Chapter 30
Grace
I liftedon my tiptoes and met his mouth on its way down. The kiss wasn’t soft. Wasn’t hesitant. He kissed me like he was done holding back, done fighting whatever had been keeping him at arm’s length. His free hand came up to cup my other cheek, tilting my head back so he could take more. His tongue stroked mine, teeth catching my bottom lip on the way out, his breath hot and uneven against my mouth.
I wanted everything. I’d been wanting this since the train, since Jean’s cottage, since the moment I first saw him walk into my café with Tristan.
“Garrett,” I breathed against his mouth, and he groaned in response, a sound that vibrated through my entire body.
His hands slid down my back, found my hips, and pulled me flush against him. He was hard, and the press of him through his jeans drove a hot ache right between my thighs. He growled—actuallygrowled—and the next thing I knew, my back was against the wall and his mouth was on my neck. Kissing, biting, sucking his way along my throat, scraping his teeth where my pulse hammered and then soothing the sting with his tongue.
Yes. God, yes.
I tugged at his shirt, and he pushed back to yank it over his head. Broad shoulders, defined chest, abs that belonged on a magazine cover. I let myself look in a way I hadn’t been able to that night at Izzy’s, when I’d been too stunned and too embarrassed to study him. There were small scars here and there, but the one on his forearm stood out because I guessed every time he saw it, he was thinking of his father. And his left shoulder—it was a mass of tattooed colors hiding more than one long, jagged scar. I wanted to ask about the shoulder, if it was all from his father, but stopped myself.
Because you’ve got other priorities right now!
I raised my hands over my head, and he pulled my shirt off slowly. Slow enough the cotton glided over my skin and made me hiss.
His eyes tracked over me, and the hunger in his gaze made me feel beautiful. Wanted. Before I could say anything awkward or weird, he reached around and unclasped my bra with one hand—how did mendothat?—and stripped it off to let it fall.
For a moment, I wanted to cover myself, but then his mouth was on me, and I forgot why I’d ever been self-conscious about anything.
He started at my collarbone this time and moved lower. When his mouth closed over my nipple, I gasped and arched into him. He sucked, then flicked his tongue across the tip and sucked harder, and the tension inside me pulled tight from my chest straight down between my legs. He took his time. Lavished attention on one breast, then the other, while his hands found my ass and squeezed, fingers digging in hard enough to test the line betweenyesandoh my god, yes, please.
I was going to lose my mind. I was going to combust right here against the wall. “Garrett. Bed.Now.”
He lifted his head, grinned at me, and picked me up. My legs wrapped around his waist on instinct, and the sound that cameout of me wasn’t even a word. Two seconds later, he laid me down and stood over me for a moment.
“What?” I asked.
“I’m enjoying the view.”
“Well, stop enjoying and start”—I gestured vaguely—“something.”
He laughed. A real, honest laugh. Who was this man who was suddenly smiling and laughing? Or was this what sex did to him? He unbuttoned my jeans, pulled down the zipper, and curled his fingers around the waistband. “Are you sure?”
“Are you?”
His eyes darkened. “More than anything I’ve ever been sure of in my life.”
I sucked in my bottom lip. How was I supposed to respond? How was any of this real?Just say something, Grace!“Yeah. I’m sure, too.”
“Good.” He peeled off my pants and underwear. Slowly. So slowly. The cotton dragged down my hips, my thighs, the backs of my knees, and every inch he uncovered, his gaze followed. When he was done, he tossed my clothes over his shoulder, then stripped off my socks. “I hadn’t believed you could get any more beautiful, Grace, but here you are.”
Those words sent another jolt through me. “Guess you shouldn’t have turned me down so many times.”
He knelt between my legs, lifting one of my ankles to his lips. “You wouldn’t have wanted me before tonight.”
I stifled a laugh instead of admitting the truth of how long I’d been fantasizing about him.
“I was too distracted.” His next kiss was on the side of my calf, then my knee, then the inside of my thigh. “Fortunately, I’m officially not on duty tonight.”
Energy pinged around inside me, knocking rust off the areas only I had touched in too long. “You’re killing me, Garrett.”
“Not much of a bodyguard if I do that.” He glanced at me from between my thighs, licked a slow stripe up my inner thigh, and blew gently against the damp skin. The cool of his breath against me was electric.
Goosebumps erupted everywhere, and I twisted my fingers in the sheets. “Garrett,please.”
