She looked down at her hand held in his.
“I could drool all over you, if you prefer.”
She burst out laughing while, at the same time, throwing herself into his arms. “Please, I’ll take the ring! No drool!” And she continued to laugh until he kissed her.
“I love you,” he told her, meaning it with every fiber of his being. More than he could ever prove to her.
“I love you too!” she whispered back.
Epilogue
“Did you get it?” Stevie demanded, standing in the middle of the kitchen banishing a spoon in each hand.
Janus froze, staring at his wife. The kitchen was dusted in flour and covered in bits of apple and…he sniffed the air experimentally. Maybe cinnamon? It looked like a hurricane and a blizzard had a baby right here in the kitchen. “I got it. What are you about to do?”
Stevie followed his gaze, looking down at her hands and the mess surrounding her. “You were taking too long,” she snarled. “I tried to make one myself.”
Janus held up the bag. “Its right here, honey.”
Stevie snatched the bag from the famous fast food restaurant from his grip. Peering into the bag, she found the hot apple pie and almost collapsed onto the floor in relief. “Oh honey!” She whispered. “You’re my hero!”
Stevie took the hot apple pie over to the kitchen table and sank down onto a chair. She took a bite, closing her eyes as the sweet flavors of cinnamon and apples filled her mouth. “This is amazing!” She moaned.
Janus sat down beside her at the table, his amusement obvious. “Is it working?”
Stevie glared at him. “Don’t you dare mock me! You’re not pregnant. You have no idea what these insane cravings are like!”
“Insane?” he repeated.
“Yes!” she replied, taking another bite, closing her eyes with enjoyment. “Insane. So just…”
She couldn’t finish her sentence because Janus had scooped her out of her chair and plunked her onto his lap. “Just what?” he asked, leaning in to nibble on her neck. “Do this?”
Stevie moaned again, this time for a different reason.
“Or maybe this?” He kissed her earlobe.
“Janus, that is exactly what got us into this mess,” she warned, leaning into him anyway, the apple pie forgotten in her lap.
His hand moved, caressing her pregnant stomach. “I like this mess we’re in,” he replied, nipping her ear.
She cuddled closer, pulling his arms around her more tightly. “Yeah. I do too,” she whispered. And kissed him again. “I like it a lot.”
He pulled back in surprise. “The baby is kicking,” he whispered, awed all over again.
Stevie smiled, covering his hand with her own. “Yeah, I can feel her too.”
“It’s going to be a boy,” he declared. “Girls generally have longer hair and it’s damned hard to manage!”
Stevie snickered, remembering just that morning when Halley walked up to Janus with a brush and a hair band, asking him to braid her hair. “You’re getting better at braiding now,” she pointed out, kissing him lingeringly. “I love you, Janus.”
“I love you too.”
Message from Elizabeth:
So did you enjoy Janus and Stevie’s story? If so, would you take just a few seconds to leave a review? Click HERE to go back to the retail site’s book page. Just a few words are extremely helpful! Thank you so much!
(If you don’t want to leave feedback in a public forum, feel free to e-mail me directly at [email protected]. I answer all e-mails personally, although it sometimes takes me a while. Please don’t be offended if I don’t respond immediately. I tend to lose myself in writing stories and have a hard time pulling my head out of the book.)
Keep scrolling for a sneak preview of “After Hours Desire” – Kade and Frankie’s story! (Yep – this is the “Frankie” that you’ve met in the last two books!)
Excerpt to “After Hours Desire”
Release Date: May 14, 2021
Click HERE to get Kade and Frankie’s story!
“No!” Frankie whispered, staring at the enormous, sexy man sitting behind the massive desk. The man who had invaded her dreams almost every night for the past six month was leaning back in the chair, his feet propped up on the old, wooden desk! The man who had distracted her during the days as well, to the point where she’d lost track of a person she was following!
That mouth, which had featured so heavily in her fantasies, pressed slightly in reaction to seeing her. Recognition flared and Frankie’s heart began to pound. “NO!” She burst out again, this time more vehemently. “No, no, no, no!”
Spinning around, Frankie paced across the wide space between the horse stalls, the dirt floor covered straw and dust and…other things she wasn’t willing to identify at the moment. She ignored the scents of well cared for horses mingling with dust and leather as she stomped her foot. “This is not happening! He isn’t here!”
Standing in the middle of the wide space, she closed her eyes and took a deep breath, letting the air slowly ease out of her lungs. But when she opened her eyes again, the man was still behind the massive desk of the stable manager’s office. But now, his expression had changed from one of stunned surprise to…amusement? Triumph?!
Still pacing, she shook her head, glaring at the floor. “It isn’t him! No. I left him back in Dallas and vowed never to see him again. Never! I don’t care how handsome he is or how charming, it simply doesn’t matter!”
She paced some more, struggling to focus on her breathing in a futile effort to calm her temper. Frankie simply couldn’t believe that Fate had such a twisted sense of humor!
“I didn’t have sex with him for a reason!” she muttered vehemently. “And that was a valid reason!
