Kelly Jamieson - Lost and Found

“Ah, bunny.” He gathered her close.

“I’m not responsible for everyone’s problems.”

“Uh…no.”

“I’ve always felt that way,” she confessed into his chest. He stroked her hair. “With my mom, and with Derek. He did blame me for our problems. Even when we realized it wasn’t me that couldn’t get pregnant, he still made me feel like it was all my fault. It was my fault that he had to go screw other women.”

“Jesus. I’ll kill the fucking bastard.”

She moved her head against him. “No. Don’t kill him. He’ll figure it out. Maybe he already has.”

Nate knew he and Krissa had betrayed Derek. Derek had known about them, approved of it, encouraged them to have sex—but he hadn’t planned on them falling in love.

“I want us to be together, Krissa,” he said. “I want to be a father to this baby.”

She rolled toward him, pushed him onto his back and moved over him. “I want that too.” Eyes glistening, she bent and kissed him. “I love you. And I’m so sorry for how this started.”

“Don’t be sorry. Things happen for a reason. It was whacked, but in the end—maybe we all get what we deserve. I don’t know why I deserve you, but I’m just going to count myself lucky. I’m just sorry I lost my best friend.”

“Maybe you can forgive him some day.”

And maybe one day Derek would forgive him, too. A sad and hopeful anticipation filled him.

“I think I understand why he did what he did,” Krissa continued. “He just wasn’t a strong enough man to accept responsibility for his mistakes. And then he tried to make them right by using us to make him feel better. I was so determined to get what I wanted, I let him do it.”

“We all have our weaknesses.” And clearly, Krissa was his. He, too, had been drawn into Derek’s manipulations and he had to admit he hadn’t resisted all that hard. He’d known the kinds of problems they could face doing what they’d done, but he’d done it anyway because he’d been unable to resist Krissa’s sweet temptation. Logic and the knowledge of consequences, right versus wrong, had nothing to do with decisions made with the heart.

“Does he know…you’re pregnant?”

“I don’t know. I haven’t told him. I haven’t seen him other than just after I left. I wasn’t showing then. He may have heard from other people, though.” She sighed. “When he blamed me for him screwing around, that was it. I couldn’t take any more.”

“I wish you’d called me. I hate thinking about you being alone, finding out you were pregnant when you were alone.”

“I think it was good,” she whispered, stroking a hand through his hair, then over his cheek. “I had to be alone. I was so confused. I thought I loved Derek, and I thought I loved you. Then I felt like I hated him. I didn’t know how I felt. I was a mess.”

He covered her hand with his, pressed a kiss to her palm.

“I needed to figure myself out before I could figure us out,” she continued. Her eyes pleaded with him for understanding. And he did.

“I know.” He paused. “Me, too. Christ, Krissa, I didn’t know how lost I was. Until I found you.”

They’d done things that many would consider unforgivable. Nate wasn’t sure why he and Krissa were lucky enough to have found a second chance; a chance at happiness together. But he wasn’t going to risk losing it again. Facing the loss of his eyesight and his photography had been painful, but losing Krissa had been the worst agony of all.

She leaned in and kissed him. “We found ourselves. And we found each other.”

About the Author

To learn more about Kelly Jamieson please visitwww.kellyjamieson.com. Send an e-mail to info@kellyjamieson.com or join her Yahoo! Group http://groups.yahoo.com/group/KellyJamiesonnewsletter/ to get the latest news and contests.

Look for these titles by Kelly Jamieson

Now Available:

Love Me

Friends With Benefits

Love Me More

2 Hot 2 Handle

They agreed: All the fun, no messy emotions. Until their charkas aligned..

Friends With Benefits

© 2009 Kelly Jamieson

Yoga is Kerri Harris’s life, but that doesn’t mean she’s a New Age flake. She’s a successful businesswoman, and it’s about time everyone took her as seriously as her mother-of-two, “real-career” sister. That means adding a new item to her spreadsheet—marriage plan. There’s only one person she trusts to help her check off this task: her best friend Mitch.

Divorce attorney Mitch MacAuley gets the cold shivers at the mere mention of matrimony. After the disasters he’s witnessed from childhood, marriage equals miserable. The last thing he wants is to help Kerri down that road, but he’s never been able to say no to her. He expects to feel pity for her as she goes on one disastrous date after another. The complete surprise? Thinking about Kerri with those other guys makes him crazy.

Her frustration collides with his confusion, leading to a big fight, a hot kiss and a scorching sexual tension that hits them both broadside. Prompting Kerri to propose a new plan…to add the bedroom to their list of BFF benefits.

They quickly find out there’s nothing casual about the heat they generate. In fact, the burn could ruin a perfectly beautiful friendship.

Warning: This story contains a late-night booty call, hot hotel sex and naked yoga!

Enjoy the following excerpt for Friends With Benefits:

“I can’t believe you’ve set me up with all these guys and every single one of them has been all wrong for me. Not just wrong for me…like, not even close.”

“Uh…Kerri. I didn’t set you up with Eric. You met him at the golf tournament.”

“Well. You invited me to the golf tournament.”

Mitch sighed.

“It’s not just a coincidence, is it? You are doing this on purpose because you don’t want me to get married.”

“I don’t want you to get hurt,” he corrected her.

“So you admit it!”

“No! No, I don’t. You’re twisting things.”

She snorted. “How do you tell when a lawyer is lying? His lips are moving.”

At that moment, Sela poked her head in to say she was leaving.

“I thought you left hours ago!” Kerri exclaimed. “What about your shopping?”

Sela glanced at her watch. “We still have time. Doug is bringing the girls to Paseo Nuevo and I’m meeting them there.”

“Go, go.” Kerri waved her hands. After they heard the door close behind Sela, she sighed. “That woman really has to learn to balance. Her family is paying the price for this move.”

Mitch nodded. “She is kind of driven, isn’t she?”

Kerri studied him. “Like you aren’t.”

He shrugged. “I balance fine.”

She glanced at him, remembering they’d been interrupted while starting to have a big fight.

“Look, Kerri,” he said. “I know you’re not happy, but you can’t blame me for all this. You have a role in it too.”

She gaped at him. “What are you saying? Are you saying I’m such a loser I can’t manage to attract a guy?”

“Jesus, no! That’s not what I’m saying.” He ran a hand through his hair.

“So you’re saying I’m deliberately sabotaging things for some strange subconscious reason of my own?”

He stared at her. “What drugs are you on? You’re acting nuts today.”

“Yeah, I’m crazy, that must be why I can’t find a husband.”

“Aaarrrgh!” He slid down the wall until he lay on the floor and covered his face with his hands. With his arms up like that, Kerri could see the paler skin on the underside, which emphasized the bulge of his biceps below the sleeves of his T-shirt. He stayed like that for a moment, dragging big, slow breaths into his lungs.

Kerri rolled in her lips and scooted a few inches away. Mitch had a temper, but he’d learned to control it over the years. And okay, she was acting like a bitch and hated herself for it, but the words just kept coming out of her mouth. She was just so frustrated and disappointed and Mitch was there to poke at, take out her frustrations on. A shiver trickled down her spine. Maybe she’d pushed too far.