My love was thick.
Her faith was thin.
Somewhere in the middle is where life found us.
I claimed her when I was a boy.
I held her until I was a man.
She was my first thought every morning, my last smile at night, and a million memories in between.
Then one night, with her warmth still lingering on the sheets, Aly King walked away from me, from us,
from our life.
They say time heals all wounds, but not for me.
Not when my heart is empty.
Not when there is nothing but a sea of meaningless faces wherever I go.
It always comes back to her.
Aly needs reminding of how drunk our love made us, before she forgets completely.
Before we lose our chance.
Before we are irrevocably broken.
“You don’t want to remember?”
I didn’t. Not a single memory. A touch that was new, a taste that was different—that’s what I wanted.
Memory came with emotion. It came with commitment, something that would land me back where I’d
begun four years ago. I wanted to move beyond that. I wanted more.
“I…I want you to touch me like you don’t know me.” That hand slowed, the friction easing and I couldn’t
look at him. “I want you to touch me like a stranger.”
He didn’t stop moving against me. Ransom wasn’t purposefully cruel. He thought he knew me, assumed
he knew when I was pretending. But I wasn’t this time. I wanted him to give me what I asked for, not
what he thought I wanted, not what I had wanted in the past. But he couldn’t do it. No, he wasn’t a
stranger. He knew how close I’d come to climax. So he didn’t stop, only slowed before he moved his
hips, release my wrist to pull my face up. And because I recognized how badly he wanted this, and knew
that I would end up wanting it, too, I let go of wanting anything else and gave myself up to his touch, his
fire, his desire.
“A stranger doesn’t touch you, Aly. Not like this.” And with that one touch, Ransom fractured the
reserve I had tried so desperately to maintain. A push of my flesh, finger under my thong, right against
my clit, bare, raw and that tactile, desperate urgency eased.
“A stranger wouldn’t know what you whimper when you want it, when you’re so close to falling apart
that your breath becomes a muffle of sound.” He tugged at my pants, freed me from anything but the
floor under me and his touch. His palm over my naked ass, then he pulled me against his body until he
pushed his fingers inside me, working me hard, like no one but Ransom ever had. Ever could.
“No stranger would know that your breath hitches, that you hold everything still, the air in your lungs,
even the beat of your pulse when I touch you.” He showed me then, with the dip of his fingers deep
inside. And all did go still then—the breath between us, the axis of the world, my beating heart…it all
seemed to stop until he moved his fingers over me, sliding until he found his way to a rhythm that made
time coil and speed as quickly as it had slowed. Nothing held me back then. No excuses of why he
shouldn’t touch me, no lies I told myself about not loving him anymore.
“I’m not a stranger, nani. Your body knows that.” Working faster, deeper, he smiled, pleased
and happy when my mouth opened, when the space between us filled with the soft noises I made. His
face wasn’t expressionless anymore. It told me all I thought I’d forgotten. The act of touching me,
making me come, the noises I made, it was all familiar to Ransom. It was comfortable.
“Strangers don’t know love this deep. If they did, they wouldn’t be strangers at all.” That he whispered
against my lips, kissing me like he couldn’t keep from it for another second.
“Ransom…”
“I’ll never be a stranger, Aly, because this body, your heart is mine. It always will be.”
3.5 Stars
It's been awhile since we caught up with Ransom and Aly and that cliffhanger from the last book...I've been waiting to get my hands on it!
Thick & Thin picks right up after the last book, Aly has agreed to marry another man and did it publicly with Ransom in the audience. And we all knew her heart wasn't in it with another man. It only belongs to Ransom, but she made that decision long ago to walk away from him. And Ransom won't let her forget it their past.
Most of the book you spend a lot of time going back and forth between these two. They still love each other, but there is too much hurt and distrust. And getting a little drama with Kona and Keirra is always a plus. Overall,
The following goodies are up for grabs and are open internationally!
- (2) $10 gift cards from Amazon or B&N, winner’s choice
- (1) E-book set of the entire THIN LOVE series
a Rafflecopter
giveaway
Eden Butler is an editor and writer of Fantasy, Mystery and Contemporary Romance novels and the nine-times great-granddaughter of an honest-to-God English pirate. This could explain her affinity for rule breaking and rum. When she’s not writing or wondering about her possibly Jack Sparrowesque ancestor, Eden patiently waits for her Hogwarts letter, edits, reads and spends way too much time watching rugby, Doctor Who and New Orleans Saints football. She is currently living under teenage rule alongside her husband in southeast Louisiana. Please send help.
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