“Garrett.” She nudged his shoulder.
His eyes popped open and he glanced at her. “Yeah?”
“It’s four thirty at night. Have we slept that long?”
He sat up, wiping the sleep from his face and eyes. “Damn,” he mumbled, pulling his own cell phone out of his pocket. She was right, it was four and they had been there all day. “Yeah, we have,” he laughed, running a hand through his hair. “I guess we needed it.”
She lay back against the sheet and breathed deeply. She had no place to be, she had nothing to do. There wasn’t another concert that she had to rush to; there was no interview to prep for. Her schedule was as clear as the window to her right. The feeling was odd, one that she’d never had before. For some reason, she started to giggle.
“Are you okay?” he asked, staring over at her, a smile on his face.
“Yes,” she laughed. “I don’t know why I’m laughing, but I have a free schedule. Do you know how good that feels? I don’t have to be anywhere at any certain time, I don’t have to clear my schedule with anyone, and I can be with you whenever I want.”
He answered her laugh with a deep exhale of his own. “It does feel fuckin’ good, but you know what would feel really good right now?”
She shook her head, not sure where he was going with this.
“A shower and some food. I feel nasty and I’m about to starve.”
“We’re not showering together,” she told him as she swung her legs over the side of the bed. “I remember what happened last time we did that.”
He gave her a slow smile. “We don’t have enough time for that right now. My stomach’s about to eat itself, and I wouldn’t be able to give you my full attention. Now, after I get the shower and some food in me, I wouldn’t mind getting in you.”
She shook her head at him. “Couldn’t help it, could ya?”
“Nope.”
Hannah watched as he made his way out of the bedroom, hoping they had towels and changes of clothes somewhere. If not, there was going to be a lot of naked lounging in this family. Standing up, she stretched, sighing as her back and neck cracked. The tension she’d carried for so long was gone. She felt like she could breathe, and it had been a very long time since she had felt that way. The intense pressure that she’d been under for the last few months was gone. It felt amazing. She felt lighter as she made her way down the stairs and into the foyer. With no suitcases to be found, she guessed they were still in the car. They would need them, and she had been self-sufficient for most of her life when it came to her own luggage.
Walking out into the garage, she saw that she was right. This wasn’t the first time she’d had to lug her bags, and she knew that it wouldn’t be the last. They were just a lot heavier than she remembered. After minutes of struggling, she had both one of hers and one of Garrett’s in the foyer.
“Han?”
“Right here,” she told him, breathing hard.
“Babe, I would have grabbed that stuff.”
She looked up, laughing as he held a small towel around his waist. She wasn’t even sure it went completely around his waist. “Where did you find that?”
“The kitchen.” He shrugged. “I had to have something.”
“That’s why I grabbed these; I had some towels in my bag.” She giggled as he turned around, showing her his exposed butt cheeks.
“Now you tell me.”
She snorted. “You never asked. It was all ‘I’m gonna take a shower, get some food, and then…’”
“Please say it,” he whispered. Amusement made the edges of his mouth twitch. “Please say it.”
Hannah couldn’t bring herself to say it. “You know what you said.”
“I do know what I said,” he told her, pulling her close to him.
They were so close that she could feel the moisture of the shower he’d just taken. Hannah needed to feel a part of him. She wrapped her arms around his waist and tilted her face up to his. The invitation was clear, and Garrett didn’t make her wait long. Like he always did, he possessed her with one of the hottest kisses she’d ever had in her life, and that was saying something, given their history.
His stomach picked that moment to growl loudly. “Can we come back to this?” he asked, rubbing a hand over the skin there.
“Yeah.” She shook her head, laughing quietly. “We can, because I really need that shower.”
“I’ll cook,” he offered, bending over in front of her. “Don’t you dare smack my ass either,” he threw over his shoulder at her.
“Wouldn’t dream of it,” she told him as she smacked him quickly and then made a run for the stairs.
“You’re lucky that I’m hungry.”
Feeling a bit ornery, she put an extra sway into her hips as she climbed the stairs. “Promises, promises.”
He watched her, an evil glint in his eye. She would find out about those promises.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
* * *
“I’m lucky that you’re not only hot, but you cook pretty well too.” Hannah smiled at Garrett over their dinner.
They had set up camp in the living room, both sitting on the couch with the TV on some horrible reality TV show. They both had beers, and he’d whipped them up a couple of grilled cheese sandwiches a piece. They had found a bag of chips, and they’d dove into that like they hadn’t eaten in days. He put half of the sandwich in his mouth and chewed thoroughly before taking a healthy drink of the beer. “I told you, there are certain things you learn to do as a bachelor. Omelets and grilled cheeses are number one and number two on the list.”
She picked up half of the sandwich he’d made her and took a bite. The food tasted better when it was shared with him, it felt like it satisfied a hunger in her. Just by being together, she was more at peace. Her stomach no longer had the queasy feeling she’d had the entire time she’d been on the road. In hindsight, she wasn’t even sure that she’d known it was there, but now—now she knew how stressed she had been. “Thanks for cooking me dinner.”
“Anything for you,” he told her, swiping a chip off her plate.
She swatted at his hand, but in reality she couldn’t help but notice how at ease he appeared to be too. There was no tension at the side of his eyes, he looked semi-well rested, and the smile was much easier to come to his face when he looked at her. Sighing, she moved her plate and his before throwing herself into his arms.
“What’s that for?” he asked, rubbing his hand up and down her back.
“Because I can and because I love you.”
This was what had been missing between the two of them. Meeting in hotel rooms made it feel like their love was illicit, and while that was fun sometimes, nobody liked to feel like they weren’t supposed to be together. He wanted to show her exactly what he was capable of. That he wanted this. He wanted to make it all work and he’d been waiting on it. He’d told her that it didn’t matter how long it would take, he would wait, and he had. Now was the time to put up or shut up. She would need him just as much here as she needed him while she was on tour. Now was the time for him to prove how serious he was and how in the marriage he wanted to be. If he didn’t start this minute, this second, then what kind of a man was he? “You wanna go sit on the wraparound porch?”
Her eyes moved over to the French doors, eyeing the frost on them. “Isn’t it cold?”
“We can take a blanket and huddle together.”
That suggestion sounded awesome to her. She loved sitting near him and letting his body heat warm her. He was like her own personal furnace most of the time. “Okay, let’s go.” She got up from the couch and grabbed the two blankets that someone had left there for them. During the day, Nashville wasn’t too bad, but at night, it got cooler—definitely cooler than what Garrett was used to.
They walked out, both pleased to discover the lounger used to help stage the home was still there. Garrett had a seat on it and then pulled Hannah into his arms so that her back pressed against his front. They quickly
covered themselves up with both blankets to ward off the cold.
“Maybe I should have worn a sweatshirt instead of a T-shirt,” she laughed, her teeth chattering against the cold.
Garrett ran his hands up and down her arms, trying to keep her as warm as possible. “Do you think it’ll be colder next week?” he asked, blowing out a breath to see it show white against the cold.
“Hard to say,” she shrugged. “Thanksgiving is iffy sometimes. Speaking of, do we want to have it here or not?”
It surprised him to admit it, but he did. “I do, I would love for everyone to get together in our new house. Do you think the west coast family would be up for it?”
She turned in his arms. “Garrett, the question is, are we up for it? We have nothing in this house except for a couch, a chair, and a bed. Do you think we could pull it together?”
“I think so. I mean, all we really need is furniture. I’m sure between the two of us we have enough fame,” he snickered at his own joke, “to get furniture in here. I’m sure our moms would love to cook in our new house.”
“Can we get Havock out here?”
“Definitely, I miss the dude.”
“Me too.” She smiled up at him, impulsively leaning up to place a kiss on his lips.
What started out as an innocent expression of happiness quickly heated up between the two of them. His large hands settled around her hips, adjusting her to the way he wanted her, his tongue coaxed hers out to play with his.
“Garrett,” she moaned, twining her arms around his neck and settling herself more fully against him. “We’re outside.”
“And there’s no one around,” he whispered against her lips. “That’s the awesome thing about this place; there is no one who could see back here for miles.” He gestured out to the woods that butted up to the back of the property. There were neighbors on either side of them, but none could see in the back of the house. “C’mon, babe, we have to christen our new house.”
“The house,” she laughed. “Not the back porch.”
“It’s an extension.” He ignored her protests, moving one hand up to curl around her neck. He’d learned in the time they’d been together that was her spot; she loved when he did anything with her neck. Lightly, he massaged the muscles there, no longer tense with the strain of separation. She was putty in his arms as he used his thighs to separate hers.
“I’m serious,” she protested.
He knew he had her when her neck tilted back, allowing his mouth to claim the soft skin there.
“Shit,” she whispered, giggling as she did so. “You make me do all the things I said I would never do.”
“Baby, I will gladly be your bad influence forever.” His fingers played with the hem of her T-shirt, pushing his hands up the back.
“So warm,” she breathed, arching into the strength of his hands. Her body began a slow grind against his, and she knew she was done for.
Moving his hands from her back, he cupped her chest through her T-shirt, not willing to take it off. It was cold and he didn’t want her to get sick, but that didn’t mean they couldn’t have a little fun first. Molding his hands against the front of her shirt, he saw just how cold it was. The way she grasped his hair as he moved his head down and stuck his tongue against the pebbled flesh there enflamed him. His lips teased, and his hands moved in opposite directions, one grasping her hip, showing her the way he wanted her to move, the other tangling in her hair.
Hannah dared a glance down at him and moaned loudly. It was dark, but she could make out the edges of his lashes against his skin. His eyes fluttered lazily as he continued to work her skin between his lips. Needing to feel him the way he was feeling her, she unhooked her arms from around his neck and let them travel down the length of his chest and stomach. Once there she pushed up against the fabric but didn’t take it off. Her hands stroked the ink on his abdominal muscles before slipping past the edge of the sweat pants he wore.
“You sure you wanna do that?” he asked, letting her go for a half a second.
She moaned, nodding her head as he went back to work on her. Pushing his sweat pants further down his hips, she felt the hard length of him against her hand as she groped him in the dark.
In response, he hooked his thumbs in her own sweats and pulled harshly down on them.
She wasn’t sure how they managed it, but she got hers off and he got his down around his knees. It was just enough room for them to work with one another. Hannah sank down on him, sighing deeply in her throat.
“Every time, I wonder if this will be the time that you don’t blow my mind,” he confessed, caressing her stomach and helping her pump up and down against him.
“Surprised you, huh?”
Her voice was strained and damn near the most erotic thing he’d ever heard in his life. “You did, but I’ve never been happier for a surprise in my life. I was meant to find you, and I thank God every day that I did.”
She felt the same way, and there was no one who would ever be able to tell her different. After Ashton, she’d truly given up and thought that maybe love wasn’t in the cards for her. Maybe she was supposed to be an entertainer and make people happy that way. Meeting and falling in love with Garrett had been so far off her radar that she was pretty sure that no one was more surprised than her. If someone had told her this was where she’d be a year ago, she would have told them to go get their head’s checked. “Agreed.”
Like it tended to do between the two of them, the feelings and the chemistry took over. The only sounds were the sounds of nature and their bodies grinding against one another. Garrett moved his hand to her neck and then up, cupping her cheek. Using his thumb, he rubbed the pad of it against her lip. It was the biggest turn on of his life when she clamped it between her white teeth and nipped at the flesh there.
“Use your tongue to soothe the bite,” he told her, barely hanging on. This woman did it for him, in the biggest way. If anyone asked him to pinpoint it, he wouldn’t be able to, it was everything about Hannah.
She did as she was told. It excited her, to be able to surprise him, to do something that would take her out of her comfort zone. They had a lot of time to make up for, and she knew she was going to love making up that time with her husband.
With the thumb she’d just bitten and licked, he moved his hand down to the middle of her body where they were joined and pressed against the most sensitive part of her. Something about that gesture slammed through her and made her body clench.
“Fuck, Han” he ground out against her.
His lips were everywhere, and she gave up trying to follow them; her body clenching had made her hungry for more. She wanted what it seemed like only he could give her. “I know,” she told him, grasping his hair in her fingers and tugging hard.
It was that touch of dominance that she exerted that set him off, which in turn set her off. As always, neither one of them knew where they were for a few moments afterwards.
“Did you really cuss?” he asked, his face a mask of shock.
“I think I did,” she talked against his neck, where she had collapsed. “In fact, I know I did. I didn’t mean to, ’cause you know I think it’s crass. But sometimes, with you, I wish I could say all the things I think.”
“Oh baby, me too. One day I will make you tell me exactly what goes on in that head of yours.”
She stayed quiet against his neck, smiling slightly. Those thoughts were her secrets and her secrets alone.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
* * *
Going shopping anywhere, including the pet store, two days before Thanksgiving was probably not the best idea that Garrett had ever had. It was beyond stressful, but at least in Nashville people didn’t bother him. Not to mention he was very happy for the reason that he was at the pet store. His family should have arrived at Nashville International Airport a half hour ago, and they were bringing Havock along with them. He and Hannah had decided to divide and conquer—which meant she was at the airport and he
was at the pet store.
His patience was beginning to wear thin with the line in front of him, but he needed everything that his cart was loaded down with. By some holiday miracle, their house was furnished—in a way they both liked—and was waiting on their family. The one thing they had forgotten was stuff for the dog, and both of them had felt awful. In his hand, his cell vibrated. He unlocked the screen and opened the message from Hannah. It was a picture of her and Havock. The text below it read: “Got our boy!”
He loved that she loved the dog as much as he did. The dog loved her even more, and now that they were together their lives would be normal. They had their house, their dog, and a few more months before they would have to be out on the road. Black Friday’s record had been turned in, and while the record company wasn’t thrilled with what Garrett and the boys had done, they were willing to give them some leeway. Finally it was his turn in line, and he quickly put all the stuff up on counter and then paid for it before walking outside into the crisp night air to put it all in the Land Rover. It had been busy when he got to the store, and he’d had to park around the side of the building.
“Did you get a leash for your bitch?”
Garrett was for sure the person talking wasn’t speaking to him, but he also knew that no one else was putting anything in their cars. He sighed, knowing he didn’t want to look up, but he did anyway. Standing not too far away was Bryson Grant. “Come again? I don’t think I heard you correctly.”
Bryson sauntered up closer, watching as Garrett continued putting away his purchases. “I asked if you got a leash for your bitch.”
He had a pretty good idea of what the young prick was talking about, but wanted to be sure. “My dog is male, dude.”
“I was talking about your wife.”
He tried, he really did. He tried to curb the anger that coursed through his veins. Garrett tried to harness and leash it, but Bryson’s attitude straight up pissed him off. He shook his head and licked his lips. Slamming the back of the vehicle up, he turned around. “What the fuck did you just say to me?”
The Price of Love (Rockin' Country Book 2) Page 17