by Lara Norman
After the guests were full of cake and champagne, and Alex had sat for hours because her ankles were too swollen to dance, the six of them gathered in the entryway of the venue.
“Call me when you land,” Luna demanded.
“I promise,” Reagan answered and hugged her.
“Take care, and don’t have the baby until we get back from our honeymoon,” Hudson said to Alex.
She hugged him. “I’ll do my best.”
Grant slapped Hudson on the back. “Enjoy, but please don’t tell me later what went on.”
Hudson laughed and nodded. He’d never been happier in his life.
“And you,” Grant said to Reagan. He picked her up, dress and all until her feet dangled. “I’ll still pick you up for hugs when we’re old.”
“Then you better keep lifting weights.” She gave him a smacking kiss and he squeezed her tightly. “Love you, big brother.”
“Love you back, baby girl.”
Luna, Davis, Alex, and Grant waved as Hudson and Reagan got in the limo that would take them to the airport.
“Well, it looks like I’m going to be giving my wife a foot rub this evening,” Grant said.
Alex grinned at him. “If you do, there’s a reward in it for you.”
“You know the rule about innuendos in front of the rest of us,” Luna complained.
“Sorry, not sorry,” Alex snickered.
The four of them said their goodbyes and Grant helped Alex into his newly acquired SUV.
“And then there were two,” Davis said.
Luna wrapped her arms around him under his suit coat. “Take me home, handsome.”
He gave her a quick grin and towed her to the running car. They sat in the back and let themselves get carried away while Sorensen drove them to the house they’d closed on a few weeks back.
“Getting a car with a partition was an inspired idea,” Davis choked out.
Luna could only hum with her mouth full.
When he carried her over the threshold the way he’d done countless times before, Luna’s heart beat faster in her chest. He stalked to the bedroom and laid her out on their four-poster bed. He stripped himself quickly but undressed her slowly, touching every inch of exposed skin with his mouth. She quivered into an orgasm and felt him cover her body, entering her with the same intensity he had from the beginning. Though her eyes wanted to remain glued shut, she pried them open to stare up into the ocean blue she adored.
“I love you so much,” she told him.
He didn’t respond immediately, carried away as he was by his release. He pressed his hips to hers and moaned her name.
“I love you, too, Luna.”
He rested by her side, drawing his fingertips up and down her arm.
“I have to tell you something,” Luna confessed.
“You had two pieces of cake after saying you were watching your weight?”
She smacked his chest and he grunted.
“I only pretended to drink the champagne after your toast.”
“If you didn’t like it, we could have gotten you sparkling water like we did for Alex,” Davis said.
“It’s not that I don’t like champagne.” She propped up on her elbow and looked down at him. “It’s because I’m pregnant.”
He sat up so fast he knocked into her, sending her flat on her back. “Really?”
Luna nodded. “All that talk about not being ready was for their benefit. I didn’t want them to know before you.”
He smothered her with kisses, sliding his way down to kiss her abdomen. “Oh, God.”
She threaded her hands in his hair and urged him back up. He kissed her slowly, thoroughly. “You have already made me the happiest man to ever live, but you somehow topped yourself.”
“Good. I’m looking forward to seeing you with our baby in your arms.”
He kissed her again. “I can’t wait.”
“Sometimes it doesn’t seem possible to have it all, but our friends have it, too.”
Davis looked lovingly into her eyes. “Because we know what it means to actually have it all, and it has nothing to do with what’s in our bank account.”
Luna sighed in utter contentment. “Will you hold me?”
“Of course.” He settled next to her and pulled her into his embrace.
“Now everything is perfect.”
About the Author
Lara used to scribble her fictional characters down on legal pads in high school, and then not show them to anyone. In recent years, she started posting her work in public forums for feedback, which gave her the courage to publish professionally.
She needs copious amounts of coffee and chocolate to survive. She enjoys eavesdropping on the character conversations in her head, which she has been assured doesn’t make her crazy. She always gets the best ideas while in the shower, driving, or about to fall asleep.
Though she’s a Florida girl at heart, Lara currently resides in the Blue Ridge Mountains with her husband of twenty years and their three children, where she is living out her own happily ever after with the boy she met at age fifteen.
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Also by Lara Norman
Contemporary romance author Lara Norman has written five steamy stories and one complete box set.
In For a Penny
Penny must solve the mystery of the arsonist before he burns the city to the ground.
Penny is a private investigator who trusts nobody. Her friends are few, and her male-dominated profession leaves her alienated. When she stumbles upon a building about to collapse, she rushes to save people from danger.
Hawk is a firefighter whose previous liaisons have taught him to keep his past and net-worth a secret. He wants something lasting with Penny, but both of them are hesitant to give love a chance.
Will their potential relationship survive the fires, or will Penny and Hawk burn?
The Thoroughly Educated Box Set
The Thoroughly Educated Series is mischievous, tantalizing, and downright scandalous.
From Hudson:
It never occurred to him that accepting help from a good Samaritan would end up threatening his job.
Reagan’s new professor is her naughty one-night-stand, and their attraction for each other is forbidden. What’s a girl to do when what she craves is taboo?
From Grant:
There’s more than one lesson to be learned when you leave behind preconceived notions.
Grant wants Alexandra, and he wants it quick with no strings attached. Will he have to rearrange his plans when he finds her to be wild and wanton, getting under his skin and creating an urge in him he can no longer contain?
From Davis:
He’s tried to win her affection for years, but he’s done with begging for her love.
His desire for her now exposed in a whole new way, Davis hopes he can convince Luna that he can give her what no one else can. If it happens to be in his office late at night, who will ever find out?
Grant (Thoroughly Educated, Book Two)
The second stand alone book in the Thoroughly Educated Series is tawdry, tantalizing, and downright dirty.
There’s more than one lesson to learn when you leave behind preconceived notions.
Orphaned as a teenager and put in charge of his little sister, Grant Hughes has focused on little more than his job to keep them both fed and
a roof over their heads. With Reagan off at college, he finally gets to take a deep breath and focus on himself.
When Alexandra Banks brings her car into the shop where he works, Grant pegs her as a rich girl with no worries. When she comes back repeatedly with minor trouble he suspects she’s fabricating, he sees her in a new light.
They have so much to teach each other when it comes to desire.
She’s not being subtle with her flirting any longer, and his thoughts begin to shift. He wants her, and he wants it quick with no strings attached. Will he have to rearrange his plans when he finds her to be wild and wanton, getting under his skin and creating an urge in him he can no longer contain?
Hudson (Thoroughly Educated, Book One)
The first standalone book in the Thoroughly Educated Series is steamy, explicit, and downright scandalous.
It never occurred to him that accepting help from a good Samaritan would end up threatening his job.
Hudson Clark is driving to a new town and can’t believe his bad luck when he blows a tire in a heavy storm. Thinking he’ll be stuck for the night, he’s extremely grateful when a young woman offers him a ride.
What he doesn’t know is that Reagan Hughes wants to start her new life as something other than the same old goody-two-shoes virgin. When Hudson can’t find an open tow company, he becomes the target of her plan to fix her dilemma.
He would never have expected what came next.
The next time they run into each other is a day neither will forget. Reagan’s new professor is her naughty one-night-stand, and their attraction for each other is forbidden. What’s a girl to do when what she craves is taboo?
Jack and Crush
He’s never done anything like this before.
Arriving home fresh from the hell of Kandahar, Fletcher Bennett ends up at a bar. The straitlaced military man finds himself looking for a distraction. He’s mortified when he wakes up and discovers he’d found it in a strange woman’s bed.
There’s something different about this one night stand.
Outgoing. Outrageous. Outspoken. These are all words Lillie King has had used to describe her. Not one to chase after any man, she’s not unhappy when circumstances keep bringing the sexy soldier her way. But when they lose contact after Fletcher is called back for yet another dangerous mission, she fears the worst. Is this the end?
Christmas Overnighted
Christmas will be canceled if he can’t pull off a miracle in a snowstorm.
Warren Kline thought getting a second job at the holidays would be easy, and it mostly was. As the new office delivery guy, he sees uptight, Christmas-hating Cora LeGrand every day. She’s brusque and efficient, and something about her makes Warren want to crack her tough shell by December twenty-fifth. His persistence and easy-going nature are close to winning her over, especially when he tells her he’s donating his salary to charity. At the last minute, a Nor’easter and Cora’s busy schedule threaten to ruin his plans. Will Warren be able to overnight Christmas to his new crush, or will the storm wreck their future happiness?
A feel-good Christmas story full of romance, sarcasm, humor, and love.
