A Second Chance at Love: A Hometown Hero Series Novel by Clare Connelly Page B

as light as a feather, it was easy for him to pull her legs backwards, positioning her so that her torso was bent forwards. He gripped her hips and entered her swiftly from behind, taking pleasure from the way her whole body jumped at the invasion.
    “Harrison,” she moaned, spreading her legs a little wider to give him better access. “Oh, Harrison.” With the water running over them, he brought one hand around to cup her breasts, and the other to feel the front of her core, teasing in time with his thrusts, as her pitch of desire reached a crescendo.
    They climaxed as one, his body answering every challenge hers delivered, until they were both besieged by pleasure. She wondered how she’d ever lived without him for so long. “Eight years,” she said breathlessly, shaking her head from side to side.
    He turned her around in his arms, and his expression was, for the briefest of moments, tortured. She lifted a hand and touched his cheek, instinctively wanting to erase that from him. But he flinched away, his anger with her returning.
    “You didn’t ever call. You didn’t ever think of me again, did you?”
    Her blue eyes searched his face. “I thought it would make it worse. A clean break was best.”
    “Why?” He squeezed some more soap into his hands and began to rub it over her body, cleansing her breasts with great care.
    She opened her mouth to say something but hit a wall. There was so much between them. So many lies. And they’d all come from Madeline. She couldn’t tell him what she knew about Diana. It was Diana’s secret, but Madeline had a duty to protect it. She couldn’t tell him the truth of her marriage to Dean; that was Dean’s secret but it was her duty to protect it. She’d promised him that, and she owed him that much still.
    “Why?” She went on the attack, spurred to it out of defence of her own actions. “So that you could go get someone else pregnant, Harrison. You hardly sat around waiting for me, did you?”
    He flinched at her accusation.
    “Ivy’s almost six. So at most you sulked around for, what, a year? Probably less. I’m sure Ivy’s mother wasn’t the first woman you consoled yourself with. So why are you acting as though I ruined your life? You seem to have moved on just fine.”
    He paled visibly, and stepped away from her. “Don’t talk to me about Sal.”
    Madeline swallowed past the painful lump clogging her throat.
    “Why not? You want to know about Dean? Why can’t I ask about the woman you loved after me? The woman you loved enough to have a baby with?”
    “Because she’s nothing to do with you.”
    “And Dean is with you?”
    “Your father chose him for you. Hand picked your perfect political groom. You left me, and married him. You’re still married to him, Madeline, and you’ve just spent the better part of an hour making love to me. So yeah. I have a bit of a right to ask about your marriage.”
    “And what? Sally would be fine knowing that we’d just done that in your home? You don’t think she’d feel just the tiniest bit betrayed, Harrison? At the end of the day, life worked out pretty great for you. So don’t act as though I ruined everything for you.”
    “You think so, huh?” He stepped out of the shower and grabbed a towel. He rubbed his face roughly, then wrapped it around his waist. “Then let me get you up to speed, Madeline. After you left me, I was completely adrift. Yeah, Sally helped me find my feet again, and the happiness of pregnancy was exhilarating. But there was always a hole in my life because you weren’t there. Do you know how guilty that made me feel? Sal was pregnant and I was actually missing you.” He shook his head. “That guilt… God, it made me hate you. You were married, and I was basically cheating on Sally with my dreams of you.” He slammed a palm into the wall. “And she died, Madeline. I never got a chance to make it up to her, because she died.”
    “What?” Madeline switched the water off and