Sweet Seduction Secrets (Sweet Seduction, Book 8): A Love At First Sight Romantic Suspense Series (36 page)

“We’ve really got no choice,” Reid was saying.

“We’re cornered,” Ava agreed.

“Backs to the wall,” Will concurred.

“It was always going to come to this,” Brayton announced, drawing everyone’s attention. “Well,” he said, shifting to make himself more comfortable. “Charlie is out. And not one of us here would ask her to sacrifice that.”

They all nodded their heads as I started shaking mine. I took a step closer, Adam shadowing me, still gripping my hand. Or I was gripping his, I’m not sure.

“Babe,” Brayton said. “We’re family. Fuck what the Director did. Fuck what the Government thinks we’re responsible for. Fuck what they think we can do. We’re family. And if one of us can be free, then we
all
want them to
stay
free. Besides,” he said with a knowing grin, “do you really think the big man here will let you go again?” He pointedly looked down at where Adam’s and my hands were clasped, fingers laced, palm to palm, bodies aligned towards each other.

I turned and looked up into the deepest of blues, a small smile curving Adam’s lips as he met my gaze. He shook his head. “Never,” he whispered, stepping closer, brushing hard thighs against my leathers. “Family. You’re part of
my
family too, you know.” He meant ASI. He meant Nick and the team who’d let me in despite knowing who and what I was. Who’d risked their lives to free me. I was speechless, but Adam wasn’t. He had more to say. More words to rock my world. “And as this lot is your family too, I guess that makes us cousins. Related in a way. All in this together.”

“Cousins?” Caleb drawled. “Great,” he added, deadpan.

“Kissing cousins?” Ava queried, a little too enthusiastically.

Adam sent her a sexy grin; I gripped his hand tighter. He offered me a wink and then with a shrug of his shoulders said to Ava, “Sure. Why not? You can have Brook or Koki. The rest of us are taken.” His eyes met mine with a challenge.

A challenge I was more than happy to meet.

I was doing this. I was following my heart. Allowing my emotions to lead the way. Doing something I
never
thought I’d be capable of achieving. Living. Like a normal human being. Or as close to one as a retired spy could get. I was taking a chance on love. Letting this gorgeous man catch me.

I was taking a leap and falling… and I knew that Adam Savill had open arms, ready and waiting.

I wouldn’t have thought this was possible, but I’d discovered so much in the past couple of months… I’d discovered I had not one, but two families. I’d discovered that I’d do anything to keep them safe. And I’d discovered that they’d do the same for me.

There was no going back. This was it. I was walking away from the Department, but not away from the family the Department had been.

“It’s settled then,” Will said, but my eyes were all for Adam.

The others added their own two cents worth, but all I could hear was the beat of my heart, the pounding of my pulse inside my head. Vaguely, I was aware that they had left the meeting. Leaving us alone. More in tune with what was happening than I had been.

The room heated, or it could have been my cheeks, my body. Me.

The world seemed enormous all of a sudden, and also exactly the size it needed to be.

Adam leaned forward and rested his forehead against mine. “What do you say, firecracker? Gonna let me make that catch?”

Love can take many forms, I’ve realised. It can blindside you, smack you upside the head, and still have you disbelieving. I’d been trained to question
everything
. Moulded to discount emotions, consider them irrelevant to my needs. I’d been forged in a fire of evil, made to the exact specifications of a mentally twisted, power-hungry man. I’d had everything that was normal in me extinguished and yet
still
Adam had picked me. Had chosen
me
. Had come for
me
.

And then had caught me. Time and time again.

His hot breath coasted over my lips, making my tongue dart out to lick them. He groaned, wrapped two arms around my body, and hauled me hard against his chest.

“Quick now,” he urged. “Last chance,” he added. Last chance to escape the hunter. Last chance before he captured his prey.

Too late.

I smiled, nodded my head…

And then he was kissing me.

Love doesn’t stop when it arrives. It keeps on giving. It keeps on evolving. It keeps on proving its worth. Overcoming conditioning. Fighting those triggers… and winning.

Open arms constantly catching.

My stalker. Determined. Patient. My perfect match.

I lost myself in that kiss, like I lose myself in Adam every time. But I didn’t feel lost. I felt home. Safe. Free. Wrapped up in steady arms that kept catching me.

He pulled back to look down at me, a look of wonder on his face.

And the words just came out.

“Ask me again,” I urged, pressing a soft kiss to the hidden dimple in his cheek.

He knew immediately what I was saying. My perfect match.

“Who are you?” he said, voice beyond raspy.

In the end, it was quite easy. In the end, the answer was just there.

“I’m me,” I said. “I’m free,” I added. “And I am yours.”

He stared at me for a suspended moment, then a rush of heated air escaped his lips. His voice was raspy when he spoke; deep and uneven.

“I love you, Charlie. I have loved you from the moment I first saw you. Wrapped in leather, long legs hugging a superbike. I love you more and more with each passing day.

“I didn’t know that you could love someone so much, so quickly. I didn’t know our hearts were capable of that. But the harder you fought it, the more I loved you for it. And the harder you fell - even though you didn’t know you were falling - the more determined I was to catch you.”

He pulled me closer, tightened his hold, lowered his lips to mine and brushed across them softly. Then pulling back, he added, voice beyond rasping, “I’m yours. My body is yours. My thoughts are yours. And my heart has always been yours.”

Oh
. Now there’s something you don’t hear every day. I reached up, cupping my hand behind his neck, pulling him down, pulling him closer, and sealed my lips to his with a searingly hot kiss.

I felt it all.

This man who made me feel. Who caught me when I fell. Who loved me when I was barely whole enough to be loved. He saw through it all. He saw me. He loved me, in spite of it all.

Or maybe, because of it.

Breathless, we pulled apart, just staring at each other, as if we couldn’t tear ourselves apart.

And the words just came out.

Not planned, but very much wanted.

Foreign, but feeling so very right.

I never knew I could
feel
this way,
want
this. Need it.

But there you are.

“Marry me,” I said softly. He stilled.

“Charlie.” My name was nothing more than a whisper.

“This is me catching
you
, Stalker.” This is me
feeling.
“Marry me.”

He looked down at me as if I was a precious jewel. As if I was something to covet and desire. Something priceless and unobtainable. Something he’d wanted for so long and thought he’d never truly have.

“Marry me,” I said, my heart damn near bursting out of my chest, the words getting stuck inside my throat. The world suddenly so bright and vibrant, and this man standing before me the centre of it all.

“Say it again,” he murmured, his arms bands of steel around my body.

“Marry me.”

The world stilled.

Then, “Yes, firecracker,” he whispered huskily. “I’ll marry you.”

Every star in the universe burst apart inside me. Filled me up with
so
much emotion I threatened to come apart.

But Adam caught me. Like he’d always caught me. Like he always would.

And instead I danced in the shower of sparks.

I embraced every single emotion.

I relished what I was feeling.

I was me. I was free. And I felt it all.

T
here are
two words I will never forget my husband saying to me. Two words that when life gets hard, or I’m feeling a little down, keep popping back into my head. Every single story I’ve written, I’ve thought of those words at one time. So, of course, they had to appear in the final book of
Sweet
Seduction
.

Not every romance needs these words, but for me, for reasons I shan’t bore you with here, they meant everything.

“Marry me,” he said. Just like that. So easy.

And yet they are the words I remember most. The moment I constantly think back on. The one point in my life where I can truly say it all began.

Writing Charlie and Adam’s “Marry me” moment brought it all back to me. For them it was also something so precious and so very real. Something they both thought they’d never have.

It’s nice to have been able to give it to them.

And, just as an aside,
Sweet Seduction Secrets
was released on February 14th, Valentine’s Day, in a Leap Year, and you all know what that means… Charlie got it right!

So, this is it. The end, my friends.
Sweet Seduction
has been a blast; a little more death defying than
my
romance, but often just as sweet. But as much as I am pleased to see all the main characters settled, I’m also sad to say goodbye. So, watch this space. I could return to
Sweet Seduction
. I might just write a novella sequel so we can all catch up with our favourite ASI men.

What do you think? Sound like a good plan?

In the meantime, I have devised a way to stay in touch with some of them. First and foremost, and already out there, the H.E.A.T. series; a spin-off crime-thriller romance revolving around a specialist group of firefighters in the Hauraki Emergency Assistance Team. The first trilogy in the series is currently underway, where you can meet Lara Keen, a detective in the Criminal Investigations Bureau and her love interest, Damon Michaels, chief investigator of H.E.A.T.

But wait, there could even be more…

Charlie Downes came to me complete with a background and a world that existed in detail inside my mind. A world that tempted and shocked and also gave me goosebumps. A world I just had to delve into further and see where it led. It’s intriguing, dangerous, secretive, and not just a little seductive, but most importantly it’s fiction laced with a romance you can trust. A romance that was born from reality, making Charlie’s world, and those who traverse it, more real, more human, more dynamic. Just more. Keep an eye out for the
Secret Cravings
series, a romantic suspense where
knowing his/her secret could get you killed
.

I do love me a good romance story thick with action, tension and illicit risk.

Well, that’s it. (No, really this time!). And if you made it to book eight, thanks for sticking with
Sweet Seduction
right to the end.

You guys rock! I mean it. You can take that as being
very
real.

♥
N
icola