Stella Ciaramitaro spent the last year battling a disease that tried to take her life…and take her away from her four crazy, pain-in-the-butt sisters, occasionally suicidal father, and career as an Emergency Room nurse. Stella’s disease wreaked a lot of havoc, leaving her with visible and invisible scars, but she’s hanging in there. Doing just fine, actually.
Or she was until HE showed up.
Nathan Drazek is a mess and he knows it. A childhood full of mental and physical abuse, four tours in Afghanistan, and ten years policing one of the toughest beats in East Cleveland have left him aloof and nearly incapable of interpersonal relationships. But that’s okay, because Nathan isn’t interested in anything more than just getting by.
Or he wasn’t until SHE showed up.
From the moment Nathan nearly arrests Stella, sparks fly, limits are tested, and boundaries are shattered. A tenuous, tender friendship quickly evolves into something powerfully passionate they cannot wish away or control. As they grow closer, new issues arise and old hurts resurface, threatening to destroy their fragile new beginning.
With everything at stake, Nathan and Stella must ultimately decide which runs deeper: their scars or their love.
A note from Gina:
Hi, everybody! Here’s a little intro for the bonus scene you’re about to read…
I want start out by giving a *Spoiler Alert* here:
If you haven’t read All of Me yet, but plan to – please be forewarned that this bonus scene contains a few spoilers.
Now, someone I love dearly (most of the time) – ahem, my editor – was more than a little disappointed with the lack of Nathan and Stella make-up sex at the end of All of Me. And, so, for her reading pleasure, and yours, here it is!
This scene takes place two weeks after the last chapter of All of Me, but about 4.5 months before the epilogue. Nathan and Stella are enjoying their very hard-earned Happily Ever After, but something is missing…
Bet you can guess what it is (since I just told you a paragraph ago). ;)
Because brevity is not my strong suit, the first part of this section appeared on Scandalicious Book Reviews and the second on Red Cheeks Reads. Please make sure to check them out!
~Gina
Here are the links for the previous two sections of the bonus chapter:
&
BONUS CHAPTER
A split second later, Nathan was on top of her again, but this time, he straddled her - planting one hand down on the mattress beside her head and wrapped the other around the back of her neck. He gently guided her up until they were nose to nose.
The intensity in Nathan’s eyes was so intense, sohungry, Stella nearly whimpered. She swallowed hard – all earlier bravado and aggravation melting away – because there was suddenly something very different in Nathan’s eyes and in his tone, something about his nearness that was overwhelming her in a way it hadn’t before.
And, unlike usual, she couldn’t interpret his silence.
Stella ran her fingertips down the side of his face, then the backs of her fingers across his hard, beautiful mouth. “What are you thinking right now, Nathan?” she whispered.
Eyes still boring into hers, he said, “I’m thinking I want to push myself inside of you so hard and so deep you’ll forget all the shit I put you through. I wanna make you feel so good you forget what an asshole I can be…what an asshole I’ll always be. That I’m going to do whatever it takes to make sure you never regret giving me a second chance. That I will say, be, and do whatever I need to, Stella…so you’ll always be sure of my love and commitment to you.” Nathan swallowed a few times, his eyes searching her face. “So, on the days I make you crazy and try your patience, you’ll have good things to remember. So you’ll never stop loving me. Or...leave me. Because I could never live without you, Stella. Not for a single day. Or even a fucking hour.” Nathan shook his head. “When I thought I lost you…”
He suddenly pulled her against him and buried his face in the crook of her neck, cradling her head gently. “I know I’m fucked up about feelings and that I’ll never be able to say what you need to hear,” Nathan whispered against her neck. “So I’m going to show you how much you mean to me…every day, for the rest of our lives.” His grip tightened a little, his voice growing more strained. “Because, deep-down, you know how much I love you and the baby, don’t you, Stell? How much I need you both you? How, even though I’m all fucked up and broken into pieces, that I promise to love you both with everything I do have left?”
Stella reared back to meet his eyes, tears leaking from the corners of hers. “Of course I know that, Nathan,” she whispered. She took one look at his tense expression and lowered her lips to his. “Oh, come here, you beautiful, darling man.”
They kissed deeply and slowly – exploring each other’s mouths with an emotional, exquisite thoroughness that made Stella’s chest ache in the best possible way. But a few minutes later, the tenderness faded away as their mouths became more aggressive…more demanding.
Stella broke their kiss, panting, and began frantically grabbing at his shirt. “Physical display of your love and commitment to me now. Please.”
They feverishly began tugging off each other’s clothes, Stella giggling and Nathan making growly grunting noises in the back of his throat. He wrapped a hand beneath each of her knees and slid Stella’s butt to the edge of the bed. Shoes, socks, and pants removed, Nathan stripped off the rest of his clothes before turning his attention back to Stella…
Who was still fumbling with her bra.
“My hands are shaking,” she said with a soft laugh, the front clasp slipping through her fingers a third time.
Stella looked up to find Nathan eyeing her body hungrily. “Every fucking part of you is gonna be shaking by the time I’m done with you.”
“Oh, my God, you know I love when you talk like that, Nathan…shit!” Stella broke eye contact to look back at the damn clasp, which she finally managed to get undone. She pulled out the silicone insert, tossed it onto the floor, and pushed the cups aside.
“Jesus Christ, Stella…” Nathan breathed out, staring as her breast pulled free of the cup.
Stella lowered her gaze to his massive erection and instinctively clenched her thighs – in anticipation of feeling him inside of her again and desperate for a little friction to ease the ache. She slowly slid her palm against her nipple, moaning loudly at the sensation, yes, but mostly at the look of complete adoration and lust on Nathan’s face as he watched, still standing at the edge of the bed.
Stella pulled the bra off completely and reached down to remove her panties, but Nathan’s hands beat her there – fingers sliding beneath the waistband on each hip and then slowly pulling them off. His eyes latched onto the throbbing, wet, aching space between her legs – widening when Stella slowly spread them apart, exposing herself to him completely.
Nathan’s expression hardened – eyes narrowing, jaw clenching – as his hands balled into fists at his sides. “Iwanna fuck you so bad, Stella,” he nearly seethed, that hard gaze lifting to her eyes. “But I don’t know how to touch you right now.” He unfurled and furled his fists a few times, his chest rising and falling as hard and fast as Stella’s. “Tell me how to touch you so I don’t hurt you and the baby. Now, Stella. Before I fuck you in the first position I can get you into.”
Her mind a big, tangled mess of sexual need, Stella tried thinking fast, but all she managed – as she stared up at Nathan’s muscled, inked-up chest and arms – was, “Uh…”
“Stella, you better spit out a safe position before I come just by looking at you lying there like that,” he gritted out.
Her throat dry and tight from all that panting, Stella tried clearing it. “Uh, well, my bump is still small, so we can probably try any-”
“Name. Position. Now.” But before Stella could answer, Nathan muttered, “Fuck it…” A few seconds later, he’d flung himself on his back and extended his arms to her. “Get on top of me. I’d put you there myself, but I don’t want to hurt your chest.”
Watching a naked Stella crawling over to mount him did nothing but escalate Nathan’s already wild need to get inside of her.
She slid her left leg over the tops of both of his thighs and positioned herself just behind his erection. Stella braced one hand on his hip, wrapped the other around his dick, and stroked him slowly.
Nathan’s hands fisted into the sheets. “Stella…”
He watched in rapt fascination as Stella’s hand moved on him, groaning and bucking up as her grip tightened and her rhythm increased.
She stopped suddenly. “I can’t wait anymore, Nathan!” Stella shifted her weight to one knee, guiding his dick toward the entrance of her body.
As soon as his tip made contact with her slick, wet warmth, they both moaned loudly.
“God, I want to feel you inside of me so badly,” Stella said, with a shaky laugh, her hand trying to position his dick where it needed to be.
“Hurry, Stell.” Nathan’s eyes skimmed down over her neck, breast, and slightly rounded belly, until they rested on the place where they were very nearly joined. He tightened his hold on the sheet, his breaths now coming out in hard pants. “I wanna grab you and fuck the shit out of you, but I don’t want to hurt you. So hurry…please…”
“Hurry, Stell.” Nathan’s eyes skimmed down over her neck, breast, and slightly rounded belly, until they rested on the place where they were very nearly joined. He tightened his hold on the sheet, his breaths now coming out in hard pants. “I wanna grab you and fuck the shit out of you, but I don’t want to hurt you. So hurry…please…”
She pressed his tip inside and sank down a little
“Nathan…my God…” Her hands braced on his lower abdominal muscles and her head dropped forward. She lifted off and sank down again, eliciting more loud moans from them both. Stella exhaled a soft laugh. “That feels so good I could cry, Nathan…”
He rested his hands gently on her hips, stilling her. When Stella met his eyes, he asked, “Is your chest okay?”
“What chest?” Stella smiled dreamily right before she sank halfway down on him. She bit her bottom lip and squeezed her internal muscles, sending Nathan dangerously close to the edge.
“You do that again and this is gonna get cut real short,” he gritted out, fingers curling into her hips. Stella shot him another grin before sinking down hard - working him damn near all the way in. “You are so fucking tight, Stella …”
“Mmmm…” Stella closed her eyes and dropped her head again, as she settled into a nice, easy riding rhythm. “And you feel amazing…”
It only took a few thrusts to get him all the way in and, within a few seconds their movements had become rapid and frenzied.
Nathan sat up, wrapped one arm around Stella’s waist and a hand around her neck, pulling her up against him – her legs still kneeling either side of his body.
In response to the quirk of her brow, Nathan muttered, “You were too far away,” before kissing her smiling lips.
Stella slipped her arms beneath his and clutched his chest to her as she continued riding him, hard – their mouths still fused as tightly as their bodies.
But then Stella broke their kiss. “Oh, God, Nathan…” She curled her fingers into his upper back and stared up at him – lips damp and swollen from his kisses and her dark eyes latched onto his. “It feels too good…I’m gonnacome,” she whispered.
Nathan lowered his mouth to her breast and sucked, his hands grabbing her ass as he thrust into her harder. He released her breast, but lapped at the nipple a few times. “Come for me, baby…right now,” he whispered against her wet flesh. “I wanna hear you scream for me.”
Stella sank down on him one last time before crying out, “Nathan!” and shattering – contracting – around him.
Knowing she’d gotten off allowed Nathan to finally let go. With Stella now pressing the most incredible kisses to his neck – her arms still holding him tightly – he grabbed her ass and pulled her against him as he thrust once moreinto her.
Nathan tried to yell her name over and over as he came, but the intensity of his emotions – the almost painful pleasure of coming inside of her again – tightened his throat, strangling the sounds until they were nothing but hard grunts against the crook of her neck.
Nathan wound one arm around her waist, cradling the back of her head with his other hand before pulling her tighter against him. He closed his eyes and inhaled her damp skin, taking her familiar scent deep into his body.
I love you, Stella.
You are my whole world.
Thank you. For everything.
I love you.
As if she’d been able to read his thoughts – which Nathan wasn’t entirely certain wasn’t true - Stella kissed down his neck, nuzzled his chest, and whispered, “I love you, too.”
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