Until I Break (29 page)

Only, this time, there’s something else.
Something…more.

“I remember with perfect clarity the first
moment I saw you, sitting so primly in front of a crowd of your
biggest fans,” he begins softly, his voice arising from somewhere
below me.

The cadence of his words coupled with the
languorous touch of his hand threaten to lull me into a stupor, but
something deep inside me struggles to pay close attention. His
words…there’s something different about his words…

“I think I might’ve fallen in love with you
that very day. And a little bit more every day after. I tried to
let you go. I thought I could live without you, that I could move
on. But I couldn’t. I could hardly last a day.”

My heart swells at his words. Alec has told
me he loves me a thousand times, but never like this. He’s never
opened up like this before. His confession is like a rare,
night-blooming flower—so precious and so fleeting that I’m afraid
to blink and miss one glorious second of its beauty.

“I don’t ever want to be without you again.
Air doesn’t feel the same. Food doesn’t satisfy me. Water doesn’t
quench my thirst. In my life, for as long as it burns on this
earth, there is only you, Samantha. Only you. Forever.”

I feel tears breach my closed lids and pour
down my cheeks. I bite my lip to hold in sobs of pure joy.

“Open your eyes,” he says, the words more a
plea than an order.

My lids part to the image of Alec on one knee
in front of me. Even through the shimmering wash of my tears, I can
see that his hand is holding mine and his heart is in his eyes.

My breathing stops and all of time and space
stills around me.

“Will you marry me?”

I let go of a sob that refuses to stay put
behind my ribs. My knees, unable to support me anymore, buckle and
I drop down in front of Alec.

“I’ll do anything you ask of me, Alec.
Anything. For the rest of my life, you have me. Body, heart and
soul. And nothing would make me happier than to be your wife.”

His lips curve into a smile, one of his
genuine smiles that I see more and more of lately. His eyes fall to
our joined hands as he slips an enormous diamond onto my ring
finger.

“Then clear your schedule for tomorrow.
You’ve got a wedding to attend.”

I feel my mouth drop open as his words and
their meaning sink in. A laugh bubbles up in my throat. I cover my
mouth with my hands, but my fingers can’t stop the sound from
spilling out.

“What? You mean…does that mean… did you…”

When I can’t form a coherent question, Alec
chuckles and fills in the blanks. “Yes, me, an incompetent
man,
has managed to plan an entire wedding without you
having to lift a finger.”

“But…but…what about…”

My mind is spinning in delirious circles, my
happiness so blinding and so complete that it nearly steals my
breath.

“But nothing,” he says, raising his hand to
cup my cheek gently. “I’ve taken care of everything. All I wanted
was to give you one perfect day. And I hope it will be.”

Through the haze of my elation, I stare at
this wonderful man who tore his way into my heart. “I can’t imagine
a day, a moment more perfect than this one.”

Alec brings my diamond-encircled finger to
his mouth. As his lips brush my skin, I see one brow rise over the
back of my hand.

“Let me see what I can do to change your
mind.”

My insides burst into flame as Alec pulls me
roughly toward him, crushing me against him and covering my mouth
with his own. And, true to his word, he proceeds to make this day,
this night,
this moment
even more perfect than I could’ve
imagined.

And now, thanks to Alec, I can imagine
anything.

THE END

Turn to the back for the first two chapters
of the

New York Times
Bestselling Novel

By M. Leighton

DOWN TO YOU

and

THE WILD ONES

A FINAL WORD

A few times in life, I’ve found myself in a
position of such love and gratitude that saying THANK YOU seems
trite, like it’s just not enough. That is the position that I find
myself in now when it comes to you, my readers. You are the sole
reason that my dream of being a writer has come true. I knew that
it would be gratifying and wonderful to finally have a job that I
loved so much, but I had no idea that it would be outweighed and
outshined by the unimaginable pleasure that I get from hearing that
you love my work, that it’s touched you in some way or that your
life seems a little bit better for having read it. So it is from
the depths of my soul, from the very bottom of my heart that I say
I simply cannot THANK YOU enough. I’ve added this note to all my
stories with the link to a blog post that I really hope you’ll take
a minute to read. It is a true and sincere expression of my humble
appreciation. I love each and every one of you and you’ll never
know what your many encouraging posts, comments and e-mails have
meant to me.

http://mleightonbooks.blogspot.com/2011/06/when-thanks-is-not-enough.html

Beginnings: An M. Leighton Anthology

Blood Like Poison: For the Love of a
Vampire

Blood Like Poison: Destined for a
Vampire

Blood Like Poison: To Kill an Angel

Caterpillar

Down to You

Fragile

Gravity

Madly

Madly & the Jackal

Madly & Wolfhardt

The Reaping

The Reckoning

The Wild Ones

Up to Me

Wiccan

Everything for Us
(Bad Boys book
3)

SEPTEMBER 3, 2013

The Wild Child
(Wild Ones
novella)

NOVEMBER, 2013

Some Like It Wild
(Wild Ones book
2)

MARCH, 2014

Blog:
http://mleightonbooks.blogspot.com

Facebook:
M. Leighton, Author

Twitter:
mleightonbooks

Goodreads:
M.
Leighton, Author

[email protected]

One girl. Twin brothers. An
uncommon triangle.
 
When college student Olivia Townsend
returned home to help her father run his business, she never
imagined a complication like Cash and Nash Davenport—twin brothers
different in so many ways but with one thing in common: an
uncontrollable desire for Olivia.
Cash is dangerous, sexy, and bad to
the bone—a man whose kisses make Olivia forget she is playing with
fire. Nash is successful, reliable and intensely passionate—and
already taken. But all it takes is one soft stroke to make Olivia
forget he belongs to someone else.
However, Olivia is in for a
surprise. These boys have a secret that should make her run away as
far and as fast as she can. If only it wasn’t too late. A sensual
game between three players has begun, and it’s about to spin
deliriously out of control.

CHAPTER ONE- Olivia

My head is spinning lightly, but happily. I
can’t even remember the name of the drinks Shawna keeps ordering
for us. I just know they’re delicious. And potent as hell! Wow!

“When’s the stripper coming? I’m ready to get
my freak on!” Ginger shouts. She’s the crazy, outspoken,
cougar-of-a-bartender we work with at Tad’s Sports Bar and Grill in
Salt Springs, Georgia. She’s wild enough in her natural
environment, but stick her in a strange new place in a city like
Atlanta and she morphs into a full blown tiger.
Rawr!

She looks at me and grins. Her bottle-blond
hair looks urine-yellow in the low light and her pale blue eyes are
twinkling devilishly.

I’m instantly suspicious.

“What?” I ask dazedly.

“I talked to the manager ahead of time. He’s
gonna make sure Shawna has to help the stripper get out of those
pesky clothes he’ll be wearing.” She giggles maniacally. I can’t
help but laugh. She’s a mess.

“Ryan would kill her if she stripped another
man’s clothes off, bachelorette party or not!”

“He’ll never know. What stays in the VIP room
happens in the VIP room,” she slurs.

“Don’t you mean what
happens
in the
VIP room
stays
in the VIP room?”

“That’s what I said.”

I snicker. “Oh, okay.”

I giggle as I watch her take another sip of
her neurotoxic drink. I opt for my water instead. Somebody has to
remain semi-lucid. Might as well be me. Tonight is all about Shawna
anyway. I want to send her off into married life with the best
party possible. I doubt that includes her having to carry me home
or clean vomit off her shoes.

A knock at the door to the private room has
us all turning our heads in that direction. The girls immediately
start laughing and hollering and cat-calling.

Dear God, I hope it’s the stripper and not a
cop or something!

The door opens and in walks the most
incredibly handsome guy I think I’ve ever seen. He looks like he’s
in his early twenties, really tall, and built like a football
player—wide chest and shoulders, thick arms and legs, tiny waist in
between. He’s dressed in solid black from head to toe. But it’s his
face that’s most impressive.

Sweet hell, he’s effin’ gorgeous!

His short hair is dark blond and his face is
chiseled perfection. I can’t tell what color his eyes are as he
scans the room, but I can see that they’re dark. He’s just opened
his mouth to speak when his gaze finally makes its way to me. His
eyes click to a stop on mine and he stares.

I’m completely mesmerized. As I look into
them, I still can’t determine a color, but the orbs look nearly
black. Even in the light spilling through the door behind him, they
look like pools of ink. Just barely, he cocks his head to the side
as he watches me.

It makes me nervous. And excited. I don’t
know why. I have no reason to be nervous
or
excited. But I
am. He makes me feel twitchy. Squirmy. Warm.

We’re still staring at each other when Ginger
gets up and drags him further into the room, flinging the door shut
behind him.

“All right, Shawna. Come kick your single
life to the curb the right way!”

The other girls start squealing and cheering
her on. Shawna’s smiling, but shaking her head. “No way! Not this
girl!” The bridesmaids-to-be get more insistent, two of them coming
around to take her by the hands and haul her to her feet.

She leans back, away from them, shaking her
head more vigorously. “No, no, no. I don’t want to. One of y’all do
it.”

She starts wiggling her arms to free herself,
but the girls have a death grip on her thin wrists. When she looks
at me, her wide brown eyes tell me all I need to know. She’s
totally freaked by the idea.

“Liv, help!” I raise my hands in a gesture
that says
what do you want me to do?
She nods toward the
hunk hulking behind Ginger. “You do it!”

“Are you crazy? I’m not stripping a
stripper!”

“Please! You know I’d do it for you.”

And she would. Dammit.

How the hell does the world’s clumsiest shy
girl get wrangled into doing things like this?

As I so often do, I answer myself.

Because she’s a pushover!

Taking a deep breath, I stand and turn toward
the Hot Stripper Guy, purposely jacking my chin up another notch.
He’s still watching me with those smoky coal eyes.

When I take a step toward him, he very slowly
raises one eyebrow.

Heat washes through me.

Must be those dangerous drinks,
I
think
. It has to be.

I feel flushed and a little breathless, but I
take another step anyway.

Hot Stripper Guy backs away from Ginger and
turns to face me fully. He crosses his arms over his chest and
waits, that one brow still raised in curiosity. He’s not going to
make it easy. He’s leaving it all up to me, just like Ginger asked
them to do.

As if on cue, the music that’s been pumping
into the room all night gets louder. It’s a sexy song, heavy on the
bass. It’s mood music for sure. It seems to punctuate every intense
beat of my heart as I get closer and closer to those velvety
eyes.

When I stop in front of him, I have to look
up. My five and a half feet of height is nearly a foot shorter than
his towering frame.

Up close, I see that his eyes are brown.
Dark, dark brown. Nearly black.

Sinful.

I’m lost in wondering why that particular
word would come to mind when the girls start chanting for me to
take his shirt off. Uncertainly, I glance at their excited faces
then back to him. Slowly, he spreads his arms, holding them out to
his sides, away from his body.

One corner of his mouth twitches. His
expression, his body language is rife with challenge.

I realize he doesn’t think I’ll do it. No one
probably does.

And that’s exactly why I will.

Letting the beat of the music relax my tense
muscles, I plaster a smile on my face as I reach forward to tug Hot
Stripper Guy’s shirt from the waistband of his pants.

CHAPTER TWO- Cash

Damn, she’s beautiful!

Between this girl’s black hair, her bright
probably-green eyes, her banging little body and the way she seems
a tiny bit shy, I’m wishing we were alone in this room
together.

Her smile doesn’t leave her lips as she runs
her hands around my waist, untucking my shirt. When it’s free, she
starts to pull it up.