She threw her arms around him, sliding off the couch cushion and falling to her knees beside him as she pressed her lips to his.
Hours later in her bed, Missy snuggled against her fiancé’s chest, tangling her bare legs with his.
He hadn’t looked away—not for a moment—when he’d made love to her. And when he’d climaxed, he declared his love for her again in a gut-wrenching, visceral growl that had made her tighten around him, arching against him as her world exploded into intense pleasure such that she’d never known. Nothing had existed for her except Lucas and the love they bore for one another. Nothing existed but that now.
She trembled, remembering that beautiful moment, and in his sleep, Lucas pulled her closer, while grateful tears filled her eyes. She had had sex many times before tonight, but tonight was the first time anyone had ever made love to her.
Missy Branson felt like a new creation, reborn through the love of Lucas Flynn.
She held out her hand and sighed with amazement as her engagement ring caught the moonlight beaming in through her window, the crystal twinkling like a white Christmas light. There was a full moon tonight, and surrounding it, a host of stars. One of them was so bright that it could almost be the Star of Bethlehem—or the star she’d wished on last Friday night, which felt like so long ago.
Missy stared at it hard, then took a deep breath and closed her eyes.
Not even a second later she reopened them, smiling with wonder as she snuggled up against her fiancé. There’d been nothing to request.
Now that Missy Branson was finally the sort of girl who wished on stars, she had nothing left to wish for.
All of the wishes of her heart had already come true.
THE END
About the Author
New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Katy Regnery started her writing career by enrolling in a short story class in January 2012. One year later, she signed her first contract, and Katy’s first novel was published in September 2013.
More than forty-five books and three RITA® nominations later, Katy claims authorship of the multititled Blueberry Lane series, the A Modern Fairytale collection, the Summerhaven series, the Arranged duo, and several other stand-alone romances, including the critically acclaimed mainstream fiction novel Unloved, a love story.
Katy’s books are available in English, French, German, Hebrew, Italian, Polish, Portuguese, and Turkish.
Check out Katy’s Website here: http://www.katyregnery.com
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A Pride Christmas
Jill Sanders
Take a magical trip back to Pride, Oregon. Meet some new people and watch how the Jordan family welcomes them in this special holiday novella.
Alice McKinney was supposed to be home for the holidays, enjoying her mother’s homemade pies and her father’s fried turkey. Instead, she’s trapped in a blizzard, holed up in a small cabin somewhere on the coast of Oregon. If that wasn’t bad enough, her brother had sent his best friend, Eric, to drive her home instead of coming himself, which means she’s stranded with the man of her childhood dreams.
It was supposed to be a simple road trip to help his best friend out. Go down to Cali, grab Alice, and bring her home to Portland. Spending fourteen hours in a car with the girl he’d always wanted but couldn’t have was punishment enough. Then the storm hit, leaving them stranded in a romantically perfect setting. Now, he’ll get to spend the holidays with his dream woman in a very magical place.
Chapter 1
Alice stared down at the black Mustang and frowned.
“Well?” Eric said impatiently. “Are you going to get in or just stand there and get soaked?”
Her brother, Chris, had sent Eric Jenkins to pick her up from school and drive her the fourteen hours home, which pissed her off. Especially when Eric continued to sit in the warm dry car instead of jumping out and helping her haul her luggage down the pathway and put it into the trunk.
“Trunk’s open,” he called out to her through the crack he’d opened in the window.
She ground her back teeth and growled as she quickly made her way through the California rain, trying to avoid some of the larger puddles in the pathway as she hurried. Putting her three bags in the trunk, she narrowed her eyes at the back of his head.
Two of her friends had had to help her carry her suitcases down the dorm stairs, and when she bent over and tried to lift the largest one into the trunk, her back cried out in protest. She grunted loudly and tossed the thing in, slamming the trunk as hard as she could.
She could just imagine Eric hissing at the abuse of his “baby.”
Jumping in the passenger side, she made sure to shake the raindrops from her hair, letting them splatter the interior of the car. He hissed and wiped the dashboard dry with a small yellow cloth.
“Why are you here?” she asked through her clenched teeth.
He stopped wiping the dash and looked over at her. “To get you,” he answered slowly, as if she was dense. “You did want to go home for the break, didn’t you?”
“Yes, but Chris was supposed to drive me there. Not you.”
He shoved the yellow cloth back in the glove box and started the engine. “Well, Chris had a change of plans, so you got me instead.” He shrugged as he pulled out of the parking lot.
“What other plans? He is going home, right?” she asked, worried that she wouldn’t be able to see her brother during her break.
She’d been away at college a few months and needed this family time. She’d expected school to be hard but hadn’t planned on being so homesick. Even though she and her brother went to school in the same state, three hours and lots of traffic between them meant she didn’t see him much. As a matter of fact, she’d only seen Chris a handful of times since she’d moved to California and even less the couple of years before that after he’d gone to school.
The fact that she hadn’t seen Eric for almost that long as well hadn’t escaped her. Eric Jenkins had been her very first crush. To this day, her heart skipped every time she was in close proximity to him.
He was everything she’d ever dreamed about: her prince, her leather-wearing biker, her football superstar, and her beach-bum god in nothing but swim shorts. He fit the bill for every fantasy she’d ever had.
Back in middle school, Chris had scolded her and told her she was being too weird around his friend and to knock it off.
Over the years, as her infatuation with Eric grew, this… annoyance had grown between them. She’d started thinking of it as sexual tension and fed off of the attention.
Now, however, she was truly annoyed that Chris wasn’t there to get her. After all, she was wearing a cozy pair of yoga pants, her worn Ugg boots, and an oversized UCLA sweatshirt. Her dark hair was tied up in a loose bun, which was tucked under a heavy beanie.
If she’d known Eric was coming, she would have made sure to look much better.