For You Read Online Jodi Ellen Malpas

Categories Genre: Angst, Chick Lit, Forbidden Tags Authors: Jodi Ellen Malpas Advertisement

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Since the day she married her husband, Lo Harper has watched her happy ever after slip away before her eyes. Feeling lost and alone, she's stumbling through life, each day getting longer, harder, and more hopeless. She doesn't know how much longer she can hold on. Until she meets a stranger who ironically becomes a lifeline after he nearly runs her down. He's charming, kind, and he doesn't pry. He's just there, making Lo smile, distracting her, if only briefly. Because she will always return to the pain. To the heartbreak. To the unshakable guilt. Luke Williamson is successful, content, and he keeps his relationships with women uncomplicated. But his simple, carefree life is turned up on its head the night a young woman walks out in front of his car. Drawn to each other for very different reasons, Lo and Luke forge an unlikely friendship that they both come to rely on. And yet while Luke shares his life with Lo, he knows she's keeping hers from him. And as her truth unfolds, Luke slowly realizes that for Lo to have her happy ever after, he must sacrifice his own. So he has to make the ultimate decision. Keep Lo in his life as she is, a broken, shadow of a woman. Or walk away and let her heal.

*************FULL BOOK START HERE*************

Part One

Chapter One

London – 2015

Reclined on the couch with my cocker spaniel, Boris, curled into my side, I pout at the pages, my heartbeats beginning to race as Heathcliff begs Catherine’s spirit not to leave him. I know he’s begging in vain, yet each time I read my favorite novel, I wish for a different outcome. How would the story have played out had Catherine lived? Would Heathcliff have shed his need for vengeance?

My shoulders dropping in disappointment, I rest the book to my thighs and look at the ceiling. Such a toxic, damaging thing is love. And so enriching and nourishing too. I blindly reach for Boris’s ears and give them a little scratch, smiling when he groans his pleasure.

“Is it working?” Billy’s voice drifts into my sub-conscience, and I drop my eyes to the doorway. He’s leaning on the doorframe, his overnight bag by his feet.

I hold back my smirk as I tilt my head in admiration, taking in the fine form of a man who will tomorrow be my husband. “Is what working?”

“Your attempts to kill time.” He wanders over on his bare feet, his hair damp from his recent shower. Looking down at the open hardback on my thighs, he smiles fondly at the dog-eared pages.

“No,” I admit. Every second feels like an hour. Every minute like a day.

Boris, aware of what is about to happen, drags himself up and jumps off the couch, yawning and stretching. I reach for the waistband of Billy’s jeans and tug him down to me. The book gets knocked aside in favor of Billy’s body, and the moment his lips are close enough, I cover them with mine, humming my happiness. I know these lips like I know how much I love the bones of this wonderful man. “I want it to be tomorrow already,” I say, locking my arms around his wide shoulders and my thighs around his waist.

He pulls back, the smile that has sent me dizzy since the moment I set eyes on him working its usual magic. His dark gaze glimmers, his freshly shaved jaw smooth and kissable. I try to tug him back so I can do exactly that. Kiss him. But he foils me, his strength far greater than mine. The playful half-grin I know all too well makes an appearance, and I grin right back.

“Let me kiss you,” I order.

He shakes his head, his gaze jumping across my face. “Let me look at you for a minute,” he whispers. “I’m not going to see you until tomorrow.” He rubs his nose with mine. “I’m going to miss you like crazy.”

“But then you’ll never have to miss me ever again.”

“I can’t fucking wait.” He nibbles at my cheek on an over-the-top groan, making me giggle and writhe under his hard body.

“Stop it.” I laugh, not really wanting him to stop at all. If Billy Harper stuck himself to me, that would suit me fine. He eventually does stop, burying his face into my neck and breathing in deeply.

“I’m going to make you the happiest woman alive, Lo Evans.”

“You already do,” I reply, meaning it with every ounce of truth in me. “You have since you told me we were going on a date after meeting me only two minutes before.” I feel him smile against my neck, and I find myself smiling too. It’s just the way of things with us. He smiles, I smile. I smile, he smiles. We bounce off each other in the best ways.

“Any woman who wears dungarees to a cocktail bar deserves an opportunity to explain why.”

“They were comfortable.”

“And three sizes too big.” He pulls back and brushes my blonde hair from my face. And just gazes at me with so much love in his eyes. The way he’s looked at me like this every day since we met three years ago has defined the woman I have become. Bottom line, his. Completely and utterly his. “I can’t wait until they’re no longer too big.” His eyebrow hitches cheekily, and my lips twist in return.

“And when might that be?”

“The moment I put a baby inside you.” He dips and makes a meal of my neck. I laugh hard, so very hard, but I don’t argue with him. Because I want that too. It’s the natural progression. Our plan is so well-thought-out, and it has been since we decided to rent this place together. We will rent for a year or two until we’ve replenished the savings we used to pay for the wedding, and then we’ll buy. I’ll get my little vintage store to a stage where it’s profitable, and then hire a manager to join my team. Then we’ll have babies. Two, and we’re not fussy about whether they’re boys or girls. Or one of each. I’ll stay at home for a while, Billy will continue expanding his surveying firm, and we’ll live happily ever after. It’s so ideal, it’s almost sickly. I like sickly. Especially with Billy.

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