Page 79 of Rival Hearts

I chuckled. “We know it happened.” I winked at her, and she blushed. Was she thinking about the sex and not the storm, too?

When I walked to the boat to inspect it, it seemed okay. The warm sun had gotten rid of the water that must have filled upinside of it last night. I tried to start the engine, and after a few tries, it sputtered to life.

“Well, look at that,” Charlotte said. “It looks like we’re going home, after all.”

“And I don’t have to row.”

She laughed. “I would have helped.”

“I wouldn’t have let you.”

“You know I can take care of myself, right?” Her eyes were dark and determined, the laughter fading a little.

“I know,” I said. I stepped closer to her, cupping her cheek. “Your independence is part of what makes you so incredible.”

She blushed, not knowing what to say to that. She’d wanted to challenge me.

“I like taking care of you, though,” I added.

Out here, alone, the truth kept tumbling from my lips, and I didn’t even regret it. I wanted her to know how I felt about her. I needed her to know that she was… everything.

“Alex…” she started.

“I don’t want this to end,” I said quickly before she could say anything else.

She blinked at me.

“I’m serious. I can’t get enough of you, and I want to see you. Not just by accident or when we get stranded on an island. I want to court you, and take you out, and buy you flowers.”

“Who sayscourtanymore?” Charlotte asked with a giggle.

“Men who are serious about doing right by their woman.”

Her smile faded again a little when she realized how serious I was.

“Alex, we can’t. My brother—”

“I’ll talk to Gabe,” I said. I’d already thought about this. It wasn’t my fault I’d fallen hard for my best friend’s sister. So, it wasn’t exactly the right thing to do, and he would probably lose his shit, but I wasn’t going to let someone like Charlotte slipthrough my fingers without fighting for us to be together. Surely, Gabriel would understand. He’d been in love before, hadn’t he?

“I don’t know how happy he’ll be about it,” Charlotte said. “He’s always been very protective of me. Especially when we were growing up, you know, given everything… but even while I was away studying. He would check in with me all the time, ask me who I was seeing, what I was doing… and now that I’m in the same town as him again—”

“I’ll talk to him,” I said again. “We’ll figure it out. I want to be with you.” I cupped her cheek, and Charlotte looked up at me with those dark eyes I could fall into forever. “That is, if you want this, too.”

She nodded. “Yeah.” Her voice was breathy. “I do.”

My stomach did a little flip.

“Then it’s settled.”

“I think he just went out of town,” Charlotte said.

“Then I’ll talk to him as soon as he gets back.” I would do it face-to-face—this wasn’t something I could do over the phone.

Charlotte shook her head, which wasn’t what I’d thought she’d do.

“What about work? My campaign, your company. Or is that not something people care about?”

“We’ll just have to keep it quiet for now,” I said. “I have big plans for the company—I told you I wanted to run some new ideas by you—and your campaign won’t last forever. But even if it does, we’re on the same side here.”