Words of Lust
Page 28
“I didn’t mean to keep anything from you. Can you forgive me again? I trust you—I have from the moment you rescued me. And I do love you.”
He stared down at her, eyes blazing. She couldn’t speak. In the face of his passion she could only love him.
“Then it’s time to put your money where your mouth is, Professor.”
He slowly started sinking to one knee. She blinked and her throat closed as he took one of her hands in his. Her left hand.
His other hand had been closed tightly and he opened it. Tears overflowed as she stared down at a diamond ring. Old-fashioned and beautiful, it lay sparkling in his palm.
All around them sudden silence reigned. Every eye was on them as he held up the ring.
“Professor Serafina Luca, you are as stubborn as they come. After everything we’ve been through together, you’re still fighting me. But I’m bigger and stronger and I’m here to prove nothing else matters. Nothing matters to me but you. I want you—no conditions, no stipulations. I want the woman with a big brain and a bigger heart. The woman with courage and an incredible smile. The woman who can’t speak Italian, can’t cook and doesn’t know a touchdown from a triple play. I want you because I cannot imagine living without you. I will love you every single day. And I want all of yours. Forever.”
A collective breath was drawn. And held.
“Professor Serafina Luca, will you marry me?”
Tears rolled down her face and she stared down at the man she loved more than she’d ever dreamed possible. He was her world. He had given her family. He’d saved her life. He made her scream with pleasure and laugh with joy. He was her everything. He was hers.
She threw back her head and laughed.
“Yes! I will! Yes!”
* * * * *
About the Author
Following a career as a stage performer and award-winning cabaret singer, Lise Horton turned her untamable creative energies to writing romance. She has published short fiction in erotic romance anthologies, has finaled in several contests and was the first-place winner of the Kathryn Hayes Love & Laughter Contest in 2010. She served for more than five years on the RWA/NYC Chapter board, including a year as president in 2012.
Lise lives in a suburb of Manhattan with a rescued racing greyhound, Angus, and entertains visits from her special-needs adult brother. She’s worked marketing jobs for Psychology Today and Rolling Stone magazines, as a contracts coordinator for the stage directors union, a “garmento” in the fashion district, stints as a bartender and apprentice diamond gemstone grader. Lise now works in New York City at a prominent entertainment law firm.
When not writing sizzling-hot, New York–set romance stories of feisty men and women, she reads and gardens in her National Wildlife Federation official wildlife habitat yard. Words of Lust is her first novel. She owes thanks to her indefatigable mother, RWA/NYC, the Hot & Bothered crew and the encouragement of her beloved friend, the late writer Milton T. Burton.
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ISBN: 9781426896323
Copyright © 2013 by Lise Horton
Edited by Alissa Davis
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All characters in this book have no existence outside the imagination of the author and have no relation whatsoever to anyone bearing the same name or names. They are not even distantly inspired by any individual known or unknown to the author, and all incidents are pure invention.
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