“What’s bedroom skills?”
Son of a bitch!Garrett looked back and forth between his daughter and me for several seconds. I discreetly shook my headin apretend she didn’t say anything and change the subjectgesture. We really needed to start watching what we said around our little girl.
“What are you watching?” he asked, easily diverting her attention.
“Trolls!”
“Shit,” he grunted, rolling his eyes as if in agony.
“Can the men in this house please watch their language around the child?” I asked sarcastically.
Garrett put Liddy back on her feet, and she ran back to the TV and began dancing around as a new song started to play. He moved around the couch and bent down, placing a kiss on my lips. “How’s it goin’, baby?”
Swoon. From the look on her face, Corrine really liked what she saw.
“I’m good,” I answered, even though it wasn’t totally true. “So… Ian says you guys might have a new album done soon?” I hedged. “That’s exciting, right?” And by exciting I meant not exciting at all… at least not for me.
“I guess.” His casual response and shrug surprised me. “It’ll be nice to have one in the bag already, but me and the guys aren’t planning on releasing it anytime soon. Chris is already throwing a shit fit about that.”
The mention of Civil Corruption’s manager would usually put me in a terrible mood, but I was too focused on what Garrett had just said. “What? Why? Really?”
Catching on to the relief I couldn’t keep out of my voice, Garrett smiled knowingly. “I told you we were taking a break, didn’t I?”
“Yeah, but—”
He cut me off. “Releasing a new album means another tour. It was a mutual decision. The four of us want to stay off the road for a while. It’s been almost ten years. That shit gets old,Gwen. We want a life that doesn’t include hotel rooms, buses, and plane rides. The label isn’t expecting anything from us for a while, so we’re in no rush. But when the creative juices are flowing, we have to follow where they lead. That’s why we’ve been spending so much time in the studio. And I made you a promise. No more carrying the burden on your own.”
The remaining pieces of my shield fell right then. If or when that other shoe decided to drop, I was in serious trouble. Because my heart officially belonged to Garrett Wilder.
“What about Chris?” I was surprised I was able to say that jack-ass’s name without gagging. The only person I disliked more than him was Kimber.
Those jade eyes grew warm as he glanced at Liddy, still singing and dancing, before he looked down at me. “Don’t you worry about him. I can control Chris. All you gotta worry about is my girl’s questionable choices in music.”
A blinding smile slowly stretched across my lips. “There’s nothing wrong with her music choices. Justin Timberlake’s in this movie. He’s hot.” And because I wasn’t done messing with him, I asked, “Oh! Do you know him? Could you introduce me?”
He growled, but there was no anger behind it. “Oh, baby. You’re gonna pay for that later tonight. Now give me a kiss. I gotta get back to work.”
I gladly did as he asked, and then he and Ian started back downstairs to the studio. I was still wearing a stupid grin on my face when I turned back to Corrine. She was smiling too.
“I approve, honey,” she said. “I totally approve.
NINETEEN
Two nights later,Garrett and I lay in bed after another toe-curling round of sex. I rested curled into his side with my head on his shoulder as I tried to steady my breathing. Every day with him seemed better than the last. I couldn’t wait to see what the next day would hold.
But then he spoke into the quiet of the bedroom and ruined the cozy, happy little bubble I’d spent the past several days in.
“I want to go public with our relationship.”
I put an elbow on the mattress and pushed up, trying to focus on his face in the dark. “What?”
Garrett twisted away from me, and a second later the bedroom was flooded in the light from the bedside lamp. When he faced me again, his expression wasn’t one of a man who’d just gotten off a couple of minutes before. The sudden serious change in the atmosphere had me sitting up and holding the blanket to my chest as a protective shield.
“I want to take us public, Gwen. Do you have any idea how fuckin’ hard it is keeping our relationship a secret from the press? I can’t take you out. I can’t even take my own kid to the park or pick her up from daycare, for Christ’s sake. The onlytime I get to hang with my family is when were holed up in this goddamn house. I’m sick of it.”
I ran a hand through my tangled hair. My stomach knotted with apprehension, and I found myself looking to the side because meeting his eyes was impossible. “Garrett, we agreed—”
“We agreed when you were pregnant and we were barely on speaking terms!” he snapped angrily.
