The Price of Inertia
Page 34
My need for this man intensifies exponentially. My lungs now join my heart and fill, fill, fill, as if they too will burst from too-muchness. Too much happiness, too much joy, and too much gratitude.
I slide my hands around his neck. He dips his head, claiming my mouth as his tongue sweeps in and dances with mine and we kiss feverishly, as if we’re afraid to let each other go. His strong, powerful arms wrap around me tighter, making me feel safe and wanted. After losing my way, wandering restlessly in my maze of no hope, I finally feel as if I have come home. With Ward, I am home. He is the thing that completes me. He swallows me up and makes me his and I don’t want anyone else because no one else compares.
“I love you,” I tell him, and we kiss again, making up for the long, lonely months and holding on to one another, never to let go again.
Epilogue
A year later …
WARD
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When she came to me, almost a year ago now, standing in my conservatory looking thin and gaunt, I had to fight my initial urge to hold her. She looked frail and brittle and it was plain to see that she wasn’t coping.
I didn’t intend to touch her, or kiss her, or tell her how much I missed her—not on that first day—but Mari has a hold on me that I don’t fully understand. My determination to stay composed and in control lasted all of ten seconds. I couldn’t hold back. I had to tell her I loved her, because I did.
She had looked me up and come to me, and that was all the validation I needed. Not a day had passed that I didn’t think of her. It got so bad that I had made plans to return to Chicago when I started writing my next book. Chicago has different memories for me now, and if I hadn’t heard from her when I did, I was going to seek her out.
But after a lifetime of holding back, keeping my thoughts and emotions to myself, I no longer have to do that, not with Mari. She is my soulmate and we fit together to make the perfect whole.
“How many words?” she asks, her hand skimming over my head. I glance up and watch her float by in a sexy turquoise bikini. She returns to her desk and gets back to work.
There goes my goal for the day. My fingers hover over the keyboard. I won’t reach five thousand words. Not now.
Our temporary castle for the next two months is a luxury apartment nestled high up on steep cliffs overlooking the Aegean Sea. In Santorini. This sparkling Greek island with its cool-white-and-deep-blue buildings is one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen.
I only have to look up from my couch to see the tangerine sunset above an azure blue pool that glistens under the sun. The wide-open doors let in a cool breeze but Mari has a desk fan on as she works in full sight of me. I take a moment, maybe ten, to admire her side profile.
How she expects me to reach my daily word count is beyond me.
We don't often get out of bed until noon. Then we have breakfast outside in the huge veranda dotted with terracotta plant pots and pink bougainvillea flowers striking a contrast against the bright white walls.
This is my version of paradise, but it's Mari who makes it so. I could be anywhere and I would be happy, as long as she's by my side. I need nothing and no one else.
I save my document then close my laptop. She hears the sound and glances at me. “Packing up so soon?” she asks, then gets back to her work, typing away on her laptop. She's my unofficial marketing person and assistant and manager. She's the help I needed all along but refused to take.
Rob loves her, because she's taken all his worries away and given him his life back. That and because he can see how good she is for me. These days, there is no reason for him to babysit me or to worry about my deadlines.
I reach my targets and goals, most of the time, and my next book is on track to be finished in time so as not to give Rob a heart attack.
My TV interviews are bearable because Mari is waiting in the wings. Knowing that she's there gets me through the interviews, laughing at the talk show hosts and pretending to be at ease when I’m clearly out of my comfort zone.
I'm only truly at ease when I'm in my home, my castle, a place of comfort—with Mari by my side. Everything that was tough for me before is now bearable because of her.
The Unseen Face became an instant bestseller and from that point on, everything turned crazy. The runaway success of the book was something I was unprepared for. Usually, my books hit the bestseller charts and then drop back down after a few months. This one has stayed high up in the charts and it’s still riding high even now.
James Garvey, eat your heart out.
Readers have said this book was different, that it wasn't just all horror and that it had a sense of redemption. Perhaps because The Morbid trilogy loosely mirrored my own life.
The Unseen Face was written during a time when I had finally grasped at the possibility of laying my ghosts to rest. Because Mari had given me the happier future I had never dreamed of and a sense of belonging I hadn’t ever really had.
“I'm not in the mood for writing,” I say, eyeing her side profile as she taps away at the keyboard.
“Your daily word count,” she says, in a singsong voice. “You need to meet it.”
“If you're going to parade around in a bikini all day, we might need to revise and lower my goals.”
She turns and fixes me with a serious stare. “I like to swim laps in between working, but if it's causing problems with your concentration, I can change into something else.”
Seeing my expression sour, she gets up and walks over to me.
I move my laptop to the side and let her climb onto me, straddling me.
“No need to change,” I tell her, snaking my hands around her waist. “I'll find my motivation, don't you worry.”
“That's better,” she whispers, splaying her hands on my naked chest. She's good at keeping me in check. It doesn't help that she's sitting on me, or that I'm in my swim trunks. My excitement throbs and pokes her, tellingly. She lowers her head to my chest then drops tiny kisses all over. This isn’t going to help me one bit.
“Did you want me to reach my goals for the day?” I ask her, because at this rate, it’s just not going to happen.
“Yes.” She drops a kiss on my lips, while her soft fingers skim all over my arms and chest. She loves the feel of me, of my muscles and my tautness. My workouts and exercise are more for her than for me. “We’ve gone through your deadlines and your timetable. You know what you have to do.” As if to confuse the heck out of me, she kisses me deeply, her sweet mouth melting into mine and giving me other, different ideas.
My arousal presses against her. I only have to pull the string of her bikini and it will begin—another hot sultry evening that lasts for hours. There will be no more words written today. “Can’t it wait until after?”
“No,” she says, her expression schoolteacherish. “You're getting nothing until you meet your targets.”
By targets, she doesn't only mean the words, but the laps I have to take in the pool and the exercises she makes me do. The push-ups and jumping rope and some other cardio moves she lined up for me.
She's my Jamie, Trevor and Rob all rolled into one.
I can't imagine life without her, and I hope I never will. I grab her hand, the sparkling engagement ring flashes in the sunlight streaming in. I push up my thighs, poking her with the signs of my arousal.
She squirms. “Ward, you can poke me all you want, but nothing happens until you finish everything.”
My plummeting disappointment is soon replaced by new energy. Now I will be forced to get everything done super, super fast—which is probably why she’s sitting on my lap in the first place, dangling the carrot of her sexy, sensual body in front of me.
My gaze takes in her face, rounded and full now that all the worry has been vanquished. I stare at her, hoping to entice her into going easy on me today, but I know it won’t work. It never does.
There’s no danger of me slipping into an abyss with her around. Mari keeps me in check.
I don't need beautiful, exotic locations to be happy. For me, Mari is my own happy place. She makes sure I never hit rock bottom, and I cushion her so that she never does either.
I love her and she loves me, and it's really as simple as that.
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Thank you for reading The Price of Inertia! I hope you enjoyed Ward and Mari’s story.
If you have a moment to spare, I would be most grateful if you could leave a review for this book at Goodreads. A review can be as short as one sentence. Your opinion goes a long way in helping others decide if a book is for them.
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Lily
Booklist
The Seven Sins: A series of seven standalone romances based on the seven sins. Steamy, emotional, and angsty romances which are loosely connected.
Underdog (FREE prequel)
The Wrath of Eli
The Problem with Lust
The Lies of Pride
The Price of Inertia
* * *
The Billionaire’s Love Story: This is a Cinderella story with a touch of Jerry Maguire. What happens when the billionaire with too much money meets the single mom with too much heart?
* * *
The Promise (FREE)
The Gift, Book 1
The Gift, Book 2
The Gift, Book 3
The Gift, Boxed Set (Books 1, 2 & 3)
The Offer, Book 1
The Offer, Book 2
The Offer, Book 3
The Offer, Boxed Set (Books 1, 2 & 3)
The Vow, Book 1
The Vow, Book 2
The Vow, Book 3
The Vow, Boxed Set (Books 1, 2 & 3)
* * *
Indecent Intentions: This is a spin-off from The Billionaire’s Love story. This two-book set consists of two standalone stories about the billionaire’s playboy brother. The second story is about a wealthy nightclub owner who shuns relationships.
* * *
The Bet
The Hookup
Indecent Intentions 2-Book Set
* * *
Honeymoon Series: Take a roller-coaster journey of emotional highs and lows in this story of love and loss, family and relationships. When Ava is dumped six weeks before her Valentine’s Day wedding, she has no idea of the life that awaits her in Italy.
* * *
Honeymoon for One
Honeymoon for Three
Honeymoon Blues
Honeymoon Bliss
Baby Steps
Honeymoon Series Boxed Set (Books 1-4)
* * *
Italian Summer Series: This is a spin-off from the Honeymoon Series. These books tell the stories of the secondary characters who first appeared in the Honeymoon Series. Nico and Ava also appear in these books.
* * *
It Takes Two
All That Glitters
Fool’s Gold
Roman Encounter
November Sun
New Beginnings
Italian Summer Series Boxed Set (Books 1- 4)
* * *
A Perfect Match Series: This is a seven book series in which the first four books feature the same couple. High-flying corporate executive Nadine has no time for romance but her life takes a turn for the better when she meets Ethan, a sexy and struggling metal sculptor five years younger. He works as an escort in order to make the rent. Books 4-6 are standalone romances based on characters from the earlier books. The main couple, Ethan and Nadine, appear in all books:
* * *
Lost in Solo (prequel)
The Proposal
Heart Sync
A Leap of Faith
A Perfect Match Series Books 1-3
Misplaced Love
Reclaiming Love
Embracing Love
A Perfect Match Series (Books 4-6)
Standalone Books:
Love Inc
An Unexpected Gift
An Ordinary Hero
* * *
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Acknowledgments
I owe a huge thanks to the wonderful ladies in my proofreading group for their patience and support, as well as their tolerance for my ever-changing deadlines. They check my manuscript for errors, typos, inconsistencies and the many strange words and phrases which often find their way into my stories.
They give me the confidence to release each book and I am eternally grateful for their help and support:
Marcia Chamberlain
Carole Tunstall
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I would also like to thank L J Andersen of Mayhem Cover Creations for creating the awesome cover.
About the Author
Lily Zante lives with her husband and three children somewhere near London, UK.
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Connect with Me
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Copyright © 2020 Lily Zante
The Price of Inertia (#4 The Seven Sins)
Ebook Edition
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All rights reserved.
No part of this publication may be copied, reproduced in any format, by any means, electronic or otherwise, without prior consent from the copyright owner and publisher of this book.
The scanning, uploading and distribution of this book through the internet or any other means without the prior written consent of the author is illegal and is punishable by law.
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This is a work of fiction. All characters, names, places and events are the product of the author's imagination or used fictitiously and do not bear any resemblance to any real person, alive or dead.