To say that was the most unpleasant experience I have ever endured would be an understatement. It took three tries to get my shoulder popped back in. Vincent begged me to take the pills, and then told her to make me. If I hadn’t been in pain, it would have been adorable.

Vincent insisted I hold his hand, and I’m pretty sure he’s regretted it since he keeps flexing his hand on the steering wheel now.

“Sorry about that,” I tell him.

“My hand? I don’t give a damn about my fucking hand. Jesus, Paige, why the hell wouldn’t you take the fucking pills so you’d be more comfortable?” He’s still pissed, but I know it’s out of concern.

“I didn’t need them. And look, I’m all better.” I move my arm around and smile.

He sighs and shake his head. “How much better?”

“Why?”

“Your father thinks I’m a loser because I don’t have a vehicle. You feel up to helping me get a truck?”

“You’re getting a truck?” I laugh.

“I am … for the business. And you have a car that we need to go get.”

I hold my hand over my stomach when it doesn’t just growl, it roars.

“We can eat first. Where is that Caroline’s Coffee place, and do they serve food?”

“Yep,” I tell him as I punch in the address. Then I lean over the console, and he looks at me. “I like you, Vincent.”

He leans in and gives me a kiss. “I like you, too, Paige.”

I could fall in love with you, Vincent, I think while looking at him.

“Keep looking at me like that, and the next mayor of Tybee Island will have a sex tape to try to hide.”

“I could never.” I laugh.

“This community seems to love you. Old Joe, Dr. Sweet …” He pauses while I laugh. “I’m sure there are many more. But consider it. Hell, you already have a guaranteed five votes. There can’t possibly be five people who like that fucker.”

He pulls into Caroline’s and hops out. I open the door, and he holds out his hand.

When we walk in, I see nothing has changed. I take comfort in it. It’s busy, and there are four people working. A girl at the counter, two delivering food to the tables, and I see Caroline in the back. Four people who depend on this place to help feed their families.

I walk over to the wall of shelves where different cups line them. I look at them all and try to decide which one I would like today. I read them over. “Coffee, because punching people is frowned upon,” “You Got This,” “Get Shit Done,” and “We can’t all be queens. Someone has to bow when I walk by.” I reach for it when Vincent pushes a cup into my hand.

I turn it around and read it out loud, “ You’re my person.” I smirk and look at him as he grabs for the one he chooses. “Don’t you wish your coffee was hot like me.”

He holds it up. “Accurate?”

Laughing, I look to find another one and my eyes focus on one that says, “Love Matters.”

“Come on, person.” He pulls at my hand.

“What can we get for you today?” A girl I think I recognize but am unsure looks up at Vincent. Her eyes widen and a blush immediately covers her cheeks.

“Paige?” he asks, looking down at me.

“Egg white omelet with turkey bacon and loaded with veggies.” I smile at her, but she is writing down my order, so she doesn’t look at me.

“Egg white omelet, real bacon, loaded with vegetables and cheese,” Vincent tells her as he runs his hand over his stubble while looking at the menu. “A side of home fries and toast.”

“Hungry?” I joke.

“Always.” He winks. “Alas, food will have to substitute for—”

I elbow him in the side, and he grunts out a laugh.

“That’ll be twenty-three fifty,” the woman behind the counter tells us.

Thankfully, he pulls out his black leather wallet to pay, because I left my purse at home.

There is a significant change in how the Vincent I have known for years acts and the one who could possibly break my heart, not just temporarily shatter my self-confidence like I allowed the others to.

He wraps his arm around my waist and pulls me against him. Then he bends down and kisses me on top of the head.

We fill our cups from the pots next to the cash register. He takes his black, and I use almond milk and two sugars. We then walk toward a corner table where he pulls out a chair for me. When I sit, I watch him walk to the opposite side of the table and realize he always has his back to the wall and faces the point of entry. I won’t say it doesn’t make me even more attracted to him, knowing even though he seems completely at ease, he’s always looking around for the possibility of danger.

As he looks me over, I realize I have looked like shit since he got here. Hair and makeup untended, and my attire is definitely not what he is used to with me. I would worry that it makes me less desirable to him, but the way he looks at me … I love the way he looks at me.

“I need a shower.”

“Me, too.” He smiles. “We could do it together. That way, your current situation goes right down the drain.”

“My current situation?”

He leans back and looks at me like I’m in some sort of trouble.

“What?”

“You told Dr. Sweet you have your monthly.”

I shrug and take a sip of my coffee.

He leans in and asks, “Do you, or don’t you?”

Oh, hell.

“I’ve been under a lot of stress. Sometimes that causes—”

“Do you?” He pauses. “Or don’t you?”

I look down and scowl. “No, but that doesn’t mean—”

“That you didn’t throw up on the boat. That you didn’t take a damn drink at Joe’s place. That you denied medication that would have saved you from being tortured at Dr. Sweet’s. That you’re fucking glowing and haven’t worn a stitch of makeup. That you—”

He’s interrupted by Caroline coming over with our plates in her hands. “Well, I’ll be dipped in honey. Sweet pea, is that you?” She sets the plates on the table, and I stand up to hug her.

“It’s me, Caroline.”

She hugs me tightly then pulls back and takes my face in her hands. “I was minding my business the way I do, and my grandbaby came back to give me your order, telling me that she thought there was a movie star in our little café. She even pulled up a picture on her cellular phone and opened up one of those app thingies and showed me a picture of a half-naked man named Christian.” She leans in and whispers, “Like that man in the movies that likes to spank his girl, but his last name is Williams.”

She turns her back completely towards me and looks at Vincent. “You are seriously something to look at. And although most men who look like you are gay, I don’t care either way, I’m gonna enjoy looking. Mr. Williams, it’s an honor to have you in our little café. Can my grandbaby get one of those selfie things with you?”

The look on his face is priceless. The fact that Caroline’s grandbaby doesn’t wait for an okay and simply sits beside him and takes a photo makes me laugh out loud, whereas he looks like a deer in the headlights.

“Thank you, Mr. Williams. We won’t intrude any further,” Caroline starts to walk away, and I reach for her hand to stop her, trying to also stop my laugh.

“Caroline, this is Vincent Stratos. Vincent, meet Caroline and …” I pause, trying to remember her granddaughter’s name.

“Tammy Sue.” She thrusts her hand out at him. “I’m Tammy Sue. Tammy with a Y.”

He shakes her hand and nods, then pulls it back and looks at Caroline.

“And, are you going to be in one of the pages of the big New York City advertisements?” she asks.

He shakes his head then takes a sip of his coffee.

“You’re not going to be one of her models?” she asks, looking at him as if he’s lying to her.

He sets his cup down. “I’m going to be her everything.”

Holy hell. Holy fucking hell.

Caroline and Tammy Sue gasp and cover their mouths.

He leans forward and takes my cup, holding it up for them to see. “She’s already my person.”

“If I wasn’t so jealous, I would swoon so hard right now.” Tammy Sue looks almost sad, and it should piss me off, but it doesn’t. I totally understand. “And Christ on a cracker that accent. What is it?”

“He’s from Italy.” I try not to laugh.

“Grandma, I have to go to Italy.”

“We met in New York.” He smiles at me as he picks up his mug and takes another drink.

“Grandma, I neeeeed to go to New York,” she insists.

I can’t help continuing, “But we saw each other more in New Jersey.”

“Jersey?” they both ask at the same time.

Vincent laughs out loud, and all eyes in the room look to see who is laughing. He’s not looking at them. He’s looking at me.

“But we’re hoping to make our home right here, aren’t we?”

Smiling still, I nod without even thinking.

“She single handedly made me want to make this my home.” When he winks at me, I allow the little girl in me, the one who was never hurt, or chastised, or treated badly, to come out in the form of a grin. “I’m trying to get her to run for mayor against—”

“Vincent!”

“Paige!”

I am seconds from sounding off like a sailor when, in the blink of an eye, he’s in front of me, hands on my face, lips on mine, while the entire place starts to applaud.

He pulls back and whispers, “Do it.”

“I’m going to kill you,” I hiss at him.

“You’d miss me.”

And before I can tell him I wouldn’t, he shows me why I would by kissing me again.

Now sitting across the table from him, I pick at my food as person after person comes up to the table, airing grievances against Warren Black and the current mayor, his uncle, Wallace Black. I try not to let it get to me, but it does, because these people love their island. Hell, I love this island. And yes, I hate Warren Black.

When we walk out, hand in hand, he thinks that’s the end of it, that he won. He hasn’t.

Inside the truck, he leans in to kiss me, but instead, I bite his lower lip, and I bite it hard.

With his lip between my teeth, I tell him, “I am not interested in being mayor.”

He begins to stroke my upper lip with his tongue, his brown eyes sparkling.

I quickly release his lip and sit back because, honestly, I’m not sure if I can stay angry at him.

“You would do one hell of a job, sweet pea.” He laughs, and I whack him in the abs. “They think so, too.”

“I’m not even a resident here anymore!”

“But you will be.” He starts the truck and pulls away from the curb.

“What makes you think so?”

“Because I’m here, the people you love are here, and—”

“Well, since you don’t believe in love, and I don’t believe in following a man around or being told what to do—”

“You respect them, you trust them, and you are loyal to them, Paige. That’s more than love. As far as following a man around, this man followed you. Doesn’t make me weak, Paige. It makes me know exactly what I want and unafraid to go after it.”

“Well, I love marketing, and I’m fantastic at what I do, so …” I shrug and allow him to chew on that bit of information.

“Then market the fuck out of Tybee Island as a premier tourist destination, and do it while you kick the fucking ass of a bitch like Warren Black who didn’t deserve you and doesn’t give a damn about this place. Give these people a chance to do the same. Lead them, Paige. And when you’re not busy running your corner of the world, turn around and see the man behind you, beside you, and make damn sure he’s given a chance to still be over you and in you. If not, there will surely be a scandal on Tybee Island involving public sex.”

“And when I’m running the little corner of my world, as you say, what will you be doing when you’re not beside me, behind me, over me, or in me?”

“Fishing and making money doing what I love. Making damn sure that every summer you take a break and go to Italy to be with your friends. Making sure you are fucked properly. Making sure we have more than two years and that we keep getting stronger, because I’m in respect with you.”

“Well, Vincent Stratos, if everything you’ve just mentioned comes to fruition, I will surely fall in love with a man like that, but …” I grab the oh shit handle as he pulls the truck to the side of the road, unbuckles his seatbelt, and then leans over, grabbing the back of my head.

“Then do it.”

All the blood in my body is pooled between my legs, and my mouth is suddenly dry.

“You terrify me,” I whisper my fear.

“Do you think I wanted to feel this way about you? Do you think, if I had any fucking control over it, I wouldn’t have stayed away? I’m willing to take a chance to have a real fucking life, one of my own, for the first time. Now tell me again how terrified you are.”

Immediately, tears fill my eyes, and then he kisses me. He pushes his tongue into my mouth and licks inside it. One hand is removed from my face, and he wraps it around me, pulling me closer, kissing me deeper, licking me harsher and with an urgency I have never felt in a kiss. It’s claiming, yet it’s calming. It’s a rush, yet it relaxes me. It’s love, yet without the word.

“Okay,” I say as he kisses down my neck. “Okay, I’m going to trust in what I feel. But when I’m ready to say words …” He sucks on my earlobe, and I whimper. “When you’re ready, I expect you to say them.”

He pulls back and presses his forehead against mine. “But understand, respect, trust, and loyalty are more—”

“I know. I know,” I tell him, rubbing my hand up the side of his face.

“You never have to doubt me, Paige. I’m an ass who will say it like it is, and you’re the beauty that is strong enough to deal with an ass like me.”

I nod.

“And I’m the only motherfucker who can handle a woman like you.”

I nod.

“And it’s my privilege. Let me be yours, too.”

“Okay.” I nod. “Okay.”

As we drive down the road, hand in hand, I ask him a question I need answered.

“What if I don’t want to be in marketing, or the mayor, or—”

“You can sell seashells out of our marina and I’m still going to feel the same.”

When we stop at a light, he turns to look at me, and I nod.

He smiles. “It would make my life a hell of a lot easier, too.”

“Easier how?”

“It’s hard being around you and not be … hard.” He pulls my hand to the crotch of his pants.

“I see.” I squeeze him.

“Maybe if you acted like you weren’t as interested in fucking me as I was you, that situation would slowly resolve itself.”

“So, you’re asking me to lie now?”

“No, Paige, but I am going to ask you to suck.” He pops the button on his jeans and pulls his cock out.

“Vincent, we’re driving down a main road.” I swallow the pool of saliva that flooded my mouth.

He turns down a side road then takes another turn so we’re on the main road in front of the beach.

“Is this—”

Before he can even finish, I am bent over the console and my mouth is on his dick.

“Fuck, I …”

I take him deeper and swallow when he’s in the back of my throat.

“I more than love your fucking mouth.”

I look up at him and hollow my cheeks. He groans. I pull his cock out of my mouth and tap his head against my lips. Then I suck slowly down his shaft.

“Yeah … Fuck yeah, I do. Fuck. Yeah.”