“This is going to be a thing, then?” The expected flood of panic never hit my chest. It simply felt nice to sit there with Luca and eat pasta.
“I’d like it to be, yes.” He nodded firmly.
I nodded, still expecting some sort of physical reaction to the simple changes Luca was proposing. “Okay. What’s that?” I indicated the box and a pang of anxiety kicked at my stomach.
“I thought maybe we could start a little slower. Instead of moving in together, maybe this is a better first step.” He picked up the box and held it out to me with a small, private smile. “I got this for you.”
My fingers shook as I took the box from him. The top opened easily without need to remove the bow. Inside I found a shiny brass-colored door key on a bright red, heart shaped key ring. “What's this?” I held it aloft with my fingers. The key glinted in the light.
“That's to my front door.”
For a minute, I'd been afraid he would say something super cheesy like
It's the key to my heart
. I was so relieved that his actual words didn't register right away. When it finally clicked and I realized what he was offering, I wasn’t sure how to react. Did he want a key to my place?
“You don’t have to give me one,” he said as if he read my thoughts. “You don’t even have to use this one. But I don’t want you to ever think you have to knock on my door again. You belong in my life, Mari. I want you to know the door is open when you’re ready to walk through it.”
I didn’t even try to stop the tears as I leaned over and hugged him. What was I so afraid of? Here was a man who really got me, who worked hard to understand my needs and then make them come true. He was willing to go as fast, or slow, as I needed. “Thank you. It's perfect.”
He looked relieved. “Thank God. I was scared you wouldn't want it.”
I wanted it. Boy, did I. And every bit of him. I was just too afraid of losing myself, of losing him, to be willing to take hold. Luca was giving me room to enter his world on my own terms, in my own time. It was exactly what I needed and somehow he knew that.
“Now, finish eating so we can sit on the couch and watch TV. I’ve heard that’s what people do.”
He winked. We’d joked about how normal people watch TV together, but he and I had always gotten distracted by sex about ten minutes in to the show. I wasn’t at all convinced that wouldn’t happen again tonight.
“I have a better idea.” I gathered my plate and drink and led Luca out to the living room. I could eat there while we snuggled on the sofa together.
He pulled me into his embrace and kissed the top of my head. “This is nice.”
This was so different than the other times Luca had been to my place. He typically stayed only long enough for me to gather my things and then lead me out the door for the weekend. This was infinitely better. It felt nice. And safe, somehow. I settled into his arms as he surfed through the channels searching for something we both agreed on.
But it didn’t matter what he chose. This moment, with Luca’s arms around me and his overnight bag at our feet, was the beginning of the next stage of our relationship. Despite all my resistance, he had found a way to gently navigate through my confusion and uncertainty until I could see the path. Every step we took brought us closer to our real life version of happily ever after, and I’d decided I was happy to take each one with him at my side.
THE END
Also Available from Braxton Cole
Blown
Veronica "Roni" Guard is an undercover cop trying to bust a drug ring. Unfortunately, she runs into her ex-boyfriend, Mateo Vargas, at an illegal street race in the California desert. He just happens to be a pretty big criminal himself. That's why they split originally. No matter how much chemistry they have between them, a cop and a gangster are not a good match. Roni Convinces Mateo to help her with her case, his reluctance derailed by the one thing that always worked between them--sex. Yes, he'll help her. But on one condition. In his world, she belongs to him, and him only.
Will Mateo's possessiveness unravel Roni's case? Or, worse, blow her cover? And if they get out of this alive, is there a future for them together?
Blown
is intended for adults only and contains mature adult themes, including graphic and explicit sex.
Birthday Wishes - The List: Book 1
Mari meets Luca on an adult website. She’s still smarting from a divorce and only looking to explore her desires. They create wish lists of their sexual fantasies and agree to work through them together. No strings, no attachments, nothing but pleasure, and Mari anticipates their first meeting with impatience. But through a miscommunication involving a private text message and Mari’s nosy brother, Luca ends up at her 30
birthday party, before their planned rendezvous. Much to her surprise, they seem to connect better than she expected, and in ways she hadn’t expected. He’s strong, commanding, but also gentle and respectful and he makes her ache in ways she never thought possible.
But when Luca later expresses a desire for something more than just casual sex, Mari’s impulse is to run the other way. After all, her failed marriage is evidence that she really shouldn’t go much deeper. Can Luca convince Mari otherwise? Can he help her see that he’s her ultimate birthday wish come true?
Birthday Wishes
is Book 1 in The List Series and contains mature adult themes, including graphic and explicit sex.
Coming Soon from Braxton Cole
Clover (September, 2013)
Clover Watson wants more from life than what she can find on her daddy's farm in southern Oregon. Young, smart, and driven, she has a plan and she refuses to be distracted from her goals. After four years at the University of Washington in Seattle, she heads home for the summer with her diploma and an acceptance letter to graduate school at Portland State. She's sure she’s got things all figured out.
Except for Jake Feldman. He was one of her childhood friends, and she hasn't seen him since he stopped visiting his aunt, Clover's neighbor, ten years ago. This summer he's back in town and all grown up -- sweet, handsome, and completely smitten with Clover.
At first, she thinks a harmless summer fling is the perfect reward for her hard work at school. But as the summer continues and their romance grows, Jake challenges everything she thought she knew about herself and her plans. When September comes, Clover is forced to evaluate what she really wants, but can she find a way to write Jake into her life?
Cover Me (November, 2013)
Teagan “Tea” McMillin worked hard to get where she is. She made it through everything college and FBI training threw at her and now she’s working her first undercover assignment in her old neighborhood pulling a bank heist. Too bad that’s also the day she runs into her high school boyfriend, Ethan Kelly. How can she explain, while working deep cover, that she’s actually one of the good guys and the gun she’s pointing in his face really isn’t the way she wanted to reintroduce herself to his life?
After all, Ethan is the one man she’s never fully gotten over. It’s been ten years since she’s seen him and she still compares every man she meets to the boy she said goodbye to when she left for college. Now he’s grown up, but really, really pissed off. Not that she blames him. After all, she put a gun in his face.
To make things worse, he’s also the bank’s branch manager,which makes him the one guy who can help her navigate a truly crappy day involving trigger-happy criminals, wailing hostages, a building layout she doesn’t understand, and a police captain unwilling to negotiate.
If they make it through the day alive, she’s totally going to tell Ethan how she really feels about him. Totally.
Tie a Ribbon on Top - The List: Book 3 (2014)
Mari finally agrees to move in with handsome, passionate Luca, after saying no to him so many times that any other man surely would have given up. Things seem to be working between them until a pregnancy test comes back positive. Luca is ready to head to Vegas and get married, but Mari is ready to run away. Can she commit like that again when the failure of her first marriage continues to haunt her memories and can Luca convince her that the past isn’t their ticket to the future?
Join Mari and Luca one more time as they continue to negotiate the ups and downs of a modern committed relationship. From their unconventional meeting via an online hook-up site to figuring out what they really want from each other beyond incredible and often imaginative sex, they’re learning what love and a future can mean.
Tie a Ribbon on Top
is Book 3 in The List Series and contains mature adult themes, including graphic and explicit sex.
Bio
Braxton Cole lives in the Pacific Northwest where she spends most of her time holed up in her office writing stories like Birthday Wishes. When she's not writing, she can be found riding her bike, hiking the fabulous local trails, chasing her kids, or wishing that her thumb was a little more green. She has a bad habit of killing what she tries to grow, but hasn't given up hopes of one day being a successful urban farmer.
To learn more about Braxton, visit her website online at
http://www.braxtoncole.com/
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Table of Contents
Also Available from Braxton Cole
Coming Soon from Braxton ColeClover (September, 2013)C