Page 32 of Shot Through the Heart

“Might want to sit down,” I say before turning the key and immediately ease the boat out.

She listens while continuing to yell her protest, telling me to turn around and go back, but I tune her out. After another minute or two, I finally bring the boat to a stop.

Stella sits with her arms crossed at the bow of the boat, scowling something vicious at me, and I try not to smile at how adorable she looks.

“We need to talk about last night,” I say once we’re far enough away. Flicking the boat engine off, I stand carefully, not wanting to rock the boat too much.

Stella’s glare turns flustered at my words. “And you thought kidnapping me on a boat was the right way to do that?”

Even though she’s clearly frustrated, it doesn’t change how beautiful she is. Her golden skin is slightly flushed from spending the day in the sun. The shorts she’s wearing cling to her, begging me to look at the delicious curve of her ass and thighs. I snap my gaze back up to her pretty face before she can call me out for drooling over her.

That and these swim trunks willnothide a hard-on.

I shrug and tuck my hands into my pockets. “You’ve been avoiding me all day, so yeah.”

“I said all I needed to say.” She shakes her head, dropping her hands to her hips. “I understand you kissed me to sell whatever story you’re trying to paint by being in a contract with me. But getting physical was not a part of the deal, so don’t do it again.”

I step closer, mindful that I don’t rock the boat or get too close to her. The last thing I need right now is to get distracted by her proximity.

“Let me make one thing clear. I kissed you last night because kissing you is and has always been second nature. That kiss was not meant to be seen. It wasn’t for anyone but me and you.”

Stella’s jaw drops open, and her head shakes back and forth as if she’s trying to deny what I’m saying, but I push on.

“While I’m not sorry it happened, I am sorry that I kissed you without asking first. Next time?—”

“What part of ‘that’s not in the contract’ do you not understand?” she interrupts. Anger like I’ve never seen radiates off her. “That kiss should have never happened. There’s too much history and pain to eventhinkabout letting you get that close again. This is work, Greyson. There cannot and will not be a next time. You can ask all you want, but you lost the right to kiss me five years ago.”

“Wait, what?Ilost the right?”

“Yes!Youdid.” Stella scoffs and scowls at me, a look that I’ve seen her give others when she’s about to tell them off. However, nothing comes out. Instead, she pinches the bridge of her nose and sighs. “No, we’re not doing this. I am working. Maybe once the contract is done, we can find a time and a place to rehash all that shit, but not here. My job here is to make you look redeemable, so unless you want those photographers to catch a shot of me shoving you into the ocean and leaving you to swim back, you’ll take me back. With a goddamn smile on your face because I can’t be the only one putting in the effort for your image.”

She takes a slow step forward, eliminating the distance between us with an alarming smile that makes my throat go dry. Stella raises a single eyebrow in a silent challenge before glancing over her shoulder.

Following her line of sight, sure enough, there are already two photographers at the docks with their cameras aimed right at us.

Shaking my head, I sigh in defeat before dropping into the seat behind the wheel and turning the engine back on. From the corner of my eye, I see Stella smiling enthusiastically.

Her words of finding time once the contract is up to talk bounce around my mind as I ease us back toward the docks.

There are still three events left to go over the next month and a half. Three chances to show her I can follow her lead. Three opportunities to convince her to give me that conversation.

Except, it’s more than that now. I don’t want just a conversation or closure anymore. Last night proved that for me. Yes, I’ll use any opening I can to get her to tell me where it all went wrong. To fix whatever was broken all those years ago. But the way I see it now, I have three more events to tempt the person who I used to know like the back of my hand to give me a second chance.

I risk a peek in her direction. She’s grown into a breathtaking woman, just like I always knew she would. There’s no doubt that beneath these new layers, the girl I once knew is still in there. Maybe it’s wishful thinking or me being an absolute fool, but I believe the love and trust we once had didn’t just disappear when that car crashed into us.

A warmth takes hold in my chest, so foreign and unlike everything I’ve been used to feeling for the past five years that it takes longer than it should to place the feeling growing inside me.

It isn’t until we’re slowly inching toward the waiting man to help me dock that it clicks, and a small but genuine smile forms on my lips.

Because for the first time in years, I’m hopeful.

ChapterEleven

STELLA

Takingcare of your sick child is simultaneously one of the most heartbreaking experiences and the most repulsing. All they want is to be held and be close to you, so even though there’s a high probability that there are questionable chunks in their hair that were missed during the wipe-down—you soak up all the cuddles. Especially when said four-year-old rarely sits still for snuggles anymore.

The numbness in my fingers reminds me that I need to get up. Harper has been sick since before the sun came up, barely getting any sleep between trips to the bathroom or whatever closest bowl I could grab. This is the first time she’s managed to keep medicine down and is finally out like a light. Gently, I brush the hair from her forehead and breathe a quiet sigh of relief that she’s not as warm as earlier. She always runs high when she gets a fever, but this one had me seconds away from dragging her to the emergency room.

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