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  Again for the First Time

  By Raven St. Pierre

  Again for the First Time

  © December 2014, Raven St. Pierre

  Cover design by Raven St. Pierre

  This book contains strong sexual themes and content not suitable for persons under the age of 18. This work is a work of fiction. All names, characters, locations, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination, or have been used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead, locales, or events is entirely coincidental. No part of this e-book may be reproduced or shared by any electronic or mechanical means, including, but not limited to printing, file sharing, and email, without prior written permission from Raven St. Pierre.

  This e-book is licensed for personal enjoyment only. This e-book may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person you share it with. If you are reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then you should purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the author’s work.

  Synopsis

  “Marry me” were the last words Luke thought he’d say to a perfect stranger. Then again, Lissette never dreamed she’d actually say “yes”.

  But she did…

  The odds are against them from the start of their less than conventional marriage, but the couple quickly realizes that their newfound love is absolutely worth the risk.

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  Preface

  Lissette James

  My fingers trailed over my grandmother’s careful penmanship as I revisited one of the many letters she’d written to Benny. It was mentioned once that the morning they met, she awoke to find a red rose petal in the middle of her bedroom floor. At the time she lived alone in a small apartment downtown, so she never figured out where the petal came from, but she believed it was an omen. In a matter of hours, her path had crossed Benny’s and the rest was history. Soon they fell in love and she described it as making no sense and perfect sense all at the same time.

  I wanted that.

  I wanted to find ‘the one’.

  They never had the chance to live out their love story in its entirety. Grandma’s experience, her unfinished business, had impacted more than just her own love life. There were side effects that seeped down through two generations of women—from her, to my mother, then to my sisters and I. It’d been the underlying cause of break-ups, make-ups, and second chances that weren’t always deserved. It was sometimes our reason for hanging on and at other times, our excuse for letting go.

  The fact that this love had been suffocated to death was nothing short of tragic. A waste. The thought of it made me teary. I’d never let that happen to me. I’d never love a man, have him love me back, only to later be convinced that what we felt was wrong. My grandmother spoke of this relationship often for a reason. She wanted her granddaughters to learn from it. I believe she needed something positive to come of her heartbreak. For that reason, we were instructed to listen with our hearts and to let them lead even if it didn’t always make sense.

  My grandmother was a lot like me. She too believed a higher power guided her steps by way of leaving proverbial cookie crumbs to follow—like my fortune, for instance. Most would assume it was a meaningless piece of paper with a generic message printed at random, but for all I knew it was a sign–the sign that led me right to this very moment.

  Led me right to him.

  Chapter One

  Luke

  Two weeks. That’s all the time Nick, my oldest brother, had left before he’d be trading in the single life for a wedding band. He was starting to realize just how heavy that ring would be. It carried more weight than just the few ounces of gold he’d have on his finger. The responsibility, the accountability, the pressure—it was all getting to him. For the past couple months he’d walked around in a fog of fear and disbelief. Yet, here we were, the final fitting for our tuxes.

  He emerged from his fitting room and stood between me and our youngest brother, Matt, looking like he’d just sold his soul to the devil.

  Actually… I’d bet money that’s exactly how he felt.

  “Well, it’s official, fellas. These are the duds I’ll be wearing on the day my life ends.” The look of dread on Nick’s face was priceless as he assessed himself in the mirror.

  I straightened the hem of my sleeve while responding. “Stop it. You and Mel are meant for each other.”

  Nick let out a heavy breath and didn’t bother trying to hide his anxiety. “Yeah, maybe for now.”

  I laughed out loud. Couldn’t help it. “If you’re not sure this is what you want, please explain why Dad shelled out all that cash to buy, not rent, but buy us these tuxes.”

  Nick shrugged. “I don’t know. Because he insisted?” He stopped fidgeting with his jacket and just stared at his reflection. “Marriage is so... final,” he concluded, cringing a little at the concept.

  Again, I laughed. “Hence the whole ‘til death do us part’ bit the minister has you recite.”

  He glared at me through the mirror’s reflection. “Well look who’s giving relationship advice.” His snide tone wasn’t lost on me, but I shrugged it off.

  “Technically,” Matt chimed in, deciding to defend me when I didn’t bother to do so myself. “…Luke’s situation isn’t his fault. Cat had to choose between him and her career. Luke lost,” he reasoned, although his facts and his point of view were a bit skewed. My ex leaving was far more complicated than simply making a decision to chase her dream. However, that would have to be a conversation for another day. I didn’t want to talk about her or our past together.

  Nick laughed. “Nice save, Matty.”

  “Luke could date more, he’s just selective,” Matt added. I looked at Nick from the corner of my eye, waiting for the inevitable underhanded comeback.

  “Yeah… and look how well that’s working out,” he mumbled.

  I felt myself getting heated, but didn’t want to make a scene in the shop. Still, he needed to be put in his place. “You’re right, Nick,” I stated calmly, not making eye contact as I secured one of my cufflinks. “I should just settle… like you did with Mel.”

  The punch that stung the side of my arm didn’t surprise me. I almost lost my footing, mostly because I was laughing so hard I could hardly breathe.

  “Knock it off before the lady puts us out,” Matt warned without moving his lips, flashing the elderly woman who’d done our alterations that boyish smile of his. It’d gotten him out of more than a few jams over the years. When the lady simply blushed and shook her head at us, it was clear it worked this time, too.

  “Whatever, man. We’re done here anyway,” Nick announced, retreating to his dressing room with tense shoulders. My comment had clearly gotten under his skin like I intended for it to.

  Matt continued to stand beside me in our matching formal attire, grinning hard when he spoke. �
�Not bad, huh, pretty boy?” He straightened his sleek, black jacket and continued to check himself out.

  I eyed him while adjusting the lapel of my tux in the mirror. A smirk tugged at the corner of my mouth as I gave lil’ bro’s reflection a onceover. From the neck down? He looked like a distinguished gentleman if I’d ever seen one. From the neck up? Jobless surfer, which couldn’t have been further from the truth. His disheveled, brown hair was just about resting on his shoulders and he hadn’t shaved in weeks, taking away from the fact that he was actually a well-respected, up-and-coming filmmaker. According to him, though, he’d never cut his hair because, and I quote, ‘The ladies LOVE it.’

  “Find a date yet?” was Matt’s next question. “Or will the old ball and chain be flying back to the States for the nuptials?”

  At the mention of ‘the old ball and chain’, my ex, I paused with both hands on the ends of my bowtie. “I’m going solo. And no, according to Nick, she’s not coming. I haven’t talked to her myself, so...”

  Matt breathed deep. “Good for you—for the whole ‘going solo’ thing. There should be plenty of chicks there anyway.”

  I shook my head and laughed a little. “What about you? Taking anybody?”

  He shot me a look that said it all. “Hell no! Did you hear me? Chicks, dude. Lots of ‘em.”

  Same old Matt.

  I changed, put my tux back in the garment bag, and then made my way to the register with it slung over my shoulder.

  “All right, sweetheart,” the woman said as she looked through the sales slips from our alterations. “Which Valente are you? Matteo, Nicolai, or Lucca?” she asked.

  My brothers approached the register at the exact moment she spoke our full names aloud. The three of us winced in unison at the sound of it.

  “Lucca,” I repeated dryly.

  “Matteo,” Matt said with a grimace, lifting a finger into the air.

  With a deep breath, Nick chimed in, too. “That’d make me Nicolai.”

  The woman smiled and pecked away at the register. My total came up and I handed over my credit card to cover the adjustments made to the tux. Nick and Matt did the same when I was done, and then we headed across the street to grab lunch.

  “So, for real,” Matt started, looking up at Nick across the table when he asked, “You nervous? I mean, you’re about to be someone’s husband in what… fourteen days?” Stuffing a few fries in his mouth, Matt chuffed a short laugh. “That’s gotta be a bit of a mind-trip, man.”

  Nick set his beer down and zoned out. “A mind-trip. Yeah… that’s one way to put it.”

  Even if he hadn’t admitted to his anxiety, it was written all over his face. After a three- year long engagement, Matt and I had a feeling the only reason Nick had actually moved forward with setting a wedding date this year was because Mel gave him an ultimatum – either marry her or hit the bricks. Would he ever admit that? Hell no—his pride wouldn’t let him. However, the look of sheer terror on his face made it clear that he wasn’t anywhere near ready to walk down the aisle.

  “So…” Matt clasped his hands together loudly, dragging me from my thoughts. “I’ve been waiting ‘til I had you both together to tell you guys my good news.” The huge grin on his face had me curious.

  Nick and I both stared.

  “Now, before you call me crazy, hear me out.” Matt leaned in on his elbows and still couldn’t stop smiling. “I’ve been watching these social experiments on YouTube that got me thinking.”

  Nick rolled his eyes. “Here we go.”

  My brow lifted. “Social experiments?”

  “These people go out and ask perfect strangers some of the craziest questions you can think of and get their honest reactions on film,” he said without letting our skepticism affect him. “Like, this one guy, he went out and asked 100 women to have sex with him—no introduction, no explanation. Just walked up to these completely random chicks and basically asked, ‘Your place or mine?’”

  Feeling this conversation getting ready to go in a very strange direction, I nodded but continued to eat without saying a word.

  “That’s lame,” Nick blurted without hesitation as I stifled a laugh by biting into my burger.

  Matt waved him off and leaned back in his seat. “The point was to find out, of the one hundred women, would at least one say yes?”

  Surprisingly Nick was silent now, too.

  “So, this video got me to thinking, right?” Matt continued. “What would happen if I put my own spin on this? Kept filming long after the woman says ‘yes’.”

  Nick nearly choked on his drink. “Dude… that’s called porn!”

  Matt rolled his eyes and waited for the laughter at our table to cease. “Nice, dickhead. Real nice.”

  I put my hand on his shoulder and tried to speak. “Matty, we’re not laughing at you—”

  “Like hell we’re not,” Nick interrupted.

  “Well, I’m not laughing at you,” I clarified. “But seriously, you’re considering this? I mean, people respect your work. Don’t you think this film could give them the wrong idea about—”

  Matt shook his head and cut me off. “If you guys had let me finish, I was gonna say that I’m going in a different direction. ‘Sleep with me’ wasn’t quite the question I had in mind for this particular project.” He ran his fingers through his surfer-boy hair and smirked.

  Nick was done entertaining the conversation and was again focused on his meal. Despite the warning signal in my head, I asked, “What would the question be then?”

  Matt’s smile spread across his face. He tipped his beer in the air and took a generous swig first. The second the bottle touched the table again he blurted his response.

  “Marry me…”

  Crickets.

  Neither Nick nor I had a thing to say. I pictured Matt pissing away his potentially explosive career with this one, idiotic idea. However, he was glancing back and forth between Nick and I, waiting for a response. As the youngest, he’d always looked to the two of us for our approval. I had to say something.

  “Sooo… you’re expecting some guy to… um—”

  “—Sacrifice his precious, precious freedom for your documentary?” Nick added bitterly before taking another drink.

  This guy really isn’t marriage material, I thought to myself, eventually turning back to Matt. “I wouldn’t quite put it like Nick just did, but… yeah. I mean, it’s gonna be hard enough to find a woman to get on board, but you’ll never find a guy crazy enough to go along with this.”

  Matt’s silence was the first clue that he was up to something. We’d shared an apartment since he finished college two years ago, but before that, we’d shared a bedroom practically our whole lives. My point is, no one knew him or that look, better than I did.

  He toyed with his empty beer bottle and kept his eyes on me. “I don’t need a crazy guy,” he smirked. “…I just need my brothers.”

  I was already shaking my head. “No… nope. Not gonna happen.”

  Nick leveled a finger at Matt. “And you said ‘brothers’…plural. I know I heard that.”

  Matt nodded once, his confidence never waning. “I did; you heard right.”

  Nick was shaking his head in protest just like I was.

  “Okay, so here’s the idea in full. I wanna chronicle the lives of a married couple who dated awhile before taking the plunge, versus a married couple who are virtually total strangers, and see what happens.” Matt had this wild look of excitement in his eyes when he finished speaking. “And my theory? The strangers are gonna be happier.”

  “How do you figure that?” Nick asked, frowning.

  “I mean, think about it,” Matt rationalized. “The beginning part of the relationship is the best, right? You’re both excited about how you’re feeling about one another; it’s all about impressing each other; everything’s new! It makes perfect sense,” he reasoned.

  I wiped my mouth with my napkin. “So pretty much, your experiment is just gonna delay the in
evitable. Eventually both couples will end up getting tired of each other and being miserable.” I turned to Nick and added a quick, “No offense.”

  “None taken.”

  Matt shook his head and sighed. “No. I mean… well, maybe. But if you ask me, the odds are in the strangers’ favor.”

  I chuckled and went back to eating, looking up again when I felt Matt staring. “Why’re you looking at me like that?”

  “Scared?” He asked.

  “Nope. Sane,” I retorted. “It’d never work.”

  “Which part?”

  “Any of it!” Nick answered for me. “No girl in her right mind would ever accept a marriage proposal from a total stranger. And even if she did, it still would never work.”

  Matt shrugged with a smug grin on his face. “Humor me. Luke, ask one hundred women to marry you. If none of them accept, you’re off the hook. And if one does, we’ve got ourselves a movie. Who knows? We could all get rich off this!”

  I perked up at the mention of a cash payout. Unfortunately, money was something I didn’t have a whole lot of… and needed a whole lot of to take care of the debt that’d been following me. Still, though, I quickly dismissed the idea of accepting Matt’s offer; this whole thing was just too farfetched. Shaking my head, I laughed again. “Whatever, man.”

  He looked toward Nick. “What about you? You in?”

  “No way. I don’t want you snoopin’ through my house, or my life,” Nick replied.

  Matt turned to me again. “Just think about it. You could meet the girl of your dreams, Luke. All it takes is a little faith,” he grinned. “And you don’t think anyone will say yes anyway. So… what’ve you got to lose?”

  Famous last words.

  “If it doesn’t work out, I’ve got a plan B; wouldn’t have to bother you again,” he added.

  I stared at him and then looked at Nick who put his hands up like he was out of it.