Total pages in book: 77
Estimated words: 77551 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 388(@200wpm)___ 310(@250wpm)___ 259(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 77551 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 388(@200wpm)___ 310(@250wpm)___ 259(@300wpm)
“Get a bloody room,” Emily says dryly.
I break the kiss. “I think we have one.”
Emily brushes past. “Don’t let me keep you then.”
“Don’t go, Em,” Sienna says. “We have to decide which of these dresses we’re wearing so Evangeline can get the seamstress to alter them by tonight.”
“Whichever you want is fine with me. Ta.” Emily leaves.
Sienna lets out a huff. “Oh, well. I may as well decide. Any one of them will look lovely on her perfect figure.”
She’s not wrong. Emily has a gorgeous body. But it pales in comparison to Sienna’s.
Everything pales in comparison to Sienna.
I kiss her again, this time more deeply with a lot of tongue. She tastes of strawberries and champagne, the perfect combination of sweet and intoxicating. We kiss for a few minutes until I pull away.
She raises her eyebrows.
“Come with me,” I tell her. “I want to show you something.”
“What?”
“It’s a surprise.” Not a surprise so much as a real proposal out by the jasmine flowers in the front yard.
I’m going to drop to one knee and tell her how much she means to me. I don’t have a ring yet, but I’m going to promise her a giant diamond that’s nearly as beautiful as she is.
“All right,” she says. “Just let me put something on.” She slides the robe from her shoulders and smiles. “Or maybe I can tempt you to stay here.”
I groan. “God, you’re beautiful.” I reach forward and tweak a hard nipple. “But this is important.”
“All right,” she relents. “Give me a sec.”
A moment later she emerges from the bedroom in a denim miniskirt and a turquoise halter top, her feet in silver flip-flops.
I take her hand and lead her down the two stairwells to the main floor. Just as we walk toward the front door—
“River!” Emily’s voice is a gasp.
“I’m back, Emily, and I’m glad to see you.” Riv’s voice.
He’s back.
“Who’s this?” Emily asks.
Sienna and I turn the corner where the door is in eyeshot.
And I freeze.
My heart stops.
Am I dead?
I must be.
Because the man standing next to River can only be one person.
And he’s dead.
Dead for twenty fucking years.
I gulp. “Riv?”
River comes forward, looks me in the eye. “I told you that you’d both love me and hate me for what I was going to do.”
I look at the stranger—at his unruly blond hair, his sculpted jaw, his piercing blue eyes, and the ghost of a smile that’s all too familiar.
Impossible.
Inconceivable.
The man who I loved so long ago.
The love I never felt again...until now.
Sienna touches my cheek. “Brett. Is everything okay?”
The world spins around me.
“Hi, Brett.”
The voice is deeper, raspier, but I know it.
I know it.
“Jake.” The word leaves my throat in a whisper.
“Yeah, buddy,” he says. “It’s me.”