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Make Me Yours: Heron’s Landing Book 3 Author’s Note
Dear Readers,Before you begin Gavin and Kat’s story, please know that Make Me Yours was previously published under the title Desire Me Dearly. This second edition has been edited and expanded to include 20% more content than the original.The main storyline remains the same as the first edition, but I always felt Gavin and Kat’s story needed more.All my best,Iris
Last Updated : 2021-10-03Make Me Yours: Heron’s Landing Book 3 Chapter 1
On the first day of classes, Kat Williamson cursed the humidity rampant in August and hoped her hair hadn’t turned into a ball of frizz before nine AM. Although the school where she taught computer classes to elementary students had AC, it struggled to keep up when the temperatures reached above one hundred, which was pretty common this time of year in Missouri.Kat hustled to the staff room. The copy machine always had a line this close to the bell. Normally Kat arrived earlier, but she’d woken up late and had had to hustle it to get to school on time. Two other teachers were ahead of Kat, and of course one of them ended up getting the copier jammed.Kat sighed inwardly. Today’s going to be a mess, isn’t it? Luckily, she didn’t have to teach until later that morning, but she still needed to finish her lesson plans. Normally she was way more organized, but she’d been distracted last night with messing with closing her grandmother’s cell phone account. Apparently telling someone the a
Last Updated : 2021-10-03Make Me Yours: Heron’s Landing Book 3 Chapter 2
Gavin Danvers shaded his eyes against the bright September sun. The heat of summer still lingered, and the humidity had crept up since this morning, making the air viscous against his skin. It was better than working inside, though, and after his boss back in Boston had given him an ultimatum—either return or find a new job—he’d decided he’d rather find a new job. He’d worked at a construction company, mostly doing administrative work, but it hadn’t been particularly interesting nor fulfilling. Leaving that job for good hadn’t been much of a sacrifice in the long run.He wiped his forehead and continued hammering at the fence post. After quitting his job, he’d gone straight to Adam to ask for a job at the family vineyard, River’s Bend. Adam had told him he didn’t have any office jobs, but he could help around the vineyard itself if he wanted. Gavin had agreed without protest.The labor allowed him to stop thinking for once. To stop thinking about Emma, about Teagan, about Emma’s pret
Last Updated : 2021-10-03Make Me Yours: Heron’s Landing Book 3 Chapter 3
After finishing her lunch in the teacher’s lounge, Kat had headed to the restroom before returning to her classroom for the rest of the afternoon. As she passed a supply closet, she noticed that the door was cracked open, but there was no janitor in sight. She knew the cleaning staff never left the door unlocked or open in case kids wandered inside and played with things they shouldn’t, and as she was about to shut the door, she saw movement in the corner.Her heart stuttered. A rat? Maybe a raccoon that had gotten in last night? Or had a kid gotten inside? She walked in, flicking on the light overhead, and scanned the room. She saw a flash of pink in the corner. Kat was about to reprimand whoever had decided playing in the supply closet had been a good idea when she saw that the child in question was huddled on the floor, her head in between her knees, completely still and quiet, even as Kat approached.“Emma,” she breathed, kneeling in front of her. She touched her shoulder gently
Last Updated : 2021-10-03Make Me Yours: Heron’s Landing Book 3 Chapter 4
After the closet incident, as Gavin had dubbed it, Emma seemed to bounce back to her mostly normal self. She’d admitted to Gavin that she’d been afraid that “the people were coming to get her.” When he’d pressed her to explain, she’d clammed up and refused to say any more. She hadn’t said anything more about what had happened, and although part of him wanted to understand his daughter, another part was hopeful she could get past this and they could somehow make a normal life for themselves in Heron’s Landing.Now, a few weeks after the closet incident, Gavin sat in Emma’s second-grade classroom for the semester’s parent-teacher conference. Emma’s teacher, Mrs. Gentry, was a woman in her late thirties who looked more like she was fifty, mostly because she wore her hair in the tightest bun Gavin had ever seen and wore clothes that were probably older than Gavin himself. Mrs. Gentry had recently divorced, and sometimes Gavin wondered if she hated him on sight for being male.Really, he
Last Updated : 2021-10-03Make Me Yours: Heron’s Landing Book 3 Chapter 5
When are you coming back to LA?Kat stared at the Facebook message in her inbox and sighed. She wished she had an answer to that particular question, but at the moment, she had no idea. Would she go back to LA at all? It would make sense. She had come to Heron’s Landing to care for her grandmother, but now that Lillian had passed away, she was just kind of hanging around, perpetually in limbo.I’m not sure. But I’ll let you know, she wrote, hitting enter before she could rethink her response to her ex-boyfriend’s question. She and Marcus had dated for close to three years while she’d attended UCLA and then worked as a computer programmer. Their breakup hadn’t been messy or bitter; in fact, it had been a mutual decision. She was moving to Missouri, he wasn’t, neither wanted to do long distance. So they’d parted ways and that was that.Kat sighed again. Was that her life, then? To be logical, practical, but without passion or any real emotion? Her list of boyfriends wasn’t extensive,
Last Updated : 2021-10-03Make Me Yours: Heron’s Landing Book 3 Chapter 6
“Emma, could you set the table?” Gavin called from the kitchen.He could see his daughter’s blonde head pop up from the couch before she called back, “What?”He sighed. “Come set the table, please!”“Why? We never set the table for dinner.”God save him from questioning eight-year-olds. Although Emma was shy around people she didn’t know and was often extremely self-conscious in public, she managed to seem more like your usual kid when at home. It was some small comfort to Gavin that the daughter he’d gotten used to before everything that had happened still existed.Emma wandered into the kitchen to watch him. “What are you doing?”“What does it look like I’m doing?”“You’re cooking.” Her eyes narrowed. “Why?”“Ms. Williamson is coming to dinner, that’s why. Now, go set the table like I asked you to.”Emma rolled her eyes, but Gavin was so happy to see her acting like a real kid that he didn’t have the heart to reprimand her for it. Better to have a daughter rolling her eyes t
Last Updated : 2021-10-03Make Me Yours: Heron’s Landing Book 3 Chapter 7
“Ms. Williamson, I think my computer froze.”Kat looked up from her own computer to see Danny Tucker raising his hand. She restrained a sigh. The kid’s computer inevitably froze at least twice each class period, mostly because he seemed determined to press as many buttons as possible until the computer gave up the fight.Kat fiddled with the mouse and, seeing that the cursor was frozen, she used the tried and true Control-Alt-Delete and told Danny to do only exactly as he was told when the computer rebooted. Danny nodded, but she knew that was basically code for “I’m going to mess around again the second your back is turned.”Kat didn’t mind teaching most days. The kids were entertaining, and she essentially babysat while they played keyboard games to improve their typing skills. It was a far cry from her work as a computer programmer, and if she thought about how she was wasting her own education to sit here and make sure kids like Danny didn’t cause their computers to explode, she
Last Updated : 2021-10-03
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Make Me Yours: Heron’s Landing Book 3 About the Author
A coffee addict and cat lover, Iris Morland writes sexy and funny contemporary romances. If she's not reading or writing, she enjoys binging on Netflix shows and cooking something delicious.Stay in touch!irismorland.comIris Morland’s MermaidsNewsletter Facebook Twitter BookBub Goodreads Instagram
Make Me Yours: Heron’s Landing Book 3 Also by Iris Morland
Say You’re MineAll I Ask of YouMake Me YoursHold Me CloseOopsie DaisyHe Loves Me, He Loves Me NotPetal PluckerWar of the RosesincludingThen Came YouTaking a Chance on LoveAll I Want Is YouMy One and OnlyThe Nearness of YouThe Very Thought of YouIf I Can’t Have YouDream a Little Dream of MeSomeone to Watch Over MeTill There Was YouI’ll Be Home for Christmas
Make Me Yours: Heron’s Landing Book 3 Enjoy this exclusive excerpt
It was still dark when Matt awoke to a noise that he first thought was one of the dogs fretting to get out. He opened his eyes, trying to make anything out in the gloom, when he realized that it wasn’t one of the dogs. It was Holly. She whimpered and moaned, pushing against his chest, and she kept saying something.“Please don’t,” she pleaded, pushing and pushing. “Please. Sam, you can’t. Please!”Matt froze. Did he wake her, or let the dream play out? He didn’t want to startle her. But when she started trying to hit him, he didn’t have much of a choice.He shook her. “Holly! Holly, wake up! It’s a dream, sweetheart.” He didn’t even realize the endearment had fallen from his lips, but it felt right for some reason. “Holly, wake up. Wake up.”She moaned. He almost thought she’d fallen back asleep, but her lashes fluttered and then she looked up at him like he was a stranger. He couldn’t make out her expression in the dark, so he switched on the flashlight.They both blinked at the
Make Me Yours: Heron’s Landing Book 3 Epilogue
Two months after what was eventually termed The Incident, everything seemed to return to normal. Mostly normal, at any rate, Kat reflected with a wry smile. Gavin had told her in no uncertain terms that there was no way she was going to get away from him again, and she’d moved in with him the day he’d returned home from the hospital. And neither of them had looked back.Silas awaited his trial, sitting in jail for the foreseeable future. The judge had denied him bail since he would still be a real threat to Kat, Gavin and Emma. Silas had tried contacting Kat to apologize, but she’d refused all contact. He’d told the judge that he’d done everything because he loved her. She didn’t understand it, but she was glad he couldn’t hurt anyone else.The past two months had been ones of healing. Gavin had mostly healed from his bullet wound, although he still had pain in his side if he worked himself too hard. More than once, Kat had had to convince him to rest. It didn’t help that he’d been u
Make Me Yours: Heron’s Landing Book 3 Chapter 19
When Gavin awoke, the first thing he noticed was the astringent scent of his surroundings. He didn’t understand why the woods would smell like that, but when he opened his eyes, he slowly realized he was no longer in the woods. He was in the hospital. The hospital? Why was he in the hospital?“You’re awake.” Kat touched his arm, her eyes shining as she looked down at him. “Jesus Christ, Gavin.”He saw that she was crying, and he reached up to wipe the tears away. “What happened?” His voice was croaky.“You were shot, but the bullet just grazed you. You bled quite a bit, though.” She sniffled. “Scared me half to death, too.”In a rush, it all came back to him: the woods, Kat, Silas, Emma. Emma. He lurched upward, but groaned as his wound smarted. “Emma? Where is she? Is she all right?”Kat grabbed his hands to still him. “She’s okay. She found help, just like you told her to. She was so brave. They arrested Silas. It’s over.”“How did he get Emma? How did this even happen?”Kat s
Make Me Yours: Heron’s Landing Book 3 Chapter 18
Gavin heard the yells and ran as fast as his feet could carry him. How had Kat managed to get so far ahead of him? Fear coalesced in his gut that he’d lost her in the woods.But he soon heard voices and went toward the sounds. Even then, it felt like an eternity before he arrived in the clearing where Kat had stopped. But the sight in front of him instantly arrested him: Silas Fraser holding Emma captive. Gavin was still far enough away that Silas hadn’t heard him approach.Before Gavin could react to the tableau in front of him, Kat launched herself at Silas, screaming at Emma to run for it. A moment later, Gavin caught his daughter in his arms and breathed in her sweet scent.But he didn’t have time to be relieved. Silas now had a gun to Kat’s temple. Gavin’s heart almost burst out of his chest at the horrifying sight.Turning to Emma, he said, “I need you to get out of here and get help. Can you do that?” He handed her his flashlight. “Keep the river on your left and it’ll take
Make Me Yours: Heron’s Landing Book 3 Chapter 17
Everything seemed to move at lightning speed after that. The police had already arrived by the time Kat had gotten off the phone with Gavin, and they were collecting any information before forming search parties.With the school day ending, parents had begun to pick up their kids. When they saw the police presence, Principal Layton had done her best to explain the situation while the police had helped form search parties for everyone who wanted to help.Next to the school was a large wooded area, about two acres wide. Kat had this feeling deep in her gut that Emma had disappeared into it. Why she’d run away, she didn’t know. She just prayed they found the girl before it got dark—and before this storm broke.“Have you seen Silas?” said Mrs. Gentry to Kat as they all waited for instructions.Kat had completely forgotten about him. “No, not since earlier this afternoon. Why?”Mrs. Gentry frowned. “He told me he’d find me near the south restrooms, but he never showed up.”“Weird. May
Make Me Yours: Heron’s Landing Book 3 Chapter 16
Gavin had never driven so fast in his entire life. He gripped the steering wheel with white knuckles, praying and begging anyone listening to keep his daughter safe.Emma had to be safe. She was most likely hiding somewhere, and they just hadn’t found her yet. Rage at the school bubbled over, and he didn’t realize he’d accelerated until he almost ran himself off of the road. He forced himself to slow down, even as it felt like hours before he’d reach the school when it was only across town.After Gavin had left River’s Bend, Adam had assured him that he’d follow behind him as soon as he found Joy so she could help in the search. Gavin had hardly listened to his brother. Adam could bring the entire family if he wanted, but Gavin wasn’t about to wait around for them all, either.How had the school lost his daughter? Again? He wanted to throttle someone. He wanted to demand why everyone at that damn school couldn’t keep track of one little girl. If she had gotten hurt, or worse…He to
Make Me Yours: Heron’s Landing Book 3 Chapter 15
Kat tried her best to throw herself into her work. She couldn’t let her heartbreak over Gavin keep her from being a good teacher. But her students were certainly old enough to have heard about her house being vandalized, and being just kids, she had to volley tons of questions every single class.Finally, it go to the point that Kat made a blanket rule that if anyone talked about the subject, they’d get a demerit. That had nipped the discussion in the bud—at least when Kat was present. She obviously had no power to keep the kids from talking about it when she wasn’t around.Two weeks after Gavin had broken her heart, Kat was grateful that there hadn’t been any more threats against her. The police hadn’t found any leads despite their best efforts, though. Kat had a feeling, being such a tiny police force, that they didn’t exactly have the capability to track down somebody like this. And now that the threats seemed to be stopping, there wasn’t as much focus on it as before.On Wednesd
