Closer To You (Suits in Pursuit) (21 page)

Kerrigan’s chest heaving, she tried to speak, but her words were paralyzed in her throat
. This had to be a dream. He couldn’t be real.

“After how badly I’ve treated you? I
… I’m ... ” She stammered incoherently, unable to find the right words. She took a deep breath and started again. “Axel, you really want to marry me? Not because I’m pregnant, right?”

He
rolled his eyes and shook his head. “No, not because you’re pregnant.” He said softly, running the pad of his thumb under her tear-stained eyes. “Kerrigan, I’ve wanted you since the first day I met you, and I’ve been in love with you as long. The baby has nothing to do with me wanting to marry you. Of course, your having our first child does give us an incentive to move things along faster. He or she already takes after me.”

She
beamed, closing her teary eyes. “I didn’t imagine this in a million years.”

“We can
be married in a month before you’re actually showing.”

“You do move fast! I don’t know what to say.”

“This is where you say ‘yes’,” he said, his tone playfully stern.

She leaned down, her fingers tangling his thick hair.
“Yes! Yes, I’ll marry you! I love you Axel.”

“I love you too, baby.”
He gave her a grin that nearly split his face in two.

A
fter their romp in the cottage, they returned to the main house an hour and a half later. Entering through the kitchen’s French doors with steps as light as feathers, they sneaked their way into the family room where everyone was still gathered.

Huddled on leather loungers with Ashley in an unlit corner as Axel and Kerrigan tiptoed passed,
Ryker cleared his throat. Kerrigan gasped, and Axel jerked back.

“Where have you two been?”
Ryker asked, not looking up from his smart phone as busy fingers swiped across the screen.

“We had some unfinished business to take care of
,” Axel replied. “Speaking of unfinished business, can I get everyone’s attention? I have an announcement to make.” Continuing his journey, he stepped into the center of the gathering.

The room
stilled, every voice hushed, every movement ceased and every eye riveted to Axel, Kerrigan at his side.

“First, I want to thank
you all for coming today. Jordan and Nicole, I appreciate everything you’ve done to open your home to my family and me. I can’t thank you enough. As you all know, Kerrigan and I are expecting the arrival of our first child in July next year. We’re both extremely excited and can’t wait to meet our new son or daughter. However, we hope you’ll join us for one more celebration.” He reached for Kerrigan’s hand and looked deeply into her eyes. “Kerrigan has just accepted my hand in marriage. We’ll be married in a month, and I’m the happiest man in the world. Thank you Mr. and Mrs. Mulls for your blessing.” He looked over and winked at her.

“
My family knows this, and so does Kerrigan, but I want to share with everyone in the room, my new family.” He glanced around at the faces in the room before steadying his gaze on her. Continuing, he looked deeply into her eyes. “I knew the day that I met you that I loved you. I wanted to drop to my knees and ask you to marry me then, but I think you would have slapped me. When you left my office, I immediately called dad and told him that I had met the woman who would turn my world right side up, and you did. Thank you for giving me a chance, and for allowing me to love you, sweetheart. You rescued a lonely soul and made him whole.”

Family and friends crowded around them. Kerrigan
stared longingly into his eyes. He leaned down and kissed her passionately.

The women in the room giggled and
swooned, then everyone clapped.

“Axel, where are you
going for your honeymoon?” Jordan asked.

A wide grin saddled his face
. “I want Kerrigan to enjoy being my bride, and I plan to pamper her until the baby arrives. We’ll be taking multiple trips. Our first stop is Denver. It’s a breathtaking place this time of the year, and it’s my special gift to Kerrigan since I told her that I’d take her there someday. We’ll be there an entire month.” He winked at her.

Axel c
ornered Kerrigan as she leaned against the navy and white striped paper-covered wall in a quiet spot just outside of the family room and away from the others.

“You seem distant. Is everything okay sweetheart?” Axel’s eyes searched hers.

Butterflies swarmed her stomach in his presence. She thought
about the first step she had taken to change her life, the step into his office for the interview. She smiled. Laura Stephens was right—all it took was the first step and everything else fell into place. She was blissfully elated with life and love, and Axel.

She placed her hands against his
rigid chest and looked up into his eyes. “Everything is perfect. I’m still in shock. I didn’t recognize your love when it was right there in front of me, and I almost let this go.” She said gesturing between them with her hand. “I don’t deserve you.”

He wrapped his
hulking arms tightly around her waist, pulled her close and whispered into her ear. “Kerrigan, it’s the other way around. Someone like me doesn’t deserve a woman as sexy, beautiful, intelligent and as kind as you are. I’m looking forward to spending the rest of my life loving you and giving you the world. Sweetheart, I love you with all my heart, and I can’t wait to show you how much, over and over, again.” He pulled away and flashed his sinister grin.

She blushed and leaned helplessly into him. She had found her Mr. Right. “I love you so much. I’ve waited so long
for you. Thank you.”

He frowned. “For?”

“For loving me enough to wait for me, despite myself,” she said.

He shrugged his shoulders. “Hmm, did I have a choice?” he teased.

“You always have a choice.” She said.

He leaned down and cupped her face between his large hands. His tender kisses landed on her forehead, then nose and then lips, lingering until she went limp in his arms.
“Baby, that’s where you’re wrong, I never stood a chance. Loving you is the only choice.” He pulled her closer. “I’m never letting go.”

Excerpt from
Take Me Down

CHAPTER ONE

“It’s not what you think Ash. Hear me out babe. She doesn’t mean anything to me. I screwed up.” Paul groveled on his rusty knees, kneeling near the bedside as Ashley shoved past him. “I was vulnerable and weak. Babe, please don’t do this. I promise I won’t mess up again.”

Ashley
whipped her head around and shot fiery daggers at Paul with her eyes. “The sad thing is that you don’t even care, and that’s a problem for me. I’m tired of your bullshit. I won’t do this with you anymore. We’re done. Get out!”

Paul crawled across the floor and
covered his bare pasty ass crack with the crumpled sheet as he wrapped his lower half. The rail thin skank, whom he was screwing senselessly when Ashley walked into the room, crouched naked in a corner scrambling to dress. Arms and legs flailed wildly as the skinny red haired woman shoved her freckled face through the neck hole of her pink shirt and yanked up a pale gray skirt around her absent hips. Scrambling, she grabbed her checkered Mary Jane pumps, leopard print bra and panties and made her shameful escape through the front door of the loft apartment.

Finally, on his feet, Paul
stalked over to Ashley and snaked his sweat-drenched biceps around her waist and pulled her to him. “Ashley, you know this is your fault. If you didn’t hold out on me last week, I wouldn’t have …”

She jerked
out of his grimy grip and spun around. With the full force of breath in her lungs, Ashley’s scream bounced off the twenty-foot ceiling. “Get your goddamn hands off me! How dare you blame me, you piece of
shit
! Get out! Now!” Trembling hands clenched into fists. “Get your shit and get the hell out.”

Paul
stilled. He backed away. Kept quiet. A smirk smeared across his face, he meandered across the room in his boxers and leaned against the speckled granite kitchen countertop. “Ash, come on. I swear. I’ll never cheat on you again.”

A coy smile relaxed the tension in her lips.
“Last time, huh?” Her stare idled on perfect bleach-white teeth that he dared to bare.

“I swear. This is the last time. You’re my beautiful mocha princess.”

Moving at a snail’s pace, she retrieved his black slacks and dress shirt that were tossed carelessly to the floor near shiny new loafers. She slinked pass him and wiggled her voluptuous ass. With a slight turn and a flippant tilt of her head, she glanced over her shoulder. “You’re right, damn asshole.” She tossed his belongings through the large industrial window nine stories to the ground below. “I said get out, and that’s what I meant. Now!”

Suddenly, Ashley lunged forward, her clawed hands aimed at his jugular. Stumbling, he crashed into a leather stool and landed on the cold concrete floor.

Paul scrambled to his feet. Backing away from Ashley, he slammed into the gritty brick wall. “You crazy bitch.”

“I’ll show you crazy.” She stepped out of her shoes, bent down and retrieved a four-inch stiletto, heel aimed at Paul.

The brick grated his flesh as he slithered along the wall’s surface trying to escape. Ashley charged again. Paul scurried to the front door. His sweaty hand fiddled with the knob, and he made his escape.

Paul stood half-naked in
the hall. The door slammed shut. Ashley laughed, thinking about him running through the interior of the building in his boxers. He hadn’t been wise to tempt her sanity.

W
ith Paul evicted from her apartment and her life, Ashley sunk to the floor. She pulled her knees up to her chest and lowered her head into them. Her anger burned hot, she’d forgotten to breath. Stewing in her reality, she sobbed hard as tears flowed in streams down her face like a waterfall.

Ashley and Paul had met
at a bar. That first night of heated passion had been a deceptive lure. The explosive sex that started with midnight booty calls quickly fizzled into a year of pure hell. Paul came equipped with a heartbeat and a hard cock, barely a step up from dildo sex. They had nothing in common, he was rude and frankly, the man was dumber than the loafers that hit pavement when she tossed them out the window. He just happened to have the right male apparatus to soothe the empty ache between her thighs on lonely nights. She turned to men whenever the solace in her life was too overwhelming, echoed too loudly and reminded her that fairytale endings didn’t always happen, though her best friend Kerrigan proved to be the exception.
Bitch.

After her pity party,
Ashley reveled in a sense of relief. The thought of that bargain basement hooker in her apartment having sex on her bed made Ashley’s stomach twist. She pulled herself up from the floor. With puffy eyes, she entered the bathroom to clean up, dabbed tears away from her swollen brown orbs.

Returning to the loft’s main living area, she slid on a pair of flip-flops and exited. The elevator ride down to the apartment’s main lobby didn’t take long. Waving to Carl, the door attendant who she always caught sleeping on the job, she pushed the doors open and walked out. Ashley pressed the talk button on her hands-free earpiece.

“Hello,” the winded husky male voice belted out.

“Hey Axel, this is Ash. Is Kerri home?”

“Hi.” He paused. “Uh, yeah. Hold on a minute.” His annoyed tone didn’t faze her.

Ashley’s Yorkie circled brightly lit lampposts and yipped at strangers strolling down the dark sidewalk in front of her apartment building. She tugged Copper’s leash, attempting to keep him from biting and yelping at passersby.

A small breathless voice whispered in her ear. “Hey Ash. You never call this late. What’s going on? Are you okay?”

Kerrigan didn’t sound like herself. “Kerri, did I catch you at a bad time?” Ashley’s eyes stretched wide, and her jaw dropped. “Oh. God. You and Axel aren’t fu ...” Ashley halted her words as she caught the crumpled frown of a craggy old woman who resembled a character from a Mother Goose Nursery Rhyme. “Oh. God. You are screwing.” She stared brazenly at the old hag and rolled her eyes. “I’m sorry I called after ten. I forgot married people with a baby only have sex at night. Can I call you tomorrow?”

Kerrigan let out a guilty giggle. “Ash! You know I’m always here for you. Let’s talk now. What’s wrong?” Ashley heard Axel grumbling in the background.

“Kerri, go take care of your man. Axel is still my boss. You don’t have to deal with him since you’re off running your boutique. I don’t need your grumpy husband after me on Monday.”

Kerrigan laughed again. “Don’t worry about Axel. I’ve already taken care of him. We can talk now. Do you want me to come over?”

Ashley let out a sigh, and tears pooled in her eyes. “Oh, Kerri. I love you. My life is a mess and, and, I … Shit!”

In a rush of frenzy, she bolted down the sidewalk, her legs carrying her as fast as she could move them. “Copper come back! No, no! Oh my God. No! Copper!” Ashley’s cell phone crashed to the ground, the face of her smart phone shattered into hundreds of pieces on the concrete.

Out of breath, tears leaked a trail across her cheeks, and tangled hair whipped across her face, Ashley surrendered to the full force of her emotions. If anyone deserved to have a mental breakdown at ten thirty on a Wednesday night in the middle of Peachtree Street, she did. Pacing up and down the block, she took rapid steps and muttered under her breath. Attempting to skirt a man who jogged pass her, their shoulders grazed, and she nearly fell.

Ashley lost it. “Excuse you, asshole.” She trailed behind the man, quickening her gait to a stride. His legs carried him full sprint. Her pursuit halted at the end of the block as the crosswalk signal changed. Two lanes of idling cars were the great divide between Ashley and her assailant. 

Yelling from the opposite side of the road with confidence, “lunatic,” he turned and continued on his way.

Her heart pounded in her chest. She glared at the man’s back getting smaller and smaller until he disappeared into the night. Breathless, she limped back to the front of her building and leaned over, open palms pressed against her knees.

Two minutes later, her shallow breathing returned to normal and she stood up. Ashley moved her hand to her tear-stained face and wiped the moisture away. Suddenly, a warm sensation blanketed her right shoulder.

Ashley jumped. “Ah!” She whirled around. “You can’t rob someone on one of the shittiest days of their life! I don’t have any damn money.”

The stranger snatched his masculine hand away and stepped back. Slowly, her eyes settled on his Nike sneakers, crawled up his navy jogging pants to a muscular chest and then landed on a face so perfect that she had to lift up her jaw up from the sidewalk.

“Miss, I’m not going to hurt you. Are you okay?” The handsome stranger’s voice soothed her fear.

She stared into his gray eyes. The man was gorgeous. “Yes, I’m okay. I’ve just had a bad day. Thanks.”

Visit
laurenhkelley.com
for other
titles in the Suits in Pursuit series.

Pull Me Closer

Take Me Down (coming in 2014)

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H. Kelley on:

Laurenhkelley.com

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