“Oh, my God,” she whispered, recognizing the black hair, the violet eyes.

  He stared at her through his open window, unblinking, devouring her with his stare. It seemed like forever before he finally opened the door and stepped out.

  She’d forgotten how tall he was. How lean, how hard. How utterly masculine. Unable to do anything but stand there, Allie watched him approach, racking her brain for something to say. Unsure what, exactly, this meant.

  Finally, he reached the driveway and crossed it, until he stood directly in front of her. Even before he said a word, she swayed a little, as if magnetically drawn toward him. “What are you doing here?” she whispered.

  “Taking my life back.”

  He didn’t say anything else. He merely put his hands on both sides of her face and tugged her toward him for a sweet, warm kiss that said everything else there was to say.

  Allie sighed, dropped her purse, forgot the world existed and fell against him. Wrapping her arms around his shoulders, she tangled her fingers in his now short hair, so different from his wicked Roma King look. But perfect for Damon, the guy she’d fallen in love with.

  The slow, sweet and drugging kiss both asked for forgiveness and offered understanding, and Allie answered it with every bit of emotion coursing through her until they broke apart, each breathless.

  Lowering his hands to her waist, Damon picked her up off the ground and buried his face in her hair. “God, I’ve missed you.”

  “I’ve missed you, too.”

  Slowly—very slowly—he let her slide down his body to stand on her own two feet. It felt as if she’d landed on a new planet. One where everything was perfect and where the future stretched out in a magnificent lifetime of love and happiness. And family.

  “I’m okay, Allie,” he said. “I’ll never stop regretting what happened, but I am certain of this—I can’t live my life under the shadows of an ugly past or worries about what could happen in the future. I can’t close my heart off completely unless I want to spend my life entirely alone.”

  “Bad things can happen to anyone, not just a child,” she murmured, thinking of the long, sad life her mother had lived after the death of her father.

  “Exactly,” he said, looking relieved that she’d instantly understood. “Nobody can keep someone else entirely safe. Trying to protect myself against being hurt or from ever feeling such tremendous guilt again isn’t worth the trade-off of never opening my heart to another person. Be that a child…or you.”

  Closing her eyes, she let herself believe that this was really happening. He was here. He was ready. “I can’t tell you how happy I am to hear that.”

  He kissed her again, sweetly, tenderly, then whispered, “Now, introduce me to your son.” Smiling, with no trace of hesitation in his voice, he added, “I can’t wait to meet him. Tell me he has your blue eyes.”

  Smiling, laughing, even crying a little, she nodded. “He does. And two-and-a-half teeth. And the sweetest smile. His name is Hank—after my father. You’re going to love him.”

  “I have no doubt of that since I already love his mother.”

  He’d given her the words, for real this time, with no qualifying, no questioning of how soon it was. She could do nothing less. “I love you, too.”

  His hands tightened on her hips, and he smiled, so content, so absolutely happy, she knew that what they were doing was right. That it was meant to be.

  “My grandmother can’t wait to meet you. She somehow knew I’d met you even before I went back to Florida and told her. She claims to have a little psychic gift.”

  “I think you inherited it. You had me mesmerized…under your spell from the minute I saw you.”

  “Ditto.” Brushing a kiss on her temple, he asked, “So are you ready to start?”

  She didn’t have to ask what he meant—she knew. They were starting on everything. Their future. Their life together. Everything that mattered.

  “Oh, yes. I am definitely ready to start.”

  Grabbing her hand and turning toward the door, Damon said, “Then let’s go. I can’t wait to meet the little guy who’s about to become one of the two most important people in my life.”

  Allie heard the warmth—the tenderness—in his voice, and knew he meant it. He had healed. He was ready to move on—with her and with her son.

  Overwhelmed by pure happiness, she led the man she loved to the child she lived for, silently acknowledging that falling under the Roma King’s spell had been the luckiest moment of her life.

  The End

  Dear Reader:

  Do you want more TROUBLE?

  Although the original publisher declined to publish the final book in the Trouble series, Leslie has long considered going back to that crazy town to write Morgan Taylor's story. After all, world-traveling, adventuring Morgan is the most like his grandfather, Mortimer, and should prove to be a super-fun book!

  So, would you be interested?

  If so, write to Leslie at:

  lkellyauthormail@gmail.com

  Want More Trouble now?

  Look for the rest of the books in the series!

  Book 1: Heading For Trouble

  Look out...Trouble is on the way!

  Bad boy Max Taylor is a pilot in hot water. A new tell-all book depicting him as a heartbreaking playboy has disrupted his life, and he has just heard his eccentric billionaire grandfather has just bought an entire small town! In order to get out of trouble, he needs to head into Trouble...Trouble, Pennsylvania, that is.

  Good girl Sabrina Cavanaugh is an editor on a mission. If Max Taylor is successful in kiboshing the new tell-all book revealing what a snake he is, she could lose her job. She needs to get that book published...but she's also very curious about the man she has read about. Is he a wicked sex god, or just a sexy guy with a heart of gold? There's only one way to find out--head into Trouble and see just how wicked he is!

  But Trouble isn't as cute as it seems. The town is a crazy mass of secrets--blackmail, embezzlement, and unsolved murders. And soon, Max and Sabrina find themselves wrapped up in all of it--from quirky seniors to a house full of cuckoo clocks. It's Trouble from the start as this mismatched pair teams up to solve the mystery and save the town...while along the way, they try to save each other!

  Heading For Trouble is a 100,000 word full-length novel that can be read as a standalone...though, just a warning, after you visit Trouble, you just might want to go back to read the other stories!

  Excerpt:

  “Come on, sweetheart, I know you’re tired and old, but you must have one more go-round in you, merry or not.”

  “Excuse me?”

  Jerking his attention from the control panel, which had required a good quart of WD-40 before even allowing itself to be opened, Max swung his head around and stared over his shoulder. A woman had come up behind him in the tiny, weed-encrusted, abandoned amusement park, which had once been the cubic zirconia jewel in Trouble’s dubious crown.

  And speaking of jewels…good Christ, was the woman standing in front of him one. A blonde. She was a blonde. His absolute weakness.

  She was also tall, curvy and had the kind of lips that’d make a man howl to the night in pure, primal hunger.

  No. No howling. No wolfing at all, remember?

  Swallowing his libido, he offered her a smile. “Sorry. I guess you caught me talking to myself.” He stood and brushed his hands off on his jeans, leaving a smear of grease on one thigh. Stepping closer, he forced himself to keep this encounter friendly, neighborly. When what he wanted was sexy and suggestive.

  She smiled back, also noncommittal. Cordial but not flirtatious. Unfortunately. “I didn’t mean to interrupt your work.” Pushing her sunglasses up onto the top of her head, she revealed a pair of bright sky-blue eyes.

  Damn. A blue-eyed blonde with a pretty smile and a pair of succulent lips. A smooth-skinned face with soft cheeks and the tiniest jut in her jaw that said she was stubborn. A bright, smiling angel appearing in this private corner of perdition just like the sun coming out on a cloudy, overcast day.

  All he could think was that he was really in trouble now.

  She looked him over, head to toe, with that calm, innocent glance behind which women always hid their interest. A tiny hint of color appeared in her creamy cheeks, and she licked at her lips—those lips—to moisten them.

  Just throw a lightning bolt at me and be done with it.

  “Talking to yourself—that can be a dangerous thing,” she said, her voice throatier than he’d have expected from such a soft-looking female.

  “So can cutting a hand on some of this sharp, rusty metal.” Max grinned. “I feel like I ought to sweet-talk her to make sure she doesn’t scratch me.” Hmm…had that sounded suggestive? He hadn’t meant it to.

  Like hell. Knock it off, Taylor.

  Order HEADING FOR TROUBLE for your Kindle here—free for Kindle Unlimited subscribers!

  Book 3: THEY’RE IN TROUBLE

  Falling In Love Can Lead to Trouble!

  Mike Taylor isn’t looking for romance when he heads to Trouble, Pennsylvania to visit his eccentric billionaire grandfather. And he definitely isn’t looking for it with a fiery woman marching up the highway barefoot and threatening murder. So why can’t he get the beautiful brunette out of his mind?

  Jennifer Feeney’s famous (or infamous?) down-with-romance humor books have made her successful and wealthy, but that doesn’t mean her life is problem-free. Two of her biggest problems, her elderly aunts, might just be the death of her. Especially when they do things like abandon her in the middle of nowhere.

  Being rescued by a super-sexy guy eases the sting, especially when a sizzling attraction flares between them. But Jen’s aunts have a lot of dark and deadly secrets. When she finds out Mike is a cold-case detective looking into an unsolved murder involving her family, she knows she has to pull away.

  Mike isn’t the kind to give up on something he wants, though, and he really wants Jen. And when he realizes she’s in the crosshairs of a stalker—and her life might be in danger—he’ll do whatever it takes to keep her safe!

  Finalist for the Prestigious RITA Award for Best Contemporary Romance of the Year!

  They're In Trouble is a full-length, 100,000 word contemporary romcom with a bit of mystery and a lot of steam, HEA guaranteed!

  Excerpt:

  “My husband died” is so much simpler to say than “My husband screwed our eighteen-year-old babysitter in the back seat of our Lexus and is now shacking up with her in Laguna Beach while I try to bleed the bastard dry for child support.”

  —Why Arsenic Is Better Than Divorce by Jennifer Feeney

  She knew his type. She’d written about his type in her books. He was the dark, sexy, intense brooder who could have a woman on her back with her legs over his strong shoulders within five minutes of meeting her.

  Then he’d be gone. On to his next challenge, his next woman in need. The lonesome cowboy or hardened soldier, having satisfied his basic urges and taken care of his little woman, would head back to battle, leaving her behind to clean up whatever messes he’d caused along the way. Typical story…he saves the world; she pays the electric bill.

  How many women had written to her about this type of man during her days as the Single in the City columnist at Her Life? How many more had she talked to when writing her books?

  Tons. And they all had the same story. The classic Mr. Hot and Deadly might be wickedly good in the bedroom, but he failed in nearly every other aspect of a relationship.

  So just have sex with him.

  Though the idea came out of nowhere, it certainly did have merit. It wouldn’t be the first time she’d had no-strings sex. Being the Single in the City girl, it had almost seemed like her sacred duty to be out there participating in the bar hookup scene on the occasional Saturday night. Of course, that had been many years ago, when she’d been twenty-three, stupid and horny.

  Now she was twenty-nine, wise…and still horny.

  Being honest, she had to admit the idea of having sex with him had not come out of nowhere. Her body had been intensely aware of him from the moment he’d stopped to pick her up. She’d just been too angry at being ditched to really consider it until now. But how could she not have noticed his hot, masculine smell and the coiled strength of his body?

  Especially once they were enclosed in the small confines of his Jeep.

  He was just about the hottest thing she’d ever seen and Jen had gone past amber straight to red alert right around the time he’d oh-so-casually mumbled that line about silky panties and soft thighs.

  .

  Order THEY’RE IN TROUBLE for your Kindle now—free for Kindle Unlimited subscribers!

 

 

  Leslie Kelly, Getting Into Trouble

 

 

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