“Mia will always be your daughter. We won’t let her forget you,” I promise her. Forget promise. I swear it.
A great sigh leaves her, and I’m half afraid to check the monitor. “Thank you, Beau. Thank you for saving me when I was seventeen.”
“What are you talking about? You were the one who saved me from be socially ostracized.”
“No, you don’t understand.” She shivers, and so do I. “I’d planned on killing myself the day I met you, but because of you, I didn’t.”
Chapter Thirty-Four
Landry
Six months later
“You should have seen Mia twirling in her flower girl dress,” I say. “I promised to show you.” Biting my lip, I hold the picture up to Paisley’s tombstone and then up at the sky. “I’m sure you already saw her, but a promise is a promise.
She’s beautiful, just like you were at that age. Your dad stopped by the house one day and gave us some pictures. I’ve already framed them and scattered them throughout the house so Mia won’t have to go very far to see you.”
The wind blows, picking up my hair.
I rearrange the flowers I’d brought to Paisley’s grave, and sit down. “Remember her first birthday, when Beau rented that pony for the kids to ride on, and it pooped all over Remington’s backyard? Remington threatened to send it to a glue factory, but he’s all bark, because the next week, he bought that thing for Mia.”
“I’m sorry I didn’t bring her with me this time, but it broke my heart to hear her calling for you and not being able to understand why you wouldn’t answer.” I wave my hand in the air. “But I’m sure you knew that too.
And maybe you already know what I’m about to say next, but I want to say it anyway, because I didn’t get to say it while you were alive—thank you.” My lower lip trembles. “For having Mia, for allowing me to be a part of her life and for trusting me to help raise her with Beau. I already love her like she’s mine. And I promise to take care of her and Beau. I promise to love and always be there for them, even when times get hard. So don’t you worry. Go dance with the angels.”
As I get up, blossoms fall on me, raining down in spots of pink and white. I look around, but there’s not a tree with those flowers in sight.
*** *** ***
One week later
My dad looks at me, tucking my hand into the crook of his arm. “Ready?”
I think of the man waiting for me, of the daughter who I already love more than anything and nod. “Yes.”
Meagan shakes out the train of my wedding dress. “You look so beautiful.” She kisses my cheek. “Wait about five seconds and then come out. See you at the finish line.”
I grin. She is so stinking happy with Connor that she glows.
The doors open, and my dad and I step into the hallway. The music starts up. It’s our cue to go.
“Did I ever tell you how proud your mother and I are of you?” my dad asks.
“Dad,” I whisper. “You’re going to make me cry.”
“We are, you know.”
I squeeze his hand as we walk down the aisle. My dad takes Beau’s hand and joins it with mine. I can’t take my eyes off my soon-to-be husband. He’s wearing a black tux with a silver tie, and all of his buddies are there to serve as groomsmen.
“Miss Basnight,” Beau murmurs.
“Mr. Montgomery.”
“Plan to make an honest man out of me today?’ he asks as we turn to face the preacher.
“Only if you plan to make a wild woman out of me tonight.”
His breath hitches, and I fight back a giggle.
His buddy, Cole, shoots us a look as he hands over the rings. “Don’t mess this up for him, Basnight.”
From what Beau has told me, Cole is the last person I ever expected to try to chastise me at a religious ceremony. But here he is, looking all serious and worried about ruining Beau’s day.
God love him, and his beautiful wife, Rae.
I compose myself and Cole nods once, like he’s pleased, and I’m back to fighting giggles again.
Beau gives me an odd look.
“I love you,” I murmur, and he kisses my hand.
“Not yet,” Cole hisses and this time the rest of the groomsmen laugh. Wyatt, Parker, Chase, Walker, and Carter—Beau’s mentor—straighten up as soon as Cole glares at them.
“You had your wedding. Leave mine alone,” Beau replies, not taking his eyes off me.
“Fine.” Cole steps back, and the preacher begins again.
After the wedding is over and every picture known to man is taken, Beau leads me to a private corner. He gazes into my eyes, and I see so much love shining there that it takes my breath away. “I love you, Mrs. Montgomery.”
“I love you, Mr. Montgomery.”
“Me, too!” Mia comes running to us and tugs on my dress. “Me too!”
Beau scoops her up, and I kiss her little cheek. “We love you, Miss Montgomery.”
“Yes, we do,” I agree.
She giggles happily, wriggling out of his arms and running to my mother.
Beau sticks out his elbow and I grab it, clinging to him like I’m afraid he might vanish. “I am the luckiest man alive.”
“I was thinking the exact same thing.”
His hot gaze rakes over me, and I flush. “Baby doll, you’re the sexiest man I’ve ever seen.”
I bump him with my hip. “You knew what I meant.”
He winks. “Can’t help but tease you.”
“I’ll tease you right back,” I say.
“Is that right?”
I tip up my chin. “That’s a promise.”
Another kiss from him, and I’m melting in the cool November air. “Honeymoon is waiting.”
“Monaco here we come,” Beau says. “I’m going to keep you in bed with me for days, Mrs. Montgomery.”
“Is that right?”
He gives me a smile so sexy that I want to tackle him. “That’s a promise.”
Grinning, we walk outside to greet our friends and family.
Epilogue
Beau
Four years later
Mia runs to me, shouting, “Daddy, look what I found!”
I kneel on the ground as she draws closer. “Show me,” I say, with the same amount of enthusiasm.
My little archeologist, as Landry likes to call our daughter, proudly shows off the arrowhead to me. “It’s in the shape of a heart.” She hands it to me, with a little admonishment of, “Careful, Daddy. It’s my new treasure.”
I hold it up, examining it closely, while I nod and say, “Hmm.”
“It’s very special,” she says solemnly as she wipes a muddy hand on her purple overalls. Her strawberry blonde hair, all tied up in a bouncy ponytail, shines brightly in the sun. “Grammy says heart shaped arrowheads are good luck.”
I smile and hand the arrowhead back to my daughter. “She’s right. We’ll have to keep this in a very safe place.”
“First, I have to clean it, and then I’ll take it to Mommy so she can help me draw the name,” Mia declares. It’s routine now. Our daughter digs, finds treasures, takes them to me, she cleans them, and then Landry helps her write the names.
As if she were reading my thoughts, my wife walks outside. She gingerly makes her way down the stairs, holding Madeline in her arms.
“Let’s go help them.” I practically run to Landry, taking Mia with me. After trying to get pregnant without success, Landry and I decided to try one last time.
Okay, so she wanted another try. I wanted to forget about it or adopt. I never wanted to touch her again, because the look in her eyes each time that damn stick stayed white was more than I could take.
I blamed myself, but like always, Landry was patient. She was loving and so damn brave that I couldn’t help but be amazed by her.
So, we tried again.
She got pregnant, and I became terrified. Then she stayed pregnant, and I allowed myself to hope. A little over six weeks ago, she gave birth to
a healthy baby girl, and I sent up a prayer of thanks... right before I fell in love all over again.
Just last week I added Madeline Montgomery’s initials to the ones over my heart. They join Mia’s... and Paisley’s, because Landry insisted I keep them in tribute, and I couldn’t argue with that, not after all we went through. As for Landry’s... I had her initials tattooed on my ring finger, a permanent reminder for the world to see exactly who I belong to.
“Beau, can you take Maddy, so Mia and I can have some girl time?” my wife—God, I love calling her that—says. “I think someone has been feeling a little left o-u-t lately.”
“Out,” Mia says, and Landry’s hazel eyes widen.
I chuckle and take the baby from Landry. “Guess we’ll have to learn another way to communicate. Anyway, I’ll be happy to hang out with Miss Maddy.”
Mia cheers and wraps herself around her momma’s leg. “Girl time!”
“Thank you.” Landry rises on her tiptoes, kissing me softly. The taste of her is addicting and I want more, but we can’t do more than this. She hasn’t been cleared by the doctor yet.
I pull away, but her hand comes to rest on my cheek and she kisses me again. “My momma’s offered to watch the kids this evening, so you and I can have some alone time.”
“That’s nice of her.” Really, it is, but damn, it’s hard to have such a hot wife and not be able to touch her, like we both want.
Landry gives me a sexy smile, one that reminds me of our honeymoon in Monaco. My blood surges, but I tamp it down. I’m holding my daughter for God’s sake. “My doctor said she thought it was a good idea, too.”
I’m so completely distracted by the combination of her kiss, smile, and the offer of torturous alone time, that at first I miss her meaning. I blink. “Are you saying what I think you’re saying?”
With a sultry grin, my wife sashay’s away, holding Mia’s hand. Suddenly, she pauses and casts a look over her shoulder. “I think you better be ready to show me a very good time tonight, Mr. Montgomery, because I plan to reward the you-know-what-out-of-you.”
“Baby, you are the best reward I could have ever earned in my entire life,” I say, meaning every word. “I wouldn’t be anything without you. I wouldn’t have Mia or Maddy... none of this. I’d still be living my life in circles.”
Tears shine in Landry’s eyes. She whispers something to Mia, and then runs to me, hugging me as tight as she can. “I love you, Beau. You’ve given me the world when all I needed is the man in my arms.”
Thank you for reading Beau and Landry’s story, BURN FOR YOU. If you enjoyed it, please consider leaving a review. If you’d like to keep up to know when my next release comes out, please go here to sign up for my newsletter.
Keep reading for the first chapter of Jessie Evans’ THIS WICKED RUSH!
Holland Springs Series
Drive Me Crazy
Driving To You
Twice Tempted
Third Time’s a Charm
His Christmas Wish
Just Desserts
Not Over You
Be Mine (coming this Summer)
Boys of the South Series
Live For You
Only For You For
All For You
True For You
Wish For You
Burn For You
Acknowledgments
I couldn’t have written this book without the love and support of my wonderful husband, Matthew. Or the amazing patience of my little ones while Mommy was on deadline.
As always this book was made a bajillion times better by Andris Bear, Carly Phillips, Amanda from Globug and Hootie Need a Book, Andrea from the Bookish Babes, and Autumn from the Autumn Review. Cynthia Shepp for her keen eye.
Major gratitude for Wordsmith Publicity. Thanks ladies for keeping me organized , on time, and helping me spread the word about my books. Xo
Last but not least, thank you to my readers!
New York Times and USA Today Bestselling Author, Marquita Valentine, writes sexy heroes that make you swoon and sassy heroines that make you laugh. She's the author of the bestselling contemporary romance series, Holland Springs, and the new adult romance series, Boys of the South.
Marquita met her husband aka Hot Builder at Sonic when they were in high school. She suggests this location to all of her single friends in search of a good man—and if that doesn't work, they can console themselves with cheesy tatertots. She lives in North Carolina in a very, very small town with Hot Builder and their two children.
Sign up for Marquita’s newsletter here: www.marquitavalentine.com/connect
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Keeping reading for the first chapter of Jessie Evans’ THIS WICKED RUSH!
This Wicked Rush
Wild Rush Book One
By Jessie Evans
“You know what I like, Caitlin. You know I want you to beg for it.”
Gabe
I’ve never been the kind of person to give up on something I want. Now, I refuse to take no for an answer. I want this girl. I want to help her, and sleep with her, and steal things with her, and make her laugh the way she did right that night in her friend's car. We’re going to have a summer neither of us will ever forget, and by the time we go our separate ways, she’ll have enough money to go to college, and I will have had her...every way I want her.
Caitlin
I’m starting to forget why it’s a bad idea to get in any deeper with a boy who is a walking, talking contradiction. A boy who has a taste for breaking the law, a wicked way with words, and a confident touch that leaves no doubt he’s way more experienced than I am. I’ve spent my life putting aside my own needs and cleaning up after other people’s mistakes. Now, I want to make a mistake of my own.
I know I’m playing with fire, but for Gabe I'm willing to beg to be burned.
Chapter One
Caitlin
Tis sweet to drink, but bitter to pay for. –Irish proverb
One moment really can change your life.
One moment, one kiss, one wild night when you color outside the lines, step outside the box, stop playing by the rules....
Gabe and I only spent a few hours together, but now everything is different. Now, the day-to-day grind that was grueling, but survivable—even fun at times—threatens to break me. Now, facts of life I took for granted seem ridiculously unfair. Now, I know how easy it is to turn the tables, and take what the world refuses to give people like me.
A chance. A shot at something more if I work hard and give it everything I’ve got—that’s all I want. But it’s something I may never have if things don’t change.
If I don’t make them change.
At six in the morning, lying on my lumpy second-hand mattress with the threadbare tee shirt I slept in sticking to my skin in the June heat because there’s no way we can run the air conditioning and buy groceries at the same time, with the acid reflux I can’t afford to treat burning the back of my throat, it seems like a no brainer. I should call Gabe. I should take him up on his offer to do it all again, to find a new victim, map out another robbery, and take fate into my own hands.
The kids will be out of school in two weeks. After all the snow days in January, classes are running late this year, but come June fifteenth, I’ll have three kids in daycare—four if I can convince Terri at the Kiddie Kottage to take Danny, even though he’s twelve, and technically too old for daycare.
I can’t imagine leaving Danny home alone. He’s already getting into trouble. So far he’s only been cited for defacing public property—he and the Baker boys down the street decided to spray paint penises on all the neighborhood stop signs, and were dumb enough to get caught. But give my brother a summer to run wild and I have no doubt he’ll have more incident reports in his folder down at the police station come August. If I want to keep him out of juvie, I need to make sure Danny has adult supervision while I’m at work.
But adult supervision costs a pretty pe
nny, almost more than I can afford, even with a full time waitressing job, a part time gig selling popcorn at the movie theater, and a subsidy from the state. After paying for daycare last summer, I took home less than four hundred dollars a week. That’s sixteen hundred dollars a month to feed, clothe, and shelter a family of five—six if you count my father.
Since he’s been shacking up with Veronica, Chuck doesn’t technically live at the house anymore, but he still sleeps here sometimes—when he’s too drunk to remember that he moved into Veronica’s apartment above the Laundromat, or when Veronica sobers up enough to realize she’s sleeping with a man who regularly forgets to brush his teeth, and kicks Chuck out for a few days.
And when he sleeps here, Chuck eats here and makes messes here and inevitably ends up costing me far more money than he donates to the family coffers. He hasn’t had a job in almost a year and drinks away every dime of his VA pension and disability.
So...six people. Six people on sixteen hundred a month.
It’s no wonder I almost lost the house in April. If I hadn’t robbed the pawnshop, my three brothers and two-year-old niece, Emmie, would be in foster care, and I would be homeless. Homeless, after working my ass off to raise four kids by myself for two-and-a-half years. After dropping out of school, giving up my academic scholarship to Cristoph Prep, and putting every dream I had on the shelf, I would have lost everything. I would have lost my family, the only thing that makes all the backbreaking work worth it.
The property taxes have been paid and that danger has passed for another year, but we’re not out of the woods. It will be a struggle to get through the summer, a struggle that will continue into the fall when tourism to historic downtown Giffney slacks off and my tips take a dive. A struggle that will intensify come winter when I’m forced to run the heat in our drafty old house and the electric bill skyrockets.
Gabe was right. There are only two ways out: either let the state take the kids and start looking out for number one—something I could never do, even if I wanted to, even if Emmie, Sean, Ray, and even Danny, that pain in my ass, didn’t mean the world to me—or stop playing by the rules.
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