28. Chapter Twenty-eight
Chapter Twenty-eight
Grady Marlow
“ W hat in the hell does that mean? You can’t just say that and leave… get back here… hey!” Remi flounces away blowing me a kiss. All afternoon she’s tried to distract me. I’m at my breaking point after she leaned over my shoulder, promising all kinds of debauchery.
I’m fucking head over heels.
So. Damn. Consumed.
Racing after her towards my bedroom, while she looks over her shoulder to wink, my dick strains against the athletic shorts I threw on. She interrupted me while I’d been working on Romantic Ruin’s next album. Half of it was inspired by her. The other half by Wilder’s frustrating hands off since the night of my party. His waxing and waning affection has always pulled music from me.
Even though she’s been sleeping in her cabin, all her free time is spent away from it, since her experience with ‘Winifred’ the not so friendly ghost. Nothing like that has happened in the cabin I’ve been renting. Other than a creaky floorboard, the door that won’t close well, and a humming refrigerator; it’s been peaceful. Dull even, when Remi is working or with Cal, Charlie, or Wilder.
She infuses life wherever she goes.
Her laughter turns breathy, as I grab her legs to pull her to the edge of the bed. “You liked what I did the other day?” Tilting my head and biting my lip, my hands travel a path up her legs. “How much did you like it?” My tone lowers, watchful of her responses.
My teeth grazes her lower lip as her hands on my forearms are pulling me towards her. I want to sink into her, never to return. Surround myself with her loving riot of energy.
My tongue smooths over her clit then sweeps inside her, her arousal causing her to moan listlessly. When her hand rests on the back of my head, I nuzzle my face in. Her pheromones are addictive to me. Our bodies are like puzzle pieces. She arches to hold me closely against her.
“Oh, ohhh… oh, Grady... ahhh…” Devolving into a series of moans and half uttered words she tips over the edge into an orgasm.
It tends to be quiet at the northernmost cabin, which is exactly what I had been craving. With Remi laying next to me, her head on my chest, all I hear from the open windows is the lake’s sloshing against the rocks lining the shore, bird calls, and in the distance, a lawnmower.
Remi looks at me, her hand caressing across my cheekbone. “I don’t want to lose you.” The words tug at my heartstrings. I feel the same way, but I’m committed to a thirty-five city tour with Romantic Ruin starting in three weeks.
“Honey, I may be leaving for a while, but this,” I point between us, “this connection we have… I don’t want to lose it either.”
The years I spent with my head down, denying to myself that I needed or wanted a relationship are over. That ended the night I met Remi. She unlocked something inside me. I may never get my friendship back with Wilder, much less pursue more, but I won’t lose Remi.
“All of you are leaving.” Her voice is soft, as she puts a leg over my thigh. “Taking my heart with you.”
She’s drawn a hand with flowers on its palm down her leg. I trace over the lines. “We won’t be over when I go. Trust me.”
Once it’s said, the word ‘trust’ reverberates in my mind. Why should she?
I’m a liar.
A traitor.
A bad friend, and a coward.
An absolute fucking shame.
Gibson sat here in this cabin, I could’ve said something to him then or dozens of times before that. Detective Hemminger offered me the opportunity to tell the truth. I didn’t. The one loyalty I’d managed to keep was to the wrong friend.
The guilty one.