The Love Series Complete Box Set (156 page)

“You okay over there?” I slide next to Evan on the couch as we cozy up for the final half hour of the New Year’s Eve special that’s on television. His leg has been bouncing around like crazy; it’s almost as if we’re on a plane instead of in our living room.

“Yeah, I’m okay. Sorry about that.” He looks down at my hand on his knee and smiles at me lamely.

I lean my head on his shoulder and inhale his clean scent. “What are you looking forward to most in the new year?” It sounds like a dorky question, but since we had our final follow up appointment with Dr. Foster today and I’m officially in the clear, I’m all about looking to the future.

The bouncing stops as he contemplates my question. He pulls me into his side and kisses the top of my head. “I think I’m most excited about spending it with you. Even, right now, just being here, curled up on the couch watching the ball drop − this is what I’ve been looking forward to my whole life.”

“Being with you is definitely on my list of things to look forward to.” I poke him in the ribs, as he laughs at my silliness. We’ve been less active since my surgery six weeks ago. The doctor said there was no reason not to have sex, but between the lingering soreness of my breast and our persistent worrying, we haven’t really been up to the challenge. But having gotten the best news in the world today does wonders for both of our sex drives.

He scoops me up in his arms and drops me on his lap. “Why wait for the new year?” His words take on a sexy tone suddenly. The raspy throatiness of his words washes across my skin. Only Evan has the power to arouse me with a simple question.

He pulls my face into his, crashing his lips into mine. His tongue sweeps against the seam of my lips and I open to him immediately. Our tongues thrash together, stoking the flames of our instantaneous desire. His hands slide under my top and unclasp my bra. In a heated rush, he removes both of them and tosses them on the floor. With the softest touch, he skims just his fingertips over my breasts before holding them in his hands. There’s a newfound reverence to his touch as if he’s actually worshipping my body. As he leans his head to kiss my small scar, I entwine my fingers into his silver-streaked hair.

As he licks and kisses my nipples, he stands and carries us over to the floor in front of the fireplace − back to the place where it all began.

Wordlessly, we relieve each other of the rest of our clothing, warmed only by the flickering flames behind us. With his mouth still firmly sealed over mine, he lowers us to the floor where his kisses rain down all over my body, bringing my desire to life like a warm spring shower rejuvenates everything it touches.

As he toys with the hardened tips of my breasts, sparks of lust zing across my body—they all settle in between my legs. I feel his cock pulsing against my stomach and I know he’s holding back on his own pleasure just to bring me my own first.

His tongue trails down my body, dipping into my belly button, before going lower still. His finger trace through my sex before plunging deep inside. “You’re always so wet for me, love.” He works me like a magician does his favorite trick. Hitting the perfect spot at the perfect time, the motion of his thumb is flawlessly in sync with the swirling of his fingers inside.

“Evan!” I bellow his name and I drive my body down onto his hand, needing to feel more of him. That’s just what he gives me. His mouth replaces his thumb and he draws the tightly wound bundle of nerves in between his lips. The rapid lashing of his tongue against my clit drives me wild—it tightens my nipples and makes my inner walls clench with the need to come like I’ve never felt before.

When he looks up at me, his mouth still tightly latched over my pulsating clit, I lose it. Desire tightens everything in my body, from my toes all the way up to my teeth as they clamp down on my lip. “I’m coming, Evan. God, I’m coming.”

As my orgasm barrels through me, he quickly settles in between my legs and buries himself into my still-fluttering sex. “I needed to be inside of you. I needed to feel you pull me deep into you − to be right here with you.” He pushes over and over again as he lowers to his elbows, resting them on either side of my head.

“I need you, too.”

Our eyes never break away from one another, and even though we speak no words, we communicate a lifetime’s worth of love in that passionate gaze. Our kiss, while so familiar, is brand new at the same time. His thrusts, driving deeper and harder by the second, never allow the waves of my orgasm to recede. As one crashes into the next, he slides his arms under my shoulders and holds me to his chest. My legs wrap around his hips and then climb higher still, allowing him to bury himself deeper and deeper still.

“Lucy!” he calls out, spilling his orgasm into me, his hips still thrusting rhythmically.

Afterward, we lie in front of the fire, a blanket draped over us as he’s spooned up behind me, gently stroking my hair. From the other side of the room, we hear the faint cheers of the crowd on the television as they count down to one.

“Happy New Year, love,” he whispers in my ear as the crowd on TV erupts into a loud roar of celebration. After pressing a soft kiss to the shell of my ear, I roll over to face him. Just as I snuggle into his warm chest, he reaches behind his head to grab something.

He places a small, red velvet ring box in between us and my heart beats a wild tempo in my chest. “Oh, my God.” My excitement rises as we both move, now sitting Indian-style facing one another.

He takes my hand in his as a sincere, yet lopsided and sexy grin pulls at the corners of his mouth. “Lucy, I love you, and there’s nothing in the world that would make me happier than being with you for the rest of our lives.” He picks up the small box and cracks it open before presenting it to me in the palm of his hand. “I’ve had this picked out for a long time now and I’ve wanted to ask you so many times, but you deserved to have me ask you today when you knew for certain that you had the rest of your life to give to me.”

Tears of happiness − no, scratch that − of complete and utter contentment fall from my eyes as he pulls the beautiful ring out of the box. Before fitting it on my finger, he stares up into my eyes. “Lucy, be my wife, please. Will you marry me?”

“Yes, yes, yes,” I repeat as he slides the ring on my finger. I wrap my arms around his neck with enough might to strangle him if I really wanted to. Holding my hand out behind us, I stare in awe at the ring he picked out for me. He must mistake my silence for dissatisfaction, because as he pulls away from me, he makes the most ridiculous offer I’ve ever heard of.

“If you don’t like it, we can exchange it. I brought the girls with me . . .”

I use my lips to silence him. “You silly man you. Exchange it? Never in a million years. And that you thought enough to include Melanie
and
Maddy, means more to me than you’ll ever know. I just . . . I’m so in love with you − I just don’t know what to say.”

“There’s nothing to say, love. You already said the only word I needed to hear. All we have to do now is
just
be.
”

And that’s exactly what we’ll do. We’ll spend our days being in love with each other, until we run out of love; something, I think is safe to say will never happen.

The End

Acknowledgements

When I started this series, I created Momma with the perfect “mother” image in mind − kind, caring, loving, understanding. Her story wasn’t initially clear in my head. I knew she had lost her husband and I knew she deserved love. I just didn’t know the in between stuff. Lucy (not Momma) started to come to life as I was writing Let Love Heal. She became more than a mom and I started to get really excited about her story. It was truly just some random strokes upon the keyboard that brought Lucy and Evan together − a momentary and fleeting decision that really brought this book to life.

Perhaps that’s the most amazing thing about writing: you never know what the story is until it writes itself.

And then, there’s Evan—oh, Lord. Where do I begin with Evan? He is perhaps the most true-to-life character I’ve ever written. I lost my uncle, Lt. David Halderman, on 9/11 and my father, also a Battalion Chief in the FDNY, spent the months following 9/11 sorting through the rubble at Ground Zero looking for his younger brother. Like Evan, my father also had to retire early because of the lung damage he sustained. For these and so many other reasons, Evan will always hold a very special place in my heart.

I have super amazing beta readers who help me so much. Pam Schaeffer, Jennifer Diaz, Jennifer Short—Benson, Michelle Stratton, S. Moose, Emily Minton and Kristy Bruno − thank you all so much for your feedback and for loving my characters as much as I do. An extra special thank you goes out to Nasha Lama and Ashely Griffieth for some of the most beautiful teasers I’ve ever seen.

Carey Heywood − I love your friggin’ face, wife! You are seriously my savior and often my voice of reason.

Michele Molitor − I wish there were words bigger than “I love you” to let you know how much you mean in my life. Thank you for writing the dedication line for this book and for just being you. I know you will always carry his heart with yours and I know you will always speak to him in the quiet hours of the sunrise.

Let Love Be would be a very rough version of the one you’ve just read without the wonderful talent of Becky Johnson and her team at Hot Tree Editing. Thank you for taking my words and cleaning them up. I promise you, I am not a Cyborg (though, that sounds an awful lot like what a Cyborg who doesn’t want to be revealed as a Cyborg would say). Hmmmm?

Toski and Sommer − I love you girls hard! This cover is, simply put, utterly gorgeous. Thank you for bringing Lucy and Evan to life.

Tami with Integrity Formatting − thank you for taking this very plain and simple Word document and making it so unbelievably pretty.

There are just too many bloggers to list, but please know that every time you share something of mine, post a review, or just recommend me to a reader, I fall in love with you a little bit more. Thank you also to my street team. You are so much more than a group of fans. In the months that we’ve had the group, you’ve all become my friends and for that, I’m hugely grateful.

To my husband − I cried so many tears writing Lucy’s story because, in short, it made me have to envision how I would feel if you were no longer a part of my life. I love you with everything that I have and I always will.

Let Love Live Table of Contents

Master Table of Contents

Let Love In

Let Love Stay

Let Love Heal

Let Love Shine

Let Love Be

Let Love Live

Prologue ~ Dylan

Part One ~ Before

Chapter 1 ~ Dylan

Chapter 2 ~ Shane

Chapter 3 ~ Dylan

Chapter 4 ~ Shane

Chapter 5 ~ Dylan

Chapter 6 ~ Shane

Chapter 7 ~ Dylan

Chapter 8 ~ Shane

Chapter 9 ~ Dylan

Chapter 10 ~ Shane

Chapter 11 ~ Dylan

Chapter 12 ~ Shane

Chapter 13 ~ Dylan

Part Two ~ After

Chapter 14 ~ Dylan

Chapter 15 ~ Conner

Chapter 16 ~ Dylan

Chapter 17 ~ Conner

Chapter 18 ~ Dylan

Chapter 19 ~ Conner

Chapter 20 ~ Dylan

Chapter 21 ~ Conner

Chapter 22 ~ Dylan

Chapter 23 ~ Conner