If Forever Comes,
the final chapter in the New York Times Bestselling Regret Series (Lost to You
and Take This Regret).
Expected Release Date is September 12, 2013
Christian Davison’s life is complete. With a ring on
Elizabeth’s finger and his daughter at his side, he’s ready to run headlong
into their future.
Elizabeth Ayers never believed she would again find this
kind of joy—the joy of a family and the wholeness found in the touch of the man
she’s always loved.
Their love is intense and their passion only grows as they
set out to rediscover each other.
But life is never easy.
Rocked by the unforeseen, Christian and Elizabeth will find
themselves fighting for the one thing they hold most important—family.
I stood in the hush of the
darkened room, the long drapes pushed to the side as I leaned with one hand
pressed to the wall just at the side of the window. I stared out, watching as
winter pressed down on the city. Snowflakes fluttered toward the ground as they
were set free from the inky sky. Through the haze, lights glimmered, and far
below, the city was still alive even though night had grown late.
My past seemed to echo from
the streets, the memories so thick they almost seemed alive.
I looked over my shoulder
and let my eyes wander over the one who inhabited them all.
Elizabeth lay facing me,
twisted just to the side, her blonde hair spread out over the pillow where she
rested her head. Her chest lifted and fell in a slow cadence, her soft breaths
released into the air.
The deepest kind of
devotion quickened my heart and pumped fiercely through my veins.
Sometimes it was hard to
believe we’d come this far, that this beautiful girl lying across the room from
me had been strong enough to forgive me for the greatest mistake I’d ever made,
that she was good enough to look past my failure, and that she had the capacity
to lie there now, lost in sleep, free of fear and full of love.
A wistful smile tugged at
my mouth as my gaze traveled over her perfect body. She wore a short nightgown,
the creamy material bunched up over her hip, the length of her legs fully
exposed. One arm was draped over her head, and the other was stretched across
the sheets in the spot where I had held her in my arms as she’d fallen asleep.
Emotion squeezed my lungs,
knocked at my ribs, just as strong as the desire that lifted in a crushing
swell before it settled as a subdued ache in the pit of my stomach.
Elizabeth would never stop
stealing my breath.
Only because she possessed
my soul.
As if she felt the
intensity of my stare, she stirred. Those brown eyes blinked open as she
adjusted to the dimness in the room. A soft, sleepy smile crept to her lips when
she found me watching her in the shadows. She ran her hand over the sheets on
my side of the bed. “What are you doing way over there when you’re supposed to
be in bed with me?” she whispered.
“Just thinking.”
She lifted up onto her
elbow. “And what are you thinking about?”
My mouth tipped up in a
slow grin as I made my way over to her. She rolled onto her back just as I
crawled over her, bracing myself on my hands and knees.
“Thinking about you. What
else would I be thinking about?” I trailed the back of my index finger down her
cheek and along the underside of her jaw. At her chin, I twisted my hand to
drag my fingers all the way down her neck to the cleft between her breasts.
A soft breath parted her
lips.
“You consume me,
Elizabeth,” I said. “Every second.”
Trembling, she reached up
to cup my jaw. “Always.”
That word shot straight
through me, her touch a firestorm that singed me from the inside out.
And she had it right. I
wanted her. Always.
I pressed my hands into the
bed on either side of her head, dipped to caress her mouth with mine in the
same second her fingers wove through my hair. I could feel her heart hammering,
pounding just as hard as mine, this thrum of need spinning through us with the
slightest touch.
It’d always been that way.
Always.
I rocked and Elizabeth
moaned, our bodies pitching and lifting and seeking, the soft skin of her inner
thighs like strokes of fire as they brushed against mine. Our tongues caressed
and every last inch of my body hardened.
God, there was nothing in
this world that felt so good.
I pulled back, one hand
gripping the fabric at her hip as I searched her face.
“Elizabeth, I don’t want to
wait. I know that’s what we planned, but being here, in this city, it just
makes me think of all the time I wasted, and I don’t want to waste any more.”
Shock rolled through her,
and brown eyes snapped up to lock on mine. “What do you mean?”
“All of it,
Elizabeth…waiting to get married…waiting to add to our family. I want it
all…and now…because I want it with you.”
“Christian—”
“Don’t say anything now. I
just want you to think about it.”
She grabbed my face. “I
don’t need to think about it. I’m ready for this. Ready for us to move on.”
Relief and joy escaped me
in a throaty groan. It was all I wanted, to spend my life with her, to spend it
with our daughter, to live for my family, to watch grow.
“Oh my God, Elizabeth.” I
dropped to my elbows, brought us closer, our kiss frenzied between our words.
“Christian.”
“I love you so much…so
much.”
I sucked at her bottom lip,
kiss her at the edge of her perfect mouth, dropped to feast along the line of
her jaw.
My nose got lost behind her
ear, in her hair, in the softness of her skin.
I burned.
Elizabeth arched, silently
begged.
I rose to one elbow and
grabbed her left hand, kissed the ring she allowed me to place on her finger.
“Forever,” I promised against it.
Her heart thudded a little
more. “Forever,” she said.
And I couldn’t wait for
forever to begin.
A.L. Jackson is the New York Times
bestselling author of Take This Regret
and Lost to You, as well as other
contemporary romance titles, including Pulled
and When We Collide.
She first found a love for writing
during her days as a young mother and college student. She filled the journals she carried with
short stories and poems used as an emotional outlet for the difficulties and
joys she found in day-to-day life.
Years later, she shared a short story
she’d been working on with her two closest friends and, with their
encouragement, this story became her first full length novel. A.L. now spends
her days writing in Southern Arizona where she lives with her husband and three
children. Her favorite pastime is spending time with the ones she loves.
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