Pulse (The Landry Family Series)

by Adriana Locke

Dahlia Lovelace makes me come unglued. She’s everything that gets under my skin. She’s habitually late. She pokes every button she can find to irritate me. The woman is always fucking happy. And she’s wildly intelligent, capable of anything, and so damn beautiful that I can’t see straight.

Lincoln and I might not be that different after all. We’re both afraid of the women in our lives. Just for very, very different reasons.

“Ah, look at you,” I tease. “You’re getting soft on me, Castelli.” “There’s nothing soft about me, Doll.”

“I don’t know what kind of man I’d like to marry,” I say, lifting another fry. “He’d have to be smart. Funny. Someone who could be strong enough to protect his family but gentle enough to hold a baby.”

Her reply came immediately. Fiercely. She unequivocally had my back. It’s so fucking sexy. She’s so fucking sexy.

I stick a finger into the middle of his solid chest—regretting it as soon as I make contact. A blast of energy shoots up my finger and frazzles every nerve in my body. Troy’s eyes flash, but he recovers more quickly than I do.

“I was going to say that the moment in the closet was the realest thing I’ve felt in a long time. And it felt good, it was a relief, to finally pretend that’s not what we want to do every time we’re together.”

“You’ll be mine after this,” he says. I look at him and smile, my heart filling with affection for this beautifully broken, good man. “I’m pretty sure I’m already yours. It’s just that neither of us have admitted it yet.”

“And once he finds out you’re mine, he better choose those calls carefully.”

“So I can consider myself your girlfriend now? Is that what you’re saying?” I ask cheekily. “You can consider yourself whatever you want as long as it means no one else gets to have you.” “What if you decide a few days from now you aren’t into this?” “Doll, I’ve already been into you for two years. This just sealed the deal.”

Because for the first time in my thirty-seven years on this planet, my future means more than my past. I didn’t think that was possible. But I also didn’t think it was possible to fall in love, and I’ve done that.