Deep River Promise Jackie Ashenden (best life changing books .txt) 📖

She wouldn’t have cared if he’d taken his pleasure without thinking about hers. It wasn’t about keeping score. It was about him taking and her wanting to give, and an orgasm didn’t matter, not in the greater scheme of things.

But Damon had never been selfish in bed and he wasn’t now. He moved faster, harder, pushing deeper, his mouth ravaging hers. Then he slid his hand down between her thighs, stroking her until she could feel the orgasm beginning to splinter around her.

She sobbed as the pleasure pulled unbearably tight and then let go, making her shudder and twist and gasp beneath him. And then it was his turn, his rhythm fast and getting faster, before he groaned her name, his big, rangy body shuddering as the climax came for him too. But her grip on him was strong, and it was she who held him tight as he fell apart in her arms.

Chapter 15

Damon leaned against the wall of the community center and watched as the entire population of Deep River trooped in and sat themselves down on the long wooden benches that had been set out, all of them talking loudly and interestedly about the meeting that was about to take place.

Connor had come to stand beside him in companionable silence as the buzz of conversation rose and fell around them.

The short list for tourist plans had gone out the day before, the announcement for a town meeting going up at Mal’s that afternoon, and while there had been some grumblings about the short list, word was that most people were keeping an open mind. This was going to be important for the town—historic even—and while everyone was united on keeping out big oil, Deep River was in need of direction. Tourism couldn’t be a dirty word any longer, not when the future of the town itself was at stake.

A sense of purpose, a sense of community, that’s what the people of Deep River had always been best at, and that’s what would save them now.

Or at least that’s the speech Silas had given him just a few hours earlier. It had been pretty inspiring.

Damon shifted his attention from the chattering townspeople to the woman who stood silently at the front of the hall. Her arms were crossed, and she had that no-nonsense mayoral look on her lovely face.

His heart tightened behind his ribs, no matter that it shouldn’t have.

Last night, she’d held him in her arms, keeping him together as he’d talked about his daughter. Giving him the gift of her presence, letting his little girl live again as he’d shared his memories of her.

“You can let yourself matter to me, Damon,” Astrid had told him. “Right now, here in this room, you can let yourself be important.”

He wasn’t sure why those words hit him as hard as they had. Or why he’d gone against his better judgment and given in to the need inside himself. The longing for something deeper, the need for a connection to someone that went beyond physical.

He shouldn’t have. He’d told himself he wouldn’t. Yet she’d offered him that moment and he’d taken it with both hands.

Perhaps it was because it was for a limited time and they both knew it. Or perhaps it was because he just wanted her and hadn’t been able to hold out any longer.

Selfish of him to put his own needs first, but she’d wanted him to and it had made her happy. And afterward, they’d lain in each other’s arms, and more stories came flooding out. They’d shared the hardships of being a teenage parent and yet the wonder of having a child, and then had spoken about their own parents.

She’d told him about her father, how cold he’d been and how her mother had simply followed his example, while he’d talked about his own mother and the difficulties of being the child of a proud single parent who worked every waking hour to make ends meet and who didn’t take handouts.

It had felt good to talk, to hold her, to know that she was listening and that it mattered to her. That he mattered to her.

She was special, was Astrid James.

You could stay here. With her. And with Connor.

No, he couldn’t. All of that changed nothing. If anything, it only clarified things for him even more. Astrid and Connor needed and deserved someone who could give them everything. And he’d given his everything already.

He had nothing left to give.

“So,” Connor said from beside him. “Um, I know you might get mad about this, but…I kind of called your mom.”

Damon went very still, shock echoing through him, the hum of conversation in the hall fading into the background. Slowly, he turned to face the teenager standing next to him.

Connor’s expression was determined, though he’d gone a little pale, as if he knew he’d probably stepped over the line.

Which he had. Significantly.

“Say that again,” Damon said.

“I called your mom.” Connor’s jaw had a pugnacious slant to it. “I know I probably shouldn’t have—”

“Probably shouldn’t have?” There was too much anger in his voice, but he couldn’t stop it. “Probably?”

Connor had gone even paler, but the determination in his gaze did not lessen one iota. The kid wasn’t backing down.

The anger inside him gathered into a tight, hard knot. He really needed to put a lid on it, because it wasn’t a good idea to start chewing the kid out for invading his privacy and contacting his sick mother in a room full of people.

But he had to know just what the hell Connor had been thinking.

“Outside,” he ordered curtly, jerking his head toward the doors.

There were people still coming in and the meeting was about to start. But he wanted answers and he wanted them now.

Connor turned without a word and headed toward the exit, Damon following. He passed Morgan West coming in, whom he’d met at Cal’s funeral, and she gave him a smile, but the look