LOVE ME LIKE THIS
The Morrisons, Book 3
Justin & Taylor
Bella Andre
Table of Contents
Title Page
Copyright Page
About the Book
Note from Bella
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
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Chapter Twenty-Four
Epilogue
Bella Andre Booklist
About the Author
LOVE ME LIKE THIS
The Morrisons, Book 3
Justin & Taylor
(c) Bella Andre 2018
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Eight years have passed since Justin Morrison first laid eyes on Taylor Cardenes and fell head over heels in love with her, even though he knew she could never be his. He's tried everything he can to get over her--including moving to another country--but she's still the only woman he'll ever want.
Eight years is a heck of a long time to secretly love someone. Taylor knows all too well how impossible it is to forget a man as sexy, sweet, and brilliant as Justin Morrison. So when he turns up on the doorstep of her Napa Valley bed and breakfast, she longs for the happily-ever-after of her dreams.
As Taylor and Justin spend beautifully romantic mornings together watching the sun rise over the vineyards--and can't help but fall into each other's arms on wickedly sexy nights--it looks like they might finally get their chance at the love they've been waiting for. But will the secret Taylor has been keeping shatter everything in the end?
Note from Bella
As soon as I began to write about the Morrison family several years ago, I fell in love with them. Thankfully, after receiving countless emails and notes on Facebook and Twitter from readers telling me how much you loved Kiss Me Like This and Tempt Me Like This, I knew I wasn't alone. But the truth is that I had no idea just how deep my attachment to the Morrisons would go until I finally got a chance to tell Justin and Taylor's story.
Every day, I write about heroes and heroines who are utterly devoted to each other, so it's not uncommon for my husband to find me sitting at my laptop with tears rolling down my cheeks as I write a particularly poignant scene. But I'm pretty sure I broke a record for the most teary-eyed writing days while working on Love Me Like This.
I hope you absolutely adore reading about Justin and Taylor's long awaited happily ever after.
Happy reading,
Bella Andre
P.S. If you would like to hear about my new books as soon as they're released, please sign up for my New Release newsletter: BellaAndre.com/Newsletter
CHAPTER ONE
"You've booked a vacation for me in Napa Valley?" Justin Morrison was sitting with his sisters Olivia and Madison at the kitchen table in their childhood home in Palo Alto as they sprang this surprise on him. "I thought you needed me here a week early to help get all the last-minute things done for Drew and Ashley's wedding." If that hadn't been the case, he likely wouldn't have left his lab in Frankfurt until a day or two before the wedding to catch a plane to SFO. Of course, he was happy his brother was getting married to the woman of his dreams, but Justin could barely squeeze one free hour out of his research schedule, let alone an entire week.
He thought he saw a flash of guilt in Olivia's eyes, but a split second later, it was gone. "As you know, Ashley is really organized, so it turns out she doesn't need much help with anything. Which means," Olivia added with a smile that he didn't quite buy, "you're free to take a little holiday before the wedding."
"Apart from a few days at Thanksgiving and Christmas, I've barely been home for the past five years," he reminded her. "And now that I've got a free week to spend with everyone, you're trying to get rid of me?"
"Of course not." Maddie was quick to throw her arms around him to back up her words.
He couldn't believe how grown up his little sister was. When he'd left for Germany five years ago, she'd been a sweet, naive eighteen-year-old. Now, at twenty-three, while she still had that same joyful smile, Justin was all too certain that her naive years were long behind her. His jaw clenched at the thought of his little sister getting involved with some scumbag--which would be all guys as far as he was concerned. He'd been planning to pin her down on everything this week, from her love life to her cooking career, but now it looked as though she was trying to get rid of him instead.
As she loosened her hold on him, he was struck by the concern in her eyes. "We're worried about you, Justin."
"Worried?" He looked between Maddie and Olivia. "Why would you be worried about me?"
Olivia's lips pressed together as she gathered her thoughts. He'd seen this look many times, especially after their mother had passed away six years ago from breast cancer and Olivia had done her best to step into their mom's shoes. Not even his brilliant sister could manage that, however. Lisa Morrison was irreplaceable, and he felt her loss just as keenly today as he had all those years ago. Losing his mother had driven Justin to find a cure for breast cancer--and he wouldn't rest until he did.
"You work too hard." Olivia's words were soft but firm.
"You're kidding, right?" He couldn't believe Olivia, of all people, was accusing him of being a workaholic. She was in her last year of a PhD program in education, the same field their mother had worked in, teaching third grade. Last time Justin had been home for Thanksgiving, Olivia's nose had been buried in research papers for two days straight--she'd barely put her work down to eat some stuffing. "When was the last time you saw the sun?"
"Actually," Olivia said, straightening her shoulders and lifting her chin, "I've been cutting back a lot recently."
When a flush moved across her cheeks, he suddenly wondered if he'd been planning to quiz the wrong sister about her love life. Olivia was twenty-eight, so he shouldn't be surprised that she might have met someone she was interested in going the distance with. If she had, was there any chance in hell that the guy was good enough for her? All the more reason for Justin to spend the week here in Palo Alto with his family instead of in the wine country.
"In any case, we're not talking about me," she continued in a brisk tone. "We're talking about you. A week in a charming B&B surrounded by the beautiful vineyards of St. Helena is exactly what you need."
He ran his hand through his hair, still trying to figure out what was behind their decision to surprise him with this trip. "Does Grant know about this?"
Maddie and Olivia both nodded as his younger sister told him, "Grant is the one who made the booking."
Now Justin was really confused. His oldest brother ran Collide, a social networking company that now also included venture capital and a record company, which made Grant quite possibly the hardest worker of them all. Surely he couldn't think Justin was working too hard in the lab--especially when Grant's company was one of the investors with a stake in Justin's research.
"Are Sean and Drew also in on your plan to send me off into the boonies?"
"First of all,
" Olivia said, "St. Helena is anything but the boonies. It's considered to be one of the best small towns in America. And second, when we ran the idea past Sean and Drew, they both gave it the thumbs-up."
"So all of you have been talking about me behind my back?"
"We just want you to be happy." Maddie grabbed his hands and squeezed them. "Can you trust us, Justin? Please?"
Before he could reply, their dad walked in through the side door. Michael Morrison's face lit up when he saw his kids sitting at the table. "Justin, you're back!"
Twelve or twenty-seven--it didn't matter how old Justin was, he always wanted one of his father's hugs. When the two men embraced, he was glad that his father didn't feel frail or bony anymore. He had never carried excess weight, but when his wife died, he'd gone from being fit and trim to a walking skeleton.
"You're looking good, Dad."
"Thanks." His father put his laptop bag on the white and blue hand-painted tiles that Justin had helped his mother install a decade ago. "I've been playing a lot of pickleball lately. Maybe you could join me for a game this week."
"It will have to be tonight." Olivia sent his father a look. "Justin will be in St. Helena next week, remember?"
"Oh yeah." His father cleared his throat and looked a little nervous as he said, "You're going to have a great time up there. Really, really great!"
Seriously suspicious now, Justin said, "Okay, one of you had better tell me what the heck is going on, and quick."
Olivia shot both his father and Maddie quelling looks. But Justin knew whom to turn to for answers. "Mads?" He leaned over the table and put his face in line with hers. "You know I'm going to get you to tell me everything before the night is through, so you might as well just give up the info now and save us both the trouble."
She scrunched her eyes shut tight, her nose crinkling too, just like she used to when she was a little girl trying to keep a secret. Justin started the silent countdown inside his head: ten, nine, eight, seven, six--she always broke by three--five, four--
"Taylor." The name burst from her lips.
"Taylor?" Whatever Justin had been expecting to hear, it hadn't been the name of his best friend from college. A friend he'd fallen completely out of touch with during the past five years.
He still remembered the day they'd met--in a bio lab during their first quarter at Stanford University. Taylor was the prettiest girl Justin had ever set eyes on. She hadn't had any makeup on, hadn't worn flashy or revealing clothes the way so many girls from high school had. She'd slain him with nothing more than a sweet, and somewhat shy, smile.
When it turned out she was wicked smart too, he'd angled to be her lab partner--hoping it would mean that they'd spend plenty of time together outside of the lab. Thankfully, they soon became good friends. But their relationship never went any further than that, because she had a boyfriend back home in Rochester, New York.
Boring Bruce, Justin secretly called him. The guy was the son of her parents' best friends, and the two of them had been set up practically from the cradle. She never said much about Bruce to Justin--and he sure as hell hadn't wanted to ask for details about their love life. But from her side of the phone conversations he sometimes overheard, it didn't exactly seem like she was living a fairy-tale romance with the guy.
Still, he'd known better than to say a damn thing about her relationship when his motivations were completely suspect--he would have given his right arm for Taylor to break up with her boyfriend so that he could have her for himself. Especially in junior year, when his mother passed away and Taylor had unequivocally been there for him and his family. She'd been there for his mother too, spending hours upon hours at the hospital, all the way until the end.
By senior year, Justin had run out of patience--and self-control. When Taylor was near, all he could think about was kissing her. Pulling her into his arms and finding out if they were as good together as his fantasies told him they'd be.
He hadn't been a monk in college. He'd gone from one woman to the next--too many women, if he was being honest with himself--in the hopes that one of them would do the impossible and make him forget how much he wanted Taylor. By senior year, however, he'd started funneling his frustration into his work, day in, day out, and late into the night.
That was when the universe had decided it was time to throw him a bone and magic started happening in the lab. The kind of magic that meant someone else might not lose their mom to breast cancer in the future. Or their sister. Or their daughter. Even though he knew it was rare for an undergraduate to get research funding, he'd told his senior advisor about his findings, and his brother Grant, who said he would put feelers out to see if there were any investors interested in his research.
And then, magic finally happened outside of the lab too. Justin and Taylor were celebrating making it through a difficult week at school, and somewhere in there, they'd ended up kissing. Idiot that he was, he'd thought their kiss meant everything had changed. He'd thought it meant she was finally going to be his.
But in the morning, she'd been horrified and had fumbled all over herself trying to let him down easy. Saying she'd been drunk, that she couldn't remember what happened at the bar, that she hoped she hadn't ruined their friendship.
She couldn't have made it any clearer--especially in the way she emphasized the word friendship--that she wasn't interested.
Heartbreak, Justin understood in that moment, was just a different shade of grief. Guilt wasn't far behind. He knew she'd had too much to drink that night at the bar, but he'd been so desperate to have her that he hadn't listened to his conscience.
Thank God that same morning his brother Grant called with the offer from Frankfurt to open a lab immediately and get to work taking his research to the next level. Twenty-four hours later, Justin was leaving Stanford on a plane to Germany, planning to bury himself in enough work that he forgot everything else.
Especially his unrequited feelings for Taylor.
Five years later, he had succeeded on both fronts. His team at the lab was so close to a breakthrough that he could taste it. And his desperate need for Taylor was nothing more than a distant memory.
At least, he'd thought so, until his family said her name--and sent him tumbling down memory lane.
His father took off his glasses and cleaned them with his shirttail, another of his standard nervous gestures. "Last month, Grant and I went to take a look at the winery Drew and Ashley are getting married in--Marcus and Nicola Sullivan's place--and we ran into Taylor while we were getting a bite to eat in town." He looked slightly apologetic as he added, "She told us she'd recently moved to St. Helena."
Justin knew why his father looked sorry for him. The fact that Taylor hadn't told him this news herself spoke volumes about the sorry state of their friendship.
In his head, Justin still thought of her as she'd been the last time he'd seen her. Beautiful and sweet, even as she apologized for their drunken kiss. But five years had passed since then. She'd taken a position with a biotech firm in Palo Alto after graduation and had been living in a rental house off College Terrace with a couple of roommates. He hadn't actually seen her, though, had always headed back to California for the holidays just as she was leaving for New York to visit her family--and her boyfriend. At first, there had been email, texts, calls. But soon, one month of silence was stretching into three, and then six, between awkward conversations that felt all wrong.
Finally, he saw what was going on--his family was forcing him to do what he should have done a long time ago: apologize to Taylor for being a terrible friend and hopefully set their friendship back to rights. Whatever happened in St. Helena, he wouldn't put either of them in an awkward position again by trying to kiss her, wouldn't let himself hope that she'd suddenly see him in a different light than she had in college. Besides, he was too busy with the lab for a girlfriend, so just-friends was perfect.
"You're right," he said to his family, "I need to see her. It's been way too long."
/> Maddie threw her arms around his neck. "I'm so glad you agree! And I'm sure Taylor is happy that you're going to be one of the first guests at her B&B, instead of some stranger."
"Wait a minute." Justin reeled from yet more new information. "Taylor owns the B&B you've booked me into?"
Olivia was smiling as she handed him the flyer for the Cardenes Wine Country B&B. "Check-in is at three p.m. The florist that Mom always used is still on University Avenue if you want to pick up some flowers before you head to Napa."
His sister was never one for subtlety. Clearly, she knew he needed to grovel, and she was trying to give him pointers. But he already knew exactly what to bring for Taylor when he saw her tomorrow. Something he'd never had the nerve to give her back in college, but that would hopefully prove to both of them that he could be her friend--and nothing more--without putting pressure on her to change her mind or make her feel as though he blamed her for not loving him back.
"Now that that's settled," his conflict-averse father said, "how about all of us grab some pickleball racquets and get in a match before dark?"
Heading outside with his family was just what Justin needed. Not only to help with the jet lag, but because he'd soon be seeing Taylor again. And not just for a few hours, but for several days. Without his lab to disappear into, he didn't want to fall into old patterns and start mooning over her again.
"I'm game," he said.
"I am too," Maddie agreed. She flexed her biceps and added, "Just as long as you're not too upset when I crush you on the court."
All the Morrison men were built the same--tall and rangy, with well-defined muscles. Despite his insane work hours, Justin was still fit. Working out was the best way he had to blow off steam and frustration. But to make his sister laugh, he pretended to limp out of the kitchen toward the garage to get the paddles and balls.
And as the four of them played a cutthroat game of pickleball, he realized just how much he'd missed his family's laughter during the past five years. Although the truth was that the laughter had died before that, when his mom got sick.
It was why Justin worked so hard in his lab. So that other families wouldn't forget how to laugh the way they had.