My muscles are still cramped from sleeping curled up in one position on the sofa. When my ass hits the bed, I can’t resist a full, luxurious stretch, arching my back and reaching over my head, eyes closed. But before I’ve completed it, I feel something more luxurious by far, as Nick’s warm mouth covers me. His tongue starts slow, lazy circles, and I hear his quiet “mmmm” of pleasure as he senses my body’s response. He knows what pleases me better than I know myself. How is that possible?

I relax completely, then begin to tense again, but in different places, pulsing with anticipation. The hands that I stretched over my head frantically seek something to grip tightly as Nick’s lips and tongue move faster. There’s never been a boundary between our bodies. My ecstasy is his and his is mine.

I cry his name as my orgasm begins to cascade. Seeing and hearing me come, tasting it, causing it to happen, makes him so hard that he plunges into me before I’m done. I want him desperately, and I know he feels the same. His moves become more urgent until his last powerful thrust, and I feel the hot flow of his climax. We finish together, my final shudders blending with his strong pulsing.

“My Chloe,” he murmurs, almost to himself. I love hearing him claim me, when he’s only half aware of his own words, lost in the golden moment. But a few minutes later, still inside me, as our breathing returns to normal, he says it again clearly: “My Chloe. My love.”

I smile into his eyes, my palms on his scratchy face, but he looks back at me so seriously. With the fingers of one hand, he traces the thin chain of my necklace down to the interlocked gold rings of the pendant, warm now from our skin. He holds them up.

“You are my whole world. I love you. I need you.”

My eyes fill with tears. “I love you, Nick. I’ve waited my whole life for you. It was worth every second.”

And it was.

I waited years for Holly, knowing my life would never be complete without her, without a child to love. This mother’s love is a fierce, protective force that flows in my veins. It was born when she was born, and will live inside me until the day I die. But I know it will evolve. My job is not just to love her and keep her safe, but to prepare her to find her own independent life, to fly from our nest someday on her own strong wings.

Just as Holly will do in her future, I’ve been living my own independent life. I’ve had happy times and sad times, successes and failures, with Henry and Jemma and Charlotte for support. I was doing okay. But it was chicken broth.

I start to giggle when I remember the saying: “Cooking is like love; it should be entered into with abandon or not at all.”

Absolutely.

Then, like a horrible electric shock, my cell suddenly begins blaring “La Vida Loca.” Dammit, Henry got to my ringtone setting again. As I reach for it, Nick’s phone starts ringing, too.

“It’s Elodie,” I say, looking at the lighted screen. “How on earth does she know when we’re… Hello?”

“Amelie?” I hear him say ominously into his own phone.

“Chloe? I’m really sorry...” Elodie starts, but I can’t hear her over Nick yelling.

“I can’t believe you girls are doing this! You are not ten years old anymore! You’re not going to think it’s so funny when I turn off your phone plan and you can only dial 911 and pizza delivery!”

“Shhhhhh! I can’t hear her!” I hiss at him. “Elodie, what is it?”

“Hold on,” Nick says furiously.

“Chloe, I’m really sorry!” Her voice breaks. “I hate to bother you, but we were trying to teach Holly to crawl and we were all on the floor and she picked something up and put it in her mouth and she swallowed it and we think it was a spider!” She’s sobbing now. “And we don’t know what to do!”

From Nick’s phone, I hear the faint echo of “...what to do!”

I’m already standing, picking up my velvet pants from the floor and shaking them out. “We’re on our way,” I say. “Don’t worry. Everything’s going to be fine.”

On his side of my bed, Nick is pulling on his shirt.

We’re on our way.

We really are.

And everything’s going to be fine.

Just fine.

* * *

:)

* * *

Thank you so much for reading Our Options Have Changed, the first in our On Hold of contemporary romances. Whether you like a little comedy with your romance, or some drama with your smiles, you’ll find this new series to be just right.

Look for the next book in the On Hold series, Thank You For Holding, coming in 2017.

KEEP READING for your BONUS NOVELLA: Shopping for a Billionaire’s Honeymoon!

About Julia Kent

Text JKentBooks to 77948 and get a text message on release dates!

New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Julia Kent turned to writing contemporary romance after deciding that life is too short not to have fun. She writes romantic comedy with an edge, and new adult books that push contemporary boundaries. From billionaires to BBWs to rock stars, Julia finds a sensual, goofy joy in every book she writes, but unlike Trevor from Random Acts of Crazy, she has never kissed a chicken.

She loves to hear from her readers by email at jkentauthorgmail, on Instagram and Twitter jkentauthor, and on Facebook at jkentauthor

Visit her website at jkentauthor

For more information, click on a link below:

jkentauthor

jkentauthor

jkentauthor

juliajkentauthor

About Elisa Reed

Elisa Reed is a journalist-turned-fiction-writer whose snappy, irreverent prose combines with an irrepressible zest for the simpler, and often intimate, pleasures of life to produce fun(ny) contemporary romance with a focus on second chances.

New England born and bred, Elisa Reed now lives, writes, and plays in New Orleans and along the sugar sands of the Gulf Coast.

You can find her on Facebook at: elisareedauthor

For more information, click on a link below:

elisareedauthor

Shopping for a Billionaire’s Honeymoon

by Julia Kent