Some Girls Do (Outback Heat Book 1) (26 page)

“Oh.” He ran a hand through his hair, smudging some grease along his forehead.

Oh?
That didn’t sound very good.

“Look, I know you think that I’m too young and flighty, and God knows I’ve done everything to prove those two things over and over. For so long after Mum died and I moved to Brisbane I was desperately looking for love, but it was so damn elusive and I was so worried I didn’t know
how
to love anymore, that grief had tripped some switch or something. But I was wrong. Because I do know what it feels like to love, I was just afraid to
really
let myself go there. But I’m not afraid anymore. If you don’t love me back then it will be heartbreaking and awful, but I’m not going to stop loving you, Coop. Not now I know how.”

“Lacey—”

“No.” She shook her head, deliberately interrupting him. He looked like he was going to tell her she didn’t know what she was talking about, or rehash all the reasons why he’d fought a physical relationship with her, but she didn’t want to hear any of that.

If he didn’t love her that was one thing. But if he didn’t think it was
wise
to love her that was another thing entirely.

“I know I’m a lot younger than you, Coop, and you think I should be playing with boys my own age and I haven’t seen a whole lot of the world and I’m crazy to pass up on the opportunity to work with Anouska. And I know my brothers will find it hard to wrap their heads around. But I don’t care about any of those things. I’m not a child. I’m an adult.
A woman
. And I’m not going to let anyone tell me what to do or where to live or who to love. Or not love. I love you, Coop, I love you so much I want to weep and yell it from the rooftops all at once and I want to be with you and if you don’t then that’s fine. Well, it’s shitty, but it’s fine … I guess I’ll get over it one day but—”

His mouth cut her off. It came down hard and urgent and hot and sucked her words and her breath and her sense away. It pinned her head to the door and her heart to his and turned her into a moaning, clinging, crazy woman, wild for the taste of his mouth and the thrust of his tongue.

“You love me?” he said, panting hard when he finally pulled back, his forehead pressed to hers.

Lacey nodded, because she wasn’t sure she even had a voice after that kiss.

“Oh God.” He pressed a slow sweet kiss to her mouth this time, her heart aching with the beauty of it. “I love you too,” he said breaking off the kiss. “I love you so much it almost killed me to let you go.”

Lacey frowned even as her heart gave a giddy leap. “Why did you?”

“Because you had an amazing opportunity given to you and I promised Ethan I loved you enough to let you go. So when the time came … I did. I had to, Lacey.”

“Hang on,” she said, looking into his eyes. “You told my brother you loved me before you told me?”

He chuckled and it was such a husky, sexy noise it stroked along all her good places. “Yes.”

“I bet he
loved
that.”

Another chuckle. “I think he was just relieved I wasn’t screwing his little sister for recreation.”

“Oh, I do believe that’s what we were doing for a while there.”

“No,” he shook his head and it was so emphatic Lacey’s heart skipped a little beat. “It was
never
what I was doing.”

And he kissed her again. Lacey opened to him, accepting the delicious heat of his mouth and the play of his tongue and the stroke of his hand under her shirt, hooking her leg around his waist, revelling in the hard bulge between his legs, rubbing herself against him until they were both panting hard.

“God,” he groaned, dragging his mouth off hers. “If we don’t stop I’m going to do you against this door.”

Lacey ran her hand along the thick bulge of his cock. “That’s fine by me.”

The harsh suck of his breath was like music to her ears but he groaned, “Wait,” and reached down for her hand, dragging it up to rest in his, right over the heavy thud of his heart.

“You are going back to Melbourne, right?”

Lacey shook her head. “No. I’m not. I’m going home to Jumbuck Springs and I’m going to build a client base of country women who I’ll design one-off gowns for and I’m going to grow it into a successful local business and you and I can go back and forth between there and here because I never want to be too far away from you ever again.”

“But Lacey …” He brushed her hair back over her shoulder. “That’s giving up a huge opportunity that you may really regret one day. Making any business succeed is tough, and Jumbuck Springs isn’t exactly a thriving metropolis.”

“In the last three weeks I’ve had a dozen phone calls from women in the district all wanting me to make them gowns. Two were wedding dresses. I can do this, Coop. I’ll never be Anouska Dahl—”

“But that’s what you wanted to be,” he interrupted. “A famous fashion designer.”

“Yes. When I was
six
. But I’m older now. And more realistic. Ambitions change. I’m happy to settle for being the best damn fashion designer in Jumbuck Springs.”

“You’re happy to settle? Are you sure about that? If you stick with Anouska, famous is still possible.”

“Oh come on, Coop,” she teased, “haven’t you heard? Everyone dies famous in a small town.”

He didn’t smile. “If this is about us you know we can work around it. I can fly to Melbourne some weekends. You can fly here some others.” His arms tightened around her. “We can make it work.
I’ll
make it work.”

Lacey shook her head. “No. I don’t want that. I don’t want rushed weekends and continual goodbyes. I want to be with
you
. I want to be here.”

“I just don’t want you to wake up in a decade and regret your choices.”

“And I want you to stop treating me like I’m some kid who doesn’t know her own mind. Have I
ever
struck you as someone who doesn’t know her own mind?”

He smiled. “No. Never.”

Lacey smiled back. “Good, then stop arguing with me, tell me you love me again, tell me that you want to marry me and have
real
babies with me one day and then do me against this damn door already.”

He chuckled this time and Lacey knew she was never going to tire of hearing that noise. “I do love you and I do want to marry you and have lots of
real
babies with you one day. I love you, Lacey Weston. I’ve loved you since you ruthlessly slept with me the night we first met.”

Lacey’s chest felt too small to contain the bloom of emotions all struggling for top billing. She ran a hand through his hair, her fingers tracing the scar on his scalp, feeling sick that he might never have been in her life and she might never have known this kind of love, but lucky and grateful that he was and she did.

She pulled on his neck and their lips met in a slow, deep kiss that touched her heart and branded her with his love. This was the beginning of forever and Lacey was never letting him go.

“Now,” he said pulling away slightly, dropping his head to the side as he looked at her, his hands finding the hem of her shirt again. “About that selfie …”

Then in one quick move he ripped the T-shirt right up the middle until it was hanging in two limp parts by her arms. Lacey gasped at the unexpectedness, then laughed as he eyed her breasts. “Would you like me to recreate it?” she asked cocking an eyebrow.

“I think it’s the least you can do considering the huge hard-on you gave me when I opened it.”

Lacey smiled, thankful she’d decided to wear her bra that opened at the front. She popped the clasp and Coop’s eyes widened. He grinned down at her as he slid his hands around her waist and onto her butt. His clothes were dirty and his fingers were all greasy but she didn’t care. She could smell his deodorant over the earthier smells of his workplace and the fact he worked with his hands only turned her on more.

He could make her dirty any day. “Hold on to me, baby,” he growled, hiking her up. “This door is about to get a work-out.”

Lacey locked her ankles around him and grabbed his shoulders.

She was
never
letting him go.

Outback Heat

If you enjoyed
Some Girls Do
, you’ll love the other Outback Heat stories!

Book 1: Some Girls Do

Book 2: Some Girls Don’t

Book 3: Some Guys Need a Lot of Lovin’

Book 4: Some Girls Lie

Multi-award winning and USA Today bestselling author
Amy Andrews
is an Aussie who has written fifty romances from novellas to category to single-title in both the traditional and digital markets for a variety of publishers. Her first love is steamy contemporary romance that makes her readers tingle, laugh and sigh. At the age of 16, she met a guy she instantly knew she was going to marry. She just smiles when people tell her insta-love books are unrealistic because she did marry that man and, twenty odd years later, they’re still living out their happily ever after. Amy works part-time as a PICU nurse and spent six years on the national executive of Romance Writers of Australia where she organized two national conferences and undertook a two year term as president. She loves good books, fab food, great wine and frequent travel – preferably all four together. She lives on acreage on the outskirts of Brisbane with a gorgeous mountain view but secretly wishes it was the hillsides of Tuscany.

More from Amy:

Visit her website at
AmyAndrews.com.au

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