Barefoot Bay_Forever Yours Read online

  “I know it doesn’t seem like it because I was a shit brother-in-law, but we are family. And as such, I expect you here. Don’t make my agent be the only female in the room.”

  She turned on the water and rolled her eyes. “I’m sure your agent can hold her own against the lot of you.”

  “I’ll have a car pick you up at six.” Doyle was gone before she could refuse once more.

  With a deep groan, she hung up the phone and stepped into the cascading hot water. On as hot as she could handle it, she stood there, hoping it would take away her increasing pain. It never did but she always held onto hope.

  After she finished, she dried off then wrapped up in a robe before crawling into the comfortable queen bed. She had to get some sleep today because she knew she wouldn’t be sleeping at all tomorrow night.

  She woke pressed tight against a hard-male body. Even as her self-preservation instincts took over, her body told her exactly who lay beside her.

  Sean.

  He lay against her back, one arm curved around her midsection, the tips of his fingers inside her robe along her belly. “I know you’re awake, Rica.”

  “Breaking and entering is a crime you know, Sean.” There wasn’t any way to explain how right it felt being in his arms.

  “I love you, Patricia Sanford. I want you to be my wife once more. I want to do this right by you and keep you with me for the rest of our days.”

  Tears burned her eyes. She settled her hand on his forearm, stroking absently. “You know I never go to their graves on the day we buried them.”

  “I never saw you there. Why didn’t you?”

  “I was scared to face you and your brothers if you happened to be there then. After I left, I would swing through at least once every three months there. I have flowers delivered to both every month.”

  He pressed his lips against her neck and she shivered with anticipation. No other man could do what he did to her. Sean carried her to such planes of pleasure, even like this. Her core throbbed.

  “Do you ever wonder what they would be like now?”

  “Only every day. I met a little girl today who was about a year or two younger than they were and it nearly broke my heart.”

  “I wish I could fix it all, Rica.”

  She squeezed his hand, the first of her tears falling. “You can’t. It wasn’t meant to be, for whatever reason, He needed them in Heaven with him.”

  Sean rolled her so they were face to face. His eyes were honest and straightforward as he stared at her. “I need you in my life with me. I know you asked me before if I hadn’t seen you would I have said what I did. I want to say I would have come to that, but I’m a hardheaded man and it most likely would have taken me much longer. But yes, I would have come to this. I’m yours, forever. My heart will never belong to another as it has to you.” He cupped her face. “As it does to you.”

  “I don’t even know what I’m doing anymore, Sean. I did an interview here for a resort security job, but I’m not sure I want to do that. I live on the other side of the country from you.”

  “I’m not a resident here, Rica. I’m visiting Doyle who wants me to move here but I don’t have to. Northern Minnesota is nice this time of year.”

  She snorted and laughed. “No, it’s not. The flies and mosquitos are terrible and it’s already freezing at night. Before long, yes, we have the leaves changing but soon, the feet and feet of snow will be there.

  “Give me a chance, Rica.” He captured her lips.

  She sighed into him, splaying her hands along his chest. She didn’t want to go to dinner at his brothers. She didn’t want to face tomorrow alone and with him, she didn’t have to. “I was ordered to dinner by Doyle.”

  “We can be fashionably late,” he murmured as he undid the belt on her robe. He skimmed his hand down over her belly until he covered her slit. Two fingers pushed inside her as she whimpered, shifting to better accommodate him.

  “We can be unfashionably late for all I care.”

  “Tell me yes, Rica. Please.”

  “One day at a time, Sean. I want to say yes, so badly and not just to giving you a chance, but I’m scared.”

  “Trust me to be here for you, I meant what I said, Rica. I’m forever yours.”

  She held his gaze until her lids fluttered closed, because she couldn’t hold his look anymore. The intensity was too much for her to handle. She’d been a wife, a mother, a border patrol agent, perhaps now was the time to figure out how to be her. How to enjoy life once more. And if that meant revisiting this part of her past, well, she did love him, so it couldn’t be all bad could it? She didn’t think so.

  While she couldn’t verbally formulate the words he needed this moment, she put it all into her kiss as she welcomed him deep inside her body. She loved him. He loved her.

  Perhaps that was all they needed.

  About the Author:

  Aliyah Burke is an avid reader and is never far from pen and paper (or the computer). She loves to hear from her readers and can be reached here. She can also be found on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest. You can follow her on her Amazon Author page, Book Bub author page, or at Goodreads.

  She is married to a career military man. They are owned by four Borzoi. She spends her days sharing time between work, writing, and dog training.

  I hope you enjoyed reading, Forever Yours. If you could help others to find and enjoy this book as well, I would appreciate that act of kindness. You can do this by recommending it to your friends and/or reader’s groups. Also by reviewing it to let others know you liked it, even only a line or two—and why—on Goodreads, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and other places, even if it’s nothing more than a line or two. Every bit helps, makes all the difference and is absolutely appreciated.

  Thank you so much for your support!!

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  Additional books by Aliyah Burke:

  Sensual Romance Publishing

  If You Dare

  Holiday Surprise: Unwrapped

  His Purrfect Mate

  Raw Exposure

  A Knight’s Vow

  Lion of Midnight

  Megalodon Team

  Kincade’s Rose

  Harrier’s Healer

  Connelly’s Flame

  Greeley’s Spyce

  Vittano’s Willow

  Dimitri’s Moon

  O’Shea’s Love

  Chayton’s Tempest

  Forgotten Shadow (A MT Christmas Novella)

  Haikon

  A Love for Lera

  Rakes & Rogues

  What the Earl Desires

  Her Reluctant Viscount

  Her Pirate Rogue

  Cottonwood Falls

  Relentless

  Fracture

  Ravish

  Spark

  Savor

  Intensity

  Inferno

  Snake’s Salvation

  Operation Ball N’ Chain (Cottonwood Falls short in Labor of Love anthology)

  Born to Fly

  Landing in Love

  You Save Me

  Wild As The Wind

  Zulu Spectre

  Hearth, Holly, & Honor (3 in 1)

  It Could Happen Again

  Tungsten Protective Services

  Down Range

  All In (Kindleworlds Hot SEALs/Tungsten Protective Services crossover novella)

  Twisted E-Publsihing

  Under the Mask

  May You Always

  Graham Family

  Justice Is Always Ready

  And We’ve Come Full Circle

  Denim & Spurs

  With This Ring

  Dream Lover

  You Don’t Know Jack

  Maddox Family

  The Detective’s Lover

  Quad Series

  A Little Taste of Home


  Too Dangerous To Love

  Someday My Prince Good Ol’ Boy Will Come

  Black Queen

  Totally Bound

  Preconception

  Seducing Damian

  Through the Fire

  Serial

  Keeper of the Stars Pt. 1

  Keeper of the Stars Pt. 2

  Keeper of the Stars Pt. 3

  Keeper of the Stars Pt. 4

  Keeper of the Stars Pt. 5

  Astral Guardians

  Chasing the Storm

  Highlands at Dawn

  Fields of Thunder

  Branded by Frost

  Driven by Night

  Moon of Fire

  Interludes

  Temporary Home

  Alone with You

  Till We Ain’t Strangers Anymore

  In Aeternum

  Casanova in Training

  Harbour of Refuge

  Protected by Shadows

  Polar Opposites

  Code of Honour

  A Marriage of Convenience

  The Lieutenant’s Ex-Wife

  A Man Like No Other

  When Stars Collide

  Theta Corps

  Restitution

  Contrition

  Vindication

  The Edge

  Called Home to The Edge

  Straying to The Edge

  Returning to The Edge

  Cuffed at The Edge

  Entangled

  Code Name: Papa

  Kindleworld

  Delay of Game (Game of Love Kindleworld series)

  The Wedding Snafu (Four Weddings & A Fiasco Kindleworld series)

  Watching You (Lone Star Burn Kindleworld series)

  Icy Dare (Dare to Love Kindleworld series)

  Daring the Hard Man (Dare to Love Kindleworld series

  All In (Hot SEALs/Tungsten Protective Services Kindleworld series crossover)

  Fire Devil (Dallas Fire & Rescue Kindleworld series)

  Embers of Lust (Dallas Fire & Rescue Kindleworld series)

  His Rysk to Take (Omega Team Kindleworld series)

  The Billionaire’s Code (Billionaire Universe Kindleworld series)

  His Pryze to Claim (Omega Team Kindleworld series)

  Autumn Frost (Brotherhood Protectors Kindleworld series)

  Sass This (Sassy Mates Kindleworld series)

  Black Sand (Lei Crime Kindleworld series)

  Standalone

  Dutch & Lobo (in In the Trenches collection)

  On the High Seas (in What White Boyz Desire collection)

  Love Under the Endless African Sky

  Co-written with Taige Crenshaw

  Unbreakable Bonds

  Kemet Uncovered:

  Talios

  Devi

  Linc

  Saffron

  Taber

  Ashia

  Co-written with McKenna Jeffries

  McKingley:

  All the Wright Moves

  The Best Thing Yet

  Risky Pleasures

  Pure Harmony

  Irresistible Forces

  Seductions Dance