Prologue
Prologue - Megan
Holy shit.
What am I doing?
“Oh,
God! Right there… I’m coming… Don’t
stop!”
Is that me screaming like that?
Holy shit.
I didn’t even know that noises like that could come out of
my mouth!
“You like
that?” he asks with his lips pressed against my neck – the vibrations shooting
straight to my core.
I focus,
my now alcohol free vision, on the man thrusting above me. His dark hair is blending in with the shadows
that are dancing around the room. His
face is a mask of ecstasy as he thrusts into my waiting body. It’s a look of pure desire that I will never
forget.
What the hell am I doing?
“You feel
so good. Your body so greedy for my
cock. You want it harder, darlin’?”
I moan
shamelessly and feel my body get even wetter with his huskily whispered words.
Screw it – this feels way too good to stop now.
I reach
down, dig my fingers in the firm globes of his ass, tip my head back and
beg. Beg with incoherent cries for him
to take me harder. To take everything he
can.
**Two Hours Earlier**
“You look
beauuuutiful,” I sing as Dani Reid – No, Dani Cage – walks over to sit next to
me at one of the tables scattered around the backyard wedding.
She looks
at me, her stunning green eyes bright with love and happiness.
“And you
sound a little drunk, my friend,” she laughs.
I just
smile at her, running my fingers through the lace on her wedding gown. “This is soft.”
She just
laughs and leans back and looks across the yard to where her new husband,
Cohen, is standing by the dock talking to some of his friends. This is another one of those moments when I’m
reminded that this group doesn’t have a single unattractive person in it. I take a second to look at all the
well-built, good-looking men standing around him. When my eyes meet Liam Beckett’s, I look away
quickly. For months now Liam has made no
secret that he would love nothing more than my undivided attention.
“They’re
all so unfairly hot. No men should be that attractive,” I whisper in awe,
gaining me another chuckle from Dani. I
blush when I realize that my thoughts aren’t staying in my head, where they
belong. When I look back over to where
the group of men are standing, my eyes hit the familiar pair of deep brown ones
again, eyes that always seem to know each and every time I’m looking their
way. I quickly look away, feeling that
blush get even brighter. I’m not ready
to deal with him right now. At least not when I’m this tipsy.
Picking
up my wine glass, I take another healthy swallow as I do a quick scan, taking
in all that is the Reid Family property.
They’ve done a beautiful job transforming the backyard of Dani’s family
home for Cohen and Dani’s wedding. I
still can’t believe that Dani managed to pull off a surprise wedding without
Cohen even catching the smallest hint of her plans.
“Are you
sure you’re okay with Molly spending the night with my parents, Megs? I know it’s hard for you to leave her overnight,
but they just love your daughter to pieces.
And I know Owen loves having her around.” Dani reaches out and takes the hand I had
resting against the table while she speaks.
“Yup,” I
smack and nod my head.
“You’re
drunk,” she says, repeating her earlier observation.
“I’m not
drunk, I’m tipsy. There’s a huge
difference there. If I was drunk I
wouldn’t be able to walk. Watch!”
I jump up
from my chair with a little more power than I mean and quickly stumble when the
narrow heel of my five-inch shoes sinks into the soft grass beneath me.
“Whoa,
there darlin’.”
I feel
it, those words, every single syllable deep down in my gut. Each rumbled word vibrating through my body
creating a slow burn until they end with a sharp pulse between my legs. His
arms locked at my elbows and my back solidly against his front – where my
graceless stumble caused me to end up. I jerk my body tight and feel his
laughter reverberate through my body once again.
I attempt
to pull my arms from his loose but strong hold, only to give up when it becomes
clear that he isn’t going to let go.
Shifting until my face is turned, he lets one arm go and helps me spin
until I’m facing him, and moves his hands from my elbows to my hips.
“Hey,” he
says with a smile, the dimple in his cheek popping out.
“Liam,” I
sigh and then curse myself for not being able to hide my reaction to him.
His smile
turns knowing and his eyes darken before dropping to my lips.
I gulp.
“You
should be more careful, Megs.”
“It’s
Megan,” I snap.
“I know,
babe, you don’t have to keep reminding me.”
“Then why
can’t you seem to actually remember it?” I squeak and try to pull my body away
from his grip – and fail, again.
“Someone
doesn’t sound drunk anymore.” I hear
Dani speak but I don’t take my gaze off Liam.
“She does look it though.” She muses on a laugh, which finally gets my
eyes to snap to hers.
“I’m
fine! I just had a few glasses of wine
and I haven’t eaten much. But, I most
definitely am not drunk. I think I would
know if I was drunk.”
Okay, so
that’s a lie. I might not be drunk, but
I am definitely slightly past tipsy.
Dealing with Liam – or rather my attraction to Liam – is hard enough for
me on a good day, when I’m completely sober.
But with this amount of wine flowing through my body, I just can’t trust
myself.
It’s
taken everything I have to keep him, and his obvious interest, at bay for the
last couple months. When he’s around he
goes out of his way to get me alone and lay it out. He wants me.
“You look
stunning when those shadows aren’t rolling around your shoulders,” Liam
whispers, his lips press close enough to my ear that I can feel his words one
by one against my skin.
I shiver,
his words hitting me close to home, but the tone causing me to forget I should
be pushing him away. Especially when
he’s talking about things that he has no business speaking about.
“I’m
fine,” I stammer.
“Yeah,
darlin’, I know you are.”
His eyes
keep their hypnotizing hold on my own. I
hear Dani excuse herself. I don’t turn
to watch her disappear in the lingering crowd of party-goers that are still
left milling around. The music is still
floating in the air around us. As I look
into his eyes everything around me feels like it’s…alive. It’s a feeling that I’ve been missing for the
last few years. A feeling that only
comes to visit when I’m with my daughter, or until recently, when Liam Beckett
is in the same room. It’s a feeling that,
even though I shouldn’t, I feel guilty for allowing myself to enjoy.
Whether
it’s the wine, the fact that Molly left a few hours ago with Dani’s parents, or
the man standing in front of me, all I know is if I don’t hold on to this
feeling for as long as I can right now, I’ll regret it for years to come.
“Megs,”
he says on a sigh, his fingertips digging in and his eyes swirling with a rich
hopefulness that turns those golden flecks you can normally see swimming in his
brown eyes into a burning fire lighting his gaze.
Hungry
eyes.
I don’t
think. If I had given myself just a
second to process my next move, I’m sure I would have backed out of his hold
and run as fast as I could to my car.
But, I didn’t think, so my next move was pure, one-hundred-percent Megan. But not the Megan I’ve been for the last
couple years since my husband died. No,
this Megan feels like I’ve finally dug myself out of those ashes I’ve been
living in since my life burned up around me.
The cloak of depression that normally lingers loosely around my
shoulders, dropping to my feet with the feel of Liam pressed tight. I know this feeling won’t last, but I
suddenly want to hold on to every second I can of this experience, until it
leaves me.
I reach
out and curl my fingers around his forearms.
My eyes growing wide when his brow lifts. With a quick push I rock up and close the
distance that is left between our mouths.
When my lips touch his, that feeling of being alive burns so bright
every nerve in my body feels it, each inch of skin boiling and cooling so
quickly it’s as if I can’t make up my mind if I want to be hot or cold. My hairs stand on end, my skin pebbles –
going cold before rushing heat fills my veins, and the very thump of my heart seems
to skip a beat the second our lips touch.
One thing
I know for sure. I want this. I want this and Liam’s going to give it to
me.
He
doesn’t pause. His groan vibrating
against my chest only lights the feeling that is firing through my skin. My hands move from his forearms and I run my
hands up his chest until both hands curl around his neck and I use the hold to
pull my body even closer to his.
His hands
move from my hips and he curls them around my bottom, pulling me tightly
against his body. When I feel the very
obvious sign of his attraction, I moan deeply, and shiver when he answers with
one of his own.
I can’t
tell you how long this kiss lasts. When
his tongue moves to swipe against my lips, I open without reservation. We continue, our tongues dancing together
while each of our moans are swallowed by the other, until I have to pull away
to gulp a breath of air before I pass out – however, the way I feel right now,
passing out might very well be a possibility.
“This is
finally happening,” he snarls in a tone that should scare me, but all it does
is act as kerosene to our already uncontrollable fire of lust.
“It is,”
I agree without question.
“Now,” he
says.
“Okay,” I
agree on a sigh and sway toward his hard body.
With the
encouragement he needs, his hands finally leave my body. He turns me, wraps one thick arm around my
shoulder, and turns to walk toward the front of the house.
“We’re
leaving?” I question lamely.
“Darlin’
I didn’t stutter. This is happening,” he
says, pausing when he reaches the side of the house and the shadows that will
give us the privacy we need. His body
turns, moving me to stand before him once again. “I need to know you’re with me, Megan. I’ve wanted this since the day I met you, but
I knew you weren’t ready for me. I’ve
been trying to keep my distance, just waiting for those clouds to leave your
eyes. If you don’t want me to take you
back to my house, strip you naked and fuck you until you can’t walk for weeks,
then say so now, because the second I have you I won’t be letting go.”
“Oh,
boy,” I whisper.
“I prefer
oh God, but I’ll make that the first
item on my to-do list.”
“You’ll
make what?”
“My to-do
list, Megs. The list of things I’ve
wanted to do to you for months
now. Making you scream oh God will be number one, followed by
my name, of course.”
“Oh,
God,” I repeat, my mind swilling with the promise his words inflict.
“Yeah,
you’re getting it.”
His mouth
crashes down on mine for a hard but quick kiss before pulling back and giving
me another one of those knee-melting smirks.
“Last chance, Megan,” he whispers while his hands are framing my heated
face.
Whatever
he sees in my eyes is enough, he gives me a light kiss, takes his hands from my
face and curls one around my left hand and pulls me toward his truck.
Meet Liam & Megan in
the newest stand alone
in the Hope Town Series by
Harper Sloan!
Releasing: July 14th
Bleeding Love
(Stand
alone)
I've loved once. I gave everything that I had to that
love. Blindly believing that nothing could ever take that feeling away from me.
Away from us. And when my little world of happiness was ripped from my fingers,
I felt a loss that still haunts me to this day.
Now I use that lingering grief as a shield to keep my
heart from loving again. It's that fear that keeps me from letting anyone,
except my daughter, get close enough to make it hurt. To make my heart bleed
when I inevitably lose again.
Until the day I met Liam Beckett and everything I thought
I had protected myself from was shoved back in my face.
He's on a mission to prove to me that a love worth having
is a love worth fighting for.
About the Author:
Harper lives
in small town Georgia just a short drive from her hometown of Peachtree City.
She (and her 3 daughters) enjoy ruling the house they dubbed 'Estrogen Ocean',
much to her husband’s chagrin. Harper has a borderline unhealthy obsession with
books; you can almost ALWAYS find her with her eReader attached. She enjoys bad
reality TV and cheesy romantic flicks. Her favorite kind of hero--the super
alpha kind!
Harper
started using writing as a way to unwind when the house went to sleep at night;
and with a house full of crazy it was the perfect way to just relax. It didn't
take long before a head full of very demanding alphas would stop at nothing to
have their story told.
THANK YOU!
Tristan Williams thought the path of his life was on the
right journey. He had a successful career, good looks, and a carefree
lifestyle. One conversation changed Tristan’s way of thinking forever as his
father presented him with a bottle, representing his journey and forcing
unwanted thoughts of a lasting relationship to the surface. Running from the
fear of commitment, he pushed away the only woman he ever had feelings for and
turned to the one girl he knew he didn’t love. 
Kelly Elliott is married to a wonderful Texas cowboy who has
a knack for making her laugh almost daily and supports her crazy ideas and
dreams for some unknown reason...he claims it's because he loves her!
