22
was being threatened.
23
“Get the hell out of here. Take that skirt chaser with you.”
24
In the background she heard Daisy curse under her breath.
25
“What did you just say?” Sharon’s eyes narrowed.
26
“Mrs. Hurley, please go.”
27
“My son didn’t do anything with that girl. You know it. Deep
S28
down in your heart you know it. He loves you so much, Mary.
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01
Please, just hear him out. I know you’re hurting and embar-
02
rassed. But this reporter, he’s got—”
03
“Mom, let me.” Damien looked at her, really looked at her,
04
so fucking beautiful she couldn’t bear it. “Will you give me a
05
few minutes? Please let me explain?” He held his hands out,
06
empty. Hands that had touched her so many times, never with
07
anything but kindness. With love.
08
The fi ngers pressed over her lips couldn’t stop the sob from
09
escaping.
10
“Mary. Please?”
11
Daisy touched her back and she turned. “What do you think
12
I should do?”
13
“What do you want to do? When Levi came to me that day
14
I . . . I swallowed my pride and I heard him out. And I’m with
15
him. You love him. I think you should listen to what he has to
16
say. If he’s lying, you’ll listen to your gut and you’ll know. But
17
if he’s not.” Daisy hugged her. “Do you want to risk walking
18
away from this love you have? You already have doubts. I can
19
see it. I can hear it. Let him explain and if he’s full of shit, kick 20
him in the dick and be done with it.”
21
Her mother stepped out onto the porch and Sharon took
22
another step closer.
23
“Christ.”
24
“Go. I’ll handle them. I’ll turn the hose on them if they start
25
to rumble.”
26
“Only you could make me laugh today.”
27
She turned to her mother. “Please don’t make the neighbors
28S
call the cops.” Mary kissed her mom’s cheek.
29N
She walked down to where Damien was. “Start talking.”
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He fell into step beside her as they walked. “Do you think
01
they’ll be all right together?” He looked back over his shoulder
02
toward their mothers.
03
“Daisy is going to watch them.”
04
“All right.” He walked at her side, reaching out to take her
05
hand. “Can I touch you?”
06
She needed to hear what he was going to say. And maybe
07
she’d need her hand to punch him with. If he touched her, she’d
08
lose that last little bit of her composure.
09
“No.”
10
He breathed out. “I want to.”
11
“Hm. I want lots of things. Tell me your story.”
12
“I saw the pictures. You know who she is, obviously. But
13
that’s past tense.”
14
“Didn’t look past tense to me with her hand on your ass and
15
her head on your shoulder. Oh, and that cozy little moment in
16
the hotel after the event.”
17
“Okay, so I get that. But that was . . . zwe were on the red
18
carpet.
All
of us. Vaughan and Paddy were right there too. She 19
had on these really high heels and nearly tripped. I stopped her
20
from falling. That’s all. She didn’t touch my ass. It just looks
21
that way from the angle.”
22
She sighed.
23
“Mary, I love you. You. Not Elisa. If I wanted her, I could
24
have been with her three years ago. Or a week ago in New York.
25
There’s one woman I want in my bed. One. You. Mary Whaley,
26
curly- haired goddess of the kitchen. Dirty talking, horny, cock
27
hungry, beautiful, beautiful woman. Mine.”
S28
He turned to her and she sucked in a breath. They stood
N29
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Lauren Dane
01
face-to-face in her yard. He was close enough that she could
02
smell his cologne. That she could see the dark circles under his
03
eyes, the curve of his bottom lip.
04
“After the event we all went out to dinner and then back to
05
the hotel. She was in the lobby as I passed through. Right before
06
I went straight upstairs to call you. Alone. I did not cheat on you.
07
I would not cheat on you. If I wanted to be with another woman,
08
I’d break up with you. I have fl aws, but I’m not an asshole. I
09
respect you and I am not so shallow that I think with my dick.
10
“People will try to hurt me through you. I’m sorry about
11
that. I’m sorry if what I was before gives you reason to not trust
12
me now. I’ve never been someone to look back with regret. But
13
that anything I did before you, anything that makes you cry this
14
way . . . ” He shook his head, at a loss for words for long
15
moments. “I’m so fucking sorry. It kills me to see you like this.”
16
She kept looking at him. Panicked. Desperate. So in love she
17
didn’t know what to do, so she just froze.
18
“Say something.”
19
She was so sad it broke his heart. He was the reason for it.
20
He itched to touch her but he wasn’t sure if he should. Wasn’t
21
sure if she was open to it.
22
“I don’t know what to say.” Her voice was hoarse. Anger
23
and fear threaded it, and that need to touch her, to comfort,
24
roared through him.
25
“Say you love me.”
26
“I love you.”
27
He took a step closer and she didn’t move away.
28S
“Say you believe me.”
29N
“I don’t know.”
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He took a risk, reaching out to touch her hair. “You don’t?
01
Since the fi rst time I met you have I lied to you? About anything?
02
I wanted more from you fi rst, remember? Then I took it at your
03
pace. I respected that you didn’t trust me. I proved myself to
04
you, Mary. I respected what you wanted. I gave you what you
05
needed and I have never swayed from that. I wanted to be your
06
man and I’ve been your man. Sometimes I have to travel but I
07
can take you with me if that’s what it takes. I will keep you at
08
my side every moment because I want you there. Tell me what
09
it is you need and I’ll give it to you.”
10
He took her shoulders gently, pulling her closer. “I. Love.
11
You. I want to make you happy. Let me. Don’t let this bullshit
12
rip us apart. My brothers were there; they’ll talk to you. Hell,
13
lots of people were there if you want to talk to them.”
14
“We can’t be together if I can’t trust you. I can’t be with you
15
every minute of the day. I can’t travel with you on every trip.
16
I’m not your dick’s babysitter. I don’t want to be. I have a life.
17
You’re part of it, but you’re not all of it. I want to live with the 18
man I love, not through him or for him. How can you want that
19
either? How can you want to have to be with me every second?
20
I’d hate it if you didn’t trust me.”
21
“I want to be with you, goddamnit. I’ll take you however I
22
can get you.”
23
“I would never do that to you. If we’re together, I have to be
24
able to know, in my bones, that you would not betray me. Don’t
25
you want to believe that about me?”
26
He thought about that picture of her and Daisy from that
27
night they’d gone out. About the panic he’d felt at how beauti-
S28
ful she’d looked. How he’d known she’d have been hit on.
N29
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01
“You sent me pictures. Remember? From the night you went
02
dancing.”
03
She nodded.
04
“I looked at them and the fi rst thing I thought was,
Holy
05
shit, my woman is fucking hot.
And then I thought,
Holy shit,
06
my woman is fucking hot! Men will know this. They will want
07
her.
I panicked for a moment. It sucked. I never felt like that 08
before.”
09
“I don’t recommend jealousy as an emotion.”
10
He couldn’t help it. She was so cranky when she said it, he had
11
to smile. “I’ve felt it about record deals. I’ve felt it over cars.
12
Houses. But I’ve never felt it over a woman until you. I never wor-
13
ried about losing a woman. Until you. You are it for me. Please
14
believe me.”
15
Since the fi rst moment he’d laid eyes on her he’d considered
16
her strong. But he had felled her. He could see it. Had heard it
17
in her voice. He’d made her vulnerable and that had sent her
18
reeling.
19
Pride warred with fear. Oh, his Mary, she was self- assured.
20
As self- assured as he was in so many ways, which is why they
21
fi t so well. But love was different. He hadn’t known it either.
22
“Love makes you strong.” He leaned in, brushing a kiss
23
against her temple, breathing her in. His panic at losing her
24
began to edge back so his hands had stopped shaking. “But it
25
makes you weak too. Not in the way you think when you’re not
26
in it, of course. But you know what I mean. Now you do, am I
27
right? Because you make me weak. In the knees. You make my
28S
heart beat faster. You make my head hurt with the very idea of
29N
having to leave here today without you.”
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She drew in a shaky breath and then reached out, hooking
01
a fi nger through his belt loop and holding on.
02
“From now on, when you have a fear, or a question, even if
03
things
look
really bad, please let me explain.” He hugged her 04
to his body, slowly, to give her a chance to back away— and he’d
05
never done anything harder. She sighed, going soft in his arms
06
and their connection, which had gone thin and pale, snapped
07
back into place.
08
“No more pictures with hot panty models.”
09
“I didn’t take them on purpose.”
10
She growled.
11
“You want me to let her fall next time?”
12
“Yes! Did you not see her facial expression? That was way
13
more than ‘thanks for helping me.’ God!”
14
He hugged tighter before she got wound up again. “Ezra said
15
the same thing.”
16
“Hm.”
17
“I’m sorry I hurt you. No matter how inadvertent. I never
18
wanted my job to hurt you this way.” Tears crept into his voice
19
and she hugged him tighter right back.
20
“I’m sorry I hurt you too.”
21
“Damn, how’d I get so lucky?”
22
“I don’t know.”
23
He snorted, pivoting to tuck her against his side, where she
24
fi t perfectly and always had. Always would.
25
Their mothers had some intense back- and- forth going on.
26
Daisy stood on the porch watching both them and Mary and
27
Damien. She blew Mary a kiss.
S28
“You think they’ll be all right?”
N29
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01