“What do you mean intense?”
“Answer me this, what was the craziest thing you did with Ashton?”
She didn’t exactly know what he meant by that question. “I’m not sure I know what you mean.”
“That’s my answer right there. If you knew what I meant, then you would know what kind of lover I am and what kind of a man I am. I’m not going to scare you off; I’ll be patient with you,” he told her very matter-of-factly.
Just when she thought she got a bead on him, he surprised her and changed directions.
“Am I going to be able to keep you?” she asked quietly. “If we do get into this kind of relationship, who’s to say you won’t think I’m a cold fish like Ashton did.”
“I can tell just by the kisses we’ve shared and just by looking in your eyes that you’re going to be perfect for me.” He used his other hand to move behind her neck and cup her jawbone, forcing her to look him in the eyes.
“I wasn’t perfect for Ashton.”
“But you are for me. He didn’t know what to do with you. He didn’t know how to let you know what he wanted. I do.”
“You seem very sure of yourself,” she told him, not believing entirely what he said.
“I am and I haven’t been wrong when it comes to a woman yet. You’ve got it, Hannah. You just need to tap into it, and I can show you how to do that.”
She sighed heavily and let her eyes drop.
“But like I said, that’s for another night. Let’s go get that shuteye. It’ll be time to get up and have our adventure before we know it.”
His easy smile stilled her heart, but the worry that she wouldn’t be able to keep him was there too. It nagged the back of her mind, even when he pulled her into his arms and hugged her tightly, pressing a kiss to her temple. Would she be able to keep this man? She just wasn’t sure.
Chapter Thirteen
* * *
“I can’t tell you how excited I am about this.”
Garrett glanced over to the passenger side and grinned at Hannah. “I’m glad that you are. Sorry it’s so cold today. I’m not even sure that there will be anything in the zoo, but at least we’ll be able to check out the aquarium,” he told her, taking a drink of the coffee they had stopped to get.
“Either way, it doesn’t matter. I’ve never done either before,” she admitted, sitting up taller in her seat as they approached the exit for the aquarium.
It was nice to see the world through someone else’s eyes. None of the guys would ever be excited about going to a zoo or an aquarium. He had to admit because she was so looking forward to it, so was he. They pulled into the parking area, both breathing deeply as he turned the SUV off.
“Are you nervous?” he asked. They were going out in public by themselves in a town that wasn’t home to either one of them on a date for the first time.
“Just a little bit,” she admitted as she got out and put her hood over her head. The wind was chilly, and she was glad she had grabbed some gloves to go along with her jacket.
Hannah watched as he walked over to her, pulling his hooded jacket up over the hat he wore. With his sunglasses on, he looked especially dangerous. Something about that caused her to want to shout to the world that this man was on her arm today.
“You ready?” he asked, holding his hand out for her.
“Sure am,” she told him as she zipped her jacket up and grabbed his hand.
Garrett loved the feel of her smaller hand in his. It brought forth every protective instinct in him. He had never been the type of person to get all caught up in having to protect the woman in his life. She was different—this woman made him want to do a million things he had never thought of before.
There weren’t a whole lot of people making their way to the entrance on this cold, sunny day. Most appeared to be couples skipping work on a weekday. He and Hannah stood in line together, her body tucked against his as they waited their turn to pay.
“You okay?” Garrett asked. “You got quiet.”
“I’m fine, just thinking about how lucky I am to be with you today. Let’s go have some fun.” She pulled him over to the side and watched as he opened the map.
As he heard her words, his dimples deepened and he smiled so wide she could see his teeth. “Well thanks; I’m glad you appreciate the fact that I take my mom’s advice.”
He would have to remember to thank his mom later. When she had suggested the zoo and aquarium, he’d thought she was crazy, but apparently his mom knew girls like Hannah a lot better than he did.
After walking around for a few hours, they were tired and very hungry. “Let’s go in here,” Hannah pulled him into a restaurant that had a cafeteria feel to it.
“I’m starving.” He rubbed his stomach as they stood in line. “I haven’t done this much walking around in a while. I need to get back on my workout schedule.”
She cut her eyes at him, knowing how large his biceps were. “I think you’re doin’ just fine.”
“Damn, you’re going to make me blush,” he grinned, moving her in front of him.
She leaned back against his chest, enjoying the warmth flowing from his body. He put his hands at her hips and pulled her so that they stood flush with each other. So concentrated on the menu, he didn’t even notice that she had pulled her phone out and taken a picture of the two of them.
“Sneaky, sneaky.” He pinched her side through her jacket.
“You were so serious there for a minute. I’ve not seen that side of you before. I like it.”
Garrett realized for not the first time that she was very observant. Most people wrote her off as being flaky and sweet just because of the music she liked to make, but there were so many layers to her. Layers that he sincerely hoped he would be able to peel back and get to know.
“There’s a lot to me just like there’s a lot to you.”
For the first time, she felt like someone saw behind her persona and was starting to get to know the real person that lurked there. It was a good feeling—scary, but good at the same time. If there was anything that Hannah was sick of, it was being misunderstood and pigeonholed. “Thanks for realizing that.” On a whim, she leaned up to kiss his cheek.
Recognizing an opportunity, he smoothly turned his head and grabbed her lips with his own. His hand buried in her hair, still curly from the night before, and he allowed himself to play there for a few seconds, brushing their lips against one another. He pulled back and licked his lips, and she knew that even though he wore those sunglasses, he was looking directly into her eyes.
“You’re welcome.” He pressed his hand against her hip. “It’s our turn.”
In a daze, she ordered her food as did he. When she pulled out money to pay for it, he brushed her hands away, insisting again that this had been his idea and her money was no good.
“When we go out next time, it’s my treat,” she told him, crossing her arms over her chest.
“You’re right, it will be a treat when we get to see each other again, but you may as well get used to the fact that I’m kind of an old-fashioned guy when it comes to you.”
That shouldn’t have made her stomach warm and a smile spread across her face, but it did. It wasn’t about him treating her like she was a piece of china that would break; it was about him caring enough to treat her like she mattered. With Ashton, it had never been that way. Looking back now, she saw just how different it was. It had been about what she could do for him not what they could for each other.
“I’ll do my best. It’s just that…” She licked her lips as they had a seat at a table and took their jackets off. “I’ve never been treated this way before. It doesn’t unnerve me, but I’m just not used to it.”
“And that’s a damn shame is what that is.”
A smiled played on her lips. “Are you going to take your glasses off? Will you be able to see?”
“Laugh it up.” He flicked a napkin at her. “Just for your info, these aren’t the ones I wear on stage, these a
ren’t prescription. I put contacts in this morning, thank you very fucking much.”
“You’re cute when you get all huffy.” She reached across the table and grabbed his hand.
“I’m used to the guys making fun of me, but you…you’re breaking my heart here,” he teased.
She took a drink of her water and a bite of the chicken she had ordered, chewing thoughtfully for a moment. “Would it make you feel better if I confessed something about myself?”
“There’s nothing wrong with you. You’re obviously perfect,” he deadpanned quickly, gaining a snort from her.
“I’m so far from perfect it’s not even funny. But here ya go…ya ready?”
From across the table, he squinted at her and pursed his lips. “You’re willing to break the mold on yourself to keep me from feeling like I’m defective? This I gotta hear.”
Hannah took a deep breath, she couldn’t believe that she was about to confess this to someone who she had only met a few days before. Not many people knew this about her, but if they were practicing truth in their relationship then this would be the perfect time to tell him.
“Okay.” She scooted around in her chair. “Back when I first started in the business, I was eighteen and they really wanted me to be a pop sensation, even though that’s not what I wanted to do. They wanted me to be a dancer and look sexy and have blonde hair—all of that. I wanted this so badly that I did everything my first record company told me to do. I puked up my food, dyed my hair blonde, and got,” she leaned forward so that she could whisper and he could hear her, “breast implants.”
His eyebrow kicked up, and he tucked his chin into his chest. “You shitting me right now?”
“Nope. Not even Shell knows that about me. We met right after my nineteenth birthday when they hired her to be my makeup artist. We became friends, and she morphed into my personal assistant, but yeah. These,” she pointed to her chest, “are fake.”
“But they aren’t huge,” he said, wanting to kick his own ass as the words came out of his mouth.
“Nope, I didn’t have a lot to work with, but I was at least able to keep them from going up too much. And the kicker,” she shook her head, “is that first record label dumped me right after I had the surgery. So it was a blessing in disguise. I’m not that girl that sings and dances on stage. I write my own music and I sing from the heart. There’s not one thing about that original deal that would have made me happy.”
“Wow!”
She waited a few moments for him to say something, and when he said nothing, she teased. “Did I make you speechless?”
“You actually kind of did. Out of anything you could have told me…that is so not what I expected. But thanks for sharing that with me.”
“It’s only fair, right? Now we know secrets about each other. We have a reason to keep this all together.”
He didn’t need a reason, but if it made her feel better, then that was fine with him. “Wait, Ashton never saw the scars?”
Hannah took another drink of her water and shook her head. “They aren’t huge or anything, but let’s just say sex with him was way different than what I imagine it would be like with you.” Her face burned as she finished that sentence.
She imagined what it would be like with him? Oh hell yeah. He couldn’t wait to get past the newness of the relationship so that they could just move on with the rest of their lives. Instead, he cleared his throat, the corner of his mouth tilting up. “Never did it with the lights on, huh?”
“Umm, no.”
Reaching across the table, he grabbed her hand again, pulling on it to force her to look into his eyes. “It is a lot different with me, and I’m going to be patient with you. I’m not going to force you to do anything that you don’t want to. You know that, right?”
She did and above all she trusted him. Something that she hadn’t been sure she would be able to do after Ashton, but for some reason this man was able to get beneath all the defenses she thought she had set up for herself.
“I know and I trust you.”
Those were the best, most powerful words Garrett had ever heard in his life.
Chapter Fourteen
* * *
“You sure it’s okay for me to come along to the show?” Hannah asked as she followed Garrett out of the hotel room that night.
“Yeah, I definitely want you there, unless you need to leave before it’s over. I hate that you’re driving back to Kansas City tonight by yourself.”
She smiled, although it held a little bit of sadness. “It’s okay; I think I’ll need some time to myself after you leave.”
He could relate. The time they had spent together, he wasn’t going to forget. “How are you getting back? You want to take back the Escalade with you and turn it into the rental car company? They have a location right outside the hotel you’re staying at.”
“Sure. I’ll call Shell and talk to her on the way back. Like you said on the drive here, it’s just a straight shot once you make the exit.”
“Enough of that.” He grabbed her hand and her suitcase as they took the elevator down to the main level.
“Where is everyone else?” she asked as they hit the lobby and saw no other members of the group.
“They left an hour or so ago, I wanted some more time with you. We need to get there ASAP though, I have a couple of interviews with radio stations that I need to do.”
She nodded, holding tightly to his hand as they made their way out to where the SUV awaited them. Fans must have figured out where they were staying because a large throng gathered outside. He stopped at different intervals to take pictures with people, and Hannah did her best to fade into the background. These fans were much different than her own. Not to mention how well liked he was by women, this might not be a great place for her to be right now. Some people recognized her, and they shouted out her name. Waving and smiling, she acknowledged them without taking any of the spotlight away from Garrett.
“You handled that well,” he complimented after they had gotten into the SUV and were on their way to the venue.
“Thanks, but I’m kind of out of my element here.”
“Well,” he took one of his hands off the wheel and grabbed her hand, “I guess we’re both learning as we go. I’ve had girlfriends before, but none of them were anything like you. Only one other even accompanied me out on the road. That’s how much I want to get to know you, and I can’t put my finger on why, but I really do. My mom always told me that I would never know when it would happen, but when it did I’d be knocked on my ass.”
“When what would happen?” she asked him.
He laughed. “When there would be one woman I was more interested in getting to know than getting in her panties.”
“Gotta love your mom, huh?”
“She’s something else alright.”
“The two of you seem to have a good relationship,” Hannah observed.
“We do,” he nodded. “It wasn’t always like that. Especially when I was a rebellious teenager getting brought home by the cops. She and my dad…damn, they had their work cut out for them with me. I’m lucky they didn’t send me off to military school. It was that bad.”
“Got into fights, huh?
“I’m the fighter of the group,” he confirmed.
“I wouldn’t have thought that,” she deadpanned.
He ran his hand through his hair. “I’ve calmed down a lot over the years. But if I get into a mood, I’m kinda hard to get along with, and I throw punches first, ask questions later.”
“I can’t even imagine that about you,” she admitted and hoped that he had never raised a hand to a woman.
“Believe it. I can be a bastard.” He glanced over at her, trying to get a read on her. “That doesn’t mean I am all the time, as evidenced by the time we’ve spent together. But I do have my days just like everybody does.”
“There are days when I’m not nice at all,” she confessed.
“I have a very hard time be
lieving that. So next time you’re having one give me a call, I’ll talk you out of it.”
Hannah had a feeling that just remembering the times they had spent together in the past few days would be enough to wipe that kind of day from her memory. She would hold this time they had been able to etch out for each other close to her heart.
* * *
Garrett stood on stage, chest heaving, sweat pouring down his back. As the crowd chanted “Black Friday” he couldn’t help the grin that covered his face. This was where he felt most alive. He fed off the energy of the crowd, and for an hour and a half a night he felt completely invincible.
“We’re gonna slow it down for a second, Omaha. Is that okay with you?” His words were met by a huge roar from the crowd. “Now, you know a few days ago I invited a lovely young lady on stage to sing with us in Nashville. Who was that?”
“Harmony,” the crowd shouted back at him.
“That’s right,” he grinned and motioned towards where she stood in the wings. “She came to visit me for a few days, and she’s here tonight. Would some Black Friday fans like to hear her sing again?”
Hannah cringed. At least in Nashville, people really knew who she was. Surprise didn’t even begin to describe her feelings when the crowd roared with pleasure. Garrett motioned for her to come out.
“Do I have to get her a seat again?” Jared asked from where he sat across the way. “That shit made it online. You better get your game straight,” he talked to his friend.
Garrett flipped him off. “There’s a seat right here with her name on it.” He slapped the chair beside him.
As she made it out to the group, he handed her a microphone. “Everybody say ‘hi’ to Harmony.”
She smiled brightly and waved at the crowd who responded to her just like they had to him. “I hope everybody is having a good time tonight at the show, I know I am,” she told them as she had a seat and crossed her legs. Turning in her seat, she moved to face Garrett.
Only The Beginning (Rockin' Country) Page 9