by Diana Gardin
“And then Violet came along, and I vowed that I’d never let my little sister see or experience half of the things that I had. So I tried to stand between her and everything, all the time. I took everything for her, from curses to sightings of strung-out users on our couch, to beatings from the men in our lives. I protected her from all of it as best I could. It’s ingrained in me to protect her. If I hadn’t, who else was going to do it? My mother?” She laughed bitterly. “And then, one day, I couldn’t protect her anymore. Wendy got it into her head that everything wrong in her life was Violet’s and my fault. I was big enough to fight back. Violet isn’t.”
At this point he left his rocking chair and his knees met the wood of the porch as he knelt at her feet. “I didn’t know, baby. God, I wish you’d told me. I would have crushed Frank and Wendy with my bare hands.”
“I know.” She smiled sadly down at him. “I know you would have. I could feel something in you, Reed, from the first minute I met you. You were my hero that night, and I knew that was going to be who you were to me as often as I let you. I didn’t want to drag you into my mess. I just didn’t.”
He pinned her down with a stare so full of emotion she was unable to look away. “I’m here now. And you’re not going to be able to stop me from rolling around in your mess. I swear to God, I will help you through whatever situation you’re in, and I will be the one pulling you through to the end of it. Because you deserve to be happy, Hope. More than anyone I’ve ever known. I’m going to make that happen, if it takes laying down my life to do it.”
“It’s not me that needs saving,” she said urgently. “It’s Violet. She’s with Frank and Wendy, Reed. I’ve only been working for Frank because the money is good, and I’ve been putting it away so that I could start a life with Violet away from Frank and Wendy. I didn’t have a plan for how to do it until the night he told me I’d have to start sleeping with clients. That night something clicked in my brain, and I knew how to get her out of there.”
“How?”
She took a deep breath. “I…I recorded my date that night. At the hotel where you…saw me? His name was Nathan White. I recorded him telling me what he was going to do with me, and how it was all a part of the package that Frank presented him. I have a meeting with an attorney today and I’m going to hand over the recording. I can bring Frank down. We can tell them that Wendy’s been abusing Violet. This can finally be over.”
Reed wrapped his arms around her. “That’s good, baby. That’s really good.”
She nodded. “I’m just worried it won’t be enough. There are a lot of higher-ups on Frank’s client list. None of them are going to want his business exposed.”
Hot tears were streaming down her cheeks, and Reed wiped them away with strong, sure thumbs. “Do you know what it means to be a Hopewell in this town? Do you? We’ll use my family’s team of lawyers. There’s no way in hell we won’t win a fight with Frank and Wendy. Especially with you knowing what you do about Wendy’s issues, and Frank’s business. Violet will be ours. I promise you that, baby. Do you trust me?”
She looked into his eyes. With everything she was and everything she had, she trusted Reed Hopewell.
“Yeah,” she said, smiling for the first time in days. “I do.”
The screen door banged against its frame as Morrow appeared on the porch, keys in hand. “I’m out of here, now that things are looking up. Y’all can have the house for a while.”
He smirked at the two of them, and Reed shook his hand. “Thanks, man. For being on my side. For letting me know she was here.”
Morrow nodded. “I’m always on her side, Reed. So you better be what’s best for her.”
It took longer than Hope wanted it to. But she would never forget the look on Frank’s face when Reed’s lawyers played the recording she’d acquired during the emergency custody hearing the following week. Violet waited in the hallway with Reed’s mother, her arm in a sling, while Hope and Reed fought for her in the room beyond the big, wooden doors.
When they exited two hours later, it was with gigantic smiles on their faces.
Violet leaped up, an anxious question alight in her gray eyes.
Hope opened her arms. “It’s me and you from here on out, Vi.”
It felt like she was flying, making that declaration to her little sister. There would be a bigger trial later, because there were major charges pending against both Frank and Wendy for Violet’s abuse and for the illegal business practices of Silk. There were more girls who would testify to the fact that it wasn’t merely a dating service.
Reed wrapped his arms around both Hope and Violet. “If you two think you’re leaving me out of this, you’re crazy. It’s the three of us from here on out. You good with that?”
Violet smiled, and Hope could see the effects that newfound freedom left on her sister’s face. “I guess I can deal with that.”
Hope looked up into Reed’s grinning face, knowing that she owed so much to this man, for having faith in her even when she’d given him no reason to do so. “Thank you, Reed. For helping me save my sister.”
He nuzzled her earlobe with his nose. “You’re welcome. Anything for you. Tonight, we’ll go back to the ranch so that Violet can spread out, okay? I have some things I want to talk to you about.”
Hope looked up questioningly at him.
“I want to be totally honest with you,” he said softly. “You don’t know everything about my upbringing, just the way I didn’t know everything about yours. It’s not exactly the same kind of shit storm yours was, but it explains a lot about me and where I’m coming from. I want you to know it all, Hope.”
“And that’s why it’s always been difficult for me to trust women,” said Reed as he leaned back against the couch cushions in his bedroom at the ranch. “You’re different, somehow. I knew it then and I know it now. After Atlanta, I wanted to bare my soul to you completely, but you started pulling away. I know now that was because you were scared of what we were becoming, and scared that you’d lose Violet because of it.”
She nodded, reaching out to run the back of her hand over his cheek. “I was scared. I’m not anymore.”
He nodded. Nerves fluttered in his stomach; he swallowed thickly in order to keep the bile down where it belonged. This was the only moment in his life that mattered, the only moment he’d looked at when a monumental change was about to take place. If she agreed, everything would change. If she didn’t, everything was lost.
It’s right, he thought. It’s always been so damn right with Hope.
“Hope,” he said, his voice strong despite the butterflies flapping their wings madly in his gut, “I love you. I love you so damn much it makes my bones ache, and nothing has ever hurt so good. I want you, now and forever, because without you none of the rest of this shit matters. You’re it, Hope—you’re my future. I want you to know that I would be saying this to you whether you’d told me everything you just shared or not. This isn’t pity talking. It’s love, and if you hadn’t been so goddamned stubborn I would have told you how I felt a lot sooner.”
Her beautiful face was slack, the shock registering in her eyes while he spoke, and her jaw hanging slightly open in the most adorable look of shock Reed had ever seen. Wait till she hears what I’m gonna say next.
He slid off the couch and onto his knees beside her for the second time that day. If it was indicative of what was to come in their relationship, he knew he’d gladly stay on his knees for this woman for the rest of their lives.
He propped one foot out in front of him, his arm resting on his knee.
“Hope Dawson,” he said, producing a tiny glittering ring from his pocket. She gasped, both hands flying to her mouth.
“I’d do anything for you. Anything. Will you do just one thing for me and make me the happiest man in the world? Marry me, baby.”
A strange hiccupping sound was happening inside of her; she wiggled happily in her seat on the couch and then launched herself at him from where she sat.
“Oh my God,” she gasped. “You seriously just proposed?”
He nodded, the picture of patience. “Yes. And you haven’t answered me yet.”
“Yes!” she squealed. “Yes, please, God, make me Hope Hopewell. Yes, Reed!”
He rose, laughing, and they tumbled onto the couch together in a fit of giggles, and he’d never been as happy in his life as he was at that moment.
When they paused, staring at each other, he held himself above her as she smiled up at him.
“Yes?” he asked, his voice full of awe.
She nodded, and finally his lips were touching hers. He hadn’t kissed her in so long, and he missed the sweetness of her touch and her scent. Both enveloped him then as he sank deeper into her lips and her body, and an involuntary groan left him as his thickening erection told her how much he’d missed her. She moved her hips, pressing against him, and he silently begged her to stop. If she continued, he’d lose his shit before he got the chance to make their engagement official.
“That’s my grandmother’s ring I put on your finger,” he whispered into her ear.
“It’s gorgeous,” she whispered back, allowing her lips to graze along his scruffy jaw. “Fits perfectly.”
“You fit me perfectly,” he said in a strained voice. “God, baby, I missed you. Don’t ever take this away from me again.”
She laughed. “I think by letting you put your ring on my finger I proved I won’t.”
He nodded, and smiled at her startled gasp when he yanked the tiny sundress she was wearing up to her hips. He stared down at the little purple panties she wore beneath and ran a finger from her pierced belly button down until his finger connected with damp heat. She shivered beneath him, and the intoxication that came with making her feel good overtook him.
“What did you miss?” he asked, snaking his finger under the panties and moving them to the side.
She hissed as he connected with her wetness, and he could barely hear her answer.
“I can’t hear you, Hope,” said Reed. “Tell your fiancé what you missed.”
God. He had a fiancée. He was going to marry this girl. She’d said yes.
“Your—your tongue,” she gasped. “I missed your tongue, Reed. And your fingers, and…”
“And?” he asked.
She stiffened beneath him as he took his finger away. He chuckled at her feisty glare. “Tell me.”
She sat up on her elbows, and the fiery gaze she pinned him with made his dick twitch in his jeans. “I missed your cock, Reed. I missed it bad, and I want you to fix that right now.”
“Oh, fucking hell,” he groaned. He stood and stripped off everything as quickly as he’d ever done, never taking his eyes off of her as she pulled that sexy little dress off over her head.
“Now,” she said again.
“What about my tongue?” he asked as he watched her sit up.
“Later,” she breathed, pulling him down.
He sat, and she climbed on top of him, facing away.
“Baby,” he groaned, leaning forward to swipe at the back of her neck with his tongue. “You’re going to destroy me.”
“This is your scavenger hunt,” she told him, reaching up to pull her long locks aside. “Find your treasure, remember?”
He was so distracted by how beautiful she was from this angle, how amazingly wonderful she felt situated on top of him, that he forgot he was supposed to be finding another tattoo.
Leaning back, she captured his earlobe in between her teeth.
“Fuck,” he groaned.
“Start hunting,” she instructed. She positioned herself so that her entrance was hovering right over him. She moaned softly, and he closed his eyes.
“I can’t concentrate,” he hissed.
“Try. Hurry.”
He opened his eyes and searched her smooth skin, running his hands along her back while his eyes roved every inch of her. He knew it wouldn’t be somewhere he’d seen exposed, so he craned his neck around her petite shape until he found what he was looking for.
This one was tiny, an almost minuscule representation of a torch. He brushed it lightly with a finger. He couldn’t believe he’d missed this one in Atlanta, but it was very small and nestled beneath her left breast at the top of her rib cage.
“What’s this for?” he whispered, stroking it lovingly.
She turned in his lap to face him, looking deep into his eyes while she answered.
“It’s for you,” she said. His eyebrows lifted in surprise. “I got this for the man who dared to enter my life one day. I knew that with all the darkness I bring to the table, he’d need a light to see me.” She shrugged. “You saw me, Reed.”
She rose, then sank down onto him with such ferocity he cried out in unison with her, and wrapped his arms tightly around her waist as she began to ride him. He wasn’t sure if he was holding on to her, or whether it was the other way around, but he couldn’t unwrap himself from around her, even if he had wanted to.
She held his gaze, using her leg muscles to hold herself up, and then drop back down onto him at an increasingly rapid pace. He leaned forward to brush his lips against hers, and groaned as he felt her interior walls clench tightly around him.
Kissing her neck, he murmured, “That’s it, baby, let go. I’ve got you. I’m always going to have you.”
She continued to rise and fall on top of him in a pounding rhythm. He helped her by hoisting her hips up and down right along with her, biting his lip with the pure ecstasy he felt.
With his name on her lips, she crashed into her orgasm with trembling limbs, and he allowed himself to release inside of her, washing away all of the pain and hurt and despair the last week of their lives had caused, leaving them both breathless and trembling, still holding on for dear life.
“I love you,” he whispered, leaning his forehead against hers.
He marveled at the fact that he’d never said those words to a woman before her. Only her.
She stroked her hands through his hair. “Truth?”
One corner of his mouth turned up in a half-grin. “Always.”
“I love you back.”
Epilogue
I swear to God, if you two make out in front of me one more time I’m going to go drown myself in the damn ocean,” warned Violet.
“Vi!” groaned Hope. “Language!”
Reed only laughed. “You mean the ocean you now love more than painting?”
Violet pointed a finger at him. “No, Hopewell. I love nothing more than painting.”
She leaned back onto her beach towel, which was completely covered by the huge, hot pink umbrella staked into the sand behind her. Her head was brimmed by the largest beach hat money could buy. Violet wasn’t taking any chances with the sun against her pale skin.
Hope, on the other hand, was slathered with sunscreen that made her skin gleam, and completely exposed in the glaring heat of the Labor Day southern sun. Her bikini was turquoise blue against her bronzed skin, and tiny.
“I’m so glad we came back here for the weekend,” she said softly. “We have to come back a lot. I love this beach.”
Reed leaned over to brush his lips against hers, eliciting a soft sigh from Hope and a gag from Violet. “We will come back as often as you want. Atlanta is only a four-hour drive away.”
“You promise?”
“You doubt me?” he asked with mock hurt.
“Never.”
“And next summer, if you want, we can get married on this beach.”
“But Sam and Aston are getting married on this beach next summer.”
“So?” One sexy eyebrow rose, and Hope wanted to kiss it. She restrained herself, for Violet’s sake.
She leaned her head back and laughed into the bright summer sky. “Okay.”
“Are you guys really going to stick me with Reed’s parents tonight while you go have fun at a bar?”
“Violet!” admonished Hope.
“Yep,” answered Reed simultaneou
sly. “Hell, girl, I had to live with them for years. Years. You can endure one night with them.”
Violet shrugged, but Hope saw the flash of happiness and appreciation in her eyes. Gregory and Lillian had taken an immediate liking to Violet, and over the past month, they had become the closest thing to grandparents she had ever known.
“Thank you,” she said softly. “Both of you. For saving me.”
They looked at each other, and then back at Violet.
“No problem,” Reed said with a shrug. “It’s kinda what we do.”
“Row!” squealed Hope as she ran into her best friend’s arms the second he walked into Sunny’s.
Morrow glanced around him uncomfortably “Still hate this place. It leans too much.”
Hope grinned. “Thanks for coming. You’re going to be blown away by what Reed does.”
“I better be,” grumbled Morrow. “I need a shot. This place makes me nervous. And he should be good. He scored a record deal in ATL, didn’t he? Took my best girl all the way to Georgia and shit.”
Hope smiled at him. “He sure did. But I’m sure one of these days you’re going to find a new best girl.”
She led him to the table where the usual crowd sat, minus Reed, who was warming up with his guitar on the stage.
She introduced Morrow around the table, and everyone greeted him Nelson Island–style. A shot was passed to him almost immediately, and everyone raised their glasses in the air.
“To bright futures,” Tamara said. “Reed and Hope’s, Ash and Finn’s little bundle of joy, and Sam and Aston.”
She stopped, raising the glass to her lips. Hope leaned over and elbowed the redhead in her ribs.
“That’s all?” she asked playfully
“Hell,” Tamara answered with a roll of her eyes. “All that’s left is Tate, Blaze, and I. I’m pretty sure that our futures are stuck in reverse. So yeah, that’s it.”
Aston shot Tamara a sidelong glance. “Tam. Lighten up, girl. Tonight is about celebrating.”
