Revel (Second Chance Romance #1)(15)

Charlotte rolled her eyes, “Declan. I am living in your carriage house. The fact that your family even has a carriage house automatically precludes you from being able to relate to most people outside of your social circle.”

Declan was annoyed now, “Just because my family has money doesn’t automatically disqualify me from having pain in my life, Charlotte. And the fact that you think it does shows how little you know about the world and how it works.”

Charlotte stood, “You’re so condescending sometimes!” She started to walk away.

“Where are you going?” he asked.

“To bed. I’m tired. I’m so f*cking tired,” she said, and then it couldn’t be helped. The tears came, like a wave that couldn’t be stopped, and she was suddenly crying, the kind of crying filled with gasps and sobs and wails. It was a cry from deep within her soul, one she’d been holding in since she was thirteen years old.

“Charlotte…” Declan went to her then, not caring what had been said or how it might look tomorrow. He reached out and pulled her into his arms, her sobs vibrating against his chest, her tears soaking into the front of his button down.

“I can’t take it anymore, Declan,” she cried. “This city hates me. I don’t look like anyone here, nor can I afford to. I don’t come from a family that’s lived here for 400 years, I don’t even own a decent car. I’m not in a sorority, I have to work at a place that serves the very girls that laugh at me on a daily basis, and I’m expected to do it all with a smile on my face.” She pulled back and wiped her tears from her beautiful eyes. “I’m tired of pretending to be happy. I’m tired of sticking it out just to prove I can.”

Declan stared at her, his heart breaking at the sound of her anguish and rage stirring in his heart thinking about anyone hurting her.

“I didn’t know,” he said. “Who would ever laugh at you?”

Charlotte sniffed, “If you must know… Saylor, your girlfriend. She’s one of the worst. She called me trailer trash. I’ve never even been inside of a trailer, and even if I had, does that automatically make me a terrible person?” Charlotte started crying again. “And my ex-roommate, Allyn. She comes into Dixie Garden all the time and ignores me completely. Acts like we didn’t live together for 9 months. Unless she’s alone, then she’ll acknowledge me half-heartedly.”

Declan was furious, “Charlotte, Saylor is not my girlfriend. I’d never want to be with someone who was such a heinous bitch. And Allyn Legare is a phony, she always has been.” Declan pulled Charlotte toward him again. “You’re beautiful, smart, and really funny. You’re original, and full of life, and sexier than any girl on the peninsula. They’re jealous as f*ck, Charlotte. They know that they’re nothing special and that they probably never will be because they don’t have the courage to be anything other than what everyone expects them to be.” He took her chin in his hand and pointed her face up at him. “I’d feel sorry for them if they weren’t such *s.”

Charlotte’s lips had never looked so good. God, he wanted to kiss her. He’d wanted to kiss her since the second he saw her, but seeing her like this made him want to even more, to show her she wasn’t any of the things she herself as.

For just a moment he wanted her to see herself through his eyes.

“You really think I’m beautiful?” Charlotte asked, her eyes wide now.

“I know it,” he said, and that’s when he took his moment. He kissed her gently, tasting her for the first time, the scent of her hair intoxicating, her breasts and body never so close to him as they were now.

She pulled back a moment and looked at him, “I’ve wanted you to tell me that... Since I met you, Declan. Is that strange to tell you?”

Declan shook his head, “I’ve wanted to say it. Since the day on the bridge. You looked… lost. Those eyes of yours, they haunted me. All I wanted to do was take the pain away. It was so clear then you were in a lot of it.”

Charlotte looked down, embarrassed. “So you pitied me?”

He smiled, “No. Well, maybe a little. I wondered why someone as beautiful as you would ever be alone on a bridge. And then I realized, you were there so I could find you.”

She looked up at him, “Like it was meant to be?”

“Yes,” he took her face in his hands again and kissed her harder this time, his mouth traveling from hers and down her neck, to her collar bone. Her long hair brushed against his face and he felt himself growing hard being this close to her. She sighed beneath him, and through the thin cotton of her tank top her nipples were swollen and stiff. His thumbs brushed against the material, making her moan.

“Declan,” she whispered. “Is this a good idea?”

He looked at her and said nothing for a moment.

“I’m not sure,” he admitted. “But I know I want you. I know you want me too. Let’s live with that tonight and worry about the rest tomorrow.”

“I’m not someone who can buy today and pay later,” she said, pulling away. “Especially when it comes to my heart.”

He gently pulled her by the arm back towards him, “I will never make you pay for anything, Charlotte. This isn’t like that.”

He pulled the thin straps of her tank top down and gently pulled her breasts out, making her gasp. His thumbs brushed against them again, the turgid peaks of her nipples beckoning him.