears. Stay strong. He’d lied to me, used me, dropped me in New York, and left. But he’d held me all night when I’d needed emotional support, he’d fixed my sink, and he was championing several women he’d never met. “I’ve been trying so hard to hate you.”
And it was hard when I’d recall how he’d pushed my mom around Comic-Con and treated her to dinner after, all while in costume. How he’d chewed me out for not accepting his private plane to get back to Minneapolis. Our laughing and silly competitions at the trampoline park. I’d wanted to hate him, but we’d had too many good times to let the hurt and lies reign supreme.
His lips touched mine briefly. “I gave up trying to hate you. Couldn’t do it. Don’t want to do it.”
“How can I trust you again? You used me.”
“I never used you,” he said gruffly. “I couldn’t get enough of you. But I understand. Take as long as you need, Mara, just don’t shut me out. I want you in my life. I want to come home to you. I want to tell you about my day. I want you to keep showing me what love really is.”
It sounded too good to be true. “No matter what, I was still friends with your dad.”
“I know and I was unfair. I’ve thought about it a lot. Other than you, it’s almost all I’ve thought about. I can’t pretend to know how he felt, and I don’t agree with what he did or my mom sending me off to school. I think she felt like she was protecting me when it just separated us more. But it happened and I can see now that he tried by teaching me how to run his business and acknowledging me in his will. And when I really thought about it, I realized, how awesome is that? You got to know him, too, and instead of being a resentful asshole, I can enjoy swapping Sam stories with you.”
Speechless. Still, I tried shaking my head between his palms.
“Come back to me, Mara. There’s been no one for me since the bartender first called to tell me a hot chick wanted to talk to me.”
“So we were exclusive?” I teased with a sniffle. I gripped his wrists, my nails digging in. Too good to be true.
“One hundred percent. But I confess, I may be homeless soon.”
I rubbed into his caress. A girl could get used to this. “Is there a story?”
“Only that I hated the house and I’m selling it. When you left, the emptiness was intolerable. I got it thinking Sam would approve.”
Lost in the pool of his blue gaze, I stroked his wrist with my thumb. “I wasn’t lying when I said how much he loved you. He called himself a coward because he couldn’t crawl back, begging for forgiveness.”
“Thank you for that.” His voice was ragged.
We met for another kiss. He pushed me back and I let him. His weight stretched out over me was a welcome relief.
“I missed this.” His lips seared a path down my neck.
Dry-cleaning number four for this suit, but if I wasn’t too late for Chris’s offer then it was back to leggings for me.
I worked Wes’s buttons as he wrestled me out of my pants. “I missed your leggings, too.”
Forget the shirt. I freed him from his trousers to direct him into me.
He laid his hand on mine that was wrapped around his erection. “That bag you hate has a new pack of protection.”
&nbs
p; “Then I won’t burn it while you’re sleeping.”
His deep chuckle vibrated into me. Within seconds, he was positioned back between my legs. A roll of his hips and he pushed inside.
He didn’t thrust right away but laid his forehead on mine. “The weather’s awful. I might get snowed in.”
He withdrew and pushed back in.
I moaned at the ecstasy of him stroking me. “I might make you shovel.”
“I’ll earn my keep.”
The tightness of his body matched mine. We both tried not to rush, to savor each other.
It was no use. I arched back and exploded over him. He roared my name and shook in my embrace.
In the warmth of the aftermath, Wes held me in a grip that a tornado couldn’t loosen. Mine was just as fierce.
Wes
One year later…
“I can’t believe I let you talk me into this.” I eyed my reflection in the mirror.
“You look amazing.” Mara stood next to me and my eyes narrowed.
“I wasn’t talking about me.” But I rocked the Superman tights and cape, thank you very much. “It’s letting people see you in that Wonder Woman costume.”
She grinned and ran her hand over her purple-streaked hair. “I’m not the Amazon she was, but if it’ll draw people to the booth…” She stepped back to examine me. “I think you’ll definitely attract a crowd.”
“I do what I can for Arcadia.”
Including making Arcadia’s new location the home of my Back to the Future pinball machine. Mara’s delight when I’d showed it to her made me wish I had ten more.
“Are you sure Chris doesn’t need help setting up the booth?” If I wanted to be selfish, and when it came to Mara I was, I’d admit to being grateful she’d partnered with Chris. It took some of the pressure off her, and that meant more time with me.
She had passed on my offer to help get Arcadia up and running. Her own venture, she’d said in the same breath used to refuse my dismissal of a prenup.
So fine, my team drew up a standard one to make her happy and I never planned on using it anyway.
It’d also mollified my mother, who was under strict orders to never call Mara a greedy whore again. Easy to do, since she lived in the Bahamas half the year.
“He said he’d take care of it if we tore it down at the end of the convention.” Mara slipped on the yellow tiara. “He also said he’d tear it down if we could use the jet to fly to Chicago and look at a location for a second store.”
“You know you don’t need to ask me.” I was glad to see it get use, not utilizing it much since I’d dropped my business in New York and donated the property I’d owned to the city’s housing authority. Then donated the money they’d need to build affordable housing. Not completely altruistic—I no longer had the desire to travel constantly.
“It makes him feel better to offer. Were you able to recruit Flynn for Captain America?”
“Yes, after I told him that there’d be plenty of women offering to be his Betsy Ross. And then I had to tell him who Betsy Ross was.”
We walked to the garage together in our new place. I’d sold the Bruce Wayne mansion, and Mara and I had settled in a place that was a quarter of the size, with no lake. But I’d kept my team of people, especially Chef.
The trip to Golden Meadows went by quickly—we’d made sure to find a place close to Wendy.
Breezing through the nursing home, we found Wendy with a smile on her face, breaking tradition and already dressed as Rey from the newest Star Wars movie. Every time we visited, I marveled at how much her color and tremors had improved. She’d never get fully better, but with the doctors Helen had found and the new treatment regimen, she wasn’t deteriorating as quickly and her quality of life was vastly improved.
“Look at you two. You look amazing.” Wendy used her new motorized wheelchair to start for the exit.
She called it a splurge, but to me, it was a necessity. I’d even offered to move her in, but when Mara had asked, she’d passed. Too isolating. So I spoiled the woman in any other way I could. I loved my mom in my own way, but Wendy was on a different level.
Kinda like Mara.
I grabbed Wonder Woman’s hand and walked with my family outside. A family I might’ve never had if Sam hadn’t tried to keep his memories with me alive in Mara’s store. I thanked the old man every time I visited the cemetery.
As if in tune with my thoughts, and she probably was, Mara smiled up at me.
I leaned in to whisper in her ear, “I’m so going to rip that costume off with my teeth tonight.”
A sultry smile curved her lips. “Funny. I was thinking the same thing.”
______
Flynn meets a woman who makes him use his handy skills like never before in First to Bid.
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About the Author
Marie Johnston writes paranormal and contemporary romance and has collected several awards in both genres. Before she was a writer, she was a microbiologist. Depending on the situation, she can be oddly unconcerned about germs or weirdly phobic. She’s also a licensed medical technician and has worked as a public health microbiologist and as a lab tech in hospital and clinic labs. Marie’s been a volunteer EMT, a college instructor, a security guard, a phlebotomist, a hotel clerk, and a coffee pourer in a bingo hall. All fodder for a writer!! She has four kids and even more cats.
mariejohnstonwriter.com
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Also by Marie Johnston
First To Lie
First to Bid
First to Fail
First to Lie: An Enemies to Lovers Romance (Unraveled Book 1) Page 17
