Authors: Diane Alberts
Tags: #Romance, #best friend's sister, #tattoos, #take a chance series, #reunited lovers, #military romance, #milspouse, #diane alberts, #cheap kindle books, #bad boys, #Las Vegas, #Camp Pendleton, #entangled ever afters, #older brother's best friend, #novellas, #: marines, #contemporary romance
The lawyer side of Erica’s brain said it was too much, too fast. Divorce rates were ridiculously high, especially among military spouses. But her heart wasn’t listening. Her heart had waited far too long to be this happy.
Had waited far too long to have him as her own.
She let her heart decide, for once. “I’m ready for all of that. I love you. Whether we live here or there…I’m yours.”
He captured her lips in a brief, dizzying kiss that bordered on savage. “You’ll never be able to get rid of me.”
He moved to kiss her again. She pressed her fingers to his mouth. “Hold on. I do have one request.”
“Anything.”
“When they ship you back overseas, don’t get shot.”
He laughed. “Love, I told you, I’m too ornery. I’m only vulnerable when it comes to you. There…I’m completely defenseless.”
She fingered the dog tags dangling between them. “I like the sound of that.”
“Planning to abuse me mercilessly?”
“Maybe not mercilessly.”
He laughed. She smiled and traced her fingers over his lips. He was so amazing. So right for her. The split in his lower lip was still healing; she touched it gently. One stupid night in Vegas, one fistfight he never should have gotten in, had thrown him out into the desert and brought him back into her life.
She couldn’t imagine how she’d managed without him.
“You and me,” she said. “I think we can handle anything.”
“Together?” he asked.
“Together.”
He pressed his lips to hers. She wrapped her arms around him. Things might be uncertain. They might be hard. But right now, she’d never been more certain of anything in her life.
Wherever he belonged, so did she.
Erica stood in the huge crowd of women and children, and peered anxiously over their shoulders. Any minute now, the bus would pull in and Jeremy would come striding out. He’d been overseas for seven painfully long months. Her body hummed with anticipation. She fidgeted and tightened her grip on her homemade
WELCOME HOME
sign until she felt the wood creak under her chokehold. She relaxed her fingers and stole a quick glance at her watch.
Still only seven thirty. Damn it.
“Relax,” Tommy soothed, and wrapped his arm around her shoulders. “He’ll be here soon. Any minute now, he’ll come strutting out.”
“I’ll relax when I can see him again,” she snapped, and instantly regretted it.
She couldn’t help herself. She was big as a house and cranky as a rattlesnake, with a bite twice as toxic. This morning’s fight with the dispatcher at Pendleton hadn’t helped, but
someone
needed to fix the plumbing in their shitty little base bungalow. She rubbed her swollen stomach and grimaced. The sun beat down on her head, boiling her alive. Was it always this damned hot in San Diego, or was it just her pregnant hormones trying to boil her alive?
The front of the crowd stirred. Voices rose. Erica stood up straight. Her heart tripped over itself. Tears prickled her eyes. Please, God, let it be him. This rollercoaster was killing her.
“I can’t see, Tommy. Are they here?”
Tommy stood a good foot above her, well above the crush of people. He’d flown out to help with her pregnancy during the last grueling months, but right now he wasn’t enough. People milled in front of her, behind her, next to her. Everyone was here except the one person she truly wanted.
“Tommy!” She jammed her elbow into his ribs. “Say something. Do you see them?”
“Ow! I’m looking, brat.” He craned to see. “Yeah, I think I see the bus. They’re coming out. Shit, they all look the same in their gear.”
She watched every face that moved through the crowd, each soldier rushing into the arms of mothers, wives, brothers, sons. Not one was Jeremy. Several of the women around her cried out names and fought through the crowds to reach their men, but Erica was silent. Searching. The emotion, so thick in the air, was nothing compared to the bubbling cauldron of frustration and lonely, choking need ready to boil over inside her.
As the crowd thinned with no sight of him, Erica practically screamed. “Where the hell is he?”
One last straggler stepped off the bus. Everyone else faded as Erica’s eyes locked on him. His gaze found her immediately, and the moment their eyes met, her smile nearly burst across her face and her eyes overflowed. He practically vaulted down the last step off the bus and took off running. She laughed and fought through the crowd to meet him, letting her house-sized belly lead the way. Her sign dropped to the ground. She didn’t care.
They nearly crashed into each other, and he swept her up into his arms and kissed her. She met his lips eagerly. She’d been denied for too long. A lightning bolt of pleasure and love struck through her. His hands roamed down her back, yanking her closer—until her belly got in the way. He released her with a sigh, but every promise in his eyes said he’d find a way once they were alone.
Her hands shook as she touched over his face with wonder. He looked so tan, so thin. Seven months in the desert would do that, but she was almost afraid to touch him, as if he was a mirage that would fade if she dared press too close.
“Jeremy,” she whispered.
He rested his brow to hers, his fingers tight on her hips. “Jesus, Erica. I missed you.”
She smiled and wiped away the tears that wouldn’t stop falling. “I missed you too. Dealing with pregnancy cravings solo? Really sucks.”
He let out a choked laugh. Tommy drew closer and pulled Jeremy into an affectionate hug.
“I’m thinking he did that on purpose. Left me alone with the brat at her crankiest—and her most demanding.” Tommy snorted. “She made me go out at three AM for chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream. Three times. In one
week
.”
Erica blushed and hid her face in Jeremy’s fatigues. “…I was hungry.”
“I’m sure the baby appreciates it.” Jeremy grinned and rested his hands to her stomach. As if the baby sensed him, he kicked her. Right in the kidney. She flinched. Jeremy watched her belly, his face rapt, wondering. “Holy shit. I think I made it just in time.”
“The sooner the little monster stops kicking me, the better, but we are not having a baby tonight.” She frowned at him. “We have other plans.”
Tommy arched a brow. “We do?”
Jeremy chuckled and punched Tommy’s shoulder. “Not you. Us.” He pulled Erica close to his side. “Just me and my wife.”
Tommy grimaced. “Gross. She’s pregnant. And my sister.”
“Pregnant or not, she’s still the prettiest girl I’ve ever seen. And it’s been a long, long time since I saw her.”
Tommy groaned. “Yeah, yeah. Let’s go. I’ll drop you guys off and make myself scarce.”
Erica kissed Jeremy, lingering on the taste of him like an addict craving a fix. Her fingers found the throat of his fatigues and toyed with his dog tags, and the ring dangling from the chain. She pulled them out of his shirt and raised a brow. “Now that you’re home, how about we put that ring back on? I think it’s safe from the wild, woolly desert now.”
He unfastened the clasp, slipped his ring off the chain, and slid it back onto his finger. “There. Safe and sound, as promised.”
“Then that’s two promises you’ve kept.”
She kissed him, sealing her mouth to his and taking everything she’d missed over seven long months. He groaned against her mouth. His hands tightened on her hips, and he nipped roughly at her lower lip. She shuddered.
“I need you,” she whispered.
Jeremy picked up his bags and took her hand, lacing their fingers together in an unbreakable grip. “Then I suggest we hurry.”
They nearly ran toward the car. Erica couldn’t believe that in two short years, her life had gone from bleak loneliness to such utter joy. Missing Jeremy had been hard, no doubt about that. So had the nightly terror as she tossed and turned in her bed, the TV stuck on CNN and her imagination running wild. Every casualty was cause for a panic attack. Every knock on the door was the military police coming to tell her that her husband was dead. She wasn’t sure how she’d survived intact, let alone sane.
But here, now? He was home. Safe. With her.
Right where he belonged.
I’d like to thank all of my friends, family, loyal readers, and new readers for buying my books, reading them, and maybe even recommending them to your friends. Without you, I wouldn’t be doing this. Without you, my books would be lonely. Without you…there might not be any books.
I’d like to thank Adrien and the rest of the editors that put time into this book, every hour spent agonizing over the perfect word for the sentence, or the best way to turn a phrase. Without you, this would be but a shell of a book.
I’d like to thank Liz, and everyone at Entangled Publishing, for offering me the chance to share this book with the world. It means the world to me. And to all my friends in the Entangled Publishing world—keep writing, reading, editing…and just being plain old awesome.
More Entangled Romances from Diane Alberts
Divinely Ruined
- Book #1 in the Divine Temptations Trilogy
One foulmouthed angel. One single father. Her mission to save his soul. His mission to show her the joy, passion, and love she can find if she’ll just give human life another chance.
http://www.entangledpublishing.com/divinely-ruined/
Bestselling Ever After Novella
On One Condition
A marriage of convenience turns decidedly inconvenient for a Viscount fighting to keep his inheritance—and the neurotic schoolteacher he’s determined to claim for his own.
http://www.entangledpublishing.com/on-one-condition/
Find Your Ever After
Worth the Risk
by Robin Bielman
Samantha Bennett never thought she’d see her summer romance again, and sure as hell never thought she’d reunite with Dean Malloy over the conference table—while competing for the same job! Is rekindling their romance a career mistake…or worth the risk?
http://www.entangledpublishing.com/worth-the-risk/
True Connections
by Clarissa Yip
Lia McEvil is back in town…and Max Sheraton is in trouble. A childhood rivalry turns into fiery romance—but will Lia’s secrets stop her and Max from making a true connection?
http://www.entangledpublishing.com/true-connections/
Check out
http://www.entangledpublishing.com
to get Entangled in Romance!
Diane Alberts has always been a dreamer with a vivid imagination, but it wasn’t until 2011 that she put her pen where her brain was, and became a published author. Since receiving her first contract offer, she has yet to stop writing. Though she lives in the mountains, she really wishes she was surrounded by a hot, sunny beach with crystal clear water. She lives in Northeast Pennsylvania with her four kids, a husband, and a Senegal parrot. In the rare moments when she’s not writing, she can usually be found hunched over one knitting project or another. She is repped by her fabulous agent, Lauren Hammond of ADA Management.
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