She feigned a yawn aimed at the others. “The champagne is hitting me hard. I think I need to call it a night.”
“Oh, really?” Siena said.
Blue feigned a sigh. “Yeah, I’m beat, too.”
“I bet you are,” Duke said under his breath.
Blue and Lizzie hugged Cash and Siena and said their goodbyes to the rest of his family, then hurried down the hall toward the pool.
“I can’t believe you arranged this,” she said, clinging to his arm.
“Baby, there’s nothing I won’t do for you.” He unlocked the door to the pool. The room was dark, save for the lights from the hallway streaming in through the interior window. Blue pushed a code into a keypad hidden behind a picture on the wall—Thank you, Duke—and black curtains lowered over the interior windows.
“Oh my God, that’s amazing,” Lizzie said, already taking off her heels.
Blue unzipped her dress and pushed it from her shoulders, bringing his lips to her heated skin as the fabric tumbled to a pile at her feet, leaving her in silk and lace, a vision of beauty Blue couldn’t resist as he took her in his arms.
She smiled up at him, those beautiful dimples in full force. She unbuttoned his dress shirt, pressing a kiss to every inch of skin as she revealed it.
“I want to give you everything you’ve ever wanted, Lizzie.” He slipped from his pants as she took off her lingerie, and he pulled her in close again, running his hands over her hips. “Do you have any regrets about telling our families about your show or the deal with FCN not coming through?”
“My only regret is that I waited a year to go out with you,” she said as she stripped off her bra. “Do you have any regrets about being with me? You really don’t mind being naughty like this with me? I think I’ve corrupted you,” she said as they walked into the pool.
They dunked under the water, and he brought her naked body flush against him.
“Baby, you couldn’t corrupt me if you tried. Remember when I said love came in stages, and that we’d get to each stage when we were ready?”
“Yeah,” she said, a little breathless and incredibly sexily.
“You have your lists. I have my stages. Tonight my stage one is going to blow your list out of the water.”
“Funny,” she said as her legs wound around his waist and their bodies joined together. “I have a feeling my list will win. After all, my blowing takes place in the water.”
“God, I love you.” He sealed his lips over hers, and there, in the darkness of the heated pool, with Lizzie in his arms and love in his heart, he knew he’d been right—every moment of his life had been leading him to her—and every moment of his future would be spent loving her.
—The End—
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Buy DUKE RYDER’S book: CLAIMED BY LOVE
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Blue Ryder was first introduced to Love in Bloom readers in the Seaside Summers series. Please enjoy this preview of the first Seaside Summers book, SEASIDE DREAMS
BELLA ABBASCIA STRUGGLED to keep her grip on a ceramic toilet as she crossed the gravel road in Seaside, the community where she spent her summers. It was one o’clock in the morning, and Bella had a prank in store for Theresa Ottoline, a straitlaced Seaside resident and the elected property manager for the community. Bella and two of her besties, Amy Maples and Jenna Ward, had polished off two bottles of Middle Sister wine while they waited for the other cottage owners to turn in for the night. Now, dressed in their nighties and a bit tipsy, they struggled to keep their grip on a toilet that Bella had spent two days painting bright blue, planting flowers in, and adorning with seashells. They were carrying the toilet to Theresa’s driveway to break rule number fourteen of the Community Homeowners Association’s Guidelines: No tacky displays allowed in the front of the cottages.
“You’re sure she’s asleep?” Bella asked as they came to the grass in front of the cottage of their fourth bestie, Leanna Bray.
“Yes. She turned off her lights at eleven. We should have hidden it someplace other than my backyard. It’s so far. Can we stop for a minute? This sucker is heavy.” Amy drew her thinly manicured brows together.
“Oh, come on. Really? We only have a little ways to go.” Bella nodded toward Theresa’s driveway, which was across the road from her cottage, about a hundred feet away.
Amy glanced at Jenna for support. Jenna nodded, and the two lowered their end to the ground, causing Bella to nearly drop hers.
“That’s so much better.” Jenna tucked her stick-straight brown hair behind her ear and shook her arms out to her sides. “Not all of us lift weights for breakfast.”