Justin sat up, breathing hard, the ire in his eyes as tangible as the floor they were sitting on. “I’ll kill the motherfucker. Who is he?”
Chloe didn’t answer. She needed to finish the story before she chickened out. “I stumbled back, and he hit me again. That sent me to the ground. There was broken glass on the pavement. A beer bottle I guess.”
Justin pushed to his feet, hands fisting, but she didn’t slow down. She had to get it out.
“I got glass in my chest and hands. My face hurt so bad, but he was coming at me, and I was using my heels to push myself backward. A car pulled into the parking lot and the headlights hit us at the same time his friends came out of the bar and saw what was happening. One guy yelled his name and ran over. When the guy who hit me turned to look at him, I got to my feet. The other guy grabbed him and held him back, hollering ‘What the fuck, man? You don’t hit a woman!’ and that kind of stuff. The other guys came to help me, but I was shaking and hurt, off-balance. I was terrified, and I remember being pissed that I hadn’t been able to defend myself. One of the girls gave me a ride home. She tried to get me to go to the cops, but I just wanted that guy out of my life. She helped me take out the slivers of glass and lent me makeup to cover the redness and bruising that had started to show on my face in case Serena was home. I didn’t want my sister to see me like that. That was the last time I went out with anyone who was tough.” She swallowed hard. “Until you.”
“Who the hell was he, Chloe? I’m not fucking around.”
She finally looked up at him. His nostrils were flaring, his muscles flexed, veins swollen. She’d wanted to help Justin understand that people could change on a dime, and instead she’d taken him over the edge. She pushed to her feet and touched his hand. “Don’t do this to yourself, Justin. It was forever ago, and I never saw him or his friends again.”
“The asshole needs to pay for what he did to you,” he seethed, pacing the floor. “If Con had seen it, or any of the other Dark Knights, that fucker would have been dealt with and put behind bars where he belongs.”
“I’m pretty sure his friends took care of roughing him up. But it doesn’t matter one way or the other. Serena doesn’t know about it, and I’m not going to let you dredge up something from my past. Look at me, Justin,” she demanded.
He stopped pacing and met her gaze, hurt and anger warring in his eyes.
“You of all people should understand leaving the past in the past.”
His shoulders dropped just a fraction, but it was enough for her to know he’d heard her. She went to him and took his hand, feeling inexplicably calm. She led him back to the blankets and pulled him down beside her. Then she straddled his lap to get his undivided attention and caressed his jaw, hoping to soothe the tension there.
“You want to protect me from my past, but that’s over with, Justin. The same way we can’t change what happened to your mother. I didn’t tell you that story to make you mad. I wanted you to see that even when we are looking for all the signs, we can still be blindsided. Even smart people make bad decisions. Your mother was young, and your father may have seemed like a completely different man when they met.”
“I hear you, but…” He wrapped his arms around her and touched his forehead to the center of her breastbone. “The thought of that guy hurting you…”
She kissed his head and gently cradled his face in her hands, lifting it so she could look into his tortured eyes. “I know how you feel because I want to go back in time and save you from all the stuff your father did and from being there when your mother died. But we can’t do any of those things. All we can do is look harder, listen more carefully, and try to make sure it never happens again.” She kissed him softly, again and again, light as a feather, until the tension in his jaw dissipated. “And love the hurt away.”
She took off her shirt, and his eyes found the scar on her chest. She saw him putting the pieces of her past together.
“Baby,” he said in a pained, craggy voice. He brushed his fingers over the scar, held them there for a moment, then pressed a kiss there. He lifted his gaze to hers and lowered her to the blanket, whispering, “Nobody will ever hurt you again.”
She wound her arms around him and said, “You can’t save me from the world, Justin.”
“I’ll never stop trying,” he promised.
“How about if we make enough happy memories to silence the bad ones?”
He lowered his lips to hers, kissing her tenderly as he undressed her, loving all her newly bared parts as if he were discovering them for the very first time. He kept his eyes on her as he stripped off his clothes and came down over her, muscles taut with remnants of all they’d shared, his beautiful, distraught eyes gazing into hers. They didn’t speak, didn’t kiss, and didn’t move. In the silence she heard whispers of bad memories vying to remain in the forefront. But as she ran her hands up his arms and over his back, his tension slowly dissipated, and she felt her own following suit, seeping out of her pores. She willed all those bad memories to follow the smoke from the fire up the chimney and fly away into the night.
“Chloe,” he whispered, a plea and an affirmation in one.
Their bodies came together with the grace of the sunrise and the heat of a storm. He didn’t kiss her as their passion built. He sank deeper, holding her gaze. The clarity of emotions in his eyes pushed all those ghosts to the side, telling her all the things his mouth couldn’t. She didn’t think their lovemaking could feel any better than it had. But this was different, like they’d finally broken the remaining chains that had weighed them down and allowed their hearts to truly beat as one.
Chapter Nineteen
CHLOE GLANCED IN her rearview mirror at Justin following her on his motorcycle as they headed to Summer House to meet their friends for breakfast Thursday morning. It had been four days since they’d confessed their deepest secrets, and Chloe was learning about the freedoms that came with trusting someone so implicitly. She could tell him anything, and that made what they had feel deeper, and truer, than anything she’d ever thought possible.
Over the nearly three weeks since he’d shown up at her house for that midnight dance, his romantic heart had her redefining her thoughts on what romance really meant. There was no doubt that bringing her flowers and creating a beach were romantic. The beach had been epic. But it was the little things he did every day that made her feel special, though they might not fit other people’s ideas of romance, that were becoming the very definition of it for Chloe. He made coffee for them in the mornings, and he walked her to her car before work. At night they sometimes talked for hours, and they didn’t harp on the past, which was nice. She knew she could talk about it if she wanted to, but there was no reason to dwell on ugly memories when their new ones were so beautiful. They talked about their lives—simple things like what they did during the day or what they hoped to do next week, next month, or next year. They discussed the complexities of their lives, too, like the programs she was developing and the ways in which Justin and Blaine were thinking about expanding their business. Justin told her about his visits with Mike when he checked in on him in the afternoons, how he feared losing him too soon. They visited Shadow nearly every day, and they both confessed how much they loved the pooch.
As she turned into the driveway toward the old Victorian inn overlooking Cape Cod Bay, she realized this was where it had all started for them.
She drove past the cottage that Desiree and Violet used as an art gallery, which had been damaged in the same storm that had brought Chloe and Justin to a near kiss. The cottage repairs were still under way. She parked in front of Summer House, and before she could open the car door, Justin was there, opening it for her. Romance at its best. He was always thinking of her, and she was falling for him, tumbling down that scary hill, and she didn’t want to slow down.
“This is where it all started, remember?” she said as she climbed from the car. “I was having breakfast with the girls when you came riding in on your mo
torcycle to save Violet from big, bad Andre.”
He drew her into his arms, just as he did every chance he got, and kissed her. “That was the day we were first introduced, but what I remember most is the first time I showed up to have breakfast with everyone. I’ll never forget the hunger in your eyes when you looked across the table and told me that the bagels and muffins I’d brought from the Blue Willow Bakery made me even hotter.”
She loved his elephantlike memory. “Is that why you wanted to stop at that bakery this morning for bagels and muffins?”
“My girl thinks bagels and muffins make me hotter. I’d be a fool not to hit that mark every chance I got.” He kissed her and said, “I’m thinking about buying the frigging bakery.”
She laughed and went to retrieve the goodies from the car, bending at the waist as she reached into the back seat. Justin moved behind her and placed his hands on her hips, pressing himself against her ass. She glared at him over her shoulder, unable to hide her smile. “Stop.” She grabbed the bakery box, and as she closed the car door with her hip, she said, “They’ll know why we’re late if you get me hot and bothered again.”
“I guarantee they already know why we’re late, babe. You can’t be around us and not feel our fireworks.” He took the box from her and put one arm around her waist. He kissed her neck and said, “Speaking of fireworks, you’re mine on July Fourth, right?”
“I’m always yours,” she said, reveling in how good it felt to say that.
“Good, because I’ll never get enough of you, sweet thing. The downside to that is knowing that while you’re giving my family the tour of LOCAL this afternoon, all I will be able to think about is bending you over your desk.”
Her body flamed at the thought. “Justin! Now that’s all I’ll be thinking about, too!”
He chuckled as they walked across the grass toward the inn. It was a warm sunny morning, and their friends’ voices carried in the air.
“This is a momentous occasion,” he said more seriously. “Our first breakfast as a couple with the Real Housewives of Bayside.”
They weren’t housewives, but they were gossips. “After how much I gushed over you to the girls at dinner last night, I’m sure all of Wellfleet knows we’re together.” As Chloe and her friends had planned after the last book club meeting, she’d met them at Common Grounds for dinner while Justin was at church.
“You gushed about your man?” he asked with a cocky grin.
“Shut up. You know I did.”
“It’d be hard not to since you’ve got the hottest commodity on the Cape.”
She rolled her eyes, and he laughed at her.
“But the gossip girls have never experienced the hottest couple on the Cape as a couple,” he pointed out. “It’s time to blow their minds.”
She had to admit that after watching most of her friends fall in love, she was excited to share her happiness with them. Her and Justin’s lives were blending together. It wasn’t seamless, as they had hiccups to figure out, like which house to stay at and fitting in all the things they each had going on. But she loved figuring those things out with him, seeing his boots by her door, their clothes mingling in the washer, their toiletries in each other’s bathrooms. She didn’t mind going back and forth between houses, and neither of them wanted to spend evenings apart. She’d spent time in the evenings working on Joey’s album and the boards for each of the animals for the adoption day event at Dwayne’s rescue and reading her book for the book club in Justin’s studio while he sculpted. He was making a special piece for Joey, and the sculpture for the rally was coming along beautifully. She loved watching him pour his heart into the pieces he made. Although the other evening she’d read erotic passages from her book to him while he was working and he didn’t get much sculpting done.
As they neared the yard where the table was set for breakfast, Chloe saw Emery and Serena talking by the kitchen door of the inn. Serena was dressed for work in a pretty blue shift, her Rachel McAdams hair flowing in gentle waves over her shoulders. Chloe hadn’t seen Emery in a while. She and Dean had recently announced that they were expecting a baby in January. Emery taught early-morning yoga classes. She was still wearing her yoga pants and a sports bra, and there was no hint of a baby belly yet. Chloe wondered what Emery would think of the new Chloe, who hung out with bikers and enjoyed it and gave up a modicum of control over her perfectly orchestrated life to fit into Justin’s.
Daphne ran past Emery, following Hadley as she chased Desiree’s scruffy pooch, Cosmos, and Chloe realized that this time next year, Desiree’s and Emery’s little ones would be joining them for breakfast. Everyone’s life was changing so fast. But this time Chloe wasn’t on the outside looking in. Her life was changing, too, in the very best of ways. She glanced at Justin, catching him watching her for the millionth time, and he blew her a kiss. She knew she’d never tire of that.
“Des, they’re here!” Emery called through the screen door. She jogged across the grass and said, “It’s about time you horndogs showed up,” and pushed open the gate to the side yard.
Cosmos sprinted past her, and Justin scooped him up with one hand, balancing the box of treats in the other as the pooch licked his face.
“It’s my fault we’re late,” Justin said with an impish grin. “I had Chloe chained to my bed.” He set Cosmos down and Cosmos darted back into the fenced yard.
Emery hugged Chloe and said, “Then by all means, go back home. We don’t want to cockblock one of our own.”
“I had no idea my sister was so kinky,” Serena teased.
Chloe rolled her eyes. “This is Justin you’re talking to, remember? He’ll say anything. He did not have me chained to the bed.” Although she kind of liked the idea of doing something so naughty with him.
“Well, that’s too bad.” Emery’s eyes lit up and she said, “I have handcuffs if you want to borrow them.”
Justin chuckled and reached for Chloe’s hand. He pressed a kiss to the back of it and said, “I’d never use handcuffs on this gorgeous lady. Silk ties are more our style.”
Great. Now I’ll be thinking about you bending me over my desk and tying me up with silk ties. It was going to be a very long day.
They followed the girls into the yard. Desiree came out of the kitchen door carrying a big bowl of blueberries and strawberries. Her long blond hair had gotten fuller with her pregnancy, and she was all burgeoning baby bump. It was true what they said about pregnant women glowing. Desiree looked radiant.
“Hi, Des. Let me take that.” Chloe took the bowl from her and said, “We brought bagels and muffins so you wouldn’t have to cook.”
“That’s sweet, but you know how some women nest by decorating the nursery or babyproofing the house?” Desiree rubbed her belly and said, “Apparently I nest by cooking. I’m convinced our little one is going to be a chef. Or maybe he or she will just be a big eater. Who knows. There are plates of waffles, bacon, and eggs inside.”
Justin set the bakery box on the table and said, “I’ll get them. You girls relax.”
“Hey, Justin,” Emery called after him. “The guys got a late start this morning and just left for their run. I’m not sure if they’ll be back in time for you to see them.”
“That’s okay.” He winked at Chloe and said, “I have nothing against eating breakfast with a harem of gorgeous women.”
Chloe set the bowl on the table, and the second Justin was inside the house, the girls huddled around her.
“Quick, give us the scoop. Scale of one to ten. How does he treat you?” Emery said.
Chloe’s pulse quickened. “Ten.”
“How’s the sex?” Emery asked.
“Twenty, and don’t ask for details,” Chloe said quickly. Their sex life was beyond incredible, but she wasn’t about to share those details with the gossip girls.
“Go, Justin,” Serena said.
“I’m jealous,” Daphne said, keeping an eye on Hadley and Cosmos.
“Well, if she’s not sh
aring sexy details, then that about covers it for me.” Emery plucked a strawberry from the bowl and sat down at the table.
“I bet I would have heard all the details if I’d made it to Common Grounds for dinner with the book club girls last night,” Daphne complained. “But Hadley was so cranky, I didn’t want to leave her.”
“You didn’t miss any details, Daph,” Chloe reassured her. “I didn’t share with them, either.”
Desiree, the most proper of all her friends, sat beside her and said, “I don’t want those kinds of details, but I am wondering what it’s like for you after playing cat and mouse with Justin for so long. Are you happy?”
“I’m happier than I ever imagined possible. I always thought I needed certain things in a man,” Chloe said as she and Serena sat down at the table. “It turns out, I just needed a certain man. Justin is wonderful. Believe it or not, he’s romantic and sweet. He’s good to me, you guys. And you know he’s funny, charming, pushy.” She stopped talking as he came outside carrying a tray of food. He looked at her with wanting eyes and lifted his chin. She met the eager eyes of her girlfriends and lowered her voice to say, “He’s everything.”
Justin set the tray on the table and said, “Y’all look guilty. Did I miss something?”
They all said “No” at once.
“You all suck at lying.” He grabbed a piece of bacon and bit into it. “Des, this spread looks great. Thanks for cooking.”
A Little Bit Wicked (The Wickeds Page 27