by Aria Ford
“Cheers!”
“Congratulations!”
We had a small reception—my guests were Mom, Grandpa, and Miller; his were his cousin Jack and a few army guys. We all fit around two tables on the terrace, and the meal was provided by the local catering firms.
“Cut the cake!” my mom shouted at some point during the meal. I laughed.
“Oh! I’d forgotten!”
Reese grinned at me. “I love you,” he mouthed.
“I love you too.”
We cut the cake—a magnificent creation from the specialist bakery. I wanted chocolate and Reese fruitcake, so we did a layer of each. We cut it and the guests applauded and my heart soared.
So much joy packed into one evening scarcely seemed possible, but it was, and it all went by too fast. Later, when the guests had all gone, Reese and I stayed on the farm. I turned to him.
“Reese…” I murmured.
“My love.”
We kissed and there, under the stars with the velvet sky above, I knew I was the happiest person around.
I could feel my body responding to his kiss and I felt a slow ache grow inside me, a sweet, beautiful need. I breathed a sigh and he laughed.
“I was thinking the same thing,” he whispered.
We went inside together and headed to the bedroom.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
Kelly
Reese leaned against the door and kissed me and I kissed him back. It felt different, even though we had done this so many times. I was in my gown, he in his beautiful suit. He was so strong, so handsome. I reached up and stroked his head.
“You are so amazing,” I whispered.
He laughed. “You are the most beautiful girl ever,” he whispered as he kissed me. “And I want to show you that.”
I felt my heart thump. “Mm?”
“Mm.”
He pushed me back onto the bed then, so gently that I laughed a little breathlessly as I fell back onto the plush covers. His hands were on my body, so gentle, tracing my side, stroking my waist. I felt him lower his weight so that he was beside me. I looked up into that smiling face, so handsome in his suit, and I felt my heart tighten with amazement.
“I love you,” I said, blinking my eyes.
“I love you too.”
He reached for my hair, stroking it as his mouth consumed mine, tongue playing in between my lips, tickling and teasing. I gasped and felt my body come alive under his skilled touch. He stroked the pale skin of my neck and his hand moved lower, searching out the button.
I gasped as he unfastened the gown, his hands moving down my back as his mouth moved lower too. He reached my belly button with the undressing, though his mouth lingered at my breast. I was wearing bridal underwear, and he leaned back, looking at me.
“I wish I had a picture of that,” he sighed. I blushed.
“Maybe I could manage that,” I offered. He chuckled.
“Now all I want is to undress you.”
“Mm. Me too.”
His hands were so gentle as he took down the strap of my bra, one at a time. Then he leaned over, closing his lips on my nipples, first one as he worked down the silk cup, then the other. His hands squeezed me gently and then he moved down, unclipping the bra at the back with knowing touch.
He kissed a trail of kisses down my body, and then he reached my panty line. He paused, those naughty dark eyes on mine. Then he took off my briefs and kissed me between my thighs.
I tensed, the sensation rocking through me. His lips skillfully worked at my sensitive spot until I thought I would go mad.
“Oh! Oh! Oh…”
He chuckled, and then he was undressing faster than I would have thought possible. He was soon bare to the waist, and I stared, drinking in the sheer wonder that was his male exquisiteness. I wanted him so badly then. I wanted him so much it hurt.
He was naked soon, and he lay beside me. His hand moved to between my legs, and I sighed as his fingers stroked me momentarily. Then he knelt and moved down the bed.
“Yes?” he whispered. He was kneeling between my thighs. His eyes stared into mine, and I could see the perspiration on his forehead, evidence of how hard he restrained himself, how much he held back to pleasure me. I sighed.
“Yes. Oh yes.”
Then he was inside me, his hard, throbbing maleness pushing imperiously right the way through. I gasped as he filled me and then moved back, pushing in again and again and again…
“Kelly.” He was growling incoherently, saying my name. He moved in me, and I could feel him shiver.
“Reese!”
We came together as our bodies abandoned all civility and moved with the wild, abandoned motions of longing. I was gasping and gasping, the heat rising and rising and then…
“Oh!”
I screamed as I came. The most magnificent sensation I had ever felt crashed through me like a tsunami. I held on to him, shuddering and crying. He collapsed on me, and we lay still.
Later, he rolled off me and I noticed his eyes too were damp.
“Reese,” I murmured as I stroked his hair.
“Kells.”
We lay beside each other, his arms around me and drifted off to sleep. We woke later and made love again and then, later still, we fell into a deep, exhausted sleep and only woke when the first gray light strayed through the window, falling tenderly on my eyes.
EPILOGUE
Time passed faster than I ever would have expected. I spent a fortnight on the farm—a honeymoon of sorts, the best sort I would have imagined, what I’d longed for, and then I went back to work.
The months were happy and expectant, and I started to look more pregnant around New Year. Then, three months later, my baby daughter was born.
“Kelly!”
Reese was there in the delivery room and, when I opened my eyes, exhausted and slightly dizzy, he was there before me, face flushed, eyes a picture of torment and concern.
“Reese,” I said weakly. I chuckled. He looked as if he thought I was going to be eaten by tigers. “Have you seen her?”
“Have I seen her?” he giggled. “I couldn’t stop looking. Wouldn’t have. But I needed to be here…” he was bending over me, kissing my face all over and I laughed and pushed him away. “Are you okay?”
“I am,” I said with a big happy smile. “But if you suffocate me I might be worse for wear.”
“Oh. Sorry.” He sat right back on the chair beside the bed. His handsome expression was twisted with such a shamed look that I felt bad.
“I was joking, dearest. I’m so glad to see you. Just sleepy.”
“I’m sure you are!” he said, eyes wide with horror. “You’ve been having a baby for five hours! That’s so long!”
“It’s not long,” the doctor, who was hovering, said; impassively. I chuckled.
“I guess it’s not. But I love that you were so worried for me,” I said to Reese.
He grinned. “I thought they were going to give me sedation!”
I laughed. “Probably should have,” I said, then coughed. I was tired. Everything hurt.
“Can I see her again?” he asked. I chuckled weakly.
“Of course. They’re just checking her. Doing whatever they do. They’ll bring her hear in a moment.”
They did. I couldn’t quite believe it as the nurse put her into my arms. I looked down at her face. She was red-faced, sleepy and with those tiny, elfin features that seemed impossibly perfect. I couldn’t describe how my heart felt as I looked down at her. Nothing could ever have prepared me for it. Three parts adorations, one part a fierce intensity of devotion that almost scared me. I looked at Reese. I could see in his eyes that he felt the same thing.
“Can I hold her?” he asked.
“Sure,” I whispered. I really was tired. My arms wobbled a little as he took her small weight from me and I lay back on the pillows, hair sticking to my perspiring forehead, as I watched my Reese and our tiny, perfect daughter.
“She’s so beautifu
l,” Reese said, wonder light in his voice. “What…” He paused. “What do you want to name her?”
I bit my lip. I had thought about this a lot. I had the perfect name. I wasn’t sure if he would like it, but I had to give it a try.
“Hayley,” I said.
“For your grandfather, yes?”
I nodded, my voice tight with tears. My grandfather’s name was Greg Hayley. It was the perfect choice of a name for her. Like him, I thought she would be courageous and gentle both.
“It’s perfect,” he said.
I nodded. “I think so too.”
And that was decided.
When I came out of hospital, I went straight to the farm. I was surprised by how Reese had worked on it—even since I was here a few months ago, it looked more well kept, and inside it was starting to feel like a proper home. My home.
The months passed more fleetingly than I could have imagined and before long it was New Year again. Mom came to visit, and Grandpa came up too. We all celebrated together.
As I sat at the table, opposite Reese, I couldn’t believe I was so lucky.
Later, we kissed in the darkened bedroom. A fire was burning in the grate, the glow of coals the only light beside the fitful light of distant, huge stars. I was in his arms and we were warm and kissing.
Beside the bed, Hayley was asleep in her crib and the room was silent and calm, the only sound besides our breath the sound of crickets, rasping in the scrubby bushes by the kitchen door.
I looked into those dark brown eyes and felt my soul soften in their warm, loving depths.
“I love you,” I whispered.
“I love you too.”
We kissed.
I lay in his arms in the sweet safety of our house, my baby beside me, and felt amazed by the way my life had all turned out.
Because life is simpler than you think, sometimes: the signs are always there, written on our hearts, to guide us. And love is simpler still. As simple as kisses, as close as a tender touch.
The End
NEW SECOND CHANCE ROMANCE: AGAIN
Prologue
I recalled the feeling of his hands on my skin, soft and stroking and loving. The way he had looked into my eyes as he pushed into me, his hardness making me cry out, first in pain and then, an instant later, in wonder.
I had melted in his arms and afterward, after our slow, sweet passion was spent, I had wept with the beauty of it all.
He was my first man.
Maddox Jefferson. Handsome, funny, rugged. The first man in my life and the one who had taken my heart along with everything else I had to offer at the time.
Then, for some reason, he’d left. I guessed it had been natural. That’s how my mom had made me see it, anyway. Natural and logical. We were sixteen at the time and of course, she said, things were not going to last between us. When he walked away without contacting me, she made it seem like I was foolish to expect anything else. Except that it hadn’t ever faded away…not for me.
“Ms. Trent?”
“Mm?” I blinked up at my secretary as she came into the office.
“Papers for you to sign.”
“Oh. Thank you, Jess. If you could just leave them there?”
“Yes, Ms. Trent.”
I sighed and focused on the print as I lifted a page to my eyes, trying to think straight. Somehow, my mind was full of Maddox today. I looked out of the window: the sky was a delicate blue, springtime visiting the city again. I suppose that was it. It was a season where the heart naturally thinks of loving. And it was five days before Valentine’s. That must be it.
“And here I am, in Trent Incorporated, signing…um…forms for the customs bureau?”
I put my signature to the papers, put my elbows on the desk and rested my head in my hands.
I was twenty-six, and my life felt so empty.
It was actually quite full. My father was the CEO of Trent Incorporated—a massive international freight company—and I was all set to take over from him. Running a big business empire should have made me excited. As daddy’s daughter, I would have expected it to. I was very like him in some ways, or so mom always said. And dad was leaving me in charge this week while he jetted off to Singapore for talks there.
I knew I had a full life. But it was only three months since I split from my ex-boyfriend and I still felt all the trauma after that as well. He had been a critical, belittling and undermining guy, always telling me that I fell short or implying I wasn’t quite good enough for him. It had only been when it became clear he had met someone else that I finally had the courage to step away. Now that I was free of him and his small cruelties, I should feel so much happier. Oddly enough, though, I didn’t.
I’m just being silly.
My phone rang. I glanced at the clock—1:15 p.m. Weird.
I didn’t expect that phone to ring—very few people have my personal number. My dad. Mom. Harper, my best friend. And Valery, when he was my boyfriend. Now he’s blocked.
“Hello?”
“Hey, Macy!” It was Harper. I smiled.
“What’s up? Listen, it’s the end of lunch hour—I haven’t got time now…” I began quickly.
“It’s nothing. Just wait! Listen! I’m having a Valentine’s party. I wanted to invite, you know, all my friends. I wanted to invite you most, of course.”
I smiled. Harper was a wildly enthusiastic type, the sort who got hyped about everything. A party at her place would be fun. “Sure,” I said. “Count me in.”
“Great! I’ll chat later. We can plan more then.”
“Okay,” I said cheerfully. “Chat later then. Bye!”
“Bye.”
After I hung up, I leaned back, feeling much happier.
It was only after I’d thought about it for a bit that I realized that Harper, in her own special way, was probably planning to set me up with someone. I wasn’t sure I wanted that. Not now.
There was only one guy I’d ever really loved, I thought sadly. I sighed.
He was not for me. For so many reasons. But even so, he was on my mind a lot at the moment. Maddox Jefferson.
It was, I decided ruthlessly, about time I stopped thinking like that. I was twenty-six years old, and I should have grown past these rare stabs of nostalgia in which I missed Maddox. The times when I thought of him and wondered what had happened all those years before when he had, so abruptly and without any reasoning, ended our relationship.
It was time I got over him and opened myself out to someone new and special who would sweep me off my feet.
The thought made me smile. Maybe there was a guy like that out there for me. Someone sweet and funny and kind who would fall for me as much as I fell for him. Another guy. Maddox had been the first. But who was to say there wouldn’t be others. It had happened once, after all. And now it seemed like I had a chance to find out if something that lucky could happen to one person, twice.
A party for Valentine’s, organized with Harper Hampton’s special flair for a party. Who knew what might happen?
I put my phone back in my Calvin Klein handbag, feeling better than I had for a while.
CHAPTER ONE
Maddox
“Damn it.”
I leaned back on the sofa and put my head in my hands. Sometimes, I wonder if I’m okay in the head. Reese, my pal from work, insists I’m fine—just a few knocks too many from football—or so he says. Myself, I’m not so sure.
I rolled my shoulders, the muscles aching from my session at the gym this morning and threw my overdue bills on the countertop. I ran my hands through blond hair and closed my eyes.
If I was as okay in the head as he insists I am, I probably wouldn’t be doing any of this.
Well…that’s not exactly true. I’m very glad I’m doing some of it. If nothing else, it’s really great to have a job. And a good one too. At least, the pay is good. It’s boring, but it’s good.
I reached for the other envelope, the one from Maxwell Security, my employers. I had
n’t opened it yet. I guess I was nervous, fearing bad news.
“Dear Mr. Jefferson,” I read. “With reference to your excellent record in the company thus far, we have selected you as part of the team to work in Gracefield Mall. This additional work will of course bring added remuneration benefits and a revised schedule for the next two years.”
Well, that sounds perfect.
I read through the rest of the letter, feeling some of my anxiety drain from me. The “remuneration” they mentioned (why can’t they just say wages? I’m a simple guy, no fancy colleges or anything) was a big help. Just what I needed, in fact. I was struggling on my current pay as the lowest grade of security officer in the firm. I needed this break. And now I had one.
Whew.
The rest of the job description explained that I would have shadow the existing security guard for a fortnight, just to make sure I was clear on protocol and stuff. After all, they had fancy clients in the mall—a new upmarket shopping establishment in the Inglewood district. I was on probation for the first month.
Which was good, since the first month started, technically, tomorrow.
“What?”
I cursed the postal service under my breath and checked my calendar. It was right: Today was the ninth of February, and my term at the mall was going to start on its opening, the tenth. I was free tomorrow afternoon, which was just as well: my first shift started tomorrow lunchtime.
I needed coffee. I went through to the kitchen, wincing as my leg cramped after too long on the treadmill this morning, and switched on the kettle.
Tomorrow, things are finally looking up.
I was excited. Any change is a good change. At least, I was telling myself that. Not that all the changes in my life had been good just recently. My single status, for example, was a change I was a bit ambivalent about.
I guess it’s actually better after all. Cheri wasn’t the right girl for me. She had been demanding and critical and I knew she was looking for a guy way different than me. At least now we were both free. Or that’s what I told myself.
