Our Happily Ever After: BWWM Interracial Romance Black Women White Men (That Forbidden Love Book 3)
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Our Happily Ever After
The ‘not to be missed’ happily ever after...
A sexy romance by Ellie Etienne of BWWM Club. Features another free bonus book.
Leigh Wells and Harrison Bloom’s relationship has gone down a long road of drama and scandal.
Falling in love and getting married while being legal adoptive siblings is just the icing on the wedding cake.
Despite their past, Leigh believes that they’ve finally reached a point where they can find that well-deserved happily ever after.
But will they ever actually find it?
Harrison’s becoming increasingly distant, and Leigh is determined to find out why their once steamy love life’s starting to simmer.
What she discovers will shock her to the core!
Is Harrison the man Leigh thought she married?
And will she stand by her husband, no matter his past, for better or for worse?
Find out in this thrilling yet sexy romance by Ellie Etienne of BWWM Club.
Suitable for over 18s only due to sex scenes so hot, you'll want to find your own hunky billionaire to run off with!
Tip: Search BWWM Club on Amazon to see more of our great books.
Get Another BWWM eBook Free!
Hi there. As a special thank you for buying this ebook, for a limited time I want to send you another one completely free of charge directly to your email! You can get it by clicking the cover below or going here:
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Copyright © 2017 to Ellie Etienne and AfroRomanceBooks.com. No part of this book can be copied or distributed without written permission from the above copyright holders.
Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Bonus Book – Uncovered
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
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Chapter 1
“Oh. Oh Leigh, you’re so beautiful!”
Leigh looked at her reflection and wondered at it. She looked like a queen. The ivory gown was sleek over her curves before the flare softened the silhouette. The sweetheart neckline showed off the shoulders that thankfully showed the effects of her diligence at the gym for the last couple of months. The lace that covered her arms had come from her mother’s dress, as had the train.
“I can’t believe it’s really happening,” whispered Leigh to her best friend.
Emily smiled through tears sparkling in her eyes, gorgeous in the mint green dresses Leigh had chosen for her two bridesmaids.
“If after all of that security you tell me that it’s not happening, I’ll pitch a fit, Leigh.”
Leigh grinned at her other bridesmaid, Hana. With her coloring, Hana would look lovely in anything.
“Do you think Harrison is nervous?”
Emily chuckled.
“If he’s not, it would make him the first groom in the history of weddings not to wonder if he’s going to be left standing at the altar. The waiting must be excruciating.”
Leigh smiled, slowly, and loved how she didn’t look like a princess. She hadn’t wanted to. The ivory of the dress was a lovely contrast to her dark skin. Her eyes glowed golden, and the earrings – her something borrowed from her mother, doubling as something old – were dimmed by her eyes. She looked like a queen.
She felt like a queen.
“Leigh, I just checked, everything’s ready.”
Martha knocked before walking in, but she stopped short as she saw Leigh.
“Oh, baby, I know I saw you a minute ago, but… You’re a bride. My baby girl is a bride.”
“Mom, I… I’m getting married.”
“Something borrowed,” said Martha, tears sparkling in her eyes, too, as she held out a brooch shaped like a phoenix.
“I used to play with this.”
“I always kept a very close eye on you when you did. Now, I’m not going to let us all ruin our makeup by crying. One toast, and it’s time.”
Leigh grinned. Her mother was always practical, and she wasn’t surprised at the alacrity with which Emily popped the champagne.
“Yes, a toast. To Leigh, who looks like a queen, and may she reign well.”
Leigh laughed as they took the glasses. She barely noticed the photographer who was clicking away merrily.
“And to us all,” she said, before raising hers, and drinking.
“Now,” said Leigh, drawing a deep breath trying to steady herself, “I’m as ready as I’ll ever be.”
“Good, because the planner is having kittens. She really missed her calling, she should be in the army.”
Emily and Hana chuckled.
“It’s fashionable for the bride to be late, isn’t it? But never mind, we’re all ready. Leigh…”
Martha’s voice trembled just a little, but it was quickly controlled.
“Yes. Yes, I’m ready.”
She was. She was marrying Harrison.
Leigh could hardly believe it, but there was a part of her that felt like she had belonged to Harrison for so long already.
It was time. It was right.
The bridal party left their suite, walking down the corridor to the garden where Leigh was going to marry Harrison. Leigh hadn’t really spent too much time dreaming of a wedding as a girl, but she had known it was perfect the first time she saw it.
Harrison had liked it for more practical reasons. The perimeter wall was high, the trees offered protection from prying cameras with telescopic lenses, and it was the perfect size for their intimate wedding. Leigh had seen the garden and fallen in love. It was what she hoped to create one day, when she was ready to relax and let life take her where it wanted to.
Her bouquet was made of violets and purple lilies, vibrant bursts of color that suited her. The aisle would be strewn with white and cream petals. Other than that, she had asked for potted plants with gorgeous flowers to be used instead of bunches of flowers. After all, what was the point of getting married in a garden if you chose to behead all of its flowers?
Leigh was glad that the day was beautiful – sunny, with just the tiniest nip in the air. She did feel like she was getting married in paradise.
“Leigh.”
Leigh glanced up and saw that they were right on cue, and her father was waiting for her.
“Daddy!”
“My beautiful girl. I can’t believe this.”
Leigh smiled at Samuel.
“I’d say you’re gaining a son, but you’re not.”
The cheeky quip made Samuel chuckle. Harrison had been a son to him for well over two decades already.
“And I’m not giving you away. Nothing would make me do that.”
“That’s our cue, Sam,” said Martha, and Leigh grabbed her parents’ arms.
“Right,
you guys are up.”
Leigh watched as Hana and then Emily made their way down the aisle on the arms of handsome groomsmen, and finally, it was Leigh’s turn. She had expected to be nervous. But she stood there, flanked by her parents, and saw Harrison, so handsome, waiting for her at the altar. There were no nerves. She felt the calm certainty that this was right as her parents walked her down the aisle.
The young priest officiating the wedding smiled at them.
“Do you, Martha and Samuel, bless this union with happiness and love in your hearts for this couple?”
Leigh smiled. She had insisted that she was not going to be given away. It had been surprisingly difficult to find a celebrant who would agree to scrap that particular part of the ceremony. Apparently, it could be an even bigger deal-breaker than asking to scrap the ‘obey’ part of her vows to Harrison.
But Leigh had always been stubborn. When she knew what she wanted – which was most of the time – she made sure that she got it.
“We do,” chorused her parents, and Leigh stepped up to Harrison, taking his hand, and she was lost in his eyes.
Everything, even the sheer perfection of the day, the wild blooms around her, the family and friends who had gathered, seemed to fall away from her. She could only see him – her Harrison.
Had she known, when she’d been twelve and discovered the magic of bridal magazines, though she had pretended not to be interested, that she would one day stand under a gazebo with a roof of flowers and marry Harrison? Her best friend, the boy who had become her brother when she had still been a child, had become something far more than that.
She knew that there would always be people ready to snicker about their relationship. She knew that there was a good chance that they would never be left alone by media thirsty for scandal and gossip.
Getting engaged to her billionaire stepbrother – no, adoptive brother, the stepbrother was something the tabloids called him to make it sound even more illicit – had touched off the kind of frenzy that she had wondered if she could possibly weather. Without Harrison, and his security team, she wouldn’t have been able to. Admitting that was special, too. Leigh Wells had always been independent, determined to take care of herself, and damn good at it, too.
But Harrison had given her more than she could’ve hoped for when he’d shown her that she could ask for help. She could lean on him and not be considered weak, because he knew that he could lean on her, too. Knowing that he depended on her – the invulnerable, unshakeable Harrison Bloom depended on her, at least occasionally – made her as happy as knowing that he loved her. It meant that he trusted her, and trust was everything to Leigh, too.
He was everything she needed.
He was everything.
As she looked up at him, looked into his eyes, she knew that it wouldn’t matter what anybody said. This was right. This was for the two of them.
Maybe they had always been headed to that moment. Leigh was rarely fanciful enough to believe in fate and destiny, but maybe there was something to it.
He smiled, and all the nerves melted away. There was nothing left but for the feeling that it was finally all going right. She was by his side, and that was where she belonged. Their lives had always been tied to each other’s. They were just making it official.
They were celebrating everything that was to come.
Harrison Bloom loved her.
She had known that, of course. She was marrying the man, after all. But that knowledge had never filled her so completely, as if her very being was absorbing that fact. That feeling, that knowledge, made everything else fade away. Nothing else mattered. All that mattered was that they were together, as they would be, forever. They were sealing that promise.
She was so lost in him that she couldn’t, ever, remember anything except how he was looking at her, the possessive love and desire that washed over her, when she thought back to her wedding ceremony. She had said all the right things and done what she was supposed to do, but she only felt the ring sliding onto her finger, and then the kiss that shook her to her soul.
The kiss that sealed their bond, that punctuated the promise they had made, the one that would keep them together forever.
“Leigh,” he whispered, and her name was the only vow she would remember. It was more than enough.
But before they could say more, it was time to celebrate, and celebrate they did. Leigh felt like a queen as they ran walked, and then ran down the aisle. The happiness was so great that she wondered if she might explode from it. She found herself in her mother’s arms, and she felt the tears, but she knew that they were happy, too.
“All happiness to you, my baby.”
“I know. Mom, I’m so happy.”
“I know. I can see it. It’s shining from you. Now go, Hana and Emily are waiting for you.”
“But first…”
Samuel’s gruff voice made her turn, and she was enveloped in that safe embrace once again.
“Well, now you’ve gone and done it,” said Samuel, making Leigh chuckle.
“I guess I have. I… Harrison?”
“He’s gone to speak with Anna. He’s over there. Don’t worry, he didn’t marry you and leave you to fend for yourself, running back to his real family far away.”
Leigh whirled around.
“Emily, you would say that. You know, I saw quite a few men looking you over. That dress really suits you.”
Emily rolled her expressive eyes and scoffed.
“As if I’d be interested in any of the stuffed shirts here! Really, Leigh, I’d expect far better from you, and for myself. But you’ve done pretty well for yourself, all things considered.”
“Pretty well? I’d say half the girls in the city are in envy. And all the paparazzi in the country are going to be very mad that they couldn’t crash the ceremony.”
“Leigh, it’s time for the cake.”
Leigh looked around for Harrison, but discovered him by her side when she needed him, as always.
“Harrison.”
“I’m here. Shall we go in?”
Leigh’s smile faltered as she looked up at him. She knew him so well. She knew where to look for even the smallest trace of uncertainty.
“Is everything all right?”
She watched as he deliberately smoothed the worry away from his face and smiled for her.
“Of course. Everything’s more than all right. Everything is perfect. I married the love of my life.”
Leigh let herself smile again, even if she knew him well enough to know that he was avoiding her question.
“Well then, let’s go eat some cake, shall we? It’s an incredible cake.”
“I know. We tasted about a hundred samples before making up our minds.”
Harrison offered her his arm again, and the world seemed to settle around her as she took it, and they walked to the part of the garden where the celebration would turn into a party. The whimsical tents that had been put up made sure that prying cameras would see none of that, either.
The day went by in a blur of joy with only a couple of dozen people who mattered to them. There were no business associates, no socialites, no press – nothing to show that one of the richest men in the country had just married his stepsister, in a fairytale story that would’ve sold for a very pretty penny.
Leigh laughed when Emily ducked out of the way of the bouquet she had aimed for her commitment-averse friend. She shed a tear when her parents danced together. Time flew, and she found herself, at last, in Harrison’s arms again.
“Are you happy?”
Leigh smiled up at her husband – she could get used to it, to calling him her husband – as they moved to the music. At least, she assumed they were moving to the music. Her senses only had room for him.
“I am,” said Leigh her arms around his neck, and she loved how he smiled down at her.
“Are you having fun?”
Leigh laughed.
“You know, mom told me that people rarely have f
un at their own weddings. It’s far too much pressure, apparently. I didn’t feel it. I’m too happy.”
“You’ll be happier soon,” said Harrison, and the world of promise in his words made Leigh grin.
“You keep telling me that, but I still don’t know.”
Leigh did not know where they were going for their honeymoon. She had tried to find out, using every trick in the book, and she had found herself outmaneuvered by Harrison at every turn.
“You’ll find out soon enough.”
“Emily and Hana both know and nobody will tell me.”
“Are you really sulking at our wedding?”
Leigh tried to keep it up, but she couldn’t. Besides, she knew that there was no point. She might as well resign herself to being surprised. At least she could be sure that she would be pleasantly surprised – Harrison knew her.
“I’m not. I’m teasing you.”
“Little witch,” said Harrison, obviously amused, as they moved together, so in tune with each other that they didn’t even need to think about it.
“I am,” she admitted gleefully, “and we’re married, so you’re stuck with me.”
Harrison chuckled, but she felt his fingers tighten on her waist and recognized that increase in pressure. She knew what it meant. It meant that he wanted her.
She loved knowing that.
She loved knowing she could make him need her.
“I need to get you alone, Leigh.”
His eyes seemed to darken with desire as he held her. Leigh sighed and leaned against him, pressing her feminine form against him. His fingers moved to the small of her back and stroked her softly, but she could feel the urgency in that simple touch, too.
“We’ll have all night,” she promised, but she was impatient, too. Her need for him was strong enough to threaten to overwhelm her.
But the music changed tempo, becoming upbeat, and they danced until they were breathless. Leigh danced with Emily and Hana to much applause, until finally, Leigh gave up and kicked off her shoes – fabulous, but boy, they hurt – and sat down.
She looked around for Harrison, and spotted him deep in conversation with somebody.