Love, Laughter, and Happily Ever Afters Collection (Eight Fun, Romantic Novels by Eight Bestselling Authors)

by Violet Duke

  “You are so fucking beautiful.” His voice was filled with awe as he spoke.

  Reaching up, she ran her fingers through his hair. The sensation of her nails raking along his scalp felt so damn good. She rested her hand on his jaw before speaking softly. “So are you.”

  Taking a deep breath in through his nose, he leaned into her gentle touch, resting his stubbled cheek against her soft palm. How was one night ever going to be enough of this? How was he ever going to be next to her and not touch her? How was he going to live across the street from her and not allow this to happen again? How was he going to stop himself from falling in love with her?

  “Eddie?” Haley’s hesitant tone pulled him back to the present.

  Her incredible blue eyes stared up at him with an earnest expression.

  “You are so perfect,” he whispered before leaning down and covering one nipple with his mouth and the other with his hand. He slid his tongue across the tight peak as he sucked her breast into his mouth, and with the other, he rubbed and teased her puckered nipple.

  Arching her back towards him, she cried out and fisted her hands in his hair. He loved how responsive she was to him. He could feel the moisture of her growing arousal as his length slid along the outer lips of her pleasure center.

  Taking his time, he lavished attention on both breasts, memorizing the feel of their weight in his palm. He traced his tongue around the area surrounding her tight buds, teasing her until she whimpered for him to take her nipples back in his mouth and then licking, nipping, and sucking them while she whispered encouraging words of appreciation. He squeezed and kneaded her supple flesh in his hands until she was begging for release.

  Never before had he drawn out a woman’s pleasure this much. Never before had he been so determined to wring every last ounce of ecstasy from a sexual encounter. Never before had he felt so connected, so in tune with a partner’s body that even before he was inside of her he didn’t know where he stopped and she began.

  “Eddie,” Haley pleaded through shaky breaths. “I need you. I want to feel you.”

  As she begged, her hips mimicked her pleas by bucking up against his rock-hard shaft. Ignoring his primal need to drive himself into her, Eddie continued showering attention on her breasts with his mouth as he slid his hand down her body. The second he felt her soft, wet folds beneath his touch, his body jerked with anticipation. He rubbed his finger along the seam of her opening, teasing her body with what was to come.

  “Please,” she whimpered as she tilted her hips into his erotic caresses.

  Eddie did as her body was asking and slid his finger into her tight passage. Her body clamped around his digit, sending tremors of arousal shaking through his entire body. Moving slowly, he pressed in farther before pulling out and starting again.

  Her hands reached up and gripped his shoulder. “Oh, that feels so good.”

  Her inner muscles fluttered around his finger as he continued moving it inside of her. When he felt her body begin to shake, he grazed his thumb softly over her clit and she cried out as her body convulsed beneath him from the sheer force of her release. He didn’t relent until her body stopped contracting around his finger. When he removed his hand from between them, it was coated in her arousal.

  Her heavy-lidded eyes were trained on him as he lifted it to his mouth and sucked her juices from his finger. A small smile crossed his face as he said, “You taste so good.”

  She bit her bottom lip as a deeper flush rose on her cheeks. There it was again—the innocent seductress.

  Leaning down, he placed his elbows on each side of her, framing her face. Her small hands roamed up and down his back. He tilted his hips so that his swollen head was positioned at her slick opening.

  Her breathing grew more and more shallow as he slowly pushed inside of her. He was only able to go in about an inch before her face scrunched with pain. Her body was even tighter than he’d thought.

  “Haley?” It would kill him if they needed to stop, but he would not hurt her. When she didn’t immediately answer, he began moving out.

  “No!” Her hands flew down to his ass and gripped it tight. “Don’t”

  “I don’t want to hurt you,” Eddie gritted out through clenched teeth. He was hanging on by a very thin thread.

  “I’m fine.” She looked up at him, her clear blue eyes showing no signs of pain. “It’s just been a while.”

  “How long is a while?”

  “Umm…” She licked her lips and his length swelled even larger. Her body pulsed around his engorged tip. His dick throbbed with aching need. She lifted her slender shoulder slightly as she said, “Four years.”

  “Four years!” He hadn’t meant to shout, but that was a long time.

  Before he could fully wrap his brain around that number, her mouth was on his neck, kissing him, licking him. “Yes,” she whispered against him as she peppered a trail of wet open-mouth kisses along his collarbone as she lifted her hips into his, causing him to slide farther inside of her snug wet heat. “Because I only wanted you.”

  Fuck.

  Eddie moved his hand down to her hip and his fingers squeezed her backside so he could control the speed at which he thrust into her. As her sweet mouth continued its sensual journey along his chest, across his shoulders, and up his neck, he slowly eased himself into her, her body acclimating to his size as he did, inch by inch, carefully moving until he was finally buried deep inside of her. Her soft thighs clenched at his hips as he began moving in and out of her heated core.

  “Yes,” she murmured against his neck. “Yes.”

  Her body began moving with his as she sensually ground her hips against him. They easily found their rhythm, and Eddie felt the pleasure unbearably building inside of him. He knew he was not going to be able to last long.

  Hooking his hand beneath her knee, he pulled it up, tilting her pelvis until he knew he was hitting just the right spot inside of her. Her body milked him as she began shaking beneath him.

  “That’s it, baby,” he leaned down and whispered in her ear. “Come for me again.”

  With those words, her back arched and her nails dug into his backside. The stinging sensation of her grip sent him up and over the crest. He surged into her once more as he rode out the wave of the most intense orgasm of his life.

  As the last drops of release left his body, his arms shook under his weight. Turning over on his back, he pulled Haley on top of him, her body covering his as her head lay on his chest. Looking down at her beautiful naked body splayed over him, he couldn’t help but feel a little twinge of sadness creep up in his chest that this wasn’t real. It wasn’t going to happen again.

  Lifting his hand, he ran his fingers through her baby-soft hair and heard a small sigh leave her mouth. With her fingertip, she traced the outlines of the tattoos he had on his chest and torso. Watching her delicate hands roam his body was a very sensual sight.

  “When did you get this?” she asked quietly.

  His heart cracked open even wider. Every other girl he knew would want to talk about what had just happened between them. Damn, even he wanted to talk about what had just happened between them. But not Haley. Nope. She asked about his tattoos.

  How in the hell was he not supposed to fall in love with her?

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  “ARE YOU ALL SET for the grand opening?” Chelle asked as she picked up a plastic tiara and placed it in the translucent pink plastic bag along with a green whistle and a candy diamond ring.

  “I think so.” Haley smiled as she put a pack of gum and baseball cards in the blue-tinted bag.

  She was trying to force herself to concentrate on what Chelle was saying and get her head in this conversation. It was a task made difficult by the fact that, from her seat at the kitchen table, she had a p
erfect view of Eddie standing at the grill, looking ten times more delicious than the delectable food he was preparing.

  He was dressed casually in a Cubs baseball hat, turned backwards—which had always done it for Haley for some strange reason—navy blue basketball shorts, and a white t-shirt. His muscled calves peeked out below the loose-fitting shorts, and although Eddie’s calves didn’t even rank on the top ten list of ‘Eddie’s body parts she loved,’ they were certainly doing something for her today.

  Equally distracting was the fact that, as he flipped the burgers, his shirt pulled taut across his back and biceps, making her hands tingle with the memory of touching him. Haley now knew what that body felt like. She now knew what it looked like butt naked. That knowledge had kept her awake, tossing and turning with need, for the last two nights.

  “Are you excited?” Chelle asked a little hesitantly.

  “Oh”—Haley let out a forced laugh as she looked across the table at her friend—“Yes! Of course. I can’t wait to open to the public. Maybe then it will finally seem real.”

  A look of relief crossed Chelle’s face. “Okay, good. It’s just… You seem a little distracted and I wasn’t sure if everything was okay.”

  “Oh no. Everything is great. I’ve just had a lot on my plate lately. I haven’t been sleeping that well, so I keep zoning out.” Her lack of sleep and focus had absolutely zero to do with the fact that her store’s grand opening was in a week and everything to do with the man standing at the grill. But Chelle didn’t need to know her brother was the cause of Haley’s sleepless nights.

  Chelle’s brow furrowed in worry. “Don’t work too hard. And if you need any help, anything at all, you know I’m here.”

  “Thanks,” Haley answered sincerely. She knew that Chelle meant it. Eddie’s sister was one of the sweetest, most caring people Haley knew.

  Growing up, Chelle had dated David Price, who was a total ass clown. Her cousins had even nicknamed him David the Douchebag. Haley never understood what Chelle could have possibly seen in him. It had obviously been something because the two of them had been engaged. Then, a month before their wedding, he called it off because he’d been sleeping with his eighteen-year-old secretary and had knocked her up.

  In the wake of his betrayal, Chelle left town to clear her head. She hightailed it to her best friend Katie’s vacant apartment in San Francisco. Katie, who had just married Haley’s cousin Jason, was on their honeymoon at the time. When Chelle stopped answering her phone, Katie got worried, so they sent out a search party of one—Riley. He’d just gotten out of the Marines and was coincidentally in California.

  To this day, Haley didn’t know all the details—and she didn’t want to—but a few months after they returned to Harper’s Crossing, Chelle was pregnant with baby Mya and she and Riley got married.

  Haley was so happy for the two of them. Riley had been pretty wild in his teen years. He and Eddie had gotten into a lot of trouble. Chelle had seen right through the ‘bad boy’ image and loved Riley for Riley.

  It reminded Haley of how she herself felt about Eddie. Unfortunately, she was pretty sure all of the Sloan family happily-ever-after juju had been used up by all of her happily married male cousins. She didn’t see any big love stories in the future for herself or her sisters.

  Her issues were obvious. She was in love with someone who was unattainable. Which she guessed was Krista’s problem too. She truly believed in her heart of hearts that Krista had never gotten over Chase Malone. The two of them had been together off and on for six years before he’d finally left and never came back.

  Haley desperately wished her sister would move on, even though she knew that was totally a case of the pot calling the kettle black. Still, she was her big sister, so she got to be the pot. It was more of a ‘do as I say not as I do’ type of situation.

  Haley knew for a fact that it didn’t help matters that since then, Chase became a bona fide rock star. There were reminders of him everywhere Krista turned. Plus, she knew, even though her sister didn’t talk about it, she still stopped by and checked on Mrs. Malone at least once a week. Krista had always had a soft spot in her heart for Chase’s mom.

  Then there was Jessie. She kept everything so close to the vest that Haley had no idea what was going on in her love life, if anything. During high school, she’d casually dated but never seemed overly invested in any of the relationships. Now that she was in college thousands of miles away, Haley really had no idea. If Haley was an open book, then Jessie would be considered a closed book, with a padlock, kept in a safe that only Jessie knew the combination to.

  As far as Becca went, well, Haley had always related with Becca more than either of their other sisters. Becca was truly a romantic at heart. Also, much like Haley, she’d always had her head buried in a book—for totally different reasons than Haley though. Haley read for pleasure, whereas Becca read to learn. School was always a top priority for her. Now that she was pre-med at Stanford, from what Haley could glean through Skype and emails, it was a top priority to her beautiful youngest sister now more than ever.

  “Isn’t that just the cutest thing you ever saw?” Chelle asked with a smile in her tone. Haley turned to see what her friend was talking about.

  Riley was outside, standing in the middle of the grass, tossing Mya up in the air and catching her. The baby was giggling, her chubby cheeks red with laughter. Chelle’s face glowed with happiness as she watched her husband with her daughter. Haley’s eyes, however, automatically locked on Eddie like a heat-seeking missile. The six-foot-four man of her dreams was kneeling beside the grill, teaching Emily how to barbeque.

  Eddie was such a great dad.

  When Em had asked her last week if she could come over to help get everything ready the night before their birthdays, Haley had happily agreed without so much of a passing thought that she should run it by Eddie. Now she wasn’t sure how Eddie felt about her being here. Tonight was the first time she’d been face to face with him since their bow-chicka-bow-wow, Al-Green-Let’s-Get-It-On-moment—or moments—two nights ago.

  Tonight, she’d been a total spaz when he’d opened the door to let her in. She’d taken one look at him and had no idea how to act. So she’d gone with the always sexy awkward wave with a “Hi there,” like a total dork.

  Haley knew she was being ridiculous. She’d promised him that nothing would change. When she’d made that promise, she’d believed in what she had been committing to one million percent.

  But that was before. Before the best night of her life had happened. Before her soul connected to his in a way she never even knew was possible. The term soul mate had always struck Haley as people trying too hard. She’d never seen the shame in just saying that you loved the one you were with—until she’d made love to Eddie. Because somewhere between Eddie backing her up against that dressing room wall and Haley riding him so hard she had leather burns on the side of her legs from the chair they were sitting in, her soul met its perfect mate.

  Haley had thought, fantasized, and dreamed about what being with Eddie would be like. So much so that she had her favorites mentally listed in alphabetical order. Usually when you built something up to that mythical epic proportion, reality failed to live up to your inflated expectations.

  She had learned that lesson the hard way the summer they opened the Splash N’ Slide water park about ninety minutes from her house. All summer long, brightly colored enticing commercials were running on the local stations of kids splashing in the water, sliding down slides, and floating in tubes. Basically, having the flippin’ most fantastical time of their lives. She’d spent her entire summer wanting more than anything else to go to Splash N’ Slide. Finally, the weekend before school was going to start, she got the chance to go with a fe
w of her friends.

  Haley remembered that she didn’t sleep the night before. She couldn’t; she was just too stinking excited. Then, during the entire one-and-a-half-hour drive to get to the water park, she’d barely been able to contain her excitement. She’d bounced off the two girls she was squished between in the back of her friend’s mom’s minivan like a ping pong ball.

  But after arriving at the gates, spending an hour in line just to enter, another half of an hour to get lockers, then two hours in line to go on the first waterslide, Haley was over it. She’d built it up so high in her head that she was just so disappointed at what it really was. So she spent the remainder of the day at the water park reading a book on a lounge chair beside the lap pool while her friends stood in hour-or-longer lines to go down a thirty-second slide.

  Haley had had the thought that this could be something exactly like that and had tried to prepare herself at least a little bit for that very real possibility.

  But the exact opposite had happened when it came to Eddie. It might have been a few years since she’d been up on a horse, but this wasn’t her first rodeo. She’d had sex before. Most of the time, she’d even enjoyed it. With the right partner, it could be good times. Sure, it hadn’t been like the romance novels that she liked to read. There had been no earth-shattering moments of wild abandon, but that didn’t mean she hadn’t had good, satisfying sex.

  Of course, whenever she imagined herself being with Eddie, her fantasies leaned more towards the romance-novel encounters and less towards her real-life ones. But hey, they were fantasies. Not to mention, they were the only things she had to keep herself going over the last four years.

  Never in her wildest imagination would she have thought that Eddie could not only live up to her fantasy, but blow it clean out of the water. Every moment, every touch, every time they’d made love it had been earth shattering. And she’d definitely experienced several moments of wild abandon.