was what I needed.
Besides, there was no rule that said I couldn’t still do auditions. Because you never know, right? The girl who never makes it is the girl who never tries.
“Tess also says that you owe her,” Holden said. “So she wants an ice cream brownie after the movie tomorrow.”
“That kid is a brat,” I said. “I’m going to miss her when she goes home. Can we get naked now?”
Holden was reading my mind, because somehow the zipper of my dress was already all the way down my back. Also, at the same time, somehow I’d pulled his uniform shirt out and had unbuttoned it halfway. I couldn’t get Holden naked fast enough.
He kissed me again, and this time I knew that whatever was coming next was going to be very, very dirty.
“You’re mine, Mina,” he said. “All mine. And I’ll do whatever you say.”
Epilogue
Holden
Six Months Later
This was the big night.
I’d asked Mina to marry me a week ago. I’d done it after dinner on top of Rockefeller Center, as if we were tourists who had never been to New York before. The night set me back at least five hours of overtime pay, but it was worth it. She said yes.
Then she suggested we throw a party.
To be fair, our apartment was a pretty great place to have a celebration. I’d moved in to Mina’s place after her absent roommate, Theda, got a long-term role in a Vegas show and decided to move to Vegas. Mina needed someone to pay half the rent, and we wanted to be apart as little as possible. Besides, I was already planning to persuade her to marry me by then. Moving in was just the first step.
I rolled out of bed naked and reached for my boxer briefs where they’d been dropped on the floor—or, more accurately, ripped off me. “Sweetheart, you have to get up,” I said. “Everyone’s going to be here in thirty minutes.”
The reply was a relaxed, satisfied moan from naked Mina on the bed. We’d tried getting ready for the party, we really had. We’d taken a shower and everything. The problem was that the shower required nakedness, which led to wet skin and kissing, which led to me being deep inside my fiancée and getting her to make that sweet, sexy sound in the back of her throat when she came. Which led to us being naked when we were supposed to get dressed.
I pulled on my boxer briefs and grabbed her bare, shapely ankle. “Come on. Or I’ll get on that bed and ravish you again.”
“That sounds nice,” Mina said, her hair mussed on the pillow. “Whose stupid idea was this party, anyway?”
“Yours.”
“Oh. Right.” She blew out a breath and sat up, running her hand through her tangled hair. I watched the small, slim ring I’d given her glint in the low light. I never got tired of seeing that ring. “We’re pretty much ready, I think, except for the nakedness.”
I put on jeans and a navy blue Henley, then went out into the living room. We had food ready, along with wine, beer, and soda. Music was cued up on the stereo. In the bedroom, Mina pulled on the black-and-white polka-dot dress she’d bought and twisted up her hair. While she put makeup on, people started buzzing to come up.
Eric and Rachel came. Grim and his girlfriend, Selena. Daniela and the woman she was seeing, Charlotte. More of my coworkers—whoever wasn’t on shift.
Then Mina’s dance students started showing up. The studio she’d taken over was a solid success, so much so that she couldn’t teach all the classes herself. She had expanded the roster of classes, from beginner ballet to advanced swing dance, and she’d hired additional teachers. They came, too, bringing drinks and food and laughter.
Mina circulated around, talking to everyone, and then she turned to the door. Tess stood there.
She’d gone back to live with her parents soon after Mina and I reunited, and though Mina had taken it hard, we’d made the effort to keep Tess in our lives. Long Island wasn’t far, and we made trips to see Tess on weekends and at Christmas. And now she was here for our engagement party.
She was growing like a weed. She was almost fifteen now, and she’d put a homemade streak of purple in her hair. Mina’s face lit up and she rushed to her friend, giving her a hug. Tess rolled her eyes, but it was all for show. I saw her grip Mina just as hard as Mina was gripping her.
The party was in full swing. Our friends were all here, laughing and celebrating with us that Mina and I were going to get married. I went back and forth between excitement and not being able to believe this was my fucking life.
I glanced down at my left wrist, where I wore Caleb’s watch. Mina had given it back to me, and I had finally accepted it. I was ready.
Caleb was my brother, and I had loved him, and I had lost him. But losing him didn’t make me love him any less. He was a part of me, and he always would be. He’d never meant to hurt me. I thought maybe he’d be happy to know what my life was like right now, at long last.
When I looked up from my watch, the room went quiet. Two people were standing in the doorway. One was a woman, curvy and sexy, with long, dark hair. Her belly showed the pretty rounded bulge of the first half of pregnancy. Standing next to her was Graham Morgan, one of the richest men in New York City and the CEO of Morgan Financial. I recognized him from the tabloid and newspaper photos Mina had pointed out to me.
Morgan was dressed casually in jeans and a black sweater that probably cost a month’s worth of my pay. He had glasses on, and he had his hand resting protectively on the small of his girlfriend’s back. He saw Mina and gave her a friendly nod.
Mina grabbed my hand and pulled me across the room toward Morgan and Soraya as everyone slowly went back to their conversations. She was smiling joyously. “Graham!” she said.
I gave her a double-take. She was on a first-name basis with the guy?
Soraya hugged Mina, and when they pulled apart, Graham said, “Congratulations on your engagement.”
“I didn’t think you would come when I sent the invitation, but I’m so glad you did.” She smiled at one of the most powerful men in New York. “It’s good to see you finally happy.”
For a second, he frowned at her. Then his face relaxed into a friendly smile.
“Yes,” he said. “It’s good to see you, too.”
Late that night, after everyone had gone, I was lying in our bed, holding Mina’s Kindle.
“’He ripped my panties off,’” I read aloud. “’He shredded the tiny scrap of fabric and threw it away. “You won’t need these,” he growled. Then he spread my legs open, exposing my throbbing pussy. “You’re so wet for me. You want my cock so bad. And I’m going to give it to you. Hard.”’”
There was a thump in the bathroom and Mina came bolting out, wearing nothing but a T-shirt, her hair trailing down over her shoulders. “Oh my God, give me that!”
“This one looks really good,” I said, rolling over away from her as she jumped on the bed and tried to grab it. “It’s called Taken Hard by the EMT. Pretty erotic.” As she tried to grab for the Kindle, I flipped forward a few pages and read aloud again. “’He pounded into me so hard I thought I would break. “Fuck me, Ty,” I screamed as I felt ecstasy starting to overtake me. “Oh God, yes please, just fuck me! I’m going to come!”’”
My erotic reading was interrupted when Mina finally gripped my wrist and made me drop the Kindle. My fiancée was surprisingly strong.
“Okay,” she admitted when she’d stashed her precious Kindle away in her side of the nightstand. “I may have read that one a few times.”
I rolled on my back, laughing. “If you want to read it again, I’d be glad to read it to you.”
She almost scoffed, but then she paused. “You mean that?”
Was she kidding? Of course I meant it. “If you want me to read something dirty for you, I’ll do it anytime.”
“I might take you up on that.” She pinned me to the bed, then straddled me. She pulled the T-shirt off.
“Okay, Holden,” she said, leaning down to kiss me. “Let’s reenact Chapter Nineteen.”
Thank you for reading Heartbreaker!
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