"I . . ." She slid a sidelong glance to her grandmother, who was not paying attention to her, but had her beady eyes trained on Beck. Unsurprisingly, no demographic was unaffected by his particular brand of sexy.
And he had just said he loved her. Not only in the past, but in the present. Right here, right now.
"I don't want to make a fuss," she said, trying to make that sound like it was a good thing.
"Why not?"
He had a point. Why was she lying low until she could slink away unseen into the cold, starless night? This was not the girl who had waited tables in a Boston diner and pulled pints in a Covent Garden pub when her father cut her off. This was not the woman she had worked so hard to become.
She was Darcy Fucking Cochrane, kick-ass body artist, and lover of the brave man who was currently eating her alive with his eyes.
With shaky fingers, she reached for the button on her high-necked jacket and unfastened it. The fabric's silky slide against her skin as she slipped it off her shoulders felt sensual. Liberating. It floated to the table behind her, likely smack dab in the middle of her five-thousand-dollar-a-plate dinner.
Not a problem. The only sustenance she needed stood before her. In Beck's eyes, she saw appreciation for her body, respect for her choices. She saw . . . everything.
He laid a soft kiss on the sleeve of ink she had revealed, blessing it and her. "Darcy, I've loved you from the first day you distracted me in that boxing ring." He switched his talented mouth to her other shoulder, cutting a path of sweet devastation along her newly bared collarbone on the way. "The result? A broken nose and the crap beaten out of your brother. Which I know you wanted me to do, by the way."
"I did not--"
"Yes, you did." Unwavering, unflinching, those blue-on-blue eyes held her captive. "From that first minute you were in my corner, Darcy, and I'm sorry I wasn't always in yours. I was careless with your heart and I didn't trust you to make the important decisions for yourself. No mas." No more.
No more hiding.
No more running.
No more denying.
"I'm yours, mi reina. Always have been, always will be."
Her apparent promotion from princess to queen sent a surge of power through Darcy, making her so heady she white-knuckled the table's edge.
"Then I guess you'd better kneel, Beck Rivera."
A brief flash of fuck, really? tweaked his mouth before it curved up into that do-me grin. He jackknifed to his knees before her, his hands coasting down her thighs over the acre of fabric as he felt a path to her ankles. Checking for injuries just like the first night he rescued her outside Dempsey's. Only this time, he would find her strong and whole.
Girl walked into a bar, hooked up with her destiny.
Gently, he raised her foot and kissed the visible skin with hot, purposeful lips, transferring his intimate heat to her body. The sight of him in supplication unraveled her like a loose thread on a sweater.
Lifting his head, he held her gaze boldly. "You're strong and sexy and I love you. I need you to breathe, but I need to make sure my woman can breathe first. What do you say, querida?"
He delivered the Rivera smile, the same crooked one he wooed her with that day in the ring after he had taken down one Cochrane and set his sights on conquering another. He captured her heart then, and had held it in his iron fist ever since. Beck saw her. He truly did. She could spend the rest of her life looking at him looking at her.
There was only one thing she could say.
"Rip it, Beck."
A quicker-than-the-human-eye move, and he tore her dress from the hem all the way to midthigh. Gasps hissed though the stultifying air at the sight of her skin shining in glorious Technicolor under the harsh ballroom lights.
Unfolding to his full, staggering height, he stood back, an expression of plain relish on his face at what he had created.
"Now give me your mouth, Darcy."
She launched like a heat-seeking missile and kissed him with everything she had.
"About time," Grams muttered, though she sounded a little choked up, the old softie.
"Right on, Mrs. C," Beck said, once he broke their kiss. "Now if you don't mind, I'd like to take my girl away from all this. Think you can hold down the fort here?"
"Go, go!" Grams flapped her birdlike hands. "I need to do the rounds and squeeze more money out of these clam-fisted tightwads."
On ramshackle legs, Darcy leaned down and kissed Grams on the cheek. "You sure you can manage?" She motioned to her ripped dress and bared shoulders. "I might look like a walking middle finger to your donors, but I can stay if you need me."
"Be gone, girl. Someone else can put in the work for a change." Grams curved her regal gaze behind Darcy. "Tori! Get your plastic butt over here and push."
Beck was already half carrying, half dragging Darcy to the exit. Past Chicago's glitterati. Past a parade of shocked, pursed mouths. Past her stone-faced father.
She stopped and pivoted. "Just a second."
"You sure?" Beck asked, concern bracketing his mouth.
Her father stood, age and disappointment sketched in craggy lines on his face. "Darcy."
Looping her arms around his neck, she hugged him for the first time in so long it brought tears to her eyes.
"Thank you, Dad. Thank you for pissing me off so much that it made me strong and beautiful." She smiled up at his flinty gaze. "Call me when you're ready to talk."
Sometimes you forgive people simply because you still want them in your life, but if her father wanted more, he would need to meet her halfway. She refused to allow another bead of toxicity to burn her skin. Taking Beck's hand, she led him from the ballroom and didn't look back.
In the Drake's foyer, Beck placed his fireman's jacket over her exposed shoulders, and the protective gesture loosened that painful knot beneath her breastbone and activated the waterworks. He crushed her to his strong chest and gave her a few precious moments to lose it. The tension sloughed away with every jerky sob until she rested, boneless and spent in his arms.
"Happy?" he murmured.
"Ecstatic," she said thickly into his neck. Peeking up, she met the serious blue gaze of her first and last love. "I love you, Beck."
"I know." He pressed a soft kiss to her lips that turned ferocious in seconds. A soul kiss that went on forever, but was still over too soon.
Behind her, she heard an interrupting cough. The mayor stood with a smirk on his face, a redhead on his arm, and a security team bringing up the rear.
"Nice exit, monkey," Eli said, kissing her damp cheek. "Very colorful."
She sniffed, not quite ready or willing to pull it together. "Watch out, Mr. Mayor. Standing too close to me, you might lose some voters."
"Or attract the youth base. If they actually voted." He shifted his sharp gaze to Beck and back to Darcy. "Surely you have better manners than your grandmother, Darcy Cochrane."
She rolled her eyes. For years, Eli Cooper had teased her like an older brother and his ascent up the political ladder had made him only more insufferable. "This is Beck Rivera, one of your bravest at Engine 6."
"Rivera?" The mayor's lips firmed. As the official boss of the CFD, part of Eli's job was keeping tabs on the firemen, and with his antics, Beck had clearly not eluded the mayor's notice. "Incident back in November. Tough situation all around, but I hear you acquitted yourself well. On the mend?"
Beck nodded.
"You're one of Sean Dempsey's foster sons. You lost me a shitload of money at the Battle of the Badges."
"I'm one of his sons. And I recommend that next time you don't bet against a Dempsey."
Eli's mouth hooked up in appreciation of Beck's snappish correction. He parted his lips to say more, but checked it when one of his lackeys whispered in his ear.
"Have to go kiss some rich donor asses. Good to see you, monkey." Man-to-man nod at Beck.
As the mayor and his entourage left, Beck drew a callused finger over her jaw. "Since when are you
on such good terms with our fearless leader?"
"Oh, didn't I tell you he was an old friend? I had the nicest chat with him last night about bureaucracy and red tape and how absolutely nothing gets done at city hall over the holidays. He's trying to put a stop to all that lollygagging. Part of his platform, you know." She shot him a wicked grin.
Beck grasped the lapels of the jacket he had caped her with and drew her flush, his eyes dark with molten hunger. "You didn't have to do that. But thank you."
"What use is the Cochrane name if I can't pull in a favor every now and then?" She dropped a kiss on his sensuous lips. "Besides," she whispered, a teasing glint in her eye, "I was only doing what's best for you."
Beck drew back and studied her playful smile. "Querida," he chided, "too soon."
She laughed. "I'm just getting started, Beck Rivera. The next step? Branding you as mine."
That earned her a sexy Beck growl. "I like the sound of that, mi amor. Think of me as a new canvas for your portfolio. This heart, this soul, this body . . ." He held her hand over his chest and the wild th-thunk of his heart. "Use me, Darcy."
She planned to. Just imagining the artistry she could create with this man filled her heart to bursting with love, life, and magic.
"I already know how I want to ink you next, Beck. Something old school, maybe a heart with my name." She lowered her palm to his tight, trim ass, that part of him she had noticed first in a dingy CFD gym all those years ago, and gave it a healthy squeeze.
"Right. About. Here."
Jennifer Probst's New York Times and USA Today bestselling novels, novellas, and ebooks include the acclaimed Marriage to a Billionaire series, as well as Searching for Someday and Searching for Perfect. She lives in upstate New York. Visit her at www.jenniferprobst.com.
Emma Chase is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of Tangled, Twisted, Tamed, and Tied. She lives in a small town in rural New Jersey with her husband and children. Follow Emma on Twitter and Facebook, or visit her at www.emmachase.net.
Kristen Proby is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of Loving Cara and Seducing Lauren, as well as the popular With Me in Seattle series. Kristen spends her days with her muse in the Pacific Northwest. Visit her at kristenproby.com.
Melody Anne is the New York Times bestselling author of the indie published Billionaire Bachelors series, the Baby for the Billionaire series, and the Surrender series, and she has a new series coming soon from Pocket Books. She lives in the Pacific Northwest. Visit her at www.melodyanne.com.
Kate Meader is the author of the sexy new series Hot in Chicago, coming soon from Pocket Books. When not writing, she works in an academic library in Chicago. Visit her at www.katemeader.com.
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Searching For series Searching for Someday
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This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real places are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and events are products of the author's imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or places or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Searching For You copyright (c) 2014 by Jennifer Probst It's a Wonderful Tangled Christmas Carol copyright (c) 2014 by Emma Chase Saving Grace copyright (c) 2014 by Kristen Proby Safe in His Arms copyright (c) 2014 by Melody Anne Null Rekindle the Flame copyright (c) 2014 by Kate Meader All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever. For information address Pocket Books Subsidiary Rights Department, 1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020.
First Pocket Books paperback edition November 2014
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Interior design by Leydiana Rodriguez-Ovalles Cover design (c) Eileen Carey
Cover photographs: couple (c) Jim Craigmyle/Corbis; winter (c) Tomasz Pietryszek/Getty Images; ribbon (c) t_kimura/Getty Images ISBN 978-1-4767-8383-3
ISBN 978-1-4767-8619-3 (ebook)
Jennifer Probst, Baby, It's Cold Outside
(Series: # )
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