I am on cloud nine as he walks backward, keeping me as snug to him as possible while at the same time he doesn’t deviate his sparkling eyes from me.
“This is pretty,” I tell him even though I don’t turn away.
And he is gorgeous.
My internal swoon elicits a muted sigh from deep down inside me. It’s got to be impossible for him not to hear the drumming of my heart as I take in his long lashes, dark blond and thick like his hair.
The sky is beginning to purple as he guides me to the front of the boat. A small picnic hamper sits to the side of a cushion-scattered blanket. To the side of that is a wine cooler with a bottle of the same sparkling grape juice from our picnic last weekend.
“I was going to take you to one of the nice restaurants in town, but I wanted you all to myself with no distractions. I have a surprise for you.”
“A surprise?” I take a sharp breath to steady the giddiness inside me. It doesn’t work, though.
“Don’t worry, it’s not cheese.” Chuckling, he presses a kiss to my hair.
I’m completely overwhelmed as I swallow down the staggering emotions stirring inside me and hug him as tight as I can. It’s not hot and heavy—it’s the only way I can thank him for his thoughtfulness without bursting into tears. Happy tears, of course, but even so, I don’t want to complicate the moment with them.
Garrett lowers to the blanket slowly, hands skimming down my hips to my thighs and tracing down my legs to my ankles where he slips off my sandals. My hand clutches to his shoulder to stop myself from falling, and when our eyes catch—mine lowered and his raised—he touches a kiss to the side of my hip. Even over my dress, the contact singes my skin.
He does it again and again as his hands creep higher to the backs of my thighs before he pulls me down between his. They’re hard beneath my hands, his chino shorts straining around the muscled flesh.
Garrett rests a hand on my waist as I lean into his chest. We sit for a while as the sky takes on a peachy hue and the sun lowers into the horizon, painting the edges of the clouds a deep gold.
“So, I know you’ve swam with sharks, and you have a weird appreciation for terrible movies. You don’t mix your food on your plate, and mucking out isn’t your thing.”
“Oh God, don’t!” I laugh, and as if it is contagious, he joins in. “It was a disaster. All my time working with aquariums and managing all the super-technical stuff, none of it prepared me to scoop up horse shit.”
Automatically, my hand smacks my lips. It’s the first time I’ve cursed in front of him. It slipped out, aided by the distracting excitement coursing through me.
“It’s okay, you can say shit. Shit is pretty standard around here, closely followed by fuck.”
My face heats with the flush creeping up from my chest.
“Come on, sunshine. It’s sexy as hell when you curse. You can say shit…”
“Stop it!”
Shaking his head, Garrett frees my bottom lip from my teeth. Eyes focused on my mouth, he teases, “Say shit again, Avery.”
“No.”
“Okay then, try fuck instead.”
The sound of the curse has my eyes flashing to his as heat twists low in my belly. I can barely breathe as his hand closes lightly around my neck and strokes up my throat to cup the side of my face to his shoulder as we continue, caught in each other’s stare.
“Fuck, Avery, say it…” I shake my head, and Garrett repeats, slow and deliberate, “Fuck.”
“You’re such a child.”
“There’s nothing childish about what that innocent-looking flush is doing to me. Or those trembling breaths of yours.” I almost choke on my pooling spit when his hand traces down my throat to the low neckline of my dress, his fingertips ghosting over the thick lace covering my breasts. “Nothing childish at all, sweetheart.”
“Fuck…” The breathless sigh escapes me.
“You have no idea how much I want to,” he purrs with a sexy rasp to his voice that makes gooseflesh prickle my skin…all over.
With my heart going berserk in my chest, I close my eyes as Garrett kisses me slow and measured. His hand roves down to my waist and squeezes, bringing me flush to him so that his erection presses to the base of my back.
“You have no idea of all the ways I want to taste you,” he murmurs over my lips, licking across the seam with a guttural groan when I squirm between his thighs. “You’re driving me insane.”
I can’t think coherently enough to retort. All I can do is swallow down the butterflies that flutter up from my belly at the thought that Garrett Dixon is crazy over me. And while I’m rendered speechless, he pulls away with a grin.
That gorgeous, cocky smirk that makes me breathless. I watch as he pulls the hamper closer to us and opens it up.
“So.” He clears his throat. “Date.”
“Mmhmm.” I nod as he cocks his head to the side, studying me. “What?”
“It’s been a long, shit day, but it doesn’t matter anymore. You’ve made it better.”
There he goes with the corny line that totally gets me; however, I don’t want to make light of it right now. Garrett’s been there for me since the night he walked into Mark’s office and I was battered and bruised. Literally and figuratively. From the inside out. Right now, I want him to know that I’m here, and I want to be what he needs, and not only in a physical way.
“Want to talk about it?”
“No way.” Garrett bites my shoulder softly, making my head loll back onto his shoulder as a moan pushes from the pit of my stomach.
“How about you tell me about your crappy day,” I suggest, spinning to face him. “And I’ll tell you about my good day and we can level it out?”
“It’s nothing new for me—it just sucks when I lose a patient. Even if it was a gamble to begin with, I always go into the OR with the expectation of leaving it with a live patient and successful procedure.”
“But you’re still a great doctor, and tomorrow you’ll fix someone else up and the day after. You can’t fix something that’s beyond repair.”
“No, you can’t.”
“And yet, you still tried. How many other surgeons would do that? It says a lot about you and the care you have for your patients that one would be willing to risk what little they had of their life for a chance that you might give them more.”
“Are you going to tell me about your good day? I like it when you tell me about the things that make you happy. The joy shines right out of you, and it’s fucking precious.”
Inching forward, he brushes through the tendrils framing my face, making my chest threaten to burst with tangible affection.
“Can I ask you something?” I venture when he pulls back to offer me a Tupperware with grapes.
“Sure.”
“You don’t have to answer. I’m only curious because—”
“Ask, Avery. I’ll tell you anything you want to know.”
Biting my lip, I gather the courage to pry into his life. I feel like we know each other, but at the same time there’s still so much under the surface that I haven’t explored. And I know I said I was going to tell him about my day, like I’ve been dying to since this afternoon, but I want something to put an upper on the conversation in case it nosedives.
“Avery.” Garrett grits out my name in a way that pulls me out of my thoughts. “It’s okay to ask questions. It’s what dates are for…to get to know each other. Better.”
“Well…” I hesitate but push forward anyway. “When we were out by the stream, you said that you didn’t tell Mark about the lead-up to your divorce, but today when I was at their house, Charlie said that he gives you a lot of crap over what happened.”
Garrett swallows as though I’ve asked something that makes him uncomfortable. I don’t like that I’ve made him feel that way. Not around me. Not when he’s constantly gone out of his way to make sure I’m all right.
“Mark is straight down the line—it wouldn’t matter if I told him everything
or not. He would probably dig me out more if he knew the entire story, and besides, it was too personal…for me and for Michelle.”
“Makes sense, about it being too personal, but I don’t think he would’ve thought any less of you because of the circumstances.” Tucking my legs beneath me so that I’m kneeling between his thighs, I pop a grape in my mouth before offering him one too. Garrett eats it straight from my fingers with a waggle of his brows. It’s obvious he’s trying really hard not to let my question sully the moment.
I feel lousy for blindsiding him with my question, but it’s something that I’ve wondered about.
“I heard back from my boss in DC,” I tell him, grabbing his undivided attention like I knew it would. “He’s allowing me to finish the project we’re currently working on from here with only a couple of on-site meetings in the next couple of months.”
“That’s great.”
“It gets better.”
“Yeah?” Garrett blows out a half-chuckled breath that fades into the lapping of the foaming waves against the boat.
“He’s a close acquaintance of the chair of the board for the Virginia aquarium, and apparently they’re looking to expand their touch tank.”
“What does that mean?”
“Potentially that I could be really busy. Touch tanks are one of the hardest exhibitions. There are so many factors to take into account. It’s ridiculously time-consuming, and after the project with DC, I wasn’t exactly inclined to go into something so big again.”
“Then don’t.” Combing my hair behind my ear, he adds, “You don’t have to do anything you don’t want to do.”
“I know.” I look down between us, and my hands tug at the hem of my dress. I’m nervous and excited at the same time. Hoping that he doesn’t think I’m reading too much into things with us and…
“Avery…”
“Iris loves the school, and we’re happy. I don’t want to give this up, Doc.” Brushing the lock of hair that falls in front of his eyes back into place, I hold his gaze. “This is where I want to be, and if it means that I have to take on this big project…I’ll do it.”
“For a moment I thought you were going to say something different.”
“No, no way.”
We fall silent as he fills a cup with some grape juice. When he hands it to me, I take a sip and put it back down beside us.
“No one has ever done anything for me the way you have. And while it’s not the dates I want to stay for entirely, I can’t part with your cheese.”
“Funny you should mention my fromage…” He pulls the lid off another Tupperware to showcase the different cheeses in it.
“I think you might be rubbing off on me,” I laugh, stopping when his jaw clenches.
“You’re killing me, sweetheart. First the fucking and now the rubbing…”
“Oh my God, you’re worse than Mark.” I hide behind my hands so that my heated face doesn’t give away the mixture of abashment and need that hums through my veins, making my heart pound and my pulse hammer in my ears.
“Never.” Garrett pokes my side once. “Ever.” He pokes it once more. “Say that again.” Both of his hands grab my thighs, squeezing in a way that makes me squirm.
“Okay! Okay…”
“Good.”
When I glance back up, my eyes catch on the peek of golden skin between buttons as his shirt pulls taut over his abdomen. The faint trail of hair has my eyes following down to the top of his jeans, focusing on the worn, supple brown leather of his belt and the bulge below it.
Jesus, I’m so hot, and my belly is knotting so tight at the sight that I fluster my attempt at swallowing down the spit pooling in my mouth.
There’s so much yearning to reach forward and touch. I can’t help but wonder if he thinks about it like I do. All the time lately. It’s the only thing I can think about. His kiss and how his body feels pressed to mine. I wish I were braver and took more chances. With him.
“Avery.” Garrett’s low growl draws my sight back up to him as he tips my chin up and then clenches his hands into fists over his raised knees. “Fuck, sunshine…” He bites down his lip hard enough that it blanches, and not only am I thinking of his kiss now, but I’m imagining what it would look like if I bit down on that lip.
All of a sudden, the wide-open ocean isn’t so big. The open air is thick, or thicker than it has ever been. Kneeling between his legs, I’m cocooned by him, and the soft breeze burns with his scent.
Hands grasping at his knees, he leans forward. Not much, but enough that my entire body flutters and hums with anticipation.
“Do you think about me?” The words burst from my mouth, my hand twisting in my skirt, while the other splays over the hollow of my throat. “I think about you all the time, Doc. I can’t stop thinking about you, even when I’m scared or overwhelmed. You’re always there. I can’t stop, Garrett.”
“You’re all I can think about since the moment I first saw you. All the fucking time. Every second. You are everything, sweetheart.”
My hand trails up my neck, pressing to my flaming cheek. There’s so much happening right now, inside me. I’m giddy and drunk on the look he’s giving me. Hunger roars deep in my core for him, and it’s there, reflecting back at me in his eyes. And I believe it. I believe that I am everything, and that he’ll never let me go.
“I can’t get enough of you,” he murmurs, low and gravelly. The gritty timbre of his voice makes my skin prickle again, in a most electrifying way. “I can’t get enough of all that you make me feel.”
An arm wraps around my waist, bringing me to him. With a deep sigh, his head falls back, and in the last dredges of the sunset, his skin glows warmly. The scruff on his jaw looks a deep golden color.
Garrett’s so fucking beautiful…hypnotizing, actually. And without a second thought, I tuck my face in the crook of his neck.
My heart forgets itself for a moment, skipping a few beats while I breathe him in, deep and greedily, until my lungs threaten to burst because they are so full of him and my blood pounds hot, driving him through my veins.
I nuzzle deeper until I can feel his thrumming heartbeat on my cheek. His scent lingers on my sense of smell, tinging my taste.
A trembling suspire pushes from him as he envelops me in his arms and just holds me. I know he wants more. I can feel it, his need and mine culminating into something that I’m certain could destroy me.
Chapter Twenty
GARRETT
“Food, Avery.” My rasp is lost to a swallow as her head falls to the side and her hazel eyes meet mine.
“I’m not hungry,” she croaks, hands grasping the open collar of my shirt. “Not for food, Doc.”
Her chest rises and falls with shallow, rapid breaths that make my stomach knot and my hands burn with the need to pull her onto my lap and maul her like a pubescent boy.
Turns out my dick likes that idea even more than my brain, straining painfully against my pants. And when her gaze fixates on it, tongue licking over her lips, I can’t ignore it.
“You said you wanted me all to yourself…” Avery breathes.
Again, her words are punctuated by a nervous swallow as she gnaws on that plump lip that’s starred in so many of my dirty thoughts and daydreams.
“So fucking much.”
The apples of her cheeks flush a deep rose as I rearrange us so that she’s straddling my thighs.
“Don’t get shy on me now. Tell me what you want.”
My pants become tighter and tighter the longer she stares at me, biting, licking and sucking at her lip. That innocently sexy look in her eyes makes it impossible to get my dick under control as her entire body shudders over me.
“I want to fuck you, sunshine. I want to hear you moan my name while I’m buried deep inside you. I want you to come so hard on my cock that you can’t think of or feel anything other than me and what I do to you.”
Cheeks flushing brighter, she levels me with an intrepid stare. I don’t know what she�
�s thinking, but it can’t be anything innocent with how her skin erupts in goose bumps and her tits look like they’re about to burst from her dress.
Holding my hand palm up, I wait for Avery to give me hers. When she does, I clasp our fingers together. It draws her closer.
“Tell me, Avery, what do you want?”
She groans like the sound of her name from my lips is doing the things that I want to do with my tongue. I bet her wet pussy would taste as sweet if not sweeter than her warm mouth.
“I…” she starts, her voice breathy. “I want you and everything you said.”
Grabbing her ass, I pull her so flush to me that her breasts are in my face. Her tanned skin is so smooth and inviting. With a jerk, I pull her down so she’s sitting on me, bringing her face closer to mine. For a moment I’m struck by the colors swirling in her eyes. The quiver of her lips with every one of her breaths. As they grow heavier and raspier, I bring my face closer, ghosting the tip of my nose over her mouth, inhaling her fruity and sugary exhales.
She’s about to speak when I thread a hand into her hair and pull her lips down on mine, hard enough that her gasps are strangled and her hands scratch at my shoulders.
Fuck! It feels so good! The way she touches me, like she’s trying to get all the way under my skin and bones. Deepening my kiss, I lick into her mouth, and her body presses to mine, breasts to the top of my chest, hot pussy to my throbbing, aching dick.
Good fucking God!
I keep kissing her through her breathlessness, nipping and licking at her lips and tongue. Slow and fast and messy…eager and savoring and tentative. Exactly like adolescent kisses because for right now, we can just be a boy and girl getting lost in a moment. Life isn’t complicated. The past has no bearing or hold on us.
The longer we kiss, the tighter my hand winds in her hair, tugging so that the thick strands cut into my flesh. With a long, drawn-out moan, Avery grinds over me. Her head falls back while I bite down on her lip, and the hand cupping her ass slips under her dress.
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