Authors: Olivia Rigal,Shannon Macallan

Hold Fast (26 page)

“It works better with the whole suit-and-tie thing,” Sean says. “I missed you too. It’s good to be home.”

“So what’s this you were talking about?” I ask, setting out plates and lighting candles for our supper. “An excavation?”

My husband tells me all about an archaeological expedition that one of the McGuire Family Trust’s foundations is funding next year, and the security concerns are his responsibility. I make the appropriate noises in the right places, but I’m not really following. I’m too lost in my own wonder, my own happiness.

I’m the luckiest woman in the world, and certainly the happiest one, and it’s all due to you, Sean Pearse.

I’ve had enough of listening to my husband talk about work, and in the way of wives with talkative husbands since time began, I shut him up by pulling his face down to kiss me.

“Mom called me and said she picked up the kids,” Sean says when I finally let him breathe. He’s wearing the naughty ear-to-ear smile. The scar on his jawline twists into something piratical, menacing to those who don’t know him and love him, but it melts my heart every time.

“Indeed she has,” I answer with a wickedly suggestive curl of my own lips. “
And
she’s not bringing them back before Monday.”

“Two whole days? Without tripping over toys or stepping on Legos?” he laughs in faux amazement. “What
ever
shall we find to occupy ourselves?”

“Oh, I think we can find
something
to take up the next couple days,” I tell Sean, leading him by the hand to the stairs.

“Aren’t you hungry?” my husband asks, looking over his shoulder at the romantic candlelit dinner setting I’ve laid out for us.

“Dinner’s not quite ready yet,” I say, looking down at him from the third stair. “And I feel like an appetizer first.” Sean’s eyes light up with anticipation.

“You’re right,” he says. “I don’t think we’re going to be bored at
all
.”

THE END

T
his book is
a work of fiction. Even if some locations depicted do exist, the story and events described are completely fictional. All names, characters and events described within have been imagined by the authors.

Any resemblance to reality is purely coincidental.

C
opyright
© 2016 by Olivia Rigal and Shannon Macallan

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, stored or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording or other electronic or mechanical methods, without prior written authorization from the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.

For permission requests, contact the publisher at ladyopublishing.com.

Hold Fast—1st ed.

ISBN 978-1535543248

Created with
Vellum

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank:

Scarlet- we’d never have met but for you;

Sophia, Christa, Kim, Jasmine, Sydney, Maria, Nicki, and Erin for your unwavering encouragements and friendship;

our Beta Readers and fabulous ARC team;

and Cormar Covers

About the Authors

S
hannon is a native of Maine
, descendant of a family that has lived in New England since the last time there was a queen named Elizabeth, and has worked for the government, been in sales, and done some technical work as well. These day’s Shannon is sick of working for someone else and has decided to take hold of fate and the future by writing.

Shannon is happily married with an assortment of two- and four-legged children which all seem to be surviving nicely, and a variety of plants which are not.

Born in Manhattan, Olivia spent her touch going back and forth between the United States and France. She has lived and studied in both countries.

While still a student, she kept herself busy with a variety of jobs, and has worked everywhere from the famous Clignancourt Flea Market all the way to a Parisian recording studio, with stops along the way as a dog groomer in Manhattan and an assistant in a famous British auction house.

Olivia finally settled in France to raise her family and practice law. When her legal practice does not keep her busy in Paris, she runs away to write novels in her Florida home next to MacArthur Beach State Park.

Olivia and Shannon met in the summer of 2015 and worked on Hold Fast together for an entire year, ultimately finalizing it during the Romance Writers of America 2016 annual conference in San Diego.

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livia Rigal
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