by Low, JA
“How do you feel about that?” I can see the war that’s plaguing her mind is not a good one.
“She was family.” Her hand twists in mine. “But when she pointed that gun at me, there was no hesitation. I could tell she would have pulled the trigger.” Hearing the trauma she’s gone through is killing me. “I’m just finding it hard to rectify the two personalities as the same one.”
“Walker’s surgery went well.” This perks her up, which is hard to witness, but I know she loves me, and he did save her.
“Hey…” She places a finger under my chin. “I love you.” She gives me a smile. “It was you I was thinking about through it all. It was you I wanted to come home to. You have nothing to worry about with Walker.”
“I know, baby. I’m sorry. I… just…”
She shakes her head. “Walker has made our lives hell. I get it.”
“I want to hate him, but I can’t. I can’t find it in me anymore to hate him because he saved you. He saved the love of my life.”
“Kiss me,” Chloe demands.
You don’t have to ask me twice. It feels like heaven tasting her after so long. She hums against my lips. God, I’ve missed her so much. Standing beside her, I stroke her hair. “I love you, Chlo.”
“I love you, too.” She smiles up at me. “I want that white picket fence, Noah. In the suburbs. With a dog named Frank.”
“Really, Miss Jones?”
She nods her head, enthusiastically. “I want you, Noah Stone. Forever and ever.”
“You’re wish is my command, Chloe Jones.”
39
Chloe
It’s been months since that fateful day, and slowly over time and a hell of a lot of therapy, the nightmares are not as bad as they once were. PTSD is what the counselor tells me I have. And it’s understandable after the traumatic experience I’ve been through. But having the world’s greatest man right by my side, I know I can get through anything with his support.
Life gets put into perspective when you see it flash before your eyes, and you’re moments away from the outcome being the end. As Noah said, life’s too short to hold onto grudges, especially when Walker saved my life.
I know, what a turn-around, right?
At first, it was hard going back to my normal life, especially with the nightmares. One particular night I reached out to Walker in a moment of desperation, and he too was having the same nightmare. I told Noah that I’d been in touch with Walker. At first, I could see me reaching out to Walker had really hurt Noah, and I totally understand why. My therapist thought it would be a good idea if the three of us did a session together. It took a lot of convincing on my part to get the two of them in a room, but once Noah heard our stories of that day, he understood that he couldn’t give me what Walker could. So, from that day, things changed between the three of us. It’s been a long road to recovery, but we’re all thriving.
Walker has had to grow up a lot since the incident. His football career ended because of the bullet wound in his thigh and stomach. He got a new job as a sports newscaster as well as a high school football coach in upstate New York. I know, small world. But I can’t begrudge him the chance to start over because he’s changed. Matured. Realized he isn’t the god he always thought he was.
After the incident, he spent a long time in the hospital and then in physiotherapy. He lost all his ride or die friends. His whole life was gone in an instant. It’s hard to kick a man when he’s hit rock bottom. But it was the custody case over Bear that really brought Walker fully into our lives.
Tracey’s mom filed for full custody of Bear while Walker was in the hospital. She advised that Walker was not the biological father of Tracey’s baby. I know, insane right? Even from the grave, Tracey seems to be able to fuck with everyone’s life.
Walker spiraled when the DNA results came back, and it showed that he was indeed not Bear’s father. EJ even flew out to LA to stand beside him during the case because he had no one else on his side.
Walker was a dick, but he loved that little boy, and to have your child taken away from you is the lowest of blows.
Tracey was a monster.
I don’t know what happened to the girl I used to know.
Did her hunger for fame and fortune finally corrupt her?
Did I really make her life miserable, or was she always this evil?
So, after the case, we kind of adopted Walker into our menagerie of a group. Believe me, we’re all surprised at the turn of events. None, more so than me.
Once we convinced Walker to leave the West Coast and move back to the East Coast where his family is, Noah suggested that maybe Walker and I should have separate counseling over our relationship because saving my life really doesn’t null and void the vile stuff he did to me.
I’m glad Noah pushed me to go because, in all honesty, it was cathartic. We both realized how unsuited we were for each other, that I hadn’t really dealt with the death of my family, and he hadn’t dealt with the fact his father was a womanizing athlete who treated his mom like shit, and that he had turned out just like him.
Both of us truly moved on after the experience.
They may never be best friends, but Noah has welcomed Walker into our little circle. I think the season tickets helped break the ice between them. I know it’s strange to be happy about what Tracey did to us because it was so traumatizing, but the aftermath of it all has turned into such a blessing. I can’t deny that I don’t think I would be at peace like I am now if it hadn’t have happened.
I have so much to be thankful for—life’s looking pretty damn sweet.
* * *
One Year Later
I don’t want to get up, but we are hosting Christmas Eve in our new home in Greenwich, Connecticut. I love our place out here, it’s so perfect. We’ve just finished the renovations and brought the sprawling estate into the twenty-first century but still kept all the original features, thanks to Ariana’s amazing work. And the best thing is, it has a white picket fence.
I feel hot breath on my face—utterly unsavory breath at that.
“Clean your teeth, Noah,” I mumble, pushing him away, but my fingers sink into fur instead.
Instantly I’m awake, turning to look at what’s woken me, and I’m greeted by a little chocolate Labrador with a bright red bow. He gives me a bark as he realizes he has my attention.
Oh my God, he’s the cutest thing. Picking him up and squishing him against me, he tries to bite my fingers with his sharp puppy teeth. I don’t care if they are like razor blades against my skin, I totally love it.
“His name is Frank.” Noah walks into our bedroom, announcing happily.
“You.” Looking over at Noah, tears fall down my cheeks.
Noah gives me a huge smile. “Did you check his bow?” he asks.
Shaking my head, I undo the bright red bow and a large diamond ring falls onto the bed, and when I look up, Noah’s on one knee.
“From the moment I met you, on your honeymoon…” he gives me a smirk, “… you had my heart, Miss Jones. I tried to fight it, but I couldn’t. The pull between us was too much.”
I can’t stop the tears, but the puppy licks them away.
“Then there was the day my world stopped. The day I thought I had lost the love of my life. I made a promise to the person upstairs that if I got you back, I would love you with all my heart, forever.”
Far out, I love this man.
“So, I’m making good on that deal with the man upstairs today. Chloe Jones, will you be my forever?”
“Yes. Yes. Yes.”
THE END
About the Author
JA Low lives in outback Australia. When she's not writing steamy scenes and admiring hot cowboys, she's tending to her husband and two sons, and dreaming up the next epic romance.
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The Dirty Texas Box Set
Five full length novels and Five Novellas included in the set.
One band. Five dirty talking rock stars and the women that bring them to their knees.
This collection includes:
Suddenly Dirty
He was everything she wasn’t looking for.
She was everything he wasn’t ready for.
A workplace romance with your celebrity hall pass.
Suddenly Together
She was everything he always wanted.
He was everything she could never have.
A best friend to lover’s romance with the one man who’s off limits.
Suddenly Bound
He was everything she could never have.
She was everything he couldn’t possess.
An opposites attract romance with family loyalty tested to its limits.
Suddenly Trouble
She was everything he wasn’t allowed to have.
He was everything she couldn’t have.
A brother’s best friend romance with a twist.
Suddenly Broken
He was everything she wasn’t looking for.
She was everything he wasn’t ready for.
A friend’s with benefits romance that takes a wild ride.
One little taste can’t hurt; can it?
If you like your rock stars dirty talking, alpha's with hearts of gold this series is for you.
The Dirty Texas Box Set
Love in Colour
I will not kill my boss.
I will not kill my boss.
I will not kill my boss.
This is the mantra I tell myself every day.
Because I know I won’t survive jail and orange clashes with my strawberry blonde hair.
It’s just for the summer, Emily, it will fly by.
Lie. Time has stopped. He is probably controlling it to torture me.
You are working in the South of France.
At least there is wine and cheese.
He is the artist of our generation.
Before he became a washed up has-been whose ego is bruised, and now he’s self-destructing with wine and women.
He’s hot.
Okay, well I have nothing.
The man looks like Michelangelo carved him with his bare hands. And that French accent, those soft lips, and that giant um…never mind. It’s still connected to him and no amount of magnificence can take away that it’s connected to the biggest jerk in history.
So, I tell myself again. I will not kill my boss.
Love in Colour
Bratva Jewels Series
Sapphire
An unconventional love is tested to its limits.
Mateo is used to being in the spotlight, he craves it in everything he does . . . except when it comes to his love life - that is firmly in the closet.
Tomas shuns the spotlight, the one he was born into, he wants nothing to do with it or his high-flying family who now reject him for his choices in love.
But Tomas' and Mateo's carefully constructed lives are turned inside out when they discover a beautiful, battered woman on their doorstep. The woman with the sapphire eyes has no memory of who she is or how she got there. She doesn't know about the Bratva Jewels - the Russian mafia's most desired escorts - or how her story intersects with theirs. Can Tomas and Mateo help her remember before the men who are after her find her first?
Sapphire - Book 1
Bratva Jewels Series
Diamond
Round 2 with the Devil begins.
Grace thought she had left the nightmare of the Bratva Jewels behind her. Her days spent as one of the Russian Mafia's most desired escorts were some of the darkest of her life, but she was safe now. Or so she thought.
When Russian mobster Dmitri seeks revenge, he gets it, and Grace knows she must call on every ounce of inner strength she has to withstand what he has in store for her. What she didn't expect was to meet someone like Maxim . . .
Maxim is one of the Bratva's most skilled, and most feared, assassins. But his relationship to the Bratva is a complicated one. And when he meets Grace, suddenly everything becomes clear.
Diamond - Book 2
Fate’s Plan
Lilly Simpson’s life hasn't turned out the way she planned, especially her fiancé. She's on the first plane out of Africa and back home to a family she's missed the last couple of years.
But what she wasn't expecting when she arrived home was a hot, naked, Italian man in her living room, instead of her sister.
Guess I should stop staring at his …
Luca Fiorenzo has lived by his family's rules all his life. Until the person he was supposed to spend forever with betrays him. So to hell with the rules.
But what he wasn't expecting when he booked a cottage in the middle of nowhere Scotland was a cute, awkward brunette, who just wouldn't stop looking at his ....
Guess I should put my pants on then.
Fate’s Plan - Novella
