My mouth dropped open and my stomach flipped as he moved toward me, but before he’d made it through half of the crowd, I’d snapped it shut again and was crossing my arms over my chest. He better have been talking about some other woman at the bar. If he thought I was playing along with his bullshit announcement, he was sadly mistaken.
“You di—” The words weren’t even out of my mouth before his hand was wrapped lightly around the front of my throat, his fingers and thumb resting at the bottom of my jaw.
“Hey baby,” he murmured, leaning in without any warning and kissing me gently.
I’d been expecting something different. Something punishing. Hard. Maybe a bite. I think that was why, when he went to move away, my mouth followed his.
It was instinct. Nothing more. But the soft brush of lips hadn’t been enough.
Bram made a surprised noise in his throat when my arms dropped and wrapped around him. Our eyes met for a split second before he groaned and pushed me back against the bar.
Then his mouth was on mine again, and there was nothing soft about it. He pulled at my bottom lip, and I opened my mouth, my breath hitching as his tongue slid inside. Holy shit, Bram could kiss.
I forgot where we were. I forgot who he was. Hell, I forgot who I was.
Nothing mattered except our points of contact. His hips pressing against my waist, his hard back beneath my palms, one of his hands at my throat and the other setting his guitar on the bar behind me so he could slide his fingers through the short hair at the back of my head.
“I’ll put this in the back room,” the tall guy’s voice said teasingly from behind me, I assumed talking about the guitar.
Bram nodded, still kissing me, and then his hand was on my ass, lifting me as I jumped up and wrapped my legs around his waist.
Oh God, that was so much better. I ground against him as he stepped away from the bar and pulled his mouth from mine. His hand moved around to the back of my head, and he shoved my face into his neck as he moved through the bar.
Shit. What the fuck were we doing? I held on tight, my face burning in embarrassment even though it was hidden, and my pussy rubbing against his dick with every step he took.
We were both breathing heavy when we hit the cool night air, and I shivered as he asked me where I was parked.
“Around the corner,” I rasped, making him shudder as my lips rubbed against his skin.
He strode down the pavement, never letting me down until we’d rounded the corner and were shadowed by the tall building.
“What the fuck are you doing here?” he asked as he dropped me to my feet.
“What the hell was that?” I snapped back, stumbling a little as I lost my balance.
“If I wanted you here, I would have fucking invited you.” He ignored my question, scowling as he gripped my arm to make sure I didn’t fall over.
“I didn’t know you could sing like that.”
“Who do you think taught Katie?” My foster sister Kate was incredible on the guitar, and she’d had a kick-ass voice for as long as I’d known her. I’d never wondered how she’d learned; it had just always been true.
“Oh,” I mumbled, sidestepping him.
“Did you follow me?” he asked incredulously, moving back in front of me. “What the fuck is wrong with you?”
“With me? Yeah, I’m the one who fucked up tonight. Right,” I said back sarcastically. “You just kissed me!”
“That’s the way you want to play it?” he murmured, shaking his head as he scratched at his beard. “Sure. I was getting the barflies off my back and used you to do it, but the rest of that shit was you.”
“Me?” I screeched, making the homeless guy down the street start yelling about waking him up.
“Shut the fuck up,” Bram yelled back at the guy, making him go silent.
“I didn’t do shit!” I hissed, my hands fisting at my sides.
“That wasn’t you, grabbing me and pulling me into you—giving me fuck-me eyes?”
“Fuck-me eyes?” I screeched again.
“You’re still fucking doing it!” Bram yelled back, leaning down.
We both went silent for a long moment, glaring at each other.
I’m not sure which one of us moved first, but all of a sudden, Bram’s mouth was back on mine, and he was pushing me against the brick wall of the building behind me.
“When the fuck did you get a tongue ring?” he gasped into my mouth as he slid one of his thighs between mine, lifting my body slightly as he pressed up.
“A couple years ago,” I moaned and rocked against him.
“I’ve never seen it.” His hands moved over my torso, reaching up to grip my breasts through my cami.
“I know.” I slid my hands under his T-shirt and dug my fingers into the warm skin at his sides.
A familiar wolf whistle came from down the street, making us pause.
“Keys,” he mumbled before pressing his mouth to mine again. “Keys. Now.”
I fumbled with the purse hanging over my shoulder and pulled my lips from his as I found the keys to my SUV.
The second Bram heard them jingle, he was stepping back and grabbing them. Without a word, he took my hand and walked me over to my car. When we reached it, he paused and turned his head to look at me.
I held my breath as he clicked the remote, unlocking the driver’s-side door.
Then he clicked it again, unlocking the rest, and opened up the door to the backseat. He stood there, not moving, letting me make the decision. I could have snatched the keys out of his hand and moved around to the front of my SUV. That would have been smarter.
Instead, I slid past him and climbed into the backseat.
I was making a really bad decision. I knew that. I think we both knew that. Nothing good could come from messing around with Bram. At best, things would be even more awkward between us later. At worst, we’d actually hate each other instead of the halfhearted bickering we’d been doing before.
But I didn’t care.
About the Author
When Nicole Jacquelyn was eight and asked what she wanted to be when she grew up, she told people she wanted to be a mom. When she was twelve, her answer changed to author. Her dreams stayed constant. First, she became a mom, and then during her senior year of college—with one daughter in first grade and the other in preschool—she sat down and wrote a story.
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Contents
Cover
Title Page
Welcome
Dedication
Acknowledgments
Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Epilogue
A Preview of A Change of Heart
About the Author
Newsletters
Copyright
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.
Copyright © 2016 by Nicole Jacquelyn
Excerpt from Change of Heart © 2016 by Nicole Jacquelyn
Cover design by FaceOut. Cover photography © Chris Gramly/Getty Images. Cover copyright © 2016 by Hachette Book Group, Inc.
Hachette Book Group suppo
rts the right to free expression and the value of copyright. The purpose of copyright is to encourage writers and artists to produce the creative works that enrich our culture.
The scanning, uploading, and distribution of this book without permission is a theft of the author’s intellectual property. If you would like permission to use material from the book (other than for review purposes), please contact
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. Thank you for your support of the author’s rights.
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Lyrics from “Thief and a Liar” © 2012 by Jeffrey Martin. All rights reserved.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Jacquelyn, Nicole.
Title: Unbreak my heart / Nicole Jacquelyn.
Description: New York : Forever, 2016.
Identifiers: LCCN 2016001579 | ISBN 9781455537969 (paperback)
Subjects: LCSH: Best friends--Fiction. | Military spouses--Fiction. | Single parents--Fiction. | Self-realization in women--Fiction. | Love stories. | BISAC: FICTION / Contemporary Women. | FICTION / Romance / Contemporary. | FICTION / Family Life.
Classification: LCC PS3610.A35684 U53 2016 | DDC 813/.6—dc23 LC record available at http://lccn.loc.gov/2016001579
ISBNs: 978-1-4555-3796-9 (trade paperback), 978-1-4555-3797-6 (ebook)
E3 20160411-DA-PC