The Note by Natalie Wrye (the read aloud family .TXT) 📕

the other rumor would actually be true. I assumed it was hearsay.”

But by now, Noah’s off his knee, walking beside me, moving fast. The ring’s now in his hand, and instantly I feel like a phantom limb is missing from my finger.

But it’s hard to start your fairytale when one is unraveling before your eyes, and I march closer to Nancy and my brother, my brows twisting together the entire way. I feel Noah at my back, his hands on my shoulders, warming me with their touch.

I can’t help but scoff at the scene.

“You guys have great timing. Now, if you don’t mind me asking, just what the hell is going on? And no stories, for Chrissake. I’ve heard enough of them for a lifetime. Just spit it out.”

Nancy turns to me first. “Jesse’s story about Chris Jackson and my father isn’t true, Fee. My father died of a heart attack months ago. That was a ruse. But I’m guessing you know that now from Noah’s note.”

“Yes. And?”

“The problem is…the other info Jesse threw out there is true. Your father’s safe in the halfway house. But the rumors last night about a prison break? Those are true. It’s been confirmed. Chris Jackson, along with two other inmates, broke out of prison last night. And now he’s on the lam.”

Secrets beget secrets.

If anybody could have told my friends and family that little fact, it was me. But I was learning my lesson.

I’d landed the man of my dreams, found my pot of gold at the end of the rainbow because of the same crimes that almost cost my would-be fiancé his own company.

All because of one man…

Chris Jackson.

What a way to kick off my own fairytale. While our own real-life villain was now out of prison and on the run.

Even with the word “yes” still on the tip of my lips, I can’t help but feel like Chris Jackson’s escape just laid another piece down on our yellow brick road.

Noah helped me believe in fairytales. But because of all Chris Jackson had done, I knew our friends’ and family’s wasn’t over.

Taking the titan down was going to be much harder than any of us could have imagined.

Ready for more heated Manhattan Nights?

Find out what happens when one shocking revelation leaves Nancy’s professional and personal life dangling by a thin thread and the only person to save both is the one man she can’t trust: her secret-keeping employee Drew in THE LIE (coming early 2021).

OR...

Hop on to a quick trip to Chicago to find out what happens when Noah’s lawyer Emily meets the new neighbor making her life a living Hell: baseball MVP Sevin Smith in THE PLAY.

The yellow brick road continues on the next page.

Read on for a SNEAK PEEK of THE PLAY!

Sneak Peek of THE PLAY

EMILY

Thursday night

The more Sevin moves his mouth against my neck and collarbone, the more his slightly calloused hands caress my lower back and hips, the more difficult it is to remember wanting anything outside of him.

I make a final attempt. “Sevin, it’s hard to talk when you’re doing this.”

“Then maybe you should think less about talking…” His fingers roam lower. “And more about this.”

“This what?”

“This.”

And then his fingers find their mark.

His hand finds its way under my business skirt and he begins skimming the cotton across my pantyline. The move makes me gasp, and I won’t even allow myself to think about what will happen if the half-naked athlete moves his hands any lower.

I’m already wet just from a simple stroke across my hip bone.

Sevin lifts his mouth from my skin to look at me.

“What do you want, Emily?”

He pecks my lips with a sensuous short kiss. “Less Led Zeppelin playing on those late work nights? I’ll keep the music down.”

Another kiss.

“More alone time in the elevator? I’ll tell that mean old Mrs. Headley to take a hike.”

He reconnects his mouth to mine, and I swoon.

“Or do you want something a little more immediate?”

His fingers toy with the edge of my underwear, and it is like a straight shot to my sex. I know I am soaking poor Bugs Bunny, whose face is imprinted on my crotch, but I don’t care.

I don’t care about anything other than what Sevin is doing to me right now. His hand dips one inch lower, and I bite my bottom lip, meeting his hot green gaze.

“I’m guessing that’s a yes to my question?” He asks, even as his hand lowers to stroke my damp slit, sliding across the drenched fabric.

I nod, coming apart as my fingers dig deep indentations into his broad shoulders. My eyes flutter closed.

The sensation of Sevin stroking two fingers across my sex, slowly and deliberately, is enough to make me come, and I steady myself against that same dining room table, legs quivering as, at last, Sevin slips his hand beneath my panties, meeting me skin to skin.

I can’t stop the moan that leaves my mouth.

He cups my mound, curling just two fingers over my slippery center, and just when I think I can’t take enough sensation, his head lowers, bending to cover one blouse-covered nipple with his hot mouth.

I come instantly, soaking his fingers like the inexperienced lover that I am.

His name is a rough moan on my mouth, and I am powerless to stop him as he keeps sliding those two talented fingers along my heat, his teeth tugging around my sensitive nub.

“God, Sevin…” I breathe, wanting more.

I’m suddenly greedy for his touch, my body arching into his.

But the sound of a knock on the door interrupts any more I have to say, and, shocked right back to reality, I pull out of Sevin’s embrace, my fingers flying to my skirt as I adjust.

“Shit, shit, shit,” I mutter over and over. “Were you expecting anybody?”

“Absolutely fucking not.” His deepened voice is a growl. “And I’ll get rid of them right now.” He glances at me, his dark hair falling over his face, like a