“Be at rest.”
As the flowers floated on the surface of the Pacific, he and Essie communed with nature and their feelings for a few quiet minutes until he heard his sister’s stomach rumble.
“Sorry,” she said, with a little grimace. “I think it’s anticipating Sara’s promised waffles.”
Joaquin laughed. “They sound good to me, too.” Putting the paddle to use again, he turned the board. His fiancée still stood on the deck, the woman who’d told him she was eager to put down roots with him. That together they’d thrive.
He moved steadily toward her, feeling whole and hopeful and happy.
This new life was going to be so damn good.
# # #
Dear Reader:
Thank you for reading! I hope you enjoyed THE SCANDAL, the fourth book in the Billionaire’s Beach series. It’s been great fun to spend more time in Malibu and write another surfside love story for you to enjoy.
Joaquin and Sara are set to enjoy a bright future together, though more excitement is to come in their lives as Sara’s butler classmates Emmaline and Charlotte journey toward their own happy endings in The Seduction and The Secret. I hope you’ll look for them.
Interested in sharing your thoughts with other readers? I hope you leave a review for the book here.
To not miss out on new releases and to get other information about upcoming books, sign up for my newsletter. You can also follow me on Facebook, Twitter, or visit my website.
Below, find an excerpt to the first book in my Rock Royalty series and links to buy other Ridgway romances you may have missed.
Enjoy!
Christie Ridgway
Excerpt – LIGHT MY FIRE
© Copyright 2014 Christie Ridgway
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
Chapter 1
The children of America's premier rock band learned early to sleep through anything. Late night jam sessions, liquor (and worse) -fueled arguments, raucous parties raging from dark to dawn that were peppered with wild laughter, breaking glass, and the squishy thud of fists against skin. At twenty-four, Cilla Maddox had not lost that skill, though she'd recently come to view it as something less than a gift.
Still, she didn't stir from her curled position on the edge of the king-sized bed when a tall, broad figure entered the room in the middle of the night. No streetlights disturbed the darkness this deep in Laurel Canyon and the newcomer found the bed only by deduction. When, at his sixth cautious step, his shin met an immoveable object, he dropped the motorcycle boots and duffel bag he carried to the plush carpet and took a leap of faith by tipping his long body forward. Finding firm mattress and feathery pillow, he instantly fell into sleep.
Hours later, Cilla came awake to the sound of birds tweeting and chirping their odes to another Southern California morning as they flitted through the shrubbery and tall eucalyptus trees that grew inside and outside the canyon compound where she'd grown up. Eyes closed, she breathed in the country-scented air, such a surprise when the famous Hollywood Boulevard and its twin in notoriety, the Sunset Strip, were less than a mile away. Flopping to her back, she stretched to her full five-feet, five inches. Then she pushed her arms overhead and swept them back down until her fingertips met—
Something solid. Warm. Alive.
On a gasp, her eyes flew open and her head whipped right. She yanked her hand from a man's heavy shoulder to press it against her thrashing heart.
As it continued to beat wildly against her ribs, she stared at her bedmate. Though his body was plastered to the mattress belly-down, his face was turned toward hers and it only took another instant to realize he was no stranger. But recognition didn't calm the overactive organ in her chest that continued sending blood sprinting through her body.
She blinked, just to make sure her eyes weren't deceiving her. They apparently had told the truth, she decided. After years of adolescent fantasies, she was actually sharing a bed with him. With Renford Colson.
No mistake, it was her teenage fantasy man. His glossy black hair that tangled nearly to his shoulders. His days'-old stubble of beard that made his mouth look softer, fuller, more kissable if that was even possible. Those were his spiky lashes resting against his sharp-angled face.
Yet...was he really here? To make herself believe it, she mouthed his name. Ren.
As if he heard the silent syllable, his eyes flipped open.
She started, their distinctive color—a silvered green, just like eucalyptus leaves—jolting her to the marrow.
Dark brows met over his straight nose and she watched the drowsiness