Love At Peace (Hometown Heartstrings #3)

Chapter 17

Heather

“ Y ou,” he emphasized. “I am worried about you , Heather. I have been from the moment I suspected that you’d been abused.”

I shook my head slightly, confused how he’d take what I said that way. I’d just laid out what David was capable of, of what he was doing to Nevaeh. The control and manipulation had already started with his niece. I knew my ex was getting his way with her if she could be such a staunch believer in him and defend him when people wanted to suggest he was a bad influence.

But Roarke wanted to worry about me instead. “Nevaeh needs to know—”

“No.” He squeezed my hand, tugging my fingers so I would fully hold his. “Nevaeh won’t listen to anything I say. Even before she met him, she didn’t. She has never listened to anything I say, and I know now that this isn’t my fault. I can’t change the facts that she will always ignore my guidance. I can’t make her do anything she doesn’t want to do, and if that includes her wanting to be with him despite me telling her not to fall for David’s lies, then that’s her choice. She chose to go with him. Maybe he conned her. Maybe he pulled another trick and set her up, but she is not going to listen to me. I won’t give up on her, but I refuse to keep doing this with her.”

I swallowed hard, hating the truth of what he said. He was right. Nevaeh was too headstrong to listen to Roarke. To anyone.

Except David.

I couldn’t understand the dynamics of that. For such an independent and strong-willed person who didn’t want to listen to anyone, David must have had a hell of an approach and angle to use with her to “win” her over in the first place. He would. He was a determined, sneaky man.

“I am worried about you ,” Roarke repeated. He licked his lips, glancing down and seeming to search for the right words to use next. “I understand a lot more now. Why when I wanted to help you...”

I nodded. “Accepting help was how David got me under his thumb in the first place. He offered to help with that so-called homeless guy threatening me. And he used that as an expectation to hold over me and ensure I’d feel obligated and beholden to him. That was how it all started.”

“I see that now.” He frowned though, scooting forward on his seat to stare at me so intensely. “I realized you were independent from the get-go, but now it makes sense why you would seem so afraid of anyone helping you.” He paused, going still and lowering his gaze for a second. “Fuck. Fuck. When I said you could pay me back. That one day when you...” Running his free hand through his hair, he groaned lightly. “Shit. That’s why you reacted so weird. How I said that about keeping tabs. Or paying back.”

I bit my lip and nodded. “I have a lot of healing to do. A lot of trauma to get over and move past. It’s a lot. When I came home, I wanted to—”

“Lie low and keep to yourself,” he finished for me.

“Yes, so I could start healing from the abuse and trauma. I didn’t intend to even think about a relationship with anyone. I wasn’t ready, and hearing you say that when I was starting to fall for you, it threw me off.” I swallowed hard. “But I’ve been telling myself that you aren’t David. You’re not the same man he is.”

“I will never —” He exhaled a long breath. “No. I’m not David. And I will never abuse you. I would hate myself if I ever hurt you. At all. It broke my heart to hear you crying after we argued.”

Sliding forward on my seat, I wanted to believe him. Hearing his heartfelt words moved me. This longing burning within me was about to sear me if I didn’t act on this draw to him.

“But David’s not here for me anymore...” I frowned, staring at Roarke’s big hand engulfing mine. David used to hold my hand to keep me at his side. With him, it was a control tactic. Seeing my hand in Roarke’s grip was a secure and comforting sight. He would hold me, protect me, and do his best to keep me safe.

I was a fool to ever forget that.

“I don’t care what David’s planning. I’ll be damned if he tries to get you against your will again. Not because I want to be your hero so you’ll be forced to stick with me, but because I care, Heather. I care about you.”

“But you need to worry about Nevaeh now. He’s got her under his thumb.”

I think?

There was no denying that David was up to something with her. But...why did he approach me at Nance’s? If he was moving on to someone else, why continue to harass me?

“I care about you ,” he repeated, so earnest and sincere.

I was touched that he’d put me over his niece. That he’d choose to stand up for me and be my support before he would for his family. Nevaeh sure hadn’t made anything easy for him. She was combative, rude, and selfish. He wasn’t inclined to put all his effort toward helping Nevaeh, but me.

“And I care about you because I want to see you happy and comfortable.” He licked his lips, slanting closer. His body heat reached me, and I was tempted to lean toward him for a deeper whiff of his cologne. To snuggle against him and sigh with that bone-deep sense of security. After those days of pushing him away, I was drugged with this demanding need to feel him close.

“I want you,” he said, lowering his head and letting me see the desire in his eyes from his hooded lids. “I want you in my life, Heather. I want your drama.” He exhaled through his nose as he stared at my lips. “I want...your love.”

Oh, hell.

Love?

He had to go there? He had to mention the one thing I’d always sought but never found?

My parents hadn’t loved me. David didn’t. I’d given up on waiting for it or counting on it, yet, here I was, looking deep into the heated gaze of a man who wanted my love. Of accepting whatever I could give him.

I couldn’t stay away.

I lunged forward, closing the distance between us. Smashing my lips against his, I reveled in the warmth of his mouth on mine, his grunted exhale of surprise. Then the growl of need.

He lifted his hand to cup the back of my head, holding me close. But again, it wasn’t a controlling maneuver. He wasn’t trapping me.

Because he wasn’t David.

Roarke was a man who wanted my love.

Who had no goals of expecting me to be stuck with him.

Hearing those promises flipped a switch in me. Sure, he could be a liar. Maybe he was dishing out sweet nothings and telling me what he thought I wanted to hear so he could get his way.

In the force of his kiss, with the strength of his hand caressing me, I felt the sincerity of what he said.

I kissed him, making up for every minute we were apart. I crawled into his lap and relished his hug, wanting to be greedy and take all he’d offer. And I tugged at my shirt so he could kiss me everywhere.

Because I needed this one more time.

I had to have him again.

Even if it would be a precursor to a goodbye.

I meant it when I said I couldn’t live near David. I had to keep the option of leaving on the table, no matter what Roarke could give me the illusion of. A happily ever after wasn’t in the cards for me. I didn’t know what was. But right now, right here, I was not stopping until we could both experience that soul-deep and gut-wrenching perfection of coming together again.

“I want you,” he growled between panted breaths as he pulled his shirt off. “Because I love you.”

I furrowed my brow, overwhelmed by his admission as I kissed him again. With my arms wrapped around his neck, I held on tight while he stood. He stumbled as he carried me, but we didn’t fall. He didn’t drop me, and I doubted he ever would.

Because he loves me.

It seemed so surreal and too impossible that I could have found it with him.

Love.

I wanted to believe in it. I wanted to explore the magic of it with him.

All I could do instead was cling to him and savor the burning rush of desire coursing through my body. He lowered me to my bed, following me down. Any bare inch of a gap between would be a crime. His hard chest rubbed against the tops of my breasts, but he spared me from the layer blocking his mouth from licking and sucking on my skin there. My hips pushed up against his, seeking the friction of his erection, and I wrangled with getting his pants and boxers off.

It wasn’t graceful. We fell onto the mattress and rolled, frantic and hurrying to remove anything between us.

As soon as I freed his cock, I wrapped my fingers around the hardness and stroked. It was so stiff, so long, and with the drops of pre-cum at the tip, impatient. He was. But I was ravenous for him to fill me.

No more talking. I was done with the nervousness of reliving my past and sharing details about how I was abused and controlled. I was finished hearing him say such lofty things about loving me.

This was pure, uninhibited lust pulling us together. And the second he finished tugging my panties off, smearing some of the cream that had collected on them on my thigh, I parted my legs and hooked my ankles at his back, bringing my entrance toward him.

He braced himself over me, kissing me harder and dueling with my tongue, then pushed in. Plunging all the way in with a solid, unstopping thrust, he stuffed me with his cock.

I groaned, turning my head to gasp for much-needed air. “Fuck. Roarke.”

Only a few days had passed between us, but it felt like too damn long to go without the exquisite burn of being stretched. Of being whole and complete.

“I know, gorgeous. I know. I feel it too.” He drove into me, over and over again, as he dragged his hardness along my inner walls. Sluicing suction sounds reached my ears, and I almost smiled at the feral need we shared. It smelled like sex in here, too.

“Feel what?” I teased as he sucked on my nipple. I squeezed him, reveling in the ability to make him shake this close to coming.

“How...” He sped up, pummeling my pussy. “How right it feels to be with you.”

If only it could be like this forever.

I shoved the thought away, refusing to think at all and let anything stand between me and this orgasm hurtling toward me. Too soon, it was here. All my nerve endings lit up. My heart hammered, racing so fast in my chest at a tempo that rivaled his. He lay on me, blanketing me with his body, and with the thump of his pulse matching mine, he shot his hot cum deep inside me.

I milked him, with wave after wave of pleasure rocketing through me. Trembling and wheezing to catch my breath, I hugged him close and closed my eyes.

It was over too soon.

Beneath the haze of coming so hard, with relief and pleasure sweeping over me, I tried to hold on to this bliss and ignore how I might have to leave him, to leave this, if my past would remain in my present.