Defiant Heart (Starlight Cove Book 1)
Defiant Heart: Chapter 19

FOR THE PAST FOUR DAYS, I’d woken up with Luna in my arms, and each morning had only gotten better. It was hard to believe after the way we’d started that this was the routine we’d fallen into. But we had. Somehow, against all odds, this was where we’d found ourselves.

And it was as easy as breathing.

I’d leave Luna in the mornings, sometimes with a kiss and sometimes without the ability to make her rouse at all, and then come home after my shift to an absolute disaster. While Luna had been spending more time at the resort, leading at least one yoga class every day, thanks to the interest piqued from Mabel’s Live during goat yoga, as well as massages as requested, she’d also taken advantage of the new workspace—read: my house—available to her. Word had spread about homemade ointments, and now Mabel and her entire gang of misfits had commissioned a buttload of creams from Luna, and she was all too willing to comply.

That was all fine and good, except that it meant my kitchen was no longer the tidy and uncluttered space it’d always been. But it wasn’t just my kitchen. Not an inch of my home had been untouched by what Addison had deemed the Luna sparkle. There was incense and jars filled with something called moon water that just looked like plain old water to me and rocks every-fucking-where, and I…didn’t hate it.

Had, in fact, brought her all the shit in the first place, so I only had myself to blame.

But seeing her come to my home with one sad little bag when her whole life was in that van had cracked something inside me. So, before Frank could tow it away, I’d scavenged what I could from it. Rocks, essential oils, scarves, and too many bracelets to count, just to name a few. She hadn’t been in any sort of state of mind to remember those things when we’d come to replace her home crushed, but I knew they were important to her.

That meant they were important to me.

Harper had left the morning after we’d run into her at the festival, and Addison had received an email late yesterday afternoon saying they’d have a decision by the end of the day today. Which meant we’d made it. What had started as merely a distraction for the world’s most chaotic woman had ended in something more real than I’d ever thought was possible.

“If you were going to think so hard so early in the morning, I wish you’d get out of bed to do it,” Luna mumbled from where she lay curled against me, her face smashed into my chest. She didn’t even crack an eye, didn’t move a single muscle either. The woman definitely loved her sleep. Loved sleeping in, too, which was why her varied and loosely regulated schedule at the resort worked perfectly for her.

I reached down and palmed her bare ass, pressing my lips to her forehead. “That’s not the only thing that’s hard around here.”

She pressed her face into my chest, smothering her laughter, though her body shook against mine. My lips curved at the sound, loving this gentle, sleepy side to her. Hell, I was replaceing there wasn’t a side to her I didn’t.

And that scared the shit out of me.

I didn’t give my love freely…or at all. Hadn’t in years. Love had only led to loss in my eyes. It meant heartbreak and pain and abandonment. But no matter what I’d done, no matter the blockades I’d put in place to keep people out, I still hadn’t been able to stop the inevitable. From the first moment I’d set eyes on Luna, she’d sparked something in me. Something fierce and wild and something I’d shoved down for too long. It had been a losing game from day one.

“Well, are you gonna do something about that, Sheriff, or do you have more important places to be?” she asked, walking her fingers down my stomach until she gripped my cock, stroking up the length and passing her thumb over the head, making me groan into her hair.

Before I could roll over, pin her beneath me, and sink inside, my phone rang with Aiden’s ringtone, and I stilled.

“You need to get that?” she asked, moving her hand faster over my length.

Forcing down the urge to look, I focused instead on the gorgeous woman whose hand was wrapped around my cock. “Nope.”

“Ohh, being naughty.” She grinned. “I like it.”

While she stroked me, driving me out of my mind with need, I rained kisses down her neck and to her bare tits, sucking one nipple into my mouth as the phone stopped ringing. Thank God. I’d just switched to the other when it started up all over again.

I swore into her skin, her laughter shaking her body beneath me. Lifting my head, I stared down into her smiling face. Her hair was loose, the dark mass a riot against my pillow, her eyes still sleepy and soft, and I wanted to bury myself inside her and never leave. Wanted to kiss every inch of her body, make her come against my tongue, and then fuck her slow and sweet. To hell with the rest of the world. To hell with my responsibilities. I was off today anyway. I could miss one family meeting, and the world wouldn’t come to an end.

So I ignored everything else but her. I silenced my phone, dove under the covers, and affixed my mouth to her pussy. In minutes, Luna was crying out my name, her fingers gripping my hair as she rode out her orgasm against my tongue.

When I slipped inside her moments later, her pussy still fluttering with her release, I stared down at her and wondered how the hell we’d managed to end up here. This woman, who’d spent the first month we’d known each other driving me out of my mind with frustration, had somehow slipped past my barriers. Had somehow settled herself into my life like she’d always been there, making me wonder how I’d survived without her.

Soft and slow, I rocked us both to our climaxes, our mouths open, lips connected as we came together. After, while we both caught our breath, she lay on my chest, her cheek puffing up against me as she smiled.

“What?” I asked, trailing my fingers up and down the expanse of her bare back.

Resting her arm on my chest, she propped her chin on the back of her hand and stared at me, eyes glittering. “Nothing. You’re just breaking out of your routine left and right. Last night, it was popcorn in bed, and now, you missed the morning meeting? Pretty soon, I’ll have you smoking pot on your back deck. I’m a bad influence on you.”

“You’re something, all right,” I said, reaching down to swat her ass.

With a laugh, she rolled away, leaped down from the bed, and strolled to the en suite bathroom, completely uncaring that she was naked and had an enraptured audience. I stared after her until she shut the door, then blindly reached for my phone to see what I’d missed.

Four calls and two texts, from Aiden and Addison, which wasn’t a surprise, given my lack of appearance at the meeting for the first time in…ever. Addison’s text just said Do something! So I scrolled to Aiden’s for more context.

Turn on Mabel’s Live. Now.

I navigated to the app on my phone and browsed until I found the Live. My brows furrowed when the video popped up. It was just shaky footage of the ground, like someone had forgotten they were recording as they walked, and I couldn’t make out the murmur of voices. Then the scene came into focus, the camera suddenly upright, and Mabel’s disembodied voice filtered through the phone.

“What brings you to our neck of the woods?”

“Our daughter,” a woman said, her head cut off thanks to Mabel’s less than stellar recording skills, though I didn’t recognize her voice.

“Your daughter’s made quite the ruckus in our little town. Are you here to chain yourself to a tree, too?”

The door to the bathroom opened and Luna stepped out, but I couldn’t tear my gaze away from the screen, the knot in my stomach tightening with every second that passed.

“If that’s what it takes,” the unknown woman said. “Her father and I are happy to support her, every step of the way.”

At the sound of the woman’s voice, Luna rushed to the bed, her eyes wide. She grabbed the phone from me, her mouth dropping open. “Mom?”

“Mom?” I repeated, tone incredulous as I stared at the woman I’d bared my soul to. Told my deepest, darkest secrets to. The one who’d promised me her help.

The one who’d, apparently, sold us out and decided her whims were more important than the future of my family’s legacy.

What. The fuck.

With her eyes glued on the screen, Luna mumbled something, but I couldn’t pay attention. Couldn’t hear what she was saying through the loud whoosh whoosh whoosh in my ears. This couldn’t be happening. The one time I didn’t follow my plan, didn’t show up where I was expected to, and it ended like this. If I’d been there at the meeting, I could’ve gotten to the site early, cut them off before anything had been broadcast. Instead, I’d been love drunk, uncaring of anything besides sliding inside Luna.

What the hell was wrong with me?

I shot out of bed, tugging on clothes as I went, ignoring the lancing pain in my chest. This was un-fucking-believable. We’d needed one more day. One more day of peace so this article on the resort would get pushed through, and she couldn’t even give us that.

I stormed toward the door, intent on getting down to the Williamsons’ property as fast as humanly possible. With my sirens if I had to. All I knew was I needed to fix this, and I needed to do it quickly.

“Wait, I’ll go with you,” Luna said, tucking my phone into my pocket before fluttering around the room, trying to replace her clothes. “Just let me get dressed.”

I stopped on the threshold of the door, not bothering to turn around, unable to look at her. “We were so close. How could you?”

“How could I what?” Luna asked, the sound of clothes rustling behind me nearly enough to make me turn, but I was frozen. Anger and hurt and betrayal coursing through me, making my feet blocks of cement.

I breathed out a disbelieving laugh and shook my head. “Right. Like you had nothing to do with this. Your parents just happened to show up in Starlight Cove, at the site you’ve been protesting, to fight the same thing you’ve been fighting. The same thing you promised me you’d lay off. Just until the article came through. You knew how important this was to my family. To me.”

She rested a hand on my back, and I nearly flinched at the touch, hating myself that, even now, I wanted to lean into it. To seek comfort from it. “I know it is. And Brady, I didn’t—”

“Save it,” I said, my voice too harsh, but I couldn’t rein in my temper. Pissed at her for what she’d done, and pissed at myself that I’d lost sight of what was most important. That I’d loosened the restraints on my control and let her slip past my defenses. That I’d let her steer me away from what needed to be done. From what was most important. “After everything I told you on the beach, you still went and did this.”

“No, Brady. I—”

But I didn’t hear the rest of what she said. I couldn’t. I couldn’t stand there another second and listen to whatever lie she wanted to tell. Whatever narrative would fit what she wanted. Not when my family’s livelihood was on the line. Not when I was about to watch my mother’s legacy go down in flames.

Instead, I typed out a text to Aiden, letting him know I was on the way, and stormed down the stairs and out the door, not looking back as I climbed into my car. Before I pulled out, a text from Aiden popped up on my screen. Just two little words, but they lit a fire inside me.

Fix it.

That was my job—as both the sheriff and the head of my family—and it was exactly what I intended to do. I just had to figure out how.

I’D JUST PULLED up to the Williamsons’ property when my phone rang. Again. Luna had been trying in vain to contact me, and I’d let them all go to voice mail. Now, I glanced down, seeing the mayor’s name on the screen, and closed my eyes on a groan. At least I didn’t have to reject another call from Luna, but this wasn’t much better. I didn’t have time for this, but I couldn’t exactly ignore it.

There were already cars all over the place, way more than I’d assumed would be here, which could only mean one thing—news had spread like wildfire, and I was about to get my ass reamed.

“Mayor Drummond,” I answered.

“Sheriff McKenzie,” she said, her tone clipped. “I understand you’re not on duty today, but justice doesn’t wait for a schedule.”

“Justice doesn’t get doled out when it’s convenient, either. I just got here, but right now, it’s just a bunch of residents congregating.”

She huffed. “Yeah, well, it’s all fun and games until the reporters show up.”

I stepped out of my car and scanned the crowd, swearing under my breath when I spotted Harper at the door of Holton Group’s trailer, her hand raised to knock. “Guess it’s not fun and games anymore, then.”

The mayor expelled a heavy sigh, her disappointment ringing loud and clear through the line. “This doesn’t look good for the town, Sheriff. Whatever is going on down there, you need to put a stop to.”

“If they’re protesting peacefully, I can’t do anything. Not unless Holton Group comes and presses charges, and they’ve been absent for the past two weeks.”

“Not for long. I just received a call, and the foreman is on the way.”

“Fantastic. Can’t wait.” The guy was an asshole, and I hated dealing with him, but I might not have a choice.

“Look, Sheriff, when we had the town hall meeting, everyone was excited about the shopping center.”

I glanced around at the growing number of Starlight Cove residents, some with handmade signs that said some variance of Stop the Development. “I’m not sure everyone feels that way now.”

“Unfortunately, that’s not how things work. What’s done is done. The deal’s already been made. The land’s been sold, and we’ve approved the plans. Holton Group is only unable to move forward right now because of the paperwork you rushed through.”

“Paperwork I rushed through on behalf of a concerned citizen. I’m doing my job.”

“Do it better.”

I gritted my teeth against the words that wanted to spill out, this constant pressure in my chest making it hard to think. I was doing my goddamn job, but what was I supposed to do when they all conflicted with one another? Right now, I couldn’t be the sheriff of Starlight Cove, the patriarch of the McKenzie family, and Luna’s…whatever the hell I was to her, without disappointing one or more.

Her tone softened as she said, “I appreciate what you’ve done for this town, Sheriff, but we’ve got a long way to go. Everyone will be on board when they realize how convenient the new store will be. No need to run to five different places. Just remind everyone of that, of why they wanted it in the first place. And then shut down whatever nonsense is happening over there.”

I ground my teeth together, frustration making my words too harsh as I said, “I can’t just shut it down. That’s not how things work. There’s nothing illegal going on. Right now, the only person on the Williamsons’ property is Harper, and she’s with the press. All the residents are clumped on the resort side, so it doesn’t matter if Holton Group is on their way or not. They can’t charge anyone with trespassing.”

“They can’t, but you can. That’s your family’s property. Your mom’s legacy,” she said, enunciating the words like they hadn’t been a constant litany in my head already. “I thought you loved this town as much as she did.”

Her words had the effect she’d no doubt intended, slicing straight through to my heart. My mom had given Levi his love for sailing, Aiden his love for the resort, Ford his love for building, Beck his love for cooking, and Addison her love for flowers. But she’d given me my love for this town.

I glanced up, spying a car as it rolled to a slow stop near the road, and out ran Luna, tossing money through the opened driver’s side window. My heart seized at the sight. Her hair was in disarray, pillow creases still marring her cheek, as she frantically scanned the crowd. For what or whom, I didn’t know.

God, I was furious with her. Furious she’d done what she’d done and hadn’t talked to me about it. Warned me, at least. Furious she’d put the resort’s future in jeopardy. And furious with myself that I’d fallen for her in the first place.

I cleared my throat. “I do love this town. And the residents.” One spitfire of a woman in particular, but I didn’t need to share that with the mayor.

“Then fix this.” With that, she hung up, and I was left staring at the pain in my ass I’d somehow fallen head over heels in love with and wondering what the fuck was the right thing to do.