“I know who’s responsible for the video.”
My eyes widen. “Who?”
“Jay Caruso’s assistant, Maria.”
“Why would she do that? And how do you know?”
He sits next to me and turns his body so we’re facing each other. “We have a sworn statement from the guy who sold it, identifying her. My publicist says it could’ve been a publicity stunt, but jealously was the more probable motive. She can have the P.I. keep digging if you want to know for sure.”
“Why would jealousy be a motive?”
He clears his throat and rubs the back of his neck. “We...uh...hooked up once, about a year before we started filming Baking Masters. When she saw me on set, she made it pretty clear she wanted a repeat. I told her I wasn’t interested but she kept coming on to me.
“It got to the point where she was starting to give me major stalker vibes so I admitted that I was seeing someone exclusively. I didn’t tell her who I was seeing, but I made it painfully obvious that I had no intention of letting you go. She said she understood then pretended like I didn’t even exist. Or so I thought, anyway. That all happened only about a week before the footage was released.”
“You’ve got to be kidding me, Ethan! My reputation was trashed and my entire life was uprooted because one of your past exploits felt scorned?”
He frowns. “I don’t know for certain, but it makes the most sense.”
I can’t believe this. Everything I went through was because some crazy woman couldn’t handle rejection. I’m so pissed right now; I don’t even know what to say. If I gave Ethan another shot, who’s to say this wouldn’t happen again?
“Don’t do that.” He grabs my hand, his desperation palpable. “I know what you’re thinking right now and I swear to you nothing like this would ever happen again. I’m a man who learns from his mistakes. I’m by no means perfect, but I swear to you, Gabbie, I will never do anything to hurt you again.”
I want to believe him. I really do. But I don’t know if I can.
I sigh. “Ethan, I need time to process.”
He groans. “We’ve already wasted two years. Giving you time is only going to give you a chance to talk yourself out of this.”
“That’s not true.” I shake my head to emphasize my point.
He places his hands on each side of my jaw, forcing me to look at him. “Yes, it is. And I’m not going to let you do this. You said yourself, you wanted to keep the past in the past. So, why can’t we start over? Why can’t you give me a chance and take it day by day?”
I search his eyes. “It’s not that simple.”
“It can be.”
I look away. “No, it can’t. That’s not how this works.”
Ethan pinches my chin between his thumb and forefinger, searching my eyes. “Do you love me?”
His question is so unexpected, the words tumble out of me, without any regard for consequences. “I never stopped.”
His brilliant smile disarms me. I can practically feel the wall around my heart crumbling as a pressure I didn’t realize existed rises from my chest.
Ethan’s index finger traces the length of my jaw. “Then we’ll figure out the rest. Together.”
Lust punches me in the gut when Ethan’s lips press against mine. Logic wages a war with my body’s visceral reaction to him. I straddle his lap without thought and moan when his large hands press against my back, effectively smashing my breasts against his chest. God, why do his lips have to be so perfect? Why does everything feel so damn right when he’s kissing me? So many thoughts are on the tip of my tongue, yet I say nothing because desire has taken the helm.
Ethan breaks our kiss and groans when I slide my core back and forth over his denim-clad cock. “This is what you do to me, Gabbie. This is what you’ve always done to me. But that’s not all we are and you know it. This thing between us has never been just physical.”
I whimper as his thumbs brush over my nipples, the lace of my bra abrading the stiff peaks. “I’m scared.”
He kisses a trail down the side of my face, chasing the lone tear that escaped. “I know, baby. But I swear on my fucking life that I will do everything in my power to make you happy. Because living without you anymore isn’t an option for me. Please say you’ll be mine, Gabs.”
I rest my palms on either side of his face. “I’ve been yours since the day we met.”
His sexy, signature smirk is on full blast. “Thank fuck, because if I’m not inside you in the next five minutes, my dick may actually explode.”
I stand up and offer my hand. “Well, we certainly can’t let that happen. I have plans for that thing.”
He chuckles as I lead him down the hall to my bedroom. “Do tell.”
Once inside my room, I step out of my yoga pants and remove my shirt. “I’d rather show you.”
Ethan bites his knuckles as I slowly unclasp my bra. “I fucking love that idea.”
My breath hitches when his muscles bunch beneath his fitted tee. This man is unequivocally masculine yet unquestionably beautiful. Every single part of me bolts to attention as his crystalline eyes bore into my exposed flesh. My skin flushes as he languidly peruses my body, pausing briefly over my breasts before meeting my gaze.
I have to remind myself to breathe as I shrug the straps off my shoulders and step out of my panties. “I thought you might.”
Ethan sheds his clothing faster than I would’ve thought possible and lunges into action. Our mouths meet again in a savage union of greed and desire and an overwhelming need to make up for lost time. Our hands are everywhere they can reach. Our kisses are filled with promise.
Ethan and I become a frenzy of movement, unable to decide if we want fast and hard or soft and slow. The only certainty is my surrender to his touch. To my irrepressible longing. To the feeling that only this man can ignite. I’m long past the point of dwelling on the past or worrying about the future.
As Ethan slides his thick length into my body, all I know is that right here, right now, everything is as it should be. I revel in the sensations, that all-consuming burn as he moves inside of me. I’m arching and moaning as he establishes an unrelenting rhythm, taking my body to heights that only he can achieve. Our skin is slicked with sweat, my body heated one second and covered in goose bumps the next.
Desperation tears through me as the telltale signs of ecstasy surface. With a few more measured thrusts, I’m free falling into delirium. When my inner muscles stop contracting around him, Ethan holds nothing back. He renews his pace, owning my pleasure and my heart and my mind. Everything I have to give is his to take.
My name surges from his lips as he reaches completion. A few more pumps and then he stills. Ethan lazily sucks my nipple into his mouth before resting his forehead against my chest, our ragged breaths the only sound in the room. I thread my fingers through his thick, dark hair and bask in the peacefulness of this moment.
After a moment, he withdraws, and pulls me into his side. He strokes my hair, making me drowsy. Right before he lulls me to sleep, Ethan hugs me closer and says the words that I’ve been longing to hear.
“I love you, Gabriela. It’s always been you and it will never be anyone but you.”
A smile forms on my lips as I snuggle into him and groggily echo the sentiment. As I’m drifting off to dreamland, I think to myself how perfect this feels being in Ethan’s arms. We’ve had some major bumps along the way, and I’m sure we’ll face some more down the road, but the one thing I know for certain, is there’s no one else I’d rather have by my side.
Epilogue
2 Years Later
ETHAN
I don’t know if I’ve ever been this nervous in my entire life. Ever since Gabriela Martinez came back into my world, I’ve been happier than I ever thought possible. That’s not just my dick talking either, although, make no mistake, he is very happy. Gabbie challenges me, personally and professionally. She makes me laugh. She makes me envision a future that I had never wanted before I
met her.
In a nutshell, she makes me want to be a better man.
Hence, the anxiety, because everything I’ve ever wanted is riding on her answer.
“I think I’m just about done here. There’s just one more thing that’s bothering me.” I take her hand as we exit my flagship store.
Gabbie looks at me questioningly. “What’s that?”
I gesture to the sign hanging above the bakery. I invited her to Las Vegas on the pretense that I needed to check on this place, but I have something more personal in mind as well. “That sign isn’t working for me. I think I need to revamp it.”
She scrunches her nose. “I think it looks great. Why would you want to change it?”
I shrug, feigning nonchalance. “It’s missing something.”
“Like what?”
I pull out my phone and scroll through the pictures until I reach the mockup I had made. “Something like this.”
I watch Gabbie’s expression as she looks over the photo. A deep crease forms between her brows as she appears to be trying to make sense of what she’s seeing. “Baldwin’s Sweet Temptations.” She shakes her head in confusion. “I don’t understand.”
Gabbie’s business has been booming since she decided to expand into catering, but Sweet Temptations isn’t really a household name outside of Southern California. It’s a damn shame if you ask me because some of her signature recipes are the best damn desserts that I’ve ever tasted. If she agrees to this, people from around the world would know how talented she is.
I clear my throat. “What are your thoughts on a merger?”
“You want to merge our companies?”
I place my hands in my pockets, discreetly wrapping my fist around a small velvet bag. “Sure. I can only think of one loophole that we’d need to get through.”
“What’s that?”
Gabbie gets jostled by a small crowd passing by so she grabs on to my arm to keep herself upright. It’s just after eleven in the evening so the bakery is closed, but this is Vegas, so people are still everywhere. There’s a small service hallway to the left so I pull her over there to have a little more privacy.
I pull the bag out of my pocket and retrieve the custom-made ring. It’s not too flashy, because that’s not Gabbie’s style, but it’s exquisite nonetheless. She thought I was meeting with an investor but I was really at a local jewelers.
I hold up the flawless, two-carat oval-shaped solitaire. “The Baldwin part. It doesn’t really work unless both owners share that name.”
She taps her plump red lips with her index finger, not giving anything away. “I like that idea, all things considered.”
I smirk. “What things considered?”
See what I mean about her constantly challenging me? I have to remind my dick this is not the time to get worked up.
She holds out her left hand, silently prompting me to slide the ring on her finger. I don’t waste a second marking this woman as mine for everyone to see. “So all three of us could share the same name.”
“I’m not following.”
Gabbie raises a perfectly sculpted brow and nods to her stomach. “I couldn’t let you be the only one with a surprise, Ethan.”
I fall to my knees the moment it hits me and place my hands on her stomach. “You’re pregnant?”
She runs her fingers through my hair. “About two months along.”
“Holy shit,” I whisper, placing soft kisses over her abdomen.
Gabbie stopped taking birth control a few months ago but we weren’t actively trying. We both figured if it was meant to be, it would happen eventually.
“You good with that?”
“I’m fucking great with that.” I stand up and kiss her hard. As I pull away, I say, “Let’s get married tonight.”
Dark lashes feather against her cheeks as she blinks rapidly. “Tonight?”
I smile. “Yeah, tonight. Neither one of us are into the fanfare that a big wedding would produce. Why not just go for it? There’s no easier place to get hitched.”
Gabbie takes my hand and returns my smile. “I can’t think of anything else I’d rather do.”
I couldn’t agree more.
* * *
The End
Want more sexy enemies-to-lovers stories? CLICK HERE to check out Public Relations, another Steamy Short Read by Laura Lee.
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About the Author
Laura is the bestselling author of The Pixie Dust Chronicles and Dealing With Love series. Her passion has always been storytelling. She spent most of her life with her nose in a book thinking of alternate endings or continuations to the story. She won her first writing contest at the ripe old age of nine, earning a trip to the state capital to showcase her manuscript. Thankfully for her, those early works will never see the light of day again!
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Laura lives in the Pacific Northwest with her wonderful husband, two beautiful children, and three of the most poorly behaved cats in existence. She likes her fruit smoothies filled with rum, her cupboards stocked with Cadbury’s chocolate, and her music turned up loud. When she’s not chasing the kids around, writing, or watching HGTV, she’s reading anything she can get her hands on. She’s a sucker for spicy romances, especially those involving vampires, bad boys, or cowboys!
Read More from Laura Lee
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Girl in a Country Song
Avelyn Paige
Girl in a Country Song © 2019 Avelyn Paige
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Copyright notice: All rights reserved under the International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.
This is a work of fiction. Names, places, characters and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, organizations, events or locales is entirely coincidental.
Warning: the unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal. Criminal copyright infringement, including infringement without monetary gain, is investigated by the FBI and is punishable by up to 5 years in prison and a fine of $250,000.
Created with Vellum
Girl in a Country Song
Falling for your best friend, who just happens to be an up and coming country star, is probably not the best idea.
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Not even being a blip on his romantic radar? Yeah, shoot me now.
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Growing up in Alex McCloud’s shadow was far from easy. Then, he blew out of town, before the ink was even dry on his recording contract, with empty promises of keeping in touch that he has never once kept.
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Some best friend, right?
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Now, he sings his heart out to millions of fans, and I milk cows on my family’s struggling dairy farm. Well, that is until Alex McCloud strolls back into town, and he’s got more than writing his new album on his mind.
* * *
I know from experience that I need to guard my heart, or I may end up being just another girl in a country song. It’s just harder than I thought, trying to get my brain and my heart on the same page.
1
Alex McCloud is the bane of my short life's existence, and he just so happens to be my best friend to boot. Life really knows how to kick a girl, when she's down in the romance department, with steel toed boots covered in manure.
Alex has everything that a girl like me could hope to want in a boy.
He’s g
ood-looking, the lead singer of a popular country group that’s on the brink of hitting it big in Nashville, and of course, his abs to die for. Not that I’ve been looking at the sheer perfection of his tanned washboard stomach that came from years of working on my family's cattle farm in-between gigs. Okay, fine. I’ve looked at them a few times. Well, maybe more than a few times, if I’m being honest. Gah, okay. It’s literally every chance that I can get. God, I’m pathetic.
My life is like a flipping romance movie without that coveted happily ever after satisfying ending.
Girl pines for the boy next door.
The boy is oblivious.
Girl falls on her face, trying not to scream from the mountain tops that she's in love with him, while watching him with all of the other girls in my class.
I know that Alex McCloud is never going to love me. Not when every pretty girl in school hangs on every word he croons up on that stage. From the day he moved into the farmhouse, next door to my family's own farm ground, I knew I was in trouble. Those deep azure eyes and his mop of wavy brown hair had me the second he hopped the fence, asking me if he could help me with my chores on the farm. He declared me his best friend, and that's where I still stand. Five years later, firmly stuck in the friend zone. My romantic life is one giant facepalm with a baseball bat.
And if life couldn’t get any worse, tonight is our senior prom. While the other girls in my class have been busting at the seams to get dolled up like a princess on her wedding day, I’m dreading it. I'm not what you would call a girly girl. Not even in the slightest. I’m more comfortable in a hoodie, jeans, and a pair of work boots, than I am in a bouffant tulle dress with my face painted up, like a damn rodeo clown. Yet, here I am. Stuffed and painted into my cousin Jill's old prom dress with three inches of towering, deathtrap heels strapped to my feet, waiting on Alex to come and get me. Not as his date, of course, but as his loser best friend that doesn’t have a date.
Sweetest Obsessions - Anthology Page 259
