Hard Bastard(139)

“Probably a little bit more, but not enough to stop us.”

I laughed. “Perfect.”

He smiled at me and hugged me close. “Listen, I have something for you. One more surprise.”

I blinked. “What is it?”

He took a step back and held my hands. “I want to say something first.”

“Okay. Sure.”

“I fucking hated our time apart.”

I couldn’t help but laugh. “Me too.”

“Really fucking hated it. Long distance is bullshit, and I don’t want to be apart from you ever again.”

I nodded sadly. “I have to go back to school in a few weeks you know.”

“I know.”

“And you really don’t want to live in South Bend, Indiana. Trust me. There’s nothing in the town around Notre Dame.”

“It’s not that bad, but you’re right. I don’t want to live there.”

“I don’t know what we can do, Lincoln.”

“I do.” He reached into his coat and pulled out a small box. My heart started hammering in my chest, my breath coming fast. “Go ahead. Take it.”

I reached out and took it from him. He smiled and I slowly unwrapped the ribbon and pulled open the lid. Inside was a piece of paper folded neatly into a tight square. I took it out and unfolded it, and realized that it was actually two pieces of paper.

I stared at what it said and couldn’t help but break out into happy laughter.

“You like it?” he asked.

“It’s everything a girl could ask for.”

They were one-way tickets for me and Lincoln to Chicago for the day I was leaving to go back to school. Chicago was only two hours away from Notre Dame.

“I’m going to move there, at least for as long as you’re in school. After that, who knows?”

I pulled him close. “You’re doing the driving,” I said.

He laughed. “Yeah, I figured. Two hours is fucking nothing.”

We held each other like that for a few minutes. I loved the feel of his strong chest, his deep breath, and his smell. Two hours really was nothing. I could spend weekends in the city, or he could come spend a day or two during the week with me. We were going to make it work. No more bullshit long distance. He could finally meet my friends, even though they were going to have to wrap their heads around the ex-stepbrother thing. He could see the campus and see where I lived and worked.

He could be an everyday part of my life. A flesh and blood part of it, not just pixels on a screen.

“I thought that was a ring for a second,” I said softly.

He pulled back and looked at me. “It will be one day. I fucking love you, you know that, right?”

“I love you too.”

I had loved him for a long, long time. He didn’t need to say it, but finally hearing the words in person did something to me. Something shifted, and suddenly my world permanently included one more person.

We kissed.

It wasn’t the last kiss or the first kiss, and I knew there were many more to come. But in that moment, it was the perfect kiss, because it meant that there would be a future.

A future with Lincoln Carter.

Nothing could be more exciting.





Smash: A Stepbrother MMA Romance





Chapter 1





Alexa





It all started with a mistake.

A big, stupid mistake, but I couldn’t help myself. Not when he grabbed me by the hips and steered me through the doorway, whispering, Come on, be my fake bride. I want to consummate this trip until you can’t stop screaming my name. I was powerless when it came to him, and he knew it. We barely knew each other, but I’d learned enough over the last few days to know that he got what he wanted. I didn’t even bother saying no anymore, because I knew that saying yes would feel so much better. He had deep blue eyes, a perpetual five o’clock shadow, tattoos all over his body, and muscles that just didn’t quit.

Frankly, he was the most attractive man I’d ever seen, let alone touched, and he definitely knew it. Cole was cocky, too cocky, but he had the swagger to back it up.

Come here, girl, he whispered in my ear. You’re going to be my bride of paradise. I’m going to sink my cock deep into that pretty little pussy of yours, right after we say these words.

We didn’t understand what was really happening. The staff didn’t either, but what did they care? They didn’t know what we really were to each other. We were just some stupid tourists, a little drunk on wine, a little drunk on each other. When we asked for the deluxe ceremony, they figured we understood what we were really getting.

They figured we really wanted to be married. Legally married, not just as some stupid joke.

We stood there in front of the priest as he spoke in Thai, a language neither of us knew. The air was thick and humid, even at night, and Cole held my hand the whole time, his eyes drilling holes in mine. We were in paradise, one of the best vacations of my life, even if my best friend had ditched me on the second day for some lawyer she’d just met. I wasn’t going to let it ruin my good time.