I love that little, dated place. It’s home. It’s where I fell in love with my soon-to-be husband. “I’ll give you a call in an hour…or two,” I say, digging my keys out of my purse. I hear Trent chuckle. That little bastard. He knows what’s going to happen the second I show Griffin what I have tucked away in my purse.
When I finally have my keys in hand, I look up. Trent gives me a smile, one that doesn’t reach his eyes, a smile that he has given me and Griffin a lot lately. I’m not sure what’s wrong, but he has been acting different. When I think about it, he hasn’t been his normal, smartass self ever since the three of us were questioned by the FBI and I had to tell them what happened to Tia. I remember Trent listening to me describe the hell Tia experienced and then him looking at the sketch the artist drafted. The faraway look he had in his eye that night as he stared at the woman on that tablet made my heart ache for some reason.
Before I can ask Trent what’s wrong, he leans over, gives me a peck on the cheek and says, “Shoot me a text…when you can.” He flashes me a smirk that temporarily pushes Tia and Trent from my mind and I nod. As I slip my key into the door knob, he gives me a salute and starts walking toward his hotel. I have the door open maybe an inch when I feel it give way and Griffin is standing before me dressed to kill.
I instantly feel like a slob in my jeans, sneakers, and t-shirt. I had hoped that I would have had the time to take a shower, slip into some naughty lingerie before he returned home from his shift at the hospital and give him a proper welcome, but like last night…plans change.
Griffin thought that he messed up, somehow ruined his own proposal. But I thought it was perfect. The way he ran out of the shower like his perfect little ass was on fire only to return with the ring that is now and will always be on my finger.
I am going to marry Griffin.
“Hello, wife,” he says, pulling me into his arms.
His face immediately goes to the crook of my neck and he plants a kiss on my already heated flesh. If I don’t stop him right now, we will end up dropping to the floor, right here in our small foyer and fucking each other’s brains out. “You look…” I say, inhaling his scent. I love the way he smells, so much that I can’t finish my thought.
“When can I marry you? When can I make you mine?” he utters into my hair.
I decide right there that I don’t need the sexy lingerie. “I’m not sure when, but I know exactly where I want to marry you.”
My response doesn’t make him release me, but his lips are no longer trailing kisses down my neck and making my skin goosepimple. He raises my chin with two fingers and flashes me a devilish smile. “Where?” he asks.
I momentarily get lost in those beautiful green eyes of his and then I’m back and fumbling blindly through my purse with one hand. I feel around until my fingers graze the small box. I grab it and let my purse fall to the floor. His eyes stay locked on mine as I take the hand that is currently on my waist and place the box in his palm. His fingers fall away from my chin and he stares at the box. “I couldn’t say goodbye to it.” His eyes narrow and then he looks at me again. “It’s where we fell in love…and where I want to become Mrs. Clare McGuire.”
His eyes widen and he rips off the box top. Silence follows and I wonder what he’s thinking. Is he not happy? I thought he loved our little cabin in the woods. Griffin takes the key out of the box and gazes at it like it’s made from precious metal. “Trent told me he was selling the place.”
“He did sell it…to me,” I say.
His eyes finally find mine. “You bought it?”
“Trent and I closed on the cabin today. It’s ours, Griffin. Yours and mine. Our place to go when we want to get away from it all, from the city. I want to get snowed in there, lie by the fire. I want to make you soup and watch you chop wood like some sexy lumberjack. But the dock, the place where you almost kissed me, that’s where I want to exchange our vows in front of your family and our two best friends.”
I caught a flight to Japan the second the trial was over and I could leave the country without jumping through a gazillion hoops. Two days into my visit, Jessie’s mom passed away. As much as it killed me to see my friend in pain, I was glad that I could be there for her, help make the funeral arrangements…just hold her hand as she cried and grieved, like she had done for me. Two weeks later, I said goodbye to Jessie and told her to come visit as soon as she could. She hugged me, gave me a smile and told me to get my ass on the plane because my man at home was probably crazy lost without me.
Griffin gathers me into his arms and seals his lips over mine. “That will make you happy, Clare?” he asks between kisses.
He is whisking me off down the hallway and into the bedroom when I say, “So very happy.” He gently sets me down on the bed and I watch him slowly remove each piece of his clothing until he’s standing naked before me. He’s impossibly hard and I lick my lips. I shake my head, snapping me out of my stupor and I slip off all my clothes. Before I know it, Griffin is covering my body with his and I feel his cock at my entrance.
“You are my happiness, the reason I wanted to live again,” he says, thrusting into me. My lips part on a silent scream and I open my legs wider for him. “Do you know why I gave you the name Clare? Why I chose it?”
I can barely comprehend what he’s saying because he feels so good inside me. Somehow, I manage a, “No, why?”
“Depending where you look, the name Clare can mean different things. It can describe a woman who is gentle and warm, which you are. But that’s not why I picked it.” It’s difficult for me to think clearly right now, with him sliding in and out of me, caressing my sensitive front wall with each forceful drive of his hips. “Clare derives from the Latin word Clarus which means clear and bright.” He brushes his lips against mine. “I was in a dark place when I found you. My thoughts…were anything but bright. But then you came along, bringing the light with you and everything became clear. You became everything to me.”
His words send me over the edge and I pull him closer. “I love you, Griffin.” I breathe him in as I watch his body come down from his release. He is the most beautiful, the most loving man I have ever met. And for some incredible reason…he’s mine.
• • •
Trent
Tia Peterson, age twenty-six, lives at 451 Addison Lane, Philadelphia. At least that is where she lived before she was kidnapped while walking home from work a block away from her apartment.
I plant myself on a bench across the street from her apartment building and try to figure out which one belonged to her. Tia lived with her seventy-two-year-old mother and took care of her until she passed away a year ago. According to the Feds, Tia has no other family, no cousins, aunts, uncles or grandparents. She is alone in this world.
Maybe she isn’t of this world anymore.
I dismiss that morbid thought and for the hundredth time I wonder why this woman invades my thoughts on a daily basis. Ever since I saw that portrait, the one that sketch artist created based on Clare’s description, I can’t stop thinking about her or seeing those haunted eyes in my dreams.
I withdraw my phone and Google Tia’s name and her photo appears. The grainy photo is of poor quality, but I know it’s her. She hadn’t been kidnapped, stripped of everything yet, but her eyes look tired. I can image how exhausted she was when this photo was taken by one of her co-workers. She probably was up all night taking care of her mother, just to drag herself out of bed the next morning and report to work, where she would have to be on her feet all day.
I look up from my phone and peer at the building again. The landlord probably boxed up all her things, shipped them off somewhere because he thought she skipped out on the rent. Not a trace of her is left in that apartment, I bet. I feel my jaw clench at the thought.
I should go to the Plough and have a beer. Lots of beers. Clare mentioned the Phillies are playing tonight. I know Clare said that she and Griffin would give me a call later, but I doubt they’ll make an appearance. A
nd I can’t blame them. I imagine that after Clare presents Griffin with the key to their new vacation home, he will be keeping her occupied until the wee hours of the morning. As he should.
Clare and Griffin may have met under unusual circumstances, but they belong together. My best friend has learned to trust, to live again, and I will forever be grateful to Clare for that. So much so that I didn’t even hesitate when she asked me if I would sell the cabin to her. It was a win all around. Clare and Griffin will be able to escape the city and from life whenever they want and I will get to see my best friend and the woman I have grown to love like a sister more often.
I’m just about to stand and head to the Plough and drink with people I don’t know when my phone rings in my hand. Griffin’s name flashes on the display and I answer it.
“So how did you like your present, princess?” I ask.
“Hey, where are you?” Griffin asks. His voice is abrupt, with an edge I haven’t heard in months.
I gaze at Tia’s apartment building and lie. “At my hotel. Why? What’s going on, Grif?”
“It’s Tia. The Feds found her, Trent.”
• • •
Are you ready for Trent and Tia’s story?
I FADE AWAY will be released fall 2019!
I Dream of Spiders Page 21