reputation

by Dr. Rebecca Sharp

  “You do,” I insisted, grabbing his hand and pulling it to my mouth. “You always did.”

  Tears overflowed down my cheeks, his hands quickly moving to brush them away. I pressed my hand to his chest, right above his heart and whispered, “So you’re not just saying all this so that I make you famous?”

  Half-joking. Half past fears.

  “Are you sure you’re not just doing all this to save your reputation?” he teased back, drawing a small laugh from me. His head tipped down to mine, kissing my hands that clasped his. “I never cared about reaching for the moon, Blakebaby.” His lips inched closer and brushed over mine. “Not when I can spend my life with you underneath the stars.”

  I let out the girly, sixteen-year-old giggle that I’d been saving for a very long time before I pressed my lips to his. My eyes drifted shut with a smile still on my face. That was the thing about love, you could have everything in the world, but without a heart, it all added up to nothing. This love… our love… was real.

  “I love you,” my heart whispered to his.

  “I love you, too, Blakebaby.”

  Today was a fairytale.

  Bonus Track: Forever

  “I would gladly lose myself in love. In you.

  Because that’s where I find me.

  I realized the fall no longer matters

  when forever is staring back at me.”

  ‘Blake finally finds Happily-Ever-After with Zach Parker!’

  BLISS. THE KIND THAT MAKES you tingly and laugh for no reason or every reason. That was my life now—every moment of it. With him.

  We were snuggled up on the back deck to our farmhouse. Zach had wrapped a blanket around my shoulders insisting that there was a chill in the air and he didn’t want either of his girls getting cold. We sat on the rocking swing, me wedged between his legs, lying back against his chest, his arms holding me tight against him as his hands rubbed lazily over my swollen stomach, our little girl resting peacefully (for the moment) against my bladder.

  In the distance was the (second) treehouse that we’d built together when we bought the property two months after the Lovestruck tour ended a year and a half ago. That treehouse had seen a lot of things since then.

  We made music in that treehouse. We made love in that treehouse. And we’d made the promise of forever when Zach proposed to me on a star-encrusted August night last summer.

  “How long will you want me?” I’d teased him softly.

  “Forever. As long as you’ll have me.” And then he’d dropped down on one knee.

  So many tears had been shed in that small space, but they’d been happy tears; they’d been tears because I never knew I could be this happy.

  There are girls that will plan forever in order to have the perfect wedding. And then there was me. I planned the wedding for a perfect forever—which meant becoming Zach’s wife as soon as I could.

  During the Lovestruck tour and the few weeks following it, I’d written more songs than I could produce on a single album. With Zach’s help—and a fair number of planned duets—I narrowed it down and managed to finish recording my next album, Forever, the day before he proposed. I had a feeling that wasn’t a coincidence either.

  The album released in the fall and the tour? Well, it was going to start the new year. And that’s when I figured, what better way to start Forever than with forever? So, in Zach’s parents’ barn that was covered with snow, decked to the nines with enough twinkle light to make Clark Griswold jealous, my dad walked me down the aisle to the love of my entire life with Ash standing by his side.

  Shivering and sublimely happy, we said I do in the place where we’d argued ‘I don’t’ for so many years—‘I don’t want her,’ ‘I don’t love him,’ ‘I don’t care if this hurts her,’ ‘I don’t care if I never see him again.’

  Karma. Fate. I didn’t care what it was called as long as it meant forever.

  “How long will I be with you?” I tipped my head up and asked quietly as we held each other during our reception and watched our close family and friends dance and drink and celebrate our love.

  He kissed my nose and replied, “As long as the sea is destined to wash against the sand.”

  After our honeymoon on a secluded island where the sea was ours and clothing was completely optional, we started the Forever tour as husband and wife, sharing our fairy tale with a few hundred-thousand of my closest friends. ZPP opened and Zach became a permanent part of my show—and the crowds loved it and us.

  There were no more rumors. No more falling reputations. There was nothing that could break what we had after all we’d been through.

  In fact, halfway through the tour, something happened that made us even stronger.

  Did I mention that our honeymoon was clothes and birth control-free?

  With four months left to the tour, we found out that we were pregnant. I stared at that little blue strip like it was telling me that I’d won another Grammy. And Zach? My eyes welled with tears remembering the way he’d crushed me to him, kissing me, then pulled my shirt off of me to kiss and whisper to my stomach. Happy excitement quickly turned to relentless desire as his kisses drifted lower with that devilish smirk that said he was about to try to get me more pregnant just to be sure—if such a thing were possible, he would have accomplished it.

  “How long will you need me?” I whispered much later against his lips, his cock still buried and pulsing inside of me, our bodies sticky with sweat and satisfied love.

  “Mmm,” he groaned and flexed his hips, letting me know that it looked like he was going to keep ‘needing’ me all night.

  “How long?” I said just before I bit his lip.

  “I guess…” He pretended to think. “I guess for as long as the sun still rises in the morning.”

  We’d kept the news to ourselves until just before the last few shows, deciding to do one of our popular livestream videos to let all our fans know the happy news. Pink and blue balloons littered the remaining concert. Happy, adoring fans sent us cards and gifts; I’d never felt more loved.

  We found out we were having a girl the day before our final show in Nashville. And with what may go down as the most publicized gender-reveal in history, the Forever tour ended with a series of pink fireworks sparkling into the summer sky.

  We were still writing. We were still going to be recording. But touring? I wasn’t sure when our next concert would be. And as much as I loved seeing and singing for my fans, there are some things in life that are just more important, I thought, looking down at my modestly swollen stomach. I smiled to myself and sighed.

  “Is she moving?” Zach quickly asked, always ready at the drop of a hat to worry about me or our baby.

  “Just a little… right up into my ribs,” I answered with a small groan, shifting against him. “What are you thinking about?”

  “How much I love you, Blakebaby” he whispered gently against my mouth.

  “How long?” I breathed back, slowly blinking my eyes open so I could lose them in his.

  “How long will I love you?” He waited for my nod before his mouth thinned with pure focus—because simple words were not enough for Zach. Not when it came to me. And then his eyes flicked up towards the most perfectly clear, star-studded night. “As long as there are stars above you.”

  I was melting. “Zach…”

  “Even longer if I can,” he added with a rasp, brushing a finger over my lip before kissing me gently… reverently.

  The End of all Endings.

  I hope you enjoyed Blake and Zach’s story!

  I would love to hear what you think, if you want to head over to where you purchased the book and leave a review! Reviews play such a big part in not just how I get feedback on my work, but on how other readers make their decision on whether or not to check out my writing. It would mean the world to me if you would share your thoughts!

  You can also contact me directly at: author@drrebeccasharp.com

  Xx, Rebecca

 
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  Keep reading for the EXTENDED epilogue to Up in the Air (Winter Games, Book 1)!

  Up in the Air

  EXTENDED Epilogue

  Channing

  “Is everything ok?”

  I didn’t bother with niceties when I saw Emmett’s number show up on my phone. There was no reason he should be calling me right now—no good reason, at least.

  “Hello to you, too, Lil,” his whiskey-soaked voice responded with a laugh.

  “Sorry. Thought something bad happened.”

  “Nope. Everyone’s fine. I… ahh… wanted to ask if you had your cousin, Tyler’s, phone number?”

  His words jerked my focus to the present.

  I’d been staring out the window of the suite that Wyatt and I were occupying at the Lake Louise Resort, watching the ice skaters on the pond. Suite was a poor choice of word for what this room was; it was more like its own little house… that you had to take an elevator to get to.

  Kitchen. Living room. Dining room. Master bedroom. Master bath complete with a huge Jacuzzi, a shower that fit two (I could prove it), and a walk-in closet with a sauna. But the view. Well, it wasn’t as nice as the view I woke up to every morning, Wyatt’s face sleeping in front of mine. But looking out over the lake and the mountains, especially as the sun set and the stars lit up the sky like diamonds, well, it came in a close second.

  “Yeah, I think so. Let me check.” Scrolling through my contacts, I found Tyler’s name. “Yeah, I do.”

  “Can I have it?”

  “Depends.”

  “Lil… not in the mood for this,” he growled at me.

  I bit my lip to not let my laugh escape as I wandered back through to the kitchen in search of a drink. Wyatt said he’d be back a half an hour ago and I was missing him already. He had some business to take care of this afternoon, but he’d scheduled me a massage and facial at the spa ‘to make up for it.’ I have to say, I went there thinking that this was not usually my kind of thing, but I left kicking myself for why it wasn’t. My body felt like a pile of mush, exacerbated by the hot shower I’d just taken to wash all the grease off.

  “I’m not going to give it to you without you telling me why you need it,” I responded sweetly.

  The silence on the other end of the line frightened most people in Aspen. But not me. Emmett ‘King’ Jameson was a lot of things, but at the heart of it all, he was painfully protective of those that he cared about. And luckily (some days unluckily), I was one of those people.

  “You’re just as frustrating as your sister, you know that?”

  Caught off guard at the mention of Ally, guilt washed over me that I was missing my baby sister’s twenty-first birthday. I hadn’t planned it this way, but Wyatt needed to go back to Canada to finalize the details for the school we were going to be opening—the sooner the better. It’s true; I let him convince me into the week-long stay after his business dealings were done, but what girl can resist a week at Lake Louise where winter sports are a way of life?

  “You haven’t killed each other yet, have you?” I was only half-joking. Ally and Emmett had basically been at each other’s throats since the first day they met.

  “There’s still time,” he teased.

  “Alright, so why do you need his number? Did Chance lose it?” I chuckled because that was definitely something my brother would do. Lately, he’d probably lose his head if it wasn’t attached to his body and honestly, with the way he seemed to be stuck in a downward spiral, he probably wouldn’t mind if he did.

  “Ahh… no,” he answered and then paused. “I actually wanted it because I want to invite him out for Ally’s birthday.”

  The sip of water that I took now sprayed from my mouth like I was the Fountain of Channing.

  “Lil?”

  “Son of a biscuit,” I grumbled, ripping paper-towels off the roll and wiping up my mess. “I just spit water everywhere.”

  “Why—”

  I cut him off with, “Oh no. It looks like a sprinkler system just went off in the kitchen of our hotel room, you don’t get to ask questions.” He laughed, knowing better than to argue with me after all these years. “You… want to invite Ty out to Colorado… for Ally’s birthday? Ally? My sister? Your arch nemesis?” I half-joked, half-choked out.

  “Actually, I want to fly him out.” Full-choke. I was full-on choking now.

  “I don’t… I want…” I blubbered, at a complete loss for what I wanted to say. Emmett wanted to do something… nice… for my sister? What the heck was happening in Aspen while I was gone?

  “Lil. You can tear into me later, just send me the fucking number.” Click.

  I gasped.

  If he thought I was going to text him after he hung up on me… Oh, no. I was going to clean this and then I was going to call my sister and get the full story before I had another word with the ‘King.’

  My mind awhirl, I completely missed that Wyatt had come in until I spun and found myself flush against his chest.

  “Hey, gorgeous,” he said with that sexy smirk that immediately caused a rush of moisture between my thighs. This man…

  “Hey,” I said breathlessly… barely… before his lips captured mine.

  Dropping the towel I’d been holding onto the floor, I wound my arms around his neck and lost myself in the kiss.

  That was another thing I hadn’t expected—and had been nervous about. Living with Wyatt… being together for basically twenty-four-seven. What if it was too much? What if he decided he didn’t want to be with me after having to live with me?

  If Ally were here, well, first she’d groan and tell us to get a room even though this was our room, but then, she’d harass me about my crazy ideas. Like competing in the Winter X Games as Chance. She’d tell me to add ‘thinking there would ever be reason enough for Wyatt to not want to be with me’ to the list.

  After these past few weeks, I would agree with her.

  I sighed into his mouth, his tongue finding mine in the hot and demanding ways that he knew would set every inch of my body on fire.

  Spending all this time together only made what we had together even more. Deeper. More intense. More passionate.

  I groaned as his hands reached underneath the shirt of his that I had on and cupped my ass, his thumbs slipping under the edge of my boyshort lace panties. He tugged me hard against him, his tongue plunging into my mouth, licking every corner.

  These few weeks had entirely made up for the years I’d gone without sex—and then some. Still, I couldn’t get enough of him. And Wyatt? The look in his eyes whenever they caught mine said that he more than felt the same.

  “Missed you, gorgeous,” he rasped against my lips, tugging the lower one playfully into his mouth.

  “Then you should have come back sooner,” I said with a cheeky grin.

  “I should have,” he agreed. “But then I wouldn’t have presents to bring you.”

  My eyes widened. “Presents?”

  The desire on his face broke into laughter as his hands slid up to cup my face. Pressing a hard, fast kiss to my lips, he confirmed, “Presents for my girl.”

  “Why?” I mumbled. I watched as he turned and headed back towards the door. He’d dressed for business even though he didn’t really tell me what he had to go do. Fitted chinos, long-sleeve button-down, and a blazer. Meanwhile, I was traipsing around the hotel room in underwear and a t-shirt that was way too large for me. I bit my tongue the way my eyes were practically drooling over his ass as he walked and bent down to retrieve several shopping bags from w
here he’d set them on the floor when he came in.

  Picking them up, he continued into the bedroom, sending me a devilish grin over his shoulder.

  I bit back a moan the way my core clenched. The kiss had only been a tease. And even though presents were certainly tempting, they were nothing compared to how much I wanted him. Nothing compared to how much I loved him.

  Love changes people.

  Ok, maybe not changes changes. But it puts what’s important into perspective. It’s like a mirror that finally lets you see yourself clearly. And with Wyatt, I saw that I didn’t have to cling to snowboarding like it was my identity. Sure, we’d gone out several times while we were up here and of course, I loved it. But the love was different. It came to take a different place in my life. Because, at the end of the day, no matter how much I loved it, I’d give up snow and mountains as long as it meant I got to keep him.

  Thankfully, I knew that keeping him meant I would never have to.

  “Open them,” he instructed, looking to the three packages that he’d laid out on the bed.

  With an intrigued smile, I complied, stepping up to the first box. Tomboy or not—I would have had to be living under a rock (different from living under a mountain) to not realize that it was a shoebox.

  Popping open the lid, I dug past the tissue paper and pulled out one strappy heel. It wasn’t hooker-high. It wasn’t ornate. It was simple and classy—and because he bought it for me, I knew it would look sexy.

  “I don’t think these are going to strap to my board very easily, baby,” I teased him.

  “Well, it’s a good thing you won’t need your board for where we are going tonight.” His eyes warmed, flickering with excited promise.