The Billionaire's Secret Flame
Page 11
Andy pressed his palm to the reader in the elevator, and the doors opened to his floor. Sami took one step before she realized what was different.
“Oh.”
A table had been set up outside of Andy’s front door, with a picture frame sitting on it beside an empty vase. An envelope with her name leaned against the glass, and Andy nudged her forward.
“It’s for you.”
“Andy.” She glanced at him, her heart pounding in her chest.
“Go on.”
She did, picking up the envelope and opening it to find a card. She read aloud the words on it. “I put your handprint into the elevator too. Now you don’t have to wait for me to buzz you in.”
His hand came warmly along her waist. “I love you.”
She loved him too, and she leaned into his touch and said it.
“There’s more inside.” He opened the door and added, “Bring the vase.”
She picked it up, used to Andy’s adventures, even if they didn’t make sense to her. Just inside the door, he presented her with a red rose. “You are the most organized person I know.”
She rolled her eyes but allowed him to put the flower in the vase. She followed him around the penthouse, accepting roses and compliments until he finally picked up one last rose in the kitchen and dropped to both knees.
“You’ve never been more right than when you said I couldn’t live without you. Will you marry me?”
Sami didn’t see the diamond at first, but it glinted at her now, right on the end of the stem. Tears came to her eyes, and she pressed her palm over her wildly beating pulse. “Yes,” she whispered. “Yes, Andy, of course I will.”
He grinned, straightened, and took her into his arms—right where she belonged and where she always wanted to be. “I love you,” he whispered.
“I love you, too,” she said, kissing her fiancé as soon as she finished speaking.
Wow, Andy and Sami might be my favorite couple… If you think so too, please leave a review now!
Join Elana’s romantic suspense newsletter to get deals on her books, notices of new releases, and free books.
Read on for a sneak peek of THE ROCKSTAR’S SECRET WEAKNESS, featuring Mia, Sami’s sister, and one Declan Phelps…. Then go preorder it!
Sneak Peek! The Rockstar’s Secret Weakness Chapter One
Mia Addler let the last of the Michigan warmth sun bake her, the warmth settling into her bones where she hoped it would stay through the winter. The forecast called for rain tomorrow, and that would be the beginning of colder months to come.
In some ways, she was glad. She worked hard on the family’s resort as a lifeguard, and when the lake closed, she wouldn’t have to deal with rowdy teenagers keeping families up at night, or drunk men trying to hit on her.
While flattering, Mia didn’t need a boyfriend, especially because the one she wanted, she couldn’t have.
Her father had made that much clear. Her mother, too.
She forced the image of Declan Phelps out of her mind, where it was wont to return in moments anyway. After all, he was easily the best-looking man in the country, maybe the entire world. Universe, even.
He had dark, dreamy, soulful eyes that every female on Earth had fantasized about. He could grow a beard over a weekend and show up at Mia’s to kiss her all sexy and scruffy.
Except not anymore. No more kissing Declan. No more letting Declan through the gate that led to the lane where all the Addlers lived. Nope, nope, nope.
He was too old for her. Too “worldly,” as her mother had said. Was it her fault he was an internationally renowned musician?
She almost scoffed as she lay on her towel on the beach. “And he’s a rockstar,” she muttered to herself. “Not a musician.” Though, technically, he was both. When he got asked questions about his rockstar status in interviews, he always corrected the person.
Mia smiled just thinking about those interviews. That dark hair he kept long to perpetuate his rocker persona, but secretly hated.
She hadn’t hated it. Hadn’t hated the way he pulled it back into a sexy man-bun, nor the way it slid through her fingers when she kissed him.
Enough, she told herself.
He was off-limits, and he’d left the country a month ago anyway. He hadn’t texted her. Hadn’t even fought her parents and their declaration that Declan was No Good For Mia.
Her chest felt a little hollow with that knowledge. She’d thought he liked her, but his willingness to simply leave her alone said otherwise.
She rolled over when she started to feel like the sun was crisping her skin a little too much. To her right, a group of teenagers played beach volleyball, clearly enjoying this last bit of warmth like everyone else.
The beach at Sunshine Shores Orchards and Resort was full today, and she supposed the fact that school started up again tomorrow after fall break played a heavy hand in that.
Then, there would be no teenagers. No families with screaming kids and crying babies. Just the miles and miles of beachfront her family owned, with the cherry orchards only a couple dozen yards from the shore.
The sweet scent of the fruit had filled Mia’s nose for months, and she even went so far as to use cherry-scented lotions and body wash year-round. Yes, cherries ran in her blood, and she hadn’t been able to stand up to her parents and fight for Declan either.
She let her thoughts wander, finally deciding that she needed to get back in the dating pool. Tomorrow, she told herself. While she worked a lot at the family resort in the summer, she also kept a job at the singular law office in the town of Forbidden Lake.
She did all the legal stuff for Sunshine Shores, and she consulted in town, and she did pro bono cases when they came up. Anything to keep her mind sharp, her boredom to a minimum. The two brothers she was closest to had girlfriends now, and Karly had been married for a while. Her baby was due by Christmas, and Mia couldn’t wait for another niece.
The sun continued to shine down as she dozed, the loud voices of the boys playing volleyball fading away and then coming back.
Except they weren’t the exact same voices. Sure enough, when Mia pulled herself from the edge of slumber and sat up, the group on the court had gone. Several new people had arrived, but they were much older, and they’d brought a Frisbee instead of a ball.
Mia didn’t understand Frisbees. They curved oddly in the air, and she’d never been able to throw one. So she watched as the five men threw the disc to one another, seemingly without any of the same issues she always had.
Her phone chimed, interrupting her observations of the men, and she glanced down to see her grandmother had texted. The older woman always made Mia chuckle and shake her head, because she really couldn’t seem to figure out texting. She still had the driving feature on, so every time Mia texted her while she was driving, she got an auto-response that Grams couldn’t respond.
Mia had been teaching her to use short phrases so the dinner tonight? text on her phone was appropriate.
And Mia didn’t chuckle this time. She always went to the family dinner on Sunday nights. Why was Grams asking specifically if she’d be there?
Yep, she thumbed out and sent, returning her attention to the men. Maybe one of them would ask her out if she got up, went over to the water’s edge, stretched a little…. Mia wasn’t a flirt, but she knew how to flirt. How to get a man to look her way. How to let him know she was interested.
She knew how to do the opposite of those things too, and if she got unwanted attention, she could turn them away, no problem.
The red disc went flying again, and the recipient ran after it as it flew wide. He went in the lake, splashes coming up as he tried to run in water. His friends laughed, and even Mia laughed when he finally succumbed to gravity and went under.
He came up victorious with the Frisbee, a huge smile on his face. Mia got up, straightening the ties on her bikini bottoms and pretending like she was the only person at the beach that day.
She tugged her rashg
uard over her head so her top half was covered and headed for the water. The game of Frisbee continued several yards to her right, and it seemed like the guys were only focused on that blasted disc today.
Fine.
Mia bent down and got her hands wet, cringing a little at the cold water, working a little bit of it through her hair. She hadn’t showered in a couple of days, and the tanning lotion and sunscreen she used had left a sticky film on her skin and scalp.
She admired the view of the lake, imagining she could see all the way across it and into Canada. As a child, she’d wondered what it would be like to get on a boat and sail across the border and into another country. Would she find what she wanted there?
Mia sighed and turned around. She didn’t know if she’d find what she wanted in Canada, because she didn’t know what she wanted, period.
She’d always been driven, had gotten her law degree and gone to work. But now that she was thirty, she honestly had no idea what came next in her life. Was it simply the same thing, day after day, until she reached forty? And then what?
After returning to her staked out spot on the beach, she kept her rashguard on so she wouldn’t get sunburnt and sat on her towel. With her legs out in front of her, she braced most of her weight on her palms and leaned her face toward the sky. Maybe the wind would whisper to her what she should do with her life.
Career. Marriage. Family. She wanted it all. But how, and in what order, and with whom seemed to elude her.
“Heads!” someone yelled, and Mia snapped her eyes open. She had no time to search for the flying object before the red Frisbee landed right next to her, spraying loose sand everywhere.
Everywhere, including her hair, her eyes, down her shirt, and in her mouth.
Instant fury shot to her head, and she jumped to her feet, narrowly grabbing the disc before the jogging man arrived to get it.
“You should be more careful,” she said, slapping the toy against his chest. He simply smiled down at her, but Mia was no longer interested. They’d had their chance to approach her when she’d made her sexy walk down to the water.
He put his hand over the Frisbee to keep it against his chest and backed up a step. He looked vaguely familiar, but Mia couldn’t place how she knew him. As he continued to back away, she squinted at him as if that would help, but it didn’t.
“An apology would be nice,” she called after him and that goofy smile he hadn’t taken off his face.
“Hey, sorry about that,” another man said, coming forward and passing the first man. “Sometimes Frisbees can go astray.”
Mia could only blink at the heavenly vision coming toward her. She knew that gait. Knew that accented voice. Knew those straight, white teeth, and how delicious that mouth felt against hers.
“Declan,” she said, pressing one palm to her pulse as she drank in the baseball hat and sunglasses—his disguise for being out in public. “What are you doing here?” She glanced around as if her parents had security guards watching her and would swoop in, separating Mia and this drop-dead gorgeous man.
She shook her head and blinked. Maybe he was a mirage.
But he kept coming toward her, very solid and very real.
“Playing Frisbee,” he said. “I didn’t mean to spray sand everywhere.” He brushed his hand over her hair, and she almost jerked away from him so she wouldn’t know how long it had been since she’d washed it.
He was a rockstar in board shorts, everything above the waist bare. She ogled him, the glorious golden color of his skin, the fine lines of muscle along his abs and chest.
“It’s good to see you, Mia,” he said, drawing her attention to his face. Oh, that face. That strong jaw, that slow, devilish grin. It was probably a good thing she couldn’t see those eyes.
All at once, she knew him being here, on this beach, at this time, wasn’t an accident. Warmth filled her from head to toe, and she couldn’t seem to form a response.
Because he was still thirty-nine-years-old. He was still very much off-limits.
Forbidden, she thought as she continued to smile at him. Being with him would definitely make her life more interesting, and an internal war began in her brain.
Yay for Declan making a “chance meeting” on the beach happen! I wonder what Mia will do….
The Rockstar’s Secret Weakness is coming in just 2 weeks! Preorder now.
Leave a Review
Like this book?
Please leave a review for it on Amazon!
Join Elana’s romantic suspense newsletter stay up-to-date with new releases, news, and deals.
Join Elana’s romantic suspense newsletter here.
Want more info about her beach romances? Join her sweet beach romance newsletter too. They’re two different things, to hopefully deliver to you the type of romance you’re most excited about.
Read more by Elana
Want more secret, forbidden, delicious clean romance? Amazing! Join Elana’s Suspense list to be notified when THE ROCKSTAR’S SECRET WEAKNESS comes out in just a couple of weeks!
Love beaches, brides, and sweet romance that’ll leave you wishing it was summer every day of the year? Go to Getaway Bay with the Beaches & Brides series and read THE HELICOPTER PILOT’S BRIDE today!
Want to try a clean billionaire romance on the beaches of Hawaii? THE BRAINY BILLIONAIRE is just that!
Like longer Hallmark-type romances? Second chance romance? Who doesn’t?! Start with THE PARAMEDIC’S SECOND CHANCE, Book 1 in the Hawthorne Harbor Second Chance Romance series.
About Elana
Elana Johnson is the USA Today bestselling author of dozens of novels, from YA contemporary romance to adult beach romances. Check out her YA romance in JUST FRIENDS, ELEVATED, TO BE YOURS, and SOMETHING ABOUT LOVE. She is also the author of the Hawthorne Harbor Romance series, the Clean Beach Club Billionaire Romance series, the Beaches & Brides Romance series, and the Forbidden Lake Romance series.
Find her on Facebook, BookBub, and her blog. Tap here to see all her books.
She also writes under the pen name Liz Isaacson, who is the USA Today bestselling author of the Three Rivers Ranch Romance series, the #1 bestselling Gold Valley Romance series, the Brush Creek Brides series, the Steeple Ridge Romance series (Buttars Brothers novels), the Grape Seed Falls Romance series, the Christmas in Coral Canyon Romance series, and the Last Chance Ranch Romance series.
If you liked this book, please take a few minutes to leave a review for it. Authors (Elana included!) really appreciate this, and it helps draw more readers to books they might like. Thanks!
THE BILLIONAIRE’S SECRET FLAME
Book Four, Forbidden Lake Romance series
by Elana Johnson
Copyright © 2019 by AEJ Creative Works Inc, Elana Johnson
All Rights Reserved
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental. No part of this book can be reproduced in any form or by electronic or mechanical means including information storage and retrieval systems, without the express written permission of the author. The only exception is by a reviewer who may quote short excerpts in a review. Please purchase only authorized electronic editions, and do not participate in, or encourage, the electronic piracy of copyrighted materials. Your support of the author’s rights is appreciated.
Cover by Captiva Publishing
Interior design by AEJ Creative Works Inc.
%); " class="sharethis-inline-share-buttons">share