By Referral Only

by Lyla Payne

  Cole’s Town Car idled at the curb and he pulled me into his arms before the driver shut the door behind me, his lips crushed against mine, tongue demanding in a way that would have been completely inappropriate in front of the kids.

  I clung to him, returning the desperate kiss and climbing into his lap, gasping at the intensity of the feeling of puzzle pieces locking back into place. We belonged like this—pressed against each other, lost in heat and desire, smiling against each other’s lips. Just together.

  He pulled back what had to be at least five full minutes later, cheeks pink and chest heaving as hard as my own. The seriousness in his gaze twisted my heart.

  This had been too easy. “What?”

  “You feel so good.” Cole ran his hands up my back, sprinkling shivers down my spine as his fingers weaved into my hair. “I don’t want to lose you again. Can you forgive me?”

  “Forgive you for what?” I felt my eyebrows knit together and made an effort to stop.

  “What I did to Poppy. For not telling you about it.”

  “Cole, what happened to Poppy wasn’t your fault. You were a kid and you handled it badly, but that doesn’t mean you have to spend the rest of your life paying for her tragedy. And yeah, I wish you had told me about it, but my reaction probably would have been the same. It took me all this time to finally pull my head out of my ass and realize that you’ve been right all along—that my issues with where I come from are more mine than anyone else’s. I don’t care what anyone thinks except me, and now you. I’m proud of who I am. I belong here. This is my world.”

  “I never wanted anything but for you to realize how amazing you are.” He kissed me gently on the lips. “And to deserve you.”

  “We all make our own decisions, and pay our own consequences. You can love someone, but you can’t fix them. You deserve me because I say you do, not because other people think so or don’t.” I kissed him back as the car pulled into his driveway. “Also, your sister is my new favorite person.”

  “I want to go back to this thing about loving someone.”

  Heat filled my face and my heart rose into my throat, pounding painfully. I hadn’t meant to say that; it had just slipped out. All this time apart from Cole had been spent wondering whether I deserved him or whether I could trust him to be careful with my heart.

  I never acknowledged I’d fallen in love with him until it came out of my mouth, but it was true. I loved him. I loved the easy way he had about him, the way he adored his family, how he took his responsibilities seriously. I loved the way we could make love, or have sex, or fuck like crazy people and I always felt safe afterward. I loved that somehow, in his arms I’d managed to find the peace that had eluded me for years.

  “I fucking love you, Cole Stuart. Now, take me to bed or lose me forever.”

  “Show me the way home, honey.”

  I laughed at his immediate recognition of the Top Gun quote, and pulled him out of the car and into the house. Lawren and Lennox were in the kitchen, but they both stopped talking at the sight of Cole and me and stared, their mouths hanging open.

  “Welcome back, Ruby,” Nox said, face morphing into a grin.

  “It’s about goddamn time,” Law added. “Maybe dumbass here will quit moping and listening to chick music.”

  “Thank you, gentlemen. Now, you might want to go out or grab your noise-canceling headphones, because your brother and I are about to wake up the neighbor’s dogs.”

  “Oh, lovely picture.” Law snorted.

  “But thanks for the warning!” One of them shouted as Cole pushed me out of the kitchen and into the hallway leading to the bedroom.

  He had our clothes off and me on my back in a matter of seconds, not wasting any time on foreplay this time, no complaints from me. I almost came when he pushed inside me in one thrust, digging my nails into his back as he rocked against me, his mouth hot on mine as he held our shifting bodies together.

  We finished together more quickly than usual. I wanted to cry from the perfect feeling of my legs wrapped around his waist, Cole still hard inside of me, our panted breath mingling in shared space. He moved a minute later, rolling onto his side so that we faced each other. He trailed a finger from my cheek down to my hip, the gentle brush breaking gooseflesh out on my skin.

  “I missed you, but I missed your body at least half as much.”

  “Trust me, the feeling is mutual,” I replied, giving him a playful squeeze. His response said we’d be going again before either of us fell asleep.

  “Voodoo,” he accused, glancing down at my hand wrapped around him.

  He tugged me closer, so that our bodies touched from chin to toe. His arms went around my waist and I let go and hugged his neck. We held each other for a long time in the quiet. I don’t know what he was thinking, but for once, my thoughts were silent as I reveled in the easy contentment of being with Cole.

  “I forgot to tell you something,” he whispered into my neck.

  Shivers spun down my spine and I pulled back far enough to look into his green eyes, growing darker with emotion by the second. “Oh?”

  “I fucking love you, too.”

  Epilogue

  Cole had been home in Elgin for three days before my flight landed. I’d had to finish up my run in Our Town, and his brother Gavin had asked for his help with a charity auction, so he’d returned earlier than originally planned.

  Three days represented the longest we’d gone without seeing each other since February, and even though I hadn’t liked it, there was something exciting about the anticipation I felt stepping off the plane. I was staying in Elgin for a week—classes had ended and I had eight days before Shakespeare in the Park rehearsals began in earnest.

  The sight of a driver holding a card with my name on it washed disappointment through me, even though Cole had said he might not be able to make it to the airport.

  “Let me take your bag, Miss.” The chauffer picked up my suitcase and led me outside, settling me in the backseat of the limo. “Mr. Stuart will be waiting for you on the family grounds.”

  “Thank you,” I replied, distracted by the gorgeous scenery as we pulled away from the private airport and away from town. It was quaint but not particularly small.

  The establishments gave way to lush countryside, filled with every shade of green in late May. Ruins dotted the landscape, reminding me this world was so very different from the one I’d grown up in. New Orleans, to be fair, was one of the oldest and best preserved cities in the United States, but here the difference between hundreds of years of history and a thousand rang clear.

  The car pulled onto a long, winding drive that ended at an honest-to-God castle. The grounds were beautiful; giant trees lined the drive and beds of thistles grew everywhere, still missing their purple buds, interspersed with yellow and red flowers I couldn’t identify.

  Cole waited by the front door with his parents and Audra. Nerves set in then, along with sorrow that I wouldn’t be able to give him a proper greeting. He lunged for the door, not waiting for the driver to come around, and his hands found mine.

  My head almost whacked the doorframe when he pulled me out and into his arms so fast. I stumbled against him, catching myself on his waist. The solid feel of him, his particular scent of mint and sugar, went straight to my head and I decided to say fuck propriety for not the first time.

  I pushed onto my toes and wrapped my arms around his neck, kissing him hard on the mouth. I expected him to break it off, to keep it chaste, but he lifted me against him and kissed me back, his tongue sweeping my lower lip while Audra let out a wolf whistle and we both broke into silly grins.

  “I missed you.”

  “I’m sorry I couldn’t make it to the airport. Business.”

  “You can make it up to me later,” I whispered, winking as he set me back on my feet.

  I peered around him and smiled at his parents, then stuck out my hand. “I guess we’ve never been properly introduced. I’m Ruby Cotton.”

&
nbsp; “It’s nice to meet you, darling.” His mother beamed, looking so like Audra that it didn’t seem possible she was her mother and not a sister. “We’ve been dying to get to know you better, and Audra’s thrilled you’re spending the week.”

  “It’s nice to meet you, Mr. and Mrs. Stuart.”

  “Callum and Hannah, please,” Cole’s dad corrected. “We have tea set up in the garden. Shall we?”

  The five of us spent the next two hours chatting under some impressively useful heat lamps, and I fell in love with their parents as easily as I’d fallen for both Cole and Audra, and their brothers. They were quick to laugh and give their children a hard time, and said over and over again how good it felt to see Cole so happy. I wanted to stay and talk more, but jetlag attacked me and my eyelids drooped, even though it was early afternoon.

  Cole squeezed my hand under the table. “Ruby’s exhausted, Mum. I’ll show her the room.”

  “I think Audra should take her, dear. You might end up keeping her awake,” his mother winked.

  I loved that her suggestive joke didn’t embarrass anyone at the table.

  Audra got up and led me inside, chattering about the castle—when it had been built, the history of their family, and little anecdotes about growing up there with four brothers. I’d have to ask her to repeat it all later, because as interesting as it was, I was too tired to retain any information.

  I fell into a gigantic, canopied bed covered with layers of crisp sheets and soft down, asleep in my clothes before Audra closed the door on her way out.

  ***

  Night had fallen on Elgin when I woke, restless from such a long nap and knowing I would regret it in the morning.

  A slip of paper on the pillow brushed my nose and I picked it up, smiling at Cole’s looping scrawl.

  The Scottish Royal requests the presence of his Voodoo Queen out by the lake. It’s about a ten minute walk straight south from the rear of the house. Come alone or perish (clothing optional).

  I snorted. Like I was wandering the grounds naked.

  The note planted a smile on my face that I couldn’t wipe away as I brushed the tangles from my hair and slipped a clean sundress and a sweater over my head. I did compromise on the clothing, leaving my underclothes in my suitcase, and slipped downstairs through the quiet house.

  It took me ten minutes to find the back door, and another two to figure out which way was south, but the adventure was well worth it the moment the lake—and Cole—came into view.

  He stood with his back to me, naked from the waist up and covered with a kilt from the waist down. The muscles bulging across his shoulders caught the light from the full moon as it spilled over him and winked off the lake. The scene could have been a postcard, if they made naughty postcards that made people want to visit Scotland in the hopes of laying an unbelievably gorgeous man in a kilt.

  My gaze lingered long enough that he felt it and turned, face lighting up. It never ceased to make me feel powerful, and beautiful, the way he loved seeing me.

  “You came.”

  “Of course. How could I resist a royal summons?” I teased, stepping into his embrace.

  His skin smelled like grass and moonlight, like musk and lake water, turning me on and spreading a feeling like home through my blood in the space of a breath. The weight that sprung up against my belly suggested I wasn’t the only one dripping with desire after three days apart, and also suggested I wasn’t the only one without underwear.

  “I didn’t want my sister to see me prancing around in this getup. She’d never let me live it down.”

  “Well, letting me see you prance around in that getup is probably a mistake, because I pretty much want to demand that you never wear anything else from now on.”

  “Let me show you the grounds.”

  He took my hand and led me around the lake. We crested a small hill and looked out over meadows that dipped and rolled as far as the eye could see. Grass rose to our waists as we trekked about halfway down the other side, and the moment we were hidden from view of everything but the moon, I tumbled us both into the grass.

  Our limbs and lips tangled as we fought to get comfortable on the soft ground. The scent of earth and desire filled my nose and I reached under his kilt, sliding my hand up and down the length of him while his eyelashes fluttered and his tongue took what he wanted from my mouth.

  We broke apart for air. “I could get into this kilt thing. Easy access.”

  “Why do you think Scotsmen still wear them?” He raised an eyebrow then attacked my neck, lips nibbling their way down to my collarbone before slipping the straps of my dress down to my elbows, then pushing it to my waist. Gooseflesh broke out, tightening my flesh.

  It felt strange, to be half naked outdoors, but thrilling and amazing, too. A gentle breeze fluttered through the grass, swishing blades against my back. He laid me down, his lips wandering lower until they found my breast. I arched into him, my fingers in his short hair, writhing in a desperate attempt to get closer to him.

  It had only been three days but it felt like forever. It wasn’t even totally about the sex, I’d realized while I’d missed him. It was being close to him. Looking into his eyes, feeling his hands on me, clinging to that tangible connection between us.

  He pushed my dress off the rest of the way, growling when he realized I’d forgone underwear, too, and spread my legs. When he slid inside me, his kilt covering my knees and his bare chest pressed against mine, I admitted I had missed the sex, too.

  We moved together lazily for a while, kissing and staring, smiling and toying with each other. I bit down gently on his earlobe, which I knew drove him wild, and then cried out when he rolled my nipple between his thumb and forefinger. He drove into me harder, rocking his hips as I threw my head back and tipped toward him, welcoming him deeper inside me.

  We got lost then, bodies sweating even in the May chill and shifting together, slick and thrusting, reveling in the moment, and the growing climax, and each other. He hooked one arm around my waist and lifted me off the ground, holding me so that he could bury himself while an orgasm ripped through me. It felt as though I would never stop; my body clenched around Cole and the world faded as it kept coming, the waves of pleasure so intense I wanted to scream and cry and laugh and never, ever, let go of this man.

  He came then, gasping my name into my neck as he rocked hard into me, thrusting until we were both spent. The weight of him on top of me, the still-throbbing length of him inside of me, and the night settling around us felt better than almost anything.

  I wanted to spend the rest of my life right here.

  A giggle escaped when my senses came back and Cole rose up on an elbow, sliding a few stray hairs off my forehead. “What’s so funny?”

  “I just had sex with a guy in a kilt on a hillside in Scotland.”

  “I wanted you to have an authentic experience.”

  “Oh, so this is how all girls are welcomed to the country?”

  His expression turned serious as he drank in my face, then pressed his lips against mine for too brief a moment. “No. There are no other girls as far as I’m concerned. When I look into the future, all I see is you, and us, and a million more moments like this.”

  And I knew we would have them. Everything would work out. Cole was my unicorn, and whatever the next couple of years brought, I would never take finding him for granted.

  If you enjoyed By Referral Only, please consider leaving a review! If you don’t feel comfortable leaving one of your own, even taking the time to “like” one that resonates with you is a huge help to the author, and we really appreciate it. Thank you for reading, and I hope you’ll read more from me in the future.

  Lyla Payne

  Acknowledgements

  This story could not have come to fruition without a ton of assistance. I’d like to thank my very first readers, Denise Grover Swank and Alessandra Thomas, who said it wasn’t terrible. To my insightful and smart-as-a-whip agent, Kathleen Rushall, for your
faith, encouragement, and magical notes that cut right to the heart of any issues. I can’t thank K.P. Simmon enough for all of her tireless work as my publicist, not to mention all the time you spend texting and calming my overwrought nerves.

  To my beta readers—Leigh Ann Kopans, Kari Olsen, and Jennifer Carolyn—your feedback was priceless.

  I have a fantastic copy editor for this project; Jim Thomsen, thank you so much for fixing all of my grammar and structure faux pas and for making me look as good as humanly possible. My proofreader, Cynthia Moyer, is the reason you’re not bombarded by extra space and missing words, and without her the reading experience would be less enjoyable.

  Last, I’d like to thank the writers who opened the doors to this new category of New Adult. You went first and blazed a trail that I’m thrilled and excited to be on. And as always, to the people who read my stories—especially you beautiful, beautiful bloggers—you’re the best part.

  About the Author

  I’ve long had a love of stories. A few years ago decided to put them down on the page, and even though I have a degree in film and television, novels were the creative outlet where I found a home. I’ve published Young Adult under a different name, but when I got the idea for Broken at Love (my first New Adult title), I couldn’t wait to try something new – and I’m hooked. In my spare time I watch a ton of tennis (no surprise, there), play a ton of tennis, and dedicate a good portion of brain power to dreaming up the next fictitious bad boy we’d all love to meet in real life.

  Contents

  Title page

  Praise for Broken at Love:

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10