Choosing
Happiness by Melissa
Stevens
Publication date: July 21st 2015
Genres: Adult, Romance
Synopsis
Jake and Andrea met once. When Andrea
was in college, Jake came with her brother Ben who was visiting on leave from a
deployment in Afghanistan. Now, years later, Jake gets a job in Ben’s home town
to be close to his best friend. He hadn’t counted on Andrea. The attraction
he’d felt then was still there. And this time he wasn’t headed back to a war
zone where he could very well be killed.
Andrea is drawn to the man who calls Ben
brother. Something about him speaks to her, but she’s not sure what. She falls
into things head first, but when something makes her question how fast things
are going she slams on the breaks. Can the two of them figure out what’s going
on with them before it’s too late?
Excerpt
He quickly fixed two cups of hot cocoa,
but before serving he ducked around the corner. She was sitting on the couch
with the blanket pulled over her lap. "Have you ever tried Bailey’s in
your cocoa?"
"No. Is it good?"
"I like it, want me to bring you
mine and let you try it before you decide?"
"If you don't mind, please?"
"If I minded I wouldn't have
offered." He carried his cup of cocoa to the sofa and let her take a sip.
"Oooh, that’s good."
"Want me to add some to yours,
too?"
"Please, that would be great."
She kept his warm cup cradled in her hands, her shivering had stopped.
Jake quickly doctored the second cup of
cocoa and returned, sitting down on the sofa near Andrea. He was careful not to
jar her enough to spill the cocoa. "Do you want to trade? Or do you want
to keep that one?"
"I already have this one and it’s
almost half gone so I might as well keep it."
Jake held his arm out. "Do you want
to come over here and let me help warm you up?"
She scooted over and slid under his arm,
lifting the blanket to cover his lap too, so he could help the heat build
underneath. He pulled her close against his side and curled his arm around her.
They sat quietly, drinking their cocoa for a few minutes, until Andrea started
laughing.
"What?" Jake frowned down at
her, confused.
"We’ve got to be crazy. Sitting
here, still dressed for the wedding, sipping cocoa at nearly three am."
"Well, I considered getting you out
of the dress, but thought I'd be a gentleman and let it warm up in here
first," Jake quipped, causing Andrea to laugh harder. "I love your
laugh," Jake squeezed her against him in a quick, one-armed hug. "It
makes me feel good."
"What a sweet thing to say."
She stretched up to kiss him on the cheek. Draining the last of her cocoa, she
set the empty cup on the coffee table in front of them. Pulling the blanket up
to her shoulders, she curled into him, resting her head against his chest.
"You smell nice." She wiggled a little, trying to get comfortable.
"Make yourself comfortable."
He looked down at her, amused.
"I'm working on it. You're warm,
like Ben."
"You do this to Ben?"
"Not anymore, but I did when I was
younger. I was always cold and he was always so warm. I would curl up against
him and steal some warmth. He never really knew what to make of it." She
admitted reflectively.
"I imagine not." He wasn’t
sure what to make of it himself. Not knowing what else to do, he slipped the
arm that had been around her under the blanket and started rubbing up and down
her side. He didn't know why he did it, just that it seemed right. After a
couple minutes she kicked off her shoes and pulled her legs up and curled them
beside her. Jake started rubbing his hand up and down her leg. "Hmm... No
hose."
"No, I hate those things."
"Probably would have been at least
a little warmer in them though."
"True. I wasn't planning on staying
out quite so late or in the cold as long when I got dressed though."
"So you froze." He ran his
fingers along her thigh, back and forth against the hem of her dress, sending
another shiver though her body. "You still cold?"
"No, not anymore." She moved
against him, as if silently asking for more.
Jake continued to play his fingers
lightly over her skin, teasing her with his touch until he had finished his
cocoa. He carefully slipped out from under the blanket, tucking it around her,
and stood. Picking up hers, he took both mugs into the kitchen and set them in
the sink. On the way back, he took off his suit jacket and hung it and his tie
over the back of a dining chair.
Unfastening his collar, Jake returned to
the couch. Sitting beside her, this time he kicked his own shoes off and sat
sideways, one leg bent in the seat as he leaned against the arm. He invited her
to curl up against him. "Come here."
She crawled closer, dragging the blanket
with her, and laid against his chest. He pulled the blanket around her, tucking
it around her feet and put his arms underneath to wrap them around her.
"How’s that? Warm enough?" He
liked that she trusted him enough to put herself in his arms.
"It's nice, but not at all what I
thought you meant when you said you wanted to take me home." She looked up
at him with half lidded eyes.
"It's not, but it’s still a little
cool in here, besides I'm enjoying this too."
Andrea got a mischievous glint in her
eyes as she started to wiggle, moving her arms around his sides.
"What are you up to?"
"Nothing much." She struggled
a moment, pulling the ends of his dress shirt and the t-shirt underneath free
from his slacks. When she managed to untuck them all the way around she slid
her hands underneath, against his skin. "Mmmm, much better." She
played her fingers back and forth over his skin. Pushing herself onto her
knees, she stretched until her lips met his. She kissed him eagerly, using her
mouth to let him know she was ready to move faster.
Jake ran his hands along the hem of her
dress, caressing the bare skin as he slowly inched the fabric up her legs.
Engrossed in the deep kiss, Andrea let
her fingers curl. They dug into his skin as she pulled herself against him. She
squirmed, moving into his hands as he touched her and pulling herself back into
him again, as though she couldn’t decide which touch she wanted more.
Jake continued to slowly slide her dress
up, running his fingers lightly over her soft skin on either side of her body
as he went. It wasn’t until she arched her back, leaning into him that he
realized he'd reached her waist. He broke the kiss and looked at Andrea,
confused.
She smiled mischievously again, amused
by his confusion.
"Don't tell me you've been naked
under that dress all night long?"
"Would you like it if I were?"
"Girl, I've wanted you since the
first time I laid eyes on you, before I knew who you were. It drives me crazy
thinking of you with no panties on under that little dress all day. On the side
of the highway, changing that tire." He felt himself growing hard at the
thought. "In the church while Ben said ‘I do’. All that time at the
reception hall, and sitting next to me at the diner."
Andrea laughed at how his voice deepened
with desire as he spoke and the hard feel of him pressing against her.
"It's a good thing I was wearing some then, wasn't it?"
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AUTHOR
BIO
Melissa was born and raised in Arizona,
she's spent her entire life living across the southern half of the state.
She's found that, along with her husband and three children, she
prefers the small towns and rural life to feeling packed into a city.
She started reading at a very young age, and her love for series started
early, as the first real books she remembers reading is the Boxcar
Children series by Gertrude Chandler Warner. Through the years she's
found that there's little she won't read, and her tastes vary from
westerns, to romance, to sci-fi / fantasy and Horror.
She's been writing since 2009, and
enjoys nearly every minute of it.
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