Reluctant Heiress by Jessica Jones

Author:Jessica Jones [Jessica Jones]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Lone Oak Publishing, LLC
Published: 2023-05-23T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 22

Dulcie

I woke up later that night still thinking about his kiss. His warm touch. The taste of his lips. Thoughts of him between my legs.

It had been such a long time since I’d had sex, since college in fact, that I couldn’t tell if what I was feeling was real, or if it was just biological longing. He was right about one thing, though. I was very lonely, and I hadn’t even realized it until I met him. I imagined he was lonely, too. It couldn’t have been easy for him. While he grew up in my wealthy father’s house with James Randall and Travis, I wondered if they were enough. Did they help him forget the issues his parents suffered, and that they, in turn, forced him to endure? Having been in a similar situation, I doubted it.

My mind soon turned from those passing thoughts to more concrete ones. Distressing ones. Intrusive ones. I thought about the murder victims in Dulsan. All those people were dead because of me. I don’t care what my father said; I knew it was because of me. It didn’t matter that it wasn’t my hand that pulled the trigger. It was my fault. How would I ever get those grieving families out of my mind and out of my heart? A romp or two in the hay with Deacon, as appealing as that would be, wouldn’t erase those memories. They would stay with me forever.

And then, of course, there was the biggest thing hurting my heart… Callie was missing. I’d have given anything if I’d been taken in her place. She didn’t deserve any of the horror she’d suffered, from the neglect by her mother as a child to being kidnapped and God knows what they were doing to her. I just wanted her back, and I wasn’t sure she was anyone’s priority but mine. Well, maybe Daddy was worried because he practically raised her, too, but Deacon, James Randall, Travis, and my father, were mostly concerned about finding out who had done it instead of getting her back.

Strangely, I hadn’t heard my father talking about getting his wife back, and I didn’t quite know what to think about it. In just the few days since I met him, it was obvious that he was one of those guys who kept his emotions hidden. But still. His wife was missing. And he had not mentioned her. Perhaps he blamed me despite what he said and didn’t want to bring her up for fear of losing his temper. That made perfect sense to me, as I blamed myself too. Although it was odd to see him almost unbothered by the situation.

I wondered what my mother would do if she were alive. Ellie. By all accounts, she was tough and would have been able to handle anything thrown her way. She was a legend in my father’s house, in our family. Would I be able to live up to that? To make her memory proud? Daddy had said I was tough, too.

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