Page 109 of Breaking All The Rules
“Yeah.” He nodded. “I know exactly how you feel.”
He closed the miniscule distance between them, their bodies pressed tight as he lowered his mouth to hers, soft and slow. A kiss that explored, that savored. That said, Hello again. And, Remember me? And, I love you. A kiss that whispered about forever and happily ever after. Bea sighed into it, her hands sliding to his shoulders as she lost her breath to its sweetness and her heart to its fullness.
When they parted, they were both breathing a little harder.
“What now?” he asked, his forehead pressed to hers. “Are you sure about Credence? My offer to move to LA stands. As long as I’m with you, I can live anywhere.”
Hell, he was just too much. The perfect guy who she’d put through the wringer. His consideration, his willingness to sacrifice what he wanted for her, spoke volumes about his love. Just as she hoped her moving back to Credence permanently would be a signal to him about the depth of her love.
She shook her head. “Trust me, three weeks in LA was enough.” She eased back a little. “I was back to ordering egg white omelets, Austin.”
He chuckled. “That sounds awful.”
She shuddered. “It was.”
“What about your corner office?”
“Yeah, that was kinda neat. But then I got it and I realized I didn’t want it more than I wanted you. More than I wanted an office looking out over that.” She turned her head to gaze out the floor-to-ceiling window overlooking fields where horses and cows grazed in the distance. “If that’s okay by you.” She turned her attention back to him. “I understand if you want to take a step back and take things slower, given how I flaked out on you and—”
She didn’t get a chance to finish the sentence. Austin swooped in, silencing her with his mouth, dropping a string of kisses against her lips that left Bea dizzy. “I love you, Beatriss,” he whispered, his warm breath caressing the parted line of her mouth. “Nothing would make me happier than you living here with me.” He pulled back a little and smiled. “I’m pretty sure my mother will throw you a parade.”
Bea laughed. Prior to meeting Austin, she would have thought it weird to have family living on top of one another, but the Coopers made it work, and she couldn’t wait to be part of their village.
“So you’re going to work for Greet Cute from here?”
“Only on Cranky Bea creative.”
Bea loved how that word—creative—no longer made her want to go and hide under the covers. It still felt new and shiny, but she was a creative and she was done pretending otherwise. “They’ve contracted me for a dozen new designs every month, but that’s it. And in between doing that, I’m going to see what else my muse throws at me.”
He shook his head, lifting his hand to caress her cheek. “I can’t believe you’re here. That you’re staying.” His eyes roamed over her face like he wanted to memorize every detail. “I missed you every damn day, Beatriss.”
Bea smiled. “I missed you, too.”
He pressed his forehead to hers again, the breath shuddering out of him in a big, deep sigh, and Bea held on to him tight, realizing how close they’d come to missing out on this.
They stayed like that for a long time until Austin eventually stirred. “Now”—he unglued his forehead from hers—“about those panties… I believe, to conduct a thorough investigation, I’ll need to see the offending item.”
Bea laughed as things inside her Thursday panties got very excited at the prospect of being investigated. “You don’t need to get back to work?” She knew what a stickler Arlo was, and she’d probably kept Austin long enough. “It’s okay.” She ran her finger down the side of his face. “We’ve got the rest of our lives.”
He smiled, grabbing the finger and kissing it. “It is incumbent upon me, the first officer on scene, to gather evidence. I wouldn’t want to besmirch the good name of the Credence Police Department by shirking my responsibilities.”
Bea sighed, spying the handcuffs hanging from his utility belt, and her heart beat a little faster. “I’d hate to be arrested for hindering an investigation, Officer.”
Then she yanked down the zipper of her fly and kicked out of her jeans, smiling as Austin muttered, “Holy fuck,” under his breath, his eyes zeroing in on her Thursday panties.
Recovering quickly, he looked at her and said, “Turn around and spread ’em, ma’am.”
Ma’am. Gah! For that, she was going to do him twice.
EPILOGUE
One year later…
The main street of Credence buzzed as elegantly dressed city folk rubbed shoulders with elegantly dressed town folk at the newly opened art gallery. The first ever exhibition of Phoebe Archer’s paintings since her untimely death twenty-five years prior had drawn quite the crowd. From critics to journalists to collectors, they’d come from all over the country, to this tiny speck on the map in far Eastern Colorado.
And Beatrice was at the center of it all.
As well as making her Cranky Bea cards an outstanding success, she’d spent the last year scouring the internet and buying every single one of her mother’s paintings she could get her hands on. Her father—he and Bea’s grandmother were both here—had also helped and between the two of them, they’d managed to recover over fifty of her paintings.
