Love Me Like You Do: Winter Lake Read online

  Except they didn’t hit the door.

  Instead they sailed right through the now unobstructed doorway and crashed to the floor inside the house. The ceramic pot shattered on the timber flooring and Covington screamed.

  It was that blood-curdling sound that sent his heart into cardiac arrest. For a split second, Gavin got the better of him and landed a punch to his jaw.

  The pain that shot through Tris’s head was enough to snap him out of his frozen state. With a speed and a thought process he’d never be able to recall, he got his ex-friend into a headlock and pinned him facedown.

  In the next few minutes, the place exploded with activity. He had no clue where everyone had come from but suddenly his house was full of people in uniform he should know but couldn’t seem to focus on—police and firemen and paramedics. It was the last, tending to a bleeding Covington that had him letting Gavin go and racing to her side.

  “Cov, baby.” Tris tried to pull her to him but someone pushed him back.

  “Give us a minute. I’m pretty sure it’s superficial but I need to clean her up a bit to be certain.”

  He swallowed the lump in his throat. Discovered another—bigger—one in its place. His chest ached. His vision turned a hazy red. Covington’s face blurred in front of him.

  “Hey. Buddy. You all right?”

  The gruff voice sounded miles away. And there was so much red. It was blood. Cov’s blood. She was bleeding and he could barely suck in a breath.

  “Hold it together, Harding.” Chief Murdock clapped him on the shoulder.

  He wobbled, his knees threatening to give out except he was already on them. Kneeling beside a bleeding Covington while someone else tended to her wounds and the police removed a shouting Gavin from his house.

  “What happened?” he managed to choke out through his closed throat.

  “A flying shard of pot.” Tris was pretty sure it was Matt Hogan who answered. “Clean slice. Not deep. But it’s a head wound. They bleed the most.”

  “I love you.”

  “What?” three people asked.

  The only one he was interested in was Cov.

  He shuffled forward and was grateful when Matt finished applying the bandage and moved out of his way.

  Tristan took Cov’s hands in his and locked his gaze on hers. Taking a deep breath, he spoke from the heart.

  “I love you. I have from the minute Gavin introduced us. It wasn’t right, it wasn’t fair, but I respected you and him in spite of what I knew. I should have told you—”

  “Why didn’t you?”

  “I…” he sighed. “I didn’t want to hurt you. Couldn’t hurt you. And I knew it would.”

  “But don’t you see that by not telling me, by being my friend and not revealing what you knew, you hurt me more?” Her eyes were full of tears.

  “I’m sorry. I’ve got no excuse except I’m obviously a coward.”

  “I wouldn’t call you that.” Her mouth tipped up on one side. “Your job is to run into burning buildings after all.”

  “No fire has ever made me feel fear like the one that just crippled me. God, Cov. The blood. Gavin. The blood.” He closed his eyes and took a deep breath.

  Her fingers squeezed his.

  Opening his eyes, he leaned closer. “I love you. With everything I am. Give me the chance to prove it to you.”

  “Okay.”

  “I promise if you say yes, you won’t regret it. I’ll spend every day making sure you’re happy. Making sure you and our babies have everything you need and want.”

  She smiled. Nodded.

  “You’ll never want for anything. Not… Wait. Okay?”

  “Yes. Okay.”

  “You’ll give us a chance?” he had to double-check he heard her right.

  “Yes.”

  “Really?” He had to be sure.

  “For god’s sake, Harding, the woman said yes. Ask her already.”

  He glanced over his shoulder and saw they had an audience. A house full of police and firemen and was that Harry Windburn in the back there?

  The Mayor of Winter Lake was in his house?

  Shaking his head, he turned back to Covington. “Ignore them.”

  “I was.”

  “Oh, right. Well. About that chance. Does it include maybe, if it’s what you want, of course, I mean it’s not like we need to rush, although with the babies coming—”

  “Jesus. Get to the point, buddy,” Devlin groused.

  Cov grinned at him. “Yes.”

  “What?” Tris wasn’t following. The punch Gavin landed must have knocked a few screws loose because he could swear Cov just said yes and he hadn’t asked her anything yet.

  “Yes. The chance includes marriage. On one condition.”

  “What? Anything. Name it.” He’d hand over his first-born. Oh wait…

  “I want to go outside and feel the snow on my face while it’s still falling.”

  “Outside? Now?”

  “And I want to make snow angels and build a snowman.”

  “Ah, okay…” Tris glanced at Matt only a few feet away and raised an eyebrow.

  “Sure. No sutures, barely a scratch really, so there’s no worries about a concussion or further bleeding now that it’s stopped.”

  “Right.” They were going to make snow angels and snowmen. Pushing to his feet, he held out a hand. “Let’s go play in the snow.”

  She moved into his arms, hers sliding up around his neck, her face tipped up to his. “Oh, and Tristan.”

  “Yeah.”

  She smiled. “I love you too.”

  He grinned. He was pretty sure it was the goofiest grin in history, but he couldn’t help it. She’d said she loved him.

  Oh, he didn’t believe it would be all sunshine and rainbows but Covington Valenti loved him and was willing to give him a chance.

  It was all he needed.

  She pushed to her toes and pressed her lips against his. “And I don’t know what I did for you to love me like you do, but I’m glad I did it.”

  Epilogue

  Months ago Tris had thought having Cov’s love was the only thing he needed to make him happy.

  He was wrong.

  Dead wrong.

  Right now he needed the damn doctor to do something.

  His wife was in pain and no amount of back rubs or chipped ice or drugs seem to make it go away.

  “One more should do,” Jared said from his position between Cov’s legs.

  Yeah, Tris wasn’t sure how he felt about the other man getting such a close-up view of his wife.

  “I can’t,” Cov wailed.

  “You can, baby. You’re so brave and strong and you’ll rock being a mom,” he tried to placate.

  “Don’t you talk to me about brave and strong. You’re not the one pushing two fifty-billion pound bowling balls through your vagina!”

  “Ah…” Tris closed his mouth and let her squeeze the shit out of his hand.

  “Easy there, momma.” Georgia stroked a hand over Cov’s taut belly. “Here comes another contraction.”

  With an agonized cry, Cov bore down. Sweat rolled down her face and coated her chest. Her eyes were scrunched tight, her nose crinkled, and her hair lay plastered to her skin.

  Tris thought she’d never looked more beautiful. He’d never loved her more.

  “All right, here we go…”

  Tristan’s gaze snapped to Jared’s face. The guy didn’t seem panicked. Not like Tris was.

  They were four weeks ahead of schedule, but everything had been textbook perfect up until now. They just needed to make it through—

  A tiny wail of protest broke the air and tears instantly flooded his eyes, blurring his vision.

  He leaned over, tried to see more of their first baby coming into the world. He saw a dark head…a wrinkly face…a pair of shoulders…and a perfect body with two arms, two legs, and…a penis.

  Shit. He had a son.

  “It’s a boy, Cov. God. It’s a boy.”
>
  “That’s right, Dad, baby number one is a boy. And judging by the weight of this guy…” Jared held their son in his hands. “He’s a good-sized one.”

  “Can I see? I need to see.” Cov tried to sit.

  “Hang on.” Jared passed the baby to Georgia who placed him on Cov’s bare chest.

  Tris watched his wife stroke a fingertip down the little guy’s check and didn’t bother to hold back the tears.

  They’d done that. Together.

  Made that perfect little boy.

  Cov gasped, her face contorting with pain.

  “Okay, looks like this second one is in a rush.”

  Georgia scooped his son up in a blanket and handed him to Tris. “Step back, Dad.”

  He didn’t go far. Wouldn’t dare. And as he held his newborn son, he watched as the tiny form of their second child entered the world.

  There was no cry this time and the smiles from before were replaced with frowns that had him taking a step forward.

  “Tristan?” Covington’s weak voice drew him to her. “What’s happening?”

  “I’m not—”

  A wail only rivaled by the siren at the station house cut him off.

  “And baby number two is a girl,” Jared announced as he lifted up the tiny wailing baby, her arms and legs wiggling wildly.

  “Jesus, she’s got a set of lungs on her.” He smiled. He’d take those screams over that dead-silence any day of the week.

  “Yes, she does. How about we give Mom both babies and see what happens,” Jared suggested.

  “They’re okay?” Cov asked, worry creasing her weary face.

  “More than,” Jared confirmed.

  “But they’re so early,” Tris argued.

  “Doesn’t mean there will be problems. I’m not seeing anything that causes me concern. We’ll take them one at a time in a minute to weigh them and check a few things, but what we have here is two perfect little bundles of joy.”

  Tris was pretty sure the bundle of joy screaming her head off wasn’t so joyful. He moved closer to his daughter, his son still cradled in his arms.

  “Hey, baby girl,” he murmured near her ear.

  Instantly the child hushed and turned her head towards him.

  “She knows your voice,” Cov whispered.

  Both babies turned towards her. “And they both know yours.”

  With Georgia’s help, they placed both babies into Cov’s arms and Tris couldn’t resist pulling out his phone and snapping the first shot of the three most important people in his world.

  “Do we have names for these two?” Georgia asked.

  He glanced at Cov. They’d discussed it and couldn’t agree so they’d decided they’d get to pick one each, but now they had to work out who named who.

  “You do the girl’s one,” Cov said with a smile.

  “Okay.” He nodded. He’d had a few girls’ names he’d really liked but now that his daughter was here, he wanted to take her in a little longer before he decided. “Give me a minute to look at her.”

  “I think this guy looks like a Kane. Kane Tristan Harding.”

  “Cov.” Tris could barely get her name out.

  She smiled up at him. “I didn’t think you’d go for Tristan as a first name.”

  “No. But I love Kane. And Tristan for a second name works.”

  “So what are we calling his sister?” she asked.

  “Carys Hope Harding.”

  “Well.” Cov lowered her gaze to their quietly resting babies. “I think Kane and Carys are going to give their parents a run for their money.”

  He swallowed the lump in his throat. He imagined they would.

  And he wouldn’t have it any other way.

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  Acknowledgments

  I have to thank Melanie and Shawna of Melanie Shawn for writing about a small town I was thrilled to ‘play’ in for a while.

  When Kindle Worlds closed and I received the original version of Tris and Cov’s story back I had no idea what I’d do with them. It was while I wrote a scene for a series I’ve yet to release that I decided I wanted to make them part of that world somehow. And so, Winter Lake was born, or at least expanded.

  I can’t wait to bring you the rest of these stories. And I’m really excited to bring you the Broken Bay series next.

  There’s no way I can go without thanking my editor Fedora. She keeps me in line and doesn’t yell at me when I run late and push us both to the very edge of deadline. I love you girl and I can’t wait to work on the rest of this series and so many more to come with you cracking the whip and keeping me from jumping off the ledge (or making those horrible grammar errors I’m prone to make).

  And where would I be without readers. Each and every one of you are why I keep writing, you’re why I couldn’t stay away from the words (and people in my head) even though I couldn’t find the energy to do deal with any of it. It’s been a while but I final found the joy in the struggle, because you, the reader, choose to spend time in a world I’ve created. Thank you. From the bottom of my heart, thank you!

  xoxo

  Rhian

  About the Author

  Rhian Cahill is the alter ego of a former stay-at-home mother of four. With motherly duties rapidly dwindling Rhian is able to make use of the fertile imagination she used to keep herself sane for all those years of slavery. Having spent years living overseas and visiting tropical climates has helped inspire some steamy stories.

  Multi-published in erotic romance and contemporary romance, Rhian, with the help of Mr. Muse, spends her days and nights writing.

  When not glued to the keyboard you’ll find her book or knitting in hand avoiding any and all housework as much as possible.

  For more on Rhian –

  Website – http://www.rhiancahill.com/

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  For a full list of Rhian’s available books visit her website

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