Suddenly Love (10 page)

“Drinks on me, ladies.” Nick, clearly clueless about the underlying dynamics between Lissa and Trevor, was just happy to be included and headed off with Kate and Livvy.

“She’s going to make him work for it,” Lissa said, watching the trio until they disappeared into the crowd.

Trevor shrugged. “Seems to me he’s more than willing to do whatever he needs to in order to make her believe in him.” He met Lissa’s gaze, hoping she understood he was talking about himself as well.

“Lucky her.” Lissa shoved her hands into her oversized sweatshirt.

She’d worn her long hair pulled back into a ponytail, with very little makeup, and she looked, in a word, tired. As though she hadn’t been sleeping well, either, Trevor thought.

“Lissa—”

“Trevor, look, we’re bound to run into each other from time to time—which is weird since ten years passed and we managed to avoid each other—but that’s life. If you could do me a favor and stay away from Livvy, I’d appreciate it. She doesn’t need mixed messages in her life.”

“I couldn’t agree more.”

“Good. Thank you.”

“Don’t thank me just yet. I agree she doesn’t need mixed messages. But my message isn’t mixed. Not anymore.”

Lissa’s expression went from neutral bordering on stiff to clearly nervous. She looked around, noticing the people passing by, catching sight of them, some whispering, some pointing.

Serendipity was a small town, population approximately 2,500, and yet it seemed like everyone knew everyone else. In this case, the fact that Trevor and Lissa were breathing the same air was news. Just as he’d known it would be.

And clearly she was just now realizing it, too. “We can’t talk in front of all these people,” she said on a sharp whisper.

“Yes, we can. Because what I have to say can damn well be said in front of an audience.” He hadn’t planned things this way, but now he realized it was his one shot at making her believe in him.

In them.

“I screwed up.”

Her cheeks flushed pink. She folded her arms across her chest and raised an eyebrow, but she stood still. She was listening.

“I shouldn’t have walked away two weeks ago. I thought about you and me and the past… and I panicked.”

“And now you’re fine? Now you can handle the fact that the daughter I love more than life itself is also Brad Banks’s daughter? How does that work, exactly?” she asked, staring him down even as tears streamed down her face.

He reached out and took her hands. They were shaking.

“It works because I say it does. Because I lost you once for ten long years. And because instead of talking to you about my fears, I left you a second time—and I’ll be damned if I’m that stupid again.” Trevor’s entire life flashed in front of his eyes as he laid out his feelings for Lissa—and at this point, half of Serendipity—to hear.

She pulled one hand back and ran her sleeve over her damp eyes. “Damn it,” she muttered. “You as much as agreed you couldn’t look at my daughter and not see a constant reminder of what went wrong.” Her other hand shook inside his.

“I was an idiot. When I looked into that little girl’s eyes I saw you and only you.”

“Brad gets Livvy every other weekend,” Lissa said, her voice trembling. “And when he shows up, he comes to the door, I let him into the house, and he picks her up. We’re civil for our daughter’s sake.”

Trevor saw exactly where she was going with this. “I can do that, too. I’m just wondering if it can be done from Manhattan instead of from here. Of course, Serendipity is only an hour from the city, so if you insist on staying, I can also adjust to the commute.”

“I got a job with the
News Journal
,” Lissa said, addressing the only thing that seemed real to her at the moment. “They’re located in Manhattan.”

Trevor’s grin held both excitement and pride. “We’ll talk,” he assured her, obviously not making snap decisions for her.

She still wasn’t sure she could take it all in. She supposed that was due to the fact that she wasn’t sure she could hear correctly with all the noise. Her vision was blurred with tears, and she just hadn’t expected him here. As for his sudden turnaround… could a girl get that lucky?

“Sweetheart, I said I can be civil to your ex. As long as we don’t have to invite him for holiday dinners.” Trevor cocked an eyebrow.

Yet she still didn’t understand and until she did, she couldn’t accept. “You walked out on me in New York.” She addressed the thing that kept her up at night and threatened to choke her during the day.

He held her hands in front of him and squeezed her tight. “I’m sorry I let you go without a fight the first time. I’m sorry I didn’t step up and offer to marry you despite you being pregnant with his child. And I’m really sorry I walked out in New York. But I’m not going to lose you again.”

Lissa’s throat was full, her heart was pounding so hard she could hear it over the crowds, and she was still scared she’d wake up and discover this was all a dream. After all, the last ten years had been a lonely nightmare. “Trevor—”

“Wait. There’s one more thing I want to say before you speak, okay?”

She managed a nod, grateful for a few seconds to pull her thoughts together.

He reached into his pocket and then suddenly went down on one knee. “Elisabetta Gardelli, will you marry me? I’ll wait as long as you want, spend all the time in the world getting to know and love your beautiful daughter and proving myself to you, but in the meantime… will you wear this ring? And promise you’ll marry me eventually?” he asked with the most endearing grin on his handsome face.

But his expression was more serious than she’d ever seen it, and his hands weren’t steady as he knelt before her and the entire town of Serendipity, ring in hand.

And what a ring it was. Though blurred by her tears, Lissa knew that sucker was huge. But she didn’t care about the size or the shape or anything more than this man proclaiming his love for her and promising to love her and her daughter.

“Till death do us part, Lissa. What do you say?”

“Yes! Yes.” The words had barely passed her lips when he grabbed her and swung her around in his arms.

“You’ll never regret it, sweetheart. I’ll make you happy every damned day for the rest of my life.”

Lissa wiped her happy tears as he put her down long enough to slip the ring over her finger.

Suddenly she noticed her daughter standing beside Trevor, looking at him with wide, curious eyes. He bent so they were eye level. “What is it, pretty girl?” he asked.

Her look was a combination of wariness and childlike curiosity. “Now do I get to call you Trevor?” she asked.

Lissa grinned and nodded.

And the crowd around them erupted in applause that had nothing to do with the score of the game.

Lissa wasn’t sure she deserved such happiness, but she was definitely going to enjoy each and every minute. After all, it wasn’t every day a girl got a second chance with the only man she’d ever loved.

The Right Choice

Suddenly Love (formerly titled Kismet)

Perfect Partners

Unexpected Chances (formerly titled Midnight Angel)

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If you enjoy books on the steamier side, don’t miss my “Dare To Love” series. Read on for an excerpt of Dare to Submit…

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ONE

S
he submitted without the comfort he’d expect to see from a woman who’d been coming to this club for over six months. In the main room, members were in all states of dress, some naked, some in leather, all comfortable with themselves. She dropped gracefully to her knees, legs spread wide, palms up, and yet he sensed her discomfort from across the darkened room. The sound of pleasure, of sex, of pain echoed from the play areas nearby. To most, it was familiar, comforting. It should be the same for her, but her posture was too stiff, her entire demeanor, too wary. Possibly because she played with a different man each time. Searching for something. For what? Decklan Dare wondered, not that he understood why he cared. But she called to him. Had from the first.

So he watched her. Just as he watched for her arrival, uneasy when too much time passed between her visits. She didn’t show up more than once, sometimes twice a month. He wasn’t here much more often but tried to time his visits with what he knew of her past schedule. Ridiculous. She was just another female and not one he’d ever played with, at that. But she was soft and rounded in just the right places, curvy in a way that appealed to him when no one before had ever reached that deep.

He shook his head and told himself to move on. Find someone else. Someone who knew he had no expectations but for the night. But he no longer used the club for pleasure. He’d tired of it awhile back. He came to relax here with friends, that’s all.

His gaze fell back to
her
. She shifted her body uncomfortably and Decklan frowned. He’d always disliked protocol. He’d never expected it. Didn’t need it. He’d bet she didn’t either. She just needed a man she believed in, that was apparent.

Not him
. She looked too vulnerable for someone who took, gave the minimum, and walked away.

“Still fighting it?” his best friend, Max Savage, asked.

Decklan cocked an eyebrow. “Fighting what?” he asked although it was stupid to play dumb. Max knew him better than he knew himself.

“Yourself. Go play with her. Get it out of your system.” Max eased himself onto a barstool beside Decklan. “Better than watching her and wondering. Besides, you need to get laid.”

Decklan clenched his fist in his hand. His brother, Gabe, had told him the same thing. “You know as well as I do I can’t give her what she needs.”

Max barked out a laugh. “Like you’d even know what that is?”

“I can guess. Does she look like she’s found the right guy? She comes here and tries out different men. Obviously she’s not into exhibition, because she ends up in one of the private rooms for whatever her kink happens to be, he gets her off, and the next time, she’s on to the next guy.”

“Sounds perfect for someone who doesn’t do relationships,” Max said, gesturing to the bartender for his regular scotch on the rocks.

The club had a one-drink maximum. Alcohol and consensual play didn’t go well together. Decklan had already had his, ordered it the minute
she’d
walked in. One look at her curves, the full breasts, perfect indentation at her waist, and that luscious ass he’d like to squeeze, and only a drink would do.