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At the Ball
Last Updated:
2024-10-29 19:42:56Related chapters
Collide Little Mouse
The ladies’ room was just as impressive as the rest of the hotel. It was all marble and crystal and even had a seating area where you could sit and rest feet that had been crammed into pretty, but deadly, high heels too long. Maggie was grateful that even the stalls were generously sized so she didn’t have difficulty managing her long dress. Seconds after she closed the door behind her, she heard voices and clicking heels coming across the marble.“I know! I couldn’t believe it!” said the first woman, obviously continuing a conversation they had started in the hall. “I tried to get him to invite me to this gala last year and he said he always comes stag so he can get out quickly. Apparently, that’s not true.” She heard the woman make a disgusted sound. “And did you see the little mouse he brought? It's that same little nothing from Gladewater he got all up in arms over last week when I went to see him at the office. Ridiculous.”Maggie was careful to not make a sound. She heard purse
Last Updated : 2024-10-29Collide A Matter of Trust
Zane’s jaw was so tight he was sure his teeth were going to crack. Shawna and one of her idiot friends had cornered him. She’d latched onto his arm like a leech and he had yet to figure out how to get rid of her without making a scene in the middle of the event. He’d like to peel her off and spray himself down with Clorox but that was not going to be possible. If Maggie would just get back, he could extricate himself and leave. All he’d been able to think about all evening was getting her back to his place and convincing her to stay the night with him; have her face be the first thing he saw in the morning. He glanced at his watch again trying, without success, to extricate his arm from Shawna’s vice-like grip. He hoped Maggie was okay. She’d looked a little pale when she’d left the table. Suddenly, he saw a flash of pink in his peripheral vision heading for the front doors at a rapid pace. Maggie? Where was she going? “Excuse me, Tom, I see my date. I need to go make sure she’s okay
Last Updated : 2024-10-29Collide Mistakes
Maggie stood silently and slowly followed him, her heart breaking a little with every step, as he started walking back through the garden to the front of the building. They stood in silence, not touching, as the valet retrieved Zane’s car and helped Maggie into the passenger seat. The ride back to Zane’s place took a million years, neither of them daring to speak or touch each other. They got out and just as silently got into the elevator in his building, standing next to each other, but miles apart. Now that she’d had a little time in quiet to mull it over, she could see she’d made a huge mistake. She’d let her insecurities and emotions take over and had accused Zane of terrible things without any real evidence. It was obvious she’d jumped to conclusions about what she’d seen and now she’d hurt this man who’d been nothing but loving and kind to her. She was sorely afraid she had permanently broken the relationship they had been building. All because she couldn’t believe that she was
Last Updated : 2024-10-29Collide Broken
After Zane left her alone in the guest room again, Maggie slipped out of the dress and unfastened the tiny hooks on the corset, dropping both to the ground. She hadn’t expected the warm hand on her waist and the kiss. That kiss on the top of her spine. She’d thought she was going to melt into a puddle right then and there. She thought maybe he was going to forgive her but then the warmth at her back disappeared along with his hands. He’d left her without a backwards glance. She took a deep, cleansing breath and dug through her big pink tote. She found a pair of soft black leggings and a pink heathered T-shirt that said “BOSS BABE” across the front. It wasn’t something she would have ever bought for herself, but it was a gift from Dani – another of her attempts at affirmation. She usually pulled it out when she wanted to hang around the house and feel comfortable. Tonight, Maggie donned it like armor over the remains of her tattered heart. She moved to the ensuite and scrubbed the pa
Last Updated : 2024-10-29Collide Tequila, Tears, & Threats
The doorbell rang and Maggie went to answer it in a fog. She had spent the day curled up in her bed, alternately crying or staring at the ceiling going over the horrible mistake she had made and how, or if, she could fix it. At this point, she didn’t know if it was even fair to subject Zane to her obvious craziness. She opened the door to Dani on the doorstep with a large canvas shopping bag. “You look like shit,” her friend told her in greeting. Maggie was too worn down to even chastise her for her language. Dani pushed her way into the house and Maggie trailed her to the kitchen. “I wasn’t sure exactly what level of crisis this was as JT said you wouldn’t talk to him about the details,” Dani continued, unpacking the bag onto the kitchen counter. “So, I brought supplies for all three – ice cream, wine, and tequila.”Instead of laughing as she would have expected, Dani saw Maggie’s head drop. The smile left her face. “Tequila it is. I’ll get the mixer, you grab the blender.”Five min
Last Updated : 2024-10-29Collide Reconnect
Maggie woke to a pounding head the next morning thanks to Dani’s visit with her friend, Jose Cuervo. She knew better than to have more than two of Dani’s margaritas, but she’d needed the escape. Though her head was paying for her lapse in judgment, she had to admit she had come up with a plan of how to right things with Zane. She decided to text him before everything got crazy at the cafe. Her anxiety started rising when she waited several beats and didn’t see the three little dots that would show he was responding to her. She texted him again. Still no answer. She stared at the screen, willing it to answer her but no response came. Her heart sank. ***Zane felt his phone vibrate but whoever it was would have to wait. He stood at the bedside of a twenty-one-year old who had been injured at his job. The boy had been standing on the back of a logging truck bumper directing his buddy in backing the rig out of the woods when the truck hit a large hole in the ground, and he had been bucke
Last Updated : 2024-10-29Collide Fighting the Battle...
Zane spent most of Saturday trying, and mostly failing, to distract himself. In his experience, a woman who said she ‘needed to talk’ didn’t usually have good news to share. He lifted weights at the gym until he couldn’t feel his arms, then went on a long run in White Rock Lake Park but found that only gave him more time to stew over what Maggie wanted to tell him. He wasn’t remotely ready to let her go. He felt in his heart that they were starting something important. He just needed to get her to quit overthinking and giving into her insecurities. He needed to convince her that she was exactly what he wanted. Honestly, what he needed at this point. And he did need her, he realized, all of her. He made his way back to his condo, sweaty, exhausted, and in no better of a headspace than when he started. He slammed his water bottle on the kitchen counter in frustration as he made his way to the shower.Damn, I’m stressing like a teenage girl waiting to be asked to the prom.He’d never us
Last Updated : 2024-10-29Collide Winning the War
Despite the erotic assault Zane was committing on her body, a small, niggling, negative voice tried to worm its way out of the corner of her mind she had shoved it into. What are you doing? You let him bare you in your office? Under fluorescent lights? Are you insane? He’ll see all your flaws. But then she felt a finger crook deep inside her at the perfect spot. The voice vanished in a puff of sensual smoke. Words completely failed her and all she could do was groan. She felt him smile against her neck where his lips had been traveling back up to her mouth. “Another thing you like,” he whispered gruffly in her ear, before he nipped the lobe. “I love hearing you moan for me. I want to feel that tight pussy come on my fingers.”Before she could register any shock at his dirty words, she found his lips back on hers, his tongue mimicking the thrusts of his fingers in her body. She rocked desperately against his hand, pursuing her release. She fisted the soft material of his T-shirt in he
Last Updated : 2024-10-29
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Collide Epilogue
Three months later, Maggie was back in Dani and Levi’s barn, standing under the million twinkle lights. This time, however, it was for her own wedding. It wasn’t the large Texas wedding she’d had in her little girl dreams with the fairy princess dress, a crystal tiara holding a chapel length train to her head that would billow for a mile behind her, the minimum six bridesmaids – all in blush pink, of course, the ride to the chapel in a horse drawn carriage, and the sit down dinner afterwards for at least 300, but it was so much more. Maggie’s dress was a simple, Empire waist gown à la Pride and Prejudice, with lace panels in front and back and a few sparkling crystals surrounding the low-scooped n
Collide Fight for Her
Maggie reclined on her chaise in her room looking out her window at the hummingbirds flying around their feeder, zooming in for quick sips and zooming back out, their tiny wings nothing but a blur. She felt like her life had been like that for the last week, blurry around the edges. She resented the headaches that were her constant companions and would not allow her to sleep through the pain in her heart. Per doctor’s orders, she had not been allowed to come into the cafe even for a little while this week. She’d tried to read but that made the pain in her head worse. There wasn’t one TV program she could find that held her interest. She didn’t know how she was going to live through another week of this enforced rest. A quiet knock came from her bedroom door. “Come in,” she replied. She hoped desperately someone needed her for something. With nothing to distract her, she was slowly losing her mind. Her attention had nowhere to go except back to Zane and the events of last weekend.“He
Collide The Sound of a Heart Breaking
Maggie came back to herself in pieces. She smelled bleach and some other antiseptic and wrinkled her nose. Sun was beating onto her closed eyelids and her head was throbbing. She moaned and reached a hand up to her head finding a bandage at her forehead. It slowly came back to her. She was in the hospital. Someone had attacked her at the Mama Tried. “Zane?” she asked without opening her eyes yet. “Can we shut the blinds? My head is pounding.”He didn’t answer her, but she felt a shadow fall over her face and the brightness dimmed. She carefully cracked open her eyes. She blinked a few times to bring everything into focus and saw Dani and Levi standing over her bed.“Hey, Mags, how’re you feeling? Do you need some water?” Dani said softly to her.She started to nod but then stopped abruptly when pain shot through her skull with the movement. She raised her hand to her head again. “Ow. Yes please.”Levi poured her water from a plastic pitcher next to her bed and handed a cup to Dani. S
Collide Testosterone Poisoning
Zane sat for a long time, holding Maggie’s hand and watching her sleep. He wanted to memorize every detail of her, her beautiful rosy skin, those plush pink lips that drove him to distraction, the way her silky chestnut locks spread out across the pillow. Her eyes were closed but he could visualize the chocolate brown orbs that changed to dark expresso when she wanted him. The unfathomable look in them when she told him she loved him. And her hands, the wonderfully small hands that were so soft but competent and graceful. Those hands that had the power to drive all his worries away and make him feel whole. He wished he could see her smile at him one more time. His eyes shone with unshed tears. He wondered if you could truly die from a broken heart. When he was sure she was sleeping soundly, he let go of her hand carefully placing it under the starched white blanket on her bed. He leaned over and let his lips brush her cheek, careful not to wake her. He took a deep breath filling his
Collide Concussive Forces
"Get security!" he yelled, turning to the woman he had pushed past to get into the ladies' room. She started to argue with him but then took in the sight before her. "I'm on it," she said and quickly moved through the crowd. “Maggie!” he yelled, falling to his knees next to her. She was on her hands and knees on the floor near the sink. Blood was pouring down her face and her eyes weren’t focusing. He could tell she was trying to stand but couldn’t get her feet under her.“Don’t try to get up, baby,” Zane told her. He eased her back down to sit on the floor and took her face in his hands trying to see where all the blood was coming from. He knew logically that head wounds bled copiously even from a tiny cut but, his heart stuttered in his chest at the sight of her beautiful face and gentle hands covered in red.“Zane?” she asked in a confused whisper. “How did you get here? Are we in the ladies’ room?”She tried to raise her bloody hands to her head, but he caught them. “It’s ok, swe
Collide Mama Tried
Saturday came before she knew it and Maggie found herself rushing to pack for the weekend before she was late. Her thoughts were unusually scattered and she couldn't seem to get her things together. Her current dilemma included her boots taking up too much room in her weekender bag causing her to not be able to get the zipper closed. “Aren’t you coming back tomorrow night?” JT asked, leaning on the door frame to her bedroom and watching her attempt to get her bag closed with amusement.Maggie glared at him over her shoulder. “Yes, I am, but we’re going to Mama Tried to see Morgan Wallen and I have to get.these.boots.to.fit,” she said punctuating her last words with the effort to get the teeth of the zipper close enough to catch.JT chuckled and went to her side, pushing her away from the bag with a hip. “Here let me fix it.” He reached in the bag, removed the boots and easily zipped up the case. “There, fixed.”Maggie stared at him, hands fisted on her hips. “I could have done that,”
Collide The Hall Pass
The last few months had flown by in a happy haze for Maggie with the wedding planning, her business going great guns and her nightly marathon Facetime sessions with Zane between visits, but with only two weeks left until Dani and Levi’s wedding, she was exhausted. There seemed to be a never-ending list of things to do and not nearly enough hours in the day to get them all done. I’ll just lay my head down for a minute.Sofia started to knock on the door jamb but then stopped abruptly at the sight in front of her. Maggie was at her desk with her head pillowed on her arms, fast asleep. She was really burning the candle at both ends. Sofia was worried about her. She’d never caught her sleeping at her desk before. She rarely even took a coffee break during the day. Maggie could do more things in a day than most people did in a week but even she apparently had her limits.She saw JT coming down the hall and put a finger to her lips. “Shhhh,” she whispered, closing the door softly. “She’s as
Collide Small Town Moves
Zane sat in his club chair, Jameson in hand, staring at the city lights from his window. He had picked up a book to read but couldn’t focus. He'd hated to have to leave her after her weekend together. The Shawna situation made him want to wrap Maggie in bubble wrap and lock her in his apartment where nothing could get to her, but maybe she was right. He had always been the one Shawna followed and harassed. He'd casually dated a couple of other women after her and nothing had happened. Maybe all these new and intense feelings he had for Maggie were just making all his protective instincts go into overdrive. Hell, he hadn't even really been aware he had protective instincts before Maggie. He sipped the smooth scotch and tried to convince himself that Maggie was right. She would be fine. He had to make himself believe it. It was the only way he could get anything else done. He glanced at his watch and saw he had two hours before Maggie would be done with her catering event and he could
Collide Charmed X Two
JT was just finishing up cleaning up after his prep work in the Common Grounds' kitchen when Sofia popped her head in. “Hey, boss. I finally got the final numbers from Jim at the bank if you have a few minutes to go over the menu with me,” she said brightly.“Sure, give me five minutes,” JT said. Sofia shot him a grin and nodded. With a flip of her dark, shiny ponytail, she was gone.JT smiled and shook his head as he wiped down his workstation. He’d never seen Sofia in a bad mood. No matter how onery the customer or how crazy the day got, she always had a smile on her face and a bounce in her step. And she was good at everything she did. He’d never tell Maggie, but he thought Sofia could give her a run for her money in the organization and customer service departments. The best decision they’d ever made was recently promoting her to manager of the cafe and assistant event coordinator for Common Grounds Catering.When he met her at the table a few minutes later, he moved over some pa
