Fearless (A Carolina Coastal Novel Book 2) Read online

  “Please, Lucas.” I shift my hips, fucking him from underneath him.

  His jaw is clenched tight and I fear our next stop will be a dentist to fix his shattered teeth.

  “You feel too fucking good, Kitten. Fuck.” He pulls out and slams back in. I cry out, but he doesn’t stop. He gives me exactly what I asked for. He fucks me, good and hard. We’re making up for lost time, lost moments.

  He pulls out of me and rolls me over onto my stomach. On instinct, I arch my back and put my ass in the air. He groans and slides back inside me, fucking me once again. My legs shake and my pussy convulses around his cock.

  I snap, calling out as another orgasm manages to find me. It’s unbearable and I can’t hold myself up any longer. I collapse, my limbs numb.

  At the same time, Luke pulls out of me and his hot liquid pours onto my back. A few final droplets make their way onto me before stopping. Wet lips meet my cheek and I try to open my eyes, but the lids are too heavy.

  “I painted you. Now you’re mine.” I hear the mischief in his voice and a lazy smile tries to pull at my lips.

  I can hear tissues being ripped from a box and then I feel them on my back, cleaning up his mess. I don’t want to get up and get dressed only to leave him, but we have to. We’ve been here too long already.

  “Help me up. We need to leave.”

  “No, let’s stay.”

  “Lucas, we’re trespassing. Let’s not push our limits.” He groans but helps me get dressed since I’m next to useless.

  We head up the steps but hear voices approaching. We’re so screwed. We surely can’t stay, but nothing could be worse than being caught down here.

  There’s a couple dressed to the nines on the boat while a caterer steps up and decorations are being hung. How long have these people been here? What did they hear?

  “Who the hell are you?” The man who looks like a knockoff version of George Clooney asks.

  “I’m so sorry. We thought this was our friend’s boat. We were looking and couldn’t find anyone. Our bad. We’re just leaving,” Lucas says and drags me to the ladder. When we hop down to safety, I lose control into a fit of giggles.

  “I can’t believe we almost got caught.”

  “Oh, we definitely got caught. The one cater-waiter winked at me from behind their backs. I knew him though from my parents’ parties. I’ll make sure he gets a big tip.”

  “You’re so bad.”

  “Hey, you’re the one who seduced me on a stolen boat. I was just along for the ride.” He winks at me and I smack his arm.

  “You’re disgusting.”

  “Yes, but you love me.” He shrugs and boy, does he have a point.

  “You’re right. I do.”

  “Oh and remember when I promised not to lie to you? I should mention I stole a pirate figuring from that boat the first time we were there.”

  “You what? Luke, they’re going to notice.”

  “Please. If anything they’ll notice the tissues covered in cum in the trashcan. Nobody is going to miss that stupid little statue.”

  “You’re one of a kind, Lucas Fletcher.”

  “Take it or leave it, baby.”

  “I’ll take it.”

  Thirty-One

  Olivia

  Dating Luke is easier than I thought it would be. He’s started joining Kenna and me for our Chinese nights and I go home with him often to visit his family.

  I never visit his apartment because his roommate is still a douchebag, but at least his lease is up in June and he plans to find a new place without Bryce.

  He’s started complaining about this new kid that transferred to his school with a stupid fucking name—his words. I cackle like a hyena when he tells me it’s Caden Powell. It seems the previous thorn in my side has completely reformed his ways. I don’t buy it for a second, but I bite my tongue.

  Today is a big test for us, though. I’ve met his family, but he never had the opportunity to meet mine until now.

  My leg bounces under the table as I sit beside Luke. We’re waiting for my dad who always is the last to arrive thanks to his limp. The waitress stops by and we order drinks while we wait. I order an extra water for Dad knowing he’ll be here soon.

  Five more minutes pass and I start to get worried.

  “I’m sure everything’s okay, Liv. He’s just running late.”

  I nod and take another drink of my water.

  Lucas places a hand on my knee, stilling it. I inhale a deep breath and exhale slowly, attempting to calm my nerves. My efforts are futile.

  “I’ll call him. See what’s going on.”

  I pull up his number in my contacts and hit the call button. It rings and rings, anxiety plucking at my nerves as if they’re guitar strings. Finally, someone picks up.

  “Hello?” A woman answers the phone and it’s a voice I don’t recognize. She sounds to be around my age.

  “I’m sorry, did I get the wrong number? I’m looking for Martin Hart. I’m his daughter.”

  “You must be Olivia.” Her voice is steady, yet sad. “I was getting ready to call you. Your father is in the hospital. Wilmington Memorial room 330.”

  The rest of the conversation is a blur. I mumble the words to Luke and he drives us into the city. The drive takes a lifetime. Every minute that passes is another stake driving through my heart. What if we’re too late? What if I don’t get a chance to say goodbye?

  We get to the hospital and the walk to the elevator and down the subsequent hallway is a blur. We find his room and Luke holds my hand as we walk through the door. The girl, the one who must’ve answered the phone, is sitting in the chair in the corner of the room.

  “Hi, are you his daughter?” I can merely nod. “My name is Elise. I found him.”

  “What happened?”

  “My grandpa lives next door and sometimes when I bring him food I’ll take food over to Mr. Hart. I look after them both. When I walked into the house, he was just on the ground. He had a heart attack. I’m a nursing student so as I called 9-1-1 I administered CPR. He’s been pretty in and out ever since, but he kept saying your name and then you called.” My chin wavers as I take in the scene of my dad in a hospital bed. The last time I was here, my mom was dying. I really hate this place. “Um, I’ll head out.” She pushes off her chair, but I stop her.

  “No, please, feel free to stay if you want. I’m sure he appreciates all you’ve done for him.” My throat is thick with emotion.

  “I’ll give you guys a minute.”

  “Thank you for finding him and helping him.”

  She smiles and pats my arm as she passes out the door.

  I take a seat beside my dad and hold his hand in mine. How can I be wracked with this much emotion when I barely know the guy? Somehow, I think, that makes this so much harder.

  I sit in silence with Luke’s hand rubbing sympathetic circles on my back. After a few minutes, a nurse comes in to check on him. I introduce myself and while she’s taking his vitals, he wakes up.

  “Hey, Dad.” I try to smile though I can’t remove the sadness and pity from my gaze.

  “Hey, kiddo. I’m sorry about all this.”

  “Don’t apologize. I don’t need you wasting your energy on that.” He sits up and gets a drink of water. A little color seems to enter his cheeks as he starts looking around the room.

  “This is your boyfriend, right, I missed our lunch.”

  “Hello, Mr. Hart. I’m Lucas Fletcher.” He extends his hand to my dad who shakes it despite the wires attached.

  “Nice to meet you, son. You treating her right?”

  “I’m trying to.”

  “That’s all I can ask for.”

  I let them bond over me and sports. The emotion clutches onto me, threatening to drag me down. This is how it should’ve been, them talking and bonding. My father threatening him if he didn’t treat me right. Normal meet the parents types of things.

  Instead, my no-longer-estranged father is lying in a hospital bed, dying
, while my former-nemesis-turned-boyfriend shakes his hand and pretends like everything is okay.

  I’ve wasted so much time with both of them. Memories could’ve been made and so many more moments could’ve happened the right way. Instead, the cookie-cutter dream scenario is falling apart right in front of my eyes.

  I can’t stop the tears from forming at that point. All the lost time. It’s not fair.

  “I should’ve had a choice.”

  “What?” My dad’s face crinkles in concern.

  How is he the one dying and yet I’m the one that requires consoling?

  “What you and Mom did wasn’t fair to me. I should’ve had the opportunity to know you before all of this. I should’ve been considered an equal player here. It was my relationship with you too. It was never supposed to be one-sided. It shouldn’t have been her decision to make.”

  “Don’t be mad at your mother, sweetheart. She was only doing what she thought was best for you. One day you’ll understand that.” My dad coughs and it sends me into a spiral.

  “It wasn’t fair. It’s not fair. I’m only just finding you. Why are you leaving me now?”

  “It’s my fault, Olivia. If you need to be angry with anyone, it’s me.”

  “I don’t want to be angry with you. I don’t want to spend my final moments with you feeling angry.” I let a sob roll through me. “You…you’re dying. Your organs are failing and it’s what? Only a matter of time now? They’re just going to keep you comfortable until they can’t save you any longer? You think I want to waste that time fuming over your disease?” I’m not talking about his liver problems anymore.

  I’m talking about his addiction, how he was unable to choose me over it. How it made every decision for him, separating him from his family because he didn’t have a choice otherwise. It’s a selfish, nasty disease. And it’s not fucking fair.

  “Liv. Take a breath.” Lucas calms me and in the next breath, everything seems okay.

  “Olivia, I’m here.” I look up and my best friend is in the doorway, a carrier of coffees in hand and a box of donuts.

  “McKenna.” I get up and cross the room. I text her as Luke drove us to the hospital. I wanted to call her, but I didn’t think I could get the words out without blubbering.

  She barely has enough time to put the food and drinks down on my dad’s tray before I wrap her in a crushing hug. “Dad, this is my best friend and roommate McKenna. This is my dad.”

  “I’m sorry we have to meet under these circumstances,” she says to him.

  “Me too, but better late than never.” He winks at me and I smile, though it’s watery.

  My dad spends the next hour getting to know my boyfriend and best friend. Elise comes back and fills me in on everything I’d missed in my dad’s life and how they came to get to know each other.

  “There was this grumpy man across the hall. My grandpa told me he never had any visitors and rarely left the place. I started cooking extra food and leaving it for him. One day, he opened up the door and asked me what I thought I was doing. He thought I was one of those people getting close to senior citizens so that when they die, they inherit everything. I assured him I was just baking him food. We went from berating to casual grunts for a while there.”

  “Eventually I started inviting you and Harold over,” my dad chimes in.

  “And eventually you started accepting our invites too.”

  I smile at their memories but a part of my heart hurts knowing I couldn’t be a part of them.

  “Visiting hours are ending.” The nurse pops her head in and we say goodbye. I promise I’ll come back tomorrow. I’m just grateful he’s stable for now and I hope we have a little bit of time left and that I’ll be here to say goodbye for good.

  Thirty-Two

  Lucas

  I spend all of my time over the next few weeks with Liv and her dad. The second the school day is over we head to the hospital. On one particular day, when she steps out of the room, I shoot my shot.

  “I want to marry your daughter.” According to the attached monitors, his heart rate rises. “Not now or even in the near future, but someday I’ll want to marry her and I don’t want to miss out on the opportunity of asking her father for his blessing.”

  He smiles a broad, genuine grin and his eyes fill with tears. “You have my blessing. I’m glad she found you. You take care of her; I can already see that. Make sure you’re there for her when I go. She’s tough, but she’s already hurting. I made a big mistake not coming into her life sooner and I’ll regret it forever.”

  “I promise.” I shake his hand which seems colder and more frail than when we first met.

  “What’s going on here?” Liv has been trying so hard to stay upbeat throughout all of this, but in her eyes I can see her pain and even her anger still simmers under the surface. A smile has been plastered on her lips for days, but it never meets her eyes.

  “Nothing you need to worry about.” Her dad winks at her and she looks between us conspiratorially.

  When visiting hours end again, her dad makes a big deal about saying goodbye.

  “Olivia, thank you for these last few months. Getting to know you has been the highlight of my life and I’m sorry I didn’t do it sooner.”

  “Dad, we’ve been over this. Let’s not rehash it now.”

  “No, I want to make sure I say everything before it’s too late. I love you, kiddo. You deserve better than me, but you got stuck with me anyway. You’re going to do great things and you’ll be happy. Allow yourself that. That man right there, he’s a good one. Hold onto him and don’t let him go. Not ever. Leaving your mother was the second worst mistake of my life, only topped by leaving you.”

  I watch as Olivia wipes a tear away and a few start to fall down her dad’s cheeks as well.

  “I love you too, Dad. And I forgive you.”

  “Deep down, that’s all I’ve ever wanted.”

  We leave that night and I go back to Olivia’s apartment to stay with her. In the middle of the night, around one o’clock the phone rings. We don’t have to answer it to know exactly what happened. I pick up the call and hold Olivia in my arms for the rest of the night as she cries away the pain.

  The funeral brings some unexpected surprises. Elise and her grandfather, Harold, are there, but it turns out Martin Hart affected a lot more people than we realized. His old coworkers show up, some of his neighbors, a woman named Doris stops by, telling us how she always had a crush on him, but he could never get over his first love.

  We find out that Martin had a decent inheritance to leave behind to Liv. She used most of it to pay for the funeral, but she’ll have a pretty cushiony savings account now as well.

  Olivia is holding it together pretty well, but I know her better than she thinks. Kenna and I both can tell she’s struggling and we’re useless in helping her. There’s nothing we can do and neither of us have experienced the same trauma. We can sympathize, but not empathize.

  The drive home is quiet. We all go back to Liv and Kenna’s apartment. McKenna cooks lasagna because we read on the internet that’s a common meal people make for their grieving friends. But otherwise we’re at a loss.

  After an hour of staring at the TV in silence, Olivia goes back to take a shower, leaving Kenna and me to figure out where the hell we go from here.

  “I don’t know what to do for her,” I tell her.

  “You’re doing it. Go be with her.” I walk into the bathroom to check on my girl and the telltale signs of sobbing crush me.

  “Livvy, baby.” I climb into the shower with her. She’s curled up on the floor, holding her knees and crying. I’m fully clothed, now completely soaked, but I don’t care. I wouldn’t care if I were naked in a snowstorm if it meant comforting Olivia right now.

  I carry her out of the shower and into her room. I hold her in bed, neither of us caring about how we’re soaking her sheets. I hold her and that’s all that matters.

  Since the funeral was held on Thursday,
I call out of work the next day. Olivia is off for the next week and I hate the thought of having to leave her at all. Kenna and I take shifts as best we can, but eventually we have to get back to the real world and our lives. Unfortunately for both me and Olivia, soccer season has started which only leads to longer days and time apart.

  Our first game is in two weeks and of course, the rival schools play each other. Wilmington versus Coastal. Me versus Olivia. It’s not ideal right now. Normally, sure, I’d taunt her and turn it into a fun bet. But not right now when she’s still piecing herself back together.

  The days pass and I’m shocked when it’s game day to see Olivia has actually showed up to the field. Part of me assumed she’d let her assistant coach handle things today, but my girl isn’t a quitter. And she’s got a damn good team.

  And a bit of a temper.

  “What are you doing? Get to the ball! You can’t wait for it to come to you!” She’s screaming on the sidelines and I think one of the players actually wipes a tear from her cheek. But then she benches the poor girl because she couldn’t see through her tears anyway.

  I know the anger is stemming from her father dying and everything that led up to that point, but this is harsh. I’ve never seen this side of her before.

  When the profanities start flying, the ref throws her out of the game. She throws her clipboard and storms away to the locker rooms. At halftime, I allow my assistant to lead the huddle since we’re up three to one and go find my Kitten—usually she’s soft and cuddly, but sometimes, like today, the claws come out.

  “Hey.” I approach like she might hit me if I spook her, and it’s not out of the question.

  “Hey,” she’s pacing the locker room, her fists curled and her feet heavy, “this is all your fault you know.” Man, she really likes to lash out when she’s hurting.

  “How so?” I’m not going to let her get to me, but I am going to hear her out.

  “I wouldn’t even be the coach if it wasn’t for you. I didn’t want to do this. But you had to tell your buddy Mike that I played and force me into the job. Was that all part of the ploy to fuck me too? Were you planning to strip me down and have your way with me on the field?”