by BJ Harvey
“Um . . . sorry to be a wet fish, Cal, but um . . . you’re pregnant,” Cam says, nodding at our sister’s stomach.
“Well, yeah . . .” Callie replies in a ‘duh’ voice, “I was meaning you guys. We’ve got a night without parents and you lot . . .” she says, pointing to the group of us as a whole, “don’t have kids to get home to anytime soon—if at all—so let’s bust this joint and go have some real fun.”
“She’s right, you know,” Abi says, giving me a squeeze. “It’s Christmas, and we’re free from the Carsen family bullshit, once and for all—so let’s go have some fun. Hey, let’s go crash Matt and Mia’s place. They’ll probably be doing some lovey-dovey shit.”
“Oh, christening their new dining room table,” Dani pipes up from the back.
“Eww,” Zander, Zoe, and Noah reply in unison.
“Right, then. We’ve got a plan. Cock-blocking Matt, celebrating Callie’s fake labor performance, and—most importantly—spending the holidays with those who mean the most to us. Hasta la vista, Castle de Carsen,” Abi says with a grin, shooting a mock salute at my parents’ house before lifting up on her toes and planting a big wet kiss on my lips.
“What was that for?” I ask, my hands resting on her hips.
“For being you. For loving me, and finally, for laying down that rather fucking epic parting line about reputations. The only thing that would’ve been better would’ve been telling your father to suck it.”
“One must have decorum at these events,” I say in a mock stuck-up voice.
“Fuck ’em,” Abi retorts with a grin.
“Exactly. Fuck ’em,” I say, gliding my hands down to her ass, lifting her up and laying a hot and heavy one on her, on my parents’ steps, in front my family and friends, without a care in the world. One could say it was my final ‘fuck you’ to my past life, ending it in the same way I was starting my new one.
With my tongue down Abi’s throat.
And I wouldn’t want it any other way.
The End
But wait.
You didn’t think I’d leave you without an epilogue, did you . . . ?
Mile-high sex. Up there on the top of my dirty bucket list and right now, all eight inches of Cade is making the wet dream a reality.
“Fuck this is tight.”
“The bathroom or my—” I don’t get anything more out because his mouth is back on mine and my Kegels are clenching round his cock.
Wait! That’s so not a sexy analogy right now, but I’m too far gone to care.
His lips on mine, his tongue waging war in my mouth, and his beautiful member making music between my legs is all I need to get me. Right. Almost . . . right . . . wait . . . there.
He buries his face in my neck and sinks his teeth into my skin, planting himself deep and literally pouring himself into me.
“Shit. Cramp. Cramp. Ow!” I shriek, trapped between the unforgiving toilet digging into my backside and my man pinning me to it.
“Fuck,” he grinds out as I twist and turn, trying to achieve the impossible feat of straightening my bent leg without unmanning him in the process.
“Ow. Ow.” I’m crying now, half laughing, half sobbing, finding the situation absolutely hysterical whilst also wondering who the hell I screwed over in a past life to see me deserving such wicked treachery as a leg cramp after mind-blowing—albeit uncomfortable—plane sex.
And of course it’s then that there’s a loud knock on the door. “Security. Open up,” a deep voice rumbles, and Cade’s expression turns from a grimace at my pain to wide-eyed fear.
My body freezes mid-stretch. It’s as if we’re stuck in time—well, except for the jizz that is slowly—and grossly—dripping down my thigh. I mean, sex without a condom is hot and all, but the clean up afterwards? Not on your life, Batman.
When our clothing is straight and I’ve cleaned up as much as possible, Cade opens the restroom door slowly and comes face to face with a grinning Thomas, who looks very pleased with himself.
“Motherfucker,” Cade growls, grabbing Thomas in a headlock. I stand there, embarrassed to high hell and waiting for my chance to knee Cade’s best friend in the balls. Unfortunately, I only get the opportunity to slap his shoulder before Cade leads me back down the aisle to our seats, the whole gang giving us a standing ovation amid cheers of “for he’s a jolly good fellow.”
Of course, with nothing else to do but own the moment, I bend over and take a bow, thankful that all of the children that aren’t babies are coming down tomorrow with their grandparents.
A lot has happened in the six months since Christmas.
Cade Senior did win the mayoral race. However, he resigned from office two months later due to a major sex scandal—of his own doing—after being caught accepting sexual favors from a female city hall employee in a video exposé. To say I was shocked would be a lie because, as I learned after the disastrous—for them—Christmas party, when people try to control everything in their lives to the extent the Carsens do, it generally means they have a lot to lose if things were left to happen organically.
Case in point—that one sex scandal rolled into two, then five, and yet like the most loyal wife who has ever lived, Annabel continues to this day to stand by his side.
Callie, Cam, and Cade, however, no longer have anything to do with their parents, including Callie’s daughter, Haven, who is now five months old.
I applied for—and got—a corporate job at my hotel chain’s head office, overseeing human resources and training for three states. It involves some travel, but the perks of free accommodation anywhere there is one of our hotels certainly make up for it. Our destination for this trip, for starters.
St Thomas will be our home for the next two weeks, and we’re not the only ones coming either. Everyone—and I mean everyone—is joining in on the fun and for the next fourteen days, we’re going to be sitting pretty at a five-star resort, drinking cocktails, christening cabanas, and relaxing. Oh, and there’ll be a wedding . . . or two . . . yeah.
See two months ago, Cade called in some favors and cleared out the Skydeck of Willis Tower after dark. There was a picnic blanket, silver-domed plates, a bottle of champagne, and two crystal glasses, and before I could whirl around to ask him what he’d done, he had his hand in mine and was sliding a platinum diamond princess-cut engagement ring on my finger. He didn’t even ask the question. If you can believe it, he asked me to marry him by lifting his eyebrow and squeezing my hand, running his thumb over the ring in its new home at the base of my finger. Total alpha move, but so fucking hot, I literally jumped him right there. Thankfully, my fiancé had the forethought to ask for the cameras to be switched off for two hours, knowing—or maybe hoping—that I’d show him my appreciation in a myriad of dirty ways.
That’s one wedding. The other is for Zach and Dani.
Zach went small and intimate with his proposal, organizing for all of us, along with his mom, to travel to Syracuse, Indiana, to Mrs. Roberts’ house for a surprise party, which started with Dani walking in thinking she was getting a birthday dinner, then getting told to go into the backyard for her present where Zach was on bended knee with just her sisters, brother, and their two moms standing behind him.
She cried like a baby, which of course set all of the girls off—even those of us peering out of the living room window watching it all go down.
So coming along for the trip are Thomas, Mac and Daniel, Noah and Zoe, Kate and Zander, and Matt and Mia. Zander, Zoe, and Mia’s mom along with Zach’s mom, Daniel’s parents, Sean and Sam, and my family are all arriving tomorrow.
My best friend, Amy, was unfortunately not able to join us on the trip and be my bridesmaid because eight months ago, she had a secret little one-night stand and ended up a lot pregnant. Now she’s too far along to travel, which totally sucks, but the one bright side is that there’s going to be a little baby for me to spoil very soon, which will hopefully help me get over the baby-crazy thoughts I’ve been entertaining of late.
I’m totally not ready for kids yet, but there’s something about being in love and knowing you’re going to spend the rest of your life with someone that makes you think about merging your DNA with theirs and creating a new human being. Or maybe that’s just me.
Cade knows all about it and he’s happy to start now or wait—in fact, he said there’s nothing sexier than a pregnant belly on a woman he’s not related to—of course, ‘cause if he found his preggo family members sexy that would be super weird, like Deliverance weird, and we totally don’t want to think about that—so with Haven, and Amy’s new baby, I think I’ll be able to satisfy my yearnings to procreate for at least a year.
“Assholes,” Cade says to the group. With so many of us, we’ve pretty much commandeered this end of the plane. Remember the bad, noisy kids on the school bus? Yeah, that’s been us most of the trip. That’s why Cade and I figured we’d at least have a small chance of disappearing undetected for a quickie in the bus of the skies, but no such luck.
Mac leans forward from her seat behind me, her mouth in the gap between the seats. “Just so you know, Superman says thanks. While Thomas was giving you guys grief, it gave us the chance to sneak to the back restroom.”
My head snaps back around like a woman possessed, glaring at her grinning face. “You totally owe me the next time I want to cross something off my bucket list.”
“Believe me, for the double orgasm Superman just bestowed on me, I’ll take your back any day.”
“I’m not a woman who forgets shit like this, Winters,” I warn, pointing a finger her way.
“You’re so like Cade, it’s not funny. No wonder you’re marrying the guy.”
“She’s marrying me for my big dick. It’s a fact. I just proved it a few minutes ago,” my soon-to-be ex-fiancé announces smugly.
“I’ve still got two days to back out, Carsen.” I just have time to get that out before I’m out of my seat and bent over his lap. Yes—bent—over his lap, his hand resting menacingly on my ass over my skirt.
“You were saying?” he warns in that low, commanding voice of his, the one that destroys panties with a single syllable. Maybe that’s a trick he picked up from Superman.
“I love you, Doctor Hottie,” I breathe, totally giving away how raring to go I am again.
I’m spun upright and around until my butt is in his lap and my legs are draped over the seat arm, his hand pressing on the back of my head and his lips crashing down on mine. Freaking bliss!
Two days later, side by side with Dani and Zach, and in front of all of our friends and most of our families, I become Mrs. Cade Carmichael Carsen III, although I’m thinking we’ll just stick with Carsen.
And if there’s one life lesson I can take away from the past year of our lives, it’s this. Sometimes you don’t know that you need something until it sneaks up on you.
Cade and I started with something that was hot, fun and far from long-term with just one look across a crowded bar. That was fine for us—at the time anyway. Now, we’ve ended up with so much more than either of us bargained for but couldn’t imagine living without, and I, for one, can’t wait to explore our real for the rest of our lives.
The Game series continues in Game Ender (Game #4)—Thomas and Amy.
Continue reading for Game Ender’s Blurb
(Game #4)—Coming Soon
“You have chlamydia.”
Three words no man wants to hear.
I’ve always been liberal with my appreciation of the female form, a firm believer in the ‘try before you buy’ principle, but living life to the fullest obviously didn’t end well for me considering the unexpected—and very unwelcome—consequence of my free and easy past.
After living through the horrendous experience that was informing my recent sexual partners of my acquired ‘condition,’ I made a vow to myself—and a bet with my best friend—that the next woman I sleep with will be the ‘one.’
What I will learn is that even when something happens and the games come to an end, there’s always the chance of something—or someone—crashing in and changing everything.
So this is my story. It may start with a venereal disease, but I promise you, I’m determined to get my happy ending.
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Continue reading for a preview of Temporary Bliss–
Book 1 of the USA Today Bestselling Bliss Series.
I’m on my way home after finishing a shift at the hospital. I’m just getting comfortable and texting Kate, when I drop my phone. Of course, it had to slide down the train away from me. Thankfully, being 8 p.m., the cab isn’t too full. Just as I’m about to get up and search the floor in a desperate last attempt to regain my life, hey, my phone is my life, don’t judge, I see him.
As luck would have it, my phone hit a strange man’s black loafer clad foot, and when I look up, I see said man making his way towards me. This man is sex on legs delicious. I totally clocked him when he got on the train at the stop after me. I’m amazed that I’m even coherent enough to notice anyone, given that I’m at the end of an eight hour day shift where I was rushed off my feet. I’m dog tired, but my mind is restless, wired, and you guessed it, horny.
Noah has been on a training course for the week, so there has been no chance of any on-call room hook ups, Sean has been out of town for business for the past few days, and Zander has had back to back bookings all week. It’s just been me, my trusty rabbit who, as luck would have it, has run out of juice, or option number three, this delectable man who is now walking towards me.
Ding, Ding, Ding! I pick door number three.
He just doesn’t know it yet.
He’s wearing a granite colored suit, the jacket hanging over his arm which is carrying a black leather briefcase. His white dress shirt has the sleeves rolled up, and he’s obviously finished work for the day because his top two buttons are undone, giving a slight glimpse of a tanned and toned chest that you just want to lick. I’m in businessman fantasy heaven, and he is being delivered to me on a plate, or in this case, a rattly, somewhat dirty, Chicago train.
But beggars can’t be choosers.
He’s totally caught me staring at him, his pearly white smile growing on his gorgeous face as he gets closer. I give him a slightly embarrassed, yet cute smile back, knowing that I’ve been caught checking him out. He holds his hand out to me when he reaches my seat, and being the socially awkward idiot that I am, I put my hand out to shake his, feeling absolutely mortified when I realize that he was only trying to hand my phone back.
“Sorry, is this your phone? It slid down the floor from this direction, and you’re one of the only people on the train without a phone or an e-reader in your hand, so I’m taking a lucky guess,” he says with a sly grin, thankfully not laughing at my social ineptitude.
“Yeah, that’ll be mine. Sorry to make you come all the way down here,” I reply, an uncontrollable blush creeping up my cheeks.
“Hey, it’s no problem. I don’t mind being given an excuse to talk to a beautiful stranger, on the L, at night, alone . . .”
His words are calculated. He somehow has managed to compliment me at the same time as chastising me for traveling alone on the L at night. Now that is talent! I feel a chill run up my spine at the sheer presence of this man.
“Makenna Lewis, but everyone calls me Mac,” I say, this time actually holding my hand out to shake his.
He looks down at my outstretched hand and drags piercing caramel colored eyes down my scrub clad body, his jaw twitching as he returns his gaze back to my face.
“Daniel Winters,” he replies, taking my hand in his and shaking it once while very deliberately dragging his hand slowly from mine, running the length of my fingers as he pulls away. I bite my lip as warm tingles travel from my fingers and up my arms, then shoot right down to my girly bits.
Holy hell, h
e’s got game, and it’s a game I want to play!
This man leaves Zander in his wake, and Zander is a professional stripper who gets paid to flirt.
“Where are you headed tonight? Have you just finished work, or just starting?” he asks, reaching up to hold on to the cabin’s overhead rail while he looks down at me with a raised eyebrow. That move brings my attention to his tailored shirt tightening over his toned biceps, and then I see it. It’s like my eyes are homing beacons looking for the slightest hint of skin. A small part of his shirt has come loose at his waist and has ridden up, giving me a glimpse of a tight set of abs and the smallest smattering of hair leading a trail south below his waistband. Lord knows I’m a sucker for tight abs and a happy trail.
C’mon, Mac, get it together, you’re drooling, and he’s waiting for an answer.
“Ah work, yeah, I just finished my shift at Northwestern,” I mutter, shaking my head to get rid of thoughts of him shirtless, and in my bed.
“Ah, a doctor then?” he asks with a smile.
“I’m a nurse in the ICU,” I answer back, the now stupid grin on my face getting wider as we sit there, smiling at each other.
“And how about you? Let me guess . . . a lawyer? No, wait, maybe an accountant? Nope, not that either. My last answer is undertaker.” I tilt my head and give him a returning ‘What’cha got for me now’ look.
He laughs and I literally stop breathing.
All of Daniel’s physical attributes are already measuring mighty high on the Makenna scale of hotness, but that laugh . . . the low baritone timbre that can stop wars, solve world hunger, and cure women of their need for underwear all at the same time . . . it is the work of the devil. I swear to God, all he’d have to do is lie there and laugh all day, and I swear I could sit on his chest and get off.
“I’m a stockbroker,” he finally tells me, leaning in and putting his spare arm on the back of my seat. “And I guess none of my sexy nurse jokes will win me any favors with you either, right?” I notice a slight upwards curl of his lips, and realize that he’s not only sexy and has a laugh that could make a nun horny, but he’s funny too.
