Chapter 20
One Week Later…
“Why exactly do you have your face pressed against the window?”
“I think I’m having a nervous breakdown,” Kristen said, slowly exhaling as she knelt there, trying to figure out what was wrong with her.
“That would explain the whole face pressed against the window thing that you’re doing,” Amber said as Kristen allowed herself thirty more seconds of doing whatever the hell it was that she was doing before she reluctantly leaned back, dropped back onto the couch, sighed, and promptly fell onto her side so that she could stare helplessly at the television.
“I should have sold the house when I had the chance,” Kristen mumbled sadly as she reached over and helped herself to what she was really hoping was an extra chocolatey cup of chocolate milk.
“Probably,” Amber absently murmured as she glanced around the living room. “Where’s the dog that has yet to be named?”
“That life-ruining bastard has him,” Kristen mumbled pathetically, only to follow that up with a long-suffering sigh as she took a sip of the delicious, creamy concoction that always made everything better.
“He stole your dog?” Amber asked as she grabbed her bag off the floor.
“He’s a traitor,” Kristen mumbled around the straw.
“I see,” Amber said, her lips twitching as she pulled out her notebook. “We need to go over your preorder, the release, the groups, and the upcoming signings, including next week’s in Boston.”
“That does sound like fun,” Kristen said, taking one last sip before she placed the cup back on the coffee table.
“It will be a hoot,” Amber said dryly as she looked over her list. “How’s the book that you refuse to tell me anything about coming along?”
“I don’t want to jinx it,” Kristen said, terrified of saying or doing anything that would jinx this. She was so close to finishing her book and probably would have finished it already if the bastard that she was back to cursing to hell and back hadn’t disappeared a week ago.
Between going home to visit his family to make up for Easter, court, and apparently nonstop meetings with clients, Garrett didn’t have time for their arrangement. She’d thought he would show up at night only he never did.
She told herself that it was because she couldn’t write without him, but that didn’t explain the deeply disturbing fact that she couldn’t stop thinking about him.
Refusing to look too closely into why she couldn’t stop thinking about him, she’d kept herself busy.
She edited her book, baked a delicious assortment of baked goods, deep cleaned her house, reorganized her books, made Christmas ornaments, and ordered more paint samples, anything to stop thinking about the man that was really starting to piss her off.
They had a deal, something that she felt that as a lawyer, he should have appreciated and-
God, she missed him.
“I just need to know if it will be finished by June,” Amber said, drawing her attention away from the depressing realization that was most likely going to lead to another sleepless night.
“It should be?” Kristen said, trying not to wince when Amber frowned down at her.
“Why did that sound like a question?”
“Because I like to keep people on their toes,” Kristen said, nodding solemnly.
Amber didn’t say anything for a moment as she stood there, considering her while Kristen slowly lost the battle and winced. Finally, Amber released a heartfelt sigh as she looked down at her list and said, “You know what? I can handle all of this if you want to just focus on writing.”
Kristen opened her mouth with the automatic “No” that started to form only to find herself hesitating. She was so close to finishing her book and wanted to focus on that, but she wouldn’t be able to do that if she had to handle everything else. She was tempted, really tempted to say yes, but…
“You hired me for a reason, Kristen. You need help. Let me do my job so that you can do yours,” Amber said as Kristen slowly exhaled, not really sure if she could do it. She’d been doing this on her own from the beginning and the thought of trusting someone, anyone, with her babies terrified her.
“I can have your preorder up by the end of the week, the graphics done in two, and plan everything for the release. I’ll make sure that I post in your groups every day.
I won’t shove your books down your readers throats and I’ll keep the groups fun.
I’ll make sure that I do weekly giveaways, answer emails, questions, comments, and DMs and if I can’t handle something, I’ll let you know,” Amber promised while Kristen worried her bottom lip between her teeth.
“Say yes, and let me do my job,” Amber said as she shifted her focus back to her notes and-
“You’re sure?” Kristen asked, knowing that there was no way that she would be able to focus on finishing this book if she had to worry about everything else.
“Positive,” Amber said, making a quick note. “Just send me your passwords for your email and your publishing accounts.”
She hated handing over the reins, but…
“Thank you,” Kristen said, sighing with relief as she reached for her phone to send Amber everything that she was going to need only to find herself jumping up, grabbing her backpack, and heading for the door when Amber said, “His front door just opened.”
“I’ll send everything you need later!” Kristen promised as she pulled the front door closed behind her, raced down her driveway, paused to look both ways before she crossed the street, raced up his driveway, and quickly made her way to his front door and inside his house where she found him leaning back against his desk, sipping his coffee while he waited for her.
Deciding that this would be the perfect time to settle a few things, she came to a stop in front of him, tossed her bag on his couch, and slowly exhaled before she narrowed her eyes on the large bastard that was toying with her emotions.
“What the hell are you doing?” came the curious question that left her with no choice but to continue glaring up at the large bastard that needed to understand that she would beat the shit out of him with whatever was handy if he did anything to piss her off again so that they could avoid any future misunderstandings.
“Establishing dominance,” Kristen said, adjusting her glare accordingly, knowing that if she took it too far too soon that he would be left trembling in fear and unable to focus, and right now, she really needed him to focus.
“So fucking adorable,” Garrett murmured, releasing a heartfelt sigh as he took a sip of his coffee.
She decided to take that as a sign that she had him where she wanted him, but just in case…
Never taking her eyes off him, Kristen reached up, plucked the cup of coffee out of his hand, and took a sip with a look that dared him to say something about it only to end up shoving the cup back in his hand, gasping for air and grabbed onto the edge of the desk as what could only be described as battery acid coated her throat.
“You alright there, pookie?” Garrett drawled as he took another sip of coffee while she stood there, struggling to remember how to breathe even as she mentally gave this point to him.
“Peachy,” Kristen somehow managed to get out between deeply disturbing bouts of coughing, gasping, and a weird combination of the two as she reached over and snatched the bottle of water off his desk.
“Was there a reason why you felt the need to establish dominance this early in the morning?” Garrett asked as he finished his coffee and placed the cup on his desk.
Kristen opened her mouth to answer him only to end up in another coughing fit as she struggled with the bottle cap only to have Garrett reach over and pluck the bottle out of her hand, take the cap off, and hand it back to her.
With a mangled, “Thank you,” and another deeply disturbing coughing fit, Kristen finished off the bottle of water, decided that she needed a minute to regroup, and stumbled across his office, gasped, and finally, fell face-first on the couch where she spent the next five minutes trying to remember how to breathe.
Telling herself that this didn’t in any way diminish the effectiveness of her glaring, Kristen turned her head in time to watch Garrett drop down in the oversized chair across from her.
“I like it burnt,” the sick bastard said, shrugging it off like admitting to drinking battery acid was no big deal as he reached over and petted the dog gazing up at him adoringly while she lay there, staring helplessly at him.
“There is something seriously wrong with you,” Kristen said, realizing that they were getting off topic here and focused back on the problem at hand.
Ensuring the large bastard didn’t piss her off again.
“Probably,” Garrett murmured absently, watching her curiously as she took a deep breath before she slowly exhaled, mentally prepared herself for what she was about to do and narrowed her eyes on him, ensuring that it had its desired effect.
Leaving him trembling in fear.
“The fetal position is killing the effect,” Garrett said, gesturing absently towards her.
“And yet, I can see the terror in your eyes threatening to break you,” Kristen said with a sniffle as she watched his lips twitch.
“It’s difficult to hide,” he drawled, watching her curiously. “Why exactly are you doing whatever the hell it is that you’re doing?”
“Besides establishing dominance?” Kristen said, keeping her glare locked on him as she reached back and grabbed the throw blanket that she brought over last week and pulled it over herself.
“Besides that,” Garrett said, waving it off as though that was a given.
“We need to amend our agreement,” Kristen said as she snuggled beneath the blanket.
“And why do we need to do that?” he asked, absently petting the dog that really needed a name even as she debated naming him Traitor.
“For your safety,” she said with a heartfelt sigh and a shrug.
“I did feel like my life was in peril for a moment there,” Garrett drawled.
“It really was,” Kristen murmured in agreement.
“What rules are you looking to amend?” Garrett asked, watching her curiously.
“All of them,” Kristen said even as she couldn’t help but notice how comfortable this couch was.
“There’s only one rule,” he pointed out, giving the dog one last scratch behind his ear before he shifted to get comfortable.
“Which will make this easier,” Kristen said, running her eyes over him from the way that his intense green eyes watched her to the way that his dark gray shirt hugged every well-defined muscle perfectly and found herself wondering about something.
“Why aren’t you married?” she asked, watching as he went still only to quickly relax again before she could blink, making her wonder if she’d imagined it.
“Because nobody’s asked me,” Garrett drawled, making her lips twitch. “Why aren’t you?”
“We’re talking about you,” Kristen pointed out, because there was honestly nothing to say. She’d accepted the fact that she would never get married or have a family of her own a long time ago.
She’d tried dating, but she could never get over the feeling that they would leave her one day and they couldn’t get past the fact that she couldn’t seem to fall in love with any of them.
Once upon a time, she’d hoped for something more, but…
It didn’t matter anymore.
“What do I get if I play along?” Garrett asked as he began absently drumming his fingertips against the armrest.
“I’ll stop glaring,” she said, knowing that was her best offer at the moment.
“That would help with the terror currently threatening to drop me to my knees,” he said dryly.
“I know,” Kristen said, nodding solemnly.
“If you must know,” Garrett said, sighing heavily.
“I must,” she assured him.
“It wasn’t meant to be,” Garrett said, making her frown until he added, “She wasn’t in love with me.”
“How do you know?” Kristen asked, shifting to get more comfortable as she found herself wondering about the woman that he fell in love with.
“Because she spelled it out for me,” he said, making her frown as she opened her mouth to ask a follow-up question only to have him cut her off with a question of his own. “Why aren’t you married?”
“I believe we covered that,” she reminded him because they weren’t here to talk about her.
“Coward,” he said only to sigh as he gestured for her to get on with it. “We were discussing your need for establishing dominance.”
“Right,” Kristen said with a firm nod, reminding herself that she was here for a reason and it had nothing to do with wondering why he wasn’t married when she knew just how badly he wanted a family of his own. “I’m going to need veto powers.”
“For…” Garrett said, letting that one word trail off as the dog, who was seriously starting to make her question his loyalty, lay his head on Garrett’s knee and released what could only be described as a dreamy sigh.
“To ensure that we don’t have a repeat of the mall or the hiking incident,” Kristen said, knowing that she wouldn’t be able to get out of their deal, not if she wanted to finish her book, but she was hoping to at least limit the psychological trauma that this deal was most likely going to leave her with.
“What are you proposing?” Garrett asked as he absently began petting the dog, who she was going to name Spot out of spite at this point.
“That I get a say in how you cash in your hours,” Kristen said, hoping to avoid another trip to the mall, camping, or any of the deeply disturbing ideas that he came up with.
For a moment, he simply watched her, his gaze turning assessing as he absently pat the dog and-
“For every hour that I allow you to use me for my body, you owe me an hour,” Garrett said, leaving her with no choice but to release a heartfelt sigh.
“Your negotiating skills suck for a lawyer,” Kristen said with a pitying look as she held her hand out and made a kissy sound, trying to lure the dog that had yet to be named, only to drop her hand away with a grumble when he shifted closer to Garrett.
“You’re right,” Garrett said, looking thoughtful for a moment before adding, “Two hours for every hour that I allow you to use me for my body.”
“Wait. That’s not how negotiations work,” Kristen pointed out as she sat up and-
“A weekly trip to the mall, a round of mini golf every Saturday, and you watch the game with me every Sunday,” Garrett said, making it difficult to remember how to breathe.
“You sick bastard…” she said hollowly.
“That’s the deal. Take it or leave it,” Garrett said, shrugging it off as she narrowed her eyes on the large bastard.
“I think there’s been a misunderstanding,” Kristen said, licking her suddenly dry lips as she watched him stand up.
“Let me know what you decide,” Garrett drawled as he headed for the door while she struggled not to panic and-
“Blanket, hier,” Garrett said with a soft whistle that had her staring in disbelief as the dog that she’d been trying to come up with a name for happily followed him, leaving her sitting there, trying to figure out how the bastard did it.