Defiant Heart (Starlight Cove Book 1)

LAST NIGHT HADN’T GONE REMOTELY how I’d planned. Though that seemed to be par for the course when it came to the tornado that was Luna. She’d dropped into Starlight Cove out of nowhere, ravaged everything in her path, stirring up things that were better left untouched, and I was worried nothing would ever be the same in her wake.

I’d lain there for a solid hour after I’d fucked her in my bed, holding her while she’d fallen almost immediately into sleep and wondering how the hell I’d ended up there. With a beautiful woman I had no business getting involved with curled into my body and snoring softly against my chest, her skin still smelling faintly of me.

Eventually, I’d fallen asleep, only to wake a couple hours later to my alarm. I’d slipped out from under Luna, who’d barely stirred, and left her without a backward glance—because who the fuck knew what I’d do if I turned around and caught a glimpse of her lying naked in my bed? Sure as hell not me. I’d already proven that I didn’t know what the hell to do when it came to her. So I’d showered in the guest bathroom, staying as far away from her as I could, before heading to the station to deal with the clusterfuck that would be today since the downed power line blocking me in had been taken care of.

The arts festival was scheduled to start this evening, but the town was a mess thanks to last night’s storm. Fallen branches and various debris littered the streets, so cleanup was in order. Thankfully, that would keep me from thinking about Luna. And last night. And early this morning.

Unfortunately, that plan went about as well as any plan where she was concerned. By midmorning, even with everything needing my attention, I’d given up on avoiding thoughts of her. I’d figured it was a lost cause when I found myself in the café, searching the menu for something disgusting for her to eat, before I’d even realized what was happening.

And now, I drove toward my house to greet the woman who drove me out of my mind—with frustration and need in equal parts—a green smoothie resting safely in the cupholder. It wasn’t the ass-water Beck fed her, but it was the closest thing I could get without heading out to the resort.

I had no idea why I’d gotten her anything at all. Or why I was taking this mini-break, considering the state of the town and the amount of work still needed to get things squared away before the festival. And considering the fact that I didn’t do breaks. I ate at my desk or in my patrol car, radio always at the ready. And yet, here I was. Delivering breakfast to the only woman besides my sister who’d ever been in my home.

I parked in my garage and grabbed her smoothie before heading inside, unsure and a little apprehensive of what I’d find. I didn’t figure she’d been able to do much damage in the few short hours I’d been gone, but then, I’d made the mistake of underestimating her at first meeting, and I didn’t intend to do that again.

I set my keys on the counter, the sound startling her as she spun to face me from where she stood in the living room. She wore the T-shirt I’d given her last night, showcasing far too much bare skin, and I couldn’t deny what the sight did to me. Or how much I liked seeing her in my clothes and in my space.

She held a picture frame in her hand as she scanned me from head to toe, her brows lifting when her gaze zeroed in on the cup I held. “Morning, Sheriff. That for me?”

I grunted and set it on the kitchen counter. “I’m sure as hell not going to drink it.”

She placed the photo down and strolled toward me, all long legs and tight nipples that winked at me through the plain white shirt. Why the hell had I given her that and not, say, a parka?

I inhaled when she stepped close, biting back a groan when I realized she still smelled like me… And ignoring just how much I loved it.

She lifted the cup and sniffed, her eyes locked on mine, one brow raised.

“What the hell are you doing?” I asked.

“Making sure you didn’t poison it.”

I rolled my eyes, grabbed the smoothie, and took a deep pull from the straw, preparing myself for the onslaught of trash. But I was pleasantly surprised when the liquid hit my tongue. It might not have had all the disgusting ingredients she preferred, but it was infinitely better than the shit Beck was slinging. “Poison doesn’t smell. It’d sort of defeat the purpose, don’t you think? Maybe you could try that on me instead of irritating me to death.”

“Where would the fun be in that? And I knew it wasn’t poisoned.” She grinned as she lifted herself up onto the counter, and I tried to ignore the long expanse of her legs and the fact that she still wasn’t wearing any fucking panties. “I just figured you could use some fruits and veggies in your diet. Done with your shift already?”

I fisted my hands, ignoring the incessant itch to slide them up her thighs, tug her to the edge of the counter, and lick up all her sweetness, just like I’d done in this spot the night before. “Not for a while.”

She cocked her head to the side, lips pulling steadily from the straw, and I steadfastly ignored what the sight did to my cock. “Then why are you here?”

That was a damn good question and one I didn’t have an answer for. One I didn’t want to dig too deeply into, either.

“Figured you’d burn down my house in retaliation if I didn’t feed you. I know what kind of irrational things you do when you’re hangry.”

“Way to save that, Sheriff.” She reached out, running a soft hand down my chest. “For a second there, I thought you were being nice.”

I grunted, glancing over to the bookcase she’d been standing in front of when I arrived home. “Have fun snooping?”

Her grin widened around the straw, her eyes dancing, but she didn’t respond.

“Find anything good?”

“No, actually.” She brushed against my uniform pants with every swing of her legs, her blue-painted toes sweeping against my thighs, and since fucking when did toes make me hard? “I was kind of hoping I’d find a sex dungeon or a box of kinky toys.”

I cleared my throat, forcing myself away from thoughts of dragging Luna into a sex dungeon or using a box of kinky toys on her. “Sorry to disappoint,” I said, my throat full of gravel, cock hard as steel.

“You didn’t.” Her eyes sparkled. “I had wondered if you’d been spawned from a demon, so it was good to confirm you came from actual humans and weren’t hatched somewhere.” She tipped her head in the direction of the photo she’d been holding when I’d walked in. The one of my mom and us kids taken more than twenty years ago.

“How do you know I still wasn’t?”

“You look too much like your mom.” She reached up, brushing her fingers down my temple, and I had to force myself not to lean into her touch. “The eyes are undeniable.”

I knew that fact all too well. I saw a poor facsimile of her every time I looked in the mirror, and I hated it. “My dad used to tell me that.”

She rested her hand on my shoulder, cocking her head to the side. “Used to?”

The last thing I wanted to do was talk about the shitty, fucked-up relationship I had with my father. Not when she was in front of me, her legs parted just enough for my hips to fit between them. “We don’t speak anymore.”

She made a gruff sound of commiseration in her throat. “And your mom?”

“She’s dead.”

In the almost ten years that she’d been gone, the words had gotten easier to say. They were just words after all. They didn’t encompass the pain and grief my siblings and I had gone through in the days and months following her death. Didn’t encapsulate what it was like to have to shove everything aside—emotions included—just to make sure things stayed on track. Didn’t even begin to cover how difficult it was to keep moving through life when your guiding force was suddenly gone.

“Oh, Brady,” she said, her voice soft and fingers softer as she trailed them down my chest. “I’m so sorry.”

I didn’t know if it was the look in her eyes, the tenor of her voice, or the feel of her fingers against me, but I’d never before wanted to fall into someone’s embrace as much as I did in that moment, with this woman. But down that path led only madness—or poor decisions, as it were—and I wasn’t in the market for either.

“Thanks,” I said flatly.

Without another word, I stepped away and grabbed her clothes from the laundry room where I’d hung them last night. I thrust them out at her, avoiding eye contact. “Get dressed. I’m heading to the resort to check for damage. We can swing by your van so you can grab some things.”

“Don’t you mean so you can drop me off? I have to lead a class for that journalist and give her a massage.”

“Fine, but you’re coming back here tonight. I can’t get anyone out to clear the tree today. Not with the festival starting.”

After what’d happened between us last night, would she sleep in the guest room like I’d intended, or would she sneak her fine ass into my bed again? Maybe have that talk with my dick she mentioned in her orgasm stupor… I clenched my teeth, forcing the thoughts out of my head. She shouldn’t be here in my home. I shouldn’t want her here. But I couldn’t deny anymore that I did. She drove me crazy, but she brought a lightness to my days that had been missing for far too long, and I’d begun to crave her when she wasn’t near.

She pursed her lips as she grabbed her clothes from me. “We’ll see.”

And then she hopped down from the counter, whipped the T-shirt over her head until she was standing in my kitchen bare-ass naked, and proceeded to get dressed. Slowly.

I’d felt every inch of her last night, had been inside her with my tongue and my fingers and my cock, but it’d been too dark to see her in all her glory. And her glory was fucking stunning. Small tits, a waist that dipped in at her sides with a subtle flare on her lower stomach, and the lush, supple curves of her hips, thighs, and ass. Curves I was sure I’d never get sick of.

“Oh, don’t look so stunned, Sheriff. You’ve seen my tits before and quite literally had your face in my pussy.” She pulled on her clothes while I stood there, still—and hard—as granite.

Once she was dressed, she braced a hand on my chest and stood on her tiptoes, tugging me by the back of the neck until she could press her lips to my ear. “By the way, could you still taste me this morning? ’Cause I sure as hell could still feel you.”

Then, with a small, soft kiss against my jaw, she stepped back, grabbed her phone and the half-drunk smoothie, and waited for me at the side door, a twinkle in her eye that said she knew exactly the state of my dick right now. And she liked it.

TEN MINUTES LATER, I pulled up to the same spot I’d parked last night, only this time, everything was different. My heart seized in my chest, the organ feeling like it was caving in on itself, as I stared at the scene in front of me. Holy shit. Holy shit. A tree, smaller but no less intimidating than the one originally blocking the path, had fallen. Directly on top of Luna’s van.

“Oh my God,” she said, hands covering her mouth, eyes wide as she stared out the windshield.

Oh my fucking God was more like it. My palms were sweaty, my pulse thrumming wildly, and I felt like I couldn’t catch my breath. Jesus Christ, what would’ve happened if I hadn’t come out to get her last night? If I’d ignored the tug in my gut to check on her and instead had just gone straight home? She would’ve been trapped inside there with no way out.

Or worse, crushed beneath the wreckage.

I reached up, rubbing the deep ache in the middle of my chest, needing another minute or twenty before my heart would settle back into its normal rhythm and this pit in my stomach would close. But Luna didn’t give a single fuck about that as she unbuckled her seat belt and fumbled with the door handle. She also didn’t give a single fuck that she didn’t have any shoes on. She tore out of the car, dead set on sprinting across the debris-ridden forest floor and cutting the shit out of her feet in the process.

Having her dashing out was like paddles to my chest, jolting me out of my stupor, and I jumped out of the car and caught up to her in front of the hood. Without letting her take another step, I hooked an arm around her waist and tugged her back to me, just taking a second to feel her body against mine. To breathe her in and reassure myself she was fine. She was okay. She was alive and safe and fine.

Then, before she could question what the hell I was doing, I swung her into my arms, bracing one around her back and the other beneath her knees, and strode toward the van.

“Hey! What—”

“You’re barefoot.”

She rolled her eyes. “I’ll be fine, grump. Believe it or not, I have walked around barefoot once or twice in my thirty-one years.”

Whoever let this woman loose in the world was a menace to society. She was a magnet for trouble and needed a goddamn keeper, and it looked as if I’d been volunteered for the job.

“Yeah, well, if you get cut, I’ll just have to administer first aid, and I have more important things to worry about today.”

She smiled, clearly seeing through my bullshit answer, and reached up to wrap her arms around my neck. “Be careful, Sheriff. All this worrying about me might go to my head.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I grumbled under my breath.

Her answering laugh was halfhearted at best as she focused all of her attention on her van. The closer we got, the tighter my chest grew, until it felt like a vise was squeezing the life out of me. Branches draped over the entire expanse from the back end to the hood, the tree trunk resting right smack in the middle. Right where she would’ve been sleeping.

Jesus fucking Christ. She would’ve been in there. Would’ve been under that.

I didn’t know how long I stood there, staring at the wreckage, Luna clutched in my arms as I held her too tightly against me, until her words finally registered.

“It’s okay. I’m okay,” she said, over and over, as she played with the hair at my nape and ran her fingers along my neck, her touch light and reassuring even as I nearly crushed her to me. “I need to get inside.”

No. I didn’t want to set her down, let alone allow her to go into the death trap she called a van.

“I’ll go,” I said, my voice coming out gritty like sandpaper. “Tell me what you need.”

She huffed out a laugh and shook her head. “Brady. I can’t open the back or side door, which leaves the driver’s side, and there’s no way you’re going to fit through the passway. I barely fit. Plus, it’s not like the tree is going to suddenly fall more. It’s as far down as it can go.”

Her words made sense, but that didn’t stop the overwhelming urge I had to clutch her to my chest, turn around, and run her straight back to my house and lock her inside. Irrational. Completely fucking irrational, and she’d think I’d lost my mind if I uttered a single word of it. So instead, I just stood frozen, staring at what could’ve been a catastrophic accident.

“C’mon, grump. Set me down.” She rubbed her hand on my chest, directly over my heart, the repetitive motion soothing something deep inside me. “The quicker I grab my stuff, the quicker we can leave.”

“Fine,” I finally grumbled. “But I’m checking it out first.”

I carried her over to the driver’s side, found a clear patch of grass, and set her on her feet. Then I reached for the door handle, my jaw ticking when it opened immediately.

“Oh, don’t give me that look,” she said with an eye roll. “We’ve got bigger things to worry about, don’t you think? Besides, you didn’t exactly give me time to grab my keys last night.”

“Or panties,” I mumbled under my breath as I slid into the driver’s seat.

“Or panties,” she repeated with a cheeky grin. “Plus, I don’t think I need to worry about someone stealing my van. What with the gigantic tree pinning it down and all.”

“I’m not worried about someone stealing your fucking van,” I bit out, my temper getting the better of me as I glanced into the back to see the damage. The roof was caved in, a huge dent directly above her bed. Directly where she would’ve been lying during the storm. Christ, my chest hurt.

I slid out of the van, not wanting to let her go in there but knowing I could either be here when she did it and make sure she stayed safe, or I could keep her from it, only to have her sneak back after I’d headed into town. Yeah, she was a slippery little thing, but I’d learned her tricks in the month and a half she’d been here.

After I stepped off to the side and made room for her to go in, she rolled her eyes. “If someone stealing my van isn’t what has your balls all tied up in knots, what is it, then?”

She didn’t wait for an answer before she disappeared through the small pass-through, my heart in my throat the entire time. Good, because I didn’t have an answer to give her. Not a sane one, anyway. What could I tell her? That the thought of her getting hurt made me fucking crazy? That the idea that she’d been out here, for weeks, without anything other than a rock collection to protect her made me sick for no good reason, and imagining her out here during the storm made me want to throw up my breakfast? Yeah, no. I’d keep that shit to myself.

A few minutes later, after I’d circled the van and catalogued the destruction, Luna crawled out from the back, large bag in hand and shoes on her feet. She made a huge production of shutting her door before holding up the key fob in between us and locking the van with a beep. “Happy?”

Was she doing that shit on purpose just to get a rise out of me, or did she truly not understand I was more worried about her being in it when her doors weren’t locked and any troublemakers or criminals having complete access to her than whatever trinkets she kept that petty thieves would steal? Didn’t matter, because I wasn’t happy about any of this. Not her out here in her van, not her staying in my home, not her in Starlight Cove.

She’d gotten under my skin and made me feel things I hadn’t felt…ever. I wasn’t even this protective over Addison. My brothers and I would go to the ends of the earth to keep her safe, but it was wholly different from the thrum in my veins I felt for Luna.

“Hardly,” I answered, leading us back toward my patrol car, keeping close to her to make sure she didn’t stumble.

I shouldn’t have been worried, though, because Luna strode through the forest like it owed her something. Like her safe passage was guaranteed and something as silly as a branch or exposed root wouldn’t dare to get in her way.

It wasn’t until we were settled back in the patrol car, making our way toward the main inn, that Luna broke the silence. “Thank you.”

I snapped my gaze to her, only to find her eyes already trained on me. Eyebrows lifted, I said, “I must’ve heard you wrong. What was that?”

She rolled her eyes, but a smile tugged at the corner of her lips. “I said thank you. If you hadn’t been an idiot and cuffed yourself to me last night, forcing me to leave, I’d have been inside the van when that tree fell.”

I inhaled sharply, images of her trapped inside with no way out flashing through my mind, and I gripped the steering wheel tighter.

“And I probably would’ve peed myself if that happened, and we both know I wasn’t wearing panties, so it would’ve been a big ol’ mess.” She inhaled deeply, then released the breath on a long, slow exhale. “So, thanks. I guess following protocol isn’t always bad.”

I huffed out a laugh, not finding this remotely funny. “Nothing about last night was protocol.”

Her eyes stayed locked on me, her gaze like a brand against my skin, heating me up from the outside in. “Then why’d you do it?”

Wasn’t that the million-dollar question? It was easy to say I had no idea what made me do it. No idea why I’d forced her hand last night just to keep her safe. But I was afraid I did know why, and it was worse than not knowing at all.

Instead of answering, I just clenched my jaw in response, leaving her question hanging in the air between us.