Defiant Heart (Starlight Cove Book 1)

I DIDN’T DO FESTIVALS. Hell, I didn’t do yoga or skip work to find toilet water smoothies and bring them to a girl I couldn’t stop thinking about, either, yet here we were.

Starlight Cove had more festivals than were strictly necessary, and they were definitely more in Addison’s and Beck’s wheelhouses than they were in mine. I’d spent plenty of time at them throughout my life, but I hadn’t been to one in something other than an official capacity in years. It…wasn’t awful. Though I knew that had more to do with the fact that I was here with Luna than anything else. Seeing it through her eyes, her excitement and curiosity lighting her up from the inside out, was an experience in and of itself.

Normally, I spent Friday nights at home in front of the TV with a beer—or if it had been a particularly shitty week, a glass of bourbon—decompressing. Fridays were always when I dropped groceries off at Cottage Thirteen, which was, granted, not the smartest way for me to end the week. And yet I did it every Friday, without fail. Even though no one expected me to—hell, no one even knew I did—and I didn’t have to continue, it might as well have been a blood oath for the sanctity I put on it. And every week, without fail, it put me in a shitty mood.

But tonight, being here with Luna, my chest wasn’t tight, memories didn’t have me in a choke hold, and the overwhelming sense of failure didn’t swamp me like usual. Whatever magic thrummed through this woman’s veins, she’d obviously managed to imbue a bit in me, too, just by being near me.

Luna reached up with the hand that wasn’t still clasped in mine and brushed her thumb between my brows. “What’s with the scowl? Are you grumpy because they’re not making our delicious funnel cake fast enough?”

We stood off to the side, waiting for Mrs. Engles, my former third grade teacher and now blissful retiree who made funnel cakes and cotton candy as a hobby, to give Luna her one and only requirement for attending the festival.

“Just thinking about all the tickets I could write.”

Luna laughed, her eyes lighting up in a way that dropped an unpinned grenade straight into the center of my chest. “Then it’s a good thing you’re off duty. Unless, of course, you have your fun police badge with you? People do seem to be having an awfully good time here, and I’m sure that’s against some sort of regulation.”

That startled a chuckle out of me, and she seemed just as surprised by it. Christ, the mouth on this woman made me want to stuff her with a ball gag and kiss her all at once.

I released her hand and wrapped an arm around her waist, cupping her ass as I tugged her in close. I didn’t care that we were out in public. Didn’t even care that no one here had ever seen me with a woman other than my sister. I needed Luna close to me. After knowing what could’ve happened last night had she not come home with me, I had this overwhelming urge to have my hands on her constantly, and I had to force myself not to just strap her on like a backpack and go about my day.

I lowered my mouth so my lips brushed the shell of her ear. “Keep it up, lawbreaker, and see what I do to that mouth of yours when we get home.”

Instead of snapping back with a snarky reply, she tipped her head back to stare up at me. She rested her hands on my chest, her lip caught between her teeth and a glint in her eye that spelled trouble. “Promise?”

Fuuuck. The things she did to me. I didn’t think it was possible to be so aggravated and aroused simultaneously, yet Luna was all about challenging me. She’d been doing it since the moment she’d stepped foot in this town and hadn’t stopped for a second. The woman drove me out of my mind, questioned me at every step. And somehow, in the weeks since she’d shown up in Starlight Cove, I’d actually begun to enjoy it. To crave it.

“Here you go, honey!” Mrs. Engles called, sliding a fried mass of definitely not organic powdered-sugar-covered dough toward us.

With a kiss to the underside of my jaw, Luna pushed away from me and turned her beaming smile on the older woman. “Thank you! It looks so good.”

“These are normally extra,” Mrs. Engles said as she gathered up containers from a few different bins beneath the white folding table serving as a counter. “But I haven’t seen the sheriff out of his uniform at one of these festivals in years, and I bet we have you to thank for that. Did Brady tell you I had the absolute pleasure of having him in my third-grade class?”

Luna’s eyes were filled with interest and amusement as she glanced back at me over her shoulder. “He did not, but I’d love to hear some stories. Was he a hall monitor back then?”

Mrs. Engles laughed. “Heavens, no. He was a lot more easygoing when he was younger, but, of course, that’s to be expected. What with the hardships his family has faced in recent years.” She tutted, lips turned down at the corners. “Such a shame what they’ve been put through.”

Luna shot a worried gaze in my direction, the concern etched across her face hitting a nerve deep in my chest. I didn’t want to talk about it—here, of all places—and I certainly didn’t want to open myself up to old wounds. But I couldn’t look away from the worry I saw in her eyes, wanted to reassure her I was okay. I was certain in that moment that if she asked me to reach into my chest, rip out my heart, and hand it to her, I would’ve.

“Sheriff,” Mrs. Engles said, pulling me away from Luna’s magnetizing stare, “didn’t I send you to the principal’s office for putting a whoopie cushion on my seat?”

My lips twitched. “More than once.”

Mrs. Engles laughed heartily, slapping a hand down on the table, and Luna finally dragged her worried gaze away from mine and back to the older woman. “You were such a hoot as a boy. Anyway, Luna, just think of these as a little thank-you.” She slid the stack of three small containers across the table, the translucent cups showcasing what appeared to be chocolate, caramel, and strawberry toppings for the funnel cake.

Luna smiled. “That’s very sweet. Thank you. Though I don’t know that I deserve the appreciation for getting him here. I’m not even sure what I did to entice him out of his hermit hole.”

“I’m sure your mere presence was enough.”

Luna threw her head back on a laugh, like those words were the most hilarious thing she’d ever heard. She didn’t realize Mrs. Engles was being serious. She also didn’t realize my former teacher wasn’t wrong.

“Pretty sure that’s not it,” Luna said once her giggles had died down.

“Well, whatever you’re doing, it’s working. Keep it up for however long you’re here.”

And that was the real punch in the gut, wasn’t it? All of this—the good, the bad, and the ugly where Luna was concerned—was just temporary. Starlight Cove wasn’t a permanent destination on her map of adventures. It was just a stopover. And when the hell had that fact gone from being what I wanted to being what I wanted to avoid?

With a wave at Mrs. Engles, Luna dragged me over to an empty picnic table, strings of white lights surrounding the area and providing a soft glow now that the sun had set. I straddled the bench as she sat next to me, her legs beneath the table and sugar feast spread out in front of her. And then she dug in.

“Oh my God,” she said around a moan, her eyes fluttering closed as she licked chocolate sauce from her thumb, my cock twitching at the sight. “I know these are so bad for you, but they’re so delicious. Here, you’ve gotta try a bite.”

Before I could protest, she held the fried dough against my lips, brows rising when I didn’t open immediately. “Do you have to be so obstinate about absolutely everything? Just open your damn mouth, grump, and eat this deliciousness before it drips all over me.”

Jesus, the thoughts those words conjured in my mind—of her hovering over my mouth, her pussy dripping for me as I licked up every drop—made me a little slow to respond. Just when she rolled her eyes and started to pull her hand away, I reached up and gripped her wrist, tugging it back to me and taking the proffered treat from her fingers. Then I sucked each digit into my mouth, swirling my tongue and licking them clean of the mess, our eyes locked the entire time.

She shifted in her seat, her lips parting as she watched me, gaze growing heated as I swirled my tongue around the tip of her finger. “Good?” she asked, her voice thick.

How long did we have to stay at this stupid thing? I’d wanted to bring her here because I knew she’d like it, but now, all I wanted was to get her back to my place, toss her on my bed, and fuck her until my name was the only sound coming from her lips.

“Not the best thing I’ve had in my mouth in the past twenty-four hours.”

She breathed out a surprised laugh and shook her head. “Look at you, Sheriff. First, a joke in the car, and now, an innuendo-laced play on words? Careful, I think I’m rubbing off on you.”

I thought she was, too, and I didn’t hate it.

When she pulled another chunk off the funnel cake and offered it to me, I shook my head. “I need real food. Beck’s got lobster rolls on the menu tonight. You want one?”

“Do lobsters have faces?”

“Um…yes?”

“Then that should answer the question.”

“It really doesn’t.”

She shrugged, the move drawing my eyes to the bare expanse of her shoulder and that tattoo peeking out of her sweater. “I don’t eat food with faces.”

I blinked at her, certain I’d heard her wrong. “You don’t…eat food…with faces.”

“Nope. It just, I don’t know, feels…weird.”

“Chaining yourself to a tree doesn’t feel weird, but consuming food with a face does?”

“Chaining myself to that tree felt awesome. Eating a formerly living being does not.”

I hummed, swiping my thumb across the corner of her mouth to catch a drop of chocolate before sucking it clean. “And how long have you not eaten food with a face?”

“I don’t know. As long as I can remember. Since I was eight, at least, if not longer.”

“Your parents put up with that?”

She laughed, still noshing away on the funnel cake, licking her fingers like they were goddamn popsicles and making things quite difficult south of the belt for me. “What do you mean ‘put up with that’? It’s just vegetarian, and I was cooking for myself anyway.”

I raised my brows. “You were cooking for yourself at eight?”

“You weren’t?” she asked, without judgment but full of intrigue.

“No.” While I certainly helped—as the oldest of six, I hadn’t had a whole lot of choice in the matter—my parents still ran the household. At least, back then. Before.

“Yeah, I kind of had to figure it out. No siblings—older or otherwise. My mom’s a little…” She squinted one eye as she chewed. “Flighty, I guess? She’s me, but, like, a hundred times worse. And my dad’s always worked long hours.”

That was certainly different from the picture I’d painted of her upon first meeting. One of a spoiled little rich girl whose parents doted on her. Who got everything she wanted and never had to work for anything in her life. She’d grown up the exact opposite of me. While I hadn’t had a moment’s peace when I’d been younger, she’d had nothing but. And while I would’ve given anything for some solitude and privacy in my teen years, I wondered what it would’ve been like to basically be on my own that young.

“So you were alone a lot.”

“Yeah.”

“You don’t sound sad about that.”

She looked at me with curious eyes. “Why would I be?”

“You didn’t mind it?”

“Not at all. As much as I love being around people, I adore being alone. I’m more myself when it’s just me.”

“You haven’t been yourself when you’re around me?” For some reason, that thought irritated me.

She paused for a minute, considering, then breathed out a laugh. “I actually have been, with you. I haven’t been pulling my punches like usual. People get… I don’t know. I usually have to water myself down to make myself more palatable to others. I’m too much, you know?”

“If anyone thinks you’re too much, they can fuck off and find something less.”

She blinked at me, a piece of funnel cake frozen in the air between the plate and her mouth. Then she shot her full-watt smile in my direction, and my heart cracked down the middle. Just split right in two.

“I think I need that on a bumper sticker.” She grinned, knocking her shoulder into my chest. “Anyway, I haven’t ever found anyone who accepts me as I am, completely. Besides my parents, anyway. They’ve always supported me and what I want to do.”

“Like traveling around the country and protesting on a whim.”

She laughed. “Exactly. Though that’s not a surprise since both are in my blood. My mom’s always been a free spirit, just going where the wind would take her, but if she was protesting, I was with her. She has a picture of the two of us from when I was maybe six months old, just strapped to her chest in a baby carrier while she marched.”

“What about your dad?”

“He’s not much for attending protests, but he supports us both. He’s on the other side of the law, usually getting one of us out of trouble.”

My brows flew up. “He’s a cop?”

“Nope, lawyer. Pretty much as straitlaced as you are,” she teased. “I have no idea how they work so well together. They just do. They’ve been together for thirty-five years. Guess there’s something to be said for that whole opposites attract thing.”

My throat tightened, remembering what Beck had said about that very thing. Was that what was going on here? Why I felt so fucking drawn to her? Why I couldn’t go a goddamn hour without thinking about her?

“That’s…a different way to grow up,” I finally said. “Being carted to protests, I mean.”

“Is it?” She tipped her head to the side, studying me before finally shrugging. “It’s all I’ve known, so it doesn’t seem strange to me. I love that she encouraged that in me. Fighting for something you believe in is the most important thing you can do.”

“Sorry to interrupt,” someone called, and I turned to find Harper striding toward us.

“Harper, hey!” Luna twisted around and shot her a smile. “How’re you feeling? You been drinking lots of water?”

Harper held up a half-full water bottle. “I’ll be peeing like a racehorse before too long, but I’m doing as you ordered. And I feel amazing. Your hands are magic. I’ll definitely be adding that to the article.”

I narrowed my eyes at her. “Article?”

With a laugh, she held up a hand and shook her head. “I still haven’t gotten an answer yet, but I can’t help but take notes while I’m here. I’ve practically written the whole piece already, but that doesn’t mean Starlight Cove will get the feature. I’m hoping it does, though.”

“That’s great to hear.” Luna grinned.

“Not gonna lie,” Harper said, “there wasn’t a whole lot of love lost between me and this place, but I’m starting to see the appeal again.”

“It grows on you, doesn’t it? The town, I mean. I love it.” Luna smiled, her gaze shifting to mine as she added quietly, “And all the people in it.”