41. Garrett
Chapter Forty-One
GARRETT
F uck, he could barely think. The only reason he could recite those details now was because that time with her was burned into his brain.
“I took your dress off and kissed your breasts and belly,” he whispered, starting to breathe faster. “Then I laid you down and licked you between your legs until you begged me to stop.”
Emma whimpered, wet heat sliding along his hard length, the sensitive head positioned at her tight entrance. “Because I wanted your cock instead.”
“ Yes .” He clutched her to him. “You chose me as your first. I was so fucking honored and excited. Your naked tits and tight pussy nearly made me come—the only reason I didn’t was because I beat off in the shower before you got there so I wouldn’t lose my shit before I satisfied you.”
Emma giggled, burying her face in his neck. “Oh my God.”
“It’s true,” he said, tightening his hold. “I’d been dying for you for so long. I didn’t want to embarrass myself. And believe me, the sight of you naked, offering yourself to me—that would have destroyed a stronger man. Not everyone has my incredible foresight.”
Her lips moved against his neck. “But you had prepared.”
He swallowed, running his hands over the curve of her hips. “And thank God I did or I wouldn’t have lasted. Instead, I was able to hold off until you were shivering in my arms. Then I covered you with my body and penetrated you real slow.”
“Like this?” she breathed.
Garrett shuddered as she raised her hips and then slid down on his cock, her slick wet heat sliding over him like hot velvet.
“Yeah,” he moaned, a vise around his chest. Fuck that . It was inside his chest, gripping his heart. “Just like that, baby.”
He took her hips in his hands, urging her up and down until she was riding him, her pussy clamping him with every downstroke.
Time slipped by slowly, each second endless and perfect.
“You’re so fucking good at fucking your man,” he praised in one breath, making sure she wasn’t hurting the next.
She may not have been a virgin, but it had been years for her and even though she denied it, she was probably sore. Because there had been no one else. He was the only man she had ever been with.
Garrett had always been possessive of Emma. Their short relationship had been so intense, so precious to him he hadn’t told anyone about it. It had been fucking selfish, but they’d only had their school breaks together and he couldn’t bear to share her with anyone else.
But Emma was his wife now. His obsession with her was now legal and binding. Their vows hadn’t included the love and honor part. He hadn’t wanted to push it, so he’d asked the justice of the peace to leave it out. But he would ask Emma to do the ceremony again sometime, so he could hear those words from her lips. And he’d be able to say them back.
Thankfully, judging from the way her fingers were digging into his shoulders, that day felt much closer now.
Emma groaned into his neck, her breath hitching as her tight pussy slammed down on him, grinding away. He gripped her ass, taking a delicious handful.
“Hold on to me, baby,” he warned, white sparks lighting the corners of his eyes.
He slammed his hips up, fucking her hard from beneath. Garrett lost his sense of time. The only thing he could hear were Emma’s cries. They punctuated his thrusts as they rocked together.
“Yeah, that’s it,” he breathed. “Grind up on your man. Get him all wet with your cream.”
Emma sobbed, pulsing and throbbing all around him. Unable to hold it, he stopped fighting, letting his orgasm rip through him. His cock spasmed, flooding her and soaking his lap. But his Emmy wasn’t done yet. His hand worked between them, drawing out her climax for as long as he could.
“ Garrett .” Emma put her hands on either side of his face as they undulated together, two bodies in perfect sync.
He’d only ever experienced that with her.
Emma pushed against his hand, his thumb working her sweet plump clit even as she clenched everything. Her hands fisted in his hair as she shuddered in his arms.
Or was that him? Hell, it was difficult to tell, but judging from the way his heart was hammering, he was the culprit.
Her body released on a sob, and she threw her head back, trusting that he would hold her through the storm.
It rolled over them both until they were both panting to catch their breath, still locked in each other’s arms.
Garrett pressed his face against the side of her neck. “That explanation went a lot better than I thought it would,” he mumbled.
Emma raised her head. She was still breathing fast, but now that their mutual hunger had been fed, she was sobering quickly. He could see the doubt creeping back into her eyes.
“We’re not done talking yet,” he said.
Emma started to rise, intending to climb off him, but he shook his head, holding her fast.
“Like this,” he insisted, his voice barely intelligible. “With me inside you.”
That way she wouldn’t forget that she belonged to him when he told her the rest.
Emma settled back down and nodded, the slight sheen of her sweat making her glow.
He hugged her to him, relishing in the weight of her. “Your skin is unreal. It’s so soft. I’ve never felt anything this fine.”
Emma knew he was stalling. She poked him in the ribs. “The rest.”
“All right.” He pressed a kiss to her cheek, the soft down next to her ear. “You spent the whole night with me. Woke up after dawn in my arms.”
She pulled back to look into his eyes. “I didn’t go home?”
“Your mom was working two jobs back then,” he explained. “As long as you were home between her shifts around lunchtime, she was none the wiser.”
He tilted her chin to make sure she met his eyes and could read the sincerity there.
“I never intended for our relationship to be a secret from her. But things between us were extremely new and already intimate. It seemed reasonable that you didn’t want to tell her where you were sleeping that night.”
“Did I at least text her?”
“Yes, of course,” he said. “You told her you were sleeping over with a friend.”
“Oh.” Emma didn’t know how to process that. “Seems a little thin. She wasn’t suspicious?”
“You never mentioned her asking any questions about it.”
He shrugged apologetically. “You have to understand she was busy, overworked. Plus, you thought she was seeing a new guy. Mariana was preoccupied with her own love life at the time.”
She took a deep breath and nodded. “We continued seeing each other?”
He closed his eyes, stroking her back. “It was an amazing night. The best night of my life, which turned into the best few weeks of my life.”
She tilted back to look at his face. “We spent the whole break together?”
“Every minute we could.”
He traced the plush line of her lower lip. “I would drive you home so you could see your mom when she wasn’t at work, but then she’d leave, and I’d drive over as soon as you texted me to pick you up. I even snuck in one night when she was asleep and slept with you there. But you felt so guilty about it in the morning that we agreed from then on, you’d come with me to the cabin.”
“And where was your father during all of this?”
His shoulders straightened, the tension in him impossible to hide. “Where he usually was. Away on business.”
Grant Chapman had eschewed all parental responsibility after the death of his wife. He left Garrett in the care of a nanny and less frequently under the supervision of his mother’s sister, his aunt Phil.
“You and I were joined at the hip all of winter break,” he said, smiling at the memories of plans and waffle breakfasts—the only meal he could make himself at the time. “But we hashed out a lot of stuff. Made plans. You agreed to move in with me when you started business school.”
Emma squeezed his shoulder. “What went wrong?”
“Me.”
The panic and self-recrimination rose, his constant companions. Garrett clutched her to him, his grip a little too hard.
Emma pushed away, but she was still wrapped around him, his cock embedded in her.
He held her hips, not wanting to let her go. “Go ahead and ask.”
“Was there someone else?” she whispered.
He knew she meant another girl. But that wasn’t it. “Your ex, Edward.”
She tensed in his arms. “ Edward ?”
He didn’t blame her for her incredulity. “Please keep in mind that I was a card-carrying moron back then.”
“I don’t understand. What did Edward do?”
“You headed back to school. I missed you so fucking much. I called you every day. We made do. But the month before spring break, you were different. Distant. I had a hard time getting you on the phone and your text responses were short. When I asked you what was wrong, you said midterms were stressing you out.”
“But?”
He told her the truth he so desperately wished he could undo. “But one night I called you. It was late. Edward was in your dorm room.”
He suddenly clutched her to him, half-worried she’d run away when she realized what a raving idiot he’d been.
“It was late—almost midnight—and he was in your room. You explained that the two of you had been paired on a project for your advanced Econ class and that it hadn’t been your choice.”
He shook his head, wanting to go back in time to kick his own ass. “But I was so fucking jealous I couldn’t see straight. I jumped down your throat when you tried to explain. I was convinced Edward was the reason you hadn’t been answering my calls.”
Emma pushed back against his hands as if unconsciously trying to get away from him. “Oh. That’s um…”
“Shitty. I was being a major league asshole,” he apologized. “We spoke a handful of times after that, and each time we fought about that piece of shit.”
Garrett hung his head. “I was being unreasonable. I knew that at the time. But being long distance was so fucking hard and I was insecure about us. I was convinced Edward was trying to get you back, so I issued an ultimatum.”
Bewilderment clouded her expression. “What did you say?”
“I told you that once your project was turned in, you had to stop speaking to him,” he admitted with a wince. “I tried to dictate who you could be friends with. Bullshit you very justifiably called me out on.”
He rubbed her back, grateful she was still here, listening to him. “That’s when you told me something else was wrong, but you had to talk to me about it in person.”
“What was it?”
“I don’t know.” He shrugged helplessly. “Spring break arrived and you didn’t come home. When I asked your friends, they didn’t know where you were. Days passed and I heard nothing from you. And I was too proud to keep calling you over and over. In my head, you were the one in the wrong. A few days later, I decided continuing to call would be like begging.”
Emma pushed away and this time he let her go, even though the loss of her physically hurt. He didn’t even care that his cock was out, soaked, and still half-hard from being so close to her.
He zipped himself up as she scooted a few feet away, sitting on the other side of the couch.
Too far.
“As far as I was concerned, you had ghosted me,” he said, determined to finish to the bitter end. “Like a jackass, I threw a party that last Saturday. I told myself it was a celebration of my new freedom because I was now a single man.”
She curled her arms around herself. “Did you hook up with another girl at the party?”
“ No .” His eyes widened. “No, I was still waiting for you. In my head, you showed up in another sundress, armed with a fabulous excuse for your silence, ready to promise never to speak to your ex again.”
Her lips barely cleared her arms, muffling her speech. “I guess that didn’t happen.”
“No. What happened was worse.”
He turned, raising a knee so he could sit sideways, facing her. He reached out and took hold of her upper arms, rubbing the delicate skin with his thumbs.
“Emma… that night of the accident was the night of the party. You were found by your mom halfway between my place and yours, on a small access road that would have taken you straight to my family’s cabin.”
Emma took a deep shaky breath, her eyes brightening with the telltale shine of tears. “I was coming to see you?”
He studied her stricken expression, his chest so tight it felt like he was going to explode.
“You must have been. But I had no idea because you never made it there.”
He cleared his throat, the self-recrimination nearly choking him. “I couldn’t see past my hurt to consider any other reason for your absence. I assumed the worst.”
Her voice wavered. “You thought Edward and I had gotten back together.”
He nodded. “I tried to drink my sorrows away that night but couldn’t even work up a buzz. I packed my bags and left early the next morning. I haven’t set foot in Verdant Falls since.”
She took several shallow breaths. But her voice still quavered when she spoke. “You swear you didn’t know about the accident?”
Garrett edged closer, pressing her against his side. “If I’d known, I would have been there.”
Taking care of her would have become his life’s mission that much sooner. “But you didn’t return my calls.”
She closed her eyes, giving herself a little shake. “Wait, you called me after you left town?”
“A few dozen times,” he admitted. “Maybe more.”
He swallowed over the lump in his throat. “I had no idea your phone had been shattered that night.”
Emma leaned forward, grabbing his hand. “It was?”
He nodded, still ashamed that he hadn’t done anything else.
“I have a picture of it,” he shared. “The screen was smashed. The investigators couldn’t get it to work again. That was all detailed in the accident report.”
Her head jerked back. “You have that?”
“I got it from the sheriff in Verdant Falls.” Garrett passed a rough hand through his hair. “So, you see, I’ve known what happened to us for a few weeks.”
“To me, you mean.” She shivered again, twisting the knife he could feel in his gut. “You knew what happened to me .”
Garrett scooted closer. “Emma, I may not have been there, but that doesn’t change the facts. My asshole behavior led to your accident.”