Defiant Heart (Starlight Cove Book 1)

I DIDN’T NEED to look outside to know it was a full moon. It had to be, based on the clusterfuck that had been my day. There was the complaint about someone stealing three chickens from the Wilsons’ farm, a drunk man roaming down Main Street wearing only a T-shirt, bare ass and all his dangly parts hanging out for the world to see, and a welfare check on a woman who called dispatch, high as a kite, and claimed the wolves were after her. Not to mention how it’d started by dealing with the pain in my ass known as Luna. Or that kiss…and my reaction to it.

If anyone pressed me on it, I’d say it was fine. Perfunctory. Uninspired and bland. I sure as hell wouldn’t admit to it being the hottest kiss I’d had in recent—or even distant—memory and that I’d been hard enough to pound nails by the time I’d finally torn my mouth away from hers.

Christ, even the remembrance of her taste had me groaning, my cock twitching in my pants, and I forced away thoughts of where else she’d taste just as sweet. I did not need to be thinking about Luna in any capacity, but especially not what it’d be like to have her naked and writhing beneath me. What I needed was to forget today had ever happened.

Intent on doing just that, I removed my gear, stowed my gun in my safe, and slipped into a T-shirt and sweatpants before heading downstairs to preheat the oven for my gourmet meal of frozen pizza. I could’ve gone to the diner and had Beck whip me up something to take home, but doing that would’ve meant interacting with my family, and given where my lips had been hours prior, I didn’t think that was a great idea.

Before I could grab a beer and settle into my couch, my phone rang with Aiden’s ringtone. For half a second, I contemplated not answering. I had little doubt as to what this call was about, considering just that afternoon, Luna had filled out paperwork to officially become an employee of the resort—one we definitely shouldn’t have hired and almost certainly couldn’t pay. Was it too much to ask to get a little reprieve from that insufferable woman?

Yes, apparently, because I knew if I didn’t answer, one of two things would happen—he’d either call back, continually, until I did pick up, or he’d stop by and use his key to help himself inside.

Deciding a phone call was the lesser of two evils, I hit accept before it could go to voice mail. “Yeah.”

“You’re supposed to be keeping Luna in line, not having a goddamn spa day with her.”

I pulled a beer out of the fridge and popped the cap before taking a swig. “What the hell are you talking about?”

“She told Addison you’re taking two of her yoga classes and she’s giving you a massage.” Papers shifted on his end, probably from the front desk he couldn’t drag himself away from, despite it being damn near seven o’clock. “So, what, you’re consorting with the enemy now?”

I sighed, pinching the bridge of my nose as I dropped onto my couch, resting my beer bottle on my knee. I knew I shouldn’t have answered. “I thought you liked her.”

Every one of my brothers seemed to like her—with the exception of Levi, who, as far as I knew, hadn’t met her—Beck especially, and I refused to pay attention to how much that rankled me.

“I like her fine,” he said, his voice flat, as if he were discussing the new cashier at the Handy Mart. “I do not like how her latest whim could jeopardize the resort and the one break that’s finally in reach.”

My heart seized at the undercurrent of fear lacing Aiden’s words. He was the levelheaded one of our group. The one who kept things on track. Who didn’t get worked up if there wasn’t a reason to. But he sure as hell was worked up now.

“It’s going to be fine,” I said, the bite gone from my tone. “Luna and I…” I blew out a long breath and scrubbed a hand down my face. “We worked out an arrangement.”

An arrangement where she tricked me into getting her lips on mine and making my whole goddamn world implode, but considering Aiden’s current mind-set, it was probably best to keep that detail to myself.

“What happened to ‘We don’t negotiate with terrorists’?” he asked.

I rolled my eyes, settling back into my couch and taking a pull of my beer. “That’s the federal government. They have way more resources than I do. I make do with what I have, and what I have is a couple deputies and Beck’s cooking.”

“And your time, apparently,” he said dryly.

Not to mention my sanity. “Apparently.”

Aiden grunted, his ire cooling dramatically. “At least she plugged the diner on the Live. That was…amiable.”

Amiable wasn’t exactly a word I’d use in reference to Luna. Infuriating, insufferable, recalcitrant…yes. Amiable? Not around me.

“Speaking of amiable,” I said, “how long do I have to keep her…occupied?”

I had absolutely no excuse for why my brain supplied a litany of options I could enlist to keep her occupied, many of which involved my handcuffs but none of which involved talking. Or clothes.

“Probably a week.” He paused. “Starting next week.”

“Why the hell didn’t you just say two weeks?”

“Because I figured you’d get pissy about that. I was right, by the way.”

I bit back a growl of frustration. “I don’t think you understand what you’re asking of me.”

Being around Luna tested my patience, my resolve, and my control more than anyone had ever done before. And I fucking hated it. Control was what had gotten me where I was today. It was what had kept this family running when everything else was crumbling down around it. Control kept me sane.

And Luna was like freeing a swarm of bees in the middle of Main Street or setting a zoo’s worth of animals loose on the interstate—pure, unsuppressed chaos.

The smart thing to do would be to stay as far away from her as possible. Wait out the storm until she decided she’d had enough of Starlight Cove and took her tiny little tin can house and left in a haze of incense and essential oils, never to be seen or heard from again.

My stomach cramped as the thoughts flitted through my mind. Fuck, I needed to eat.

“Come on, it’s not that bad,” he said. “It’s just until the journalist can get the lay of the land and see if the resort would be a viable option. And I fucking hope they see it as a viable option.”

“Did you know the journalist scouting the place is Harper?”

“Harper?” he asked. “As in…Levi’s Harper?”

“Don’t think she’s been Levi’s anything for years, but yeah. She didn’t look real happy to be here, or to hear his name.”

“Fuck,” he groaned, drawing out the word, and I could nearly see him scrubbing a hand over his face. “We need this, Brady. I…I don’t know if we’ll survive without it.”

Hearing Aiden admit what I already feared felt like a vise gripping my heart. This resort was the last thing we had of our mom—the one parent we’d always been able to count on, no matter that the other wasn’t far. It’d been in her family for generations, and the six of us would do whatever we could to make sure it didn’t crash and burn on our watch, with no help from our father.

“I know.” I ran a hand over my jaw, resting my head back on the couch cushions. “I’ll handle Luna, all right? She filed some bullshit paperwork that’s going to pause progress on the demolition for a bit anyway. It’s a waste of time and resources for us, but it should keep her out of trouble until we’ve secured our place in the article, at least.”

“Well, that’s great for a temporary solution, but how exactly are you going to handle her otherwise? You can’t just handcuff her anytime you want.”

The image of her on my bed, hands stretched over her head and handcuffed to the headboard, popped into my mind, and I had to bite back a groan. Whether it was of frustration or need, I didn’t know. The two seemed to coalesce whenever my thoughts turned to her.

“I’ll figure it out.”

Regardless of what I did, I just needed to keep my head straight when it came to her. Especially if I was going to be around her when I didn’t have the badge between us. I’d never once been in her presence out of my uniform, and I’d have preferred to keep it that way.

Too bad I wasn’t going to get my wish.