Read Dirty Rowdy Thing Page 26


  I hadn’t considered any of this, that by doing the show we might be helping more than just ourselves. But I can’t really focus on any of that with the way she’s looking at me. I take another sip of beer, studying her. “You jealous?”

  She laughs. “Nope. You just blew your wad inside me in under two minutes, about an hour ago. I think I have you locked down pretty tight.”

  “Gross. I fucking love you.”

  Harlow leans on the bar, gazing up at me. “Let’s go get matching tattoos.”

  “Yeah?”

  “Yeah. Mermaids or skulls. Your choice.”

  “Mermaids?”

  “Yeah,” she says. “Think of all the great conversation starters about your huge trident.”

  I rub my jaw, staring at her perfect fucking lips. The only marks on her skin will be from me. “I don’t think so.”

  “You could get a hook.”

  A laugh bursts from my throat. “I’m not getting a fucking hook tattoo.”

  She falls quiet with a little smile pulling her lips up into a kissable curve. I bend, kissing it.

  “You make me happy,” she says.

  Fuck. This girl. “You make me happy, too.”

  She straightens, eyes narrowing. “There will literally not be one other girl kissing you on this show or otherwise. Dates? Okay. But they have to be hilariously miserable to make good television and then you sneak out and come see me and put bite marks all over my thighs.”

  I blink, nearly choking on a peanut.

  “Harlow, I told you I didn’t sign that clause. I’m not dating other women on the show.” I kiss her again. I’m hungry for it now, for the silk of her thighs on my teeth, for the way my teeth marks would look on that soft, delicate skin. Pulling back, I blink away, down the bar to clear my head.

  “Won’t you have to?”

  “I think they’re happy to have us signed on. I don’t think Matt or Giles is going to push for me to stay single, actually. I think they’re focusing the business story on me, and the romance angle on Colt and Levi.”

  “Well, yeah, look at them.”

  I growl. “Harlow.”

  She smiles, licking her lips. “You mean we don’t have to be sneaky?”

  Shaking my head, I ask, “Am I crazy to do this? I’m going to be a D-list celebrity auditioning for Survivor when I’m forty.”

  “Oh, come on, that’s next year. Isn’t it a two-year contract?”

  “Ha.”

  “At least you’ll have a hot wife.”

  “Wife?” My heart takes off, too fast. She reads my deepest thoughts, the ones that want to be settled, spoken for, sharing a bed and a home and a life.

  “Yeah.”

  “You’ve already been my wife, remember?” Despite everything that happened in Vegas, there’s very little I take more seriously than family. I step off my bar stool and she pulls me between her bent legs. “So you’re actually proposing this time?”

  “Just predicting.” She leans her chin on my chest to look up at me. “I want kids.”

  Kissing the tip of her nose, I tell her, “I’m okay with that. But not for a little while yet.”

  “Three,” she says.

  I shake my head. “Two.”

  “Then they have to be the best two possible, so we should practice.”

  “Nightly.”

  “And daily.”

  I nod. “Vegas again?”

  She lifts my arm, checks my watch. “I don’t have anywhere to be until tomorrow at ten.”

  “I don’t even have to work tomorrow,” I tell her.

  Harlow slaps a twenty down on the bar. “Then shit, Sunshine, we’d better hit the road.”

  Acknowledgments

  THANKS, AS EVER, to our wonderful agent, Holly Root, our editor, Adam Wilson (who still probably doesn’t know what hit him), the tireless and inspiring team at Gallery Books, our forever-helpful prereaders, Erin and Tonya, our amazing readers, all of the bloggers who support and promote us, and our husbands and children for their continued enthusiasm and patience.

  Just after we began writing this book, Lauren and Erin’s father passed away after battling illness for over a decade. Because Christina and I are more than coauthors—we are best friends—the loss threw both of us into a bit of a tailspin, and we were unable to work much for a few weeks. I’m hijacking these acknowledgments to thank Christina for being so steadfast and present for me. You’re more than I could have ever hoped for, and always amaze me with the generosity of your spirit.

  The last time I saw my father, he told me he had never seen me so happy and was so proud of me for chasing down this dream of writing. This meant the world to me. My dad—a professor, a psychologist, an epidemiologist—didn’t care that what we write isn’t heady literature or meant to be treated as any sort of cultural revelation. He just enjoyed watching me having the time of my life, and I, in turn, was grateful that he got to see me so happy writing stories that are meant to make readers smile and escape the daily stresses of life for a slip of time.

  In 1992, shortly before I left for college, my dad wrote me a letter to where I was working at a camp in Yosemite. He said,

  I enjoyed talking to you on the phone last night—I have really come to appreciate and enjoy these moments where I am aware that I have my own special relationship with you. You know me in ways that I’m not always very aware of myself. It’s only in my relationship with you (or Erin, although of course it’s different) that the particular person that is Lauren’s dad comes out. Somehow, Lauren’s dad doesn’t get as much practice as Dr. Billings or Marcia’s husband. In spite of that, it always thrills me when I realize that “Lauren’s dad” is a real person that you know, can predict, and frequently love.

  “Frequently” is an understatement, for sure. So, thank you, Dad, for being so wonderful that I didn’t have to dig at all into the depths of my imagination to write a father-daughter relationship for Alexander and Harlow Vega that was full of love and support and loyalty. You are missed.

  —Lauren

  About the Author

  Photograph by Alyssa Michelle

  Christina Lauren is the combined pen name of long-time writing partners/besties/soul mates and brain-twins, Christina Hobbs and Lauren Billings, New York Times, USA Today, and #1 international bestselling authors of the Beautiful Bastard series. Some of their books have kissing. Some of their books have A LOT of kissing. You can find them online at ChristinaLaurenBooks.com, or at @seeCwrite and @LolaShoes on Twitter.

  FOR MORE ON THIS AUTHOR: authors.simonandschuster.com/Christina-Lauren

  MEET THE AUTHORS, WATCH VIDEOS AND MORE AT

  SimonandSchuster.com

  Books by CHRISTINA LAUREN

  THE WILD SEASONS SERIES

  Sweet Filthy Boy

  THE BEAUTIFUL BASTARD SERIES

  Beautiful Bastard

  Beautiful Stranger

  Beautiful Bitch

  Beautiful Bombshell

  Beautiful Player

  Beautiful Beginning

  The Wild Seasons series continues in September 2015 with Dark Wild Night

  But first, a return to the Beautiful series with

  Beautiful Beloved (e-short)

  February 2015

  and

  Beautiful Secret

  April 2015

  Featuring all the characters from Beautiful Bastard, Beautiful Stranger, and Beautiful Player . . .

  and one from Wild Seasons

  Gallery Books

  A Division of Simon & Schuster, Inc.

  1230 Avenue of the Americas

  New York, NY 10020

  www.SimonandSchuster.com

  This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real places are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and events are products of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or places or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  Copyright © 2014 by Christina Ho
bbs and Lauren Billings

  All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever. For information address Gallery Books Subsidiary Rights Department, 1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020.

  First Gallery Books trade paperback edition November 2014

  GALLERY BOOKS and colophon are registered trademarks of Simon & Schuster, Inc.

  For information about special discounts for bulk purchases, please contact Simon & Schuster Special Sales at 1-866-506-1949 or [email protected].

  The Simon & Schuster Speakers Bureau can bring authors to your live event. For more information or to book an event contact the Simon & Schuster Speakers Bureau at 1-866-248-3049 or visit our website at www.simonspeakers.com.

  Cover art by iStockPhoto

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is on file.

  ISBN 978-1-4767-7796-2

  ISBN 978-1-4767-7797-9 (ebook)

  Contents

  * * *

  Dedication

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Acknowledgments

  About the Author

 


 

  Christina Lauren, Dirty Rowdy Thing

 


 

 
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