21. Hadley #2
“I think you love people like it’s your job to protect them.” Emotion catches in my throat. “But I don’t think anybody ever taught you that love also means letting yourself be protected too.”
The silence afterward feels enormous. Nolan goes completely still.
And then like a boulder has been lifted from his chest, I feel him exhale.
His arms tighten around me suddenly.
“I’m trying,” he murmurs against my hair.
Emotion surges painfully behind my ribs.
“I know.”
And I do know.
Maybe that’s why this hurts so much. Neither of us knows how to let the other love us without first trying to protect them. Nolan isn’t pulling away because he loves me less. He’s pulling inward because loving me this much scares him more than anything ever has.
I don’t remember falling asleep.
One minute I’m curled against Nolan on the couch while rain hits the apartment windows and his hand moves up and down my back.
The next, I’m waking in his bed to the sound of water tapping against glass.
The room is dark except for the faint gold glow of marina lights slipping through the curtains.
For a second, I don’t move.
I just listen.
The rain.
The soft creak of boats shifting below.
Nolan’s breathing beside me.
Except it isn’t steady. Not in the way it should be if he were sleeping.
I open my eyes and find him lying on his back, one arm tucked behind his head, staring at the ceiling like it might have answers hidden somewhere in the dark.
“Nolan?” I whisper.
His head turns toward me. Like he’s been waiting for the sound of my voice.
“Sorry,” he murmurs.
The apology makes something inside me ache.
“You’re thinking too loud again.”
A faint smile ghosts across his mouth, but it doesn’t reach his eyes.
“Yeah.”
I shift closer, propping myself onto one elbow so I can see his face more clearly in the dim light.
“You’re still worried.”
His gaze drops to the place where my hand rests against his ribs.
“Yeah,” he admits.
I reach for his hand beneath the blankets and thread our fingers together. His grip tightens.
Not enough to hurt. Enough to tell me how badly he needs something steady.
“You want to tell me the real version?” I ask.
Rain slides down the windows. Somewhere below, a dock line knocks against a piling.
Nolan stares at our joined hands for a long moment. And I wait, because I’m starting to understand that waiting is sometimes the closest thing to reaching him.
Finally, he says, “The marina might not survive another major hurricane season without outside money. A lot of what we’ve done so far has been cosmetic. New decking. Repairs people can actually see.”
He exhales hard.
“But the pilings under the west docks are reaching the end of their life. The bulkhead still needs reinforcement. Those aren’t projects I can keep pushing to next year.”
His jaw tightens.
“I’ve been trying to secure the rest of the financing before hurricane season. If I can’t, I’m gambling that one bad storm won’t hit first.”
His laugh is humorless.
“That’s not a bet I’m willing to make with this town.”
Hearing the truth spoken plainly makes the fear real in a way my imagination couldn’t.
The marina might not survive.
This place.
The docks.
The lights.
The heart of the future he’s been building.
The future we’ve been building.
I go still beside him, but I don’t pull away.
I don’t panic.
I don’t fill the silence with reassurance I’m not sure either of us would believe.
I just listen.
Nolan’s throat works once.
“The investors know I’m cornered,” he continues. “Which means every deal starts coming with more strings attached.”
“What kind of strings?”
He laughs once under his breath.
Nothing amusing about it.
“Everything I hate.”
Luxury branding.
Corporate oversight.
Membership exclusivity.
Turning the marina into something polished and expensive instead of local and alive.
He doesn’t list all of it, but I can hear the details inside the silence.
And I know Nolan well enough now to understand what it costs him even to say that much.
This isn’t just about money. It’s about identity.
About finally loving something and being terrified that saving it means changing it into something unrecognizable.
“You don’t want that,” I whisper.
“No.”
The answer is immediate.
Certain.
The first fully certain thing he’s said all night.
Somewhere along the way, this place stopped being business entirely. Now it’s personal. Coral Bell Cove is full of places people would overlook if they only cared about shine. Things that hold history in their bones.
Nolan fell in love with the marina because it survived. Because it still mattered even damaged. Maybe because some part of him recognized himself in it.
I swallow against the sudden pressure in my throat.
“What happens if you say no?”
The question changes the room.
Nolan’s body goes still beside mine. His hand tightens around my fingers.
The rain suddenly sounds louder against the glass.
“I don’t know,” he admits finally.
My heart aches so badly I have to move closer.
I can’t fix this for him. I can’t make the numbers kinder or the storm season gentler. I can’t make the investors want less.
But I can be here.
I can keep proving, over and over, that loving him doesn’t mean expecting him to have every answer. I slide one hand lightly along his jaw, my thumb brushing across his cheek.
The touch makes his eyes close for half a second.
Like relief hurts too.
“You know what I think?” I whisper.
His eyes open again, and he shakes his head once.
“I think you’re carrying the weight of this entire town on your shoulders because you finally love something enough to fight for it.”
Emotion flashes across his face. He looks wrecked by its accuracy.
“But Nolan?” I say.
His gaze locks on mine.
“You don’t have to decide the future of your entire life alone.”
Nolan studies me for a long moment before the corner of his mouth finally lifts.
“You know something?”
“What?”
“When I bought the marina...” He shakes his head. “I honestly thought it was going to be the most complicated relationship in my life.”
I laugh.
“How’s that working out for you?”
He glances around the apartment before looking back at me.
“Turns out the marina’s easier.”
“Excuse me?”
“The marina only yells at me during storms.”
I swat lightly at his chest.
“Rude.”
He catches my hand before I can pull it away, his smile softening into something quieter.
“Worth it, though.”
With steady hands, he grips the edge of my nightshirt and pulls it over my head, the loose waves of my hair falling and curling around my breasts.
With a jerk, I’m tugged forward across the bed, and I rest my hands on Nolan’s shoulders as he slithers down it, kicking the sheets aside.
He presses a soft kiss right above my navel, then works his way across my hip with more soft pecks.
I’m so lost in the nips and licks of his mouth that I barely register when my pajama shorts fall to the side of the bed.
Once free from my clothes, his rugged hands slide up the back of my thighs and past the barrier of my lace panties to grip my ass in his palms. A rumbling groan vibrates against my stomach as he squeezes my cheeks in his hands.
“Your skin is so soft. I bet you’re already wet for me.”
Nolan doesn’t wait for a response, nor do I think he wants one. He slides his hand under my ass toward the center of my thighs, finding me slick with desire for him.
Throwing my head back in pleasure, I moan his name, my voice sounding more like a growl to my own ears.
“What do you want, sweetheart?” he asks as he continues to torment my body with his hand sliding between my folds.
“Your cock,” I growl. My hips rock against his hand, trying to guide his movements, but the stubborn man ignores my pleas.
When he slips a finger inside my channel, I almost sigh with relief, but even with the thrusting of his finger, it’s not the sensation I’m seeking.
“More,” I groan as I close my eyes and picture myself riding his cock.
He joins another finger deep in my sheath. “This isn’t enough for you?” he teases, and it’s as if the man has a death wish.
My head pops up on my neck, fanning my hair all around my face, and I look down to find Nolan staring up at me with a grin as wide as the Grand Canyon, but I don’t miss the tight restraint he’s keeping on himself.
A restraint holding back his dominant side to take over and fuck me wildly. A restraint that I’m about to break.
“Nolan, I swear that if you don’t put your massive dick inside me right now, I’m going to kick you out of this room and finish the job myself.”
A flash of something sinister crosses his face, and he retrieves his hand from beneath my panties and slips off the bed. Wordlessly, he strips himself of his boxers, his cock springing against his stomach when it’s let loose from behind its barriers.
In the dim moonlight, his body gleams. His arms flex as he reaches a hand under my neck and tilts my head up toward him, bringing my mouth into his reach.
He devours my kiss as if it’s the sweetest honey and he needs it to survive. It heats my body all over. I’m burning for him from just his kiss, and when his hand moves from behind my head to squeeze my breast, my blood begins to boil.
Then he begins to tease my core, sliding his rigid cock against my folds. I pray that he gives in to my urges, silently begging that he stops his relentless torment.
“Wait.”
His voice is soft.
“Condom?”
“I don’t think you need them anymore.”
He searches my face.
“You sure?”
A tiny nod.
“I had my appointment a couple of weeks ago.”
I brush my fingers across his jaw.
“And we both got tested.”
His shoulders visibly relax.
“Thank you for telling me,” he says as he rubs my clit with the tip of his cock.