by Mina Carter
Unfortunately he’d turned her down, but he’d been nice about it. Assuring her that his friend was an ‘asshole who deserved everything he got’ but no, he wouldn’t be the one that was dishing it out in court. She was however relieved to hear that Logan would also not accept a case against her, unless she decided to all out screw with JJ. In other words, let sleeping dogs lie and so would he. In the circumstances, she figured it was the best she was going to get.
She opened her eyes and looked at the couch longingly, gathering the energy to waddle over there and collapse on it.
“You, sweetie, make mommy tired,” she said, her voice soft as she stroked a loving hand over her bump. She’d asked not to be told what sex the baby was on her scans, but she had a feeling it was a little girl. She didn’t know why, but it just seemed feminine. A small foot kicked out, hitting her hand with unerring accuracy. Zette laughed, making it across the room to lower herself onto the couch.
“Okay, okay, that’s your space, mommy not touch.”
She’d barely sat, her limbs relaxing into the comfortable cushions of the couch, when there was a knock at the door. Zette groaned, her head flopping back into the cushions for a moment. Why did people always do that when she’d just sat down? Didn’t they know it wasn’t exactly easy to get up and down when you were the size of a small house? The knock came again, the sharp rap of knuckles against the wood, as though the owner didn’t like to be kept waiting.
“Okay, okay, hold your horses, I’m coming!” she called as she hauled herself out of the luxurious clutches of the couch to waddle over. She opened the door, her mouth already open to give whoever it was a lecture on impatience but no sound emerged as she recognised the tall form standing in the doorway.
JJ.
Her heart lurched, clenching painfully as she looked at him. She hadn’t seen him since the wedding reception and even now that image of him reappeared in her mind from the small box she’d locked it in, tall and handsome in his wedding suit. As soon as that one got in, the rest, a hundred images of him in different states of undress…or smiling as he woke, assaulted her with painful clarity. Memory was a bitch when you wanted to forget.
“Hello Zette, how are you?”
She just looked at him. How was she? How did he think she was? She’d just been on stage, pouring her heart out about heartbreak and faithless lovers and the man who’d planned their divorce before he’d even married her was asking her how she was?
“When are you filing the papers?” she asked bluntly, in no mood to mess about with the kind of games JJ played. She was too tired, too heart-sore for that.
“If you’ve brought them now, I’ll sign them and you can postdate them. I don’t care what you want to tell the courts. Mind you, I’m sure you’ve already got that all worked out. So, where are they?” She arched an eyebrow at him, crossing her arms over her full breasts. Pregnancy had only made her already generous figure curvier.
“I’ve not got the papers, I’m not filing them.” He stood in the door and, if Zette didn’t know better, he looked hesitant, as though he was unsure of his welcome. It was the first time she’d ever seen him show anything approaching a weakness. Her eyes narrowed, what game was he playing now?
“You’re not? Why?”
He cleared his throat, looking down at the floor for a moment, as though he was having trouble with what to say. He looked up, his hazel eyes unguarded and open. Zette caught her breath at the sorrow there.
“Because I don’t want to,” he said simply. “Can I come in?”
The last was as near to a plea as Zette had heard him make. Warily she nodded, stepping back from the door to allow his tall figure to pass her as she shut the door.
Once she had though, she wished she hadn’t. The dressing room wasn’t the smallest she’d ever had. Hell, she’d had apartments smaller than this. But somehow he seemed to take up all the room, dominate the space as though he owned it. It was that innate self-confidence of his, she decided, wishing she could steal a little for herself and appear something other than over- heated, exhausted and heavily pregnant. Frazzled, that would be one way to describe it.
“Okay, you’re in. Now what do you want?” she demanded, not caring that she was harsh. If he thought he could just turn up and expect her to welcome him with open arms, he had another thing coming.
He winced at her tone, raking a hand through his hair. A nervous gesture she realised, noting the dark shadows under his eyes and the lines of strain around his mouth. He looked like a man who had been kicked in the guts after losing a week’s sleep.
He laughed, a short sound that had nothing to do with amusement.
“I don’t know where to start. So I’ll just come out with it.” He turned to her, his expression contrite. “Zette, I’m so sorry. I shouldn’t have done what I did. I guess…” he trailed off, shaking his head a little. “I don’t have excuses for what I did. There aren’t any excuses for what I did, the way I treated you.”
Zette just stood there, not quite believing the words, what she was hearing. Hope began to blossom in her chest, her heart aching as she relaxed the stranglehold she’d had on it these last few months. Long months. But he still hadn’t said what she needed to hear. He’d said sorry and for a man like JJ, with the way he’d treated her, she still wasn’t sure this wasn’t another elaborate stunt.
“No, there aren’t,” she agreed, her expression guarded. “Was that it?”
“Dammit Zette! I’m trying to apologise, give me something to work with here!” he exploded, voice fraught with frustration as he took a step toward her. She stood her ground, glaring at him as her anger flared.
“Why the hell should I? In case you’ve forgotten, you were the one that was—”
He reached her in an instant, hands smoothing down her arms to take her hands before she realised, could stop him.
“I know baby, I know and I’m sorry,” he said softly, his hazel eyes more green than brown as he looked down at her. He held her gaze, thumbs stroking over the back of her hands. “I realise what a prize idiot I was, I can’t say any more than sorry and… I love you.”
He looked down, as though he couldn’t bear to meet her eyes anymore, waiting for her to say something. But she couldn’t, the pain in her heart blossoming out to become hope and stealing her breath. Underneath her heart, the baby jumped and kicked, as though she knew her daddy was close by. A daddy Zette had thought she’d have to grow up just looking at in photos or pictures in the press. When she didn’t reply, he pressed his lips together, his shoulders drooping in defeat.
“Thank you for listening to me, I didn’t deserve even that.” His lips quirked. “Actually I was surprised to get through security.” He leaned forwards and pressed a kiss to her temple.
“I’ll leave you in peace, if that’s what you want?”
His question hung in the air, shimmering between them. She knew if she asked him to leave now, that would be it. He wouldn’t bother her again. The JJ she knew, the one that had played games with their marriage and her heart, would. He’d have kept harassing her until he’d got what he wanted. But this man, the one standing in front of her with longing and hope in his voice, somehow she knew she was looking at a completely new JJ.
She took a deep breath and looked up, wondering whether she could take a chance with her heart again. Could she afford not to with her baby involved, a baby who deserved a chance to get to know her father?
“Say it again—” she asked, her voice breaking a little as she spoke.
It was all the excuse he needed, dragging her against his hard body and enfolding her in his arms. “Say what again love? That I’m sorry, thank you for listening to me or that I love you more than life itself? That if I ever cock up like that again I’ll…well, I won’t. Not that badly. Not ever. But you can name your forfeit for if I even slightly piss you off. I’ll do anything if you agree to have me back,” he admitted gruffly, his eyes suspiciously wet.
She smiled through her te
ars and reached up to touch his face, smoothing her fingers over the stubble on his cheeks. Her heart filled with love and, more importantly, hope. Hope that they could turn this around despite its rocky start.
“How about breakfast in bed…forever?” she replied gently, her answer in her eyes. There wasn’t anything she wouldn’t do for him. “And you get up to feed the baby, when she puts in an appearance.”
His eyes flicked down to her stomach, the hard swell between them. “Anything,” he promised, wonder in his eyes as he reached down to touch it. He paused at the last moment, looking up for permission. Zette nodded, biting her lip as he knelt down. His big hands smoothed over her and inside she could feel the baby move, considering this new presence and deciding whether to batter the hell out of him with feet and fists.
But she didn’t. Zette almost felt the happy little movement as, unborn, the baby moved against her daddy’s hands and settled down to sleep. He smiled and planted a gentle kiss on the bump.
“She?” he asked, standing and drawing her tight against him. A shudder went through his big body as she leaned against him, letting him take her weight. Trusting him. “I suppose that means I have to put up with two bossy women about the place eh?”
Zette grinned, leaning her head on his shoulder. “Yep. Just remember to do everything we say and you’ll be fine.”
Thank you for taking a chance on Revenge on the Rockstar. I hope you enjoyed it!
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Also by Mina Carter
When you play with Fyre, you might just get burned.
Raelyn Borne has a fiery passion to save her home. Unfortunately, lawyer Logan Fyre, is as ruthless an opponent as they come. With him, she can’t bribe or threaten her way out of this one.
When backed into a corner, Raelyn has a tendency to get sassy. And now she’s desperate enough to enter into a dangerous game with Logan.
Does she have the strength to play with Fyre–without getting burned?
Product Warning: **Hot, ruthless lawyer, scorching sex and a woman with a secret. **
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Sexy, royal and one of the ferocious black dragons… he’s way out of her league.
Orphaned and forced to live under the cruel eye of her stepmother, Saskia spends her days and most of her nights sewing gowns for rich dragonesses to wear to balls she will never see. When a chance encounter brings her into contact with the handsome Callan, Duke and cousin to the Queen, she thinks nothing of it. After all, what royal duke would want a woman with a broken, mad dragon?
But when the otherworldly intervenes, Saskia gets her chance to go to the ball, and dance with the man of her dreams…
Tiny, delicate and utterly beautiful… but where has he seen her before?
A royal duke by birth, and a black, Callan’s life has been dictated since the moment he was born. Ordered by his cousin, the queen, to pick a bride at the ball or she’ll pick for him, he’s between a rock and a hard place. Until he sees her. The tiny woman in the purple gown runs him a merry chase over the ballroom but one look and he’s determined. She will be his.
And she is, for the briefest of moments before his duty intervenes and he has to return a wayward youth to his father before he gets himself into a lifetime of trouble. When he returns his delicate princess is gone, leaving behind a single shoe…
Furious, Callan launches a hunt for his love…one that leads to a woman who is not who she pretends to be, a raid on a brothel and a fight with a troll. Can he persuade his delicate princess she’s not broken, but that she’s the perfect dragoness for him?
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He's one of the most dangerous creatures in the galaxy... so why can't she keep her hands off him?
A junior nurse aboard the Combined Fleet Ship Valkyrie, Samara's days are usually filled with minor bumps and scraps and the occasional health or workspace check. But when a dangerous prisoner is transferred aboard, she finds herself on brig duty. Dealing with the big, lethal looking military grade cyborg should be terrifying, but one look into his green eyes and she can't think of anything other than what his big, hard body would look like under the grey ship suit...
She's small, soft and fragile... he should keep his hands to himself and forget her.
Captured and en route to a medical facility for dissection and study, cyborg Lyon expects nothing but pain and degradation from his captors. But Samara isn't like the others, treating his wounds with care and igniting a fire deep within. When she neglects to ensure his cuffs are locked tight, all hell breaks loose. A hot, sensual hell against the cell wall. When his team arrives, Lyon knows he should walk away...but he can't. His little human has gotten under his skin. He'll take her as payment for his suffering, keep her in his bed and pleasure them both for as long as it takes for him to lose interest.
However, the universe, and the Fleet, have other ideas. A tracker on board brings a horde of fleet ships down on their heads. Can Lyon and Samara survive betrayal, a fleet attack, or will their happily ever after disintegrate under fire?
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About the Author
Mina Carter is a New York Times & USA Today bestselling author of romance in many genres. She lives in the UK with her husband, daughter and a bossy cat.
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