Revel (Second Chance Romance #1) (5 page)

Declan stood up and offered her his hand, “Let’s Feliz Cumpleaños the night away, Charlotte. I’d love to hear more about the woman who raised my friend.”

She was hesitant to take his hand. She felt like enjoying this day wasn’t right, that she should be in mourning.

But the look in his eyes and the swell in her heart made her think it was the right thing to do. Her mother had always said she wanted her girls to be happy. Above all else.

And nothing, at this moment, made her happier than Declan DeGraff.

Declan was relieved to see Bree Lakes leave. She was a lot of high maintenance energy that he just wasn’t in the mood for at the moment.

As soon as she’d mentioned his mother, he’d frozen. The people closest to him knew that the topic of Anna DeGraff was off limits. He’d cut people out of his life that reminded him too much of her, save for his father. Whether they liked it or not, Henry and Declan were stuck with one another, and their pain at her absence was identically acute.

It's why he’d avoided Charleston for so long. It wasn’t only because everything about this city reminded him of Charlotte and what he’d lost in letting her go. But this city was his mother. From the marshes, to King Street, to the Battery, to Angel Oak, to the bells chiming at St. Michael’s, all of it was her. She was a ghost Declan had never been able to deal with.

So he’d fled. Transferred out of the College of Charleston and moved clear across the country. Finished up at Stanford. Formed a start-up on his own and made billions of dollars when he sold it.

But none of it made him forget. At the end of the day, it was just a distraction.

********

Once Bree was gone, he took in his surroundings. He’d brought some furniture with him from Palo Alto, but not much. He’d need to go out to Mount Pleasant tomorrow and see about hiring an interior designer to spruce up the place. It wasn’t something he was interested in doing. He would rather just throw money at the problem and have it fixed.

He’d talked to his father’s new nurse earlier that morning. Henry DeGraff was still pissed off to be dying and Declan couldn’t blame him. It was a shitty way to go. He’d promised the nurse he’d be over later today to visit; possibly have a conversation with his father that didn’t end in an argument.

But, for now, he needed some fresh air and sunshine. The sound of the Atlantic beckoned him to come out and rest a while. Declan thought jumping in and having a swim might be a good way to start the day.

He stepped out onto the back porch to take in his surroundings. He could see a woman was already laying out on the sand. She had on a black bikini and was flipping through a magazine as she lounged on a beach towel.

Not a bad view
, he thought.
Not a bad view at all.

Charlotte’s least favorite shift of all the shifts she had to work at Dixie Garden was definitely Sunday brunch.

Charleston’s finest came out in their Lily Pulitzer dresses, Tory Burch flats, and Chanel handbags. The women gossiped over pimento cheese sandwiches and she-crab soup that they never touched, all while demanding constant refills of water and sweet tea.

And none of them tipped for shit.

Charlotte dreaded it every week. And on this particular Sunday, she was reminded of why.

Saylor Embers and her coven of southern bitches were seated at one of her tables. As soon as they saw she was their server, the hell began.

“Oh, well, look who it is!” Saylor cooed. “It’s little Miss Ho Bag. How’s it going? Don’t you look adorable in that little apron? It really hides your flaws well!” She smiled and the girls around her chortled at her audacity.

Charlotte ignored the insult, “Good morning. What can I get y’all to drink?”

“Water. Unlike some, we don’t drink our calories. And we prefer it bottled,” Saylor said. “Who knows what you’d do to it.”

“Got it,” Charlotte said. “I’ll bring you bottled water. Did you want an appetizer?”

Saylor rolled her eyes, “No. But I wouldn’t mind a different waitress. I prefer not be served by someone who’s fucking my boyfriend.”

Charlotte’s hands started to shake, “I’m not sleeping with him. And I’m completely capable of serving you whatever you need.”

“Are you ‘capable’? How lovely. Couldn’t a trained monkey serve us sandwiches? I mean, seriously. What are you even doing here? You realize everyone thinks you’re a joke, right? And a whore? Because when you receive something like rent in exchange for sexual favors, that’s what you become. A nasty prostitute. I don’t want you touching my food. Can I see your manager? Maybe they’re not aware what kind of girl they hired. There must be plenty of other trailer trash bitches vying for a spot at this place.”

Charlotte couldn’t take it anymore. She dropped the notepad she took orders on and quickly ran from the dining area and back to the break room. She couldn’t let them see her cry.

She wouldn’t give them the satisfaction of that.

********

That night she’d thought long and hard about what she was trying to prove by staying in a town that seemed to want nothing to do with her.

Charlotte missed her little sister. She missed her friends; hell, she missed having friends. The only friend she had here in Charleston was Declan.

She even missed her father. And as much as it pained her to come crawling back, she wondered if maybe it was better that way. Charleston just didn’t seem to love her the way she loved it.

That night she’d told Declan how she felt.

“So you’re thinking of moving back home?” Declan asked. “Why?”

“It would be too hard for you to understand,” Charlotte said, trying her best not to cry in front of him. “You don’t know what it’s like.”

Declan sighed, “You could at least try me. It’s kind of presumptive of you to assume I wouldn’t know what it’s like to feel a certain way.”

Charlotte rolled her eyes, “Declan. I am living in your carriage house. The fact that your family even has a carriage house automatically precludes you from being able to relate to most people outside of your social circle.”

Declan was annoyed now, “Just because my family has money doesn’t automatically disqualify me from having pain in my life, Charlotte. And the fact that you think it does shows how little you know about the world and how it works.”

Charlotte stood, “You’re so condescending sometimes!” She started to walk away.

“Where are you going?” he asked.

“To bed. I’m tired. I’m so fucking tired,” she said, and then it couldn’t be helped. The tears came, like a wave that couldn’t be stopped, and she was suddenly crying, the kind of crying filled with gasps and sobs and wails. It was a cry from deep within her soul, one she’d been holding in since she was thirteen years old.

“Charlotte…” Declan went to her then, not caring what had been said or how it might look tomorrow. He reached out and pulled her into his arms, her sobs vibrating against his chest, her tears soaking into the front of his button down.

“I can’t take it anymore, Declan,” she cried. “This city hates me. I don’t look like anyone here, nor can I afford to. I don’t come from a family that’s lived here for 400 years, I don’t even own a decent car. I’m not in a sorority, I have to work at a place that serves the very girls that laugh at me on a daily basis, and I’m expected to do it all with a smile on my face.” She pulled back and wiped her tears from her beautiful eyes. “I’m tired of pretending to be happy. I’m tired of sticking it out just to prove I can.”

Declan stared at her, his heart breaking at the sound of her anguish and rage stirring in his heart thinking about anyone hurting her.

“I didn’t know,” he said. “Who would ever laugh at you?”

Charlotte sniffed, “If you must know… Saylor, your girlfriend. She’s one of the worst. She called me trailer trash. I’ve never even been inside of a trailer, and even if I had, does that automatically make me a terrible person?” Charlotte started crying again. “And my ex-roommate, Allyn. She comes into Dixie Garden all the time and ignores me completely. Acts like we didn’t live together for 9 months. Unless she’s alone, then she’ll acknowledge me half-heartedly.”

Declan was furious, “Charlotte, Saylor is not my girlfriend. I’d never want to be with someone who was such a heinous bitch. And Allyn Legare is a phony, she always has been.” Declan pulled Charlotte toward him again. “You’re beautiful, smart, and really funny. You’re original, and full of life, and sexier than any girl on the peninsula. They’re jealous as fuck, Charlotte. They know that they’re nothing special and that they probably never will be because they don’t have the courage to be anything other than what everyone expects them to be.” He took her chin in his hand and pointed her face up at him. “I’d feel sorry for them if they weren’t such assholes.”

Charlotte’s lips had never looked so good. God, he wanted to kiss her. He’d wanted to kiss her since the second he saw her, but seeing her like this made him want to even more, to show her she wasn’t any of the things she herself as.

For just a moment he wanted her to see herself through his eyes.

“You really think I’m beautiful?” Charlotte asked, her eyes wide now.

“I know it,” he said, and that’s when he took his moment. He kissed her gently, tasting her for the first time, the scent of her hair intoxicating, her breasts and body never so close to him as they were now.

She pulled back a moment and looked at him, “I’ve wanted you to tell me that... Since I met you, Declan. Is that strange to tell you?”

Declan shook his head, “I’ve wanted to say it. Since the day on the bridge. You looked… lost. Those eyes of yours, they haunted me. All I wanted to do was take the pain away. It was so clear then you were in a lot of it.”

Charlotte looked down, embarrassed. “So you pitied me?”

He smiled, “No. Well, maybe a little. I wondered why someone as beautiful as you would ever be alone on a bridge. And then I realized, you were there so I could find you.”

She looked up at him, “Like it was meant to be?”

“Yes,” he took her face in his hands again and kissed her harder this time, his mouth traveling from hers and down her neck, to her collar bone. Her long hair brushed against his face and he felt himself growing hard being this close to her. She sighed beneath him, and through the thin cotton of her tank top her nipples were swollen and stiff. His thumbs brushed against the material, making her moan.

“Declan,” she whispered. “Is this a good idea?”

He looked at her and said nothing for a moment.

“I’m not sure,” he admitted. “But I know I want you. I know you want me too. Let’s live with that tonight and worry about the rest tomorrow.”

“I’m not someone who can buy today and pay later,” she said, pulling away. “Especially when it comes to my heart.”

He gently pulled her by the arm back towards him, “I will never make you pay for anything, Charlotte. This isn’t like that.”

He pulled the thin straps of her tank top down and gently pulled her breasts out, making her gasp. His thumbs brushed against them again, the turgid peaks of her nipples beckoning him.

“Let me,” he whispered. “I can show you how I feel about you better than I can say it. And I’ll feel the same way tomorrow morning. And I’ll show you again, if you need more convincing. Let me know what it’s like to wake up to you.”

Goosebumps covered her arms, her entire body. She was wet already; she could feel it. She’d never wanted something more in her life. Even if it was a terrible idea, she couldn’t resist what he was offering her.

“Yes,” she relented. “Please. Take me, Declan. Have me however you want me. Just don’t break my heart.”

********

Charlotte hadn’t thought it through. She should probably have mentioned one thing before they began.

This was her first time.

But it seemed like something that would ruin the moment, so she hadn’t said anything. She’d made a decision to just go with it- for once.

He’d pulled the boxers she slept in off as she laid back in her bed, her wild hair fanning out behind her on the pillow. His shirt was off and he towered above her in just his boxer briefs. Of course his body was perfect; rippling abs, muscled pectorals, thickly roped arms that she couldn’t wait to be pulled and directed by. She was trying not to squirm under his gaze. But he wouldn’t stop staring.

“Fuck, you’re sexy,” he said as he fell towards her onto the bed. He was above her now, supported by his arms, his hands on both sides of her shoulders. His eyes were intense and filled with lust. He’d never looked at her like this before.

“Thank you,” she said, feeling silly. “I mean. I don’t know what to say.”

“Don’t say anything,” he kissed her deeply and she could feel his hardness against her own wetness, the only thing separating them the flimsy material of his boxer briefs.

He put one of his arms under her and pulled her toward him, releasing it only to pull her tank top off over her head, leaving her naked before him.

“Wow,” he said. “Your body…”

Charlotte was all curves and smooth, tan skin. Her breasts were full and at attention and he could see the slickness on her inner thighs. She was so ready for him and he was almost bursting out of his briefs. He needed to be inside her.

His kisses were voracious, covering her neck and down to her shoulders, then back to her mouth. As he moved, his erection rubbed against her, setting her sex aflame. She stole a glance down as he changed positions and she noticed the front of his underwear was soaked through, sending a jolt of embarrassment through her, ashamed of her body for betraying her desperation so lewdly.

In her inexperience, she didn’t realize that Declan was leaking what felt to him like gallons of fluid, contributing more than his share to the mess his underwear had become.

He slid down her body a bit, taking first one nipple, then the other, into his mouth, flicking at them with his tongue. Unbeknownst to Charlotte, he’d taken the opportunity to shed his last garment, and when he moved back up to resume kissing her mouth, there was no longer any barrier between their scalding hot bodies.

She felt it before she saw it, his cock pulsing with every heartbeat as Declan’s shaft slid against her opening, up and down, grinding as they kissed. A curious sensation overwhelmed her, an emptiness. Deep down to her core. A void that needed to be filled, more even than her lungs needed to be inflated by her ragged breaths. Her body needed to be filled by Declan, she needed to feel that throbbing not only on the outside, but on the inside as well. Charlotte’s body was desperate for Declan’s powerful cock to stretch her, explore her body, and touch places nothing ever had.

He took her face in his hands and straddled her hips, kissing her passionately. When he broke the kiss, she got her first look at what she’d been feeling, standing tall against his taut stomach. Charlotte’s eyes widened at his size, not knowing what she’d expected, but suddenly she was very nervous.

“Declan,” she said. “I have to tell you something.”

“Just relax,” he said, running the back of his hand up and down her left side, making her shiver. “You’re so perfect.”

“Well,” Charlotte said, her mouth suddenly unable to form the words she wanted to tell him. “I… I have to tell you though. So you won’t be disappointed…”

He looked at her then, his eyes soft and concerned, “What is it, baby?”

Baby.
No man had ever called her that. She liked how it sounded coming from him.

“Well, I know its lame, but I’ve never done this before,” she said, her heart pounding.

Declan’s expression changed and Charlotte suddenly wanted to untell what she’d just told.

“You’re a virgin?” he asked. “You’ve never…” He let the sentence go unfinished.

Charlotte shook her head, tears suddenly falling down her cheeks, “I told you, I’m ridiculous and weird and not like anyone…”