Page 32 of A Touch Enchanted

This didn’t make any sense. It took me months to work up the courage to tell him I was in love with him. I broke up with Jackson because, as much as I tried, I couldn’t make myself feel a fraction for him of what I did for Donovan. But he rejected me. He told me he was leaving the island for at least two years, and when I begged to go with him, he refused. I didn’t get out of bed for days. Our friendship almost didn’t recover.

And now he was telling me he loved me the whole time? Bullshit.

“I already know what you’re thinking,” he said.

I moved away from him and sat up, hugging my knees to my chest. “You can’t possibly know what I’m thinking.”

“You’re thinking there is no way I could’ve been in love with you because I rejected you, and you’re also semi-contemplating which body part of mine you’d like to remove first.”

Okay, maybe he could tell exactly what I was thinking. “I need you to explain yourself. Because nine years is a long time to keep something like that from me.”

“I hate to blame everything on Seth, but fuck it, he’s not here to argue with me.” Donovan went on to tell me everything he’d been keeping quiet for almost a decade.

Donovan’s parents needed someone in the family to keep an eye on their overseas operations, one of the kids, so the embezzling manager wouldn’t suspect he was being watched. Seth was supposed to do it, since he’d been wanting to leave the island for years, but then he got in deep with Audrey and didn’t want to leave and let Wes win. Wes was a mess over Audrey. He could barely wipe his own ass, let alone handle spying on a top-level employee. Cole was needed at home, working with their dad to eventually take over.

That left Donovan.

He volunteered for the job before he knew how I felt, and once he found out, he couldn’t back out on his family. And even though I begged to go with him, he knew I couldn’t leave either. My parents needed me to help with their shop in the summer. They wouldn’t have been able to stay afloat if I didn’t provide the training to their diving instructors.

So he acted like he didn’t want me, and stayed away for so long because he thought I’d moved on. Years where we could’ve, would’ve been together if he’d told me the truth from the start. I’d never felt those missing years between us as deeply and widely as I did now.

“You should’ve been honest with me,” I said.

“I know.” He lay on his back and stared up at my water-stained ceiling. “I can pinpoint every moment when I should’ve said something, but there was always a reason not to.”

I wanted to be mad at him for keeping something so important from me, especially when we didn’t keep secrets from each other, but I understood why he did it. In his weird, Donovan way, he was trying to protect me. Even if he went about it the wrong way, I couldn’t fault him for trying. And I didn’t want to waste any more time. We’d lost enough already.

I lay next to him and rested my chin on his chest. “Okay.”

He tilted his head up. “Okay?”

“Okay, you screwed up, but I forgive you.”

“Wow.” He leaned up on his elbow. “Not gonna lie, I thought you’d at least make me grovel a little. This is kind of disappointing.”

“I have other ways of making you beg.”

A wicked glint sparked in his eyes. “I’d be very interested in seeing that.”

I pushed him down and climbed on top of him, straddling his waist. Gripping his wrists, I grabbed a red scarf off my lampshade and tied his hands together, then tied them to my headboard. He let out a nervous chuckle and nipped at my breasts as I hovered over him.

Once I had him secure, I kissed his neck and whispered in his ear, “I’m the one in control now, and it’s going to drive you insane.”

“We’ll see about that.”

I gave him a smile that had just a hint of evil. Kissing my way down his chest and swirling my tongue around each of his nipples, I peeked up at him. That smug look on his face wouldn’t last long. I trailed my lips over his hipbone. His cock twitched, as if straining toward me. I rubbed my hands down his powerful thighs, passing over the place he wanted me most.

Working my way back up his body, I let my fingers trail over each ridge in his abs. I traced the length of hair that started at his belly button and went all the way down. A bead of precum glistened on his tip, and still, I didn’t touch him there.

“This is not as much fun as I thought it was going to be,” Donovan grumbled.

“It’s plenty fun for me.” I sat up on his stomach, rubbing my hips back and forth as I squeezed my breasts and played with my nipples. “Mmm, feels so good.”

“It’ll feel better if I’m touching you.”

I ignored him and continued to rub my hands over myself.

He jerked his hips, pulling his arms hard enough to rattle the headboard. “I mean it, Violet. Untie me. Let me show you how good I can make you feel.”

---