“Good.” He offered the bottle and I took it, pouring a tiny splash more. “Careful there,” he nodded at the glass with a smile. “It’s a crime to puke up stuff that expensive.”
“About that?”
He grimaced. “My dad owns that warehouse we went to, plus a lot more. I don’t really work there—I just help out when he’s slammed. I have a trust fund. Useful for buying good whiskey to impress pretty girls. Only you didn’t know it was the good stuff.” He shook his head at himself.
“So that wasn’t true, about him wanting you to get a real job.”
“Oh yes it is. I meant it. I never lied to you outright or misled you about anything important. He just hates me wanting to be an actor. We fight about it on a semi-regular schedule.”
“Did you get the part?”
He cocked his head, puzzled.
“The one you traded with Charley for. She was putting in a good word for you.”
“Didn’t she tell you? I told her to forget it. I screwed up my end of the deal, so I forfeited.”
“No, she didn’t mention.”
“She was seriously pissed at me. Rightfully so, but man—a real bear when she’s defending someone she loves.”
That made me smile. “Yes, she is. So, what’s your name, really.”
“Really? Gabriel Damien Tobias Mitchell-Bersham.”
“Good God,” I said, after a moment.
“Right? So you could pick what you want to call me.” He paused, studying my face. “If you want to call me anything but asshole.”
“I liked Damien.” I paced a little, tossed back the whiskey for courage and set down my glass. Then I turned back and confronted him. “But I want the truth—how much of him was real?”
“Everything. Everything except the accent,” he allowed.
“And the hair color.”
“Yeah. And the tooth veneer.” He tapped his chipped tooth. “I used dental acrylic for that. Contact lenses, of course. I waxed off my body hair, so you wouldn’t see I was naturally blond. Oh, and while my roommates are shits, they’re not that bad. I didn’t want you to see where I lived because you’d figure out who I was.”
“Anything else?”
He raised his eyes, contemplating. “I don’t think so, but I’d hate to swear to it and fuck up again.”
“What about what you said—that you… liked me.”
He set down his glass and took my hands. “Marcia, love, I do like you. I like you so much. I’ve been kicking myself up one side and down the other for not telling you sooner. For not calling a halt to it all. I just—” He broke off, shaking his head, stroking my fingers with his. “I got caught up in the ride. I fell, and fell hard.”
A tremor of joy leaked through my heart, making it past the locks. “You did? For real—no games or embellishment.”
He held my gaze, perfectly somber. “For real. I’ve fucked up plenty of things in my life. You should know that. The trust money helps, but I’m not some super successful guy like Daniel and Brad. I’m a struggling actor who works a lot of jobs to keep my dad off my back. But I’ve never regretted anything like I did screwing up with you.”
“Your ad was pretty good on that.”
“I spent hours composing it.” He stroked my hands, a funny half smile on his mouth, then laced his fingers with mine. “I don’t know exactly what appropriate groveling entails, but I’m willing. Tell me what I need to do for you to give me a chance, to start over. A clean slate, maybe.”
“This was pretty good as is. But, Damien—we can’t just erase everything that happened between us.”
“No. No, I guess not.” He looked glum, and let go, sliding away from me.
I held on. “I wouldn’t want to.”
He cocked his brow, that gesture at least, completely familiar. “Then what?”
“I’m still figuring that out. I’d like for that to be okay, that we don’t have to solve everything and have it perfectly sorted right off. I’d like to…” I laughed at myself a little. “Chill and enjoy.”
“I can do that.”
I moved in, putting my arms around his lean waist, enjoying his scent, sweet as honey, vitally masculine, and wiggled against him. Bold me. “We were pretty hot together.”
He returned my smile, a sultry turn to it. “And then some.”
“I want more of that. But for real this time.”
“Oh, love,” he murmured, then leaned in and waited. I met him halfway, drowning in the kiss we created. “Nothing was ever more real than this.”
~ Epilogue ~
Amy got out the good vase, the Kate Spade rose crystal bowl, and arranged the two-dozen David Austin roses. Top of the line choice there. Go Damien. Or Gabriel. Whatever he went by, she suspected Marcia would give him another chance.
The guy might not be most-eligible bachelor material, but he had style. That made up for a lot. Conversely, Brad did not have much style.
Still, he was a good catch and she needed to appreciate that. He might not be given to extravagant gestures—okay, the stretch limo and over-the-top roses were more than about any guy would do—but Brad had his good qualities. She needed to communicate her needs better, tell him what would make her happy.
Getting roses every once in a while would be nice.
Happy with the final arrangement, she cleaned up the clippings and set the bowl on the dining table. Stepping back a moment, then circling, she went to the drawer and dug out her grandmother’s lace doily and put it beneath. There. The perfect touch. A lovely blend of old-fashioned softness and modern style.
She could make any combination work. That was her superpower.
Humming happily, she went to put on the tea kettle to boil, contemplating a new blend of herbal tea. And how to shape her future with Brad.
About Jeffe Kennedy
Jeffe Kennedy is an award-winning author whose works include novels, non-fiction, poetry, and short fiction. She has been a Ucross Foundation Fellow, received the Wyoming Arts Council Fellowship for Poetry, and was awarded a Frank Nelson Doubleday Memorial Award.
Her award-winning fantasy romance trilogy The Twelve Kingdoms hit the shelves starting in May 2014. Book 1, The Mark of the Tala, received a starred Library Journal review and was nominated for the RT Book of the Year while the sequel, The Tears of the Rose received a Top Pick Gold and was nominated for the RT Reviewers’ Choice Best Fantasy Romance of 2014. The third book, The Talon of the Hawk, won the RT Reviewers’ Choice Best Fantasy Romance of 2015. Two more books followed in this world, beginning the spin-off series The Uncharted Realms. Book one in that series, The Pages of the Mind, has also been nominated for the RT Reviewer’s Choice Best Fantasy Romance of 2016 and is a finalist for RWA’s RITA Award. The second book, The Edge of the Blade, released December 27, 2016.
She also introduced a new fantasy romance series, Sorcerous Moons, which includes Lonen’s War, Oria’s Gambit, The Tides of Bàra, and The Forests of Dru. She’s begun releasing a new contemporary erotic romance series, Missed Connections, which started with Last Dance and continues in With a Prince.
Her other works include a number of fiction series: the fantasy romance novels of A Covenant of Thorns; the contemporary BDSM novellas of the Facets of Passion; an erotic contemporary serial novel, Master of the Opera; and the erotic romance trilogy, Falling Under, which includes Going Under, Under His Touch and Under Contract.
She lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico, with two Maine coon cats, plentiful free-range lizards and a very handsome Doctor of Oriental Medicine.
Jeffe can be found online at her website: JeffeKennedy.com, every Sunday at the popular SFF Seven blog, on Facebook, on Goodreads and pretty much constantly on Twitter @jeffekennedy. She is represented by Sarah Younger of Nancy Yost Literary Agency.
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Titles by Jeffe Kennedy
* * *
FANTASY ROMANCES
A COVENANT OF THORNS
Rogue’s Pawn
Rogue’s Possession
Rogue’s Paradise
THE TWELVE KINGDOMS
Negotiation
The Mark of the Tala
The Tears of the Rose
The Talon of the Hawk
Heart’s Blood
For Crown and Kingdom
THE UNCHARTED REALMS
The Pages of the Mind
The Edge of the Blade
The Shift of the Tide
SORCEROUS MOONS
Lonen’s War
Oria’s Gambit
The Tides of Bára
The Forests of Dru
CONTEMPORARY ROMANCES
MISSED CONNECTIONS
Last Dance
With a Prince
CONTEMPORARY EROTIC ROMANCES
Exact Warm Unholy
FACETS OF PASSION
Sapphire
Ruby
Five Golden Rings
FALLING UNDER
Going Under
Under His Touch
Under Contract
EROTIC PARANORMAL
MASTER OF THE OPERA E-SERIAL
Master of the Opera, Act 1: Passionate Overture
Master of the Opera, Act 2: Ghost Aria
Master of the Opera, Act 3: Phantom Serenade
Master of the Opera, Act 4: Dark Interlude
Master of the Opera, Act 5: A Haunting Duet
Master of the Opera, Act 6: Crescendo
Master of the Opera
EROTIC VAMPIRE ROMANCE
Blood Currency
BDSM FAIRYTALE ROMANCE
Petals and Thorns
OTHER WORKS
Birdwoman
Hopeful Monsters
Teeth, Long and Sharp
Thank you for reading!