Chapter 21

Chapter Twenty-One

Elle cringed beneath the weight of Jeremy’s embrace. When his lips brushed against her neck, a wave of nausea crashed through her belly. She shoved him away and took two giant steps back. This had to be a bad dream.

Nope.

It really was her ex standing in the foyer of her mother’s inn. Only looking at him now, Elle wondered what she ever saw in Jeremy. His dark hair appeared a little too perfect with its preponderance of gel. One of his thick eyebrows arched up. Beneath it, his gray eyes were icy within his arrogant expression.

How had she ever thought she could love this man? Everything about Jeremy was cold, hard and dark. Whereas Hayden was warm, easy and caring. The two men might as well have been night and day.

“What are you doing here?” she demanded, not bothering to hide her pique.

“Surprise,” he replied, the word coming out as more of a question. His smile looked forced, more like the Big Bad Wolf baring his chemically whitened sharp teeth.

Elle was surprised all right. Just not in the way Jeremy assumed she would be. Not one bit.

A throat cleared behind them. Elle turned to see Livi and Hayden standing at the entry to the parlor.

Perfect. Just perfect.

Hayden had come to clear things up with Livi, and now they were getting an entertaining sideshow courtesy of Elle’s ex. The decorator looked between Jeremy and Elle, her eyes wide with curiosity. Hayden’s expression was more stoic as he stared Jeremy down. The air in the room practically sizzled when Jeremy shifted his gaze from Elle to Hayden.

“Um, Jeremy . . .” She quickly stepped between the two men. “You remember my friend, Hayden.”

The word “friend” felt funny coming out of her mouth. They were so much more than that. But this wasn’t the time or place to clarify their relationship status. Especially since they hadn’t figured it out themselves.

“Deputy.” There was no mistaking Jeremy’s condescending tone.

“Keneally.” Not surprisingly, Hayden matched it.

Elle rolled her eyes. “And this is Olivia Turner. She is a guest here while she works on a project over on Bald Head Island. Livi, this is Jeremy Keneally. He lives in New York. Which means we can only assume that he has lost his way.”

Jeremy aimed his well-honed, enrapturing smile at Livi. “Nice to meet you.”

It was the same smile he’d given Elle when they first met during pre-service training for their Peace Corps assignments. The one that made her weak at the knees. The one that made her fall in love with him a little more every time he wielded it at her.

Too bad she hadn’t known he was using that very same smile to lure other women into his bed. She knew it now, though. And she needed to let Livi in on the secret.

She glanced over at Livi. If the other woman was falling under Jeremy’s spell, she hid it well. Livi was made of sterner stuff than anyone thought. Elle felt a lick of pride for the other woman’s composure.

“Nice to meet you as well, Jeremy,” Livi said. “Will you be joining us here at the inn?”

And just like that, Elle felt something else for the woman.

“I am as a matter of fact,” he replied.

Elle felt the room start to spin. “What?” She was going to kill her mom for not giving her a heads-up.

“Like I said,” Jeremy continued, “I wanted to surprise you. I had my secretary make the reservation under her name.”

Behind her, Hayden made a little growling sound. Before he could act on it, however, the speaker microphone clipped to his shoulder chirped with an incoming radio call. The sound made Elle jump.

Hayden cleared his throat. “If you’ll excuse me, I have to get back to work.” He nodded to Livi, then turned toward the door without meeting Elle’s eyes. Or saying goodbye to Jeremy, she noticed.

“I’ll walk out with you,” Livi called after him. “I’m on my way to the bookstore to pick up a Christmas present. I look forward to seeing you around the inn, Jeremy. Elle, I’ll save you a seat at the show tonight.”

“There’s a show tonight?” Jeremy asked when the door closed behind them.

Elle heaved a sigh. “Not one you’d be interested in seeing. What exactly are you doing here, Jeremy? And cut the bullshit.”

He had the audacity to look taken aback by her tone. “We were part of each other’s lives for years. Is it so strange that maybe I’d want to see you?”

Her immediate laughter surprised them both. “Oh, Jeremy, it’s more than strange. Especially since you came all this way to my ‘provincial’ hometown to do it when we’ve both been living in the same city for the past year .”

Elle hadn’t realized she’d raised her voice until one of the guests popped their head out from the music room. She reached for Jeremy’s hand, then thought better of it.

“Come with me,” she commanded, turning and marching toward the study. It took everything she had not to slam the door when they were both inside.

Jeremy dragged his fingers along the desk, stopping to touch the papers West had left behind. “Is this the room West is using to finish his book?”

“He works in a variety of places.” She snatched the papers off the desk and shoved them in a drawer. “But we are not discussing Mr. West. We are talking about you. And why you are here. Carrying a dozen roses, no less. Surely you didn’t think you’d give those to me and all would be forgiven?”

One corner of his mouth kicked up. She used to think it was sexy when he did that. Not anymore.

“You mean flowers won’t work?”

“Your dry sense of humor won’t work on me, either.” She crossed her arms over her chest and waited him out.

With a frustrated sounding sigh, he laid the bundle of roses on the desk. “Look, Elle. You have every right to be angry with me. I know it sounds cliché, but I never meant to hurt you. I loved you. Still do.”

Those were not the words she expected him to say. Too bad for him, his confession only stoked her ire. Because he was lying. If he was honest about loving her, he wouldn’t have cheated.

“What kind of fool do you take me for, Jeremy? Are you forgetting I caught you banging Cassie? In. Our. Bed.” She scoffed. “I should have wondered why you always chose that one bar for drinks. It was a dive that wasn’t even close to our place. What I didn’t know was that you were enjoying your own private happy hours with the perky blond bartender.”

“Elle, honey, I told you it was just one?—”

She held up a hand, ashamed to see it was shaking. “Don’t you dare lie to me by telling me it was ‘one time’ because I know for a fact it wasn’t. Cassie confessed everything to me when she realized you weren’t going to replace me with her after I left.”

That little tidbit left him speechless.

“Now that we’ve got that cleared up, why are you really here?”

One thing she’d learned about her ex—he would never come crawling back to Elle unless he needed something. And that something had to be big.

He leaned a hip on the desk. “My grandmother likes you.”

She gave him a shrug that said tell me something I don’t know .

“I’m throwing my hat in the ring for an open congressional race. She’s promised to back me if I present a more”—he swallowed— “settled persona.”

Elle’s knees nearly buckled. Was he saying what she thought he was saying?

“We were good once,” he said softly. “I fully intended for you to be my forever girl. I know I messed up. But I promise it won’t happen again. And I’ll spend the rest of my life making it up to you.”

She really wished Jeremy wasn’t standing between her and the bottle of whiskey right now.

“Way to sweep a woman off her feet,” she said.

“Elinor.” He reached for her hand, but she hid both behind her back. His eyes narrowed. “I just said we were good together. We both know it. People make mistakes. You can’t forgive me? Hell, you probably forgave Cassie.”

In fact, she had. The bartender may have been complicit, but the man in front of her had duped them both in the end.

“Let me see if I can understand this,” Elle said, trying her best to control her disgust. “Your grandmother will only open her purse strings if you keep your pants zipped and settle down. Why come to me?”

“I told you. She likes you. I like you,” he added hastily.

“Look me in the eye and tell me this cockamamie proposal has nothing to do with my family connections,” she demanded.

He opened his mouth before closing it again a few seconds later.

“That’s what I thought.” She moved to the door. “Stay here tonight. Don’t stay here tonight. I don’t care. Just leave me the hell alone. My family is too good for the likes of you.”

Hayden hobbled out of the shower at midnight to find Elle making herself at home in his bed. Beside her, Beula thumped her tail in greeting.

“You didn’t show up at the inn,” Elle said.

“I was working on one of the pieces Livi commissioned. Time got away from me.”

She gnawed on her bottom lip. It was her tell that she didn’t believe him. “Are you mad about something?”

Hell yeah . He was furious at that dick Jeremy for showing up out of the blue and putting his hand and lips all over his woman. Not that he was admitting to it.

“I’m confused, that’s all. Why is Jeremy in town? What does he want?”

From you.

A crestfallen look settled in her eyes before she shook it off.

“Elle?”

“Promise you won’t get mad?”

No!

“Yeah.”

She slid to the edge of the bed, the T-shirt of his she wore riding up her thighs when she placed them on either side of him. Reaching up a hand, she traced a path around his navel. His arousal edged against the towel.

“He claimed to still be in love with me,” she said right before pressing her tongue to his belly button.

“What the actual fuck, Elle!” he yelled.

Beula shot off the bed and disappeared down the hall.

“You promised not to get mad.”

“I lied.” He wasn’t mad. He was furious. And he was going to get dressed and go tear the asshole from limb to limb. “Is he still at the inn?”

“I have no idea. And I don’t care.” She reached beneath the towel and wrapped her fingers around him.

“Don’t try to distract me, Elinor. That jerk has no right to mess with you the way he has.”

“I knew he was lying. He practically admitted it when I confronted him.” She reached both hands beneath the towel. “Besides, even if it was true, I don’t love him. I realized today that I never loved him.” She looked up at him from beneath her lashes. “Because he’s not you. And I’m your Belle,” she whispered as she pulled the towel from around his hips.

Her declaration didn’t do much to calm him down. The blood from his brain rushed to other parts of his body, and he wasn’t proud of the way he reacted. Tossing away his crutch, he bent Elle back on the bed and knelt between her legs.

“I’m your Belle,” she repeated as he made love to her with his tongue until she was screaming the words, her fingers fisted in his hair.

He didn’t bother waiting for her body to settle back down after her orgasm. Instead, he tossed her like a rag doll to the head of the bed. He rolled on a condom and covered her in an instant. Her eyes flew open when he thrust into her fully. They glazed over when he began to move.

Her fingernails dug into his shoulders as he pounded into her. He was behaving like an animal, taking out his anger at her ex on her. Except he couldn’t help himself.

“Say it again,” he growled next to her ear before sinking his teeth into her collarbone.

“I’m your Belle,” she gasped out.

“Again,” he ordered until the bedroom was filled with her chants of “I’m your Belle.”

He could feel her closing in on her pleasure again. “That’s right. You’re mine.” He wasn’t sure if he was talking to her or to Jeremy. But he was sure he should be ashamed of himself for using her this way.

Her back arched when she cried out beneath him. “Yes, Hayden. God, yes!”

He pressed up on his forearms and stared down at her. Her hair was a tangled mess on the pillows. He hadn’t even bothered to strip off the T-shirt of his she wore. It was rucked up beneath her armpits. She had every right to hate him for using her to soothe his anger.

Instead, she laughed. He hated that it sounded more manic than happy.

“Can you believe the jerk thought I’d marry him?”

Hayden froze above her. “He what ?” No wonder she’d seduced him. To keep him from killing Jeremy Keneally.

Her humorless laugh was loud in the room again. “His grandmother is cutting him off unless he becomes more respectable. Apparently, I’m respectable. Not because he loves me though. That was just a lie. It’s because I’m a McAlister. A nepo baby with good connections but not deserving of his love and respect.”

He winced at the crack in her voice. A tear leaked out from her eye. He bent down to catch it with his lips.

“No, Elle,” he murmured against her skin. “He’s a jerk, and he’s wrong. He doesn’t deserve you. Don’t you dare let him get to you. You hear me?”

She heard him all right because she pressed her palms to his chest, swiftly reversing their positions until she straddled him.

“Damn right he doesn’t deserve me,” she panted out as she began to ride him.

He shoved his hands beneath the T-shirt to grip her waist. When she tossed her head back, her hair billowed through the air. She was a vision above him.

“He doesn’t know me like you know me, Hayden. And he never will.”

Her declaration had his orgasm swiftly surging through him. They both cried out, then she slumped into his arms. Their hearts raced, seeming to beat as one.

Hayden’s emotions were all over the place as he stroked her back and breathed in the musky sex smell from her skin. When her breaths began to even out, three things became crystal clear to him. One, she was taking the promotion at Vantage . If for no other reason than to prove to that dickweed Jeremy—but mostly to herself—that she was more than just a McAlister. Two, Jeremy Keneally—or any other man, for that matter—wasn’t ever going to know Elle the way Hayden did, because three, he was leaving his protective cocoon of Chances Inlet and going to New York with her.

He loved her that much.