Page 157 of Fighting Chance

Two things have become crystal clear.

One: Emmy has made me realize how much I crave to have my own family one day.

Two: Kieran is not at all who I thought he was two years ago, and the more I find out, the more I seem to fall for him.

It’s late into the evening. Emmy’s fast asleep as I move to leave for the day but Kieran’s rough hands wrap around my forearm and stop me. A bolt of electricity strikes my body, my stomach flipping as I turn slowly, bracing myself for his riptide eyes.

He’s too handsome for his own good.

Swallowing thickly, I try to put it out of my mind, try to ignore the way my heart is skipping a beat at his touch, but it’s getting harder.

His gaze flicks back and forth between my eyes, searching…probing. And if there’s one thing about Kieran, he never misreads people.

“A confession for a secret?” he whispers.

I find, for once, I don’t want to tell him something from my list, but a secret of my own.

I think I’m falling for you, Kieran Ashford.

I pull out my phone, ignoring Kieran’s confusion as I type out a quick text message. His phone pings from somewhere in the house. “That will tell you everything,” I say quietly, my hands trembling slightly. “Your secret?”

Kieran tucks a lock of hair behind my ear, his voice as rough as gravel as he confesses, “You’ve ruined me for every other girl.”

Chapter 33

Kieran

MY FUTURE WIFE

*link to book*

chapter 34

page 297

Lying in bed, I can’t stop replaying the way Layla’s eyes shuttered closed, her black eyelashes fluttering, chest rising on a sharp inhale as if she were savoring my secret.

I’ve been doing everything to let her figure out on her own who I am, that all I want is her, and tonight for the first time, she looked at me like she was trulyseeingme. I’d be lying if I said it didn’t ignite a little spark of hope in my chest. That perhaps I’m not torturing myself with the scraps she gives me. That maybe, just maybe, Layla could see me as someone worthy of her love.

Who would have thought a five-foot-two redhead would have me smiling to myself in bed? I feel like a teenager, my thoughts wholly consumed by her—alwaysher.

Lifting my phone, my smile only widens. I click on the link she sent me and download the audiobook, scrolling all the way to the chapter she texted me.

My eyes widen at what fills my ears.

My chuckle is dark, my blood thrumming through my body as my cock swells.

Layla has just given me a roadmap to her ultimate fantasy.

“Oh, it’s fucking on, sunshine.”

The tent rustles, the howling wind joining the sound of my gasping breaths. He pulls back, slowly peeling my clothes away, his rough voice tickling my skin as he all but groans, “You’re so fucking beautiful, baby.”

A hand slaps down on my shoulder, jostling me from my thoughts.

Shaking my head, trying to get that damn audiobook out of my mind, which has conveniently turned from the book characters into Layla and me in the tent, I look up at Grayson.

“Earth to Ashford, you good?”