Bound to You
Bound To You
Falls Village Collection (Book 12)
Nicole Banks
Bound to You
By Nicole Banks
Falls Village Collection (Book 12)
* * *
Damien’s story from the Shattered Hearts series
Contents
Author Note
Also By Nicole Banks
Foreword
Playlist
Falls Village
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Epilogue
Where To Find the Author
The Falls Village Collection
Acknowledgments
Copyright © 2021 by Nicole Banks.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission from the author, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, organizations, events, and products are either a product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.
Printed in the United States of America.
Editing by: Rosemi Mederos
Formatting by: Krystyna Allyn
Cover Design by: Taylor Delong and Rae B. Lake
Author Note
While this story is in the Falls Village universe, the main characters are from my Shattered Hearts series. You do not need to read that series to understand their back story or this story, but it does contain spoilers of the Shattered Hearts series if you haven’t read all the books. This story takes place a couple of months after Collision ends.
* * *
This novel is heavy. It contains adult themes and is intended for mature audiences only. This novel deals with domestic abuse and talk about abortion. Reader discretion is advised. If these are triggering points for you, I understand and respect your opinions and emotions surrounding these sensitive subjects. If you chose to continue reading, please read with an open mind and remember that this is a completely fictional story.
Thank you.
Also By Nicole Banks
Be sure to check out her romance novels:
* * *
Shattered
* * *
Into Pieces
&
Collision
* * *
Part of the Shattered Hearts series.
* * *
Her Mafia romance novels:
* * *
Tesoro
&
Orso
* * *
Both part of the Tesoro series.
* * *
Ice
&
Kiss of Death
* * *
Both part of the Council series.
* * *
Her paranormal romance novel:
* * *
Possessed by Lust
* * *
Her dystopian novella:
* * *
Ad Remedium
* * *
As well as her poetry book:
* * *
A Mind Seduction
* * *
Available on Kindle, iBooks, Nook, and Kobo
Foreword
Sometimes the only reason we hold on to our anger
is to keep our hearts from being hurt again.
Check out the
Bound to You playlist
on Spotify.
Falls Village
Falls Village, Maine, is an upscale New England town with less than five thousand year-round residents. It’s located on the coast, a picturesque harbor town for art lovers, foodies, and charm seekers. It was once a small fishing village, but now it’s the go-to summer retreat for city dwellers looking for soft, sandy beaches. That’s the good side of town. But the train tracks split the town in two.
One part of town is wealthy (Port Dock), but the other section (East Brook) is a run-down zone of long-abandoned warehouses and empty parking lots in need of redevelopment. It’s been the platform that each politician has claimed to support over the last decade or two. None have followed through, and the area continues to be the place where kids go to buy drugs, businessmen know they can find a cheap girl at the ready there, and the local police have written off their beat.
After the revitalization (East Brook will be renamed Port View Center), Falls Village will be considered the mecca of the arts. With converted warehouses that will be turned into residential loft apartments, art studios, and trendy restaurants, the real estate will be sought after by many looking for a new business opportunity. Local artists will open their studios to the public once a month, and tourists will come for the showcase of wares, the specialty food indigenous to the area, the giant seasonal farmer’s market, and, of course, the upscale art gallery. Port View Center will be home to thriving upscale neighborhoods with posh apartments, a seaport filled with yachts, a new contemporary restaurant, and an art gallery.
Chapter One
Eight years ago, California
* * *
Damien
* * *
These last two months with Stacy had been everything I could have hoped for. When I first left home to join the Marines, I made the mistake of pushing her away. I wanted to protect her and make sure she had a full and happy life. She couldn’t do that if she was waiting for me to come back only half the man I’d once been. She had dreams, and I always feared she’d never get to fulfill them because of her love for me.
After watching Angel and Jas fight like hell for their love only to see Chase throw his love away with Kris, I needed to come back home and fight for Stacy. I never should have doubted our relationship. I was a fool to think we were both better off without each other.
I felt the heavy weight of the jewelry box in my pocket. It was an impulsive buy, but it felt right. As soon as I got off the plane, I reached out to her aunt to find out if they were still living in the same area. California was a massive state, but if I had to spend my time driving or flying up and down the damn thing to find her, I would have. Her aunt had been eager to help me, which made me feel good, knowing she probably didn’t think too highly of me after I broke her niece’s heart.
As soon as I saw Stacy, it was like no time had passed between us. She cursed me out when she first saw me, though—emotions that had been bottled up for more than four years spilled out the second our eyes connected, but after that, it was like we had never been apart. Our hearts were intertwined, and no matter the space between us or how mad we were with each other, there was always something there holding us together.
I was a fool not to give Stacy the option to stand by me while I was in the Marines. My own fear that our love would hold her back and make her resent me had made me push her away, and I had spent the last two months trying to win her back—to show her that the love we had would be enough.
The seagulls flew overhead, their laughter made me a little antsy. I had a weird feeling in my gut since I woke up this morning and asked Stacy to meet me by the piers. I chalked up the feeling to nerves, because I was going to ask her to marry me. We’d been together since high school, and while I didn’t regret buying the ring, something was screaming at me to put my foot on the brakes. There was a turn in the road coming up that I couldn’t see, and the speed at which I was currently going, I wouldn’t be able to slow down and stop before getting hurt.
I pulled my phone out to check the time. It was three o’clock, and that weird feeling in my stomach kicked up a notch. Stacy was now an hour late. I hit the text icon and shot an ‘R U Ok?’ message. I watched the bubbles pop up and disappear three times before sorry was written on the screen and nothing else. A shiver crawled down my spine, only intensifying what I was feeling. It was the same nagging feeling in my gut that kept me alive overseas. Whatever was coming was going to hurt like hell.
I heard a car pull up and turned to see Stacy with her aunt in the passenger side of a black Chevy that I had never seen before. It wasn’t a car that belonged to either of them. Stacy pulled into the parking lot and quickly hopped out of the car without killing the engine. She hesitated by the door, she was wearing dark denim jeans and an oversized hoodie. It was one of my old high school ones that had seen better days, and it swallowed her frame. Her hair was a mess, and even from here I could see she’d been crying.
On instinct I ran to Stacy without a second thought. My only concern was to comfort her and take away whatever had caused her pain. I held out my arms to her, expecting her to bury her face in my chest and tell me how to fix whatever made her sad, but she shook her head, backing away from me instead. It felt like a swift kick in the chest, and that weird feeling in my stomach started whispering that this was the end of us.
“What’s going on?” My voice was soft. I was scared that if I talked any louder, I’d break the illusion that I was actually here i
n California and find that these last two months had been nothing more than my mind’s warped way of tormenting me.
“I’m pregnant,” she whispered, and I couldn’t understand why there was an ominous air around us. This was good news; granted, the timing sucked, but that didn’t matter. The girl I fell in love with at sixteen and promised the world to was having my baby.
“Stacy?” I couldn’t even try to contain my excitement.
She shook her head and wouldn’t look at me. “It’s not yours.”
There was a loud ringing in my ears, and I stumbled back, like I had been physically hit. “I’m sorry, what?” I couldn’t have heard her correctly. This was a mistake, this had to be.
“The baby’s not yours.” Her words were barely audible, and she refused to meet my gaze.
I felt the ax come down, destroying my well-woven dream of the last two months.
Maybe I wasn’t really here.
Maybe I had imagined the love between us was still potent and all-consuming.
Maybe I was a fool to think that I had occupied her time while I was away and while I was here.
The weight from the ring in my pocket seemed to drag me down further. I started laughing at the absurdity of it all. I wanted to spend the rest of my life with this woman, even when I pushed her away, and here she was not even having the decency to look me in the fucking eye while she took my knees out from under me.
I scrubbed a hand down my face as the sobering realization struck me. Everything I had ever wanted resided in Stacy. I fucked up four years ago, and I was paying for it now. I deserved this, set it all in motion.
I clapped my hands in her face, and the urge to put my fist through the Chevy’s window had me stepping away from Stacy again. This was a new level of anger I hadn’t experienced before, and it scared the shit out of me. “Bravo, Stacy. You got me. Not sure why you’re bothering with the waterworks, but it is convincing.” I let out a breath, trying to control myself, but I could physically feel my heart breaking. “If this was your way of payback for me being a dick about pushing you away when I joined the Marines, I gotta say, I am impressed. I never saw it fucking coming.”
I scoffed, stepping farther away from her. I could feel the binds that held us together snap at rapid speed, effectively putting a wall between us. I shoved my hands into my pockets to keep from doing something I would regret. The fucking box the ring was in was taunting me.
My gaze took in the monster truck idling in the parking lot. It clearly belonged to the dipshit who fathered the child she was carrying, and it was like he was swinging his dick in front of me, laughing that he had my girl in ways I never could.
“Damien, I’m sorry.” She finally looked up at me, and I could see the regret in her eyes.
She reached for me like she had any right to offer me comfort, and I stepped back, afraid of what I would do if she put her hands on me. “Don’t, Stacy. Stop with the crocodile tears. I don’t need them.” I gripped the jewelry box burning a hole in my pocket and ripped it out. I looked down at the black box that held a promise of a better tomorrow for both of us. I foolishly had this moment all planned out. As soon as I saw the ring, I envisioned exactly how this proposal was going to happen and she ruined it.
I threw the ring at her, and she fumbled to catch it. “I hope you choke on it.” I bit out and pushed past her. I stopped, not bothering to turn around, because I didn’t want to see her face anymore. “I hope when you’re lying next to him at night, I’m the one that’s on your mind and you never know what it means to rest again. Congrats on the bundle of joy, by the way.”
I walked away from her soft pleas. My feet moving me away from the lie I fell in love with. I looked up flight information to head back to New York City. There was nothing left in California for me, and as much as I wanted to push Stacy from my mind, I had a feeling my heart would never let me get over her.
Chapter Two
Present-day New York
* * *
Damien
* * *
I sat in Jasmine’s living room. My gaze bouncing between my daughter, Ari, and the clock, knowing Stacy was going to be here soon to pick her up. Today was my day to hang out with a daughter I hadn’t known I had till about two months ago, right after I’d gotten blown up and almost died.
I replayed every interaction Stacy and I had over eight years ago. We’d spent so much time reconnecting and falling back in love with each other. I didn’t know if it was my youth or being a fucking idiot that made me ever believe her when she said the baby wasn’t mine. There wasn’t a time in the eight years since I left California that I hadn’t thought about Stacy and what could have been. I even went so far as to make up different scenarios in my head about how our last interaction should have gone.
I felt Kris before I saw her come into the living room. The connection we developed hadn’t lessoned at all, even though she was now blissfully happy with Chase. I did miss her, though. I missed the friend I had but understood we needed to redefine our relationship. I could no longer call her at all hours of the night when I needed someone to bare my soul to because I couldn’t sleep. It was wild to me how I had gotten everything I had ever once hoped for, a daughter and Stacy back in my life, but the loss of my friend had only made the hole in my chest seem bigger.
“Hi, Tia Kris.” My daughter’s smile damn near split her small face when she saw Kris. I chuckled, loving that my daughter had taken to the two most important people in my life with ease, and that they loved her just as much. It was why we were here and not in my apartment. Jas insisted on getting as much time with Ari as possible. In her mind, it was her way of preparing for her own child. I hadn’t minded it much either. I wasn’t sure how to be a father to a seven-year-old. I didn’t have that time to learn and grow with my daughter, so I appreciated the help and the buffer that Jas had afforded me.
Kris walked over to sit on the arm of the couch I was currently sitting on. “Why do you let Jas hog all your time with Ari?” Her tone was light and teasing. Once I had healed up and moved out of my hospital room, Kris had encouraged me to make time with Ari even if we both weren’t fond of Stacy.
I shrugged. “I took a bullet for Jas and got blown up. Letting her spend time with Ari because she somehow thinks it’s going to up her mothering skills seems like a small thing in comparison.”
Kris placed her hand on my forearm in the small section that hadn’t been riddled with scarring or pink puckered skin and gave it a tight squeeze. I looked down at her hand against my skin, feeling uneasy from her warmth. The comfort she offered made me want to pull away from her touch. I didn’t want it, especially since I knew she couldn’t give it to me in the capacity I needed it—the way she once did. Kris quickly removed her hand, probably sensing what I was feeling and cleared her throat.