Coming Home to You (The Rockport Beach Series Book 1) (18 page)

I curl my body around Beck’s, but I know nothing
will ever be able to remove the images I have in my head, I can only hope that
my nightmares are worse than the reality.

“Baby,” Beck says, his voice coated with
sympathy, but he says nothing after that. I close my eyes and pray for a
restful nights sleep.

It’s after midnight and I’m still awake. Kelsey
has fallen asleep in my arms, the warm weight of her body a comfort as I lie
here. It feels good to have finally confessed how I feel about her. To say the
words out loud again after so long, is a relief and it feels like a huge weight
has been lifted.

When I’d walked back into this room
tonight, I knew I was walking into a potential fight. Of course Kelsey would
remember the words I’d used on her ten years ago, she remembers everything. But
I wasn’t lying when I said I loved her and I definitely wasn’t lying when I
said I wanted to find a way to make this work. I do, more than anything.

Leaving Rockport ten years ago had never
been about Kelsey or needing to get away from her. It was all me. I just couldn’t
stand the incestuous nature of this place. The way everyone knew everyone and their
business, and especially the way they felt like they could stick their fucking noses
in it whenever they felt like it. The number of times I got stopped and asked
about when I was going to make an honest woman out of Kelsey, drove me fucking
insane. What was wrong with us just being in love and together? We were only
teenagers, for fuck’s sake.

But now, coming back here, I can see how
this close-knit community has been good for Kels. They were there for her when each
of her parents died and they’re here for her now when all this shit with Jason
is going down.

It makes me feel like a prize dick for
bailing on her back then. But how the fuck was I ever supposed to admit that
watching her mom die brought back far too memories of watching my own mom die.
That the gossip from this town was bad enough, but when I was also losing the
woman who’d become a surrogate mother to me, it all just became too much. I was
supposed to be the strong one out of the two of us.

And I’d thought for sure Kels would come
with me, that the pain of losing her mom would be too much for her to stay, too.
I mean we’d talked about getting away before, but I guess what I saw as a
permanent move, she only ever saw as a temporary one, a vacation maybe. And
like the completely selfish prick I was, and still am, I’d up and left her
anyway. Left her to deal with the pain of losing her mom and the hurt of losing
the one man who swore he’d never leave her.

“Fuck,” I breathe out, throwing off the
covers as I gently climb out of bed.

Kelsey stirs a little, but doesn’t wake up.
I stand beside the bed and watch her sleep for a minute. I know there is absolutely
no way I can give her up now though. Being back with her like this is one
thing, but knowing she still loves me, that she still feels all the things for
me that I feel for her. Well that’s changed everything.

“I’ll find a way to make this work, baby,”
I whisper, pressing a kiss to her cheek before I turn and fire up my laptop to
start looking into these cameras.

The next morning I’m woken to the sound of
a text message. When I glance at my phone, I see it’s after ten.

“Fuck,” I shout as I sit bolt upright.
Kelsey has gone, but there’s a note on her pillow letting me know she’s only
downstairs working.

Jesus, I must have needed the sleep, I
think to myself. I can’t even remember what time it was when I’d crawled back
into bed last night. I’m pretty sure the sun was on its way up. I did manage to
find some information on the cameras though, and I definitely want to head over
and see Finn today and share it with him.

I open my phone and read the message.

Ryan:
back in Boston, gonna head over to that fucker’s place today. Will keep you
posted.

I text back a quick thanks, grateful for my
friend’s help on this. I’m about to get up, take a shower and go find Kelsey,
when the door to our room opens. Glancing up, I smile when I see her walk in
carrying a large coffee and a bag of what smells like my favorite donuts.

“Morning,” she says, almost shyly.

“Morning, baby,” I say, pulling her down
onto the bed with me.

“I thought you might like some coffee,” she
says, placing the coffee and bag on the side table. “You didn’t seem to get
much sleep last night.”

I smile, pulling her in for a kiss. “I
think this is what I need.” Kelsey’s lips are warm and sugary against mine and
straightaway I know she’s been eating my donuts. I smile as I lick her bottom
lip, kissing her harder as her body melts against mine. When she pulls back, I
can’t help but grin at her. “Yep, exactly what I need.”

Kelsey blushes, and for the life of me I
can’t understand what the fuck is going on here. When she won’t even look at
me, I grab her face in my hands, bringing it round so she has to. “What’s going
on, babe?” I ask her. “What’s with all this shyness?” Kelsey shrugs as though
she doesn’t know what I’m talking about, but her blush deepens. “Baby,” I say,
smiling at her. “You’re never normally shy with me, what’s going on?”

I watch as she takes a deep breath, her
eyes never leaving mine as she finally says, “Last night, what we were talking
about.”

“Ohhh,” I say, smiling as it finally dawns
on me. Shifting, so I’m sitting closer to her, I look right into her eyes so
she knows I’m telling her the truth. “Kelsey,” I say. “I love you, okay? I’ve
loved you for the last ten years; the three before that even. I’ve never
stopped loving you, baby, and even though neither of us knows exactly how this
is going to pan out, I will always love you.”

“Beck…” she says, her voice soft.

“Let me finish,” I say, leaning in to give
her a quick kiss. “I’m not pretending to have all the answers here, babe. I don’t
know how we’re going to make this work with me in Boston and you here in Rockport,
but…” I stop to emphasize my point. “I meant what I said last night. I will
find a way to make this work, babe, because honestly, not having you in my life
anymore isn’t working for me.”

“Beck,” she murmurs again as she throws her
arms around my neck. I wrap mine around her waist, falling back onto the bed
and taking her with me.

“This is what you were worried about?” I
ask, kissing her lips, her nose and her forehead.

She shrugs. “I don’t know. I wasn’t sure if
you just said it to end our fight or whatever.”

“Kelsey,” I say, my voice suddenly serious.
“This is not something I’m ever gonna lie about, baby, and it’s most definitely
not something I’d just say. I would never fuck with this,” I tell her. “I love
you, I mean it.”

Kelsey slams her mouth hard against mine as
she murmurs, “Good.”

I’m kissing her back as I slide my hands
under her tank, finding her bra and unsnapping it. The second I do though, she’s
pulling away from me, her hands on my chest as she pushes herself up. “Whoa,
where are you going?” I ask, reaching for her.

She swats my hands out of the way, smiling
as she redoes her bra and says, “Finn’s here, he wants to speak to you.”

“Finn can wait,” I say, reaching for her
again.

“No Finn can’t,” my brother says, walking
in the still open door. “Get up lazy bones, we’ve got shit to do.”

“Fuck me,” I groan, grabbing a pillow and
holding it over my now throbbing cock. “You’re seriously going to leave me like
this, baby?” I ask, looking at Kelsey.

She grins at me. “I only came to bring you
coffee, Beck. And let you know that Finn was here.”

I shake my head as she stands and moves
away from the bed. “I’ll get you for this,” I say. “Give me ten minutes,” I
tell my brother, waving them both out.

“Hurry up lover boy,” he shouts, and I
throw a pillow at the closing door.

Twenty minutes later and I’m showered,
dressed and wandering down the stairs. Kelsey is alone at the front desk, Bella
by her feet and she looks up as I wander past.

“Okay?” she asks, smiling at me.

I shake my head and walk towards her,
pulling her in for a hard kiss before I smack her on the ass. “Just so you
know,” I say, quietly enough that none of the customers currently milling
around the front room will hear. “I just had to rub one out in the shower because
of you.”

Kelsey laughs as she reaches down and grabs
my ass now. “I hope you thought of me while you were doing it.”

I pull her even closer, rubbing my already
semi-hard dick against her hip. “You bet your ass I did,” I whisper, licking
her neck. “And you’re gonna make it up to me later on, too.”

“Oh I will, Beck,” she says, subtly rubbing
my dick. “I will.”

I groan and pull away, knowing I have to
talk to Finn, but more importantly, I have to get away from her before I say
fuck it and throw her down on the front desk and fuck her in front of everyone.

“Yeah, you will,” I say again, before
turning and walking towards my brother.

Finn is sitting in one of the chairs by the
front door, his leg crossed over his knee and a weird look on his face.

“What’s wrong with you?” I ask, stopping in
front of him.

He shoots a quick glance in Kelsey’s
direction before he stands and says, “Nothing.”

I look back at Kels before Finn and I walk out
of the front of the inn and onto the street. “Not buying that, Finn,” I say.

My brother exhales hard as we head towards
the police station. “It’s nothing, Beck,” he says in a way that tells me it’s
the complete opposite. “Just worried about Kels, you know. Want to catch this
fucker.”

“Me too, Finn,” I tell him, slapping him on
the shoulder. “And we will, I promise.”

Finn turns to look at me. He’s giving me
the same look he gave me in the bar last night. The one that says and what
happens after that.

I stop. “Look, bro, I talked to Kels, okay.
I heard what you said last night and I know what you’re thinking now,” I tell
him. “I’m fixing this,” I add, gesturing around the street. “I fucked up, but I
want her back and I’m gonna find a way to make it work.”

“Just don’t break her heart again, Beck,”
Finn says as he starts walking. “She deserves better than that.”

I swallow hard, knowing I deserve this
because the truth is, I did break her heart once. And I did it after I promised
I never would, so really, what makes this time around any different? I know
Kelsey isn’t the only one I have to prove myself to.

I catch up with Finn. “Listen, Finn,” I
say, glancing at him. “I know that Kels isn’t the only one I pissed off by
leaving.” Finn looks at me but says nothing before he turns away. “And Kelsey
isn’t the only one I’m trying to make things up to now, okay?”

“You sure about that?” he says.

“Finn,” I say, grabbing his arm. “I am,
seriously. I know I bailed on you and Pop, too and despite what you may think,
I have missed this, missed hanging out with you, doing shit together.”

“Me too, Beck,” Finn says as we turn and
walk into the station.

“Wanna grab a beer later on tonight?” I ask
him.

Finn finally smiles as he says, “Yeah, that
would be good.”

Finn and I spend the next two hours getting
each other up to speed on what we’ve found out. The cameras come from a
manufacturer out of Atlanta and when Finn calls to find out if they have a
record of where they sent them, we finally get an address for where this
fuckwit might be recording and watching them from. Just as we’re trying to work
out a plan for what to do next, Ryan calls.

“Hey,” I say, as I answer my phone. “What’s
happening?”

“Hey,” Ryan says. “Well, we went over this
guy’s place and yeah, at first glance, it looks just like a regular apartment.”

“But?” I ask, knowing there’s more coming.

“Well, I can see how the guys would have
missed it, and maybe it’s only because I know what this guy has been doing that
I even thought to look for it in the first place.”

I exhale; this is not going to be good.
“Tell me.”

I hear Ryan exhale too, almost as though he
doesn’t want to say whatever it is that he’s found. “There were hidden cameras
in his apartment too, Beck,” he says. “And this time we found the videos.”

“Fuck,” I breathe out. “What was on them?”

“You’re not gonna like this,” he says.

“Just tell me, Ryan,” I say. “Please.”

“Okay. I’ve only watched half of them, but
so far I’ve seen nothing but him fucking other women.”

“Jesus christ,” I practically shout.

“Beck, that’s not all,” Ryan says and from
the tone of his voice I can tell that that wasn’t the worst part. “They’re all
time stamped,” he continues. “Some of them were during the time he was seeing
Kelsey.” I exhale hard, my blood boiling as I think about that fucker screwing
my girl and countless other women at the same time. “And…” he says.

Suddenly I want to punch something. “What,
just tell me everything, Ryan.”

“These videos he had, they were pretty bad,
Beck. The women didn’t exactly look like they were enjoying it. I mean some of
them, you’d definitely classify as rape, maybe even torture.”

“Fucking hell!” I shout, gesturing for Finn
to get his ass over here.

“I know, there were no videos of Kelsey
though, okay?”

“Yeah, she said she never went to Boston
and saw him; probably wanted to avoid running into me,” I say, furious at myself
for leaving her all over again.

“One other thing,” Ryan says.

“What?”

“These videos were all hidden in a wall
cavity, that’s why they were missed. The cameras were definitely professionally
installed. When we opened up the wall though, we found a bunch of other things
in with the videos,” Ryan says. “Knives, packing tape, rope. It looks like this
fucker had more than just rough and non-consensual sex in mind.”