The Complete Arrogant Series (21 page)

Read The Complete Arrogant Series Online

Authors: Winter Renshaw

“How romantic.” I roll my eyes.

“Look, I’m not good with this
mushy shit. You know I want to be with you.” Jensen leans down, grazing his
lips across mine before pressing them hard and depositing a single, feverish
kiss that makes my stomach twirl.

“I want to be with you too.” I
swallow air, trying to catch my breath. “But you’re moving to L.A. I’ll be in
Salt Lake City for school. Just don’t say you want to be with me, when you know
we won’t be together a few weeks from now. Don’t get my hopes up.”

He takes the spot next to me,
dragging his fingers down my arm until he finds my hand.
Our
fingers lace.
“We’ll make this work. I promise, Waverly. I don’t know
how, but we will. We’ve come too far.”

I swallow the burning lump in my
throat and blink away misty eyes that cloud my vision. This should be a happy
moment. Like Bellamy said, we’re free. I’m not marrying Harold. I’m temporarily
taking refuge in a palace fit for a queen. No longer will I live under my
father’s thumb, making careful life choices all in hopes of making him proud.

I’m free to
love whomever I want, and right now
,
I love Jensen
Mackey
.

His fingers leave mine, tracing
my collarbone and then up the crook of my neck until his mouth lowers into my
flesh. His teeth rake across my skin, biting and sucking, mixing pain and
pleasure, which is fitting, because that’s exactly how I feel right now.

My face nudges toward his,
craving his lips against mine once again.

“Did you hear me earlier?” He
breathes his words into my ear, laying me on my back and climbing over me. “I
told you I love you. I’ve never said that to anyone before, and I said it to
you.”

“I love you too.” My hips widen,
my stomach zips, anticipating the pressure of his hardness pressed against my
core.

Jensen’s mouth claims mine, his
hands cupping my face as his body weighs me down, grounding me more than he
realizes. “I told you, Waverly. I know everything, and I know we’re going to
find a way to be together.”

EPILOGUE

Waverly

One year
later…

I study the tattoo on the inside
of my wrist: a dandelion drawn in black with seeds scattering to the wind. It
was Jensen’s idea. He said I was a dandelion when he first met me—stubborn,
rooted, determined. Little by little I loosened up, and the second I was ready,
I scattered to the wind, the best parts of me becoming free to explore the
world around me.

“Looks good,” he says, examining
my wrist in his hand. “Healing up nicely. We’ll have to take a picture of it
for the website.”

I flick my wrist around, and the
sparkling diamond on my left finger catches the light. He proposed last March,
during spring break. It was just the two of us in our tiny campus town
apartment. There was no romantic speech. Jensen’s not
like
that. But he did speak from the heart, and all I needed to hear was, “I can’t
live without you, Waverly.” I don’t remember much about what he said after that
because I felt the same way. Nothing else beyond that mattered.

“Want to get a bite to eat?”
Jensen rubs his stomach as he sprawls across our messy bed.

“Why don’t I make you something?
You worked late last night.” I climb out of bed, but he pulls me back, planting
his mouth against the crook of my neck and nipping my skin.

He left for eight weeks last summer
to intern with a tattoo artist in L.A., and then returned to work on finishing
his apprenticeship with a local Campus Town parlor. In a couple more years,
when he’s licensed, Dane’s going to front him enough money to start his own place
wherever we eventually decide to settle down.

“Eggs. Pancakes. Hash browns,” Jensen
says, releasing me. “But I’m helping. I’ll be damned if I have you slaving over
a hot stove.”

We haven’t been back to
Whispering Hills since last year, when everything went down. Several months
into my first semester at college, I stopped looking over my shoulder. It was
as if one day, I realized no one was coming after me and everything was going
to be okay. I haven’t heard from my family, and I’m sure I’m as good as dead to
them now. Jensen and Bellamy are the only family I have left now, but that’s
okay. They’re all I need.

One of these days, when the time
is right, we’ll go back for the rest of our siblings. They’re innocent and
unsuspecting now, but their day will come, and Bellamy and I will find a way to
save them.

“Finals coming up?” Jensen
studies the calendar taped to the side of the ‘fridge as he grabs a carton of
eggs. He squints as he checks the expiration date and then sets it next to the
stove. Watching a man all barefoot and shirtless in the kitchen is a sight I
never thought I’d find sexy in a million years, but Jensen has defied all that.

“Yep, next week is dead week,
then finals.” I grab a spatula and nonstick pan, setting them gently across the
glass cooktop.

Jensen pulls salt and pepper from
the cabinet and grabs an egg. It’s barely noticeable cradled in his palm, and
with one fluid crack it slides into the pan. “As long as you’re free this
weekend…”

“What’s this weekend?”

“Remember? L.A.? We’re going to
visit Jaxon?” He sprinkles pepper over the egg, followed by a few shakes of
salt.

“That’s right.” I shake my head,
remembering our weekend getaway to visit the guy who mentored him last summer.
They’ve become good friends since then, Jaxon taking Jensen under his wing.
You’d have thought they were brothers, judging by how well they hit it off.
“And then the weekend after that is Bellamy’s girls’ weekend in Puerto
Vallarta.”

“Still not sure why my presence
is required on that one, but I’m not one to turn down a free trip to Mexico.”
Jensen leans over, kissing my forehead. He flips the eggs, and rakes his
fingers through his messy, dark hair. His delicious lips pout just so, and his
Adonis lines are entirely too inviting, but I’ve got class this morning.

“I’m sure Dane will have you
golfing and doing
guy
things,” I say.

“I’m sure Dane has every second
of every minute of that trip planned.” Jensen laughs, his hand raking his
smooth chest. Sure, Dane’s a control freak, but I kind of like that about him.
Plus, he keeps Bellamy content and grounded. He’s good for her.

I push his arm. “Oh, stop.”

Jensen plates the eggs and
carries our breakfast to our little nook with our two little tables. Our
apartment is small, and at times, crowded, but it’s ours. We’re free to live
and laugh and kiss and make love and dream with zero rules and nobody looking over
our shoulders.

“When we get back, maybe we can
start planning our wedding?” Jensen shrugs. “Gotta nail you down before you
wise up and realize you deserve better.”

“Wedding’s already planned.” I
flash a smug half-smile.

“Oh, yeah? When were you going to
tell me this?”

“You gave me free reign,
remember?” I glance at the clock above us, mentally calculating how much time I
have before I miss the bus. “Something small, at Dane’s estate.
Just us, Bellamy and Dane, and a handful of close friends from work
and school.
I’ll wear a simple white sundress and you’ll wear… whatever
you want. A justice of the peace will marry us, and I’ll carry a bouquet of pale
pink peonies. That’s it.”

“Honeymoon?”

I rise, taking my dish to the
sink and returning to kiss his delectable mouth. “Surprise me. I trust you.”

Jensen pulls me into his lap,
catching me off guard. “Date. I need a date. Can’t plan a honeymoon without a
date.”

“October eleventh.” I smile.

“It’s a date.” I attempt to climb
off him, but he pulls me closer, refusing to let me go. “Watching you leave
each morning is the hardest part of my day, but knowing you’re always going to
come back to me makes it bearable.”

I breathe him in, my future
husband. He’s my heart and soul, my insides and out. I live for him, and I know
he lives for me. In a few short months, we’ll make it official, and no one will
ever get to tear us apart again.

The End.

ARROGANT MASTER

ALL RIGHTS
RESERVED

COVER DESIGN
– LOUISA MAGGIO @ LM CREATIONS

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rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any
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or reviews.

This
is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the
product of the author’s imagination or, if an actual place, are used
fictitiously and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business
establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental. The publisher does
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This
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the author’s work.

DEDICATION

For
my husband.
Sorry you were rendered wifeless for several weeks. Now
that it’s football season, you can return the favor, and I promise I won’t
complain (too much). And for Katrina, who tirelessly answered all of my
ridiculous questions and who assured me I could do this.

Thank you.

-W

DESCRIPTION

I’ve
never felt more alive than when
I’m
on my knees before
my master.

Some
would say I should be ashamed.

Others
might say I’m filled with sin.

I
say I’m just a woman with unstoppable determination, doing whatever it takes to
secure her freedom before the opportunity fades forever.

Nobody
knows about us. Not my father, my three mothers, or my seven brothers and
sisters.

I
was bred to be chaste and true, expected to find a respectable polygamous man
and carry on the tradition of our faith.

But this man?
The one who owns me with biting kisses
and the crack of a leather paddle? He might be the only thing that can save me.

Submission
equals freedom. It’s an equation I never thought possible until the day Dane
Townsend showed up in my life.

I’m
Bellamy Miller, and this is what happens when an angel loses her wings.