by Cari Quinn
“Come on, what are you two slow pokes waiting for?” Max rounded the tree, and with a muttered, “here it is, just like he said,” disappeared under one of the ribbon-bedecked boughs.
“Come on then, let’s see what he’s got up his sleeve this time.” Noah followed him, holding a branch up for Hayley so she didn’t end up with a face full of snow and spruce needles.
Their excitement contagious, Hayley followed. Noah whistled, and when she straightened she understood why.
The branches of the tree swept down to the ground from high above her head, forming a protective canopy. The Christmas lights were muted by the blanket of snow that had fallen overnight. And beneath it all, by the huge trunk in the middle, Max grinned. “It is like a church, isn’t it? So peaceful. Like the world outside doesn’t exist.”
“It’s pretty,” Noah agreed. “But why the hell did we have to get up and drive all this out here at this ungodly hour? Couldn’t you have brought us here at a more reasonable time? Like noon?”
“Because I wanted to give you your Christmas presents somewhere special, but I didn’t want to be interrupted by anyone. We won’t get the chance to do this privately later.”
“You couldn’t give us whatever you bought at home?”
“I could have,” Max said. “But—”
“—But it wouldn’t have the same feeling as it does it here,” Hayley finished. “You’re wanting to make a memory.”
“I am.” Max looked so solemn, but the corners of his eyes crinkled as if he were pleased that she understood whatever it was he planned. “I wanted somewhere peaceful, almost sanctified. Somewhere...”
“Neutral?” Noah suggested.
Max shook his head. “Special.”
He reached into his pocket, and pulled out two black silk pouches, embroidered in silver thread with each of their initials. “My life changed so much when you came into it, Hayley. And Noah, I’m sorry that it took me so long to realize how much you mean to me. I love you both, and I want to prove that to you.” He loosened the strings holding the pouches closed and poured two silver rings into his palm. “I want to marry you. Both of you.”
Hayley pressed her palm to her mouth. A glance showed Noah blinking fast too.
“But I can’t do that legally. So I figured we’d say our vows to each other here.” He lowered himself to one knee and held up both rings. Up close she noticed that the elaborate design he’d had engraved on the outside was actually all three of their initials twined together. “Hayley, Noah, would you do me the honor of marrying me?”
“Of marrying us,” Noah amended. He pulled out a velvet box from his coat pocket. “I had the same idea, but I arranged with your parents to do this at their place this morning.”
He flipped the lid on the box, revealing two gold bands, one thicker than the other, with a diamond nestled in the center. “I had our names engraved inside, so no one else has to see.” Like Noah, he dropped to one knee. “Max, Hayley, I offer you these rings as my pledge. To love, to honor and to cherish you always. I promise that I will be there when you need me to be, to listen when you need me to hear you, to hold you when you need to be held.” He grinned, “Hayley, I promise to find the best marble for your next project without complaining and, Max, I promise I’ll cheer for the Maple Leafs even when they’re playing the Canucks.”
Max snorted. “And I’m supposed to follow that?” He took a deep breath. “Hayley, I love you. I have since the moment I first saw you, and I will until my dying breath. You have made me happier than I thought possible. You have made me laugh when I wanted to cry, get up when I wanted to hide away, and I promise I will do the same for you. I will be your shoulder to cry on, your buddy to laugh with. And I promise I will always keep a supply of chocolate for those days when you need it.”
“Damn it,” Noah muttered, “I should have used that line.”
“Noah,” Max continued, “I wish I could go back to that first time we were together so I could change how I acted. I wish I would have tried harder to stay in touch when you moved away, but I’m not Marty McFly and there’s no time machine, so all I can promise is that I will love you the way you deserve to be loved. I promise you both—I will be your lover, your friend, your partner, your family, your past and your future no matter what it brings, good or bad.”
Hayley fell to her knees in front of him and held out her hand, allowing them each to slip on his ring. The two rings, silver and gold, glinted in the reflection of the tree’s lights.
Her turn. And like Noah, though she hadn’t planned to do this here, she knew just what to say. “I love you both. I think I started falling for you the first day I met you. But because I was with someone else, I didn’t allow myself to see the real men in front of me. Then you made a fantasy come true, with no belittlement, no patronizing. You listened to what I wanted, and you offered more. So much more. I thought you were crazy when you suggested living with you both. But I was wrong. I can’t imagine my life without either of you now.
“Max, you make me laugh on those days when I want to cry. Noah, you are the rock I can count on, to keep me calm when I’m ready to fly into a tizzy. You have both changed the way I see the world, and the way I react to it. You have raised the bar for what I expect in others, and you have both made me a better person as a result. I cannot imagine a life without either of you in it.
“I wish there was some way I could really marry you both, but all I can do is pledge to you now, that I will be there for you both. Always. I will love you, and defend you, well, except for if you leave the toilet seat up, then I’ll throw you to the wolves.”
Both men chuckled, and she thought Max may have blushed but in the muted light, she wasn’t sure.
“I will celebrate your triumphs, and comfort you when you don’t. But I will never doubt your love. And I will never give you cause to doubt mine.” She took a deep breath, wiped the tears now streaming down her cheeks, aware of the tears in theirs. “And I promise that I will raise your children to love their fathers, and I will always show them the love and respect I have for you both.”
As she’d suspected, both men blinked, their jaws dropped at almost exactly the same second, their gazes locking in unison on where her hand had flattened over her belly.
“You’re—you’re...” Max stammered, as Noah said, “Pregnant?”
She nodded. “Of course I don’t know which one of you is the father, but I know it’s one of you. And that’s all I really need to know. I will love him or her because we made them together.”
“When?” Max croaked.
“Do you mean when is it due? Or when I think I conceived?”
“Either. Both,” Noah answered as Max nodded wildly.
“I’m due around the first week of August next year.” The anniversary of their first threesome. “And if my calculations are correct, I think I got pregnant during our trip to Montreal.”
A week where they’d played tourist and ate on Crescent Street every evening before retiring to their hotel room to make love long into the night. Where they discussed renting out Max’s house and buying a new one. A bigger one, with enough room in the back yard for a pool and the German shepherd Max wanted.
Noah got a calculating gleam in his eye. “Looks like we need to go house hunting, Max. We’re going to need to a nursery.”
Leah Braemel
Leah is the only woman in a houseful of males that includes her college-sweetheart husband, two sons, a Shih Tzu named Seamus and Turtle the cat. She loves escaping the ever-multiplying dust bunnies by opening up her laptop to write about sexy heroes and the women who challenge them.
You can find Leah online at http://www.leahbraemel.com To keep up on her latest releases, subscribe to her newsletter http://eepurl.com/suqND
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Love In An Elevator
By Chudney Thomas
Love In An Elevator
Copyright © Chudney Thomas 2015
Mica Lawson is a failure and a flake; at least according to her family. When she returns home after fiance dumps her, she focuses on kick-starting her career by planning a gala charity event, only to come face to face with her overprotective parents' doubts and machinations, and a budding relationship with Cam Munroe, her condo's elevator technician.
All it takes is a stalled elevator for Mica to finally figure out if she'll decide to take the easy way out and let her parents take over her life - again, or trust that Cam, a man who has the life he's always planned, can see that there's more to Mica than what's on the surface, and want to take her on, emotional baggage and all, to see if there really can be Love and in an Elevator.
CHAPTER ONE
The steak was just the way he liked. Cam closed his eyes in appreciation as it practically melted in his mouth.
“I don’t know how you can eat that.” Karen his date sat across the table from him. She was beautiful in a sharp edged way the low lighting in the restaurant did nothing to dispel. Her disdain clear in the way she pointed her fork at his plate. “It’s practically mooing at me from the plate.”
Cam took another bite. He wasn’t going to argue with Karen about how he like his steak, again. If she wanted to eat a salad so be it, but he was going to enjoy his meal.
The waiter filled Karen’s wine glass for the second time and the table began to vibrate. She had insisted he put his cellphone in an envelope she’d bought specifically for that purpose. Her phone was in there too.
“It’s not my phone.”
Cam met Karen’s steely gaze and swallowed his bite of steak. He knew two things. One, he was going to have to answer the phone. Two, Karen wasn’t going to like it.
Cam reached out to grab the envelope. The clatter of Karen’s knife and fork drew his attention. He met her gaze head on as her eyes narrowed and his hands tore it open. Cam recovered his phone. Hers, he placed on the table near her glass of wine. A quick glance told him what he suspected. It was work.
Not just work. It was the Towers a condominium complex downtown. It was a solid contract and if his company wanted to keep it he had to go.
“I have to go.” The words were barely out of his mouth when Karen exploded.
“That’s it! We’re over.” Karen, threw her napkin down on the table.
"Karen.”
“It, is, always work with you.” She stood up pushing the chair back. It scraped against the hardwood floors the sound hurt his ears. Her earlier exclamation had already drawn the attention of half the restaurant. Her standing secured it.
“Let’s not do this here.” Cam wiped his face with his hand. He hated scenes and Karen new it.
“When should we do it? When I’ve waited up for you?” Karen picked up her purse and cellphone.
“It’s my job. I'm on call twenty four seven. We’ve talked about this."
"Oh no. That was before you've left me alone at parties and now dinner. "
He wasn’t going to remind her that they had only ever been to one party and that they’d arrived separately. She stood their texting furiously. Cam stood put his cellphone in his pocket and fished his keys out. “At least let me drop you off.” Judging by the set of her mouth, he had no hope of convincing her to at least let him take her home. He tried anyway.
“It’s all right. I just arranged my ride.”
He’d sensed she’d been itching for a fight from the moment he’d picked her up. The phone call was the last straw.
Ordinarily he wasn’t called out all that much but this one complex was making sure his company paid him overtime. While he appreciated the increased income he really wanted some downtime. Now he had no one to spend that downtime with. He cast a longing look at his half eaten steak and then followed Karen’s heart shaped ass as she sashayed out of the door.
It was going to be a long night.
Karen, the latest female in his quest to settle down, was already climbing into a car by the time he paid for the ruined meal. What a waste of eighty bucks.
Cam wasn’t whether to be angry or frustrated. He settled for frustrated as he watched the cars taillights disappear into the traffic.
He headed to the parking lot, his shirt already sticking to his skin as he weaved through the parked cars. A gust of cool wind howled through the lot and a big fat drop hit him on the nose as he trudged towards his truck. Great, he now had to contend with rain. Cam groaned as the Florida sky opened up and let loose its water filled wrath.
The drive to the Towers was wet, cold and filled with idiots who had no idea how to drive in the rain. Cam grabbed his kit from the back of his cab and ran through the deluge. The building manager met him at the door and handed him a pool towel as he stalked through the lobby in his dress shirt and slacks. His dress shoes squeaked on the slick marble floor.
Cam accepted the towel gladly. Nick was busy giving him the run down.
“Sorry to do this to you man.”
“Perks of the job right? Not your fault I was on a date.” It wasn’t as if he was all that convinced that Karen was the one woman he wanted to spend the rest of his life with. But he hadn’t had a chance to evaluate the possibility and that just pissed him off.
“Ordinarily I’d wait but you know she’s never wrong.” He jerked his thumb towards the female standing by the desk being ogled by the security staff, and with good reason. She stood in front of the desk clad in a bikini and some sort of gauzy cover up that barely met the tops of her thighs and didn’t seem to cover much of anything.
Cam blew out an annoyed breath. “I figured as much.” He tore his gaze away from her shapely bikini clad figure and the question of what she was doing in a bikini at night. “I guess I better get started. Princess over there might just sick her designer dog on me if I don’t.”
~*~
The elevator technician was pissed. He didn’t do more than glance in Mica’s direction but she could feel the anger flowing off of him in waves. He hadn’t started out not liking her but in the couple of months she’d been living on Alexa’s spare condo she’d gotten to know him on sight.
He wasn’t hard on the eyes. Mica freely admitted she was a nuisance, but she had no intention of changing her ways. Since her current job and home required she ride a tiny enclosed metal box suspended by cables she was going to call in the slightest issue, every time.
She could feel the security guys’ intense leers. Mica couldn’t figure out if they were matchmaking, or if they were just bored and hoping for any type of action. Either way she wasn’t in the mood to be their entertainment. “I’m going to sit in the waiting area.”
“You’re not going to go up?” Nick, the building manager asked.
“Not until he gets it fixed. That other one smells funny and you know he’ll take a look at the others too. So I’ll wait until he gives me the all clear.” Mica turned and kept walking. They’d had this conversation before. She’d had barely gotten to the newly carpeted area with the armchairs before she was cornered by the Nick, the building supervisor.
“Miss Lawson.” He crossed his arms across his chest. His face was deceptively neutral “I have to ask. What’s your deal with the elevators?”
Mica wasn’t sure she liked his tone but in absence of proof he was mocking her or actually annoyed she decided to answer. Mica drew in a breath.
“I just have a good ear.” Mica’s grip tightened on Jiggles carrier strap even as she threw back her shoulders in an attempt to stand taller.
“A good ear?”
“I’m the same way with my car. I always know when something's off.” Mica cuddled Jiggles, Mrs. Parkinson’s dog, closer.
The dog licked at her face. She wasn’t going to admit to anyone besides her close family that she was more than a little uncomfortable in enclosed spaces.
“As much as the residents appreciate your attention to detail, I think you owe the guy dinner or something.”
Mica looked at the building manager in surprise. “What?”
“From the looks of it, he was on a date when he got the call.”
Mica felt a twinge of guilt. It wasn’t Cam’s fault the building was older and the elevators were starting to show their age. It also wasn’t his problem she had claustrophobia and had to concentrate on something else while in the elevator. If her condo wasn’t on the tenth floor she would have taken the stairs. If one elevator was down, to her all of them were down and she knew she could trust Cam to run a diagnostic on all of them, he was that thorough .
“How do you know he was on a date?” she asked, as if she hadn’t noticed the thin dress shirt sticking to him like a second skin when he’d walked in. To be honest, she hadn't been thinking of him on a date. She’d been struck dumb once again by the hormones that immediately flooded her body the moment Cam entered the building.
“Dress shirt, dress pants, and soaking-wet leather shoes. Pissed off man who’s usually polite to everyone. Ruined date.” Nick looked as if he would say more but he just smiled and Mica found herself annoyed. If she were anyone else he might have ended the conversation differently. What he really wanted to say was no chance of Cam getting laid and a tiny undamaged part of her wanted to rejoice at the chance it meant he was unattached.
“Well, I guess I should apologize then.”
It was what she always did. Apologize. It was what she was good at. Mica might think snarky sarcastic thoughts but she never uttered them out loud. The only people who ever heard them were her friends and even then she held back.
Though she was right to call in the elevator and demand that it be fixed, in her world that required an apology.
Jiggles wiggled and Mica took the hint and put her down. After the dog did her shuffle Mica bent down and held the bag open for Jiggles to jump in. While Mica would hate to be trapped in her doggie carrier all day, Jiggles loved to take naps in it. .And when she felt overwhelmed Jiggles liked to curl up in the mint green carrier.
The bag and the Bichon-Frise were probably worth more than a month’s rent. Yet Jiggles owner had willingly assigned her safety and wellbeing over to Mica. This on the word of the valet who knew she was in the market of a job and had been house sitting a couple of condos in the towers.
