Keep My Heart (Top Shelf Romance Book 7)
Page 71
“I know I’ve asked you to marry me many times, but—”
“Three,” I say, almost absently. I’m so involved with examining this new space I just stepped into. “You’ve asked me to marry you three times.”
“Yeah.” He grimace–grins. “Thanks for the reminder. I don’t want to pressure you. You know that. I understand your hesitation. After finding out what you went through with Caleb, of course I get it.”
I watch him, my face serene, but my heart setting a breakneck pace.
“It’s like this,” he says. “My mom tells this story about my dad. How she’d watch him play, and he would hold the ball for the last shot. She’d scream ‘take the shot,’ but he’d watch the clock, holding the ball ’til the last possible second. Then at just the right moment, he’d take the shot. He had perfect timing.”
August cups my face, his eyes intense and tender.
“That’s what I want. I want to read the clock and know when the time is right for us. I don’t want to keep asking you. It’s . . .”
Hard? Disappointing? Embarrassing?
Who knows which word he’d use? He’s never shown me any of those things when he asked before and I wasn’t ready, but maybe he hid them. Maybe he felt them.
I slide off my stool and step into the V of his powerful thighs, setting my arms against his chest and linking my hands behind his neck.
“August, I love you,” I say, twining my fingers in his hair.
“I know that.” He closes his eyes, surrendering to my hands. “I love you, too. More than anything. More than everything.”
He said he’d play me at the five, at the very center, and he’s lived up to that promise every day that we’ve been together.
“I trust you with my life, with my future.” Emotion scalds my throat, so I pause to steady my voice. “With my daughter.”
He slowly opens his eyes to watch me. “I know that, too.”
“And I want to wake up with you every morning.”
“Youuuuuuu . . . do?” He settles his hands at my hips, splayed across my bottom, and narrows his eyes on my face, assessing.
“Yeah, but . . .” I search for the right thing to say—to let him know I’m ready. “I want the pancakes. Okay? I want the pancakes, August.”
“Babe, I’ll make you pancakes. Any time you want.”
“You’re not hearing me. What I’m saying is . . .the kids! You know, bursting into our room every morning? Your kids, August. I want to have your children. Our children.”
He frowns and blinks at me like I might have been body-snatched and replaced by some amenable stranger.
“That makes me . . . happy.” He looks more uncertain than happy, though cautiously ecstatic might be accurate, too. “But what do you mean? Are you saying . . .”
He watches my face with the same focus his father probably watched that game clock counting down. I’ve had reservations and fears based on the past, based on my mistakes, and on bad calls I made. But August is no mistake. He’s not a bad call, and all that he wants, I’m ready to offer. All that he has, I’m ready to receive. One step forward will take me into the future, and I’m ready.
“What I’m saying is this, August.” I tip up on my toes and smile against his ear. “Take the shot.”
Loving this collection by Top Shelf Romance?
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Kiss Me Slow
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Need You Now
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Promise Me Forever (Free with Kindle Unlimited)
Featuring: Kate Stewart, A. Zavarelli, Kennedy Ryan & BB Reid
Make Me Yours
Featuring: Devney Perry, Amo Jones, Chelle Bliss & K. Bromberg
Don’t Break This Kiss
Featuring: Jessica Hawkins, Kylie Scott, Marni Mann & Carrie Ann Ryan
Never Let Go (Free with Kindle Unlimited)
Featuring: Tijan, Kandi Steiner, Alessandra Torre & Ella James
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Thank you for taking this journey with Iris and August. It is at times a difficult one, but also hopeful. Most of all, it’s uniquely theirs. I know the temptation is to tell ourselves this is fiction, and it doesn’t happen this way in real life. Maybe I believed that, too, until I interviewed woman after woman whose stories sounded so much like this one. As a matter of fact, their stories, in many ways are this one. I didn’t write this book until I’d interviewed survivors, and their experiences, their triumphs, their spirit have insinuated themselves into Iris’s journey. If at times this felt real it’s because so many of the things Iris experienced, I heard from women who survived the same challenges.
My deepest appreciation to the survivors, the social workers and the women’s shelter staff who answered my questions and helped me understand.
If you need help, call the
National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1−800−799−7233.
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ALL THE KING’S MEN DUET
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My Soul to Keep (Soul 1)
Down to My Soul (Soul 2)
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GRIP (Grip #1)
STILL (Grip #2)
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When You Are Mine (Bennett 1)
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Be Mine Forever (Bennett 3)
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Acknowledgments
I’m grateful to so many, but I MUST start with Paula and Natalie. The two of you became the face and spirit of survival for me. Hearing your stories inspired and empowered me to write this book. Your hearts are on every page, and you were with me every step of Iris’s journey.
You are #ChangeYourCourse!!
My tribe is wide and deep. I’m sure I’m overlooking many, but the ones I can think of right now in my release daze are Dylan (#Bestie), Nana, Emma (#TeamHeavy), Kate, Stephanie (#PaperBag), Adriana (#GripzQueen), Ginger, Corinne, Leigh (cover BOSS!), Mandi, Chele (#MyHeart), Imani (My MEGAPHONE), Brittany, Margie (#DayOne), Melissa, Sara. To my beta boos - Jx PinkLady, Terilyn, Shelley & Christy. Thank you for reading this book before it was its best and helping me to get it there. Melissa, my PA, for putting up with my idiosyncrasies and list of ever-growing demands. Jenn and the Social Butterfly team. I know I’m extra, but you never make me feel weird for 3am PMs or last-minute ideas. Love you for that. Special thanks to Lucy Score and Kathryn Nolan for reading super early and giving me such incredible, insightful, constructive feedback. You really helped me navigate this touchy terrain so well, and I’ll never forget it. Thanks to Lauren for your AH-MAZING editing superpowers, and to Tricia for the eagle eye-ness and all the squeals in the margins. :-)
Thank you to the readers in Kennedy Ryan Books! You guys are my favorite place online, and I stalk YOU!!! Thank you for all the unwavering support and love you give me.
To every person who has messaged me, emailed me, tagged me on an Instagram or Twitter post over the last year shouting about my books, thank you. Sometimes I feel like the things I write are an acquired taste. Every book feels like a new set of risks. You are my people. You “get” me and keep taking these rides with me off the beaten book path.
I love you for that.
Last, but certainly, not least.
To MY baller.
My husband, who shared with me his love for the game. Who answered all my basketball questions patiently and so enthusiastically, I had to shut you up. LOL! Who puts up with my screeching and hair-pulling when Golden State is losing. And my histrionics when my Tar Heels win.
You’re my best friend,
and I’d “play you at the five.”
About the Author
A RITA® Award Winner and USA Today Bestseller, Kennedy Ryan writes for women from all walks of life, empowering them and placing them firmly at the center of each story and in charge of their own destinies. Her heroes respect, cherish and lose their minds for the women who capture their hearts.
Kennedy and her writings have been featured in Chicken Soup for the Soul, USA Today, Entertainment Weekly, Glamour and many others. She has always leveraged her journalism background to write for charity and non-profit organizations, but has a special passion for raising Autism awareness.The co-founder of LIFT 4 Autism, an annual charitable book auction, she has appeared on Headline News, Montel Williams, NPR and other media outlets as an advocate for ASD families. She is a wife to her lifetime lover and mother to an extraordinary son.
Travis & Viola Duet
By Kennedy Fox
This is War Blurb
Travis King is the worst kind of a**hole.
He taunts me for being a good girl and mocks my high standards.
He’s cruel, crass, and has enough confidence to last two lifetimes.
And I hate him.
It wouldn’t matter so much if he were avoidable.
But considering he’s my older brother’s best friend and roommate, I see him more than I’d ever want to.
His sculpted abs and gorgeous eyes are wasted on such an arrogant man, which makes me hate him even more.
Even though I’ve had a crush on him since I was ten, the feelings weren’t mutual and he’s made that very clear.
He’s always loved getting under my skin and one night against my better judgment, I let him in my bed.
I’ve succumbed to his manwhore ways, but that doesn’t change a thing.
Because the King is about to get played at his own game—and lose.
Checkmate.
Prologue
Viola
Once upon a time, a young princess lived in a faraway land, awaiting a prince who would give her everything she ever dreamed of… love, passion, loyalty. He’d be the sweetest, kindest, and most heartwarming gentleman a girl could ever ask for. And he’d be perfect.
…Excuse me while I vomit.
There is absolutely, positively no way that a man like that exists on this earth. I used to think he was, but of course, I was proven wrong. I was young and naïve and didn’t know any better.
And he was Travis King.
I remember how clear the sky was as I sat on my rooftop outside of my bedroom window. Summer was fading away, and the start of my seventh-grade year was right around the corner. The stars were super bright, and as I counted them, I heard Travis’s father screaming from the house across from mine. He did that a lot, and occasionally, I’d see Travis through the window of his bedroom. He’d put on his headphones to tune out the yelling. But that night, he didn’t go to his bedroom. He ran out of his front door, slamming it behind him, and began pacing in his front yard. I swallowed, watching him intently as his hands balled into fists at his sides.
When the Kings moved across the street from us, Travis and my older brother, Drew, instantly became best friends. They were both going into their first year of high school, and I was sad I wouldn’t be at the same school as them anymore. Well, mostly about Travis. Drew had made it very clear he didn’t like his little sister tagging along, but Travis never made me feel like a nuisance.
As I watched him kick the dirt on the sidewalk, he looked up at me. His lips were turned down, and I could see the anger in his eyes. My breath stilled as he watched me watch him, and I was certain he’d tell my brother I’d been spying on him.
Instead, he walked across the street, climbed up the trellis, and sat down next to me. He stayed silent for a long while, but then he finally turned and spoke.
“I hate my dad sometimes.”
“Why does he get so mad?” I asked.
He looked away and rested his arms over his bent knees. “He drinks. Sometimes too much.”
“Does he hurt you?” He didn’t look at me. “Or your mother?”
He winced, then shifted his body. “No. Just yells.”
We sat in silence, both lying on our backs as we looked up at the sky above us, the stars so bright and big.
“You can sit up here anytime, you know? My parents won’t mind.”
“Drew would,” he said matter-of-factly. “He’d call me a pansy.” He chuckled.
“Drew calls everyone that.”
He laughed again.
I turned my head and looked at him. “I don’t think you’re a pansy.”
Travis tilted his head and looked into my eyes, and everything went serious. I watched his throat move as he swallowed hard. He licked his lips and moved in close. Feeling his breath against my skin made me so nervous, I instinctively turned my head to look back up at the stars.
“Are you excited about going into high school?” I spit out, trying to change the subject. I could’ve sworn Travis was about to kiss me. It would’ve been my first kiss.
Moments passed, and he finally responded. “Yeah, I guess. It’ll be nice getting back into basketball season and staying late for practices and games.”
I knew what he was implying without saying the words. Less time at home.
“Why do you think she puts up with it?” Curiosity got the best of me, and I could no longer keep it in. “Can’t she leave him?” I asked.
He shrugged. I supposed it wasn’t that simple for adults, but to me, it just sounded like common sense. Why would anyone want to be with someone who treated them like crap?
That wasn’t the last time Travis snuck up on the rooftop and sat with me under the stars.
We shared details with each other that we hadn’t shared with anyone else before. It was our secret little spot where we could talk or just sit and stare up at the sky.
It was easy.
He wasn’t my brother’s best friend.
I wasn’t his best friend’s little sister.
And the lines between us weren’t blurred.
I was only twelve years old, so I truly believed Prince Charming existed. As I grew older, I came to realize he never really did. Because if he did, he most certainly wouldn’t be available. And he most definitely wouldn’t be interested in a girl like me. I’m not saying that because I want anyone to tell me otherwise, but if such a man existed, he’d have no chance with me anyway. Because for some only-God-knows-why reason, my heart only beats for one man. My pulse only increases when he walks into the room. My cheeks flush and my body hums when he looks at me. I feel the blood in my veins as my skin heats from his very existence. He’s the epitome of perfection.