Free Guarding Hearts (Living Again #3) by L. L. Collins

He’s been a business owner in the Nashville area since before I was born, and has done really well. Once I won the record deal, he decided I was his next business venture.”
    “You don’t sound okay with that,” Ellis observed.
    She shrugged. Even though it was dark, the moon was full, so he could still see her features perfectly. “It’s fine. He knows a lot about business, and I just want to sing. But, that also means he’s in control of everything that I do. I’m not a kid anymore, but he doesn’t seem to remember that sometimes.”
    They walked in silence for a moment. “I don’t want to sound like an ungrateful princess,” she said. “I know you just met me. I love my parents and they have always wanted what was best for me. Sometimes I just feel…”
    “Suffocated?” Ellis offered, and she stopped, smiling up at him. His heart tripped and then started pounding so loud he thought she would hear it. The moonlight shone off her beautiful eyes, illuminating her angelic face.
    “Exactly,” she said softly. “Can I say something?”
    Ellis took a deep breath, looking back at the house. They hadn’t walked too far. “Let’s sit,” he said. She took his hand as she lowered herself to the sand. He had never believed that you could be physically magnetic to someone else, but touching her, he thought just maybe there was something to it. The current that passed between them was palpable.
    She seemed to have forgotten whatever she wanted to say as they watched the waves crash against the shore in silence. He was glad, because whatever she was going to say he wasn’t sure he wanted to hear. After a few moments, he felt her turn to face him again.
    “Ellis?”
    He knew he should stand up and get them back to the house, but he couldn’t make himself get up. He also knew that looking at her wasn’t going to be the best choice, given how close they were sitting, but like a magnetic force field, he couldn’t stop himself.
    When his eyes connected to hers, he was hyper aware of everything. The sound the waves were making against the shore, the whisper of the palm fronds blowing in the wind, the heat of her leg next to his. Looking into her eyes was like looking into an entrancing abyss.
    “I feel like, when you look at me, you see me,” she started. “So many people, when they first meet me, they see the part of me they want to see. The singer, the celebrity. It’s hard to know who is part of your life because they want to be or because they feel like they can get something out of you. I don’t know why it seems that you’re different, but you don’t look at me like this star, this fake person.”
    “You’re very talented,” he began. “And signing, entertaining is an important part of you. But I know just by looking at you that there’s so much more there, Sam. It’s sad that not everyone takes the time to see that in you, but I get it.”
    “You feel this, right?” She took her hand and placed it on his chest, and he wasn’t sure if the feeling inside him was one of panic or arousal.
    He wanted to play stupid. He wanted to push her away like he had done every other time a woman wanted something from him. But when he opened his mouth, the only thing that came out was, “Sammi.”
    He could see the surprise on her face. “Sammi? No one has ever called me that before.” She took her hand that was on his chest and moved it to his face. Tracing his scruff, she then outlined his lips with her fingers. He was frozen, and completely turned on. He had met plenty of forward women in his twenty-nine years, but none that were like her.
    “You look like Sammi to me,” he answered. He had no idea what had gotten into him. It was like she just found a key and opened up the lock box that was buried deep inside him.
    “I like it,” she breathed. Before he knew it, she had shifted so that her face was mere centimeters from his. “Ellis.” His name coming off her tongue sounded like a song.
    He