SIXTEEN
The feelingof being trapped under an electric blanket pulled me from slumber. I blinked the sleep from my eyes, taking in the dark room I knew wasn’t my own. It took several seconds for me to remember what happened the night before and to discover the source of the near-uncomfortable heat radiating through my body.
I was in Garrett’s room, in his bed, with his massive body coiled around mine like an anaconda. The moon was still shining brightly through the curtains on his balcony doors, so I knew I’d only been asleep for a few hours.
“Shit,” I whispered quietly, reaching up to rub at my forehead as visions of what I’d done played through my brain on fast-forward. Once I finished silently berating myself for my stupidity, I carefully lifted Garrett’s arm from my waist and slid from beneath the covers, praying I didn’t wake him.
I breathed a sigh of relief when my feet hit the floor and the cool AC brushed across my hot skin. The damn man put off heat like a furnace when he slept. It was stifling. At least I knew where Liddy got it from. She’d burned so hot at night, even asa baby, that I was constantly taking her temperature to make sure she wasn’t sick.
Looking for my dress in the dark would have been pointless, so I felt around for any fabric I could find, luckily stumbling on Garrett’s tee first. After sliding it on, I padded to the bathroom and turned on the light once the door was closed behind me.
The woman staring back at me in the mirror looked thoroughly fucked. If waking up to Garrett tangled around me wasn’t proof enough that I hadn’t dreamed the hours prior, the signs on my body would have definitely done it. With messy, tangled hair, flushed skin, and beard burn on my chin and neck, I looked like a sexed-up mess. And I was sure I had more evidence to that fact on other areas of my body. There was still a dull, pleasant throb between my thighs from all of Garrett’s efforts.
After splashing my face with cold water and finger-combing my hair to the best of my ability, I silently crept out of his bathroom and bedroom, making my way on quiet feet down the stairs to the kitchen. I needed alcohol to deal with the aftereffects of the night. Grabbing a glass from the cabinet, I pulled a red blend I favored from the wine holder on the island.
It took half a glass before I was able to breathe normally, and another quarter for the self-deprecating voice in my head to screw the hell off.
I set the glass on the island and rested my hands on either side of it as I closed my eyes and hung my head. I needed to convince myself that what had happened was wrong, that it should never happen again, but just the thought of never experiencing that kind of passion made me sad.
I was in the middle of contemplating a refill when a pair of arms circled my waist from behind and pulled me into a hard, warm chest. “Shit.” I damn near jumped out of my skin. “You scared me.”
“Sorry.” Garrett chuckled into my hair, rubbing his nose along my neck. Well that was definitely a change from our last post coital. “Woke up alone and didn’t like it. What are you doing down here? It’s four in the morning.”
“Couldn’t sleep,” I replied, holding my body stiff. I didn’t know what I wanted to do more, run away or burrow closer. “Your body throws some serious heat at night. It’s like sleeping in a sauna.”
His grip grew tighter as he pressed a kiss to my shoulder. “Then we’ll have to remember to crank the AC down at night.”
Wow. Unexpected and really freaking nice… but so, so dangerous. “Garrett,” I sighed, turning in his arms since he refused to let go. “I don’t think that should happen again. It wasn’t smart.”
He gave me another kiss, this one on my lips. “Gonna have to disagree, baby. Pretty sure that was the smartest fuckin’ thing I ever did.”
I groaned and bent my neck until my forehead rested against his bare chest. With the perfect sightline, I was able to see he was wearing nothing but a pair of dark blue boxer briefs. God, the man’s body was off the charts. Unable to help myself, I lifted my hands and placed them on his tatted biceps, trailing my fingers along the intricate lines past his elbows all the way to his wrists. I had no more fight in me; it had all drained out… or been fucked out.
“It doesn’t change anything. We’ve had sex twice and westilldon’t know each other.”
Garrett’s hands tangled in the hair on both sides of my head. He used his hold to tilt my face up. “Then tell me,” he insisted. “Tell me all about you, where you grew up, what your childhood was like. Christ, tell me when you lost your fuckin’ virginity. I want to know it all.”
I wrapped my fingers around his wrists and pulled his hands away. “And in return?” I asked quietly.
He took a surprised step back. “What?”
I took the opportunity to separate us further, grabbing my glass and the wine bottle and moving to the kitchen table, taking a seat. The moon shone through the windows and French doors, providing enough illumination to see everything clearly. “If I tell you about me, are you going to return the favor? I don’t want to get into all of this if it’s just a ploy for you to get me into your bed again.”
“For Christ’s sake,” he grumbled, raking his hands through his tousled hair. “What do I have to do to prove to you that I’m not a total fuckin’ asshole?” he asked as he stomped to the table and took the chair next to mine.
“I don’t know,” I deadpanned. “Maybe not send your bodyguard to spy on my dates?”
He slapped his palm down on the wood surface of the table so hard the sound ricochet through the kitchen, making me jump. “Goddamn it! You had no business going on that fucking date in the first place!”
“Why?” I snapped, leaning forward.
“Because you’re mine!” he boomed, his answer shocking the ever-loving hell out of me. “Jesus,” he muttered, flopping back in the chair in frustration. “You drive me fucking crazy, Gwen. I spent all day bouncing between wanting to fuck you and wanting to throttle you. I’ve never had anyone burrow so far under my skin. You do my goddamn head in, but I can’t stop thinking about you. I didn’t touch that bitch last night. If you had really looked at those pictures, you’d have seen I was passed the fuck out. I wasn’t even touching her! I don’t want anyone else. I just want you. What do I have to do, huh? Just tell me and I’ll do it.”
It took me a while to pick my jaw up from thefloor so I could answer. Never in a million years would I have expected such raw honesty from him—hell, I didn’t think he was even capable of it. Sure, not everything he said was flattering, but it wasn’t like he didn’t make me feel theexactsame way. I got it. I understood where he was coming from. And for the first time since that terrible night, I wanted to give him a peek behind my shield.
I sat back and took a small sip of wine, trying to get my thoughts together enough to share. “I grew up on a farm in Idaho,” I admitted. The harshness in his expression slowly melted away as I continued talking, and I knew I had his avid attention. “We didn’t really grow up with a lot of money, you know. Farming can be tough. You’re at the whim of Mother Nature, so if there’s a drought or a flood, profits are affected. But my parents gave me everything they could afford. I might not have had the most popular or most expensive stuff, but they worked their asses off to give me the things I wanted.”
“Your folks sound pretty great.”
