EVERY BEAT OF MY HEART
~ The Sullivans ~
Wedding Novella
Bella Andre
Table of Contents
Title Page
Copyright Page
About the Book
A note from Bella
The Sullivan Family Tree
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Bella Andre Booklist
About the Author
EVERY BEAT OF MY HEART
~ The Sullivans ~
Wedding Novella
(c) 2016 Bella Andre
Sign up for Bella's New Release Newsletter
www.BellaAndre.com
Bella on Twitter
Bella on Facebook
[email protected] "You are cordially invited to a very special wedding..."
What do you get when two Sullivans pick the same wedding date?
Two super-sexy grooms.
Two beautiful brides.
Two very unconventional (four-legged and furry) ring bearers.
And Sullivans from around the word coming together to celebrate vows of forever with auto mogul Zach Sullivan and dog trainer Heather Linsey--and pro baseball star Ryan Sullivan and sculptor Vicki Bennett.
This is the double wedding millions of Sullivan fans have been waiting for...
Special note from Bella Andre: If you are already a fan of the series, I hope you absolutely love being able to reconnect with all your favorite San Francisco and Seattle Sullivans! If you are just getting started, this is a great way to meet everyone, and you can find a Sullivan Family Tree on my website (bellaandre.com/sullivan-family-tree).
A note from Bella
Over the past five years, countless readers have written to ask if I could write a story about how your favorite Sullivans are doing. I am beyond thrilled to finally fulfill that request--especially given that writing EVERY BEAT OF MY HEART has been such a wonderful experience. I've laughed and cried along with each and every one of my heroes and heroines as they worked together to put on this fun and emotional wedding.
If you are already a fan of the series, I hope you love being able to reconnect with all your favorite San Francisco and Seattle Sullivans! If you are just getting started, this is a great way to meet everyone. You can find out how Zach and Heather first found love in IF YOU WERE MINE and learn more about Ryan and Vicki's love story in LET ME BE THE ONE.
One other frequent request has been for a family tree, and I'm very pleased to include one in this book. You can also find it on my website: www.BellaAndre.com/Sullivan-Family-Tree
Last, but certainly not least, I want to thank you for reading my books and for writing me such lovely emails and online comments. Knowing that you love my Sullivans as much as I do makes me very, very happy!
Happy reading,
Bella Andre
PS: After writing more than a dozen books about the Sullivan family, I'm always amazed to find myself falling more in love with them than ever. Now that the San Francisco and Seattle Sullivans have all found love, it's time for their cousins in New York and Maine to find love too! Drake Sullivan kicks off the New York branch with NOW THAT I'VE FOUND YOU and his sister, Suzanne, will be next in SINCE I FELL FOR YOU!
PPS: As a special bonus, I've put together a behind-the-scenes look at what inspired me to first write about the Sullivans--and why I plan to keep writing about them for as long as I possibly can! Click on the image below to find out more or visit www.BellaAndre.com/secret
CHAPTER ONE
The dogs gave away Heather Linsey's appearance a full sixty seconds before she walked into Zach Sullivan's garage. Cuddles and Atlas ran in to greet Zach at top speed, the tags on their collars clinking and clanging like wind chimes. Though Atlas weighed a hundred and fifty pounds more than Cuddles, he had enough control over his big, long limbs to stop himself before he hit the classic--and priceless--1974 Ferrari 365 GT4 that Zach was working on. Cuddles, on the other hand, though barely eight pounds soaking wet, went sliding all the way beneath the car.
"Goofballs." Zach looked at Atlas. "Want me to get your girlfriend out from under there?" He could have sworn the Great Dane nodded.
Both of them bent down to look for the teacup Yorkie under the car. And as Cuddles sat just out of reach with her tail wagging a million miles an hour and her tongue hanging out of her mouth, Zach was reminded of the first time he met Heather, right here at Sullivan Autos.
Best day of his life.
"Nothing wrong with that view," she said a few moments later in a voice laced with humor and more than a little sensuality.
The sound of Heather's voice was all it took to rev Zach's engine. Grinning, with his torso still under the car, he did a mini-twerk for her.
Her laughter warmed every cell in his body as she walked over to the side of the car and said, "Be still, my heart." Making his fiancee laugh was one of Zach's number one goals in life. She'd been too serious for too long before they found each other.
Hearing Heather's voice, Cuddles clearly decided it would be more fun to be with her than to keep toying with Zach and Atlas. With a doggy grin, she trotted out from under the car, and Zach immediately scooped her up.
With the dog tucked under one arm, Zach stood up, then pulled his fiancee against him. "You stole my line." Her mouth was warm and sweet beneath his as he kissed her, then said, "My heart hasn't beat normally since the first day you walked into my garage and gave me hell."
The truth was, he'd never expected a woman like Heather to come into his life. Sparks had jumped between them from the first, and when they finally gave in to their feelings for each other? Explosion wasn't anywhere near a good enough word for the heat of their lovemaking.
The most amazing thing of all, however, wasn't just that he'd found her in the first place. It was that life with her just kept getting better and better.
"You were so hot," she muttered in a voice made slightly breathless from his kiss, "and so infuriatingly cocky."
"And now?"
"You're still hot." She grinned. "And just as cocky as ever."
"You love it."
"I love you," she clarified. "So I put up with the rest of the package."
"Speaking of the rest of the package--" Her mouth was too tempting to resist kissing again. "--want to get kinky in the backseat of a souped-up Ferrari?"
She raised an eyebrow. "Is that why you asked me to leave my office to visit you in the middle of the day?"
"Would that be a problem if it was?"
She slid her hands under his shirt, and his abdominal muscles flexed and jumped as she replied with a cocky grin of her own, "It will only be a problem if you take more than sixty seconds to get my clothes off."
"Don't start counting yet."
"Too late." Her wicked smile made his heart jump so fast and hard inside his chest that he could practically hear it reverberating against the walls and concrete floor. "One. Two. Three."
Zach carefully put Cuddles down, told both dogs to go lie on their dog beds in the corner, then went to hit the button on the wall that closed his garage doors. After locking the door that led to his office as well, he sprinted back to Heather, who was at ten by then.
He didn't bother with undoing buttons, just tore her shirt open and shoved it off. They had a change of outfits for her in his locker, just in case something like this should happen to her clothes. Which it did. Often.
She gasped at his caveman approach, but he could tell by the way her pupils dilated that she loved it just as much as he did. Otherwise, why wou
ld she have given him a running time clock?
Her countdown grew huskier with every second that passed. He'd never thought the word nineteen could sound sexy, but boy, did it ever.
Her bra came next, but since it was one of his favorites--a pink and white lacy thing from which her breasts spilled in the sexiest possible way--he unclipped the front latch before sliding it off her shoulders rather than ripping it in two.
"Thirty-one." She licked her lips, the tip of her tongue wetting that gorgeous mouth of hers. "And you've still got so much to take off."
Sweet Lord, he loved the way they teased. Sparred and sparked. He could spend a thousand years with Heather and never feel bored. Never wish that he could have anyone else. Not when Heather was absolutely everything to him.
"Don't worry," he promised, "you'll be naked and in the backseat before sixty."
Without giving her any warning, he picked her up and had her on the leather seat by thirty-nine. His mouth was watering at the way her breasts were bouncing from the trip into the car, but he couldn't let himself be distracted. Not yet. Not until he had her jeans and panties off too.
Thankfully, she was hungry enough for him that she was already kicking off her shoes by the time he'd unbuttoned and unzipped her jeans.
"Fifty-one."
He grinned, deciding to take every last one of the remaining nine seconds to tease them both by slowly sliding denim and lace down her long, toned legs. Her voice shook with each of the final seconds she spoke aloud, and he wondered just how close she was to begging by now. By his estimation, not far at all.
He muffled sixty with his mouth on hers and his hands in her hair as he freed the long, silky strands from her braid. And when she wrapped her gorgeous naked limbs all around him and pulled him down over her on the backseat, every last one of his teenage dreams came true. Again.
He was running kisses over the soft skin of her neck and shoulders when she said, "You really are good at that."
"Never say I don't have at least one worthwhile skill."
"One really worthwhile skill." She reached for his shirt and pulled it up over his head, then put her hands flat on his bare chest and stared at him with unabashed hunger. "You really are nice to look at too."
Sliding one hand up her torso so that he could cup one breast, he looked into her brown eyes that were flecked with gold and at her rosy mouth that always tempted him beyond reason. "Ditto."
"And so romantic," she added, but she was smiling as she said it.
"I knew I should have given you the bouquet of flowers I bought for you before taking your clothes off."
Though she lit up knowing that he'd gotten her flowers, she shook her head. "No way. Clothes off first, flowers second is just right."
Just right. That's what Zach and Heather were for each other. Both in--and out--of bed. Or, as the case currently was, in the back of a very expensive race car.
He lowered his mouth to her breast just as she reached for his belt. But as he laved her sensitive flesh in just the way he knew made her crazy, instead of undoing his belt, she gripped it for dear life.
"How do you always do that? Touch me so perfectly every single time?"
He licked over her again, then bit down lightly on the taut peak with the edge of his teeth, making her shiver with need before he replied, "Because I love you."
"I love you t--ohhhh."
Desperation spun her words out into unintelligible sounds as he traced his fingertips lightly between her thighs. She was already so wet. So damned hot. So ready.
"I can't wait another second, Heather. I need to feel you, need to taste you." Even as he slid his fingers over her drenched sex, he was kissing his way down her body, using his tongue and lips and teeth to drive her higher and higher. So high that the very second he found the center of her arousal with the tip of his tongue, she blasted off into ecstasy.
God, he loved the way she tasted. Loved the way she held nothing back as she trembled and moaned and begged him for more, her long hair a silky tangle on the leather backseat. She was still floating in pleasure when he came back up over her, his clothes off now too.
"How the hell did I ever get this lucky?" He'd asked her this question a million times during the past three years--and he knew he'd be asking it forever.
She opened her eyes and smiled at him. "I'm pretty sure you owe it all to Summer, Gabe, and Megan."
Zach's brother Gabe, his wife, and their daughter had brought Cuddles to Zach as a puppy. Summer had said she knew the minute she met the tiny little dog that she was meant to be Zach's. They'd needed a dog trainer, and Heather was the best in the city. When Cuddles and Heather's dog, Atlas, fell in love at first sight, the dogs had wanted to spend every second together--which meant Heather and Zach had become really close, really fast.
He'd never thought he would meet a woman like her. A woman who was not only his match--but who bested him in every single category. Looks. Swagger. Humor.
It was only when it came to love that they were equals.
"I love you, Heather."
He moved to take her, but she was already there, meeting him halfway. Right from the start, Heather's body had fit his like no other. But now that they knew each other's rhythms and pleasures so intimately, he could barely rein himself in to make sure she peaked again before he lost it completely.
As if she could read his mind, she put her hands on his face and kissed him. "I love you, too." She wriggled out from under him and began to turn over. "Especially when you lose control." His brain nearly stuttered to a halt as she went on her hands and knees on the supple leather of the backseat. "When you take control."
He was inside of her again before either of them could take their next breath, hauling her up against him, one hand between her legs, the other on her breasts. Their lovemaking was always beyond hot, but the way they were taking each other today was animal. Feral.
"Now." He urged her with his hands over her breasts, which seemed even fuller than usual. They were definitely more sensitive as he rolled the gorgeous peaks between his thumbs and middle fingers until her hips were bucking even harder against his. "Come apart for me, Heather. I want to feel you. I need to feel you."
The words had barely fallen from his lips before she exploded in a climax so powerful that it took Zach closer to paradise than he'd ever been before. Having the strongest, most incredible woman in the world come apart in his arms was a gift he'd never, ever take for granted.
Once his heart was beating at a halfway normal speed again, he shifted them on the backseat so that she was lying on her back looking up at him and he was levered up on one arm. He reached out to slide a lock of damp hair away from her forehead. "Want to know the other reason I asked you to come by today?"
"You really had another reason?"
He would have smiled, but he needed her to know how serious he was as he said, "I want you to be mine, Heather."
A small frown line formed between her brows. "I already am."
"You're my fiancee. But I want you to be my wife. And I want to be your husband. Not in another year from now. Not in six months. As soon as possible."
"I want that too." Her voice was soft but sure. As sure as he felt about spending forever together. "If I know you--which I think I do, better than anyone else, by now--you've not only got a date in mind, you've already booked the details."
It was true. No one had ever known him as well as Heather. She'd broken through all his walls, shown him that love was more important than anything else. "November fifteenth."
He'd expected her to look surprised, stunned even. But she simply raised one eyebrow and said, "You really think we can get everything and everyone together for a wedding in two weeks?"
"Worst case, we'll hop a flight to Vegas and get Elvis to marry us."
"You'd love that, wouldn't you?" she said with a laugh.
"You, me, and Elvis with Huge and Tiny as our witnesses?" He grinned. "Sounds like a pretty damn epic wedding to me."
/> "Yes. Not to Elvis," she clarified before he could get carried away with his grand Vegas plans, "but to getting married in two weeks."
The first time she'd said yes had been when she'd agreed to a sex-only fling with him three years ago. When they'd both tumbled head over heels in love with each other, her next yes had been after his marriage proposal. This yes, to their wedding date, felt just as big.
Just like every other time, he sealed her yes with a kiss, but this time he also took her hands and threaded his fingers through hers. "Every time your fingers slide between mine, I remember lying with you at the park in San Francisco, holding your hand, and never wanting to let go."
"I didn't want you to let go either. Not then. Not now. Not ever." But instead of smiling as she said it, he could see tears forming in her eyes. "I know I was teasing you about being romantic before, but you really are."
"Heather? What's wrong?" Whatever it was, he would fix it.
"Nothing." She wrapped her arms and legs even tighter around him. "Absolutely nothing's wrong."
His heart pounding, he forced himself to simply stroke her hair and then her back, rather than keep pushing her to tell him what was going on. Heather was the strongest woman he'd ever met. He'd broken all his rules for her. Had fallen in love hard and fast even when he'd sworn he never would. And she'd broken her rules about love for him too. There was nothing they wouldn't do for each other, no fear they wouldn't share, no joy they wouldn't celebrate. She'd tell him more when she was ready.
Finally, she settled back and gazed up at him. "When you asked me to come by the garage, I was actually already planning to." She tried to take a deep breath, but it shuddered in her chest. "I took a test this morning at work." She looked into his eyes. "I'm pregnant."
Everything inside Zach's brain went blank, and he swore his heart actually stopped beating for a split second before blood came rushing in like a flash flood. All he could do was echo her words. "You're pregnant?"
"Yes." The word shook slightly in her throat. "We're going to have a baby."
He could hardly breathe. Could hardly think a coherent thought. All he could do was kiss Heather and pull her tight against him.
"A baby." His eyes were wet now too. "We're going to have a kid. A little bruiser like me or a beauty like you." He had to put his mouth on hers again, had to say to her with his kisses all the things he couldn't yet form into words. "You hear that Atlas? Cuddles?" he said as he tugged her naked from the car a few moments later. "You're going to have a brother or sister to play with and protect soon."