She turned away. “I don’t think I want to hear about you having sex with another woman, Garrett.”
He reached for her arm and turned her around to face him. “I slept with her thinking I could push you out of my mind. I knew immediately it was a huge mistake. It was your face I saw when I closed my eyes. All those times I came by the coven and poked around under the auspices of official police business, all I wanted was to see you. If that makes me the worst kind of bastard, then so be it. I’d do it again in a heartbeat.”
Trading barbs with her was something he looked forward to and found far more intriguing than anything that came before her. Without trying, she’d blazed into his life like a fireworks display, and he was still reeling.
Her mouth fell open, and she gazed at him in confusion. “If that were true then why didn’t you get my number from Alex or ask me out? Why wait all this time?”
The question gripped him like a hand around his throat. His entire body reacted, blood coursing through his veins like fire. “The truth…I’m a coward. I was too afraid you’d reject me and I couldn’t take that chance. The first time I saw you, Gillian, you took my breath away. I’ve never had that kind of reaction to a woman in all of my many lifetimes. At first, it scared the hell out of me, but no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t get you out of my mind. Say you feel the same way. Don’t try and deny that there’s something between us.” He stared at her in a silent challenge.
Her beautiful brown eyes lit with a mixture of caution and desire. “Yes, I feel it too. If I’m honest with myself, I’ve been aching for you for months now. I want you too, Garrett, more than I’ve ever wanted anything or anyone. But your past with women terrifies me. I’ve told you I have abandonment issues. Falling for a vampire would be like stoking the fire.”
Her words gripped him like a vice, a savage hunger spread from his fangs to his groin. She wanted him more than anything. His cock throbbed against the front panel of his dress pants to the point of pain. If she only knew how much he wanted her, it might scare her away.
“I understand you’re afraid, and you have every reason to be. I know what I’m asking and I have nothing to offer, no real future to speak of, but I can’t deny this attraction, and neither can you.”
“Garrett.” Her voice came out like a plea.
“I want this to be real. I want you in my bed.” He placed her hand on his chest, and she gasped. Her fingers burned a trail of heat through the thin silk of his dress shirt. “If I still had a heart it would be beating right now, only for you. Please tell me you want the same thing and put me out of my misery.”
“I don’t know if I can give you what you want,” she whispered. “My track record with men…”
He cut her off by placing his hand on her hip and bunching her dress into his fist. A surge of possessiveness rose inside him. “There are some things you can deny, but your arousal isn’t one of them. Jesus, I can smell you. I need to taste you. One kiss, Gillian, when no one’s watching.” He didn’t wait for her to respond. His mouth swept over hers, and a blistering heat ignited inside him.
He licked at her bottom lip, and his fangs grazed the edge, making sure not to draw blood. When she wound her arms around his neck, he delved his tongue into the moist heat of her mouth. He wanted to exhaust all the passion he’d been restraining—that had been building and simmering for months now like a slow flame. He took in the sweetness of her lips, not able to get enough, and a wave of desire washed over him.
The soft little whimper that fell from her lips made him realize this was no whim she was giving into. She’d been suffering just as much, holding herself back, and it only made him want her all the more. He undid the clip that held all those lush waves in place and plunged his fingers into her hair. How many nights had he imagined her beautiful hair fanned out on his pillow and over his cock? He wrapped a handful around his fist and angled her head to deepen the kiss.
With a moan, her hands snuck under his shirt to explore, leaving fiery need and heat along his skin. His body soared to life like coming out of a deep slumber. He broke the kiss and moved his lips to nip at her ear, which elicited another sweet moan.
Not able to restrain himself any longer, his fangs extended fully from his lips. All he could think about was grazing them over every inch of her skin. “Gillian, you don’t know what you’re doing to me.” He trailed kisses along the slim column of her neck.
She made these soft, sexy sounds, the kind that made him want to throw her over his shoulder like a damn caveman. He’d tie her to his bed and explore every inch of her body. He could spend hours kissing and touching her. He’d slowly slide the thin straps of her dress down and lick her breasts, suck on her nipples, and make her come, screaming his name until she begged him to stop.
But she wasn’t ready…yet.
A voice inside his head told him not to scare her away, to take things slow and let her set the pace. “This is what I’ve been thinking about since the day I knocked on your door, but I won’t push you, Gillian. The decision has to be yours.”
She didn’t answer him with words. She pressed her soft lips to his, and her tongue delved into his mouth. White-hot lust flamed to life inside of him like a wildfire burning hot and blazing out of control.
His cock throbbed. His control faltered.
He wanted this woman with every breath in his body. But he knew deep down, he couldn’t push her to a place where she’d never return. She meant too much to him. With a sigh, he did something that just about killed him. He pulled away, carefully extricating his hands from her hair, leaving them both breathless and shaking.
Her chest heaved, and confusion flashed in those soft brown eyes of hers, which now looked drowsy with lust. Her lips parted, still red and swollen from his kisses. Her neck looked abraded from the scratch of his beard across her delicate skin. “What are you doing? Why are you stopping?”
“You’re right. We can’t do this unless you’re all in, and right now you’ve got too much going on, too much to worry about. I have patience, Gillian. I will wait as long as it takes for you to be ready because if there’s one thing I have, it’s time.” As for tonight, he’d take another ice-cold shower and pray that she’d come around sooner rather than later.
Chapter 21
By eleven-o-clock the next morning the shop buzzed with customers, most of them women. Gillian walked around with a tray of Dixie cups filled with a variety of potions from love to prosperity and health. Pillar candles of just about every color flew off the shelves, faster than they could restock them, along with bunches of lavender from their solarium for love spells.
Saturday was typically busy under normal circumstances. Their customers liked to get their spellwork settled over the weekend, but with Samhain around the corner, they were slammed. Thanks to Belinda’s wizardry on social media,Enchantmentshad grown quite a following. And based on the traffic in the store, their efforts seemed to be working.
Any time she caught a breather, Gillian checked her phone to see if Garrett had managed to come through with the water, but still no word so far. She couldn’t bear to stand around and do nothing. She’d go out of her mind with worry. The only way she knew how to handle her stress was to keep her mind and her hands busy.
So she’d spent the better part of the morning, before anyone else had arrived, reading cards. The only vision that had come through was one of Brooke standing in what looked like a ballroom and wearing some white seventies looking dress. The Elvis classic, “Love Me Tender,” played inside her vision. She wasn’t sure what it meant but wrote it down in her journal nonetheless.
“Gillian?” Natalya walked up and took one of the love potion cups off her tray. Today she wore a long, flowy skirt and a peasant blouse. No one would ever guess she was a cop. “Are you okay?” she whispered with genuine concern in her voice.
