Endurance: A Salvation Society Novel

by Alexandra Silva

  “Quiet,” she replies, pressing a kiss to my shoulder. “But good. All those naps got me feeling old.”

  “Rubbish, you’re simply seasoned. That’s all. Besides, rest is good. It’s what the doctor ordered.” Literally. Garrett made sure she listened to him this morning after struggling to sleep most of the week, it was beginning to show on her face. I’ve noticed how her memory tends to play up when she gets into a sleepless rut.

  Taking one of the fabric patches and an elastic band from the pile in front of her, I start covering some of the jars too. We’re doing it all in silence as Iris finishes off one of the seed-and-berry granola bars Jo made yesterday. Garrett loves them for breakfast, and since he’s been staying here at least four out of seven nights, she’s been baking them almost every other day.

  “What’s buggin’ you, sugar?” Jo asks when Iris wanders off to watch television.

  For a brief moment I consider trying to brush it all off; however, it’s an impossible feat with Jo.

  “Garrett said he needs to talk to me about something but—” Fuck. I stop and before she can try and pry anything from me, I finish the jar in my hand and start for the stables. “I’ll be right back.”

  “Atta girl!” Jo calls after me with a wink when I look back.

  I don’t need to talk to her about whatever it is Garrett needs to talk to me about. I need to go to him. She’s not going to tell me anything that’s going to put my mind at rest from all the thoughts swimming around it like piranhas feeding off fresh, bloody flesh.

  It’s getting dark even though it’s barely five in the afternoon, and when I walk into the stables, the lights give the shadowy interior a golden glow. Taking a moment to admire the scene, I lean up against one of the thick beams. It’s a sight to behold as Garrett shovels the old hay into the wheelbarrow beside him. His hair is a ruffled mess that has my fingers aching to get all tangled in it while my palms itch to touch the muscles working beneath his T-shirt. To feel them move and bulge underneath my hot hands as he kisses me or when he fucks me.

  With my thighs clenching tight and my belly tied in knots, my heart skips a beat when he turns to find me drooling over him. I can’t bring myself to be embarrassed by my open ogling. It feels good when he does it to me in the mornings when I shower. It feels good to be desired the way he does me. And I want him to feel good too. I want him to feel the way he makes me feel. Wanted beyond sense or reason. Needed more desperately than my next breath.

  “You wanna help or just stand there…staring?” he asks, stabbing the shovel into the heap in the wheelbarrow.

  “Hmm…” Letting out some of the fizzing air from my lungs, I try to stop myself from squeaking. “I’m beginning to understand why you love watching me shower.”

  “So you’re ogling me?” Brows hitching high, he takes a step toward me, long and purposeful. A salacious grin tips up one side of his face, making the butterflies in my belly go insane. “Because that’s what I do. Shamelessly.”

  My throat swells and stomach swoops as he takes a few more strides and pauses a little over an arm’s reach away from me. My blood courses through me like lava, and my knees threaten to buckle at the way his stare rakes over me, lust etched on every line of his face as he licks across his bottom lip.

  Clinging onto the beam at my back, I stop myself from slipping to my ass. Every breath echoes between us, and when he braces his hands on his hips, his arms bulge in that way that makes me squirm.

  “You ever had a real roll in the hay?”

  When I shake my head, Garrett comes closer, his body heat permeating through my clothes as his hands go to my hips and squeeze, hard enough that my sharp inhale hits the back of my throat, making me choke on his warm breath. With his proximity and his scent enveloping me, there’s nothing I can do but hold on tighter to the wooden beam as his hands slip over the curve of my hips to the hem of my wool dress. It’s one of the few items I’ve bought myself since being here. Shorter than I’ve worn in years, and although this morning I wasn’t sure about it, now I’m grateful for the easy access. Because I’m desperate. Dying for Garrett’s touch.

  As though he can hear my thoughts, while one hand bunches the fabric of the skirt at my waist, the other rounds my thigh, tracing higher as he leans closer and closer. My heart pounds and pounds to the point that I’m breathless, mindless, and nothing but putty in his grasp.

  “Want to remedy that?” he asks with his hot breath bathing over the shell of my ear.

  Gooseflesh pimples all over my body as I shudder at the sound of my rasped name rolling from his lips down the column of my neck.

  “Avery, Avery…Avery,” Garrett chants, palm flattening to the back of my thigh with the V of his hand cradling the curve of my ass while his fingertips graze over the apex of my thighs.

  I cannot breathe. I cannot speak. If it wasn’t for his hold on me, I would already be puddled at his feet. This is not what I came here for. It’s not why I came to find him, but now it’s all I can think about.

  I want him. Need him. Over me. Under me. I don’t care, so long as he’s inside me.

  “Doc…” I tremble when his fingers press deeper while stroking over my center. “Garrett…”

  “God, your pussy is so hot,” Garrett groans over my lips before licking into my gaping mouth.

  At the same time, he releases his hold on me, and before I can whine, he nudges my legs apart and tears the crotch of my tights. The sound alone makes me whimper while searching out the flushed heat of his body on mine. My hands abandon their endeavor at keeping me upright and clumsily push down on the top of his sweatpants, dragging them down over his lean hips and muscular ass.

  “Fuuuuck,” Garrett hisses long and low when I fist his erection with my trembling hand, my thumb rounding the tip to spread the bead of precum.

  Meanwhile, he continues stroking up and down my pussy, pressing harder, avoiding my clit as I clench with need for him. Teasing, he scissors his fingers over my panties. He’s driving me insane with how much I crave him. My frustration tightens my hand around his girth as I work the length from root to tip again and again until his every inhale is released as a curse that vibrates down my throat.

  “Fuck, baby…” Biting my lip, he groans.

  The flat of his fingers tap at my pussy. Once. Twice. Again and again, getting harder until I’m on my tiptoes with no other way to expel the intense push, pull, throb, and clench of my body. My core pulses with a want so fierce that my bruising heart threatens to implode along with my burning lungs.

  I’m about to beg him to fuck me, when Garrett pulls away, his hands grasping my face roughly before he bites down on my lip with a low growl. Without warning, he spins me around, teeth pulling with smarting harshness. My head falls back on his shoulder as he presses my front to the beam and his hand closes around my throat, pinning me to him as he laves down the side of neck. His other hand pulls my dress up, and as he continues nipping down my neck, lowering himself behind me, he guides his dick to my entrance.

  “Panties,” he mutters, grinding his groin into my ass.

  With trembling hands, I fist the crotch of my underwear and pull it to the side, barely able to suck in a breath before he thrusts deep, hitting home as my entire body shoves up the wooden pole. On my tiptoes, I have no control. Garrett is so deep that hot, unrelenting frissons of pain spark through every cell of my body, an ache that swells in my throat and mutes my cries as he holds still, allowing me to adjust to his intrusion.

  “Damn, sweetheart, your pussy is so tight it hurts.”

  Biting down on the curve of my shoulder, he grinds and grinds until I can’t take the fullness and ache. I need reprieve and relief, and yet, I want him deeper and harder, even as he pulls out and slams home again and again. The pain sparks and ebbs, glowing brighter with every thrust until my feet are planted on his, the tips of my ballerina pumps balancing precariously on the toes of his sneakers.

  “Doc.”

  “Sunshine.”

&nb
sp; “God.”

  A guttural growl vibrates from his lips as his hand tightens around my throat, thumb pressing to my pulsing jugular as he sucks and bites the length of my collarbone. His other hand finds one of mine, bringing it down as he cups my pussy and uses my fingers to rub over my clit.

  “Fuck…” The curse escapes me on a gritted mewl, and I feel him smile as he presses his mouth to the side of my jaw. “Fuck.”

  Stroking up my throat, he picks up the pace of his thrusts. My knees start to go weak while he cups my jaw, turning my face to the side and tilting it up so he can lick over my mouth, tracing over my lips with the tip of his tongue like our fingers are massaging around his dick.

  “Oh God!” I cry into his mouth when my legs give, and he’s holding me up.

  Pulling out slowly to the tip, he slams back in, bottoming out again and again as he repeats.

  “Come for me, Avery. I want to feel your pussy milk my cock.”

  The sound of him thrusting, our skin slapping together as I clench around him, echoes around us with our moans and groans that drown out our ragged breaths.

  “Come, baby!” Garrett grunts with one last thrust that pushes all the air from my lungs.

  Everything fades as my orgasm rips through me. Blinding. Burning. Breathtaking. There’s no relent as he thickens deep inside me, filling me with his hot cum to a slew of unintelligible curses muffled by my thundering heart.

  “God, you are so damn fucking beautiful when you come for me.”

  I open my eyes at his words, my spotty vision finding his pleasure-hazed stare. Grinding into me, he strokes over my sensitive flesh, scissoring my fingers open with his and rubbing our dripping cum around my entrance and the tops of my thighs before bringing my hand up. He laces it with his as he sucks my three glistening fingers into his mouth without a single blink.

  Holy. Fucking. Shit.

  Oh Lord.

  With a pop, Garrett pulls them out of his mouth. His pink tongue licks over his lips while he envelops me into him, our bodies flush and hearts beating so frantically that with our closeness it feels like one long, endless pulse between us.

  Ghosting his lips over mine, he murmurs, “You taste so damn good,” before kissing me.

  His tongue swirls with mine as he grinds into me once more and then eases himself out with a hiss. Turning me to face him, he cups my face, deepening our kiss. All I can do is savor his taste, mingled with mine so that it’s ours. And I don’t care how crude the moment is, I want to live in it forever. Me and him.

  After all that’s happened. The lives we’ve lived before each other. I think that fate always had a plan for us. And no matter what, I’m not giving up. I’m not letting go.

  Garrett Dixon is mine, and I won’t stop fighting until we have everything we’ve ever wanted. Everything I’ve ever dreamed of. Everything he promised.

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  GARRETT

  Dinner arrives as I’m getting in the house, needing a shower after making sure the stables are all taken care of for the long weekend…among other things. There’s enough fresh hay in each of the stalls to last through until we return on Monday, and I’ve left the feed within easy reach in case Jo decides she needs to meddle. Which I know she will if we’re not here, even if Mark has asked Ben to drop by with Gretchen and the girls while we’re away to keep her demons from making work of her idle mind.

  “Thanks,” I tell the pizza guy as he takes the tip I pull from my wallet that I left on the entry console and grab the pizza boxes from him before I lock up the front door for the night.

  Although I still haven’t talked to Avery about going to DC this weekend, I’m hoping she’ll want to come too. As much as I don’t want to involve her as I look into the cause of Robert’s death, I’m hoping that she can help me get the answers I need from his doctor. That needle bruise is bugging the shit out of me, and given that Dr. Haas hasn’t replied to the last email I sent asking if there was something missing from the notes he sent over…I don’t have a good feeling about it.

  As I walk through to the living area, I pause and smile at the way Iris is so engrossed watching The Cat in the Hat. We read it again last night before I tucked her in, and every day we go through our new routine where Avery bathes her and I read her to sleep, I can’t help but wonder what it would be like to do that in our own home. The bungalow isn’t massive, but it’s plenty big enough for the three of us. And every Saturday morning, the sight of her surfboard and suit beside mine has me thinking that that’s where it belongs all the damn time. They belong with me all the damn time.

  “Pizza!” Iris’s excited yell draws me from my thoughts as she jumps up from the couch.

  Before I’ve reached the kitchen, she’s already dragging her small stool over to the crockery cupboard and taking down plates one by one like Jo taught her to do so she can help set the table.

  “Where’s your momma?” I ask, putting the pizza boxes down on the counter.

  “Showering.” Iris replies with a shrug. “She said she got messy helping you.”

  At her retort, my heart picks up its pace. My insides warm as a wave of heat rolls through me, heading all the way down south at the memory of Avery’s and my quickie earlier.

  “You want me to go tell her to hurry up?” Jumping down from her stool, Iris looks up at me expectantly, bright eyes wide as she watches me wash my hands and joins me at the sink to wash hers too.

  “No, that’s okay. I’ll go tell her pizza is here while you finish setting the table.” After I’ve dried our hands, I grab some paper plates from the cupboard above the fridge, along with plastic cups. “No dishes tonight.”

  “Yes! Does that mean we can watch a movie together instead?”

  “If your mom says so, yes, we can.”

  “My choice?”

  “Aaah…depends. Are there flying ponies?”

  “Umm…” Iris side glances away from me.

  “Why don’t we try something new? Halloween is coming up…maybe something spooky?”

  “Addams Family?” she calls after me as I head upstairs.

  “Didn’t you watch that with your mom the other night?”

  “Yeah, but you weren’t here. I wanna watch it with you, Doc.”

  Looking over my shoulder, I’m greeted with her Puss in Boots eyes and cute pout. “Addams Family it is.”

  The kid is impossible to say no to. Much like Avery, she has me wrapped around her finger, and there’s no other way I would have it as I watch her run to the couch and set up the movie while Jo is napping in her favorite armchair.

  When I reach Avery’s bedroom, she’s facedown on the bed, her towel wrapped around her. Her breathing is light and even. I’m surprised she’s asleep with the way her legs are jutting off the end of the bed awkwardly and her wet hair is stuck to her neck and back. Any other person would be cold and uncomfortable, but she’s passed out.

  Well, I need a shower anyway, so I might as well let her rest a little longer while I do so quickly. It takes me no more than five minutes to hose myself down and get myself clean. Once I’ve put on the flannel pajama pants that Jo thought would be more comfortable than my sweat shorts, and a fresh T-shirt, I wake Avery up gently.

  “I’m too tired to move,” she groans, looking up at me through the coarse strands of her mane. “Oh my God, what have you done to me?”

  It’s impossible to hold back my chuckle as I finger her hair from her face to reveal her ruddy pink lips and dainty nose.

  “Pizza’s here.”

  “I only ordered it like two minutes ago,” Avery mutters with a pretend sob, rolling to her back with my help. When I stand, lacing our hands together so I can pull her up, she grins up at me. “Consider me thoroughly screwed, Dr. Dixon.”

  “Hmm…you can still move…”

  “Barely,” she retorts, looking over her shoulder when she pauses in front of the chest of drawers and drops her towel.

  Avery’s a sight for sore eyes with her creamy ski
n and sinuous curves. The dimples at the base of her back accentuate her perfect ass…

  Fuck. It doesn’t matter that I already had her not even an hour ago, my dick is bobbing to attention. Every one of my muscles clenches in response to the sight of her naked body.

  I’m in a haze, watching as she pulls one of my T-shirts from the top drawer and pulls it on before grabbing her pajama shorts and finishes getting dressed. She’s brushing out her hair when I sit on the bed and take a deep breath to ask her about this weekend.

  “Would you come with me to DC?” Avery asks quickly as though she wants to get it over and done with.

  “Ah…”

  “You don’t have to,” she adds, finding my gaze in the mirror. “It’s just that Charlie thinks it would be a good opportunity to talk to some of my father’s acquaintances. I don’t know… I…it’s…”

  “Actually, I was going to ask if you wanted to go visit Haas with me tomorrow. Mark looked into him, and apparently he golfs at the Congressional Country Club every Friday afternoon, and turns out that—”

  “Priscilla is hosting the fundraiser there?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Freaking Charlie! She really did work me over…” Avery shakes her head while gathering her hair on top of her head and twisting it into a messy knot there. “What happens if he doesn’t want to talk to us? In fact, how are we even going to access their golf course? Do you have any idea how exclusive that place is? It’s like the Platinum Club.”

  “It’s about who you know, right?”

  “Dominic?”

  “No, Avery.” For a moment I wonder if Mark got something wrong, because the way she’s looking at me doesn’t tell me that she has a membership. But then realization sets in as she asks, “Me?”

  “You’re a member, right?”

  She turns to me with a worried look on her face. “My dad was…I guess we’ve had membership since I can remember, but…”

  Avery grows silent with an awkward shrug as she turns to face me. Her gaze is downcast as she continues. “With everything that’s happened and Dad being gone, I can’t see our family membership still being active. That club is extremely hoity-toity. They have a ridiculous waiting list…”