Runaway Heart (A Game of Hearts #2)

by Sonya Loveday

  Violet wiggled her fingers in my direction as the car pulled away.

  “Let’s get ye to bed, love,” I said, leading Hannah to my flat.

  She hummed, trudging along beside me. “That’s the best thing you’ve said all night.”

  I unlocked the door and stepped back, allowing Hannah to brush past me. She stood in the middle of my kitchen as I closed the door and locked it. It was like a dream come true seeing her there. I’d pictured it a million times, but the reality of it was far better than I could have ever imagined.

  She swayed on her feet as I dropped her bag on the couch. “I’d ask ye if you’re sleepy, but that would be a dumb question seeing how ye’re half asleep standing here.”

  She fought a yawn, but she lost to its overwhelming power. “I’m sorry. I probably should have waited and come tomorrow after a good night’s sleep. I just had to see you. I couldn’t wait.”

  “I’m glad ye didn’t wait,” I said, helping her out of her jacket.

  She leaned into me. “Me too.”

  I picked her up, cradling her in my arms, and carried her to my room, setting her down on my bed. “Let me go and get your bag.”

  By the time I made it back, she’d kicked off her shoes and was snuggled up under the comforter on my bed.

  I dropped her bag on the floor next to the bed and undressed, climbing in beside her. She rolled over, tucking the length of her naked body up against mine as her hand slipped over, settling in the middle of my chest.

  “I can’t go to sleep just yet without telling you something,” she whispered against my skin.

  I lifted her hand from my chest, placing a kiss to her fingers. “Whatever it is, love, I’m sure it can wait until ye’ve rested.”

  “I don’t want to wait. I need to tell you now.”

  I turned over onto my side. Unable to see much of anything against the darkness of the room, I trailed my fingers up her arm, along the slope of her shoulder, and up to her neck using my touch to guide me. “What is it?”

  She leaned closer, lips brushing mine as she whispered, “I love you.”

  I wasn’t sure if it was me that rolled over, settling between her hips, or if it was Hannah that guided me there, but somewhere in the oblivion, I sank inside of her. She pulled me deeper and held on tighter as I moved within her.

  I kissed her long and deep, rocking our bodies slowly as my release built. A moan rumbled from her as she dug her fingers into my back.

  “I love you, too,” I answered as she shuddered under me.

  I couldn’t think much past that. My body tensed, everything inside me stilling as I fought off my own release. I’d waited so long for her, needed to feel myself inside her longer because she felt so good. She felt like home. Sweat broke out along my brow as I fought to catch my breath.

  Hannah rocked her hips under me, urging me to move. My resistance crumbled. It always did where Hannah was concerned. I let go, hanging briefly in the abyss of my own release before coming back into my body.

  Hannah’s lips crashed into mine, taking my breaths and mingling them with hers as a wave of tremors rolled through me.

  I wasn’t sure what I would have done had she not come back. The nagging emotion prodded at me. “I thought I’d lost ye,” I said, allowing my thoughts free rein.

  “You could never lose me, Ed. You were the one who kept me from losing myself.” Her sleep-filled words ignited enough hope inside me to float a hot air balloon. I could have lifted up from the mattress and kept on floating right on out into the night.

  Rolling over, I tucked her against me. The soft, even sounds of her breathing filled the silence as I thanked my lucky stars she was in my arms again with no plans of running away.

  The other half of my heart had come home.

  IT HAD BEEN ALMOST SEVEN months since I boarded a plane on a hope and a whim and forever changed my life.

  Our nights were filled with our bodies tangled up in sheets. With shared laughter over the table in his tiny apartment. With passionate kisses as music thumped in his bar, and dreams whispered off swollen lips as our eyes drifted shut and our bodies gave over to the moon.

  Our days were filled with careers we each hadn’t known we’d been looking for. With little decisions we made together that still gave me butterflies. With growing friendships and surprise lunches that always ended too quickly.

  From time to time, I still found myself wondering when the ball would drop. When the bubble would burst, because, sometimes, it almost felt too good to be true.

  Because I found my freedom.

  I wasn’t the woman who didn’t know what she wanted out of life and bounced from thing to thing, looking to fill that void in my soul, because working alongside Della had done just that.

  Every day I worked with women who had issues similar to my mother’s. And, every day, I got a new chance to do what I couldn’t when I was younger—be the rock they needed to stand on their own two feet and take their life back.

  I even picked a major—psychology.

  Through my time with Della, I realized what happened in my childhood wasn’t my fault. It wasn’t because I was a mistake, or because I wasn’t loveable. It wasn’t anything I could have controlled or made different.

  It just was, and that was okay.

  I didn’t know what would happen to my father. I wasn’t even sure I cared anymore. Maybe that made me somewhat horrible, but I could live with it. But, what I did know was that the title that came with being partly responsible for a child’s life didn’t necessarily mean I had to be bound to him until the end of days.

  Some scars were just too deep to ever go away.

  As for my mother, I never saw her so happy and healthy. In the short time we’d spent together, I came to see her as an entirely different person. Sure, she was my mother, but there was something that happened when you grew up and found your own two feet.

  Your parents became humans—people with lives outside of you.

  And that was my favorite thing about her.

  She sang, danced, and even laughed more than I’d ever saw in my lifetime. And, when she left Della’s to venture back out in the real world, she found work at a local art gallery as an assistant to the gallery director.

  She was moving mountains she never thought possible.

  And it was Ed’s words in my ears at night, telling me he loved me and he was proud of me, that overfilled my soul until it was spilling all around us, drowning us in a love I never thought possible. The real, earth-shattering, life-altering kind of love I woke up to every day and went to sleep dreaming of every night.

  And, for that, I felt like the richest woman in the world. Wondered if anyone ever felt the kind of deliciously maddening love I felt for Ed.

  As I watched him across the bar, waiting for his lunch break to come, I thought about those things and wondered where we’d be in another seven months, because I didn’t think it could get any better than this. Than his eyes peeking over at mine, looking at me as if he still couldn’t believe I was there with him. Better than his hidden smile telling me all the ways he loved me and all the things he would do to me if we were alone.

  Because it was in those moments that I felt my heart truly beating. That I appreciated every inhale of oxygen, and every second that time offered us on this earth.

  That I stopped running and started living. Fully.

  Ed saved my life in all the ways that mattered, and I would spend the rest of mine saving him right back.

  He caught me smiling at him. “Ye look a bit pale, love. Doesn’t she seem a bit pale, Violet?” he turned and asked, nudging her to go along with him.

  Violet beamed as she wiped down a glass. “She does seem a bit washed out, but it could be the lighting.”

  My cheeks flared up as I touched my face, wondering what the hell they were talking about. I didn’t feel sick, and I’d had plenty of rest.

  Charlie popped in from the back to cover Ed, saying, “There’s nothing wrong with the
lighting. Now go take your lunch break.”

  Ed was coming around the bar in a heartbeat. I quickly fussed with my hair and smacked my lips, wanting to liven up my features as he pulled out the chair across from me and sat a small bag on the table.

  “What’s in the bag?” I asked, snagging it with my finger and pulling it closer to get a peek inside.

  Ed saved it from tipping over from my unprepared yank, grinning with a secret. “Well, go on then, but be careful.”

  My heart did a double take as I lifted the bag, surprised at the weight, and then set it in my lap. I looked up at him, unable to hide the wide grinning taking over my face.

  He nodded for me to continue, his anxiousness riding just as high as mine was.

  I glanced down. White tissue paper hid whatever was inside. That giddy, lighthearted feeling everyone got whenever opening a gift bombarded my senses, throwing all rationality out the door.

  Yanking the tissue paper out, I tossed it to the floor, and then laughed hysterically when I uncovered my present.

  A bottle of orange liqueur.

  Ed took it from me, got down on one knee, and then said in his best serious voice, “Hannah, will you go on vacation with me?”

  “To Rum Cay?” I asked, quirking an eyebrow at him as my heart threatened to beat right out of my chest.

  “Yes,” he answered, hoisting the bottle at me as he wiggled his eyebrows.

  “It’s not hurricane season, is it?” I wavered, touching at my lips. Thunderstorms didn’t paralyze me in fear like they used to. Hurricanes on the other hand…

  “No, love. Although it’s too bad really. I know this place with the best hallway accommodations. Room enough to build a blanket fort and bunker down.”

  “Bunker down… is that a code word for sex?” I whispered, leaning in, hovering my lips dangerously close to his. “Because if it is, I can bunker down with you anywhere. Hurricanes and hallways aren’t really necessary.”

  He laughed at me as he shot to his feet and shoved the bottle in my direction. “Hold that thought,” he said, untying his apron and tossing it on the table.

  Before I knew it, he had me by the hand, tugging me out of my seat toward the door.

  “Hey! Where are you going?” Charlie shouted.

  “Bunkering down, mate. It’s about to be one helluva storm!” Ed shouted, pulling me out the door with him.

  “You better be back in an hour, Ed!” Charlie called out.

  I wrapped my arm around Ed as we fell into step together. “So Rum Cay?”

  Ed shivered beside me. “It’s a good thing we’re only going right down the street.”

  “You should have grabbed your jacket,” I said, picking up the pace.

  Ed looked down at me with a horrified expression. “With all that sex talk? How the bloody hell was I supposed to remember a jacket?”

  “You brought it up,” I bantered back, watching the cloud of white coming from each of my exhales.

  “We’ll talk about who brought what up later. Right now, I can’t think much about it with my balls about to freeze off,” he answered, ushering us inside a small diner.

  We sat in our normal spot. The waitress waved when she saw us. “The usual?” she asked.

  Ed nodded, rubbing his hands together. “Be a lot warmer in Rum Cay…”

  I shrugged out of my jacket and laid it in the seat beside me. “Bikinis and snorkeling?”

  Ed dipped his head and added, “And lots of bunkering down.”

  My lips curled into a full-blown smile. “Just one more question…”

  “Didn’t get ye on the bunkering down part, eh? Guess I’m losing my touch.” Ed’s lips curled to match my own.

  “Oh, you have me. All of me,” I said as I winked.

  “So, what’s your question, love?” he asked, ruffling his hands through his hair back into its usual, messy order.

  “Can we go right now?”

  He tipped his head back with a chest-rumbling laugh. “I love you, Hannah.”

  “I love you too, Ed.”

  I meant every single word of it. Ed and I, we were the perfect team. We completed each other in ways I never thought to imagine. I couldn’t picture who I’d be without him.

  And I’d never have to.

  THE END.

  A NOTE FROM THE AUTHORS:

  Abuse is not a subject we take lightly. It’s an ever-evolving monster that can take many shapes, whether it’s by using words, physicality, or even by your own hands and thoughts of hurting yourself...

  It’s a monster that only we, as friends and family, can conquer together if we stand up and help one another.

  If you or someone you know is being hurt or hurting themselves, please don’t hesitate to reach out for help.

  You are not alone.

  Sonya & Candace

  The National Domestic Violence Hotline: 1-800-799-7233

  National Runaway Switchboard: 1-800-621-4000

  The National Teen Dating Abuse Helpline: 1-866-331-9474

  The National Sexual Assault Hotline: 1-800-656-4673

  National Child Abuse Hotline: 1-800-25-ABUSE

  Parent Hotline: 1-800-840-6537

  National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 1-800-273-TALK (8255)

  Did you enjoy Runaway Heart?

  When you approach the end of this story, we ask that share your thoughts concerning this novel.

  If you enjoyed this book, please take a few seconds to review, rate, and/or share on any social media platform that you’ve finished and loved it. Just a couple seconds and a few words make all the difference to the work authors put into their writing and promoting.

  It is for you that we write, and it is to you that we are indebted.

  ♥ Sonya Loveday & Candace knoebel

  Also, stay up-to-date with all our releases by visiting our websites!

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  ABOUT THE AUTHORS

  Sonya Loveday, first and foremost is a reader, an avid one. It is of that love that brought her to purchasing her first laptop in 2009, and publishing her first novel, Casted, in 2013.

  In early 2014, Sonya expanded Casted and then went on to publish Spelled, the sequel to Casted in March, wrapping up the series, and her stint with Paranormal Romance. For now.

  Not long after the completion to the Casted Series, Sonya tried her hand at New Adult/Coming of Age, a sub-genre of Contemporary Romance. Thusly, the Six were born with The Summer I Fell, which released at the end of July 2014. The demand from readers was instantaneously, which brought about End Note, the second book of the series in December 2014, and book three, If Ever I Fall, in June 2015.

  To date, Sonya lives in Central Florida with her husband, and two kids, and is currently working on the fourth book of the Six Series.

  Books By Sonya Loveday

  The Six Series:

  The Summer I Fell (Book 1)

  End Note (Book 2)

  If Ever I Fall (Book 3)

  The Casted Series:

  Casted (Book 1)

  Spelled (Book 2)

  Candace Knoebel is the award-winning author of Born in Flames—book one in a young adult fantasy trilogy. She discovered in 2009 through lunch breaks and late nights after putting her kids to bed, a world where she could escape the ever-pressing days of an eight to five Purgatory. And an outlet for all the voices residing in her head.

  Published by 48fourteen in 2012, Born in Flames went on to win Turning the Pages Book of the Year award in February of 2013. In January of 2014, the last book in the trilogy, From the Embers, was released, thusly completing the trilogy. She now works on the Night Watchmen Series, while guzzling Red Bulls and pretending to be a ninja on Heelys.

  Books By Candace Knoebel

  The Night Watchmen Series:

  The Gramm Curse (Night Watchmen, #0.
5)

  Everlasting (Night Watchmen, #1)

  Evernight (Night Watchmen, #2)

  Everlost (Night Watchmen, #3)

  Everdeep (Night Watchmen, #4) Coming Spring 2015

  The Born in Flames Trilogy:

  Born in Flames (Book 1)

  Embracing the Flames (Book 2)

  From the Embers (Book 3)