Page 110 of Claim to Fame

“Then what?”

He trailed his lips higher on her forearm. “I want to earn you.”

She ran her fingers through his hair, her heart so full it hardly felt like she could keep it in her chest. “Haven’t you learned yet? Love isn’t something you earn—it’s something you receive, something you do. Something you choose.”

“I choose you. I should have chosen you every day before now, but I will choose you every day from now on.”

“Even when things are chaotic?”

He snaked an arm around her waist, pulling her closer, hip to hip. “Even then. Always.” He pressed his forehead to hers, their noses sliding against each other. “I choose you. I choose us.”

“There’s something I should tell you.”

His shoulders tensed, and his eyes fell closed, but he nodded. “Tell me.”

“I’m done with Broadway.” His eyes flew open and he pulled back to look at her. “You told me I should choose myself. You were right.”

“Are you okay?” he asked, his fingers stroking her spine.

Her whole body glowed with the possibilities in front of her. “I am. It was like I was wearing a weighted vest and didn’t realize it, and when the vest finally came off, I felt…free.”

“What will you do now?”

“I think I’d like to teach. And figure out what life looks like when my job doesn’t dictate every part of it.”

His lips grazed hers. “I’m so damn proud of you.”

She grinned against his kiss. “I was thinking, maybe this new life looks a little less like Manhattan and a little more like Aster Bay.”

“Oh, yeah?” He slid a hand into her hair, his mouth spreading into a grin that made his eyes crinkle at the corners. “You want to come home with me, sweetheart?”

FromThe Lady’s Knightsby A K Wild, narrated by Slade Hardcastle

Their horse’s hooves raced over the baked earth in the early morning mist, dirt kicking up behind them as they took their flight. Sir Llewellyn snapped the reins, urging the horse faster towards the horizon, his lady at his back, her arms around his waist and thighs bracketing his. The court would be scandalized to see Lady Windtorn riding astride, and with a knight of her husband’s guard no less, but for once, Sir Llewellyn cared nothing of the scandal.

Beyond the horizon, the wide world waited for them, a ship in the harbor ready to take them overseas where she would not be lady of the keep and he would not be required to maintain his distance.

With one hand, he gripped her thigh, tugging her more snugly against him. Let there be no more distance between them.

“Almost there, my lady,” he said, his gloved fingertips digging into the soft flesh beneath her layers of skirts.

“I am not a lady any longer, Sir. But I am yours.”

Chapter Thirty-Two

Ethan steered his truck into the parking lot at the Rookery with one hand, his other clasped in Hannah’s. “You ready for me to kick your butt again?” Hannah asked with a grin.

“It was one time,” Ethan said, but he was too happy to even pretend to be annoyed.

“You don’t think I can do it again?”

He put the truck in park and gripped Hannah’s thigh, sliding her across the bench seat towards him. “I think you can do anything you want to.”

She bit her lower lip to hide her grin, but his eyes tracked the movement, a hunger rising in him that should have been sated after the last day of holing up in her Manhattan apartment. In between packing, they’d made love in every room. They’d have to go back at some point to finish cleaning out her things before her lease was up in a few months, but for now, everything important to her had been stowed in suitcases and brought back to Aster Bay, her dresses hung back in his closet, her clothing beside his in the dresser, lotions and shampoos in the bathroom. Hannah was home. There was nothing that could ruin his mood, not even losing trivia.

She dragged her fingers up his forearm, over his bicep. “Anything?”

A noise rumbled low in his chest and he caught her chin with his thumb and index finger, tipping her lips up to his. “Anything.”

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