Annie Watson and her friends return in Winning Back
Ryan’s sequel, Getting Back Annie. The book starts off a month
after the end of the first book. Annie and Brian are getting ready to
go to the Aschcroft’s for the Fourth of July weekend. Once there,
we meet Annie’s family, including her brother, Jordan. But,
surprises are in store for Annie on this vacation. It’s not a
coincidence that Brian just wants Annie and her family over for the
trip. When they return to NYC, Annie finds herself needing a second
job and a way to deal with her constant nightmares from her attack.
She finds herself leaning on Ben more and more, who is helping her
deal and cope, much to Brian’s dismay. But, Ben isn’t pleased
with how little Brian is helping Annie and decides to take a more
active role in her recovery…and in her bedroom.
Is Annie’s romance with Ben merely situational? Is
he simply the right man to help her move on? Or is something else
evolving from their five year friendship? What happens to Brian and
Annie’s relationship? Is it over because of a mistake on his part?
Will their love endure? What is Ryan’s final fate? Find out in
Getting Back Annie, as our heroine continues her path to
self-discovery.
twenty minutes later, the
limo was parked outside my apartment building. “Are you going to be
okay?” I asked Kat. She nodded. Then I glanced at Ben, my eyes
asking the same question.
“You should go now before I convince you to
stay,” he replied, his hands clasped together.
I shivered at his words knowing just how
easily he’d be able to keep me there if he wanted to. “You didn’t
answer my question, though. Are you going to be okay?”
His jaw clenched as he looked at me with the wildest
eyes I had ever seen. “Annie, if you don’t go right now, I will
convince you to stay. And if you come with me, I will do unspeakably
dirty things to you. I’ll do things to your body that I’m sure no
man has. And when I’m done, there will be nothing virginal
about you anymore. You’ll be in the confessional a month straight
after I’m finished.”
I shivered violently, because I knew he meant every
word of what he said. “Bye.” I said to Kat. “It was so nice
meeting you.” She nodded, frowning. I glanced at Ben.
“Goodbye. For good.” I was honest enough to know that I
needed to run from Ben to keep myself from making a mistake. A strong
hand grabbed my arm, furious eyes staring at me. I yanked my arm out
of Ben’s grasp. “What do you want? I said, ‘Goodbye.’”
“I’m not leaving,” he replied.
Furious, I pointed to the car. “Get in and go.”
He shook his head, placing his hands on his hips.
“Not until you tell me why him and why not me.”
“Hmm. Let’s see. He can commit to a
relationship…not run away for three weeks after making love to
someone!” I shouted.
Ben grabbed his hair, yanking it. “That wasn’t my
fault! I had to stay away!” I rolled my eyes dramatically, making
sure he saw before I turned. “Get back here!” he shouted. I
glanced over my shoulder. “What else? That can’t be the only
reason.”
“You need another reason? You and I together
are a powder keg, one match away from exploding,” I said, “We’re
either screaming at each other, punching each other, or trying to
tear each other’s clothes off.”
“So. Fucking. What?” He shouted.
“And I don’t want that kind of chaos in my
love life. Loving Brian is easy. It doesn’t wreck me like you do,”
I admitted, “Those three weeks that you were gone…those were the
three worst weeks of my life. Going into your apartment that night
after George called me…I felt physically ill.”
“They were the worst three weeks for me, too.
It’ll never happen again. I swear it,” he replied adamantly.
I shook my head. “I don’t want this craziness.”
I turned to walk into the apartment.
“What if I need you to save me?” he asked.
His words stopped me in my tracks. I glanced back, and my breath
caught in my throat at the vulnerability in his expression.
“Your love is changing me, princess. You give me purpose, something
else other than fighting, and fucking, and just coasting through
life. You make me work for it every Goddamn second. I need that.”
I was so turned on that I was in physical pain.
“I think you’ll be fine without me.”
He clenched his jaw, furious eyes glaring at
me. “Fine. You want him? You want to go back to the old,
boring story just because you know how it’s going to end? Go
on ahead. But, before you go, fix me.”
I blinked. “What are you talking about?”
He pointed at me. “You broke me! After I left the
hospital that night, I tried to lose myself in someone.
I wanted to forget all the memories and pain. You were with Brian.
Nothing was going to happen between us.” He pointed at his crotch.
“He wouldn’t get hard! I couldn’t do it! So, after I left
embarrassed as shit, I tried again another night. Nothing. I
saw you a week later, and it worked perfectly fine. Raging fuckin’
hard on all night long.” I had never been more turned on that
I was at that moment. “So, undo whatever you did to me right now!”
“You want to be turned off by me?” I asked.
He nodded as I walked towards him. Stopping right in front of him, I
placed my hand over his heart, looking into his eyes. “I love
you…madly, passionately, irrevocably. It’s becoming
difficult for me to see a future that doesn’t include you. I want
your heart, your touch, your fidelity. I want you to look at no other
woman the way you look at me. I want your body to only respond that
way for me. I want a ring on my finger, a huge wedding, and to be the
mother of your children. I want to go to sleep with you inside me and
wake up the same way in your bed. I want to fight with you when
you’re being an insufferable asshole, which is at least once a day.
And then I want you to show me how you’ll make it up to me. I will
be jealous of any woman who licks her lips at you, which is about
ten times a day, and I give no promises that I won’t go bat-shit
crazy on them.”
I smirked, waiting for him to turn and run into the
car. Those words would send any commitmentphobe running.
His eyes still watched me like he wanted to rip my dress right off me
and take me against the car door. “I thought you said you were
trying to turn me off, not on.”
I blinked, thrown completely off guard. “What are
you talking about?”
I felt his heart beneath my hand pick up in tempo.
For the first time, I felt it beating wildly.
He glanced down at his chest. “Look at that,” he
murmured, placing his hand over mine. “You have my heart in the
palm of your hand.”
Anger coursed through my veins. “Say it. I want to
hear you say those three little words.” This would make him run for
sure.
He smirked. “I am hungry.”
I growled. “The other three words.”
His smirk remained. “I want you.”
If he was going to play games, so be it. “No, I
want to hear you say that you love me.”
His eyes narrowed, his lips in a tight
line. “Why? So you can break me? So, you can hear me tell you how I
feel and then watch you walk back to him? Tell me you’ll get back
in that car with me now, and I’ll say it.”
I knew it was a dirty trick, but it was all I had
left. Besides, Ben never played fair anyways. I shrugged
nonchalantly. “Just as I thought. You’re incapable of
the words, because you don’t know what it is.”
Ben grabbed my arm and yanked me back to him so hard
that I smacked into his chest. I stared up at him in shock, anger,
and arousal. “You forget that I first watched, then listened
to you fuck him in my apartment, in mybed. I
listened to your moans of pleasure, your ‘Oh, yes, Brian,’ for
hours on end all the while knowing that it should have been me in bed
with you. Yet, I didn’t stop you from doing what you wanted. I
didn’t try to rip you away from him while you tortured me every
time you cried out his name.” He grabbed my face roughly. “So,
don’t you dare fucking tell me that I don’t know what love is.
Love is pain. It’s no coincidence that they’re both four letter
words. And so is Anne.”
A tear rolled down my eye, and his grip softened on
my face. “I never meant to hurt you,” I whispered. “I don’t
even remember that night. Everything after tossing the noodle onto
your shirt is a complete blank to me.”
“You might not remember it, princess, but I
sure as hell can’t forget it.”
I bristled at his words. “You want me to feel
guilty for sleeping with Brian? How about the countless women
over the last five years that you’ve slept with. Half of them
you made out with in front of me! You’re upset that you’re the
third man I slept with, but I’m your what? Five
hundredth? Tell me how I should feel about that?!” I shouted.
He shrugged, his lips still pulled in a tight line.
“You shouldn’t give a fuck.”
“Oh no? And why is that?” I asked
while my blood temperature rose.
“Because I would trade it all- every memory,
every other woman for just one more night with you. That’s why
you shouldn’t give a fuck. Because they never held a candle to
you,” Ben replied matter-of-factly. My knees shook for a second,
and I did not think that I was capable of being more turned on at
that moment. How the hell did he always do this? “So, like I said
before, if you’re going to run back to him, you need to fix my cock
first and make it work again.”
I smacked his chest hard. “No! I think I like it
this way!”
His eyes seared with pain. “You want to torture me?
If you’re with him, you won’t give me a chance at some peace,
some solace? If you’re happy with him, why do I have to be alone
forever?”
Tears streamed down my eyes as I felt my heart
shutter at the unbearable weight pressed against it. “I will
not cheat,” I whispered over and over, while I shook my head
wildly.
His hand released my jaw, and it slid down my back,
caressing me. It made me sob harder by just how incredible it felt.
“I may not give you flowers all the time, or tell you that you’re
beautiful a thousand times a day, or slow dance with you all the time
like he does, but I know what I feel. And I know you feel it, too.”
I yanked my body away from him. “Bye, Ben.”
I didn’t wait for his response as I ran into the
apartment building. Once in the elevator I pressed the button for my
floor. I leaned back against the wall, barely able to breathe as
tears streamed down my face. I hated saying goodbye to him, I hated
that he kept chasing after me, I hated that I wanted him to, but most
of all I hated how much of a bitch I felt saying goodbye to him. That
feeling was becoming unbearable lately.
I glanced at the stainless steel paneled wall, seeing
the reflection of my teary self. “You’re better than this. Figure
yourself out.” I wiped away the tears before stepping off the
elevator, trying to pull myself together.
Taking a deep breath, I opened the door to my
apartment and found a tired Brian on the couch, flipping through TV
channels. He glanced up at me, smiling. “You look breathtaking,”
he greeted.
I smiled at him before jumping into his arms.
Wrapping his arms around me tightly, he kissed my forehead. “Is
everything alright?”
I nodded, hugging him tightly. “Now it is.”
“I missed you,” he whispered in my ear.
I hugged him tighter. “I missed you, too.”
Brian pulled my body away from his, tilting my head
back. “Are you okay?” he asked, his voice filled with concern.
I nodded wearing a tight lipped smile. “I was just
crying. It was a wedding and all.”
“It seems like something else is bothering
you, though,” he commented.
My body was filled with aching raw need from Ben. I
needed to suppress these feelings for him. Brian was my fiancé.
If I just held on to Brian tighter, we’d be fine. That’s what I
needed to do, hold on tighter to our love. The guilt I felt sat heavy
on me. I should completely Brian’s; that’s what he deserved. But,
I wasn’t.
I lifted the hem of my dress and straddled him. I ran
my hand over his body and felt his physical reaction towards me.
Wordlessly, I slipped down his shorts and boxers and he raised his
hips to aid me. Slipping him out, I pulled my underwear to the side
and stopped momentarily. “Should I go get a condom?”
His eyes burned brightly, filled with lust and love.
“You’re going to be my wife. There’s no need.”
With my hand firmly gripping his erection, I slid him
inside me, watching his eyes roll back in pleasure. Wrapping my
arms around his neck, I kissed him deeply as I rolled my hips slowly.
His fingers threaded through my hair, his other hand rested on my
hip. We stay, deep, slow, connected as Brian’s love takes me to the
height of ecstasy. We come undone together, and he holds me to
his chest tightly. Tears spill down my cheeks at the bitter sweetness
of the moment. There was no way out of this without hurting one of
them and myself in the process. But, Brian’s love was gentle, calm,
enduring. It was the type of love futures were made from.
When I lifted my head he kissed me deeply, and I
sighed in contentment.
I pressed my forehead to his. “Help me
out of this dress. I want to make you a nice, romantic dinner
tonight.”
“Oh, yeah?” he asked before kissing me
again.
I nodded. “You’ve been so wonderful lately. I
just wanted to do something to show my appreciation.”
I stood up and walked into the bedroom. He wasn’t
far behind. Adoring fingers trailed down my arm as his lips pressed
against my neck.
“I have another idea.” He unzipped my
dress. “Why don’t we order take out and spend the rest of the
night in bed?” He slipped the straps of my gown down over my
shoulders. The dress pooled at my feet. Brian kissed down my shoulder
as his arm wrapped around my body, pulling me tightly against him. I
could already feel his need against my lower back.
Letting out a shaky breath, I nodded. “That’s one
hell of a plan.”
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Top Ten Book Boyfriends
Travis Maddox
Kellan Kyle
Edward Cullen
Gavin Blake
Bennett Ryan
Max Stella
Gideon Cross
Lucas
Shades
Rule
Top Ten Love Triangles
Edward, Bella, Jacob
Kellan, Kiera, and Denny
Travis, Abby, and that other guy ;)
Emily, Gavin, Dillon
Emma, Cole, Evan
Elizabeth Bennet, George Wickham, and
Fitzwilliam Darcy
Bridget Jones, Daniel Cleaver, and Mark Darcy
Jay Gatsby, Daisy Buchanan, and Tom Buchanan
Allie, Noah, and that other guy ;)
Harper, Brandon, Chase (Few pages into this
series.)
Five Fun Facts:
I am a chocoholic. I have reserve stashes strewn
about my house.I grew up horse-back riding and competed seriously. Instead of turning pro, I went to college instead.
My favorite color is purple.
I have thirteen piercings on my body-9 in my ears, 1 in my nose, 1 in my labret, 2 in my belly button.
Large crowds make me nervous.
She loves going to
NJ diners on the weekendor inspiration, drinks a pot of coffee a day, and loves finding new music
to add to her playlist. Author to Just Good Friends and Winning Back Ryan.
Office Perks, and Sirens and
Sweethearts are soon to be released.
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