“I took off points this morning when a cup of extra-chocolate milk didn’t magically appear on my nightstand,” Kristen said with a heartfelt sigh as though this pained her to do this to him, making his lips pull up into a smile.
“What if I rectify that tomorrow morning when I sneak into your room?” Garrett asked, knowing better than to try to get her to spend the night with him.
He’d learned that lesson the first night after he’d pulled her into his arms only to have her slap a trembling hand on his face, mutter, “Good talk,” before she shimmied to the edge of the bed, fell off, released a pained groan before she reached up and blindly searched the bed for his shirt.
Once she had it, she spent the next ten minutes trying to wrestle it on while periodically mumbling, “Owie,” until she finally accepted defeat and raised her hand and regally gestured for him to get on with it. Knowing better than to push the stubborn pain in the ass for more, he’d grabbed the blanket off his bed, wrapped her up in it, threw her over his shoulder and carried her across the street while she’d mumbled, “Owie,” every step of the way.
After that, he’d tried enticing her, offering to remove the fine for using his body while he slept to write, but the stubborn woman refused to spend the night in his bed. Every night, they spent hours kissing, touching, and driving each other crazy, butas soon as they were done, she would struggle to catch her breath as she gestured for him to carry her home.
And those nights when he tried to spend the night in her bed...
She would simply shove him off the bed and curl up in the middle of the bed with a satisfied sigh, letting him know that it was time to go. Which left him with no choice but to sneak into her room first thing in the morning just so that he could hold her in his arms. The first time he did it, she’d glared, but once he’d explained all the benefits to waking up in his arms, mostly with his tongue, she’d quickly agreed that it was the best way to start her day.
That was always followed by a leisurely shower while they took their time running their hands over each other and a quick breakfast before they made their way back to his house, where they spent the rest of the day working with the occasional makeout session. Every day, he got to touch her, kiss her, and hold her, but it didn’t change the fact that she still didn’t trust him.
She never left her computer with him, and if he came within five feet of it, she would close the lid and place it out of his reach. If he asked her about what she was working on, she would change the subject. It never used to be like this. He used to be the one person that she trusted more than anything and would happily talk his ear off all night about her latest story, but now...
He could feel her pulling away from him and he had absolutely no idea how to stop it.
“I might be willing to consider giving you extra points if it was extra chocolatey,” Kristen said, moaning softly as he pressed his lips against her throat.
“I think I can handle that,” Garrett said, kissing a path up to her chin. “Are you going to miss me this weekend?”
“It may be a struggle to remember what you look like after a few days,” the devious woman, who loved tormenting him, said, making him chuckle as he pulled back so that he could look into her beautiful blue eyes.
“Afraid to admit that my devious plan is working and that you’re falling head over heels in love with me again?” Garrett asked, reaching up to cup her face in his hands.
“I would, but I’ve been told that it’s wrong to lie,” Kristen said with a heartfelt sigh.
“Would it really be so bad to fall in love with me again?” Garrett asked as he leaned in and brushed his lips against hers.
“And what if I just want to live out every fantasy that I’ve ever had about you instead?” she whispered.
“It’s a start,” he said, making her lips twitch as he brushed his lips against hers and-
“Hold that thought,” Kristen said, tearing a pained grunt from him when she slapped her hands against his chest and pushed herself off him, coming dangerously close to kneeing him in the place that adored her the most, grabbed her backpack off the floor, searched for her phone that was playing what sounded like the theme song toThe Goonies, and-
“Shit!’
-tore another pained grunt from him seconds later when she dropped back down on his lap with a satisfied sigh as she answered her phone.
“What’s up?” Kristen asked as he leveled a glare on the little bully only to watch as her expression went from concerned to confused, to-
Why was she making a run for it? Garrett found himself wondering when she suddenly jumped off his lap, stumbled, righted herself only to stumble again, muttered incoherently to herself as she grabbed her laptop with shaky hands, shoved it in her bag, somehow managed to trip over her own two feet, beforeshe ran for the front door, threw it open and ran, not bothering to close the door behind her.
Curious, Garrett made his way to the front door in time to watch her stumble, trip, and land face-first on his front lawn before she clawed her way back to her feet and raced across the street as a small chime drew his attention. He pulled the new cellphone that already needed to be replaced out of his pocket and-
“That makes sense,” Garrett murmured as he read the text message before slowly nodding and slid the phone back in his pocket as he resigned himself to what needed to be done.
CHAPTER 30
“They can go to hell!” Kristen said as she yanked her legs free from the large bastard that betrayed her for the last time.
“Kristen-”
“You can go to hell, too!” Kristen snapped as she gave up trying to grab hold of the passenger side door and make her escape and settled for making it impossible for the man, whom she was no longer speaking to, to get his hands on her.
With that in mind, she mentally prepared herself for what she was about to do, nodded to herself for some reason, wiggled the rest of the way to the edge of the leather bench seat and-
