Beholden: A Small-Town Standalone Romance (Carmel Cove Book 1)

by Dr. Rebecca Sharp

  “We’re going to figure this out. Together.” He brushed my hair back from my face, desire burning hotly in his eyes, and growled, “But first, the man who loves you is going to show you just how damn much…”

  I sucked in a breath as he lifted me back into his arms, shivering as need zipped straight down to my core and exploded into hungry lust. My arms locked around his neck and my legs wrapped around his waist as he carried me to the house.

  I needed everything about this moment.

  The world could wait.

  The world could wait because love came first.

  And, as much as I needed to hear his words, now, I needed to feel him, to be with him. I needed to know, in the most basic way, that he wouldn’t leave because he was a part of me.

  His mouth covered mine again. With each step, I felt the hard length of him growing between my legs, eager to possess me like the rest of him did—with demanding confidence. Our breaths grew ragged, panting and hungry by the time we reached the door.

  The things I came back to Carmel afraid of—tethers I thought were anchors to pull me down, I now realized were fine strings attached to the kind of love that lifted me up like a balloon and let me soar.

  “I love you,” I murmured as the door slammed behind us.

  And then my back was against the door, and Eli’s hot mouth was back to possessing mine. Heat exploded in every cell, needing only one thing to survive. Him.

  I moaned into the kiss, my tongue seeking the firm velvet of his, claiming him for myself. Claiming his kiss. With the kind of desperation that can only be fueled by the threat of loss, our need devoured us. Our love consumed us.

  I rolled my hips against his, reveling in his tortured groan even as my body turned to mush.

  “Fuck, Laurel,” he said, gravelly, grinding his erection against me and making me squirm. “The thought of that fucker’s hands on you—” he broke off to kiss me roughly again.

  The way he held me. The raw rage that scorched underneath each touch. That was his weakness.

  “I can’t—” He panted harshly, unhinged need to claim warring with aching want to be gentle. “I won’t lose you. I’ll do anything to keep you safe, but fuck if I can love you slow right now.”

  He didn’t know how to explain, only to show me what the thought did to him—and what he needed to make it better.

  The man who always held it all together, crumbled at the thought of someone threatening me… hurting me. He crumbled and lost control, needing to prove I was here and all his.

  And that vulnerability sent the most delicious thrill through my body. A vulnerability no one else saw because no one else created it. And that was how I knew his love for me was real and not just frivolity.

  “I need you, Eli,” I reassured him, dragging his mouth back to mine. “All I need is you.”

  His growl assaulted my lips as his tongue laid siege to mine. His fingers dug into my ass, squeezing and pulling the flesh as his fingers searched lower where I needed him. I wiggled, trying to get closer. Trying to get more.

  “So warm, sweetheart. So wet.”

  I quaked as he brushed over my sex, desire making my jean shorts damp and rough against my skin.

  “Eli…” I pleaded. Wet and ready and desperate.

  “You sure—” His ragged groan exploded the rest of his question. My hand speared down between us and cupped over his hard length straining against his jeans.

  “Please.” I tightened my hold over his thickness, savoring the way he ground against my hand with unfiltered need.

  After that, there were no more words. Our mouths moved, our bodies spoke, and our hearts screamed… but there were no more words.

  Our trail of clothes was a diary of desire leading to the bedroom, telling a tale woven of uninhibited love and lust along the way.

  My small moans mirrored his harsh breaths as we ended up in front of the bed. Eli dropped to his knees and stripped me of my panties, ripping them as he yanked them down my leg.

  I barely got in a breath—barely a measured heartbeat—before strong hands gripped my thighs, spreading them wide and bending between them.

  “Eli!” The first swipe of his tongue through my sex had me seeing stars.

  I gripped his head, needing something to hold me steady—needing to hold him closer.

  My legs shook, hardly able to hold myself upright as he devoured me. I shifted back under the insistence of his tongue. The demanding swipes through my flesh made it impossible to sense anything except him. Except his tongue through my slick folds. His lips around my swollen clit.

  My knees hit the back of the bed like a ship drifting into harbor amid stormy seas, but I couldn’t sit. I couldn’t move.

  His tongue worked through me until my heart felt ready to beat out of my chest and my limbs felt not my own. My fingers twisted roughly into his hair, tugging him closer as he shifted one of my legs onto his shoulder.

  I sank against him, my head tipping back in exquisite pleasure as his tongue dipped inside me, now having greater access to every inch of my core. He teased and tortured me until I forgot anything existed but us.

  I needed him. I loved him.

  And I wasn’t letting go.

  It didn’t take long. With anxiety and anticipation running through my veins, it didn’t take long for desire to use those emotions as fuel and my body went up in flames.

  “Don’t make a starving man wait for the sweetest thing on earth,” he commanded hoarsely. “Come for me, sweetheart.”

  I screamed his name as I exploded, falling apart and blacking out everything except the pleasure from his mouth. My limbs splintered as his lips drank every drop of my release from my sex for long minutes until a semblance of sense returned to my body.

  Sense that made me realize I was no longer standing. Sense that felt the soft mattress against my back. Sense that felt the hard, hot male over me.

  “So beautiful,” he murmured, dragging his lips over my stomach and latching on to my nipple.

  And then the assault on my senses began all over again. This time, with ravenous steadiness.

  He loved me and his mouth was determined to brand the truth into every cell.

  I arched into him, disintegrating all over again at the steady roll and tumble of his tongue against my breast. Electricity being fed to an already live wire that strung straight down to my core, making my pussy clench and weep all over again.

  “I love you.” It was a confession and a plea.

  He grunted, low and torn as he slid farther up my body, bringing that insatiable mouth to mine. “God, I love you.”

  My breath caught, locked and loaded in my chest when I felt the fat blunt head of his cock pressing against my entrance.

  His lips trailed a path along my jawline while he slid himself along my slick folds, coating himself with my desire like it was a war paint—confidence in a battle already won.

  “Please…”

  He would never deny me. He couldn’t.

  I cried out as he slammed inside me, spearing through tense muscles and taut nerves, and filling each and every last inch of me until I knew nothing but him.

  There was no waiting. No time. Nothing but the present as he began to move.

  Thrust after thrust after thrust.

  Words of love he whispered in my ear coalesced with the desire building where our bodies joined.

  Like a firework shot into the sky, my connection to him blazed a path through the darkness around me, love and desire sparking to leave a burning trail in my wake.

  My hands gripped into the muscles of his shoulders, slick with sweat as his hips pumped into mine with breathtaking frenzy.

  His mouth ate up my moans as his cock rubbed over that sweet spot inside me. As my body fought for more, so did his. Reaching. Searching. Loving. Eli lost all control and every ounce of that righteous and protective anger channeled into animalistic need to possess… to protect… to love.

  My chest inflated as he drove me higher an
d higher with each thrust.

  Pleasure spiraled through me like a hurricane of need centered solely on him. My lips parted, desperate to cry out his name, but everything choked to a halt as he slid out, pausing for a split-second like he knew what one more thrust would do.

  Covering my mouth with his, he slammed his cock deep inside me and took me over the edge, swallowing my cry as I disintegrated in pleasure around him.

  Lights and sounds scattered as I fractured, the firework of need exploded into brightly-colored streams of release as my body floated back down to earth in pieces.

  I felt him shove and grind up against my womb one last time before he let out a loud groan, his hot cum flooding inside me, my body continuing to clench around him, dragging every last drop from his pulsing cock.

  “Fuck…” He grunted and collapsed on top of me, and I welcomed the weight of knowing he was with me.

  Every breath. Every inch. Every heartbeat.

  Slowly, the world rebuilt around us as Eli slid out of me and tipped to the side, taking me with him, and tucking me underneath his arm.

  “I love you,” he murmured, pressing his mouth lightly on the top of my head.

  I peeked up at him, eyes closed, one hand tracing along my arm, the other resting like a paperweight on his chest. “It doesn’t seem possible… to love you like I do. As much as I do. And to have found it the way I did…”

  It didn’t seem possible to love a man so much I’d only met weeks ago under the worst of circumstances.

  A small smile tugged on his lips and those ember eyes peeled open, reaching right into my soul. “Grief clarifies what is important. It clarifies what we mean to each other.” His fingers skated under my chin, holding me steady as he told me without doubt. “Sometimes those connections are unexpected.” That was certainly the truth. “And sometimes they are forged with a once-in-a-lifetime kind of lightning that strikes in that unexpected space and changes it forever.”

  My mouth parted.

  “Call it fate. Call it Larry. But never question how I feel about you, Laurel. How much I feel nor how real it is.” He pressed a kiss to the tip of my nose. “You are everything to me.”

  I blinked back tears, at a loss to say anything to adequately describe how I felt. “I love you, Eli. Thank you for never giving up on me.”

  His smile grew in small measures. “You never gave up on yourself,” he replied. “And we” —he paused, his eyes hardening—“aren’t giving up on Roasters.”

  I shivered and nodded. He was right. There had to be another way.

  “What are we going to do?” I sighed. “And what about Jules?”

  We were supposed to be at Rock Beach by now.

  He hummed. “We are going to lay here for another few minutes. Then, I’m going to make you scream my name one more time. And after that, I’m going to talk to Ace,” he informed me with a wicked grin, adding, “Going to see Jules now might just put her in more danger if Blackman is watching you.” He cleared his throat. “He’s already been seen at the resort. I don’t want to take any chances.”

  My throat tightened. At least, I knew from my last visit there, that there was security at the resort. Even if they were keeping her locked in, they were keeping my cousin safe.

  “Maybe we should let Eve know,” I whispered. “And Josie. And Diane. And Mick and Miles. I’m worried about them, too.” My gaze dropped. “And you…”

  “Hey…” He tipped my chin up to him. “Nothing is going to happen to me. Nothing.”

  Just like the first day I met him in that hallway, his gaze overwhelmed me. It felt like my heart was standing in front of a fire that would never go out, a fire that would always light up sparks in me, and a fire that would warm the very deepest parts of me, steadily, comfortingly, and securely.

  “I love you,” I told him in a voice that was barely above a whisper.

  His lips crushed mine, firm yet sweet. “I love you, too, Laurel.”

  Tears pooled in the corners of my eyes as the vulnerability of that love showed through. “I don’t want to lose you…”

  “You won’t lose me, sweetheart. I promise,” he rasped, tugging my hips harder against his.

  “How do you know? How can you be sure?”

  He chuckled and kissed the tip of my nose and then my forehead. “Because you’re too damn stubborn to let me go.” He chuckled. “And because I’m too damn stubborn to let anything—even death—take me away from you.”

  My lips tipped up in a small smile and I curled deeper into his arms. I had to believe him. I had to believe we’d figure out a way to stop Blackman. If I didn’t, the alternative would cripple me.

  Eli had taught me that both love and loss were equally consuming and equally unavoidable. They drew a line in the sand of life before me. To flee or to fight.

  And courage, I realized now, wasn’t the absence of fear, but the decision to resist it.

  And I would resist it. For love.

  Eli

  “It’s drugs.”

  My hand dropped like lead onto the countertop as Laurel turned from behind me and gasped, “What?”

  The harsh square of Ace’s jaw ticked as he gave a curt nod. “The Crown Cartel,” he said the name like it was the eighth circle of Hell. “They run up and down the west coast dealing with everything from drugs to arms deals to human trafficking. But in this instance, they want to use the coffee shop to smuggle in drugs from Colombia.”

  We both stared at him.

  “To smuggle drugs?” I was in shock.

  “Coffee and cocaine. Both come from Colombia. The idea is that the coffee can mask the scent of cocaine when they bring it into the country,” Ace explained. “What better way than use a business that has been legitimate for a century? A new business—especially one that looks like a shell—would be subject to greater scrutiny.”

  Blood thundered in the veins along the side of my head. I reached for Laurel and tugged her against my side. The tense chill in her body telling me all I needed to know about how the news made her feel.

  “My phone was in my hand when your call came through,” he said with a shake of his head. “I couldn’t fucking believe it. I don’t know how Dex found it… I don’t want to know what laws he broke… but Blackman is definitely working with the Crown Cartel.”

  When I’d called him thirty minutes ago, he’d answered with ‘how did you know I was about to call you?’ Immediately, I knew he had news, and I fucking prayed it was enough to put us a step ahead in Blackman’s twisted plan rather than a step behind.

  Laurel twisted to face Ace, my arm was still firmly around her waist.

  “Before we dive into the million questions I’m sure you don’t have all the answers to yet,” she broke in, drawing Ace’s attention. “I wanted to say thank you, Ace, for everything that you’ve done for my grandfather and this place after he was gone.” She paused as her voice choked slightly. “I’m sure you’re going to tell me, just like the rest of them, that it was nothing compared to what he did for you, but that doesn’t change the simple fact that you didn’t have to do this. You didn’t have to take the time nor the risks that I’m sure are stacking up higher than you were prepared for, and I appreciate it more than I can say. Thank you.”

  I watched the slight lift of his head as my friend tried to mitigate the surprise of both the gratitude and fortitude in Laurel’s voice.

  He grunted. “Of course. Anything for the Oceans.”

  Her small smile was fleeting and I squeezed her waist for support.

  “So, that’s why he’s been intent on buying Roasters.” Her small hand curled into my chest. “So, the cartel decided they want to use shipments of beans that we get from Colombia to smuggle in cocaine.”

  Ace nodded. “As a front for their expanding operation.”

  “This has been going on for several months then. Blackman approached my grandfather to sell, and when he wouldn’t, trashed the place.” Her brow furrowed. “To threaten him?”

  �
��Most likely to pressure your grandfather into selling, hoping the stress of having to rebuild everything from the inside out would be too much.” Ace cleared his throat.

  “Wait…” Laurel looked up to me in horror. “All of this is happening now because my grandfather died. If he hadn’t, they would still be out of luck. Do you think… you don’t think he…” She couldn’t finish, looking back and forth between Ace and me.

  My chest tightened. “I don’t think they had anything to do with Larry’s death.” I winced, recalling the memory of when I’d found him. There was no doubt his death was self-inflicted. “Not directly.”

  Her blue eyes swirled with turmoil.

  Even if Blackman hadn’t pulled the trigger, he’d taken advantage of an old, unstable man. He’d destroyed the one thing Larry had clung to—the only lifeline to the family he’d lost. No, he didn’t pull the trigger, but it didn’t make Blackman any less responsible.

  “Based on what I know,” Ace broke in. “If Larry hadn’t committed suicide, murder wouldn’t be too far down on the list of things he would’ve attempted to move this purchase along.” His eyes narrowed on Laurel. “The only thing he wasn’t counting on was you.

  My chest swelled.

  Just because my woman sometimes needed my help didn’t mean she wasn’t the strongest woman I’d ever known.

  “So, tell me what exactly he said to you earlier,” Ace requested.

  He couldn’t see it, but I felt how her spine steeled, turning her body ramrod straight.

  Laurel took a few minutes to succinctly tell him what happened in town, how Blackman approached her, how he threatened her, and what he said he wanted.

  Ace’s face darkened with each statement, swearing when she finished. “Sonofabitch.”

  She gave me a determined smile before turning to Ace. She planted her hands on the countertop like she was staking her claim, like she was driving the Ocean flag into the ragged ground that was stained with tears and blood.

  “How do we stop them?”

  Fuck, I loved her.

  Even Ace cracked a smile at that. “You leave that up to us, Laurel.”