Taming Mr. Charming (The Taming Series Book 2)

by Nia Arthurs

  I kiss her lightly and she melts in my arms. “I know.” I say when we break apart. “Let’s go.”

  Properly mellow now, she follows me into the car. I drive to Marine Parade and help her up the steps of the lighthouse. The breeze whips at her hair as we stand on the landing and look out over the sea. I slide my arms around her waist and inhale her sweet scent.

  “Are you happy, Mia?”

  “I’m happy.” She admits, “I’m ecstatic. I’m joyous. I’m…”

  I stop her word flow when I kiss her. Words aren’t needed to describe how blessed we are. Together. In this moment.

  The End.

  If you enjoyed this story, I would be honored if you would let others know by writing a review on Amazon. Word of mouth is important for an author’s success. I love you all and pray that God’s will continues to be done on Earth as well as it is in Heaven.

  I would love to hear from you at corcorozal@yahoo.com

  You can also follow me on IG: Nia Arthurs @nia_bks and Twitter: @niaarthurs

  Read on for an excerpt from the third book in the Taming Series:

  TAMING MR. KNOW-IT-ALL

  CHAPTER ONE

  All men are dogs and all life is meaningless. I crumbled to my feet in a pool of white satin and closed my eyes, wishing the darkness would consume me so I never had to face the world again.

  “What do you mean you saw him with another girl?” I said to my sister Sandra who I’d selected to go dress shopping with me on what was supposed to be one of the happiest days of my life. All around the excitement and romanticism flowing from the various browsing brides infested every aspect of the bridal boutique. The shiny marble floors, festive love songs ringing from the speakers and happy squeals of excited brides saying ‘yes’ to the perfect dress surrounded me like a cocoon of marital bliss. Sandra’s words brought a cloud of doom to the atmosphere. I squeezed my eyes shut to ignore the storm.

  My only sibling grasped my hand and my eyelids flew up of their own accord. I would have preferred to block out the truth for as long as possible. Sandra squeezed my fingers. The green eyes set in her olive toned face glazed with compassion. People rarely recognized that Sandra and I were sisters. Our bi-racial heritage produced culturally ambiguous features on the both of us. Sandra’s fair skin and green eyes labeled her as more Caucasian than black. My light brown skin could be mistaken for a dark tan and the hazel in my eyes overpowered the green. I’ve been mistaken for a Mexican, an Indian, and even a Columbian. That confusion was, ironically, how I’d met Brian.

  Sandra knelt next to me and sighed, “When I was at Cocoa Bubbles last week, I saw Brian crossing Luther Street holding hands with a woman.”

  I took deep breaths and tried to rationalize. “Maybe it was his sister or his cousin.”

  Sandra glumly shook her head, “No, Sus. He kissed her. I saw him.”

  I felt the weight of a thousand bricks hit my chest. This couldn’t be right. The man of my dreams would never betray me like this.

  “How do you know it was Brian? It could have been someone else.”

  Please, please, please let it be someone else.

  “That’s what I wanted to think too,” Sandra said hesitantly. “Did I tell you I opened a Tinder account for Mom?”

  I nodded, already anticipating the tidal wave of distress that was washing up on the shore of my life. “Yeah, I remember. Mom and I thought it was a stupid idea but you did it anyway.”

  Thinking of my mother made me feel a bit more grounded. Trina Bevans was a no-nonsense Southern belle turned upstate Los Angeles single mother. Although Mom migrated from the South, the traditional Southern lady was ever present in her stubbornness and steel-backed administration. Her pig-headedness became even more necessary when Dad left us. I was six and so I didn’t remember much about him. Sandra used to tell me stories about how funny he was and how much he loved us. But I didn’t want stories. I just wanted my father. Trina Bevans tried to fill the gap as much as she could, working two jobs to provide for Sandra and I. When Sandy graduated from college, she got a job too and I must admit I got the better end of the bargain. I wanted for nothing and it was all thanks to my mom and older sister. They both deserved every happiness, but online dating was just too unconventional for my mom and we all knew it. Unfortunately or fortunately depending on the situation, Sandra and I inherited more than our smiles from Mom. We got her stubbornness too.

  “I was testing it out for her.” I could see where this was heading. “And I saw Brian.”

  The tsunami blazed into my chest and knocked the breath out of me. “Brian was on Tinder?”

  Sandra looked away and admitted, “Brian was on Tinder looking for older women.” As proof, she extracted her phone from the back of her jeans pocket and swiped it open. She quickly tapped the screen and then showed me a screenshot of the app. There, dressed in the blue Oxford shirt that I bought him for Christmas last year, posed my fiancé. I peered closer at the picture and grimaced. I recognized that arm.

  That was my arm.

  Brian had used the picture we’d taken together at our office Christmas party and cropped me out of it for a dating site. I put my hand over my mouth and moaned.

  I was dating a psychopathic liar.

  I flicked my fingers over the screen to enlarge the shot and stared at his handsome face. Brian was bi-racial like me. His mother was Mexican and his father was Caucasian. I’d started working full time at the Maladon Resorts and Company nearly four years ago. After two years, I was promoted to Public Relations manager. A few days into my role, the office was given a survey from the cafeteria. Brian was the graphic designer and his office was near my unit. We were both filling in the office questionnaire when he heard me complaining about the options under the ‘ethnicity’ line. He’d come strolling near my cubicle, flashed his dimples at me, cracked a joke about always ticking the ‘other’ option as his ethnicity and the rest was history. A few days later, Brian asked me out on a date and that spurred a relationship that spanned one year and six months. Two months ago, Brian proposed and we set the date for a December wedding this year, leaving only eight months to prepare.

  Brian was smart and kind. He was ambitious which I loved especially since I wanted to get back to school and finish earning my law degree. His personality was so calm and calculated which I’d thought was the perfect complement to my more charismatic personality. We balanced each other out. I buoyed him up and he grounded me so I didn’t float away on my whims. There had to be an explanation. Brian would explain this away and then we would get married as planned. I gathered the hem of the satin dress and rushed to the dressing room to change into my walking clothes.

  “Susan,” Sandra called.

  “I have to talk to him!” I yelled as I pulled on my blouse and shorts while the attendant hung up the dress.

  “Will you take it ma’am?”

  “I have to think about it a little more,” I confessed, and then flew out of the store. Sandra followed me with a concerned expression. I dove into the downtown L.A. crowds browsing in the waning light of a Saturday evening and wove through passersby to get to the car parked a few blocks down. Sandra was right on my heels and when we got to her cute little Ford Fiesta she beeped it open. I slid in.

  “Take me to Brian’s.”

  Sandra started the car and silently did as I asked.

  … For more look out for TAMING MR. KNOW-IT-ALL by Nia Arthurs in the Amazon store.