Chapter 4
T onya
The call came while Kevin and I were making dinner together—something simple but intimate, like we'd been doing it for years instead of days. When Michael's name flashed on my phone screen, I felt the familiar dread settle in my stomach like ice water.
"Answer it," Kevin said. "Put it on speaker. Let's hear what he has to say."
My hand trembled as I swiped to accept the call. "I want you to stop calling me."
"Tonya, sweetheart." His voice was silk and steel, the tone that used to make me feel cherished and now made my skin crawl. "I've been so worried about you. This little adventure has gone on long enough."
I glanced at Kevin, who was standing rigidly by the kitchen counter, every muscle in his massive frame coiled for violence. His dark eyes were fixed on my phone with lethal intensity.
"I told you, I'm not coming back."
"Don't be ridiculous. You can't survive without me, and we both know it.
" Michael's laugh was indulgent, like I was a child throwing a tantrum.
"You've proven your point. You're independent, you're strong, blah blah blah. Now come home before you get yourself killed playing pioneer woman in your grandmother’s cabin in Vermont. "
"I'm fine where I am."
"Are you? Because I've had some research done on your new... friend." The way he said 'friend' made it sound dirty. "Kevin Pike, thirty, no college education, runs a small-time maple syrup operation. Really, Tonya? Is this the best you can do?"
Beside me, Kevin's jaw clenched, but his expression remained dangerously calm.
"That's none of your business," I said.
"Everything about you is my business. You're still my fiancée." His voice hardened. "I've spoken to your parents again. They want me to bring you home to Manhattan with me."
Of course they'd sided with him. They always did.
"I don't need my parents' permission or yours to live my own life where ever and with whomever I want." I looked up at Kevin and he nodded encouragingly at me.
"You need someone's guidance, clearly. Look at the mess you've made.
Stranded in the wilderness, dependent on some backwoods nobody who probably hasn't seen a woman in years.
" His voice turned cruel. "He's using you, sweetheart.
Men like that always do. Taking advantage of a vulnerable woman for as long as it's convenient. "
I looked at Kevin, who was listening to every word with narrowed eyes. But Michael was wrong. Whatever Kevin felt for me, it wasn't about using me. He was helping me.
"You don't know anything about him."
"I know he's not good enough for you. I know he can't give you the life you deserve. And I know that by tomorrow morning, you'll be ready to come home where you belong."
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"Well, for starters, I've been tracking you since you left. Did you really think I wouldn't put a tracker on your luggage?" He sounded smug, satisfied. "I know exactly where you are. Sugar Maple Ridge Road. Very remote. Very isolated."
That bastard! I was going to take an axe to my Louis Vuitton and chuck it in the landfill.
"Secondly," he continued, "I've discovered some interesting things about your financial situation.
Remember all those documents you signed when we got engaged?
The ones I told you were just to simplify our wedding planning?
" His laugh was cruel. "Turns out I have power of attorney over more than you realized. "
"You can't—" I started, but he cut me off.
"I can. And I have. I’ve cancelled all your credit cards and shut you out of our joint bank account. It’s all under my control until you come to your senses." His voice turned silky again. "You have nothing, Tonya. No money, no resources, no way to survive without me."
"I don't need your money.”
"Don't you? Because last I checked, you don't have a job, no savings, no credit cards and no way to support yourself.”
I felt the walls closing in around me, the same suffocating sensation I'd lived with for months before I escaped.
He'd planned this. All of it. Every document I'd signed, every financial decision I'd let him handle—it had all been to control me and leave me helpless without him. At least he didn’t know about the money I was getting for the totaled Mercedes.
"I'll call you back in a few hours," Michael continued. "Give you time to think about your situation. I'm sure you'll see reason soon enough."
The line went dead.
I stared at the phone in my trembling hands, feeling like I was drowning. Without my credit cards, I couldn’t afford the repairs on my grandmother’s house. Without any money, I was just freeloading on Kevin.
"Tonya." Kevin's voice was gentle but firm. "Look at me."
I raised my eyes to meet his, and what I saw there stole my breath. Not pity or concern, but support and faith.
"He can't control you from New York," Kevin said. "And he sure as hell can't force you to go back."
"You don't understand," I said. "I had signed over everything to him when we got engaged. I'm completely dependent on him financially."
"No," Kevin said, moving closer. "You're not."
"He’s right. I don't have anything."
"You have me." His hands settled on my shoulders, warm and reassuring. "You have a place here, with me. You have skills you're learning, work you can do. You have value that has nothing to do with money."
“I’m such an idiot for signing everything without reading it.”
Kevin's hands framed my face, forcing me to meet his eyes. "Stop. Just stop. You trusted him and he betrayed you. That’s on him. Not you."
“He owns me.”
“He does not.”
I wish I could believe him. "I'm useless."
"You are not."
"Then what am I?" The question came out broken, desperate.
The intensity in his dark eyes made my breath catch. Something shifted in his expression—went from protective to hungry in a heartbeat that made my pulse stutter.
"You're everything."
The words hung between us for one suspended moment. Then he moved.
His hand came up to cup the back of my neck, fingers threading through my hair with a possessiveness that should have scared me but instead sent heat spiraling through my core. He pulled me to him—not rough, but absolute. Claiming.
When his mouth crashed down on mine, I gasped against his lips. This wasn't gentle. This wasn't tentative. This was raw need barely held in check, desire that had been building since the moment we met finally breaking free.
His lips were firm, demanding, coaxing mine open with an expertise that made my knees weak. When his tongue swept into my mouth, tasting me, claiming me, I moaned—a sound I'd never made before, pulled from somewhere deep and primal.
He swallowed the sound, one massive hand still fisted in my hair, the other sliding down to grip my waist. His fingers spanned almost completely around me, a reminder of his size, his strength, how easily he could break me—and how carefully he was choosing not to.
I grabbed onto his shoulders for balance, feeling solid muscle bunch under my fingers. He was so big, so warm, so overwhelmingly male that I felt delicate in a way I'd never experienced. Not weak—cherished. Protected. Wanted.
The kiss deepened, turned desperate. His beard scraped against my skin, rough and masculine, so different from Michael's always-smooth face. This was real. Raw. A man who worked with his hands claiming a woman he wanted with a hunger that stole my breath.
When he finally pulled back—both of us breathing hard, my lips swollen and tingling—he didn't go far. His forehead pressed against mine, his warm breath mingling with my own.
"Tonya," he said, my name rough on his tongue, almost reverent.
I couldn't speak. Couldn't think. Every nerve ending was on fire, my body humming with want I'd never felt before. Michael's kisses had been controlled, calculated—a means to an end. This was different. This was Kevin losing control because of me. For me.
His thumb stroked along my jaw, gentle despite the hunger still burning in his dark eyes.
"Michael can take your money," he said roughly. "He can freeze your accounts, cancel your cards, whatever else he thinks will hurt you. But he can't take this. He can't take what's between us."
"Kevin..."
"Stay with me," he said, his voice raw with emotion. "Not because you have nowhere else to go, but because this is where you belong. Here, with me, building something real."
I searched his eyes, looking for any hint of obligation or pity. Instead, I found something that made my heart race—desire so intense it took my breath away.
"Show me," I whispered. "Show me I'm more than just a burden."
KEVIN
The words were barely out of her mouth before I was lifting her, my hands spanning her waist as I sat her on the kitchen counter. She gasped at the sudden movement, her legs automatically wrapping around my hips to steady herself.
"You want me to show you?" I stepped between her thighs, pressing close enough that she could feel exactly what she did to me. "You want me to prove that you're not a burden?"
Her pupils dilated as she felt my hardness against her core. "Yes."
"You're not a responsibility, Tonya." I slid my hands up her sides, my thumbs brushing the underside of her breasts through her soft sweater. "You're not some charity case I'm taking pity on."
I leaned down to kiss her neck, tasting the rapid pulse at her throat. She tilted her head back, giving me better access, a soft moan escaping her lips.
"You're a woman I want so badly I can barely think straight," I continued, my voice rough against her skin. "A woman who makes me hard just by walking into the room. A woman who's driving me insane with need."
My hands found the hem of her sweater, and she lifted her arms to help me pull it over her head. Underneath, she wore a simple cotton bra that somehow looked sexier than any lingerie I'd ever seen.