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Category: Romance
Description: He's torn between loving her and the memory that she'd been his brother's girl. Cadie thought she would be with Mattie and love him forever. Losing him and being attacked herself put her in a coma for four weeks. When she wakes up, she finds that fate, the fickle bitch that she is, has devised another future with her with another man. It was hard for her to deal with the fact that that man was Jack, Mattie's oldest brother. Excerpt: "Why haven't you married?" she asked suddenly. "Uh, What?" "Married, you know, tuxes and lots of people crammed into a church. Some beautiful girl in a long white dress waiting at the end of a decorated aisle. Why haven't you taken the plunge?" She leaned back against his arms, her gorgeous blue eyes staring up at him. He could see the bruised smudges under her eyes, the hollow of her cheeks. He'd known she wasn't sleeping but now it seemed as if she'd missed a few or more meals as well. "The right girl hasn't become available." He shrugged his wide shoulders. "Well, if she's told you no, she had to be an idiot." She snuggled close to him again, and Jack moved his arms so that she felt encased by them. He let his cheek rest against her hair, marveling again at how she fit him so perfectly. Emotions soared through him and he felt her breasts brush against his chest. They felt like an electric charge or maybe a spark from a match being lit. He barely managed to hold back the groan of pleasure that cried to be let free. He wanted to lift her face, to let her see the emotions he'd been hiding from her and then kiss her, to take her lips and show her that not all men are frightening. But it was too soon. He knew if he pushed her too hard she would run from him. He had to be her friend and then go on from there.
eBook Publisher: Eternal Press/Damnation Books LLC/Eternal Press, 2011 2011
eBookwise Release Date: December 2011

1 Reader Ratings:

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Available eBook Formats: OEBFF Format (IMP) [145 KB]
Words: 27233
Reading time: 77-108 min.

Chapter One

"Come on, Cadie. Catch me if you can..."

A young man broke free of the trees and ran into a small clearing. He stumbled over a rock and almost landed headfirst into the stream that burbled through it.

"Matthew James Bestry, you quit teasing me." A woman followed the man, her bouncy brown curls loose around her shoulders. Her eyes, bright blue and sparkling, were full of her devilish personality. She reached out, grabbing the source of her torment with a hand against his arm.

"Oh Cadie, you know I live to tease you." He easily lifted her off of her feet and spun her around until he tripped over the same rock. He fell backwards onto the ground and pulled her with him. He grunted and she pushed against him, her pique showing on her face.

"I am not that heavy, Mattie." She rolled to her back, her arms crossing against her chest, her face tipped away from his. "I'm not."

"Are you sure?" he teased. He came up on his elbow next to her and looked down at the woman he loved. The one thing he was certain of, more than anything else was that he wanted to spend the rest of his life with her. He just had to find the way to tell her. He tugged on one of her soft curls and wrapped it around his finger as he waited for her to reply.

"I swear I don't know why I go out with you. I know my daddy asks me the same thing every time you bring me home from a date." She still wouldn't look at him. "I tell him that you have good traits but I'm beginning to wonder."

"You know you love me, Cascade Melissa Johnson. Don't you even try to deny it." He spoke teasingly but there was a wealth of meaning behind the words. He held his breath and waited to hear what she would say.

She turned her head, her angel blue eyes staring directly into his. "I do," she whispered, a flush sending a pink heat to her cheeks.

"You do?" he asked and traced the soft curve of her cheek.

"Yes, though you don't deserve it." She reached up and curved her hand over the back of his neck.

"I don't?"

Cadie scowled for a moment. "Did someone take away your ability to talk, Mattie? Usually a girl would like to hear an answer when she tells a man she loves him."

He scooted even closer to her, his hand against her face, his thumb tracing the high curve of her cheekbone. "Cadie Johnson?"

"Yes," she answered breathlessly.

"I love you."

"Really?"

"More than my life." His brown eyes met her bright gaze and a huge smile crossed his face. "I love you." He found it easier to say the second time. It gave him such pleasure to be able to tell her what he felt for her, especially now. He had only a few weeks left before he was off to boot camp and then wherever the army wanted to send him. With the state the world was in, that might be anywhere. He dipped his head, his lips slowly covering hers as he felt her hand twine in the hair at his nape.

That first kiss was a gentle tasting, a brush that teased them both. It lasted mere seconds, but when he raised his head, they were both panting.

"Tell me."