Heather was taking a drink of her wine when Gavin said sixty-million dollars. She choked on it and spit it out into her glass. When she finished coughing she said, “I’m sorry…sixty million dollars? Chelsea told Kimberly you’d left her practically penniless.”
Gavin smiled sadly. “To Annie, that’s what sixty million dollars sounded like, compared to the billion I was left with. Had she been honest with me and stayed my wife, Heather, I would have given her anything. It was never about the money. I wanted a family. I wanted kids. I wanted children to leave the legacy I built to and a wife to grow old with.”
“What about her career?”
“What career? Annie was in community college when I met her. She never finished and she never worked a day in her life as far as I know.”
Heather was letting all of that sink in. She had suspected Chelsea was lying just because of the way she had been glaring at Heather that night. But she was so afraid. She was so afraid of getting her heart broken again. It had hurt when Phillip broke it but she was afraid if Gavin broke it, that it would be irreparable. “I was cheated on, Gavin. Very recently I centered my life on a man that said he loved me and he made a joke out of that.”
“You can’t let that dictate the rest of your life, Heather. You can’t let what that S.O.B. did to you make you want to be alone forever just in case. If you do, he wins and you’re the only one that loses. Well, in this case, so do I. I’ve never met anyone that made me feel the way you did in only a day. I just can’t walk away from that without at least giving it a try. Please give me a chance Heather. I won’t hurt you, I promise.”
Heather wasn’t sure what to say. Her head and her heart were at war. Her heart and her body wanted him, badly. Her head kept going back to Phillip. “I don’t know, Gavin…I…”
“Do you want me, Heather? If Chelsea had never said anything, would you have taken my calls?” She nodded. “Please don’t pass on us because of what a couple of hateful people did to us in the past. And there’s something else,”
“What’s that?”
“Maggie isn’t my cousin. I am paying for the wedding, but you were right…it was about getting close to you.” She didn’t say anything for a really long time. Finally, he couldn’t stand it any longer. “Do you hate me?”
She shook her head. “I don’t think I could if I tried.” He reached across and took her hand in his then. Lightning struck in that spot and shot throughout the rest of her body. Just one touch. That’s all it took.
Epilogue
One Year Later
Heather sighed contentedly as the warm rays of sunlight washed over her. She rolled onto her stomach to get some of the sun on her back. She was laying in the sand on a soft blanket with her eyes closed, enjoying the sounds of the ocean and nature around her. She loved the way the waves sounded as she lapped at the shore. She loved that there were no phones ringing or people talking. She loved that she was here on this private island alone with Gavin…her new husband.
Her love of the quiet time hadn’t come easily. After six months of dating, Gavin had proposed. Heather knew she loved him and wanted to be with him forever but she was neck deep in her business and she wasn’t sure she would be able to leave it. Gavin conspired with Kimberly and offered to hire as many people as she needed to help her if Heather would only agree to marry him on Valentine’s Day and spend two weeks on an island in the pacific with him. She couldn’t say no. She didn’t find out until after the wedding that Gavin hadn’t rented the island, he bought it. He told her they would need a private place to get away from all of the fame her business was attracting. He was kidding, partially. Heather's business was not only thriving, it was soaring. She was quickly becoming a household name and she loved every minute of the hard work it took to keep her on top. But he was also right that she needed a vacation and two weeks alone with the love of her life was just what the doctor ordered. It took her two days to stop looking for her phone but once she did it was so freeing that she worried she might not want to find it when they left here. Gavin had hired a full staff to cook and serve them so all she had to do was swim, sun, eat and make passionate love to her husband…it was heaven.
She heard a splashing sound and her skin actually tingled. Gavin had gone for a swim and her hot skin ached for the coolness of his touch. She felt the cool water dripping off of his body before she opened her eyes and looked up. He wasn’t there. She turned her head and he had appeared next to her on the blanket. He swept back her hair and buried his face in her neck. “Mm,” she sighed. “Was the water cold?”
“Everywhere in the world is cold without you,” he murmured against her neck. She smiled. Always the sweet talker. He didn’t stop moving his lips either. They had traveled to the back of her neck and now he was making his way down her spine with soft, sexy kisses. She shuddered. “You should go swimming with me next time.”
“Okay, do I have to wear clothes?” She felt him smile into her again.
“You never have to wear clothes, ever.”
She giggled and he put his hands on her waist and rolled her over. He quickly straddled her and he reached down and took her hands in his and brought them up over her head. He dropped his face down again and nuzzled her neck and her hair before kissing his way up to her lips. She closed her eyes and reveled in the feel of his hands and lips. His touch never got old. If anything she was more thrilled by it now than she had ever been. She loved planning a life with him. She loved knowing he was hers and she his. She felt his hand untying the knot at the back of her bikini and she opened her eyes.
“Should we be doing this right out here in the open?”
“My staff is discreet. Besides, I told them I’d make them walk the plank if they came out to this part of the island.”
She laughed and as her halter fell free she lifted her legs and wrapped them around his waist. His swim trunks were wet and cold from the ocean and she could feel his erection trying to push its way through. “So we’re going to do it right out here in the open?” She rubbed her crotch into his. She felt him shiver.
“We’re gonna ‘do it’ right here, right now, woman.” She rocked against him harder. “Unless you keep doing that and then I might just do it in my shorts.”
That gave her the giggles and as she laughed he leaned down and captured a breast in his mouth. Her giggles ended abruptly in a gasp as his tongue flicked across her hard nipple and rolled it around in his mouth. She was done teasing. She grabbed his head and held it to her chest while he sucked and licked and nibbled. The sensations went straight down between her legs and she was soaking wet and aching for him to touch her. She began to buck her hips up into him but he kept torturing her breasts. “Touch me.”
He pulled his head up and smiled at her. Every time he did that her insides liquefied. “I thought I was,” he said.
“Touch the rest of me, please.”
He grinned again and moved his hands down. Starting at the sides of her breasts he ran his big, greedy hands down her body. She closed her eyes and put her hands on his shoulders, wiggling in anticipation of his fingers landing between her legs. He started kissing her when he got to her belly and he had her bikini bottoms off before she even realized it. His mouth continued to travel south and he flattened his body down against the blanket. He used his hands to coax her legs open and then used his mouth to make her cry out loud. He brushed his lips down the seam of her hot pussy and then let his tongue delve between her lips. He found her pulsing clit and let his tongue flutter across it. She had her hands in his hair and she pulled and tugged and pushed while he drove her crazy with every part of his mouth. She cried out his name and he growled into her flesh as he lapped at her like he was starving. It had only been a few hours since they had made love in the kitchen of their bungalow, but an observer might think they had both been celibate for years.
His tongue circled and flicked and flattened and pressed in every way she liked it, driving her closer to the edge with every lick. She had her
hips up in the air and she was pressing into him as hard as she could and digging her nails into his scalp. He slid his hands underneath her and gripped her cheeks in his big hands and began sucking hard on her swollen clit. She exploded as if she hadn’t had an orgasm in months, or maybe years. It was so good that even though her mouth was wide open, she couldn’t even release the scream that was stuck in her throat.
Heather was still having aftershocks when Gavin took off his shorts. She reached down and took his massive erection in her small hand and stroked it. Then she cupped his heavy sac with the other hand, causing him to let out a hiss and a curse. He leaned down and kissed her hard and while his tongue moved in and out of her mouth seductively she lined him up with her opening and he pushed forward. They both groaned into each other’s mouths as he filled her up. She had her arms around his neck and her legs around his waist and she was trying to pull him in so close that they became a part of one another. He rocked into her slow and steadily for several minutes but then suddenly his pace and his force both began to increase. He tangled his fingers up in her hair and held her up while he kissed her and pumped his hips. Heather felt like she was on fire and another raging orgasm was about to hit her like the perfect storm.
Gavin let go of her hair and reached for her hand. He brought it to his lips and licked her fingers. Heather knew exactly what he wanted. When he let go of her wrist she slid her hand down between them and began to strum her clit as he pounded into her. She was the one that fell off the cliff first, screaming out his name this time. Gavin quickly followed a moment later. As he came he kissed her face, her eyelids, her nose, her cheeks and her lips. When he could breathe again he whispered, “I love you, Heather,” over and over. He finally collapsed down next to her and pulled her into his chest. She curled into him marveling at how perfectly their bodies fit together.
They lay there with their eyes closed, basking in the sun and listening to the sounds of the ocean for a long time. Gavin broke the silence first by saying, “We have to go to New York next week.”
Heather opened her eyes. “For what? Is your mother okay?” Heather and Gavin’s mom had really bonded. She had been out twice to visit them and of course, she came for the wedding.
“She’s perfect. We have an appointment with a realtor.”
She pushed up further. “A realtor?”
“Yeah, I thought it was about time that Blair Wedding Occasions had an office in the big apple, what do you think?”
She smiled. “Really?”
“Really. There’s a building in Manhattan that I think would be perfect. Plus it would be close to the apartment we have an appointment to look at on the Upper East Side.”
“An apartment? But we just bought the house in Vancouver.”
“Right, but when you’re working in New York you don’t want to have to stay in a hotel, do you? I mean especially when we have kids.”
Heather warmed at the thought. Excitedly she said, “What if we just made one right now?”
He covered her belly with his big warm hand and said, “Every day I tell myself I can’t possibly love you anymore, and then you say things like that.”
“It’s going to make me happy too, Gavin. I want to start a family with you.”
“I know you do. I’ve never loved or trusted anyone the way that I do you.” Gavin had more than proven that when Heather had been prepared to sign a prenup that was never produced. When she asked him about it he said, “Are you going to leave me?” She’d told him never and he’d replied, “Then it’s just a waste of paper.”
“And I’ve never loved or trusted anyone like you,” she told him. She closed her eyes again and she wondered what she had ever done to deserve such a perfect life. Whatever it was she would do it all over again…and again.
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Signed, Seal’d, Delivered: A Navy SEAL Romance
Holly Hart
Chapter 1
Jax
The whiskey tumbler dances in my fingers, spinning like a top on the bar. The amber liquid is the only thing that always helps me forget. It always has my back. But it’s not working: not tonight. The dark memories in my head are biting just as hard as the liquor burning like acid in my gut.
“Heeeyy, shweeeteee,” a woman slurs. Her voice is thick and heavy with alcohol. “Wannahh buy uh girrrl uh djurink?”
I keep quiet. To be honest, my admirer’s somewhat incoherent words barely penetrate my skull. Call me a hypocrite, but I don’t screw girls that drink, at least not as much as this one, anyway. She’s a sloppy drunk: not my type. She can barely stand. I like my girls with attitude. Besides, I’m looking for one girl in particular, and she sure as hell isn’t this swaying brunette to my left.
I glance up at the bartender, pointedly ignoring the brunette who’s throwing herself at me. I hope that my obvious lack of interest will be enough to put her off. Unfortunately, it’s not.
The girl behind the bar is blonde, and some asshole bar manager gave her a black T-shirt to wear that’s two sizes too small. She looks uncomfortable in it: too innocent – and too young – to be working in a place like this. I can’t help but wonder what her father would think if he knew where his daughter was working.
Not your circus, not your monkeys.
“Hit me,” I grunt, clearing the thought from my mind. “Same as before.”
The blonde gives me a worried look. I watch as the gears turn inside her head. She’s wondering whether she should cut me off. But I’m not causing any trouble. I’ve been here every night this week, just sitting and drinking quietly. So she grabs a bottle of whiskey from the top of the glittering wall – eight hundred bottles strong – at her back and pours me another double, no ice.
A hand snakes out.
“Ooohhh,” the brunette howls, “joou’re shoow kiin.” She leans in, until I can feel the heat of her breath on my cheeks. “Why don’ya tell me how I kinn make it up tuu yooo?”
The wasted girl’s fingers close around my tumbler. “Don’t touch my drink,” I growl. “See – it’s that easy. You don’t have to make anything up to me.” I jerk my head toward the other side of the bar. “Go on, why don’t you find some flyboy to fuck.”
The brunette draws herself up, tottering on six inch heels and skinny legs. “Who tha’ hell doo yoo think yooo arrre?” She whines, “talkin’na’me like dat?”
I let out a little hiss of breath through my lips. “Listen,” I say, running an exasperated hand through my blonde hair. It looks a light, muddy brown in the mirror at the back of the darkly lit bar, “I’m not trying to be an asshole. I’m with someone – okay?” The lie comes out easily. I guess the bar light is dim enough that she can’t see the pain washing over my face.
“Your loss, swee-tee,” she croons, looking at me from a different aspect. Now that she knows I’m not going to pay for her drinks all night, the skinny brunette tilts her nose up at me and spins away. I shrug; I’m not bothered by the loss. She wasn’t my type.
The thing is, I just lied to her: twice. I was trying to be an asshole, and I’m not with anybody: not really; not for a long time now.
Alex.
Her face flashes across my mind, burned into my eyelids in high definition. It’s as real to me as if she’s standing right here in front of me, bathed in light shining straight down from heaven. Long, bright red hair falls to one shoulder, tied in a ponytail. Her face is marked with tiny, light brown freckles, and her eyes are blue as the Pacific in late summer.
My jacket pocket burns. I try to resist touching it, to stop myself indulging in my guilty pleasure. But I can’t: not for long. I’ll succumb to it; I always do.
My fingers tug at the button that holds my breast pocket closed. I pull out my wallet, and fish the creased Polaroid from it. It’s her. Alex: bright red hair, freckles, and eyes as blue as the summer sky on a hot, cloudless day. She never changes: forever printed the same as she l
ooks in my mind. Perfect.
I’m lost in a dark corner of my mind. A buzzing noise growls at the edge of my consciousness. I ignore it, just as I also ignore a small flash of light that appears next to me. The sounds of a busy bar – a radio playing rock hits in the background; the low hum of conversation; some glasses clinking together – all fall away. In my head, I'm on the beach. Alex is wearing a white top and red bikini bottoms. The sun is setting, and we’re cuddled together, sharing heat. Her red hair is splayed out on my chest. I could stay like this forever.
“Hey, buddy,” a man’s voice growls. It doesn’t sound right in this daydream. I’ve been here a hundred times, and never heard his voice. “You gonna get that?”
My forehead wrinkles into a frown. I look around, seeing through daydream Jax’s eyes, not the one slouching against this bar. I hear the surf crashing against the sandy beach; I taste the salt in the air.
“Hey, asshole: I asked if you’re listening to me?”
I shake my head and fall out of the daydream. I’m in a dive bar, not the beach, and I haven’t seen Alex Hunter in four years. They’ve been the longest four years of my life.
My eyes drop back to her Polaroid, lying on the dark wooden bar. It’s all I have left. I don’t know if she’s alive or dead, married or single, happy… or not. My fingers caress the photograph.
I feel the man’s presence before I see him. He’s a big, hulking beast. He appears over my left shoulder and his hand flashes down into my line of vision, towards Alex. This photograph is all I have to help me remember her, and he’s trying to take it.
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