Proposing Bliss (Bliss Series Book 2) Sample Chapters only

Chasing the Runaway Bride (Book 3)

A/N: Hello, lovelies! Here's a little taste of the third book, Chasing the Runaway Bride. Yes, it is about Chase. Yes, it will contain some major twists, a dollop of drama, a tablespoon of sass, and a cup of cliffys... maybe even a sprinkling of smex. Read at your own discretion.

Or start reading it now! Here's the link: http://www.wattpad.com/story/25739133-chasing-the-runaway-bride

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Antecedent: (noun) anything that precedes something similar in time.

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I bent my knees and scooped up my bestie into a massive hug. Let's get something straight, I was no hugger. I had hugger-radar, and it came in handy whenever I met people who just loooooved to give hugs. It didn't matter if I felt like a marble statue as soon as they made contact, or that I growled like a feral lioness before they even stepped forward. Huggers were huggers. End of story.

And I'd become one.

Not being able to see Nica as soon as she'd flown in from Paris with her now fiancé, Levi, was torturous. I'd had family dramas before, not that I'd ever cared to share, and being in the middle of some other family's shitstorm wasn't any better. This woman, solid and sweet and just a genuine human being with the biggest heart, shouldn't have gone through that alone. I'd been powerless to stop her from getting hurt. Thank the ever-loving Universe that she'd survived and came home unscathed. And happy. And engaged!

"Chase... can't breathe," she muttered against my leather jacket. When I released her, she was blotchy on the face, had a dent on her forehead with the same diameter as the snap of my jacket, and looking rather shocked.

"Sorry... I lost my bearings for a sec." I threw her a crooked, unapologetic grin.

Nica placed a hand, one that was adorned with a sparkler, on her chest. "I almost suffocated between your boobs. Next time, gimme a warning."

"Holy smokin', would you look at that!" I grabbed at her hand. She preened and let me scrutinize the piece. "Art Deco. Nice. What year?" I'd seen the ring before but on Nica, it shone even brighter.

She shrugged, a blush heating up her cheeks-- the modest bride to be. "1940's. His grandfather gave it to his grandma. Isn't it sweet?"

"Sweet?" I scoffed. "I bet he got laid."

"Chase!" The burn kept on her face as we both laughed. She rolled her eyes and admitted, "Maybe just a little."

"A little? Ha!"

Nica covered her face with her hands, stifling a snort. "Okay, a lot, but not because of the ring."

"Mmmm-hmmm. Where's the lucky bastard now?"

We were in her office. It was her first day back at work. I leaned my butt against her glass desk, watched Nica go around it, and arrange magazines and files how she always wanted them-- Organized, OCD freak-style. Gotta love her for it. Without her, Bliss Events would have burnt down to the ground even before it was set to open, and I would have turned to ashes with it. Nica had saved me. She didn't know it, but she did. I wouldn't know how to tell her other than being loyal to her.

"He's outside, waiting for his brother to finish smoking," Nica replied as she sat down.

Oh great! Two Laurents in this small office. Just what I asked for this morning-- coffee, donut, and egotistical men. "The shit-disturbers are here?" I looked over my shoulder to Nica, and scrunched my face up as though I'd tasted something bad.

Nica gave me "the look", the "Chase behave yourself" look. I scowled at the window which faced out to the lot, and crossed my arms over the front panels of my jacket. "What? Am I right or what?" I challenged.

"Give them a chance." She sighed. "You know Levi is staying put. I'm not letting him go anywhere. We're getting married and that's that. And his brother Alex is not so bad once you get to know him."

I snorted, scoffed, and snorted again. "Nica, you think that of everyone." I turned around to face her, bringing my hands, palms down, over her desk. "He's not so bad," I imitated, "He's only a bit handful but he's really sweet. You're going to love him. He's Levi's brother. Enough said." Yes, I could be a handful as well, but Nica knew I'd scale Mt Everest for her if she asked me.

"Nice for you to miss me too, Chase."

I heard the remark, soaked in sarcasm, behind me. Levi. I looked up to the flat ceiling and hoped that I wouldn't become a murder suspect today. Nica reached for one of my hands and smiled. Her fiancé (vomit) smirked at me before leaning down to give Nica a kiss (double vomit). A joke about only a mother being able to love him played on the tip of my tongue. But I caught Nica's pleading gaze at me, and I had to retract my fangs. For now.

Straightening up, I heaved a sigh and extended my hand out. All for my best friend. "I heard congratulations are in order." He shook my hand as I spread my lips into a flat smile, and said between my teeth, "You lucky sonuvabitch." Levi dropped my hand, and I wiped mine on my jeans.

"Chase, play nice." Nica tilted her head, exasperated at my antics.

"Fine. I promise not to set your tuxedo on fire on your wedding," I told Levi, and added, "with you in it."

A snigger came from behind me, making me whip around so fast that I suffered whiplash. My eyes felt about to pop out of their sockets. The muscles on my temple twitched.

Trouble sat on Nica's office couch, with dark, mussed James Dean hair, and decked in full leather. His booted feet were propped and crossed over the dainty coffee table that Nica and I had spent hours sanding and refinishing. And he smirked like the devil.

"Chase, meet Levi's brother, Alex," Nica piped up behind me.

I always thought life was a bitch. A bitch who loved to inconvenient me. It had been years since I'd met someone like this guy... Alex. A stick of cigarette twirled around his left index and middle fingers. Fingers that girls would notice. Fingers that women would clamour for a chance to lick them. Fingers that spoke of riveting pleasures, and pure white hot ecstasy. Fingers of a man who had rendered me speechless.

Say something. Anything!

An almost-word gurgled from my mouth, which brought another snigger out of Trouble incarnate. He locked eyes with me as he stood, all six feet and five inches of hotdamn hotness, and stalked to where I was frozen. Instead of shaking my hand (not that I offered mine), he leaned forward and placed two swift kisses on both my cheeks, Frenchie-style. Warmth welled up inside me, spreading from to the tips of the miniature hairs on the back of my neck, down to the little polished nails on my pinkie toes.

I felt ready to pass out. I willed my self to breathe and get a grip. Oh, I got a grip alright. My hands, in their own traitorous volition, raised and grasped at the lapels of his leather jacket.

His blue eyes burned into my being, reached past into my retinas and captured my soul (apparently I had one). His lips, full and red, quirked in one corner into a knowing smirk.

"Pleasure to meet you too, Chase." If sex was a person and spoke, it would sound like Alex-- decadent and smooth, with an exotic accent. The beautiful bastard ran his bottom lip between his sparkling teeth inches from me. My core tightened. And I knew then, that he had me. Unfortunately, he also knew it too.

Life was a major bitch. This was so. Freaking. Inconvenient.

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Highest Ranking: Chick lit #2 (April 11, 2015)