"Here. With you." His lips moved to her ear, sending electric sparks all over her body. "Anywhere with you. Doing whatever you need to be doing."
She snuggled into the crook of his shoulder, letting his hands and mouth and body wake her in the best of all possible ways. "I wanted to be president to change the world," she murmured. "I chose to be a divorce lawyer to help good people fix unfortunate situations. But there's so much more I can do if I quit hiding. I have a gift that could guide ordinary people toward extraordinary love. And I have you. So I think it's my duty to see how I can use all of my talents to be my own kind of superstar." She didn't want to be a kept woman, but she also wasn't too stubborn to overlook the possibilities that came with the kind of life Will had as Billy Brenton. She'd made a difference on a small scale in the last decade. With him beside her, she could make a difference on a bigger scale.
"Also gotta quit hiding those smiles under here." Will's thumb brushed her hip over her smiley face tattoo.
"Good call. I should get rid of those. Just toss them all out."
He flipped her onto her back, pinning her to the bed. "Don't you dare, pretty lady." The hard length of him settled between her thighs, and she wrapped her legs around his hips.
He tilted his mouth to hers. "You do that, I'm gonna have to rethink this plan I have where I marry you and strip you out of those smileys every night."
Her breath caught, and her eyes went misty.
She hadn't thought she would ever get married. A husband, kids, a dog-she'd thought she'd be happy without them.
But now, she couldn't imagine anything, ever, being better than making a life with the one man who understood her inside and out. "I love you, Will Truitt," she whispered.
His lips found hers, and he kissed her-long, slow and deeply-and then brushed her hair away from her cheek. "I love you too, my beautiful snow angel. What say we make some new memories?"
She said yes. Just as she always would from now on to her sweet, perfect country man.
Not Quite a Year Later …
"YOU EVER HEAR of anybody else crashing a baby shower?" Mikey said to Will while they peered into a ballroom overflowing with women from Bliss. Christmas lights twinkled from the walls, and pink-and-blue wrapped presents spilled out in a massive pile that made the twelve-foot tree in the corner look too small.
"Ah, Mikey, I remember a time when this many women would've been your heaven," Will said. "Or you nervous because you haven't performed in public in too long?"
Mikey snorted. "I don't get nervous. And there wasn't ever a time I would've walked into a baby shower to get phone numbers."
"Got an old BillyVision episode that says otherwise."
CJ strolled over, glanced in the room, and then slapped Mikey on the back. "Go easy on him, Billy. Fatherhood is scary as shit the first time."
"You got a four-year-old the first time," Mikey shot back. He pointed into the room. "You tellin' me you ain't gonna pass out the first time you watch Nat try to push a-a-"
"Watermelon," Will supplied.
"-Watermelon out her-out her-"
"Vagina," CJ said.
"Jesus. I need some ice cream."
A distinct laugh drew Will's attention to the ballroom. Lindsey had taken a seat between a very pregnant Natalie and an equally pregnant Dahlia, her own belly still at the cute stage, not yet ready to pop. On Nat's other side, Kimmie was talking and gesturing over her own baby bump.
Ah, Kimmie. That'd been fun, watching her fall in love. Came with one of Lindsey's finest moments, in Will's opinion.
He smiled while Lindsey's laughter grew stronger, Nat and Dahlia joining in, and Kimmie added her own unique giggle-snort.
"Hush," Nat said to Kimmie. "You're gonna make me have to pee."
"Get in line," Dahlia said.
"There's enough stalls for all of us," Kimmie said, "but first we'd have to stand up again."
More laughter rolled through the room. Lindsey caught sight of him, and her smile went wider, her eyes softer, all of her prettier. He blew her a kiss, and dang if the pretty lady didn't go pink in the cheeks.
Got him right in the heart. She always had. Always would.
"We've gotta go now," Will said to the guys, "or they'll be taking turns going to the bathroom from now until this shindig's over. Ready, Mikey?"
Mikey swiped a hand over the sweat on his bald head. "Yeah. I'm ready."
"CJ?" Will said.
CJ lifted his instrument. "Got my cowbell. Would have my kazoo too, but Noah hid it."
Will grabbed Yvette. The old Yamaha would never be Vera, but Lindsey had insisted the guitar needed a name. And she'd been right.
Just like she'd been right that all of Bliss would turn out for a quadruple baby shower, with all the gifts being donated to local women's shelters. That lady was something else. Hadn't taken her but two months to figure out the best way to organize a nonprofit legal assistance fund for families in crisis, and barely another two weeks to put her plans in motion.
Will had offered the capital to get it going, but Lindsey insisted all she wanted was a little of his time and connections. He'd played a benefit concert for her in Chicago with some of his best and biggest buddies in the country music industry, and she'd even gotten onstage to thank everyone for coming out without tossing her cookies.
Already, her organization had funded legal fees to help two women secure divorces from abusive husbands, and helped a paycheck-to-paycheck family adopt an orphaned nephew who'd been on the verge of going into foster care.
That one had hit home. Could've been Will when he was a kid.
Lindsey had always been special, and now the world was getting a glimpse of everything that she was capable of. Without the fear, she was learning what she was capable of. She'd nudged four couples together in the last month without their hardly realizing what was going on too. But the best part, in Will's opinion, was that she was happy.
And he'd never been happier himself.
"Gentlemen," Will said, "let's go crash a baby shower."
And that's exactly what they did.
- THE END -
For news on the next Misfit Brides books (including Kimmie's book!),
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The Misfit Brides Series
Blissed (CJ & Natalie)
Matched (Will & Lindsey)
Smittened (Mikey & Dahlia)
Sugared (Kimmie & Josh, release date to be announced)
The Officers' Ex-Wives Club Series
Southern Fried Blues (Jackson & Anna Grace)
Moonshine & Magnolias (Zack & Shelby)
~ ~ ~
Mikey and Dahlia's story is available now!
From Smittened (Misfit Brides #3) …
DAHLIA MALLARD had lost her ever-loving mind. But desperate times, desperate measures, blah blah, all that. She'd already sold plasma twice this week, and while she had gotten a bid on the eBay auction for Great Aunt Agnes's vintage Christmas Story Leg Lamp, she was running out of things to sell.
Selling herself might very well be next, and by the looks of him, Mikey would be willing to pay.
He looked much more harmless in Billy's weekly BillyVision YouTube videos than he did in person. Less wolfish. More all-talk, less follow-through.
She twisted her doorknob and suppressed a shudder. This would've been easier if Billy were here too. Aside from the part where he'd struck her mute when she'd run into him and Mikey earlier simply by being Billy Brenton, he was so approachable. Plus, he sort of had connections here in Bliss, indirectly, and Dahlia had heard he was "good people."
And since she'd totally choked during her chance to ask Billy for one teensy little favor when she met him, Mikey needing a place to stay tonight truly was serendipitous.
Serendipitous.
Right.
Sheesh.
Mikey wasn't serendipitous. He was a giant vibrating mass of pheromones, oozing masculine power and control as though he converted oxygen into testosterone instead of carbon dioxide.
And he accomplished all that simply by breathing. Ducks only knew where her clothes would end up if he spent much time brandishing that deep Southern drawl for anything beyond asking where she kept the toilet paper.
… Excerpt from SMITTENED by Jamie Farrell ©2015
Buy Smittened
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~ ~ ~
Like Southern gentlemen and military heroes? Meet Jackson Davis, hero of SOUTHERN FRIED BLUES (Officers' Ex-Wives Club #1) …
Anna braced herself, scooted into the car, and cranked the engine. Steam flowed out of the air vents. She tilted them away while the AC system caught up. After buckling in, she gave her rearview mirrors a quick check. The gearshift seared her palm, but she gritted her teeth and put the car in reverse anyway.
Something tickled her finger. She absently scratched it and gave the car a little gas. Something else tickled the back of her hand.