by Liz Bower
“You look tired.”
“I didn’t sleep well last night.” I offered him a weak smile along with my understatement of the year.
“My offer still stands,” Toby said as he shifted his gaze to the ceiling.
“What offer?”
“If you need someone to talk to. I thought we could, erm …” Toby coughed and then looked down at me. “Maybe you might like to go for a drink. With me.”
A red stain spread across his cheeks as he looked away. Oh my God. Was he asking me out? Was that why he used to hang around my desk? I slipped my lip between my teeth, trying to think of a response. “I think since Marco … my boyfriend …” But he wasn’t anymore, was he?
“Oh okay. I thought … never mind. We could still have a drink. Be friends.”
I smiled and nodded. “Friends sounds good.”
I blew out a breath as he wandered off upstairs. Friends. I felt like I had to make up for thinking Toby was responsible, even though he didn’t know I had suspected him. I had been way off the mark.
By the time five o’clock rolled around, I still hadn’t made much progress with the query list, unable to concentrate for longer than ten minutes before my mind wandered again. As I was packing up for the day, Alex came over to my desk.
“Will you be in tomorrow?”
I nodded. “If that’s okay?”
“Of course. Whatever you need, Jo. Just let me know.”
I headed outside, drove home slowly, and was grateful I found a parking spot on the street opposite mine. As I let myself inside, I heard the TV and then silence as if it had been muted or switched off. I tensed because I doubted it was Gabi at that time of day.
“Jo? Is that you?”
I closed the door behind me at the sound of Marco’s voice. “It’s me,” I said as I walked into the living room to the sight of him lounging on the sofa. My lips lifted slightly and I chewed on the bottom one until Marco patted the cushion next to him. I wasn’t sure why he was there.
Marco shifted to face me as I sat down next to him. “How was work?” he asked softly. He took hold of my hand and twined our fingers together.
I glanced down at our hands and then gave him a wry smile. “Alex offered me the job today.”
“Are you going to take it?”
I shrugged one shoulder. “Probably. It’s not quite the way I wanted to get it, but I …” I wasn’t sure what else to say. That I had been through too much to turn it down? That I had already lost too much?
He gave my hand a gentle squeeze, and I looked up into his calm eyes.
“Feels like I’m back crashing here again, sitting on the sofa together,” he said with a ghost version of his cocky smile.
I glanced down at his hand and then back up to his eyes. “Except we’re not together anymore.”
He frowned and tugged my hand until I was straddling his lap. Giving me his cocky smile that I had missed, he wrapped his arms around my waist.
“Only in your head were we not together, Jo.” His smile faltered as he rested his forehead against mine. “I understand why you moved out. I even understand why you wouldn’t talk to me. But I never gave up believing in us. That we were over never even crossed my mind.”
He blew out a breath, and the warmth of it caressed my lips. “God, I wish I’d made you listen to me. That I could have stopped all of that from happening. But I can’t change that it did. All I can do is tell you that I love you. And I will never let anyone hurt you ever again.” When he leaned his head back, his eyes were watering before he closed them.
I believed he was telling the truth, but the memory of him standing in that very room with Lily made my chest ache. I had to know. “Why was Lily here? You lied to me about seeing her.”
Marco opened his eyes. “I didn’t lie. When I said I never wanted to hear from her again, I meant it.” His gaze shifted towards the ceiling. “But I should have told you she had been here. It didn’t seem important with everything else that was happening at the time though. She dropped some of my stuff off that I left at hers. Told me it was over with the guy she cheated on me with. She said we should get back together.” Marco snorted.
I leaned back, dropping my hands into my lap, fingertips pressing into my thighs. “And what did you say?”
Marco lifted his hand to cradle my jaw. “I told her I didn’t want her back. That I finally had what I wanted. You. Tell me that’s still true, Jo.”
I gazed straight into his eyes and said, “I love you.”
His gaze dropped to my lips and I licked them. He leaned in, brushing his lips over mine. When he tried to pull away, I wrapped my fingers around the back of his neck and held him in place. “I love you.” Then I brought our lips together again.
Marco’s hands wrapped around my thighs. He rose from the sofa, and I clung to him, wrapping my legs around him. My lips never left his as he carried me upstairs. He kicked the bedroom door shut behind us, then laid me gently down on the bed.
I watched as he opened the bedside drawer and threw a condom on the pillow. Then he climbed over me, resting his elbows on either side of my shoulders as he wrapped his hands around my jaw. He untied the scarf from my neck and gently kissed the bruises that had been left behind.
Neither of us was in any rush, preferring to savour the moment. Marco trailed kisses down my chest as he unbuttoned my blouse. I tugged his T-shirt over his head and roamed my hands over his chest and back until he slid down to remove my trousers, as well as his own.
He made his way back up my body, pressing kisses to my inner thigh, my hip and upward until he reached my lips. I wrapped my legs around his hips as I heard the rustle of the foil wrapper. He sat up and rolled the condom down his length.
Then he pressed his chest to mine, slipped one arm behind my back and buried his fingers in my hair with the other. I let out a moan as the tip of him pressed against my entrance, and he pushed inside me with one long thrust. His lips captured mine and his tongue twined with my own as he pulled out until just the head of his cock was inside of me. I dug my feet into his arse cheeks, and he pressed slowly back inside me.
He kept the pace slow, and it was more than sex. It felt like a promise for our future. Together.
Marco shifted his angle, rubbing my clit with each roll of his hips, and I clung to his back. I tore my lips from his as I moaned and squeezed my eyes shut. A burst of white spots lit up behind my eyelids. “Marco.”
My back arched, and he buried his head in the crook of my neck with a groan. He stilled inside me as he throbbed and we lay entwined as we tried to catch our breath.
Marco rolled over to discard the condom and then pulled me against his chest. I lay my cheek over his heart and listened to the beats as they slowed. He pressed a kiss to the top of my head.
“I love you, mio cuore.”
I placed a kiss over his heart. “I love you too.”
Life was short. You never knew what was waiting around the next corner for you.
I twined my fingers into his hair. Holding on tight, I pressed my lips to his chest again.
When life throws something good at you, grab it with both hands and hold on tight.
ALSO BY LIZ BOWER
The Legends of the North series. Each book in this series follows a different couple but should be read in order.
Vision in Love - Book 1
After Emma Williams’ life took an unexpected turn, she decides to start over, by moving back to her home in the north of England. But as soon as she arrives in the village of Altenchester, she starts to suffer from strange visions. Visions of people she doesn’t know and disturbing events she can’t explain.
They lead her to find an unlikely friend in Matt, a local history enthusiast. Emma is unaware he is also an Altenbury, the prominent family in the village. As they search for the meaning of her visions it brings them closer together. But their venture soon turns into a nightmare when Matt is the victim of a series of brutal yet mysterious attacks.
Ca
n Emma find out what the visions mean before the attacks on Matt become fatal?
Vision in Trust - Book 2
When Jessica Altenbury can no longer afford to live in London she has no choice but to move back to her family home of Altenchester. It’s not just her family that wait there for her though, as she is forced to face her past and the life she ran from.
Trying to put her old life behind her, all Jess wants is to help others, the way she wishes someone had been there to help her when she’d needed it. However her parents, and someone from her past she’d rather forget, have other plans for her.
If that wasn’t enough, she begins to suffer from visions of disturbing events she can’t explain. Visions that push her to spend time with the last man she wants to, Rob, her brother’s best friend.
Robert Morgan knows what it’s like to lose faith in those you should be able to trust. As he and Jess get to know each other his protective instincts kick in, but will Jess let him behind the walls she has built around her heart?
He believes her visions are the key to the mysterious attacks that almost killed her brother, but can Rob convince Jess of that, as well as protect her from events neither of them understand?
Vision in Faith - Book 3
Hairstylist, Vicky Hudson, has lived just outside of Altenchester her whole life. Of course she’s heard of the Altenburys, who hasn’t? They rule the village, own most of it, it’s even named after them.
Vicky is on the verge of fulfilling her lifelong dream of opening her own salon. The only obstacle may be James Altenbury. According to his mother, he is the one who has the power to stop Vicky’s dream from becoming a reality.
Her own parents are supportive yet deeply traditional but Vicky has different ideals. Ones that she starts to question when she becomes the victim of strange visions of people and places she doesn’t know. What is behind them and where do they come from?
Afraid to admit what is really going on, she is finally forced to take them seriously when James is attacked once again, only this time by the very monster from one of her visions. It is only then she realises he is much more than just an Altenbury.
Will they finally succumb to the evil that has been preying on the Altenbury family for generations, or can they hold off the evil, and together finally stop the attacks?
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Liz has lived in a lot of places but she is still a Lancashire girl at heart.
She writes contemporary romance about people finding their own happily ever after.
The rest of her time is spent drinking too much coffee, searching for the next HEA to read or walking her dog.
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https://lizbower.com
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