Secret Maneuvers by Jessie Lane
Excerpt
If she didn’t stop flailing around like this, she was going to fall and hurt herself. “Stay still and calm down.”
Ignoring me, she continued waving her arms around. “Don’t you get it? We’ve been over for fifteen years!”
Her body tipped dangerously the other way and, for a second, I thought for sure she was going to go head first into the wall now, instead of the carpet. The thought of her accidentally hurting herself was driving me crazy. I ground out between my teeth, “Calm down and give me your attention, dammit.”
Instead of doing as I asked, she screeched, “What in the world do you think we need to talk about?”
I grabbed her by the hips to keep her from falling on her ass. The gesture clearly wasn’t appreciated since she started trying to pry my hands off her. Ignoring her attempts to remove me, I pulled her closer until we were only an inch apart and she had no choice except to look me in the face.The pupils were dilated in those big, beautiful, green eyes of hers. She was panting and clearly more nervous than outraged. Most of all, she was vulnerable and doing her best to hide it. What she didn’t understand, yet, was that I had no intentions of hurting that vulnerable side of her. I wanted to do the exact opposite. I wanted to protect it and her, so that nothing could ever hurt her again the way I had.
“Do I have your attention now?”
Eyes wide, she nodded.
“Good, now listen closely because this is important and I want to make sure that it penetrates somewhere through that thick skull of yours. We were never over, Belle, not as far as I’m concerned. Maybe on hold until I found you again, but never really over. I’ve been looking for you since the day you left Sylvania so I could tell you that I fucked up. I should have never sent you that letter.”
Belle’s breathing was ragged now. Eyes watery, threatening tears at any given second. Still, she didn’t say a word.
“Do you understand what I’m trying to tell you, baby? I’m trying to say I’m sorry. I was so fucking stupid and I will go to my grave regretting how badly I hurt you, but I didn’t just hurt you, I hurt us both. I’ve been walking around all these years in pain with what feels like these chunks of my soul missing. Moving through life with a heart that felt as if it wasn’t actually beating and how could it? It wasn’t possible because everything that was ever good about me was missing and it was missing because I didn’t have you.”
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About the Author
Jessie Lane is the writing team of Crystal Leo and Melissa Pahl. The two sisters-in-law share a passionate love of naughty romance, cliff hanging suspense, and out-of-this-world characters that demand your attention, or threaten to slap you around until you do pay attention to them. Crystal lives in Kentucky with her husband and her two little Rock Chicks in the making. Melissa lives in Minnesota with her husband and two fur babies, Yuffi and Lolo. Crystal is now trying to talk Melissa into “polar bear” swimming in Lake Superior, but so far Melissa is adamantly telling her no.
