Hold On
Series: The ‘Burg #6
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Author: Kristen Ashley
Release Date: September 1, 2015
Since she was young, Cher Rivers knew she was not the kind of girl who got what she wanted. A girl who could hope. A girl who could dream. She knew a happily ever after just wasn’t in the cards for her.
In love for years with the last bastion of the ‘burg’s eligible bachelors, Garrett Merrick, Cher worked hard at making him laugh. Being one of the guys. Having him in her life the only way she could. All this knowing he was in love with another woman.
The Merrick Family is known for loving deep. So when Cecelia Merrick was murdered, it marked the Merricks in a way none of them recovered. Both Cecelia’s children found love. Both turned their backs on it. But Garrett “Merry” Merrick knew in his soul the woman he divorced years ago was the one for him.
Until the night when Cher took Garrett’s back and things changed. The Merrick family loves deep. They also protect fiercely. And with his eyes finally open, Garrett sees the woman who truly is for him and he goes after her.
Through this, my leg hit an end table and I adjusted. We cleared the couch, I shifted again too soon, both my calves hit the coffee table, and my ass went down on it.
I looked up. Cell flat to the table, I braced my hands to push up, but Merry was there, chin in his throat, eyes on me, and when he spoke again, his mind was clearly on my location.
“Tried to get your mouth on me more than once when we tore at each other up last Friday, but I was in the mood to use mine. Lookin’ forward to learnin’ what you can do with yours, but like I said, baby, right now, don’t got the time.”
My only response that he couldn’t twist was to glare at him, which was what I did.
“But got time before I go for a kiss,” Merry informed me.
“Only kiss I’ll give you is tellin’ you to kiss off,” I informed him.
“Who knew warm brown eyes like the ones you got could spark that kind of fire,” he muttered as if he wasn’t even talking to me.
“Step back,” I demanded.
“No,” he denied.
I continued to glare up at him, then I realized I was not the kind of woman who sat on her ass, glaring up at a man towering over her and pinning her in. So I stood, which put me smack in Merry’s space, my breasts brushing against his abs and up his chest on my way.
They kept brushing when he didn’t move back, but I didn’t attempt escape, even to get away from the shafts of electricity this all caused at my nipples, shafts that headed south.
I glared at him from closer.
He stared into my eyes, his gaze moving down to my mouth then back up as one side of his lips curved.
He was getting off on this.
I didn’t get that and I didn’t want to get that.
I wanted this done.
“In the mood to play, Officer?” I whispered.
“Told you, sweetheart, don’t got the time.”
I shook my head but held his gaze. “Not what I mean. Single mom, all alone. Switch out her storms. Offer info to help her out of a jam. Been a while since I was in the know about these things, so tell me, what’s the price for all that? You mentioned a blowjob. You got stamina, but I got talent. Balance that out, I’m thinkin’ it’ll take more than the usual ten, fifteen minutes. We’ll give it twenty. So I can manage my time, is there more?”
I wasn’t even done talking before I learned his eyes could spark fire too.
I also learned he was in the mood to play, that being, playing me at my own game.
And doing it better.
He dipped his face close, his voice low. “Storms get me the blowjob, brown eyes. I get the intel you need, that buys me sinkin’ deep in wet pussy.”
I felt my nipples get harder at the same time something else happened to me that, if he was of a mind to take his payoff right then, he’d get what he wanted.
I hid this reaction and asked, “You want this all in one go, or you wanna spread payback out for a while?”
“Keep plenty of time open, Cher. I intend to earn a fuckuva lot more and draw it out collecting.”
I nodded, still keeping a lock on his eyes. “I get it. Girl like me, only payback expected for me to be able to give.”
That didn’t get me fire.
That got me ice.
“I hear you talk down about yourself one more time, Cher, shit will get extreme.”
That made me ice over.
“Do not hand me that crap, Merry. You come into my home and got no problem talkin’ about wet pussy right to my face tells me the woman you know me to be.”
He dipped his face even closer, to the point it felt like if I blinked, my lashes would sweep his in a butterfly kiss.
“Do not hand me your shit, Cher,” he growled. “That hang-up is yours, not mine. And how I know that is I made you come just finger fuckin’ you and talkin’ dirty in your ear, and it was the talk and not what my fingers were doin’ that took you there. I like that, a woman who can let go and let me give her that without gettin’ uptight and closin’ down on me. You liked it too, a fuckuva lot more than me. So don’t stand there handin’ me your shit when I know you’re wet for me now and I haven’t fuckin’ touched you.”
I refused to reply to that because he was right and I had no intention of confirming that information.
But it was then he hit me with a verbal blow, the intensity of which, not in my whole shitty-ass life I’d ever received.
“Christ, if I didn’t know you were worth it, I’d walk out the door and this would be done—all we got, over.”
I could stand.
I could stare.
But I couldn’t breathe.
Merry could.
He could also speak.
“Hope like fuck no one takes off with those storms while I’m gone. You think they will, move ’em into garage and leave the key under the mat. I’m switchin’ ’em out, Cher. I come back tonight and they’re done, I’ll find you, and I won’t be collectin’. I’ll be dishin’ it out, but you won’t get it until you beg for it and do that shit for a really long time.”
His words were lost on me.
I continued to stand.
I continued to stare.
But my lungs had started burning.
If I didn’t know you were worth it…
“When’s Ethan’s next sleepover?” Merry bit out.
“Friday,” I whispered. “But his friend’s comin’ here.”
“Fuck,” Merry clipped. “Find a time, babe. You don’t, payback’ll stack up and I’ll have to take personal days and hole up in a hotel with you for a week. And there’s not a doubt that stick-up-her-ass church lady your ex tied his shit to won’t appreciate you bein’ gone from your kid for a weeklong fuckathon.”
That was kind of funny as well as hot.
I still said nothing.
Merry fell silent and stared at me.
Then he dealt the second biggest verbal blow I’d ever received in my life.
“Christ, you’re pretty, even standin’ there plotting my murder.”
After that, he lifted a hand, grabbed me gentle but firm at my neck, yanked me up so my mouth hit his hard but brief, then he let me go.
“Later, babe,” he said, strolling to my door. He stopped in it, turned to me, and bid his farewell by saying, “You touch those storms only to put them in the garage.”
He closed the door on that.
I stood where he left me.
If I didn’t know you were worth it…
What was I worth?
What was I worth to Merry?
It happens. For people like us, baby. It happens, eventually. Just as long as we hold on.
What an incredibly bittersweet book this was for me to read. I first discovered this amazing series back in 2012 when I read For You. And I’ve been wanting and slowly dying for Merry’s book ever since. He’s been through a hell of a lot throughout the entire series and all of it finally truly coming to a head in Golden Trail. I had always assumed when I read those books that he would end up with his ex, but after finishing Hold On, I can’t be happier with the direction that the fabulous Kristen Ashley took it. I adored absolutely every single page.
Now if you’ve read the entire series, I’m sure there one huge question on your minds which I’d like to answer for you right now. Yes, Cher’s boobs are indeed real. Alright then. Moving on…
If there’s one thing I learned is that expectations are the bane of my existence. i built them up so high for some characters, only to be let down. But I can honestly tell you that Merry was everything I had hoped he would be and so much more. As a matter of fact, I’d go so far as to say that he’s not my second favorite in this series right after Joe. That’s high praise, people, because it simply doesn’t get any better than Joe. I loved everything about this man; his stubbornness, his protectiveness, his possessiveness, and his all around KA alpha male-ness. *swoon*
The romance between him and Cher is a slow build filled with plenty of bumps along the way, but when both the MCs are as endearing as these two, I didn’t even mind the bumps. Sure they have their moments where you want to knock some sense into them, but at the same time they stay true to themselves so it’s hard to judge.
Cher is one of those KA heroines that was impossible not to like. To be honest, I didn’t feel one way or another for her throughout the series. I wasn’t sure what to make of her. She’s a wild child and I was almost afraid she’d be borderline brash in her own book, but that was simply not the case. Kristen Ashley managed to endear her to readers so completely, you can’t imagine not liking her. She’s an amazing mother and while she has her hangups with men for very good reasons, she’s not a doormat. This is a woman that has her own breed of strength and she uses it to go to bat for her family. I loved that about her. I also loved how vulnerable she was when it came to Merry.
Being a victim of that psycho Danny, she certainly has her demons and emotional scars a’plenty. That doesn’t simply disappear when her and Merry get together. But watching her heal Merry’s wounds for him in turn to heal hers was easily one of my favorite things about this book.
You know how I was sure I had a 5 star read on my hands? I didn’t skim even one page. Not. A. One. Not any of the descriptions of the clothes, the furniture, the rooms, the clouds in the sky, nothing. I was enthralled in the characters and their romance from beginning to end and absolutely devoured every page.
I cannot picture a better book to end this amazing series with. If you were slightly disappointed with Frankie and Benny’s book like I was, this book will more than make up for it. Trust me. If you’re thinking of reading this as a standalone, don’t. I mean, you can definitely do so, but you’ll be missing out on the development of both these characters’ stories and why would you want to do that anyway?
That brings me to my final point: The epilogue. Hands down. Bar none. THE best epilogue KA has ever written. Period. And I’ve read practically her entire backlist so me saying that says a lot. I cried like a lunatic. Tears of joy. It was so incredibly perfect. Beautiful. Emotional. Ugh. Just…GAH. The most wonderful way to close the final pages on the characters I’ve slowly fallen in love with through the years. It was that perfect cherry on top and I simply adored it.
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