“I know it doesn’t seem like it because I was a shit brother-in-law, but we are family. And as such, I expect you here. Don’t make my agent be the only female in the room.”
She turned on the water and rolled her eyes. “I’m sure your agent can hold her own against the lot of you.”
“I’ll have a car pick you up at six.” Doyle was gone before she could refuse once more.
With a deep groan, she hung up the phone and stepped into the cascading hot water. On as hot as she could handle it, she stood there, hoping it would take away her increasing pain. It never did but she always held onto hope.
After she finished, she dried off then wrapped up in a robe before crawling into the comfortable queen bed. She had to get some sleep today because she knew she wouldn’t be sleeping at all tomorrow night.
She woke pressed tight against a hard-male body. Even as her self-preservation instincts took over, her body told her exactly who lay beside her.
Sean.
He lay against her back, one arm curved around her midsection, the tips of his fingers inside her robe along her belly. “I know you’re awake, Rica.”
“Breaking and entering is a crime you know, Sean.” There wasn’t any way to explain how right it felt being in his arms.
“I love you, Patricia Sanford. I want you to be my wife once more. I want to do this right by you and keep you with me for the rest of our days.”
Tears burned her eyes. She settled her hand on his forearm, stroking absently. “You know I never go to their graves on the day we buried them.”
“I never saw you there. Why didn’t you?”
“I was scared to face you and your brothers if you happened to be there then. After I left, I would swing through at least once every three months there. I have flowers delivered to both every month.”
He pressed his lips against her neck and she shivered with anticipation. No other man could do what he did to her. Sean carried her to such planes of pleasure, even like this. Her core throbbed.
“Do you ever wonder what they would be like now?”
“Only every day. I met a little girl today who was about a year or two younger than they were and it nearly broke my heart.”
“I wish I could fix it all, Rica.”
She squeezed his hand, the first of her tears falling. “You can’t. It wasn’t meant to be, for whatever reason, He needed them in Heaven with him.”
Sean rolled her so they were face to face. His eyes were honest and straightforward as he stared at her. “I need you in my life with me. I know you asked me before if I hadn’t seen you would I have said what I did. I want to say I would have come to that, but I’m a hardheaded man and it most likely would have taken me much longer. But yes, I would have come to this. I’m yours, forever. My heart will never belong to another as it has to you.” He cupped her face. “As it does to you.”
“I don’t even know what I’m doing anymore, Sean. I did an interview here for a resort security job, but I’m not sure I want to do that. I live on the other side of the country from you.”
“I’m not a resident here, Rica. I’m visiting Doyle who wants me to move here but I don’t have to. Northern Minnesota is nice this time of year.”
She snorted and laughed. “No, it’s not. The flies and mosquitos are terrible and it’s already freezing at night. Before long, yes, we have the leaves changing but soon, the feet and feet of snow will be there.
“Give me a chance, Rica.” He captured her lips.
She sighed into him, splaying her hands along his chest. She didn’t want to go to dinner at his brothers. She didn’t want to face tomorrow alone and with him, she didn’t have to. “I was ordered to dinner by Doyle.”
“We can be fashionably late,” he murmured as he undid the belt on her robe. He skimmed his hand down over her belly until he covered her slit. Two fingers pushed inside her as she whimpered, shifting to better accommodate him.
“We can be unfashionably late for all I care.”
“Tell me yes, Rica. Please.”
“One day at a time, Sean. I want to say yes, so badly and not just to giving you a chance, but I’m scared.”
“Trust me to be here for you, I meant what I said, Rica. I’m forever yours.”
She held his gaze until her lids fluttered closed, because she couldn’t hold his look anymore. The intensity was too much for her to handle. She’d been a wife, a mother, a border patrol agent, perhaps now was the time to figure out how to be her. How to enjoy life once more. And if that meant revisiting this part of her past, well, she did love him, so it couldn’t be all bad could it? She didn’t think so.
While she couldn’t verbally formulate the words he needed this moment, she put it all into her kiss as she welcomed him deep inside her body. She loved him. He loved her.
Perhaps that was all they needed.
About the Author:
Aliyah Burke is an avid reader and is never far from pen and paper (or the computer). She loves to hear from her readers and can be reached here. She can also be found on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest. You can follow her on her Amazon Author page, Book Bub author page, or at Goodreads.
She is married to a career military man. They are owned by four Borzoi. She spends her days sharing time between work, writing, and dog training.
I hope you enjoyed reading, Forever Yours. If you could help others to find and enjoy this book as well, I would appreciate that act of kindness. You can do this by recommending it to your friends and/or reader’s groups. Also by reviewing it to let others know you liked it, even only a line or two—and why—on Goodreads, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and other places, even if it’s nothing more than a line or two. Every bit helps, makes all the difference and is absolutely appreciated.
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Additional books by Aliyah Burke:
Sensual Romance Publishing
If You Dare
Holiday Surprise: Unwrapped
His Purrfect Mate
Raw Exposure
A Knight’s Vow
Lion of Midnight
Megalodon Team
Kincade’s Rose
Harrier’s Healer
Connelly’s Flame
Greeley’s Spyce
Vittano’s Willow
Dimitri’s Moon
O’Shea’s Love
Chayton’s Tempest
Forgotten Shadow (A MT Christmas Novella)
Haikon
A Love for Lera
Rakes & Rogues
What the Earl Desires
Her Reluctant Viscount
Her Pirate Rogue
Cottonwood Falls
Relentless
Fracture
Ravish
Spark
Savor
Intensity
Inferno
Snake’s Salvation
Operation Ball N’ Chain (Cottonwood Falls short in Labor of Love anthology)
Born to Fly
Landing in Love
You Save Me
Wild As The Wind
Zulu Spectre
Hearth, Holly, & Honor (3 in 1)
It Could Happen Again
Tungsten Protective Services
Down Range
All In (Kindleworlds Hot SEALs/Tungsten Protective Services crossover novella)
Twisted E-Publsihing
Under the Mask
May You Always
Graham Family
Justice Is Always Ready
And We’ve Come Full Circle
Denim & Spurs
With This Ring
Dream Lover
Maddox Family
The Detective’s Lover
Quad Series
A Little Taste of Home
Too Dangerous To Love
Someday My Prince Good Ol’ Boy Will Come
Black Queen
Totally Bound
Preconception
Seducing Damian
Through the Fire
Serial
Keeper of the Stars Pt. 1
Keeper of the Stars Pt. 2
Keeper of the Stars Pt. 3
Keeper of the Stars Pt. 4
Keeper of the Stars Pt. 5
Astral Guardians
Chasing the Storm
Highlands at Dawn
Fields of Thunder
Branded by Frost
Driven by Night
Moon of Fire
Interludes
Temporary Home
Alone with You
Till We Ain’t Strangers Anymore
In Aeternum
Casanova in Training
Harbour of Refuge
Protected by Shadows
Polar Opposites
Code of Honour
A Marriage of Convenience
The Lieutenant’s Ex-Wife
A Man Like No Other
When Stars Collide
Theta Corps
Restitution
Contrition
Vindication
The Edge
Called Home to The Edge
Returning to The Edge
Cuffed at The Edge
Entangled
Code Name: Papa
Kindleworld
Delay of Game (Game of Love Kindleworld series)
The Wedding Snafu (Four Weddings & A Fiasco Kindleworld series)
Watching You (Lone Star Burn Kindleworld series)
Icy Dare (Dare to Love Kindleworld series)
Daring the Hard Man (Dare to Love Kindleworld series
All In (Hot SEALs/Tungsten Protective Services Kindleworld series crossover)
Fire Devil (Dallas Fire & Rescue Kindleworld series)
Embers of Lust (Dallas Fire & Rescue Kindleworld series)
His Rysk to Take (Omega Team Kindleworld series)
The Billionaire’s Code (Billionaire Universe Kindleworld series)
His Pryze to Claim (Omega Team Kindleworld series)
Autumn Frost (Brotherhood Protectors Kindleworld series)
Sass This (Sassy Mates Kindleworld series)
Black Sand (Lei Crime Kindleworld series)
Standalone
Dutch & Lobo (in In the Trenches collection)
On the High Seas (in What White Boyz Desire collection)
Love Under the Endless African Sky
Co-written with Taige Crenshaw
Unbreakable Bonds
Kemet Uncovered:
Talios
Devi
Linc
Saffron
Taber
Ashia
Co-written with McKenna Jeffries
McKingley:
All the Wright Moves
The Best Thing Yet
Risky Pleasures
Pure Harmony
Irresistible Forces
Seductions Dance