Read Online Homecoming: The Billionaire Brothers by Lily Everett - Free Book Online Page A
Authors: Lily Everett
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angry, voice harsh and clipped.
“What do you mean?” Penny asked.
“Happy and peaceful all the time.” Dylan’s hand tightened on her hip.
Forcing herself to relax, Penny breathed deep. “Well, Dylan, I don’t know how to break it to you, but not everyone on Sanctuary Island is blissfully happy, every minute of their lives.”
He snorted. “Could’ve fooled me.”
Dylan had been consistently bewildered by the friendliness of the townspeople he’d met, from her best friend Greta Hackley offering discounts at the hardware store when she saw how much he was spending on getting Harrington House fixed up, to random people walking their dogs in the park by the town square. It was endearing, if a little sad that he was so unused to basic human kindness.
But Penny had a larger point to make. “You talk a lot about how different we are here on Sanctuary, how much has changed for you since you got here—but Dylan, don’t you see? It’s the same for us, for Matthew and me. We were okay before, we were fine. But then you showed up, and you changed everything.”
She could feel it when his heart picked up speed to slam against his rib cage. The whole bed shuddered with it.
“Penny…” His hoarse voice and clutching hands made Penny sit up to get a better look at his face.
All angular jaw and sexy scruff, his sky-blue eyes were piercing even in the soft morning sunlight. He looked lost. Chest clenching, Penny cupped his cheek in her hand and met his gaze with every ounce of calm and certainty she possessed.
“I know you’re only here for a job, and that this is temporary—a moment out of your life. But I want you to understand what you mean to us.” Pressing her lips together briefly, she amended, “To me. You’re the only man in, well, years, who has made me feel brave enough to take a chance on opening up. And last night, you showed me how wonderful it can be to trust another person, with my heart and my body.”
Penny wasn’t prepared for the shattered look that washed over Dylan’s tense face. “Penny,” he said helplessly, and she rushed to reassure him.
“No, no—I’m not trying to put pressure on you about staying on the island. I know that’s not the deal, and don’t worry, you never gave me the wrong idea about that. You know that I don’t do this kind of thing all the time, so obviously there’s something special about you … and I don’t want you to leave here without knowing how I truly feel. Because you deserve to know that wherever you’re off to next, wherever life takes you, there are people here on Sanctuary Island who love you.”
His eyes pinched shut as if she’d slid a steak knife between his ribs, his whole body jerking with the wound, and Penny’s heart shriveled in her chest.
“You shouldn’t,” he said, the words harsh as gravel in a blender.
This wasn’t going at all the way she’d imagined.
Dylan was so stoic—not much of a talker, more of a doer. But Penny saw beneath the cocky grin and the hard-clenched jaw. She saw a man with a past like a wound that kept breaking open, never healing right. She saw a man who understood what it meant to be lonely, and she’d wanted to give him something to take with him and keep him warm the next time he found himself all alone in the wide world.
Instead, she seemed to have broken him.
“Listen, Penny,” he began, voice hoarse and eyes shadowed.
What was he going to say? Fear momentarily cut off the flow of oxygen to her brain—all she could do was sit there and stare at him, naked in her bed, with her grandmother’s quilt pooled around lean hips still imprinted with the shape of her clutching fingers.
The sound of her cell phone blaring out Diana Ross’s “The Boss” cut him off. Scrambling for the phone buried under the clothes they’d shed earlier, Penny held it up with an undeniable sense of relief, even as she frowned apologetically.
“Sorry, I have to take this. It’s Harrington family business,
“What do you mean?” Penny asked.
“Happy and peaceful all the time.” Dylan’s hand tightened on her hip.
Forcing herself to relax, Penny breathed deep. “Well, Dylan, I don’t know how to break it to you, but not everyone on Sanctuary Island is blissfully happy, every minute of their lives.”
He snorted. “Could’ve fooled me.”
Dylan had been consistently bewildered by the friendliness of the townspeople he’d met, from her best friend Greta Hackley offering discounts at the hardware store when she saw how much he was spending on getting Harrington House fixed up, to random people walking their dogs in the park by the town square. It was endearing, if a little sad that he was so unused to basic human kindness.
But Penny had a larger point to make. “You talk a lot about how different we are here on Sanctuary, how much has changed for you since you got here—but Dylan, don’t you see? It’s the same for us, for Matthew and me. We were okay before, we were fine. But then you showed up, and you changed everything.”
She could feel it when his heart picked up speed to slam against his rib cage. The whole bed shuddered with it.
“Penny…” His hoarse voice and clutching hands made Penny sit up to get a better look at his face.
All angular jaw and sexy scruff, his sky-blue eyes were piercing even in the soft morning sunlight. He looked lost. Chest clenching, Penny cupped his cheek in her hand and met his gaze with every ounce of calm and certainty she possessed.
“I know you’re only here for a job, and that this is temporary—a moment out of your life. But I want you to understand what you mean to us.” Pressing her lips together briefly, she amended, “To me. You’re the only man in, well, years, who has made me feel brave enough to take a chance on opening up. And last night, you showed me how wonderful it can be to trust another person, with my heart and my body.”
Penny wasn’t prepared for the shattered look that washed over Dylan’s tense face. “Penny,” he said helplessly, and she rushed to reassure him.
“No, no—I’m not trying to put pressure on you about staying on the island. I know that’s not the deal, and don’t worry, you never gave me the wrong idea about that. You know that I don’t do this kind of thing all the time, so obviously there’s something special about you … and I don’t want you to leave here without knowing how I truly feel. Because you deserve to know that wherever you’re off to next, wherever life takes you, there are people here on Sanctuary Island who love you.”
His eyes pinched shut as if she’d slid a steak knife between his ribs, his whole body jerking with the wound, and Penny’s heart shriveled in her chest.
“You shouldn’t,” he said, the words harsh as gravel in a blender.
This wasn’t going at all the way she’d imagined.
Dylan was so stoic—not much of a talker, more of a doer. But Penny saw beneath the cocky grin and the hard-clenched jaw. She saw a man with a past like a wound that kept breaking open, never healing right. She saw a man who understood what it meant to be lonely, and she’d wanted to give him something to take with him and keep him warm the next time he found himself all alone in the wide world.
Instead, she seemed to have broken him.
“Listen, Penny,” he began, voice hoarse and eyes shadowed.
What was he going to say? Fear momentarily cut off the flow of oxygen to her brain—all she could do was sit there and stare at him, naked in her bed, with her grandmother’s quilt pooled around lean hips still imprinted with the shape of her clutching fingers.
The sound of her cell phone blaring out Diana Ross’s “The Boss” cut him off. Scrambling for the phone buried under the clothes they’d shed earlier, Penny held it up with an undeniable sense of relief, even as she frowned apologetically.
“Sorry, I have to take this. It’s Harrington family business,
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