Husband Stay (Husband #2) (32 page)

He folded the
letter and put it away, then he tucked his hands into the pockets of his jeans
and leant back against my door. “I used to dream about marrying a woman like
you,” he said.

“An Indian—”

“No. Although that
doesn’t make any difference to me.” He seemed calm then, as if all the fight
had been taken out of him. I hoped that wasn’t a bad sign. “Someone sexy and
beautiful, soft, funny. Someone who made my heart light, just being around her.
Someone gentle and kind.”

I was flattered,
but those compliments meant nothing if they didn’t sway him.

“And years ago I
found someone.” He nodded to himself. “She was kind and pretty, a Brisbane
teacher who’d been sent out on a rural posting. We dated and then moved in
together and I thought I was in love.” He closed his eyes for a moment. “I had
no idea.” Then he opened them again to refocus on me. “And she left. As soon as
her posting was finished, she couldn’t wait to get back to
civilization
.”

“That would have
been upsetting,” I said calmly, but I was grappling with the fact that this
might be the sticking point. Not the talk of duty and his parents, but his own
personal demons.

“I thought my
heart was breaking back then.” He shook his head, a self-deprecating smile on
his beautiful lips. “But that was a piss in the pond compared to the tsunami
I’ve been through with you. In fact,” he said, getting wound up, “Disneyland
should invent a ride called the Angela Rollercoaster, but with a warning sign:
People
with weak hearts might die.
”

We stared at each
other a moment longer before he said, “Do you have any idea how hard it was to
let you walk out the day Izzy died, after having you in my arms all night?” He
shook his head again, as if he was appalled. “You make me feel like Superman,
and then you’re gone and it’s like an organ being wrenched out of my body. I
can’t keep doing it every time your career—”

“I’m not sorry,” I
said, and that stopped his tirade cold. “Because I’ve never felt more alive,
more despairing, more aroused, more satisfied and more longing in my whole
life.” I gave him a tremulous smile. “I feel like I’m finally living! I’m
feeling
real feelings, not being some pretend Angela that everyone wants me to be.
And now…”

I rested a hand
over my belly. “The most amazing thing in creation is happening to me. Something
I’ve waited my whole life for. I’m growing another human being inside my body.”
My eyes pricked with tears and I felt so much love in that moment, it swelled
up and threatened to burst through my skin. “Do you have any idea how real
that
is? Life doesn’t get any more…explicit.”

I laughed at my
own choice of words, and his expression softened.

“I love you Jack,”
I said. “I want you to be happy. And I know that sharing this amazing time, and
this amazing little person we’ve created… That would be the best gift I could
give you. A gift of love.”

“And if I turn you
away—”

“You’ll regret it
for the rest of your life.”

That
, I
knew for sure.

“I love you,” he
said, as if I could have forgotten.

“Enough to marry
me, despite what your parents might say?”

“I don’t care what
they say.”

“Then what do you
care about?” I shot back and he frowned.

“You. The baby.
Daisy. Charley. I want the four of you to be happy.”

“We can be.
Together,” I said softly, then I held my breath because something was happening
behind his eyes.

He stared at me a
moment longer, then he nodded. “I know.” He pulled his hands out of his pockets
and straightened, staring at me as if the connection was holding him together. “You’re
right. The rest is bullshit. The last thing Izzy said to me was
Love
. I
thought she meant the girls—love the girls. But now…” He shook his head. “Her
life was so short. She didn’t get enough time to love. But I do. I can.”

He looked to be on
the brink of something and it was so hard to stand still, to let it happen and
not rush into his arms.

“Why shouldn’t I
love you,” he said, “
and
love our child.
And
love Daisy and
Charley. And my parents.”

“Who don’t love
me.”

“But they will.”
He nodded, as if he was completely convinced. “And if, for some reason they
don’t, it won’t matter. They’ve retired to Surfers Paradise. They only came
home to be with Izzy and the girls at the end.” He nodded to himself a few
times. “We won’t be living with them.”

I put a hand over
my heart, willing it to stay inside my chest. “Where will we be living?”

“Together, with
the girls.” He took two steps forward and I went straight into his arms. When
his lips slid over mine, I sighed.

Home
.

For a long time,
that’s all he did, just kiss me—slowly, deliberately, as if he’d been planning
this kiss and was taking his time about it. And every delicious flick of his
tongue—that tasted like salted honey—ticked that metronome of excitement higher
and higher.

And I melted. By
the time I lifted my head, my eyelids were heavy and my knees felt weak. I
licked my lips and said, “Did I mention that pregnant women have rampant
libidos?” I’d been giving serious fantasy time to taste testing, and I was
reasonable sure Jack wouldn’t mind my experimental efforts.

His smile was slow
to come, but when it did, it lit my world. “I’m going to ring Sara and ask her
to keep the girls there for the afternoon. I’m not rushing this. I’ve been
fantasizing about making you come for far too long. I’ve missed every one of
those sighs and moans, and I want to revisit them, so you’re going to have to
indulge me.”

I nodded
helplessly.
If that’s what you want
“Then you’ll stay?”

“Oh yeah.” He
swung me up into his arms. “We’re on forever time now.”

T H E   E N D

Now that you’ve read HUSBAND
 
STAY
 
you are eligible to enter a
competition to win a $25 Amazon Giftcard. Click on the link
HERE
 
and
 
answer a simple
question from the book to go into the draw. The prize will be selected at
random by Rafflecopter on 1st May, 2016. Good luck!

If you
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.

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updates on Louise Cusack’s novels:

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In the months
since the release of book 1 of the
Husband Series,
HUSBAND SIT, I’ve
been thrilled that readers have fallen in love with my girls and have not only
loved Jill’s story, they’ve been looking forward to seeing Angela, Louella and
Fritha each find their own sexily-ever after! To all those readers who
pre-ordered this book, or took the time to leave reviews on Amazon and
Goodreads, and to share their love of the series on social media, my biggest
and best Thank You!

The team who help
me hone the books are awesome as well. Beta readers Dolly Singh Miranda,
Rebecca Woodward, Simone Miners and Lynn Brooks have shared their expertise in
the romance genre, and my editor Nas Dean has knocked off any rough edges.

Whenever I struck
a blah writing day, my Facebook ladies at The Husband Sitters Club inspired me
with some very sexy pics of hunky heroes. You guys are the best!

The Romance
Writers of Australia members are endlessly supportive, and my own family are
tolerant beyond all reason. The Man gets special mention for all the little
things that make a relationship soar.

I’m a lucky
writer. What can I say…

Louise Cusack
lives in Australia, in a tiny fishing village on the southern tip of the Great
Barrier Reef. She's a long-time vegetarian and caffeine addict with an
obsession for finding the tiniest shred of romance in any story (and wallowing
in it) alongside an unholy addiction to any franchise that begins with the word
Star (Wars/Trek/Gate - you get the idea). There's something about a man in
uniform...in space.

Her own novels are
about curious women who get themselves into unlikely situations—whether that's
an everyday woman from our world falling through a portal into a sepia kingdom,
an amorous mermaid who gets herself stranded on dry land, or more recently, a
perfectly ordinary house-sitter who finds herself husband sitting instead!

Louise doesn't
care what genre she writes in so long as the characters are endearingly real,
the heroes are scorching hot and the sex is good!

Book 1
:
HUSBAND
SIT

Paid by wives
to sleep with their husbands. Love is not in the contract...

Jill Wilson is
fresh out of a ten-year relationship so boring she slept through half of it.
Thirty-something, no children, no house, blah. The glamorous potential she and
her three best friends shared as starry-eyed schoolgirls feels very far away,
until an unlikely job appears—Husband Sitting—being paid by rich wives to keep
their cheating husbands ‘happy’ at home while they skip off on vacation.

Not the sort of
job a nice girl would do, but the ten grand a week paycheck is exactly what
Jill needs
to stop her little sister ending up in a Bangkok jail. And
maybe, just maybe, the sex sounds exciting too. Unfortunately, there’s one
complication: gorgeous Finn with his sexy green eyes and his gigantor…you know.

Love was definitely
not in the contract, so in desperation to wipe Finn from her memory banks, Jill
embarks on a bed-hopping frenzy. After all,
the best way to get over one man
is to sleep with another.
But will Finn let her go? And as her emotional
baggage arrives with an over-weight tag, can she believe in the fairytale of
imperfect people ending up perfect together?

Crazy meets
desperate in this erotic romp that nails the highs and licks the lows of one
woman’s struggle to reach sexily-ever-after with the man of her dreams.

Author's note:
Due to strong language and sexual content, this full length, standalone novel
is not intended for readers under the age of 18.

Available
for purchase here:
Amazon
Kindle

Book 3: HUSBAND
HEEL

An ex trophy
wife with a score to settle. Domination is the best revenge.

Rose Bay
socialite Louella Parkes has done everything expected of her for fifteen years—the
perfect hostess and the perfect wife with the perfect life. But in the wake of
her husband’s shock announcement and her subsequent divorce, all bets are off.
The future is wide open and suddenly Louella knows exactly what she wants—the
control she relinquished for status all those years ago.

She embarks on a
secret dominatrix lifestyle that she hides from her girlfriends, because her
companion on this journey into debauchery is the last person they’d expect.
From Bentleys to bondage, Louella discovers what really turns her on, until
things go too far and she’s forced to decide between love and ultimate control.

Fearless
exploration equals breathtaking sex in this voyage of discovery that will
shock, delight, and have you questioning – what is control?

RELEASING: 15 June, 2016