Randy said, turning to me with a sheepish look in his eye that was all too familiar. “How you doing?” His arm was still around Penelope. I wanted to rip it off. Not just off her shoulders, but off his body. I wanted to rip him to shreds for daring to come into my house and...
She rushed to the bed and threw her arms around me, tears streaming down her cheeks just as they were mine. We hugged for a long time. I hadn’t seen Kelly in almost five months. She was in Dubai when Nicolas came and dragged me back to Los Angeles. It was so nice to see a ...
I hadn’t gone into that meeting planning on doing it, but as soon as he’d explained the Catherine-Shantelle coincidence I hadn’t been able to help myself. The relief had been too great. The instant I’d looked into his eyes I’d known I’d been an idiot to ever doubt him. Then seeing the bruises on ...
my father said, the words swirling around in my head as the air was sucked out of the room. “In fact, you had a restraining order issued against him that expired just a day before the accident.” I stared at his familiar features, trying to make sense of what he was saying....
I’d stopped at home to change, feeling like a fool in the suit that I’d been wearing all day. And then I found myself sitting out in front of Sam’s condo, watching her shadow move over the windows, trying to get up the courage to do something I’d been dragging my feet on for much too long. ...
I should tell Stacy the truth, that the man who tried to kill me was the same man who’d killed Davis. But I had no proof, and I didn’t want to tell her anything until I had all the information in hand. What if we were wrong? What if it was some sort of weird coincidence? I...
I lied. I lay in a hospital bed, my belly itching like I had poison ivy, an IV in my arm, and a plate of half-eaten meatloaf on a rollaway tray beside me. The nurse peeked her head in through the door and shook her head. “You have to eat the whole t...
Seventeen was within sight of Brianna’s condo, but far enough away that both ladies would have a sense of privacy. Killian was standing on the corner, watching, when I came running out. He intercepted me and led the way, his gun drawn discreetly. The windows were covered s...
All manners of naked people, for example, thought it was perfectly acceptable to open the door and wedge their bodies around it, greeting me like it was the most normal thing in the world. Chief among these offenders were couples who thought they could beat the delivery time having sex. I wasn’t ...
on a private jet. Nicolas sat on the opposite side of the aisle from me, talking into his smartphone most of the flight. Like in the car, I stared out the window most of the time. It was funny…my first time on a plane and I was too depressed to enjoy it. When we landed, Ni...
We sat side by side on the couch portion of the seating inside of the plane, the same place where he’d propositioned me on the flight over. At that point, I hadn’t had any idea just how drastically life was about to change for me. I’d been attracted to Devon then, sure, but I couldn’t have known ...
I wasn’t completely free of restraint because they replaced it with a removable boot to continue to support the section of the tibia that was broken the worst and continued to resist healing. My physical therapist said that I would be free of the boot in a few weeks if I kept working as hard as I...
I remembered that now. I left him, told everyone it was because of his lies about Margaret, about their short-lived marriage when they were seventeen. As if something like that would convince me to walk away from the love of my life. I was angry all right. But not enough to do more than yell and ...
My mom slid her arm through mine. We were sitting on a low swing on the back porch of the house I grew up in. It was a warm afternoon, the winter haze finally blowing off and bringing back the humidity and heat that made Houston’s weather famous around the world. Alexa was on a blanket on the low...
Five months ago, I was just a kindergarten teacher, finishing up the spring semester at a small private school in a suburb of Los Angeles. And then everything imploded. My mother got cancer and that led to a desperate need to get money and that led to me volunteering to be a surrogate for the act...
Miles took me there and grabbed a set of keys off a pegboard near the door, walking me past a vintage Rolls Royce, a couple of big, black SUVs, and a BMW not unlike the one he owned back in Texas to a classic 1965 Mustang. I almost giggled as I took a seat on its white, faux-leather seats, thinki...
I was leaving here. I didn’t need any of this drama, not with the drama that had plagued my life up until this point. How much rancor was I going to have to put up with until everyone just left me alone?I parked where I could see the water and stared out at the boats drifting in and out of the ha...
Whatever I was on was soft, and it smelled rich, good—like a new car. I opened my eyes, blinking slowly, fully expecting the morning’s light to blind me like a spotlight illuminating my life’s mistakes, but the room was dim, a golden light from across the space reducing ev...
“Would you like to say something?” Devon asked me, but I couldn’t turn to him, couldn’t look at him. I was mesmerized by the dust blending into the sand. “It’s all right,” he said after I didn’t answer him. “We don’t really need words, do we? The waves say whatever we need...
And Kate seemed to be in her element. She strutted right into that room, a smile glued to her lips and greetings flying as she moved from person to person. I felt like a puppy on a leash being dragged across the floor without any idea of what the hell was going on around m...
Vivienne took to the breast like a champ. Even though she was still so tiny—barely five pounds—and she still had to wear an oxygen cannula most of the time and there was a monitor that alarmed if she stopped breathing while she was sleeping—she was allowed to come home a month after she was born....
Dante insisted. “Home. And he didn’t make any calls, except a couple of calls to his wife’s cell that went unanswered.” “Do I want to know how you know that?” He looked a little sheepish, but he didn’t answer, didn’t even acknowledge the question. &...
I ached in several places and the feeling was not unpleasant. I reached for my cell and checked the time. It was not yet six in the morning. Stifling a yawn, I sighed. Why would I be up so early? That was when I remembered. I remembered Nicolas and the night we’d shared. I felt heat fill my body ...
Rose couldn’t fathom the magnitude of what she was hearing, and yet it resonated the deep sense of dread that had been forming in the pit of her stomach. “Permanently?” Taylor’s hand felt warm and strong as he laced his fingers with hers, holding her firmly. ...
I moaned, as I tugged at the bodice of the dress my sister was trying to zip up. “It’s not too tight. It’s just a little snug.” I groaned, as I stared at myself in the mirror. Jason was supposed to be here in ten minutes to pick me up for some fancy...
And then he came toward me, a smile of such pleasure on his lips that I couldn’t help but stare. “Hey, babe,” he said so softly that it was almost like a physical caress. “How’re you doing?” I stared at him, taking in the dark hair, the five o’clock...
I rolled over and Xander was gone. I could hear the water in the shower running and the slight buzz of a cellphone vibrating. It took me a minute to realize the cellphone was in the pocket of my sweats. I leaned over the bed and grabbed them, freeing the cellphone just before the call would have ...