Endurance: A Salvation Society Novel

by Alexandra Silva

  Tracing the length of her thigh, I drink her whimpers, absorbing her shudders and relishing the feel of her nails biting into my flesh.

  Adolescent making out was never like this. This good. This fucking consuming. It was never this electrifying or addictive. I don’t think I’ll ever be able to stop. Avery is too warm, too supple, and too much of everything I never knew I wanted or needed. And I wish so bad that I had found her sooner. That I hadn’t made so many mistakes. I wish I could be everything she deserves and more. So much more.

  The perfect gentleman and good guy. Not the asshole. Anything but that. I want to make her feel beautiful and wanted and as fucking perfect as she is. My hand stills on her waist, halting her tortuous movement.

  “Garrett…” Avery gasps desperately. “Don’t stop. I don’t want you to stop.”

  A hand cups my face as she curls into me, the other tracing the lines and contours. Her entire body is trembling over mine with every drag of her breaths. She wants me so bad that I can feel it, and it is incredible to be so openly craved and desired by her.

  So good that I can’t deny her as she repeats, “Please don’t stop.”

  Shaky fingertips and lust-hazed eyes draw over my cheekbones and temples.

  I stroke over the curve of her waist, slipping my hand into her panties to grasp her bare ass. It’s so supple, and I can’t help but squeeze more while I tug at her hair harder than before, tilting her head back so I can taste more of her skin, groaning as she writhes over me. My already stiff cock stiffens some more until the friction of her movement physically hurts.

  Avery’s moans get louder, vibrating into the air around us. Her limbs start to buckle, body bowing into me while the hand cupping my face tightens and the other fists in my hair.

  “Oh my God,” she pants. “Oh my fucking God!”

  Yeah, I want to fuck her. I want to rip her panties off and have her free my dick before I bury myself in her. I want to taste every fucking inch of her skin. To touch every part of her. Make her mine in every fucking way.

  Her ass clenches in my hand, and I know that she’ll come if we don’t stop. There’s a good chance I will too with the way my dick is pulsing and everything inside me is coiling tight.

  Twisting her panties around my fingers, I pull them taut over her pussy. I can picture the way they tug through her slick, engorged lips.

  “Oh shit!” A gritted whimper falls from her mouth, straight into mine as I grasp her nape and press her down harder.

  “You’re going to come for me, sweetheart.”

  “Garrett,” Avery whines long and loud as I use my grip on her panties to work her over me.

  “I think about it all the time. How you taste. How you feel… Are you wet for me?”

  Nodding frantically, she screws her eyes shut.

  “Look at me and tell me!” I press up into her, grinding mercilessly until her eyes meet mine again.

  “Yes.”

  “How wet?” I suck her lobe into my mouth, biting down as she sputters an almost silent curse. “How. Wet?”

  “So, so wet.”

  “Fuck, I want to taste you. I want to fuck you with my tongue until you’re all I’ll ever taste.”

  “Oh God,” she cries softly as I continue bucking into her and working her over me.

  “And then I want to fuck you deep and hard, until you litter the air with curses and scream my fucking name so loud that it’s all I’ll ever hear.”

  Her breaths jamb together, one crashing into the other as her body begins to shake and low curses fall from her lips. My balls start to tighten. Everything begins to haze at the edges, and our jagged moves become tougher to pace and control.

  And then she does it. Avery screams my name so that it echoes around us over and over again as I almost come in my pants with the taste of her sweat on my tongue, her pulse thrumming beneath my lips, and her soft scent filling my lungs.

  Fucking perfection.

  The sun has disappeared behind the horizon, and the last vestiture of light is the golden rays marled through the darkened sky. The sound of the waves lapping at the boat drowns out Avery’s raspy breaths as she settles into me.

  “It’s going to rain,” she murmurs with her face still tucked into the crook of my neck. “The air is sweet.”

  Shit, I checked the weather all day, but like the flatline, a fat drop of rain lands on Avery’s cheek when she sits up. Sure enough, another follows before we’re both on our feet and packing away the untouched food. Another one falls, followed by another and another as I open the hatch and throw the blanket and cushions down into it.

  “We’re going to have to run,” I tell her, taking the basket from her.

  We walk around to the jetty. The water is already lapping over it, and the tide has come in completely. For a moment I’m tempted to take her below deck and wait for the rain to pass, only there’s a rumble behind us. A storm is sweeping in. I should’ve known given how muggy it’s been all day.

  Pulling my shoes off, I tuck them under my arms, before I jump down to the jetty. With the tide all the way in, the boat is a few feet higher.

  Avery squeals when I tug her to me and drape her over my shoulder. “Oh my God! Don’t drop me! Do not drop me, Garrett Dixon!”

  No other woman that’s passed through my life would find this funny, would laugh and embrace the crazy turn of events, but she does. And I fucking love it. The sounds she makes as I stride toward the rocks. The way one of her hands grips onto my back so hard that my cock throbs with the frisson of heated pain that zaps to it.

  “It’s so cold,” Avery shrieks with a shudder as I walk us through the shallows by the cliff to the path we walked down earlier.

  The rain is getting heavier, and the rumble is coming closer. But she’s still vibrating with happiness when I put her down on her bare feet and follow her up to my car. She rounds to the trunk after me, where we dump the basket before I walk her to the passenger side.

  “I’m so sorry,” I tell her when I manage to get a good look at her. It’s more of a groan as my eyes scan her soaked-through dress.

  The white cotton has become almost translucent, and I can’t look away from the way her nipples have hardened and their shadow leaves barely anything to my imagination, the fabric clinging to her thighs heavily.

  “I love the rain.” She shudders, swiping at her loose hair as I shuffle closer. When I grasp her waist, she rasps, “It’s a good omen.”

  Her eyes roam down my chest, and her hand falls to rest over my stomach, fingers splaying over the grooves with a needy sigh.

  “Yeah?”

  Maybe it is a great omen, I think just as she goes up onto her tiptoes and presses her lips to my ear.

  “Yeah, I haven’t laughed this much in forever.” Grasping one of her hands, I twirl her out and tug her back to me gently.

  “I love the sound of your laugh. It’s the best music I’ve ever heard.” Rocking her from side to side, I guide her to her side of the car, twirling her in front of me once more before I press her to the passenger door.

  With tear-lined eyes, Avery wraps her arms around my shoulders. “You danced with me in the rain,” she utters with an awed look on her face.

  “I guess I did.” What I don’t tell her is that I have no idea why; it’s a first for me. Dancing in the rain is a new level of corny, even for me. But for Avery, I’m digging it, especially when she smiles up at the tempestuous sky with the biggest, beaming smile I’ve seen on her gorgeous face.

  “Thanks,” she whispers so low that if I hadn’t been this close, I would never have heard it.

  “For what?” I ask, pulling her flush to me and opening the door for her.

  Her only reply is a deep kiss while I buckle her in, and it’s the only answer I need.

  Chapter Twenty-One

  AVERY

  He danced with me in the rain. The thought makes me grin broader as we turn into the ranch. The lights are all out, and the sheeting of rain makes it impossible
to see anything beyond the nose of the vehicle.

  “No wonder you could smell the fucking rain,” Garrett groans as we come to a stop and a slash of thunder cuts through the dark closely followed by a loud reverberating crack of thunder.

  “I love the rain,” I tell him, still incapable of hiding my happiness.

  “There’s that at least.”

  “Are you coming in? We can watch a movie while we wait for the rain to ease.”

  “Sweetheart, the rain may be freezing, but my blood is lava right now. If I go in there…” Garrett stops himself with a rough bite of his lip.

  “If you follow me inside…”

  “All bets are off.”

  Shrugging, I take his hand from the steering wheel and place it on my thigh. “We have one night without having to worry about anything else.”

  “One night is normally my thing, but with you, it’ll never be enough, Avery.”

  “Why one night?”

  “Because no one gets attached that way. One and done.” The sound of that makes me feel for him, even without the explanation that follows. “Every woman I’ve ever given more to has wanted nothing more than money and a plush lifestyle. The best way to stop people using you is to use them instead.”

  “I don’t want your money. I have plenty of my own, and my vision of grandeur isn’t a fancy lifestyle.”

  With a nod, he cups my face and leans in to kiss me softly on the lips before he pulls away, eyes boring into mine. “You don’t have to tell me that. I already know, and it’s why you’re so easy to l—”

  “Jesus!” I jump as another bright flash of lightning strikes, and I see the movement in my peripheral vision.

  My chest constricts while I intently stare out of the windshield waiting for the next strobe. Sure enough, when it hits, my blood freezes in my veins.

  “Motherfucker!” Garrett is getting out of the car before I can tell him that I’ll handle Carl this time.

  Jumping out after him, I almost fall flat on my ass when my bare feet slip on the wet dirt. The rain is still so heavy that it’s impossible to see what’s going on until I reach the porch steps.

  Carl is standing on the stoop, glaring down at Garrett, who is so clearly holding on to every vestige of his control.

  “I don’t know what you’re doing here, and I don’t care. Not unless you’re bringing me signed divorce papers. If not, get lost.” Although I want to stand close to Garrett, to hold on to him for dear life, I stand my ground, bare muddy feet and all.

  With a grimacing glance from my head to my toes, he shakes his head at me. “I want to see my daughter.”

  His daughter? Until now she’s always been my daughter, yet all of a sudden, he wants to set a claim he relinquished a long time ago. I don’t think so, and I won’t play whatever bullshit game he’s come here with.

  “Where is she?”

  “At a friend’s house.”

  The withering look he gives would normally make me take a step back, but instead I keep holding my ground in the pouring rain. I might resemble a drowned rat by the time we’re done, but I don’t care.

  “You’re shipping her off to other people so you can fuck your boyfriend now?”

  Garrett steps between us the second Carl comes toward me. His hands are fisted at his sides, and there’s that mean look again. Sharp and severe. Protective and possessive, even, and I find solace in that one small detail. Garrett Dixon is possessive of me, and I love it. Which throws me because of how controlling Carl was over every aspect of mine and Iris’s life.

  “Nice, Avery.” He looks Garrett up and down as though he’s somehow beneath him. How wrong he is.

  Slipping beside Garrett, I move forward a little to stand in front of him. I know he won’t make any brash moves with me in the way, and as great as it was having him fight my corner, I need to do this for myself. If not to show Carl that he has nothing over me, then to protect Garrett from both of their tempers.

  Carl is a snake, and him showing up here like this…pretending he wants to see Iris…it’s all an act. A guise for a trick he has up his sleeve.

  “Look at you,” he sneers, reaching toward me.

  Garrett slaps his hand away hard enough that the sound cuts through the storm.

  “Classy.”

  “Oh, you know me, Carl, I’m all class.”

  “More like high-class whore,” he retorts sourly.

  Without pause, I hold my arm out to stop Garrett from falling for his antagonistic crap. But before I can stop him from lunging forward, Carl is drawing a gun from the inside of his suit jacket. Frozen by the chill that courses through me, I can’t push Garrett away when he pulls me behind him. All the threats Carl’s ever made come back to haunt me, and cold terror racks through me.

  “I’d put that away if I were you. Shooting on someone else’s property isn’t a good career move. For you.” Ben appears from the darkness behind Carl. His firearm is steady in his hand, and he doesn’t look like he would miss a single shot if a wrong move was made.

  “Got any other tin soldiers in the wings?” Carl turns, coming down a step closer to us and away from Ben.

  “Why don’t you two go on inside, I’ve got this.” Ben nods toward the front door, gesturing for us to follow his instruction.

  My bare feet are suckered to the ground as Garrett wraps his arm around me, urging me forward. Trembling as I take each remaining step up the porch, my only saving grace is Garrett’s hand on my hip, squeezing and kneading at my flesh, his silent way of telling me he’s got my back.

  “Where is my daughter?” Carl grabs my wrist as I pass him.

  “Don’t touch me!” The cry is garbled by my frayed nerves as I yank my arm back and Garrett pushes him away.

  “I want to see her now!”

  “No.”

  Ben comes closer at the advancement Carl makes toward me.

  “She’s my daughter and you can’t—”

  “No! You had every chance to be a father to her, but you didn’t care. After what you’ve done, I am never letting you near my daughter ever again.”

  “You can’t keep her from me,” he calls after me as I walk away.

  “Watch me.” Asshole! I add the last part silently. Garrett unlocks the door to let us in, and as I turn to follow him in, I pause at the sound of Carl’s laugh.

  “First the congressman, and now the doctor…your standards are slipping.”

  “Fuck off, Carl.”

  “You even sound like a cheap, two-bit whore.”

  Garrett doesn’t waste a single beat as he presses past me straight at Carl. The only thing that matters is that Carl still has his gun in his hand. My heart plummets to my feet with a sharp stab that robs me of my breath.

  Ben manages to stop him on the top step, exchanging something that I can’t make out over the rain and my thundering pulse. I’m so relieved when Garrett turns back to me that I practically leap to him.

  “That’s what you want to be?” Carl calls as we go inside.

  “Yeah,” I reply with more certainty than ever, meeting his glare as I close the door. “I would rather be his whore than your wife.”

  I don’t give him a chance to hit back at me. Instead, I head straight to check on Jo in her room, pulling my phone from my pocket to find missed calls from Charlie on it.

  Jo’s snoring lightly when I open the door, and all four dogs peer up at me from the floor by her bed.

  “She must have taken the sleeping pills,” Garrett tells me, closing her door quietly as I call Charlie back.

  Answering on the first ring, she blusters, “We’ve been trying to call you and Garrett for the last hour!”

  “Is Iris okay?” She’s my only concern.

  Iris has been my rainbow through my never-ending storm, and I’ll be damned if I fail her again.

  “Of course. The girls were out pretty much after I sent you the last photo.”

  “Good.” I pause at the bottom of the stairs, and sensing it, Garrett turns b
ack to me.

  “Frank called to let us know Carl was heading our way when they hit the I-95. Mark tried to call Garrett, but his phone was off, and you didn’t pick up.”

  “I’m so sorry, I feel terrible. I should’ve checked my phone earlier. I…I…”

  I should’ve been better.

  Garrett takes my phone from me and places it on loudspeaker, telling me, “No one is hurt, Avery, and Iris is safe.”

  “In fact, it’s a blessing in disguise that she was here.” Charlie takes a deep audible breath, listening to whatever Mark is telling her. “Ben’s got Carl handled for tonight.”

  “I’m not going anywhere either.”

  I look at Garrett, who’s watching me carefully. He’s completely soaked through to the point that his shirt is translucent and stuck to his body, while his normally messily coiffed hair is slicked back. Warm fingertips stroke over the back of my hand as it hangs at my side, and all he does is smile.

  While the world is falling away around me, he is the one thing I can hold on to. He’s my axis in this moment, keeping me tethered even when I’m spinning out of control.

  “It’s going to be all right,” he mouths as Charlie growls, “Wait, Carl had a fucking gun?”

  “Yeah.”

  “You need to do something about him, get an injunction that will force guardianship and possibly the divorce to be pushed through.”

  “Charlie…” Garrett cuts off her tirade, sensing that my headspace can’t deal with more.

  “We’ll talk about it tomorrow.”

  “All right.”

  “Try not to worry about it tonight.”

  “Okay.” I nod to myself.

  Garrett threads his hand with mine at my reply, aware that I am not okay. The last thing I want right now is to be separated from Iris, but she’s asleep and she’s safe, and I won’t put a dampener on her happiness to feel better about myself.

  “Get some rest, Avery. It’s going to be okay.”

  Trembling, I hang up. I have no idea if it’s because I’m frozen to the core or whether it’s the adrenaline of the confrontation I had with Carl wearing off, but my legs won’t be able to hold me up much longer with how violently I’m shivering.