All For You (7 page)

Pasting a smile on her face, she flung the door open. “You’re just in time. I’m so hun—”

“Hello, Anna,” Max said.

“Max?” She gaped into his lovely green eyes. “What are you doing here?”

Max gestured behind him. “Your catering.”

Looking behind him, she noticed the other two people whose arms were laden with boxes. She shook her head. “But I thought you wouldn’t be here.”

“Do you want me to leave?”

It wasn’t a simple question, and she heard what he was really asking. She shook her head. “I didn’t want you to leave to begin with, but you have to. New York is obviously what you want. You turned down Megan.”

“Megan said you gave her the idea for the project.”

She blinked in surprise. “She wasn’t supposed to.”

“She didn’t at first. She called me today, because she felt I should know you were responsible for it.”

“I just wanted you to have the option to stay, if you wanted to.” Anna hugged her chest to keep from flinging herself into his arms and begging him to stay with her. “But you need to do what’s right for you.”

He stared at her, his gaze inscrutable. Without a word, he waved his crew inside.

The guys squeezed past them and jogged up the stairs. Anna watched them, confused. Then she turned to Max. “They don’t need to set everything out. I’m going to donate most of the food.”

“Why would you do that?”

She took a deep breath. “I may have concocted this party as an excuse to be around you. In my defense, I did try to invite people, but no one could make it.”

He looked her up and down.

Giving a little laugh, she held her arms out and twirled. “A woman should dress up for her own party, even if she’s the only one attending. I know you think I’m crazy, but—”

He put a finger over her lips. “You did all this for me?”

“Yes. I had to.” She sighed. “But it’s okay. Don’t worry about it. I’m happy you’re getting what you want.”

“Anna.” He took her hand and stepped closer to her, so her back was against the wall and she could feel the strength of his body. “What do
you
want?”

“You. I love you, more than anything.” She put a hand over his heart. “Which is why I want you to have what’s best for you.”

He brushed her hair from her face, leaving his palm to frame her face. “Do you know what I want?”

She shook her head. “What?”

“You. I’ve always wanted you.” His head lowered.

Her eyes widened. Holy crap—he was going to kiss her.

Her heart pounded so hard in her chest she thought she might have to put her hands over it to keep it from jumping out. She’d thought she’d kissed him for the last time. She’d thought this pleasure was lost to her forever.

She gasped right as his lips touched hers. Clinging to him, she poured her heart into it, so there’d be no question of her feelings or how much she wanted him.

He nuzzled her nose with his. “I love you, Anna. I loved you from the first time I met you on this very porch. I love your ingenuity and your passion. I love that you’ll do anything for the people you love, even if it means letting them go.”

“I didn’t want to let you go.”

“I know. Silly woman, you should have told me how you felt.” He kissed her again, briefly but with feeling. “But you won’t have to let me go now.”

She shook her head. “You can’t change your plans because of me.”

“I want to stay,” he cut in decisively. “Megan’s proposal intrigued me. I only turned it down because I couldn’t see staying in San Francisco if I couldn’t have you.”

Sounds of footsteps tromping down the stairs broke them apart. Max held up a finger to his waiters and said something in rapid Spanish. The men looked confused, but then they shrugged and left.

Max took her hand and led her inside. “Come.”

“What was that about?” she asked as they walked upstairs.

“I told them I didn’t need them tonight.”

Her heart hammered in her chest, beating with hope. “Are you serving me yourself?”

He paused to kiss her. “For the rest of your life, Anna.”

She melted. “I swear I won’t screw it up this time. My priorities were out of whack when I was in law school, but I’ve got my head on straight this time. Or at least as straight as it can ever be.”

Max traced a finger down her cheek. “I love you, whether you’re straight or corkscrewed.”

“I am definitely not corkscrewed,” she said righteously. “You owe me a glass of wine for that remark.”

“That can be arranged.” He led her into the kitchen.

His crew had set up a drink station with what looked like a million glasses. On the counter, there were dozens of hors d’oeuvres on platters.

She surveyed all the food and began to laugh. “This really was a crazy idea, wasn’t it?”

“No.” Max handed her a glass of champagne. “It was beautiful, because you did it for love.”

“For us.” Instead of clinking glasses, she touched her lips to his, a blessing and a vow.

“All for us,” Max said, deepening the kiss with a promise of forever.

Hello lovely!

As you know, I’m all about YOU taking care of yourself. But I’d also like to treat you, to thank you for your support.

So I’m holding a giveaway. The grand prize is a brand new tablet! Pick a Kindle Fire, BN Nook, Kobo Arc or any tablet of similar value. There are other fun, sexy items to win, too.

There are lots of ways to enter, and no purchase is necessary. You can send me an email with the names of the first four heroines in the Laurel Heights series, or take a moment to write a review for one (or more) of my books on Amazon, Goodreads, or any other book-related site. Each post counts as a separate entry.
Check out my site
for details and deadlines.

Kick up your feet with a cappuccino or a glass of wine, and enter to win. You deserve it.

Smooches ~

Kate

Also fall in love with Kate Perry’s sexful, playful Pillow Talk novels including
Playing Doctor
and
Playing for Keeps
…

After catching her research partner-slash-fiancé with the intern, Dr. Daphne Donovan returns home to lick her wounds and figure out how to fix her life. It doesn’t take a genius to figure it out: being an uber-brilliant Doogie Howser has made her life miserable while all the normal people she knows are happy and content.

There’s only one thing to do: become normal. No more being the wunderkind of childhood disease research. All she wants is a regular nine to five job, two-point-five children, a white picket fence, and a blue collar husband.

Except normal isn’t all it’s cracked up to be, especially after she meets Ulysses Gray. Gray is everything she doesn’t want: smart, incredibly handsome, and a doctor—just like her ex-fiancé. She wants to deny him—and herself—but she can’t resist playing doctor…

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Since her mother’s death more than fifteen years before, Grace Connors has been the matriarch of her family. She’s put her own dreams on hold to raise her younger sisters and keep her ex-marine father in line.

So when her sister Nell decides to get married, it’s on Grace to make it a wedding their mother would have been proud of. It can’t be hard to organize a party, right?

But then everything falls apart, including her budding romance with her sexy best friend Pete. Caught in the crossfire with the enemy at her back, will Grace be able to fix it all before she becomes a casualty of love?

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Playing for Keeps
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Kate has tangoed at midnight with a man in blue furry chaps, dueled with flaming swords in the desert, and strutted on bar tops across the world and back. She’s been kissed under the Eiffel Tower, had her butt pinched in Florence, and been serenaded in New Orleans. But she found Happy Ever After in San Francisco with her Magic Man.

Kate’s the bestselling author of the Laurel Heights Novels, as well as the Family and Love and Guardians of Destiny series. She’s been translated into several languages and is quite proud to say she’s big in Slovenia. All her books are about strong, independent women who just want love.

Most days, you can find Kate in her favorite café, working on her latest novel. Sometimes she’s wearing a tutu. She may or may not have a jeweled dagger strapped to her thigh…

For more on Kate, visit: