by Marie Force
“Right over the top.”
He pulled back to find the hem and pushed it up and over her head, leaving her in only a black strapless bra and skimpy panties. “Are you really going to marry me?”
“I really am.”
“You said you’d never get married again.”
“You’ve changed my mind about a lot of things.” She got to work undoing the studs on his tuxedo shirt. “I’ve thought about this sexy body nonstop.”
“Not being able to touch you was the purest form of torture I’ve ever experienced.”
“Touch me now, Paul. Touch me every day for the rest of our lives.”
“There’s nothing I’d rather do.”
Epilogue
Hope woke in Paul’s arms at the stroke of six, as she did every day whether she needed to or not. Today she most definitely did not need to. Ethan was safe and happy with his friends, and she was engaged to Paul Martinez, who had kept her up half the night celebrating.
“We’re going to have to do something about your early hours,” he muttered without opening his eyes.
“Blame Ethan. It’s all his fault.”
“Speaking of Ethan, how early can we go over there and tell him the news?”
“We can’t go there at six in the morning.”
“Bet they’re up.”
“Too early.”
“Eight?”
“That’s more civilized.”
“Whatever shall we do until then?” he asked, rolling onto his back and bringing her with him.
“Is this the kind of husband you’re going to be?”
“What kind is that?”
“Insatiable.”
He moved his hands from her hips to cup her breasts, running his thumbs over her nipples, which tightened instantly. “Is that going to be a problem for my wife?”
She shook her head. “I have no problems. Not anymore.” Shifting her hips, she took him in slowly because that made him crazy, and she loved him that way. She loved knowing she did that to him.
“What’re you thinking right now?”
“Other than how in the world am I going to keep up with this guy?”
Smiling, he said, “Other than that.”
“I love knowing that if I go slow, it makes you crazy. I love knowing that if I do this,” she said, squeezing her internal muscles, “you’ll do that.” Predictably, he gasped and got even harder inside her.
“And I love knowing if I do this,” he said, stroking her clit, “you’ll do that.”
She came instantly, screaming from the pleasure that overtook her, leaving her trembling in his arms afterward.
“And I love the hell out of that.”
Hope laughed at the dirty way he said the words. “I love the hell out of you, and I’m so glad I can finally tell you that.”
“So am I, sweetheart.”
Hope kept him well occupied until eight, when they took a shower together, laughing and teasing and kissing. He would’ve said he was fully sated until her sexy, naked body proved otherwise.
“I can’t believe you’re leaving me in this condition on the first day we’re engaged,” he said as he drove them to Seamus and Carolina’s house.
“Sorry, but you broke me last night.”
“I’ll fix you later.”
She smiled over at him, and the peaceful happy glow on her face filled him with the kind of contentment he’d never expected to find. Then she reached across the center console for his hand and made it even better. “I can’t wait to tell Ethan.”
“Neither can I.”
They pulled into Seamus and Carolina’s driveway, where Ethan was in the yard with Jackson, Kyle and their dog, playing with a soccer ball. When Ethan saw them, he let out a happy cry and ran for his mother. She scooped him up and peppered his face with kisses. “Are you guys having fun?”
“So much fun.”
She put Ethan down and reached for Kyle and Jackson, who ran to her, too.
Her sweetness to the boys hit Paul right in the chest.
“I don’t hafta go home yet, do I?” Ethan asked.
“Not quite, but Paul and I wanted to talk to you.”
“Is something wrong?”
“No, baby.” Hope gathered him into her arms again. “It’s really good news. At least we hope you’ll think so.”
While Kyle and Jackson looked on, Paul squatted down so he could look Ethan in the eye. “How’d you like to stay here on Gansett?”
Ethan’s big eyes widened with glee. “Really?” He looked up at his mom, who nodded. “So we don’t hafta move away?”
“Last night, I asked your mom to marry me, and she said yes. Now I’m hoping you’ll say yes, too, so you guys will get to stay here with me.”
Ethan hurled himself at Paul, who managed to keep his balance as he hugged him.
“Should I take that as a yes?” Paul said, thrilled by Ethan’s reaction.
“We really get to stay forever?” Ethan asked his mother.
“Yes, honey.”
“And will you be my new dad?” he asked Paul.
The question hit him with the force of a gut punch. “If that’s what you want,” he said gruffly.
“It is.” Ethan broke free of Paul’s embrace. “Hey, you guys,” he said to Jackson and Kyle, “me and my mom are gettin’ married!”
Paul exchanged glances with Hope, her smile as wide as his. He held out his hand to help her up. As the boys ran inside to tell Seamus and Carolina the news, Paul hugged her. “I guess it’s official now.”
“No getting out of it.”
He kissed her and then kept his arm around her as they followed the boys into the house. “No worries about that, sweetheart. I’m in.” He stole one more kiss while he could. “I’m all-in.”
READ TO WIN!
Take a quick 20-question quiz on the content of Love After Dark by Saturday, August 22, at midnight EDT to be entered to win the GRAND PRIZE of a trip for two to the 2016 Reader Weekend. Take the quiz here and read about two more chances to READ TO WIN in 2015 here.
Author’s Note
Wow, book 13, and it’s still so much fun to write the Gansett Island Series! It’s like a vacation for me to go back to Gansett! I can’t thank you enough for continuing to show up for every new book—even when I make you wait ten long months. I look forward to every minute I get to spend on my fictional island with people who feel like family after writing them for so many years. If you’d like to chat about Love After Dark with other readers, please join the Love After Dark Reader Group.
I plan to keep writing Gansett books as long as you keep telling me you love them. If you do love them, help other readers discover the series by leaving a review at the retailer of your choice and/or Goodreads. And make sure to tell your friends that book 1, Maid for Love, is FREE!
Slim and Erin will headline the next full-length book, but I have a surprise for you before then (see below). Make sure you don’t miss announcements about new books by joining my newsletter mailing list at marieforce.com (left side where it asks for your name and email address), subscribing to my blog and joining the McCarthy Reader Group.
I’m so blessed to work with a dedicated, fun group of women, including Julie Cupp, CMP, Lisa Cafferty, CPA, Holly Sullivan, Isabel Sullivan, Nikki Colquhoun, Cheryl Serra, Ashley Lopez and Courtney Lopes. Thank you all so much for everything you do for me every day. And thank you to my husband, Dan, who runs our lives so I can write as much as I do. Thank you to my amazing editorial team of Linda Ingmanson and Joyce Lamb, who make themselves available to me whenever I need them. Thank you, ladies! And a big thank-you to my beta readers Anne Woodall, Ronlyn Howe and Kara Conrad for always being willing to read for me when I need you! Special thanks to Sarah Spate Morrison, Family Nurse Practitioner, for keeping me straight on all things medical.
Julie’s friends (and now my friends, too) Ashley and Bryan Lopez were such great sports about modeling for the cover of Love After Dark. I can’t say enough abou
t how much I love this cover that Ashley’s twin sister, Courtney Lopes, designed after the photo shoot done by my photographer friend, Pam Sardinha, assisted by her husband, David, and Julie. What a family affair, and the end result is gorgeous, just like the couple who posed for us! Thanks, guys!
Love After Dark is part of our Read to Win promotion in which readers can take a quick 20-question quiz on the content of Love After Dark and be entered to win an all-expense paid trip for two to my 2016 Reader Weekend in Newport, RI. You’ll have two other chances to win before the end of the year with the release of Fatal Frenzy, Fatal book 9, on September 15 and It’s Only Love, Green Mountain, book 5, on November 3. Find all the details at marieforce.com.
Turn the page to read chapter 1 of Celebration After Dark, a SURPRISE Gansett Island Novella, featuring Big Mac and Linda McCarthy, out on December 1! View the cover and read the first chapter of You’ll Be Mine, Will and Cameron’s Green Mountain wedding novella, which is out on October 20.
Finally, I’m so thankful for the readers who make this the most fun “job” I’ve ever had. Thank you so much for your support and enthusiasm for my books. Love you all!
xoxo
Marie
Special Announcement!
I’m very excited to announce here for the FIRST TIME that Celebration After Dark, a novella featuring Big Mac and Linda McCarthy’s 40th Anniversary—with a look back on how their romance first began—will be released on Tuesday, December 1! Readers have been asking for Big Mac and Linda’s story for years now, and I thought their anniversary was a great opportunity to get their story out there.
You’ll also hear more from each of the five McCarthy kids in this new story, as well as updates on several other Gansett Island favorite couples. I’ve had so much fun writing this new Gansett Island story this summer, and I can’t wait to get it out you. Have you wondered what winter is like on Gansett? Wonder no more! Celebration After Dark is out on December 1.
Preorder your copy now to read the minute it’s released!
Celebration After Dark
Gansett Island Series, Book 14
By: Marie Force
Chapter 1
Mac McCarthy Senior, known to all as Big Mac, woke on the morning of December twentieth to the distinctive sounds of winter on Gansett Island—howling wind, icy snow pinging against the windows and groaning beams in the house he’d called home for four decades. But today was not just any average winter day. On this day, forty years ago, he’d married the love of his life. Today was a day for celebration.
The kids were throwing a party later that Big Mac and Linda weren’t supposed to know about. “Voodoo Mama,” as the kids called her, knew everything they were up to, and she always had. She’d picked up on the scent of a party months ago, which was why they hadn’t planned one for themselves. He had a few surprises of his own to mark the occasion that he couldn’t wait to give her.
She slept curled up to him, the way she did every night. Even on the few occasions when they’d been at odds, she’d never failed to reach for him in her sleep. Their marriage had been filled with love and joy and five incredible kids who’d been the light of their lives. Each of them had found their soul mate in the last few years and were happily settled, which was the only thing their parents had ever truly wanted for them.
Nothing made Big Mac happier than seeing his kids happy and in love with people he would’ve hand-chosen for each of them. Mac with Maddie, Grant with Stephanie, Adam with Abby, Evan with Grace and Janey with Joe. All of them perfect matches in every way that mattered.
In addition to his own five, he’d been like a father to Luke Harris, the young man who’d worked for him at the marina since he was fourteen, who was now happily married to his first love, Sydney Donovan Harris, and had a baby on the way.
A few years ago, Big Mac had made Mac and Luke his partners in the marina, which had been one of the best things he’d ever done. It freed him up to relax a little while the two young guys put their considerable energy into steering the business into the modern era. Big Mac was more than happy to take a backseat to them. He had grandchildren to coddle and fish to catch and a wife to take traveling as he’d promised her he would once the kids were launched and the businesses were in good hands.
And then there was Mallory Vaughn, the woman who’d appeared earlier in the year with the life-changing news that she was the daughter he’d never known he had. Talk about shocking! But Linda had set the tone, accepting Mallory into their family and making sure her arrival didn’t turn into a crisis for them. He’d never loved his gorgeous wife more than he had watching her welcome his daughter into their home and family.
The bedside clock read six twenty, which was far too early to wake Linda to begin the celebration. With nowhere to be for hours, they had the day to themselves before the party. That was plenty of time to shower her with the gifts he’d spent months organizing, among other things he wanted to do today.
He was kind of glad it was snowing. The men of the family had been spending every possible minute helping his son Mac and his nephew Shane with the addition to the home of Seamus and Carolina O’Grady, who’d recently taken in two young boys after their mother’s tragic death. Everyone wanted to see the new family settled as soon as possible, and they were down to finish work on the addition. With the storm raging outside, he could justify a day off to spend with his wife.
In the meantime, he found his thoughts wandering back in time to the summer day when he first laid eyes on the woman who’d become his wife. He’d been home in Providence to close on the ramshackle marina that everyone had told him not to buy. His dad had been particularly vociferous in his objections.
“Your grandmother left you that money so you could make something of yourself, Mac,” his father had said. “She’d be very disappointed to see you pissing it away on a hunk of junk in the middle of nowhere.”
“I’m sorry you think so, Dad, but I’ve got a feeling about this place. With a little love and a lot of work, I think I can turn it into a goldmine.”
“And how do you plan to eat while you’re waiting to strike gold?”
“I’ve got my charter captain’s license and feelers out all over the place. I’ll find work. Don’t worry.” As long as he was near the water in some way or another, Mac was confident that he could make a living somehow.
Frank McCarthy Senior had shaken his head with disgust and dismay over the plans his middle son had made for his little corner of Gansett Island.
“Let him be, Frank,” Mac’s mother, Jane, had said. “He’s got to make his own way the same way you made yours. Harping on him isn’t going to change his mind, especially when he’s signing the papers tomorrow.”
Despite his mother’s support, Mac had left his parents’ home that day feeling dejected and scared for the first time since he’d fallen in love with the marina. What if his dad was right? What if he’d truly pissed away the nest egg his grandmother had left him on something that would never pay off?
As he drove the truck he’d bought in high school that was on its last legs to his brother Frank’s place, he blasted Bruce Springsteen’s new album “Born to Run” in the tape deck while his chest tightened with stress and panic. He’d wagered everything he had and then some on the marina, knowing it needed a load of work to make it presentable. He’d never been afraid of hard work and had been looking forward to getting on with it before his dad filled his head with worries.
Mac found a parking space two blocks from Frank’s house, and after he shut off the engine, he sat there for a minute thinking it through from every angle. One of the lawyers Frank had interned with over the summer had been good enough to look over the contracts for the purchase of the marina and declared them sound. Mac had had the place surveyed, and even though it looked a little rough around the edges to the naked eye, it was structurally sound. He had financing in place for the portion not covered by his inheritance and had built in money for renovations.
It woul
d take years to own the place free and clear, but he still had faith that eventually the investment of his time and money would pay off. And if it didn’t? Well, he was a young guy with plenty of time to recover and find something else to do with his life.
He got out of the truck and walked to Frank’s apartment, which occupied the first floor of a three-story Victorian. Frank was heading to law school at Brown in the fall and lived there with two other guys. The three of them were hosting this afternoon’s party in the backyard. Mac was in bad need of some time with his big brother—not to mention a couple of cold ones.
Mac let himself into the apartment with the key Frank had given him so he could crash on the sofa rather than stay at home, where his mother would want him home by midnight and then sniff him, looking for telltale signs that he’d been drinking. It was easier to stay with Frank, who expected him to smell like beer because they usually drank it together.
“Mac!” Frank called from the kitchen. “Get in here and check out these wings that Brett made. They’ll set your mouth on fire.”
“And doesn’t that sound like fun?”
Frank took a closer look at him. “What’s with you?”
“Nothing.”
Leaving the kitchen, Frank took him by the arm and steered him back the way he’d come. They went through the front door to the porch. “Let me ask again—what’s with you?”
Mac hesitated, but only for a second because this was Frankie, his big brother and best friend. If anyone would tell it to him straight, it was Frank. “Am I making a huge mistake buying the marina?”
“What?”
“You heard me. Am I pissing away Grandma’s money on something stupid?”
“Where’s this shit coming from?”
“Something Dad said has me thinking. What if it’s a total disaster, and I lose my shirt?”
“What if it’s a huge success and you make millions? Have you considered that possibility?”
