The Private Serials Box Set(83)

“That’s not the point.”

“I see my plan to get everyone here to force you into listening to me is backfiring. You’re using my own weapons against me,” he said as he pressed his mouth into my neck, biting me gently.

“We have plenty of time to spend together, don’t we?”

He pulled back, suddenly looking very serious. His hand started at my forehead, then moved down my dark hair, twining through the strands, gently tugging when he got to the ends. “Yeah, sweetheart, we do.”

“How long before you think you’ll have to go back to Portland?” I asked the question even though I didn’t want to hear the answer. In my perfect world, Preston and I would stay on this island forever, giving not one care about what happened back in Oregon, not letting anything taint the perfection we’d found in each other. But I knew that was an unrealistic daydream. I knew eventually we’d have to sort our shit out.

“I’m not on a timeline, Lena. I know how you feel about Portland, but we don’t have to go back there. We don’t have to stay here either. I can be a private investigator anywhere. The only thing I need is you. So, what do you want to do?”

I looked at him, looked into the beautiful chocolate eyes I’d lost myself in so many times before, but would never tire of seeing. Looked at his new, hipster beard, running my hand along his jaw. Then I looked at his mouth, the mouth that was so expressive. He was always smiling, or smirking, or grinning, or even pouting. I leaned forward and pulled his bottom lip into my mouth, tugging just hard enough to get a low growl from him before I let it loose.

Before I could answer, before I could tell him pretty much what he told me, that all I wanted for now was to be with him, the location ultimately unimportant, his mouth opened again.

“I want you to know, though, Lena, the two months we were apart, I wasn’t just sitting around.”

I inhaled deeply, my hand still resting on his cheek, his eyes not meeting mine.

“I know you were here, trying to move on with your life, trying to forget everything that happened with Derrek, and I totally respect that. I could go the rest of my life and never see his face again and I swear nothing, well, almost nothing, would make me happier.”

His words were scaring me, my heart was thumping rapidly in my chest, and I could only imagine what he was alluding to.

“But I couldn’t let him get away with it, Lena. I couldn’t. I also couldn’t come here without something to offer you, something to help prove I was, and will always be, on your side.”

“What are you saying, Preston? What did you do?”

His eyes snapped to mine, and I’d never seen him so worried. His eyes were almost frantic, looking back and forth between mine, as if he were afraid he’d never look into them again.

“I found him. I found Derrek.”

My body snapped to attention. “What?”

“I found him.”

“How? Where? Wha—”

“It was the only thing I could think of to do that would prove I was never working for him. Not after I saw you.”

“What did he say?”

“I didn’t approach him. Haven’t gone anywhere near him. I didn’t know if that was something you would want.”

“What I would want?” I was nearly speechless, not able to wrap my mind around the fact that Preston had found him.

“Sam told me he disappeared.”

“He did. Right after you left, he bolted. But you were gone, and you didn’t want to be reached. So, I did the only other thing I could think of. I hunted him down, determined to make him pay for what he put you through. I spent six weeks trailing him, following any lead I could find. When I finally was sure I’d nailed him, I couldn’t do it. I needed you more than I needed him, and I didn’t want to do anything that might take me farther away from any chance I had with you.”

“You could have nailed him? What the hell does that mean?” My pulse was pounding, the very last thing I wanted was for Preston to go to jail, and I had no idea what nailing someone entailed.

“Nothing major, just, you know, confronting him, trying to find some sort of information to convince him to give you what you deserve.”

“I don’t need anything from him anymore,” I said firmly.

“I know, baby,” he said, his hand coming up to my face. “But you deserve so much more than what you walked away with. He not only took what you earned in that marriage, but he took everything your father worked for too.”

He wasn’t telling me anything I didn’t already know. I’d given up thinking about everything Derrek had taken from me, mostly because I didn’t feel like there was anything to be done about it. I’d signed every document he’d ever placed in front of me – and put in the position again, I’d do the same thing. Every time I made one of those mistakes, I’d done it out of love for someone. It wasn’t my fault that Derrek ended up being a complete bastard and took advantage of me and the love I had for him. And it wasn’t my fault that some * beat the crap out of Piper and Preston was forced to agree to ruin me before we’d ever met.

No, these problems were all Derrek’s fault.

Suddenly, there was a fire inside of me. I was angry. More angry than I could ever remember being, and there was only one person responsible for the rage.