We had an amazing time at the club, Chris and Abby hit it off just like I knew they would. Even though it was incredibly crowded there, Abby managed to get us a spot in the VIP area so we didn’t have to fight people for a table to sit at. We danced and drank the night away, though Abby definitely had more to drink than I did. I wasn’t surprised when she said that Chris was going to take her home afterward.
We walk out with them, letting them take the first cab available while we wait a few more minutes for the next one. The ride back to the apartment takes only a few minutes, so we sit next to each other, with our legs touching and my hand in his for the entire ride.
“I need to check the security footage,” Garrett says as we walk into the apartment. “If Mr. Meyer would have come home or if anyone came into the condo, the app on my phone would have alerted me, but I just want to check to make sure nothing happened while we were gone.”
“I’m going to change quick,” I reply as we go our separate ways.
Feeling hot from all the alcohol still in my body, I change into a tank top and pair of shorts to sleep in. As much fun as I had tonight, I’m dreading going to bed. It’s nearly two-thirty in the morning; I’m usually awake by three from the nightmare. I’ve tried staying up later but it doesn’t matter, the nightmare always comes. I shake my head and head back into the living room where Garrett is sitting on the couch with a bottle of water.
“Everything okay?” I ask.
“Yup, the apartment is clear and Mr. Meyer isn’t home. I would have been alerted if he came in through the app on my phone, but I didn’t want to strictly rely on that, just in case.”
“Thanks for coming out tonight, Garrett. I had a nice time.”
“Me too,” he stands up from the couch so we’re eye-to-eye. “Are you going to bed?”
“Yeah.” I can’t hide the anxiety of the upcoming nightmare from my voice. I hate the fact that I can’t sleep through the night; that I can’t fall asleep without wondering how long I’ll be asleep before the nightmare wakes me up. I hate that I’m reminded every time I fall asleep about that night.
“What’s wrong?”
“Will you…lay with me for a little while?” I rush to say the words before I lose the courage. “It’s just, it’s so late and—”
“Of course,” he interrupts me. “Let me throw on some pajamas.”
Without another word he disappears into his bedroom, emerging a few minutes later in a pair of black sleeping pants and a fitted gray shirt. Silently he leads me to my bedroom, closing and locking the door behind us before we both slip into my bed.
“Come here,” he requests.
I slide closer to him, but apparently it’s not close enough because Garrett pulls me even closer to him. I’m on my side, my back against his chest and his arm around my waist much like how we were dancing earlier tonight. I feel just as safe right now as I did then; I can’t remember the last time I felt safe in my bed. There’s always been an underlying fear of knowing what’s going to come.
“Good night.” He kisses me ever so lightly on the cheek.
“Night, Garrett.”
Chapter 19
Hope
I wake up feeling hot, as if I’m buried under too many blankets. Opening my eyes, I find the reason I’m so warm. Garrett is lying next to me, but sort of on top of me with his leg wrapped around mine and his arm across my stomach as if he’s holding me against him. I realize for the second time ever I’ve managed to sleep through the entire night without having a nightmare. That realization stuns me because the only thing both nights have in common is Garrett. How is it possible just sleeping next to him can keep the nightmares away? Could the protectiveness I feel when I’m with him somehow carry over when I’m sleeping?
“You’re thinking too hard this morning,” he groans as if he’s that in tune to me.
“Sorry, I didn’t know you were awake.” I laugh.
“Don’t over think it.” His eyes open and immediately find mine.
Silently he moves even closer to me until his lips are only a couple inches from mine. His eyes are filled with both hesitation and pleading, leaving me no doubt of what he wants. Not able to deny him, especially after he held me all night, I lean up and close the distance between us. His moan is barely audible when our lips finally touch, but then he takes control. He encourages me to roll to my side so we’re facing each other and then tugs me even closer to him.
My fingers tangle in the ends of his hair as our tongues dance with one another. It doesn’t take long for the kiss to change from cautious to one filled with passion and need. With our bodies this close to each other, there’s no denying just how caught up in this moment we both are. For once I push the concern about how complicated this could make things and instead just focus on the moment.
“Hope,” he groans when I move my leg on top of his.
Taking it as a sign of encouragement, Garrett’s hand slowly slides under my tank top easily finding my hardened nipple. His arm is firm on my back, holding me against him while he continues to tease me. Between us I can feel him, hard and ready against me.
“Garrett,” I gasp when his hand travels lower, easily slipping under the waistband of my shorts.
This time there’s no denying the moan coming from him when I copy his move and take him in my hand, slowly stroking him. My body is on fire, making it hard to concentrate on Garrett when he continues to gently rub my clit. I don’t think I’ve ever been this turned on in my entire life. I groan when he moves his hand from me, but I don’t have to wait long. He tugs my shorts and panties down, which I kick off as soon as I can. Once again I follow his lead, and lower his underwear.
We don’t waste any time, moving closer to one another, our hands are the only thing separating us. He slides his finger into my throbbing center as his thumb easily finds my clit. My body tenses knowing it’s not going to take much more to set me off, not with how long it’s been since anyone has touched me like this. I try rocking against him, but his firm hand on my back holds me exactly where he wants me. His movements falter for only a moment when I take him back in my hand, spreading the drops of liquid on his tip over him. In that moment something changes, we both start working towards our own releases as the need becomes overwhelming.
The moment he plunges a second finger into me, I’m done. Garrett swallows my cry as the orgasm finally hits, his movements slow but he never stops touching or kissing me. It takes a few moments for me to find my head again, but once I do, I focus on returning the favor. His hips move on their own accord, thrusting into my hand as I stroke him. My name on his lips is nearly a turn on by itself when his release spills onto my stomach.
Silently, his fingers slip from me and immediately I’m left feeling empty and wanting more. He simply pulls me closer to him and holds me as we both try to catch our breath again.
“Good morning.” He leans down and kisses me a few moments later.
“Morning.” I laugh.
“Did you sleep well?”
“I did,” I answer honestly.
“Me too.”
“Thank you…for staying with me last night.”
“Anytime.”
I don’t know how long we lie like that, but eventually we leave the comfort of my bed and head our separate ways to shower and begin our day. I swear as soon as the water hits me the doubts creep in. I’m worried about what just happened impacting our working and living together. How does this change things between us? I stood under the hot water for far too long before finally giving up and getting out. Unfortunately, I can’t keep avoiding Garrett and the situation between us. I get dressed and head into the kitchen to start making breakfast.
“Are you hungry? I can make you something,” I offer when Garrett comes out of his room only a few minutes later.
“You don’t have to, but if you’re cooking I’ll eat. Thanks,” he says as he sits at the small breakfast bar in front of me.
“French toast work?”
> “Anything is fine.”
I add another couple of eggs to the bowl and whisk in the milk. The entire time though I can feel Garrett’s eyes on me. Each time I glance in his direction, I catch his eye. He doesn’t make any attempt to hide that he’s watching me. I try focusing on the bread in the frying pan so I don’t burn it, but it doesn’t stop all the questions racing through my mind. What is he thinking right now? Does he regret last night? Or this morning? Will this change things? Will it be weird between us now?
“Hope—”
“Garrett—”
We both laugh as we talk at the same time, and immediately some of the tension in the room seems to dissipate.
“I don’t want things to be weird between us.” I place our plates at the table and he comes over to join me.
“Me either,” he agrees. “I think we should talk about what’s going on between us.”
“Okay.” I hold my breath unsure where this is going. Is he going to tell me he thinks that exploring something is a mistake? Does he regret sleeping next to me last night? Does he regret what happened this morning?
“I like you…I’ve liked you since the night we met,” he admits.
“I like you too,” I whisper.
“I know things between us are…different,” he admits. “We already live together and although we don’t directly work together there may be times we have to—”
“It complicates things,” I interrupt.
“It does,” he pauses; I can’t tell what he’s thinking. I can’t tell if this is where he says it’s better to stop whatever is starting between us before things get further complicated. “We also both have our own issues…”
“We do,” I agree; we both still have things we need to share with the other.
“But I can’t stop thinking about you,” he quietly admits after a few minutes of silence. “I don’t…I want to try and make it work with you. I don’t know if you feel the same way—”
“I do,” I whisper.
“Really?” His eyes are full of surprise when they find mine.
“You make me feel like no one ever has.” I blush revealing to him what I’ve barely let myself become aware of. “I feel safe and protected with you; I like spending time with you. I don’t understand it, but the two nights that I’ve slept near you, are the only two nights that I haven’t had a nightmare since…Everything just feels right when I’m with you.”
“We just need to make sure no matter what happens it doesn’t interfere with our work,” he suggests.
“I think as long as we keep things separate from work it shouldn’t be a problem,” I say. “Like you said, it’s not like we work directly together every day.”
“I’m probably going to fuck this up.” He sighs heavily a few minutes later. “I’ve never been in a serious relationship before. I just know that with you, I want to try.”
“You’ve never had a relationship with a woman?” I ask, surprised. I know he wasn’t a virgin the first time we slept together so that surprises me.
“No.” He shakes his head. “I left for the Marines right after I turned eighteen. Before that I dated someone in high school for a few months but we knew from the beginning it wasn’t going to last beyond graduation. She had different plans, ones that didn’t include waiting four years for me.”
“Surely you’ve been with other women since then?” I struggle trying to make sense of what he is saying.
“Just to hook up, yes,” he admits. “In the Marines a lot of the single guys on my base would visit clubs. The sex was meaningless and was just a hook up–there was never any expectation of anything more.”
“Just a one night stand?” I gulp in the realization that I was one of those women the night of the wedding.
“Not really. I know this sounds cold, but how could I ask someone to wait four years for me? It wouldn’t be fair for her; I had no right to expect someone I just met to wait for me. So this worked because we both knew from the beginning what the night was about. There were no hurt feelings. I watched too many guys receive Dear John letters where they learned their girlfriend or wife found someone else.”
“Is that what you wanted from me the night we met?” I ask.
“No!” he answers and looks me in the eye so I know he is being honest. “From the moment I saw you, I knew you were different than any of the other women I had met. I felt this instant attraction to you. When we were sitting outside talking, it was as if we were old friends who hadn’t seen each other in years. I felt more comfortable with you than I had with anyone in a really long time. I remember wishing things were different between us, that I didn’t still have two years in the Marines left. When I watched you fall sleep that night, I decided that the next morning to ask if you would consider trying to see where things went between us. I still had the two years left, but I thought if you felt the way I did, that maybe…”
“I regretted not leaving a note for you explaining why I left so suddenly,” I say.
“Don’t. I know your priority was your dad and getting to the hospital to be with him.”
“Still…” I shrug.
“I thought I would never see you again. I tried to find you, but the groom had no record of anyone named Hope or anything close to that attending the wedding. I actually thought you might have given me a fake name.”
“No,” I laugh. “I wasn’t supposed to even go to the wedding. Abby had a date lined up, but he ditched her only days before the wedding. SHIT! I should call Abby and check on her.”
“I talked to my brother after I took a shower,” he says. “Apparently Abby passed out the moment they got outside her apartment door. Luckily, Chris was able to find her keys and get her inside.”
“She must have one hell of a hang over,” I joke.
“She does,” he confirms. “Chris says she threw up twice during the night; he slept on her bedroom floor because he was afraid she would get sick during the night and choke—”
“That was very nice of him,” I interrupt.
“He really seems to like her.” I can tell he is surprised. “He said they had breakfast together this morning and are planning on going to the movies later today.”
“Wow.” I’m just as surprised as he is.
“What are your plans for today?” he asks.
“I don’t know, I hadn’t given it much thought,” I answer. “What about you?”
“I need to run to the store to pick up a few things for school, did you want to come with me?” he asks.
“Sure, what store are you going to?” Garrett takes our dishes from the table and begins rinsing them before placing everything in the dishwasher without any prompting. Although I’ve told him several times he doesn’t need to, more often than not he cleans up the kitchen after I cook.
“There’s a large bookstore not far from here that has a book I need for a class, then I need to pick up a new flash drive for my laptop,” he explains.
“Sounds good,” I agree.
Garrett helps me clean up the breakfast dishes and then goes into the office to check to see if he needs anything else for school. I don’t really need anything from the store, but it’s nice to get out of the apartment especially before the work week begins tomorrow.
“Are you ready?” Garrett asks once the kitchen is cleaned.
“I am now,” I say as I slip on a pair of shoes.
“I figured we would drive; if they don’t have the book I need I might need to try a different book store,” he says.
“It’s fine.” I follow him to the garage and we get in one of Mr. Meyer’s SUVs.
We spend the next couple of hours walking through two different book stores before we finally find the book that Garrett needs for his accounting class that starts in two days. I teased him about waiting until the last minute after he admitted he should have just ordered it online. I don’t know what changed from in the shower this morning, but any concerns I had have disappeared. There’s no awkwardness between us, no
uncertainty.
“How about we grab a cup of coffee over there?” Garrett gestures to a small coffee house with outdoor seating. Since it’s the middle of the day, there’s plenty of seats available.
“Sure.”
We stop by the SUV to drop off Garrett’s bag before heading over to the shop. Once we get our order, we sit at a table in the warm sun. This is one of the things I love about this town: it’s not too big but not too small. You can always find a place to just sit and people watch. It’s not too busy that you can lose yourself, but not too small like where I grew up. In small towns, everyone knows everything. They know who you are, who your family is, and there’s no hiding anything from your parents.
“You’re smiling,” Garrett observes.
“I was just thinking about how different this is from where I grew up.”
“Did you grow up in a large city?”
“No, actually the opposite.” I laugh because my dad never would have been caught living in a city. “We lived in a small farm town; one of those places where everyone knew everyone.”
“Tell me about your dad.”
“He loved the small town we lived in,” I smile at the memory, for once not surrounded by pain. “I loved walking into the only diner in town and recognizing everyone by name. He retired from the Army...did I ever tell you that?”
“You mentioned it at the wedding,” he remembers.
“After that he opened a small engine repair business in town that was pretty successful since the only alternative would have been to drive a couple of hours into the city. He loved spending time outdoors, fishing, hiking or hunting—anything to get him outside. We lived in the same house my entire life, he always said he would never leave that place.”
“He sounds like a great guy.”
“He was.”
“What happened to the house? You don’t have any siblings, right?”
“No, it was just me and Dad.” I take a drink of my coffee and Garrett patiently waits for me to continue. “The house is empty. It came to me after he…after the accident but I couldn’t bring myself to sell it. There’s just too many memories there.”
Garrett (Dark Water Security Book 2) Page 11
