Revel (Second Chance Romance #1)(45)

His eyes never left hers. She was speechless.

“I couldn’t let you go without you knowing that,” he said. “I’m telling you that I will do anything to make this work. I will lift all the heavy boulders that we have on top of us. Just let me show you. Please. Not just for me. For you too.”

He held his breath. She had him in the palm of her hand, as always. But what she said now would decide everything.





Chapter Seventeen


“Come home with me,” she said, her voice cracking. “Stay with me tonight.”

It was all he needed to hear.

He’d never driven across the bridge so fast. They were back at her house within ten minutes. As soon as he opened the door for her, she was in his arms, her mouth against his.

He lifted her up, something that wasn’t easy with the layers of crinoline under her massive gown. What he’d once admired on her body, he now desperately wanted to get off of her.

He’d carried her up the steps to her front door, his hands under her ass, her legs wrapped around his waist. She was holding onto him for dear life. Like she never wanted to let go.

Declan practically kicked open her door.

Neither of them could recall how they ended up in the bedroom, but clearly that was where this was heading, where it always headed when it came to them. Neither of them felt like thinking about whether it was right.

It took Charlotte forever to get out of her dress. Declan had stripped down to nothing while she figured it out.

“Do you need my help?” he asked.

“No, because you’ll just rip it off me,” she laughed. “And this isn’t mine to rip.”

“You look beautiful tonight,” he said. “Everyone was looking at you.”

“Yeah, probably wondering what the hell I was doing there,” she said. She was in her bra and panties now, both red like her dress. Declan grabbed his chest.

“You’re going to kill me,” he said. “You’re so f*cking sexy. Come here.”

She fell into his arms, just as she’d done so many times before in another life. He was the same but different, she’d noticed that the other night. His body was harder, bigger. Stronger. The Declan she’d first loved had been a young kid, practically. This Declan of the future was a man.

He ran his hands up her back, unsnapping her bra with one hand. His other hand slid down her stomach to her panties. He pulled them off her with one forceful tug. Now she was naked; just as he preferred.

She touched his face as he entered her, his thrusts slow at first.

“I love you,” she said. “No matter what.”

“I love you too,” he said, quickening his pace. “You’re the only person I know how to love, Charlotte.”

She arched her back as he started to plunge deeper inside of her. She could feel herself getting close to the brink of an orgasm and he could feel it too.

“You’re going to come for me,” he said. “Say it.”

“Declan, I can only come for you,” Charlotte cried out. “And yes! I’m coming!”

He kissed her then, long and hard as she yelled her pleasure into his mouth. She could feel how wet it had made her. Declan was sliding in and out of her now, easily.

“You feel so damn good,” he whispered. “How could you ever deny yourself this? What we have?”

He was pounding her now, and she could barely take it. It was heaven and hell all at once.

“I can’t,” she cried out. “I’m so tired of being away from you, Declan. I can’t do it anymore. I can’t be happy without you.”

“Me either,” he said. “I’m glad you can admit it too.”

They said nothing for a while. There wasn’t anything they could say that their bodies couldn’t express better than words ever could.

********

An hour later when they were both spent and on the verge of falling asleep, Declan spoke.

“Why did you come here this time?” he asked as he ran his fingers up and down her arm. She was laying in the crook of him, her eyes closed.

“I had a breakdown of sorts,” she confessed.

She told him the story of Melanie Hopp. Somehow she was able to get through it without crying.

He held her tight against him, his heart broken that it wasn’t a story with a happier ending.

“So it brought up so much from my past that I had pushed down,” Charlotte explained. “I couldn’t do my job the way I need to do it. It wasn’t right. And I felt like such a failure. Just like I did when my mother died.”

Declan shook his head, “Why would you be a failure when it came to your mother? It’s not your fault, Charlotte. We know whose fault it is.”

Charlotte sighed, “I often go over in my head how if I had only just agreed to go with her, things would have been different. All she needed was 30 seconds. If she’d left 30 seconds later, she would have missed that light. Your mother would have still sped through it, but my mother wouldn’t have been there to take the hit.”

Declan turned her face towards his, “That’s not you being a failure, Charlotte. That’s called being incredibly, colossally, unlucky. And what if you had gone and she’d still been hit? You’d be gone too.” Declan shook his head. “The thought of that makes me sick. I’m so sorry.”