Between Then and Now (8 page)

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An Excerpt from

What Once Was
Perfect

The Wardham
Series

Book No. 1

They sat like that for almost an hour.
At one point, Kyle was convinced that she had fallen asleep, but he
didn’t want to risk losing the moment, and he couldn’t see her face
without shifting. Her head was tucked under his chin, and he didn’t
mind, because her hair smelled amazing, an intoxicating blend of
honey and some kind of fruit. Thank god her ass was perched high on
his thigh and her legs were bent over his other arm, because in the
space beneath he had developed a brutal erection. He couldn’t
remember ever being this turned on by cuddling before, except maybe
in those first few weeks of dating when they were still working on
rounding all the bases.

He remembered every single day of that
spring, the long string of her firsts: Laney slowly peeling off her
t-shirt in the barn, then crossing her arms against her chest; her
sliding across the bench in his truck, straddling him, grinding her
jean-clad pussy against his cock; getting completely naked in a
hotel room after the Science Society Formal Ball, wanting to punch
a hole in the wall after their only condom broke. Laney had made
that night worthwhile anyway, sliding his cock between their
bodies, holding herself open, rubbing against the length of him
until they both shattered apart. They’d spent the night twisted up
in each other, and when Laney wrapped her warm little hand around
him in the shower the next morning, he thought he’d died and gone
to heaven. He returned the pleasure before check out, and two weeks
later when he moved into his first apartment, they had an entire
box of condoms at the ready.

She lifted her head and he was torn
between wanting her to see where he had wandered in his mind, and
hoping she’d return to her original position so he could keep
smelling her hair like a pervert. He didn’t dare think that she
might be wandering around the same spots on memory lane, even when
she pressed her forehead against his chin, then rubbed up his face
until her lips connected with his jaw. Kyle stifled a groan and
eased her legs down to the ground, freeing his arm to press between
their bodies.

“
Laney,
sweetheart, that’s not a good idea.”
It’s brilliant, asshole, shut up.
He
could barely grind out the words. His body was not on board with
being noble.

“
Probably not.” She pressed
against his hand, flat against her upper chest, stretching her body
to reconnect with his face, and the upper swell of her breast
filled his palm. This time the groan was louder. “Tell me to
stop.”

“
We’re going to regret
this.” Freud would have a field day with what was going in his
head. Baser instincts were definitely gaining traction.

“
Probably. Tell me to stop.” Her lips found the corner of his
mouth, at an angle, and then her face turned again and they were
sharing the barest of open mouth kisses, her bottom lip resting on
his, pressing it down. Her eyes were wide, pupils dark and full of
want. He didn’t see any hesitation, only heat, and his resolve
slipped.
One
kiss
. He let her breath slip into his
mouth, hot and moist, and he was lost, disoriented in a mixed fog
of memories and unfulfilled fantasies.

With a slight jerk, his extended arm
relaxed, allowing Laney to crawl back on his lap, straddling his
hips this time, and she looked down at his erection with a smirk.
“I knew you didn’t want me to stop.”

“
Wanting you to stop and
knowing you should are two different things. Hell no, I don’t want
you to stop.” He dragged a ragged breath into his chest and ran his
hands down the sides of her body, squeezing her hips, tracing over
her thighs and then up again, harder this time, sliding his palms
under her sweater and over the thin cotton tank top hiding
underneath. “But I don’t want you to hate me, either.”

“
I’m not an innocent
college kid anymore, Kyle.” She wiggled her hips, trying to slide
closer to the bulge in his jeans. “I like sex. You make me think of
sex. I’m all fired up from fighting. Let’s go.”

It should have been an ardour-dousing
wakeup call, the casual offer of something that was once so special
to her, to them. The higher-thinking part of his brain was
protesting that something was wrong, that Laney couldn’t possibly
want a booty call, but all Kyle could focus on was the easy
confidence that she had gained, how she must have gained it, and
his primal need to re-possess that which he had lost took over. He
could hear raspy need in his voice and he didn’t care. “Now it’s
your turn to tell me to stop, sweetheart.”

Buy What Once Was
Perfect now
– retailer links at
ZoeYork.com!

aka
The People Who Make Me Smile in a Crazy Big Way

This book was written in a
week and a half, and edited in about the same length of time, so
not that many people knew about it. Those that did blew me away
with their support. Those that didn’t were thrilled when they heard
about it after the fact. I’m grateful to and humbled by both
groups.

Special notes of love and appreciation
for:

My husband, who continues
to smile and nod and love me unconditionally.

Molly, who read this first,
in pieces, and told me when it was awesome and when it was not.
Chapter Four is better because of her. Way better.

Bonnie and Ingrid, who
turned on their retired teacher eyes (best eyes ever!) and hunted
for typos.

Jennifer, who fixed an embarrassing
number of tense slips and errant commas.

Mandie, Lori, Hannah,
Rachel, Natalie and Andraena, who make it really easy to hit send
on the email saying, “here’s the latest book, what do you
think?”

Book bloggers who embraced
me as a totally unknown first time author and shared What Once Was
Perfect: Nadine and Tamara from Hook Me Up Book Blog, Beth at Read
Your Writes, Hootie and Globug from their eponymous blog (best
nicknames ever!), Kim at Sugar and Spice Book Reviews, Eirene at
Sleepless Nights Reviews, Caitlyn at Made For You Book Review,
Savannah Mae, RomReader, Best Sellers and Best Stellars, and so
many more.

Goodreads readers, who have
friended me and welcomed me into their groups. Thank you, thank
you, thank you. A particular note of appreciation for the “Some
Like It Hot!” group, which continues to support me with honest
early reviews, and provides awesome book chats when I need a break
from writing.

Divas and Tweeters, who
continue to push me to write as much and as well as I can in the
spare hours I find in the day.

And finally, my readers.
Holy crap, I have readers! I love each and every person who has
read my book, joined my mailing list, written a review, tweeted or
blogged or posted on Facebook…I can’t thank you enough for your
support. I love to hear from you, please keep the emails and
messages coming!

Zoe York lives in London,
Ontario with her young family. She has an English degree and works
at a university, so it was probably a foregone conclusion that
she’d write a romance novel one day. She’s currently writing the
second full-length novel in The Wardham Series.

www.zoeyork.com

Copyright © 2013 Zoe York

All rights reserved.

ISBN-13: 978-0991973644
(RRKY)

ISBN-10:
0991973644