by Kayla Perrin
Hunter swallowed, trying to push thoughts of Lorraine from his mind. Something that had been hard over this past week and a half.
Joe glanced at his watch, then sat at the head of the table. He opened the folder before him. “Ultimately, this might have to go to court, unless you and your uncle can come to some agreement.” Joe frowned as he flipped through the pages in the folder. “I’m sorry, I thought I had the original real estate papers in here. I must have left the appropriate file in my office. I’ll be right back.”
Hunter frowned as the lawyer left the boardroom. Then he closed his eyes and gritted his teeth. This was the last thing he needed. His uncle, Damien, challenging him for property. He didn’t have the energy nor the desire to fight it.
When the boardroom door clicked shut, indicating that the lawyer had returned, Hunter said, “Tell my uncle he can have the property. I’m not going to fi—”
The words died on Hunter’s lips as he turned. His stomach lurched, and his head swam. What was going on?
The smell was the next thing that hit him, adding to his confusion. His eyes narrowed on the white paper bag in her hand.
“Lorraine...” How was she here? He didn’t understand.
“One meathead burger,” she announced, extending the paper bag as she approached the table. “I can’t believe that’s what it’s called, but I guess it makes sense. A pound and a half of beef, two types of cheese, bacon and onion rings.” She shuddered as she placed the large bag on the table in front of him. From within the bag, she pulled out a tall brown paper bag. “Here’s your Coors.” She placed a second one on the table. “There’s also an order of sweet potato fries in the bag.”
“What’s going on?” Hunter asked.
“I got myself a veggie burger on a whole wheat bun, because I can’t really afford the fifteen hundred calories of the meathead burger. I’ve had too many potato chips this past week already.”
“Lorraine—”
“You’ve been ignoring me,” she said bluntly, pulling out the chair at the head of the table and taking a seat. “I’m hoping that over a burger and a beer, we can hash things out.”
“But, Joe—” Hunter stopped short when he realized that the lawyer obviously had to have been in on this. “Does that mean that my uncle isn’t going after the property?”
“I asked him to say whatever he needed to say to get you to come here,” Lorraine said. “And I’m not going to apologize. Because I’m not going to put up with you ignoring me anymore.”
Her bold statement caused his heart to slam against his rib cage. Conflicting emotions were swirling around inside him. Confusion, shock.
And amidst that, excitement.
Lorraine dipped the bag over and pulled out a burger. She passed it to him. She then took out the other burger, and the order of sweet potato fries in a tin container and clear plastic cover. She lifted the second can of beer and popped it open.
“I’m not normally a beer fan,” she said, “but I figured I can make an exception for today.” She nodded toward the food in front of him. “Go ahead. Eat before it gets cold.”
Eating was the last thing Hunter wanted to do, but as Lorraine opened the container with her burger and took a bite, he followed suit.
“I’m sorry,” she said when she was finished chewing. “I messed up. And for the last week and a half, I’ve been losing my mind.” She sipped her beer. “I guess it wasn’t until the day that everything went down with Paul that I realized how much I cared about you.”
Hunter felt as though he were in an alternate universe. Lorraine was here, and she’d brought him his favorite burger.
“How did you even know what burger I liked?” he asked, knowing the question sounded ridiculous given everything else Lorraine was saying. But a part of his brain couldn’t quite grasp what was happening.
“That day when we went to your father’s grave, remember? We were talking about cheat days and what you liked, what I liked.”
“Right...” It came back to him in a flash. He and Lorraine on the sofa, watching a movie. Ending the evening furiously making love.
And just like that, heat pooled inside him. Despite everything, he was still fiercely attracted to her. It was the reason he’d had to cut off all communication this past week and a half, because it was killing him to know that she didn’t share his feelings.
“And your comfort food is potato chips,” Hunter said, remembering. And now her earlier comment made sense. He took another bite of his burger, then washed it down with a swig of beer.
“I think you’re forgetting just how recently I was hurt by my ex,” Lorraine went on. “I didn’t want to fall for you. And when I started to care so much, I kept fearing that you’d hurt me, that what was happening between us was too good to be true. Or worse, just a way to pass the time on your part. So I pushed you away. But when I thought you were in a crash with Paul’s car, a part of me died. All I wanted to do when I saw that you were okay was hug you and never let you go.”
“But you didn’t.” In fact, Hunter had practically implored her to tell him that she cared about him, and she hadn’t.
“Because even then, I was too afraid. I was petrified when I thought I’d lost you, yet it was more terrifying to tell you how I felt.”
Hunter swallowed. “When I thought Paul had hurt you, do you know the panic I felt?”
Lorraine nodded. “I do. I saw it in your eyes that day. I didn’t know until then how much you cared.”
Had he not made his feelings clear? Hunter thought that they’d been on the same page, their mutual affection obvious. “I just wanted you to trust me. With the good in your life, with the bad. To not shut me out.”
“I know. But I was too afraid to let myself trust another man.” Lorraine’s chest rose and fell with a heavy breath. “I heard from Paul, by the way.”
“What?” Hunter’s heart thudded. “I thought he was remanded without bail?”
“He was. But he sent me a letter via his lawyer. He apologized. Said he realizes how much of a jerk he’s been. That he knows he messed up badly and can never make it up to me. He said he also knows that he should have died that day, and he’s amazed that you saved his life. According to him, he’s a changed man. He’s going to plead guilty, take the punishment he deserves and do something positive with his life when he gets out of jail. He went on to say that he’s not going to waste the second chance you gave him—and wished us well.”
“Really?”
“Yeah. And I believe him.” Lorraine put the lid back onto the container with her burger, then rolled her chair closer to Hunter’s. “What I’m going to say right now... I know you might hurt me. But I have to say this, and if you reject me, so be it.” Inhaling a shaky breath, she placed her hands on his. “I love you. I didn’t want to believe I could. I wanted to fight it. But it’s true. Our connection, everything between us...it just made sense, no matter what I wanted to tell myself. And without you in my life, I’ve been lost. I love you, Hunter. But it happened so quickly, and I was afraid of being hurt. That’s why I pushed you away. It wasn’t you, it was me. I hope you can understand that and give me another chance. Please.”
Something finally clicked in Hunter’s brain. That this wasn’t a joke. That Lorraine was here putting her heart on the line...for him. And suddenly, the walls that Hunter had erected around his heart since the incident with Paul came crumbling down. “You love me?”
Lorraine nodded, her face contorted with emotion. “I do. I didn’t want to—I didn’t want to love anybody—but I fell for you.” She sighed softly. “I don’t expect you to feel the same way, but you liked me once. I just want you to let me back in. See where things lead.”
Hunter looked into her eyes, saw the vulnerability there. Saw the truth. She was laying her heart bare. “I more than like you, Lorraine. Don’t you kn
ow I feel the same way you do?” The words fell from his lips, his voice hoarse. “I never expected to fall for you, either. I was afraid, too. How can you meet someone and know? Yet that’s what I felt. Then you kept shutting me out, and my worst fear was realized. I thought I was out on a limb by myself.”
“Oh, Hunter. You’re not.” Lorraine stroked his face, and the feel of her fingers on his skin sent warmth tingling across his flesh. He turned his face into her palm and kissed it softly.
The feelings of love for her that he’d tried to repress swelled forth, and he pulled her into his arms and onto his lap. Then he slipped his hand into her hair and simply stared into her eyes for several seconds—though what he really wanted to do was kiss her.
Lorraine’s eyes glistened as they filled with tears. “Hey,” Hunter said. “Don’t cry. It’s okay. You’re here now. We’re here. There’s nothing to fear anymore. I love you.”
Lorraine’s eyes widened. “You do?”
“Why do you look surprised?” he asked. “Of course I do. That’s why I was so hurt. Look, if you want to do the store alone, I’m okay with that. I don’t want it coming between us. I just want to be with you.”
“No,” Lorraine said. “I want you involved.”
“You probably feel funny about it, or uncomfortable and I get that. I’m not upset if you don’t want to mix business with pleasure.”
Lorraine blew out a shaky breath, and Hunter wiped at a tear that was rolling down her cheek. “There’s something I need to tell you. Something else I kept from you.”
Hunter’s eyebrows shot up, and his pulse quickened. “What?”
“I guess it’s better if I show you.”
She got up from his lap, and Hunter frowned as he watched her go to her purse. She retrieved her phone, fiddled with it for a moment, then walked back over to him.
“I decided on a name for the store,” she said, holding out her phone for him to look at the screen. “What do you think?”
Hunter looked at the photo of a sketch on a piece of paper, clearly some kind of preliminary design. His throat thickened with emotion. “You serious?”
“Do you like it?” Lorraine asked, her voice sounding tentative.
“The Douglas Health & Nutrition Center,” Hunter read aloud.
“Something like that,” Lorraine said. “As the place fully comes together, we can figure out the name if you’re not sold on this one. But I want your father’s name to be in there. And I hope you do, too.”
“I love it,” Hunter said. “My dad would love it, too.”
A smile lit up Lorraine’s beautiful face. “I’m so glad.”
Hunter stood. “Why do you keep doing this to me?”
“Doing what?” she asked, looking at him with alarm.
“Making me crazier about you every time I’m with you,” he whispered, then pulled her into his arms. Before she could answer, he brought his mouth down on hers. Intense satisfaction shot through him when Lorraine mewled, and her body relaxed against his.
Oh, how he loved this woman.
Lorraine snaked her arms around his neck and surrendered to the kiss, opening her mouth wide, trilling her tongue with his. Hunter tightened his arms around her waist, heat roaring through him.
But more than anything, he felt happiness. And love.
Easing back, he said, “I love you. And you honoring my father in that way...it means the world to me.”
Lorraine smiled at him. “He was such a special man,” she said softly. “I loved your father. He was so wonderful to me, and I honestly saw him as a father figure. Never in my wildest dreams did I expect to meet his son and fall for him. That was the greatest gift I could have received, not the store.”
“Maybe it was meant to be,” Hunter said, then kissed her lips softly. “Because everything about you and me...it’s right. I feel it.”
“I feel it, too.”
Hunter smiled down at Lorraine and framed her face. Then he kissed her again, his mouth lingering on hers. She strummed her fingertips across the back of his neck. Desire coursed through his veins, and with a groan, he pulled back.
“We’ve got to stop this...or Joe might come back in here and...well, it’d be pretty embarrassing for all of us.”
Lorraine chuckled. “I know, baby. I can’t even think rationally when I’m around you.”
“I love you,” he said again, his heart feeling full for the first time in years. It felt good to tell her this. He wanted to tell her how much he loved her for the rest of his life.
“Oh, baby. I love you, too.”
Lorraine pulled her bottom lip between her teeth, and heat zapped Hunter’s groin. “Don’t do that,” he said huskily. “You know I’m powerless to resist you when you all but beg me to kiss you.”
“I can’t help it.”
Hunter gave her lips a quick peck, then took her hand. “How about we get out of here?”
Lorraine winked. “I thought you’d never ask.”
* * * * *
Keep reading for an excerpt from JUST FOR THE HOLIDAYS by Nana Malone.
Just for the Holidays
by Nana Malone
Chapter 1
Justin Morrison ran through the hallways of the hospital, nearly tipping over a gurney at the nursing station, narrowly missing an orderly and then actually tripping over a wheelchair someone had left in the hallway.
He scrambled to get back on his feet, his heart beating a frantic tattoo against his ribs. He had to get to her. After everything, he couldn’t lose her.
His cousin’s words on the phone still rattled around his brain. She’s in the hospital. You need to come quickly. He took the stairs two at a time to the fourth floor, where they’d directed him at the main reception desk. Oh God, please let her be okay. Please, please, please let her be okay. His grandma Lucy was the only person on this planet who understood him. Well, next to his best friend, Alexandra, whom he affectionately called Alex. But Grandma Lucy, she was his heart. She was the sole reason he was where he was today, even when no one had believed in him.
Growing up, she’d been his rock. She’d scolded him when she felt it necessary, hugged him when he needed it and always told it to him straight. She was outrageous and said the most inappropriate things. But man, she was fantastic.
Grandma Lucy had been the one to tell him to stop trying to seek his father’s approval and follow his own path. She was the sole reason that any banks would even talk to him when he wanted to build a boutique hotel.
His family was known for their hotels the world over. But investors didn’t want to finance the first solo venture from the prodigal son. So his grandmother had made sure that several banks knew that while his would be a separate business, he was backed by the matriarch of the family.
As family went, the only one he ever counted on was his grandmother. The rest of his relatives, he could take or leave. His mother hadn’t come from money and had left him with his father when he was eight because the old man could provide a more stable environment for him. Most of his family never approved of her. As an adult, he could see how being around the Morrisons had been very difficult for her. But as a child, he’d just missed her. She’d died in a car accident just six months after she’d left. A part of him had never recovered. As for his father, well, Jack Morrison wasn’t exactly warm. But up until the reading of the will, Justin would have said they got along well. Boy, were you wrong.
He and his cousin Martin had interned at the flagship property on Catalina Island. Justin’s father had always made it clear that Justin should be the one eventually running Morrison Hotels. Somehow Martin became the more favored and had shoved Justin out of what should have been his birthright.
That knowledge that his own father wouldn’t trust the Morrison legacy to him still burned, like a fi
re in his gut. It was what spurred him on. Prove the old man wrong. He’d always thought his father loved him. Then why cut you out? The fact that he could do that to him, shut him out without a word... The fact that Justin had to hear about it in the reading of the will, that was a special kind of hell.
Justin tugged open the door to the fourth floor from the stairwell and ran down to room 406. He found Martin, his uncle Lester, his aunt Mary and a few of the household staff who had been with his grandmother for years all around his grandmother’s room.
Grandma Lucy tried to push herself to sit straighter, but when she winced, he ran to her side. “I don’t think you’re supposed to move.” He turned his attention to Martin. “What happened? What did you do?” he yelled.
Martin rolled his eyes. “I didn’t do anything. I’m the one who found her collapsed in her office. I called an ambulance to get her to the hospital in LA. Then I called you, her precious grandson.” The note of jealousy rang clear as a bell.
From behind, a voice said, “If I were you two, I’d keep it down. Your grandmother needs rest. If you can’t give her that, I will have security escort you out.”
Justin turned to find a petite woman in a white lab coat, her dark hair pulled back off her face into a bun, her expression solemn. Her name tag read Dr. Jesslyn Wells.
“Are you my grandmother’s doctor?”
She gave a brusque nod. “Yes, I am. Now, can you and the rest of your family please give me some space so I can check my patient?” Her voice was stern, clipped. It told Justin that she was well versed in dealing with difficult people.
“I’m sorry.” The group backed away, but Justin moved to the foot of the bed. “I just don’t know what happened.”
Grandma Lucy waved her hand. “What happened is your cousin overreacted. My blood pressure’s just low, that’s all. I’m fine. I do not need to be in this hospital. Matter of fact, if you can get these IVs out of me, I’ll be on my way. I feel like a damn pincushion.”
