by Radclyffe
Gina rolled onto her side and wrapped her arm around Carrie’s middle. “Because I’m already all tangled up where you’re concerned, and I want everything that goes with being with you. I want you.”
“You already have me. Remember when I told you I was on the way to falling in love with you?”
“I remember,” Gina said in a hushed whisper.
“I’m done falling, and I’ve landed,” Carrie said. “And I love you, with all the strings attached.”
“That’s exactly what I need,” Gina said, “because I love you too.”
Epilogue
“You look great,” Gina said, leaning against the bedroom door, observing Carrie finish putting on her makeup. She’d watched her do it a dozen times now and still hadn’t gotten over the fascination of her small, precise movements and all the subtle ways she accentuated and enhanced and highlighted. Nothing to her way of thinking was needed to make Carrie beautiful, but the process was like an exotic and private dance, and one that gave her secret pleasure to know she and she alone got to share in.
Carrie’s eyes met hers in the mirror and she smiled softly. “Are you watching me?”
“You know I am.”
Carrie’s cheeks colored faintly as she chose another of the mysterious little vials on the dressing table they’d resurrected from the attic and moved down to the bedroom. Carrie had only planned to stay a few days while Gina tore out the plumbing at Carrie’s, and a few days had become three weeks.
Neither of them mentioned the time passing, and now the bedroom seemed like theirs.
“I don’t think I’ll ever get tired of you watching me,” Carrie said softly.
“Good thing about that, because I’m never going to stop.”
Carrie put down the comb she’d just picked up. “You need to stop watching me right now.”
“Why is that?”
“Because we have a wedding to get to in eighty-seven minutes, and I don’t want to be out of sorts all day.”
Gina laughed. The thrill of Carrie’s desire rushed over her, as fresh and powerful as the first time they’d touched. “Sixty seconds.”
“Don’t brag, and I’m not that easy.”
“Just to get you through the day.”
Carrie pivoted quickly and tossed a hairbrush at Gina’s head.
Gina caught it out of the air. “Nice arm.”
“No kidding.” Carrie cocked an eyebrow. “I notice you haven’t bothered to button your shirt. Finish buttoning and stop trying to seduce me.”
Gina strode across the room, bent over, and kissed her carefully. She’d learned the proper timing to messing up the makeup, and this was definitely not it just yet. “You don’t mean that.”
Carrie cupped her cheek. “No, I don’t. But you’ll just have to hold on to it until tonight.”
Gina knelt by Carrie’s chair and draped an arm around Carrie’s shoulders. “Will you think about me today?”
“I think about you every minute of every day, and today will be no different.” Carrie tilted her head. “Well, almost every minute, except when I’m helping to calm Abby down—every bride gets the jitters.”
“Of course.”
Carrie leaned an elbow on Gina’s shoulder and played with a lock of dark hair. “You know, it’s been two weeks since I got the permits for the ER extension straightened out, and you haven’t spent much time on-site. You don’t have to finish Harper’s house yourself.”
“Harper’s house?” Gina said softly.
Carrie blushed. “I haven’t actually lived there much, so I still think of it that way most times.”
“About that,” Gina said.
“What?”
“We’ve only got a couple more weeks, so I’ll finish the job at Harper’s with my crew. The ER project is going to run into full winter, so I’ll pick that up as soon as I’m done. But…” Gina took Carrie’s hand. “I’d really like it if you moved in here with me.”
Carrie caught her lip between her teeth. “I don’t suppose Harper would have any trouble renting or selling the other place.”
“I’m sure she wouldn’t.”
“You know, if I stay, it’s forever.”
Gina kissed her. “That’s what I’m counting on.”
Carrie kissed her back, and whispered, “I already love this place almost as much as I love you. So forever is just the beginning.”
About the Author
Radclyffe has written over fifty romance and romantic intrigue novels, dozens of short stories, and, writing as L.L. Raand, has authored a paranormal romance series, The Midnight Hunters.
She is an eight-time Lambda Literary Award finalist in romance, mystery, and erotica—winning in both romance (Distant Shores, Silent Thunder) and erotica (Erotic Interludes 2: Stolen Moments edited with Stacia Seaman and In Deep Waters 2: Cruising the Strip written with Karin Kallmaker). A member of the Saints and Sinners Literary Hall of Fame, she is also an RWA/FF&P Prism Award winner for Secrets in the Stone, an RWA FTHRW Lories and RWA HODRW winner for Firestorm, an RWA Bean Pot winner for Crossroads, an RWA Laurel Wreath winner for Blood Hunt, and the 2016 Book Buyers Best award winner for Price of Honor. In 2014 she was awarded the Dr. James Duggins Outstanding Mid-Career Novelist Award by the Lambda Literary Foundation. She is a featured author in the 2015 documentary film Love Between the Covers, from Blueberry Hill Productions.
She is also the president of Bold Strokes Books, one of the world’s largest independent LGBTQ publishing companies.
Find her at facebook.com/Radclyffe.BSB, follow her on Twitter @RadclyffeBSB, and visit her website at Radfic.com.
Books Available From Bold Strokes Books
Change in Time by Robyn Nyx. Working in the past is hell on your future. The Extractor series: Book Two. (978-162639-880-1)
Love After Hours by Radclyffe. When Gina Antonelli agrees to renovate Carrie Longmire’s new house, she doesn’t welcome Carrie’s overtures at friendship or her own unexpected attraction. A Rivers Community Novel. (978-163555-090-0)
Nantucket Rose by CF Frizzell. Maggie Jordan can’t wait to convert a historic Nantucket home into a B&B, but doesn’t expect to fall for mariner Ellis Chilton, who has more claim to the house than Maggie realizes. (978-163555-056-6)
Picture Perfect by Lisa Moreau. Falling in love wasn’t supposed to be part of the stakes for Olive and Gabby, rival photographers in the competition of a lifetime. (978-162639-975-4)
Set the Stage by Karis Walsh. Actress Emilie Danvers takes the stage again in Ashland, Oregon, little realizing that landscaper Arden Philips is about to offer her a very personal romantic lead role. (978-163555-087-0)
Strike a Match by Fiona Riley. When their attempts at matchmaking fizzle out, firefighter Sasha and reluctant millionairess Abby find themselves turning to each other to strike a perfect match. (978-162639-999-0)
The Price of Cash by Ashley Bartlett. Cash Braddock is doing her best to keep her business afloat, stay out of jail, and avoid Detective Kallen. It’s not working. (978-162639-708-8)
Under Her Wing by Ronica Black. At Angel’s Wings Rescue, dogs are usually the ones saved, but when quiet Kassandra Haden meets outspoken owner Jayden Beaumont, the two stubborn women just might end up saving each other. (978-163555-077-1)
Captured Soul by Laydin Michaels. Can Kadence Munroe save the woman she loves from a twisted killer, or will she lose her to a collector of souls? (978-162639-915-0)
Underwater Vibes by Mickey Brent. When Hélène, a translator in Brussels, Belgium, meets Sylvie, a young Greek photographer and swim coach, unsettling feelings hijack Hélène’s mind and body—even her poems. (978-163555-002-3)
A Date to Die by Anne Laughlin. Someone is killing people close to Detective Kay Adler, who must look to her own troubled past for a suspect. There she finds more than one person seeking revenge against her. (978-163555-023-8)
Dawn’s New Day by TJ Thomas. Can Dawn Oliver and Cam Cooper, two women who have loved and lost, open their hearts to love again? (978-163555-072-
6)
Definite Possibility by Maggie Cummings. Sam Miller is just out for good times, but Lucy Weston makes her realize happily ever after is a definite possibility. (978-162639-909-9)
Eyes Like Those by Melissa Brayden. Isabel Chase and Taylor Andrews struggle between love and ambition from the writers’ room on one of Hollywood’s hottest TV shows. (978-163555-012-2)
Heart’s Orders by Jaycie Morrison. Helen Tucker and Tee Owens escape hardscrabble lives to careers in the Women’s Army Corps, but more than their hearts are at risk as friendship blossoms into love. (978-163555-073-3)
Hiding Out by Kay Bigelow. Treat Dandridge is unaware that her life is in danger from the murderer who is hunting the woman she’s falling in love with, Mickey Heiden. (978-162639-983-9)
Omnipotence Enough by Sophia Kell Hagin. Can the tiny tool that abducted war veteran Jamie Gwynmorgan accidentally acquires help her escape an unknown enemy to reclaim her stolen life and the woman she deeply loves? (978-163555-037-5)
Summer’s Cove by Aurora Rey. Emerson Lange moved to Provincetown to live in the moment, but when she meets Darcy Belo and her son Liam, her quest for summer romance becomes a family affair. (978-162639-971-6)
The Road to Wings by Julie Tizard. Lieutenant Casey Tompkins, Air Force student pilot, has to fly with the toughest instructor, Captain Kathryn “Hard Ass” Hardesty, fly a supersonic jet, and deal with a growing forbidden attraction. (978-162639-988-4)
Beauty and the Boss by Ali Vali. Ellis Renois is at the top of the fashion world, but she never expects her summer assistant Charlotte Hamner to tear her heart and her business apart like sharp scissors through cheap material. (978-162639-919-8)
Fury’s Choice by Brey Willows. When gods walk amongst humans, can two women find a balance between love and faith? (978-162639-869-6)
Lessons in Desire by MJ Williamz. Can a summer love stand a four-month hiatus and still burn hot? (978-163555-019-1)
Lightning Chasers by Cass Sellars. For Sydney and Parker, being a couple was never what they had planned. Now they have to fight corruption, murder, and enemies hiding in plain sight just to hold on to each other. Lightning Series, Book Two. (978-162639-965-5)
Summer Fling by Jean Copeland. Still jaded from a breakup years earlier, Kate struggles to trust falling in love again when a summer fling with sexy young singer Jordan rocks her off her feet. (978-162639-981-5)
Take Me There by Julie Cannon. Adrienne and Sloan know it would be career suicide to mix business with pleasure, however tempting it is. But what’s the harm? They’re both consenting adults. Who would know? (978-162639-917-4)
Unchained Memories by Dena Blake. Can a woman give herself completely when she’s left a piece of herself behind? (978-162639-993-8)
