CHAPTER 17
RHODES
As I wrap a towel around my waist and tuck it into place, I hear someone knocking on my front door. My eyebrows furrow together because I’m not expecting anyone. Who could it be?
I debate grabbing a pair of sweatpants, but when the knocking happens again and is more insistent the second time, I stride straight to the front door. The third knock starts just as I reach the door, this time a staccato rhythm has my heart pounding in my chest.
Is something wrong? Did something happen to Helen? Should I have checked my phone first?
Without thinking, I swing open the door and freeze.
Helen’s eyes widen before her gaze sweeps down my body and then back up. Where the first perusal is fast, like she’s shocked with what she finds in front of her, the second time is not. As she looks me over again, I can feel the slow caress of her eyes against my skin.
She takes in the few rogue droplets of water as they slide down my chest. When she takes in the tattoo on my ribs, she licks her lips. My cock takes notice and I already know I’m going to make a fool of myself.
But I can’t find it in me to care.
Not when my woman is standing in front of me. As I look her over, I notice how she’s dressed in comfy clothes and has a bag slung over her shoulder. The sight of it has my heart pounding in my chest.
She’s staying the night? Fuck, yes.
As I look at her face, I can see the anxiousness there. Protectiveness surges in my chest along with fierce loyalty reserved only for her. Always for her.
“Do you,” her voice is husky with an edge of need but some of it is gone after she clears her throat and starts again with a shake of her head, “do you always answer the door like this? Because if you do, we might need to have a conversation about boundaries and proper etiquette.” Her eyes flick down to my dick which is obviously happy to see her.
She arches an eyebrow as she meets my gaze again and sasses, “Sheriff.”
“Sweetheart,” I drawl and step aside to let her walk through the door.
The moment she does it’s like my vision sharpens predatorily. She’s here. In my space. Again.
I never want her to leave.
“I’m not sure I can talk to you like this.” She waves her hand in my general direction while making sure she isn’t looking at me.
It’s fucking adorable.
“Helen,” my voice is rough and the edge of steel in it is easy to hear.
“I’m serious,” she insists and even stomps her foot a little. When she looks toward me, she covers her eyes with her hands but then peeks out between her fingers. “You’re very distracting.”
When I step closer to her, she makes a little squeaking sound which has laughter rumbling in my chest. “You’re adorable,” I murmur, feeling the room, feeling my entire fucking existence pulling closer as if we’re all that matters.
“I’m not adorable,” she scrunches up her face, but it doesn’t do a damn thing to make my words untrue, quite the opposite.
“Are you going to give your man a kiss hello?” There’s a challenge in my words and when she peeks up at me, I wiggle my eyebrows lasciviously and garner a blinding smile for my efforts.
I’ll be a fool for her. Happily.
As long as I get to see her smile. If I can get her to laugh too? Talk about a good fucking day.
“You’re silly,” she whispers the words, but I can see the way her eyes glaze over with need.
“I’m dead fucking serious, Sweetheart.”
She makes a humming sound, but she does tip up on her tip toes and winds her arms around my neck. I shudder at the contact, and I don’t even try to hide it. There’s no reason for me to hide what she does to me; I want her to know.
The last thing I want is for her to ever question what she does to me. Or how much I crave her.
She teases me, “You think I should kiss you hello?”
“I am your man,” I point out.
Helen tilts her head to the side before a soft smile tilts her lips. “Well,” she concedes, “that is true. Better keep you happy since I didn’t show up with food.”
While I chuckle, she pulls me down toward her and I go willingly. She could lead me anywhere and I would follow. The moment our mouths meet, we melt into each other.
Our kiss starts out slowly, but it heats quickly. It’s passionate and deep while riding the edge of feral in a way which only makes me harder for her. As much as I want to get completely lost in this, in her, something is gnawing at the back of my mind.
I pick her up and grin as she lets out a sound of surprise and clings to my shoulders. Even though I want to cart her back to my room, I choose to settle on the couch and love the way she settles so damn perfectly on my lap.
Helen gives me her trust when she leans into me while knowing I’ve got her. She sighs and I can’t help but feel fucking amazing as her entire body relaxes.
“After your visit,” she begins and shoots me a nervous look that has my hackles metaphorically rising, “my dad requested my presence in his office. He wanted to discuss the rumors floating around about us being seen together.”
“He had an issue with me kissing you?”
Even though I ask the question, I don’t fucking care about the answer. Oh, I care about what she’s going to tell me because it has clearly upset her, but the last thing I care about is Mayor Cowell’s opinion on my relationship with his daughter.
I might have cared before. Before she told me all the ways she’s had to put others ahead of herself. Before she told me about how family to her really meant her sister because her dad wasn’t ever truly there, not when it mattered the most.
But now I know the kind of man he is and the kind of pressure he never thought twice about putting on his daughter’s shoulders. The man doesn’t get to judge us being together.
“Dad informed me of the great embarrassment I caused him with my actions,” the bitterness in her voice has me tightening my hold on her. She scoffs and shakes her head. “He expected me to just roll over and go along with his edict about me not seeing you.”
Her eyes take on a faraway look to them, but when her gaze locks with mine they clear. And becomes fierce.
My dick throbs in response. If she notices, she doesn’t comment on it.
“I told him he doesn’t get to have an opinion on my relationship with you.
” Pride swells in my chest with her words.
“I reminded him that you’re a good man. He tried to tell me about how dangerous your job is.
” She purses her lips, her entire demeanor prickly.
Fucking cute. “When he tried to tell me to stay away from you, I told him no.”
Her words clang through the house with a finality that has my heart pounding in my chest. I know how much effort she’s put in to not rocking the boat when it comes to her dad, usually because she’s protecting her sister. But this time she put her foot down.
She told her father no.
“You told him no?”
I need to hear it again.
Just to be sure.
Maybe I’m dreaming right now.
She gives one curt nod. “I told him no.”
“You stood up for me? To your father?”
A sweet smile curls her lips, and I fall deeper into her brown eyes.
“Of course I did. You’re a good man and when I pushed him and asked him why I should stay away from you, he couldn’t give me an answer.
Even if he did, I still would have told him no.
” The sigh she lets out is weary and her next words tell me exactly why. “Dad always really liked Thad.”
Her face screws up and the distaste and disgust are clear to see in her expression. I have to blink back the anger which wants to overtake me. Her Dad was fine with that sleazeball, but not me? Yeah, I just don’t fucking think so.
“The only other time I’ve really stood up to him was after we broke up and Dad kept trying to talk me into giving him another chance.
” She looks away from me, her eyes turning hazy like she’s more in the memory of the moment long ago than here with me.
“That day I looked him in the eyes and really let him see my pain, not just from being cheated on, but all of it. It was the only time I didn’t allow either of us to hide behind the masks, the fake. ”
My fingers start to run through her hair, soothing her, telling her that I’m here for here. Even as she gets lost in the past. Because I know she needs to; I’ll always give her what she needs.
“I asked him if that weasel was the type of man he wanted me to be with, to love fully, to give myself blindly to. I asked him if he would protect me and who would be there when it all fell apart. Then I told him I didn’t think he would be there for me when the nights were too long, and the tears wouldn’t stop coming.
It’s the only time I remember him cracking, breaking, in front of me.
” Her voice drops to something intimate, something sacred, “I told him he was no longer allowed to be involved in my love life, no matter what, because I couldn’t trust him when it came to my heart. ”
“He never pushed again until today?” My words are soft, meant to coax and not startle.
She nods, the action absent at first, but then her eyes focus on me again. “No, and now he knows I won’t be entertaining any of his bullshit when it comes to you. I don’t think it was even about you,” the sadness in her voice guts me, “I think it was just an attempt to control me.”
“Maybe he sees what he could be missing?” I’m afraid my question sounds like a lie wrapped up in possibility, but it’s worth asking all the same.
“No,” the word is hollow, “I don’t think that’s it. But it’s not really my problem.”
I blow out a breath and lower my head until our foreheads are touching. “I’m proud of you.”
The laugh that comes out of her is self-deprecating; it grates against my skin. “Don’t be. He shouldn’t even think he has a say in the first place.”