"Thanks, Chanel."
I set my phone back down with a sense of accomplishment. Stalking around my apartment, I started throwing things into boxes in earnest. Keep, Donate, Throw away. Most everything was going into the "throw away" box.
When I heard my door buzzer sound, I assumed it was a mistake and kept
right on sorting. "Keep, Donate, Throw away." I for sure wouldn't be wearing my Jimmy Choo slingbacks again. Just for sentimental reasons, I stuck them in the Keep box.
The buzzer sounded again, this time accompanied by a pounding on the door. "Monique!"
My heart leapt before my ears could make sense of what I was hearing. "Tanner?"
When I opened the door, he went right to one knee. "You say nothing lasts forever? Bullshit, this does. The commercial says so."
"Oh my god." I exhaled sharply as he opened the small black velvet box. "Tanner, how did you...?"
"Find you?” He peered up at me with those fathomless blue eyes. "I know why you left," he choked, and pressed his hands to my tummy. "And I'm here to say that you didn't do the right thing when you left. This?" He brushed his fingers lightly along my skin. "This is what's best for me. It's what I've wanted, even though it wasn't clear until I found you." He nodded towards the sparkling diamond in his hand. "But, erm, I feel we're getting off topic here. Monique Williams...will you marry me?"
"Yes, yes, oh my god yes!" I shrieked, flinging myself into his arms.
He grunted as I slammed into him, and then laughed a little. "Wouldn't be right if you didn't hurt me a little," he smiled as he slipped the perfectly sized ring onto my finger.
Then he looked up into the apartment. His eyes widened as he took in all of the boxes and suitcases strewn about. "Wait, were you going somewhere?"
I wiped a tear away from my eye and looked at my left hand. The ring felt solid and heavy, a good feeling. One that would keep me from floating away. "Yeah," I choked. "Back to you."
He burst out in a joyfully incredulous laugh. "Are you joking with me?"
I wiped the tear away and laughed with him. "Nope. I was gonna move to Holcum. I was going to camp out there until you got back from tour and try to convince you to take me back. And if you didn't...well..." I ran my fingers down my belly and he cupped it possessively, "then at least I'd have something to remind me of you."
"Monique," he rasped. "I love you so goddamned much it hurts."
When his lips met mine, I tried to pour every feeling I had into the full force of the kiss. Every insecurity, every second guess, every hesitation burned away, and in its place bloomed hope, excitement and a love so fierce it threatened to swallow me whole.
His lips trailed down, covering my neck in a fiery trail of kisses, each one branding me as his forever. We fell to the floor in a tangled mess of limbs and needs, desperate and hungry to never be separated again.
When he surged inside of me, I felt the union of our bodies coming together. The missing piece in my life was right here, filling me up so that I was so full of love that I was afraid I might burst. When I screamed out his name, he cried out for me too, and we fell together, clutching and gasping as we hurtled towards mindless oblivion together.
Tanner looked up at me, breathless, his perfect skin shimmering in a golden sheen so enticing that I couldn't help myself. I pressed my lips to his chest, tasting the salt on his skin and marveling that it would be mine forever.
"God damnit, Monique," he growled. "We have got to stop fucking on the floor like this." He brushed his fingers up the side of my face. "I can't wait to take you home and make love to you properly. In my bed… In our bed."
"Tanner," I exhaled, winding my fingers into his. "Take me home."
Epilogue
Monique
The soft strum of Tanner's guitar filtered in through the bathroom window, every so often interrupted by a happy shriek from Silas as he tore across the front lawn as fast as his fat little legs would allow. I tucked the positive pregnancy test into my pocket with one last fond look at that little blue line.
Then I went to find my husband and tell him.
He was in his favorite deck chair, of course. His long legs were slung up on the railing and his brow was furrowed as he plucked his six-string. I recognized the look.
"You working on a new song?" I called out.
Tanner looked up and shot me a wide smile. "Caught me red-handed," he grinned, stretching his arm out. I went to him immediately.
"Is it for me?" I teased.
"Well now, I'm not so sure about that. Last time I wrote a song for you, you were pretty critical."
"I was not!"
"You don't call vomiting a pretty strong negative response?"
I socked him in the shoulder and he laughed. "Okay fine, you caught me. It's for you, it's called 'Her Daddy was a Thief But She's The One That Stole my Heart."
I pressed my lips tightly together and wound up, then socked him hard in the exact same place. He grunted and smiled and rubbed it pensively. "I deserved that," he said.
"You absolutely did."
"Nah, baby, I'm playin' with you. It actually is about you," he said, his tone softer, and gentler.
"It's called "Something to Last Forever."
I snuggled down into his shoulder and looked up at our son as he toddled towards us. "I got something for you too," I smiled pulling Silas onto my lap.
Tanner smiled. "Baby, I want to see my present, but you and Sy Guy here are crushing my arms. I can't move."
I snuggled my son and pressed myself tightly against Tanner's chest, savoring the moment with the three of us. The wrapper of a pregnancy test crinkled in my pocket, but he didn’t seem to notice. Soon, our little family would be a little bit bigger…
"I guess you’re stuck," I teased, kissing the underside of his chin. "Because I'm not moving."
His eyes twinkled. "That a promise?"
"I already made you that promise," I said, nodding towards my wedding ring. "But yeah, I'm not going anywhere." I kissed his cheek and then kissed Sy's curls. "I'm home."
The End
Dear Mia Caldwell Reader,
I wanted to let you know that I appreciate each and every one of you. Your support and love have given me the chance to live my dream and become an author.
To show you just a bit more appreciation, go ahead and turn the page. I’m including a full and complete copy of The Billionaire’s Desire, my bestselling BWWM Romance novel.
I hope you like it, and I hope you keep reading!
-Mia Caldwell
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The Billionaire’s Desire
(BWWM Billionaire Steamy Romance)
[email protected]
www.amazon.com/author/miacaldwell
© 2015 Mia Caldwell
All Rights Reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
This book is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, or places, events or locations is purely coincidental. The characters are all productions of the author’s imagination.
Please note that this work is intended only for adults over the age of 18 and all characters represented as 18 or over.
Kindle Edition
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DEDICATION
This book is dedicated to Theresa. You know why.
-Mia
The Billionaire’s Desire
Prologue
"Yes, thank you. Wednesday at eleven. See you in four days."
My hands are shaking so badly that I can barely hang up my phone.
Camilla Easton. I just landed Camilla Easton's wedding.
I stand up from the desk and look around my home office. It is as neat as a pin, of course. The walls surrounding me are hung with my vision boards and whiteboards. But the wall over the desk has the most important decoration of them all.