Building Our Love (Griffin Brothers #2) (29 page)

“Chloe Jamison, I
have loved you for so long that I can’t remember a time when I
didn’t. I promise to love and cherish you forever. Will you please
marry me?”

“Yes, Ryan Griffin, I
will marry you. I promise to love and cherish you forever, too.”

He slides the ring onto
my finger, and then I fall to my knees in front of him. I reach out
and cup his face with my hands as I kiss him. We spend the night in
the treehouse where all of my dreams have come true. Again.

I dedicated this book
to my dad, because he was always my biggest supporter. He didn’t
get married until he was 55 so he was 56 when I was born, but you
would have never known how old he was by looking at him.Through his
life, he was always a walker and I remember us walking all over our
side of town in Milwaukee when I was little. He ate garlic before it
was popular, kept himself active and was very healthy.

He and my mom were the
primary childcare for my older daughter, Dominique. He taught her to
count as they walked up and down his apartment steps and he also sang
her silly songs and snuck her out of the house to go to Wal-Mart for
a pretzel with cheese in the snack bar while my mom was alseep. He
was starting to get forgetful when Gabi was born, so we used daycare
more for her, but he was still a big part of her life.

When Alzheimer’s
overtook him, we chose to keep him at home with us because he was
scared to go to a nursing home. His doctor said that having him
around my daughters kept his mind active and he never once forgot who
either of them were, even on his worst days.

He passed away on the
4th of July, which was my parents’ wedding anniversary. The girls
always tell me that he wouldn’t want me to be sad every year, so I
decided to release this book around that time to do something happy
in his honor. In Gaming For Love, when they eat Erin’s favorite
foods on her birthday, that’s something I took from my life—we do
that for his birthday every year, too.

As always, thanks to
Dominique and Gabi for putting up with me and supporting me. I love
you both more than anything. Even when you’re rolling your eyes at
your mom for writing romance books. It’s my job to embarrass you,
so deal with it!

To Tera Lynn Childs, my
very own Fairy Godmother of writing. You always encourage me and the
notes you had for me on this book were invaluable. I’m so lucky to
call you my friend!

To Erika Babbitt for
being my one of my best friends, my biggest cheerleader and for
loving Ryan!

HUGE thanks to Helen
Williams for my covers! I get so many compliments on them and you
always instinctively know what will work for me. They are beautiful
and so are you!

To Jesse Gordon for
doing a great job with my formatting and for always offering help and
answers when I’m not sure about something. You make it really easy
for me!

To Aliza Risby for
fixing my commas, grammar and all that stuff. Thankfully, you had
more commas than grammar to fix, so I’m not doing too bad! I’ll
try to place my commas in better places next book!

To my beta readers (and
friends). Thanks for loving the Griffins. LauraAnn Deketelaere-you
were the first reader of this book. It made me so happy when you said
you read it straight through. Love book talking with you and geeking
out over our favorite authors! Cel Legaspi Mesina-you always said
Ryan was your favorite and I’m glad you liked his book! Samantha
Boydman-I know I took you out of you comfort zone, but thanks for
reading! Road trips to author events wouldn’t be the same without
you! Lisa Dess-thanks for telling everyone you met at RT to buy my
first book and making me do Hurricane Shooters on release day! You
rock and we had some fun times in New Orleans and I’m sorry I was a
little tipsy and accidentally told you to read Owen’s book first!
Mollie Hunt-sorry for scandalizing you and changing things after you
read this for me! But, Scott’s your favorite anyway! Velvet
Wehrman-you were Scott’s first reader and I’m glad you enjoyed
Ryan’s book as well! Jenn Valencia-thanks for all your support and
for loving the Griffin boys! Cyndi Porter-you’re a great friend and
I love working with you. Thanks for telling me often that I’m your
favorite romance author! Mallory Daybell-my Borders partner in crime
and fellower lover of NA. Thanks for being awesome!

To all my co-workers
and friends who’ve been encouraging and supportive, I love you all!
I wouldn’t be on this journey without you!

A special thanks to the
readers who loved (or even just liked) Gaming For Love, especially
those of you who reached out to me, telling me how much you loved the
book and leaving me reviews that made me want to cry from happiness!
I hope you enjoyed this book, too!

Crystal Perkins has always been a
big reader, but she never thought that she would write her own book,
until she did. She lives in Las Vegas, where you can find her running
author events and selling books at conventions when she isn’t
reading, buying too many Sherlock t-shirts online or finding a place
to put all of her Pop! figurines. A mac and cheese connoisseur, she
travels the country looking for the perfect version, while attending
book conventions and signings as a cover for her research. Her first
book,
Gaming For Love
, was an international bestseller.

You
can find her at
www.crystalperkinsauthor.com

Or on
Facebook:
facebook.com/CrystalPerkinsAuthor

And
Twitter:
@wondermomlv

Turn the pager for a Sneak Peek of
Owen and Candi’s
story,
Creating A Love

Coming
September 2014!

The
last book in the Griffin Brothers
series will be released in
October
and then there will be two novellas:

Learning
to Love: Luke & Olivia’s story
Designing the Love: Zane &
Quinn’s novella
Alex’s novella

Owen

“Oh God, Owen. Yes,
just like that.” Candi is digging her nails into my shoulders as I
pound into her. The back wall of my parents’ guest house has to be
scraping her back through her thin yellow dress, but she doesn’t
seem to care.

“You gonna come hard
for me, babe?”

“I’m not your babe!
I’m not your any—Oh! Oh! Fuck, fuck, fuck…” Her back arches
as she comes as hard as I had hoped she would. I follow right after
her.

“Shit, Cand, that was
so damn good.”

“Yes, it was. Now get
out of me so we can go back to the party and pretend this never
happened.”

“What if I don’t
want that anymore?” I know it’s risky, but I had to say it.

“What do you want,
Owe?”

“You. I want you. And
I want everyone to know it.”

“Are-are you sure?”

She looks so vulnerable
right now. This woman who the world sees as flippant and hard. This
beautiful goddess, who captured my attention the moment I saw her, is
scared.

Candi’s around 5’6”
with light mocha skin. Her long legs are slim but muscular. They lead
to a perfect ass and hips that are just the right size for holding on
to. In the middle of that is the sweetest pussy that I’ve ever
tasted. No lie. Her stomach is flat and her breasts are the things of
wet dreams. Full and lush with dark brown nipples that have brought
me to my knees on more than one occasion. The curve of her shoulder,
leading up to her graceful neck gets plenty of my attention, too. Her
face is almost royal looking with high cheekbones and startlingly
intense blue eyes. Her hair is a mass of spiral curls in several
shades of brown. She is nothing short of perfect.

“Yes. There’s
nothing that I’m more sure of than the fact that I want us to be
more. More than just each other’s plus one at events or secret
fucks against walls when no one’s around. I want to hold your hand
and kiss you in front of my family. I want other men to know that
you’re mine. I want us, Candi.”

She pauses for a few
long seconds before smiling. “I want us, too, Owen.”

“So, Candi Marcus,
you’ll be my girlfriend?”

She laughs hard and my
chest feels too tight in a good way. “Yes, Owen Griffin, I will be
your girlfriend.”

“Thank God. Now bring
your mouth back over here so I can kiss my hot girlfriend again.”

We are leaning towards
each other when we are interrupted. “I hate to break up this love
fest, but we’re needed on the stage Owen.”

“Mara? How are you?”
She’d been a good friend when I was younger, but I hadn’t seen
her in a few years.

“I’ve been better,
but we can get to that later. How about you introduce me to this hot
woman in front of me for now.”

“She’s my hot
woman, so don’t even think about it. Candi, this is my old friend,
Mara. Mara, this is my girlfriend, Candi.”

“Thanks for the
compliment, Mara. At one time, I would have acted on it, but once you
find a guy with a magnificent cock, there’s no going back. At least
not in this case.”

“Magnificent, huh? I
knew there was a reason I liked you.” I’m smirking hard. But what
guy wouldn’t after that?

“Umm, yeah, okay.
Anyway, we really do need to get out there Owe. We can all talk
after.”

“After? And why do we
need to talk?” I’m more than a little confused.

“Because you still
owe me for saving you from the cops when we were seventeen and you
painted that building. We both know that it would’ve been your
final strike. It’s time for me to collect and while I feel guilty
at the moment, I need the favor.”

“What is it that you
need?”

“You’ll find out
soon.” Mara looks at Candi. “I really am sorry.”

“Why are you
apologizing to me?”

“Because the favor
I’m calling in will affect you, too. Let’s go, Owen. Duty calls.”

I follow her back out
to the party after giving Candi a quick kiss. We get to the stage
where my family and Mara’s parents are waiting for us. Her parents
have always been ultra conservative and I’m pretty sure that she
hasn’t come out to them yet. My family’s company is doing a
building for them so we threw this party to get the word out.

My brother, Ryan, and
his fiancé Chloe, will be doing most of the work. I’ll be handling
the artwork and sculptures. They will unfortunately be boring and not
the fun, edgy stuff that Chloe has been encouraging me to do for the
other buildings that we have worked together on. But, Mara’s family
is prestigious so this building will be a good thing for our company.
We don’t need money, but my dad and Ryan like to keep us visible
and show how great our company is.

“Mara! Why are you
late? Stop trying to embarrass us for once!” Mrs. Evans is a royal
bitch. I squeeze Mara’s hand to let her know I’m here for her. A
moment later, I get the surprise of my life.

“Owen was proposing
to me,” Mara states loud enough for her voice to be picked up by
the microphone. She lifts her left hand and flashes a giant diamond.

The crowd starts
applauding as my family looks at me in shock. Frankly, I’m pretty
damn shocked, too. Mara pulls me into a hug. “I’m sorry, Owen.
I’ll explain this all when we’re alone. I need you to go along
with this.”

“Are you fucking
kidding me?” I whisper back. “I just asked Candi to officially be
with me and now you want me to pretend to be engaged to you?”

“Yes. You owe me and
you can wait a couple of months to be with her in the open.”

“I’ve already
waited over a year to have this with her. But, you’re right. I do
owe you. I need to find her, though and explain.”

I hope to God that
she’ll believe me, and understand that I didn’t know this was
going to happen. At least she knows that Mara is gay, so that she
doesn’t think I would be in a real relationship with her. Even if
she wasn’t gay, there’s only one woman who owns my heart. Yeah, I
said it. It’s the truth. I love Candi. I’d planned to wait to
tell her, but I’ve felt it for a while now. I just need to figure
out what’s going on with Mara and claim the woman that I want and
not the one who needs some random favor from me.