In Deep: Chase & Emma (All In Book 1) (32 page)

He gave me another
smile and even I, surrounded by snow outside the car, felt warm right
down to my toes.

“I’ve never been
happier,” he said.

“Me, either,” I
agreed wholeheartedly.

§

The night before New
Year’s, we checked ourselves into a hotel on Naugatuck. The ferry
ride over had been choppy. I wasn’t the only one who felt slightly
green. Chase fixed himself a stiff drink, and one for me as well, and
we settled down together on a couch.

“That sucked,” he
admitted. His white knuckles had said it all, though on the ferry
he’d maintained a tight-lipped “I’m fine” attitude.

“That definitely
sucked,” I agreed. The ferry had actually had to slow down from its
high speed to accommodate the swells. I’d seen one passenger throw
up into her handbag. Another barely made it into the bathroom. Fun
stuff!

“I’m glad we’re
here, though.” He took my hand in his, rubbing his thumb along it.
“Liam throws a great party. New Year’s is a blast, but his annual
Fourth of July party is the stuff of legend.”

He went on to tell me a
few funny stories, how celebrities vacationing on the island always
seemed to find their stumbling way over to Liam’s. Last year he’d
had an NBA player, a rapper, and a Hemsworth.

“Wait, what? Did you
say Hemsworth?” My voice rose an octave.

He nodded, “I did.”
He looked at me keenly. “Does someone have a crush?”

“What? Pfst.” I
gave a completely unconvincing dismissive sound. Hells yeah, I had a
crush, as did half the people on the planet.

“Well, I’ll have to
make sure he doesn’t make a repeat appearance,” Chase concluded.
“By the way, you should know, Liam had your back.”

“What do you mean?”

“In September, after
the games, when we weren’t talking.”

“When you weren’t
talking to me,” I clarified.

“Right, well, he told
me I was being an idiot.”

I’d always liked that
Liam. Now I did even more.

After a long, hot
shower and a sweet, wet blow job, all thoughts of the bumpy ferry
ride had been vanquished. A generous man, Chase returned the favor,
turning me into a molten, writhing mess as he ate me out, then fucked
me good and long and hard on the bed.

As we drifted off to
sleep, a thought popped into my head. I’d wanted to talk to him
about it earlier, but I’d been worried about his reaction. Now,
post orgasm, I felt no stress. It was the right time to ask.

“What do you think
about starting a blog?” I murmured.

“Yeah right.” He
laughed, lazily, clearly assuming I was joking.

“No, I’m serious.
We could blog about all the goings-on at the center. And I could
profile some of the kids there. We could get them some visibility,
maybe link it to a college scholarship fund.”

“OK, on one
condition,” he warned me.

“What is it?”

“You wear a big hat
the whole time that says in all caps, “I’M A BLOGGER.”

“Oh my God.” I
swatted his broad chest, laughing, feeling the rumble of his
laughter, too. That was the thing about love, it turned even the most
painful of memories into something you could tease and laugh about.

“There was something
else I wanted to tell you.” I feigned forgetfulness, drumming my
fingers on his arm. Then I pulled myself up the length of his
gorgeous body and gave him a full kiss. “Chase, I love you so
much.”

“I love you, too,
Emma.” He held me in the darkness, our hearts beating in sync, safe
and warm and happy together.

Life was good.

THE
END

Thank you so much for reading
In
Deep
! I hope you loved every page! It’s such fun sharing
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First Chase and
Emma kicked off the
All In
series with
In Deep
.
Next up is Liam. He’s the good guy, the hero, the one everyone
relies on. Except for the one woman he wants most. You can’t always
get what you want. At least that’s what he’s tried to tell
himself. Until she moves back to Naugatuck. Stay tuned for Liam’s
standalone story
All of Me
,
out in late 2015.

But you don’t
have to wait that long for more Callie Harper goodness! I’m
thrilled to share the fifth and final standalone in the
Beg
For It
series. Each of the members of the Kavanaugh family
have their own book, which can be read in any order. Here’s a sneak
peek of
Undeniable (Dom &
Gigi),
to be released October, 2016.

He’s the one she
couldn’t have. She’s the one he couldn’t forget.

They haven’t
seen each other in four years. He’s been serving with the Special
Forces. She’s finished college. They’ve had time to move on.
Neither one has.

Now there’s a
death threat. Her family’s business has pissed off a drug cartel.
Her life’s in danger.

They’re thrown
together, on the run. He has to keep her safe. From everyone.
Including himself.

NOTE:
Undeniable
is a standalone hot adult romance. It’s the fifth story in the
Beg
for It
series—which can be read in any order—about the
Kavanaugh family and the dominant, alpha men and the strong, sexy
women who make them finally meet their match.

EXCERPT

Gigi

When he walked into the
party I dropped a full glass of champagne. And it was a real glass,
so I sent shattered fragments flying everywhere. It seemed fitting.
When he’d left without a trace four years ago, I’d felt
completely shattered.

Now he stood 20 feet
away from me looking even more devastatingly gorgeous than before. I
didn’t know how that could be possible. He’d spent the past four
years in the Special Forces; I’d gotten that much out of my older
brother, Colt. I knew the two of them had kept in touch after Dominic
had saved his life.

After he’d nearly
ruined mine.

When you fell in love
at 18, it felt like the world was opening up, full of promise and new
beginnings. Especially if you thought the man you loved felt the same
way. And I didn’t mean puppy love, full of rainbows and princess
dreams. I meant honest, real, I’ve found the person I want to be
with for the rest of my life love.

But then Dom had left,
no warning, no forwarding address.

It might have had
something to do with the fact that his mother married my father. We
hadn’t seen that coming. But the marriage had only lasted a year
and a half. My father had passed at only 67 years old from cancer.
Dom hadn’t even come back for the funeral.

But now here he was at
our family’s annual holiday party. Wearing a tux. And making me
drop champagne glasses.

“Are you all right?”
someone next to me asked. A server hustled to sweep up the shards.

“Oh, of course. How
clumsy of me.” Dropped glasses happened every year at this party,
usually toward the end of the evening courtesy of the open bar. I’d
started things off early. Seeing the long-lost love of your life walk
through the door had that effect.

He spoke briefly with
my brother, Colt. But then he made his way over to me. I knew he
would. Nervous, I flitted among partygoers, maintaining my
ever-cheerful exterior even as I remained hyper-aware of his every
move. I was famous for my composure, my happy demeanor. No one knew
what had happened between me and Dominic. No one even knew I had a
secret to keep.

He stood before me.
“Gigi.”

I’d recognize that
voice anywhere. I still heard it in my sleep, low and dark. I didn’t
have to look up to know it was him, so I didn’t. I kept focused
across the room where some acquaintance or other was giving me wave.
Perfect, bright, upbeat as always, I waved back.

But a storm raged
inside me.

“How are you?” He
still stood there, so tall, broad and powerful. Of course I knew in
the military he’d have pushed himself physically, but he’d
already been in killer physical condition when I’d last seen him.
Now? He looked like Thor with short, dark hair.

“Oh, fine!” I
answered in bright falseness, the exterior I wore for everyone else
in place. Everyone else accepted it without doubt.

Dom reached out and
grazed my hand with his. I couldn’t ignore that. I looked up into
his eyes, the ones I’d dreamed about for years now, so dark and yet
the more you looked into them the more depth you could see, shades
and hints of light.

“How are you?” he
asked again.

I looked up at him, all
pretense instantly gone. Stripped naked, bare for him, all my emotion
in my gaze.

How was I? I was still
in love with him. Deeply, madly, irrevocably. That’s how I was.

I drew a shaky breath.
And then a friend intervened, a party girl, one of New York society’s
finest. Exactly the type I tended to hang with, all surface, all the
time. It was easier that way. When no one around you had any depth,
then no one suspected you did, either.

“Aren’t you going
to introduce me to your friend?” she asked, flashing him a
seductive smile. His eyes never left mine.

“Of course!” I
fluttered, shifting easily into social butterfly mode. “Samantha,
Dominic. Do you know the two of you are both from California? I’m
sorry, please excuse me. There’s someone I have to say hello to.”

And just like that I
extracted myself from the situation. Now I simply had to staunch the
bleeding from the freshly opened wound in my heart. That shouldn’t
take long, maybe only another year or so.

Dominic. Back in New
York. Never in my wildest dreams had I imagined he’d return
tonight. All right, in my wildest dreams he’d done a lot more than
find me at a party and say hello.

I took a deep breath,
then reminded myself to let it out. It had always been like that
around him. Hard to breathe, with him staring directly into my soul.
I guessed some things never changed.

I’d just have to make
sure we never ran into each other again.

Dom

I got the call late at
night. I’d grown accustomed to midnight emergencies. In the Special
Forces, you didn’t exactly keep regular hours like a nine-to-five
desk jockey.

But I’d finished my
four years of active duty. I was now officially in the reserves,
technically on call but no longer storming and raiding in foreign,
war-torn countries, watching my friends get blown apart by IEDs. Big
difference. At least I’d thought.

When I’d seen Colt at
the holiday party Saturday night, I’d expected a follow-up call.
He’d stayed in touch relentlessly over the years, tracking me down
even when it was damn hard. And it was damn hard most of the time.
I’d grown to respect him, his loyalty, his friendship. The man
remembered who’d helped him when he’d needed it. That said a lot
about his character.

But I hadn’t expected
him to call at 2 a.m. Monday morning. I’d been awake, lying in bed,
thinking about her. At the party, Gigi had looked like a fucking beam
of sunlight struck down through a crack in the ceiling in that
shimmering silver dress with her soft, creamy skin and gleaming waves
of strawberry blond hair. All the times I’d dreamed of her,
envisioned her like a talisman of hope in the middle of my darkest
hours, I’d tried to convince myself that I’d exaggerated. I must
have embellished the truth over the years. No one could be that
staggeringly beautiful.

Then I saw her again
and realized my fantasies hadn’t even done her justice. Her full
lips, her petite frame. The way she held herself, graceful and light.
The way she couldn’t meet my eyes. Then how she’d looked when she
finally did, gazing up at me with her dark blue eyes wide and
brimming with unspoken emotion. I saw a mixed-up brew of confusion
there. And maybe longing? I might have seen a hint of that. Late at
night, I sure hoped I had.

I’d already felt
pretty worked up before Colt’s phone call. But his words jolted my
adrenaline into hyper-drive like a hostile raid.

“We have a
situation,” he’d begun, asking if I could be downstairs in five
minutes to step into his limo.

Inside the car, he gave
me the highlights of his current shitstorm. He was right. It was a
bad one.

Colt was CEO of the
family business, Kavanaugh Investors. I knew enough about human
nature to understand without being told, you didn’t become a
billionaire without getting your fingers dirty every now and then. No
one amassed that kind of wealth and stayed squeaky clean.

It turned out his
former COO had been dealing dirty for years, getting in way over his
head with exactly the kinds of people you didn’t want to mess with
at all, ever. I knew about those kinds of people. I hadn’t grown up
with a silver spoon in my mouth like Colt. I’d grown up in Fresno,
my father in a motorcycle club, my mother in a strip joint. It was
cool on
Sons of Anarchy
,
but not so cool as a seven-year-old needing regular meals.

But it had given me
more of an education than all of Colt’s Harvard degrees. Most
everyone I knew had a dark side and, given the right conditions,
they’d go there. Greed and power were ruthless motivators.