Picking Up the Pieces (43 page)

The following is an excerpt from
Perfectly Ever After
, a novella about Adam's wedding.

Chapter 1:
“Talk Dirty” (Jason Derulo)

I didn't use
to have a favorite time of day. Never gave it enough thought to pick. But as I registered the smooth arm that was spread across my bare abdomen, the gentle rise and fall of the beautiful body that curled into mine, I chose. Mornings were by far my favorite, as long as I was waking up next to Carly.

I tried to move so that I could see her more clearly, but my movement caused her to stir slightly, so I froze. She shifted closer to me, nuzzling herself into the crook of my arm. It amazed me how we fit together perfectly, like our bodies had been designed to lie beside each other in exactly this way.

I relaxed, deciding not to move so that she could sleep. I didn't get to wake up next to her often. Having a teenage daughter, I hadn't wanted to send the wrong message to Eva by moving in with a woman I wasn't married to. It was one thing for Eva to
think
Carly and I were having sex. But it was another thing entirely to confirm her suspicions by having Carly sleep over. By only spending the night together when Eva wasn't around, I hoped to maintain plausible deniability. And Carly understood. But in a week, I'd be spending every night with her because then Carly would become completely mine. She'd be Mrs. Adam Carter, and I vowed there in that bed that I would spend the rest of my life treasuring mornings with Carly.

My mom was having a girls' weekend with Eva so that Carly and I could finish
some last minute wedding stuff and enjoy our respective bachelor/bachelorette parties without having to worry about anything else. I couldn't wait to see what Frank had in store for me. Or maybe I could.

A hand skating down my stomach and disappearing below my comforter interrupted my thoughts. And as a slender finger leisurely trailed up my hardening cock, all thought left me completely.

"I didn't know you were awake." My voice was raspy with sleep and desire.

Carly pushed herself up and grinned into my neck. "I was."
She wrapped her hand around my shaft and began to stroke, slowly at first, but quickly picked up speed as she squeezed me tighter.

A moan escaped my lips.
This solidifies it: mornings are
definitely
my favorite.

She draped her leg over mine, and began to rub her moist heat against my thigh. "Just think," she whispered, "one more week and then we get to wake up this way every day."

I didn't tell her that just waking up next to her was enough for me. If she was willing to offer this erotic wake-up call daily, then far be it for me to dissuade her. "God, you make me so hard."

"And you make me wet. So wet, I think I may need to start carrying an extra thong in my purse," she said breathlessly. "Do you want to feel how much you turn me on, Adam?"

I growled as I fluidly rolled my body so that I was on top of her. "You bet your sexy ass I do." I took her mouth firmly, running my tongue along the seam between her lips before she opened up and let my tongue delve inside. But I didn't stay there long. I had more pressing business farther south. I trailed kisses down her neck, and then turned my attention to her perfectly round tits. "We're sleeping naked for the rest of our lives," I mumbled. "I like having complete access to you." I sucked a hardened nipple into my mouth, causing her back to bow off the bed.

She buried her hand in my hair. "Jesus Christ, you make my whole body feel like a live wire. Every time your lips are on my skin, I buzz everywhere.
It's so good, baby." She moaned the words, causing pre-cum to leak from my tip.

I began working my way lower, licking, nipping, and sucking my way down her flat stomach, over her hip bones, and finally arriving at my destination. I pushed a finger into her, and was rewarded with Carly's mewling. I added a second finger and began working her toward release.

"I need your tongue, Adam. Please." Her grip on my hair tightened, and the entire scene was such a fucking turn-on, I almost came on the spot.

As my fingers kept moving inside her, I leaned forward, darting my tongue out to make brief contact with her clit.

"Oh shit. Do that again."

I smiled at how demanding she was. It was so sexy to be with a woman who knew exactly what she wanted. And who wasn't afraid to ask for it.

"You want it again? You want me to lick your pussy?"

"You bet your sexy ass I do," she said, returning the same words I'd just said to her.

My eyes darted up to her face and saw the seductive smile she wore. "Open your eyes, Carly. I want you to watch what I do to you."

She opened them immediately, the blue orbs locking on me.
She looked at me with so much love and primal need, my body instantly heated even more.

Keeping my eyes on her, I nuzzled between her legs, using my tongue to slip between her swollen folds before making contact with her clit again. But I didn't pull away this time. My tongue ravaged her, loving the taste of her sweet wetness in my mouth. Nothing tasted better than an aroused Carly. Nothing.

"Fuck, Adam, I'm so close."

NOT SO FRIENDLY WARNING

We hoped you enjoyed the story of Lily, Adam, and Max. Though we would greatly appreciate any reviews you'd like to post, we ask that—so that everyone else can have an enjoyable reading experience—you please refrain from posting spoilers on Amazon or social media sites. We don't want to have to hunt any of you down and inflict bodily harm.

Love,

Elizabeth and Hayley

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

Elizabeth Hayley is actually "Elizabeth" and "Hayley," two friends who love reading romance novels to obsessive levels. This mutual love prompted them to put their English degrees to good use by penning their own. The product is 
Pieces of Perfect
, their debut novel. They learned a ton about one another through the process, like how they clearly share a brain and have a persistent need to text each other constantly (much to their husbands' chagrin). They are currently writing the sequel to
Pieces of Perfect
, which is expected to be released in the spring/summer of 2014
.
"Elizabeth" lives with her husband, one and a half year old daughter, and nutjob of a dog. “Hayley” lives with her husband and their own crazy dog. They are hoping to adopt a newborn soon.

Elizabeth Hayley's writing motto is best captured by the words of Patrick Dennis: "I always start with a clean piece of paper and a dirty mind." 

Visit our fan page at
Fans of Elizabeth Hayley
and friend us on Facebook on our
Elizabeth Hayley author page
to interact with us directly.
We’d love to hear from you! You can also find us on
Goodreads
, visit our
blog
at authorelizabethhayley.blogspot.com, and follow us on Twitter
@piecesperfect.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Our Husbands: Different book, same story. We're not sure how you both put up with us, but you somehow manage to. And we love you immensely for it.

Bloggers: So many of you have been instrumental in getting our names out there that there are simply too many to name. But we love each of you beyond words.  Thanks for all your pimping, for putting up with us and our ridiculous requests, and for just being 100% awesome 100% of the time.

Donna Sabino:
 Thank you for spending an entire day creating our cover because we have no sense of imagination and creativity and kept telling you to change things.  It’s exactly what we wanted, even though we didn’t know we wanted it.

Alison Bliss:
 What can we say?  If it weren’t for you, people would be throwing their kindles at the wall right now because our ending would have been a disaster.  Thank you for always pulling us out of the hole we continuously dig ourselves, for giving us phenomenal suggestions, and for always believing that we are great writers (even when we’re not).  Love you!

Amanda: New York, baby!
 You've been part of our journey from the beginning, and it means so much to us that you're always in our corner. You're our first fan, and also one of our greatest friends. Love you, Petal.

Lauren Bearzatto:
 Words can’t express the gratitude we have for your editing skills. How an Australian can write American English better than we can will remain a mystery. But it’s absolutely true! Without you, our manuscript would have looked like we texted it to each other.  

Beta Readers: We can’t thank you enough for reading so quickly, and for providing such honest feedback.
 You helped us see flaws in our writing we wouldn’t have otherwise seen. We'd like to especially thank Stephanie, Allison, Becky, Sim, and Lauren for going above and beyond the call for us. It means everything.

Friends we've made on social media: Holy Cow, where do we start with you loons?
 You are always there to brighten our day, participate in our nonsense, and remind us that this dream is worth pursuing. Thank you doesn't even begin to cover the appreciation we have for you.

We thought we’d do something a little different this time.
 In typical self-praising Elizabeth Hayley fashion, we’d like to bash each other while complimenting ourselves.

To Hayley (from Hayley):
 I’d like to thank myself for constantly reminding Elizabeth that she needs to write our smut instead of just reading other people’s.  Hayley, thanks for making sure that every orgasm is described in vivid detail. (I sort of have a pet peeve about that.)  Thank you for cheering Elizabeth up because she’s always down.  If it weren’t for my witty and unmatched sense of humor, Elizabeth would never smile. And thank you for fixing all of her elementary grammar mistakes--commas, homonyms, spelling, etc.  Hayley, if it weren’t for you, it would have looked like a third grader wrote half the book.  

Oh, fine. I guess I should also thank Elizabeth.
 You are my soul mate (the one I
don’t
sleep with) and my partner in crime.  Thank you for making me feel like less of a sexual deviant because you’re just as bad as I am.  Thanks for talking me down off a ledge time after time after time when I was stressed about not getting the book finished.  We are in this together, and I love you for standing beside me every step of the way.  SYATEC!

To Elizabeth (from Elizabeth): I thank myself for not strangling Hayley over her incessant issues with plot continuity and character logistics.
 
I also thank myself for constantly fixing her missing quotation mark issue, usually without even telling her because, well, what's the point? I can't fix stupid. If I wasn't there to correct all of her mistakes and write flawless prose myself, it wouldn't seem like a third grader wrote it, because nothing would be written at all. Or at least nothing with any attention paid to time and space.

Okay, seriously, I need to thank Hayley for understanding me on a level few people ever have. You're the yin to my yang, and together we achieve a balance so oddly perfect, I can only attribute our meeting to fate. We were destined for this. Destined to be business partners, friends, sisters. Always remember: shoes are for suckers. Love you and SYATEC (probably sooner rather than later).

PLAYLIST

“Alive” by Krewella

"All of Me" by John Legend

“Arms” by Christina Perri

"Baby Come Back" by Serena Ryder.

"Between the Raindrops" by Lifehouse ft. Natasha Bedingfield

"Big Girls Don't Cry" by Fergie

“Bless the Broken Road” by Rascal Flatts

"Breakeven" by The Script

“Breathe (2AM) by Anna Nalick “Endlessly” by Green River Ordinance

"Broken" by Seether ft. Amy Lee

"Can't Let Go" by Landon Pigg

"Crazy for This Girl" by Evan and Jaron

“Days That We Die” by Loudon III Wainwright

“Hard to Love” by Lee Brice

"Hold On" by Colbie Callait

"Here's to Us" by Halestorm

"I Can't Make You Love Me" by Bonnie Raitt

"I Choose You" by Timeflies

“(I’ve Had) The Time of My Life” by Bill Medley & Jennifer Warnes

“I Want Crazy” by Hunter Hayes

"King of Wishful Thinking" by Go West

"The Lazy Song" by Bruno Mars

"Leave Out All the Rest" by Linkin Park

"Leave the Pieces" by The Wreckers

“Let Her Go” by Passenger

"Love Me Again" by John Newman

“Lying to You” by Keaton Henson

"The Man" by Aloe Blacc

"Need You Now" by Lady Antebellum

"Nobody Knows" by The Tony Rich Project

"Not Over You" by Gavin DeGraw

"Now That We Found Love" by Heavy D

"The Reason" by Hoobastank

“Say Something” by A Great Big World & Christina Aguilera

"Scars" by Papa Roach

"Second Chance" by Shinedown

"She Ain't You" by New Hollow

"Unconditionally" by Katy Perry

“Whatever It Is” by Zac Brown Band

"What Hurts the Most" by Cascada

“Wake Me Up” by Avicii