Chapter Twelve

Stefanie

“It’s beautiful here.” I sighed, staring toward the beautiful lake in front of me.

“It pales in comparison,” his deep voice tumbled, and I laughed, his beard tickling my neck as he rested his chin on my shoulder.

“Smooth talker,” I muttered.

It had been a week since our conversation and an obvious shift settled in our relationship as we started something. The official beginning of us. With a long weekend off from work, he had suggested we get away. The moment I agreed, he had everything planned, taking us to a cabin in Big Bear. We were standing at the second-floor balcony off the room we were using. Though, cabin was an understatement. For it being just the two of us, the place was not only gorgeous but massively huge. Which got me thinking and realizing how little I knew about him. How the hell could he afford this?

“You like it.” With his arms wrapped around me, his body was the perfect cover to the chill in the air.

“It’s beautiful,” I whispered, knowing I was tempting fate by asking something I couldn’t seem to get off my mind. “Hey, soldier boy?”

“Hmm?” He nuzzled the side of my head, and I turned to look up at him, holding his face gently, enjoying the feel of his scruffy beard against the palm of my hand. “How can you swing this?”

“What?” His lips twitched.

“You didn’t have to impress me. I would have been happy with a staycation at my apartment.”

“You mean the cabin?”

“Yeah. Though, this is so much more than a cabin.”

“It’s not—”

“It is.” I laughed as he watched me quietly. “When you said cabin, I imagined four wooden walls and prayed for running water.”

“It’s mine,” he confessed, and I stood still wondering if I had understood him right.

“What?”

“The place. It’s mine. I—” He cleared his throat, obviously uncomfortable. I let my hands fall, but he didn’t let them get far, holding me tighter, the palms of my hands laid over his strong chest. “I bought it.”

“For this weekend?” I teased. No way he can be serious, I thought to myself, but the way his eyes darkened had me rethinking my first guess.

“A couple of months ago,” he confided. I studied him wondering how the hell that was possible.

“You’re serious.” My eyes widened in surprise. Holy crap. I looked over his shoulder toward the house.

“Yeah.”

“This place is huge.”

“It’s not.”

“It’s in Southern California. Do you know what the real estate market is in California?” I asked, and he rubbed the back of his neck.

“Bryan and Val got a place together. So that meant B wasn’t coming back,” he explained as if it was supposed to make sense to me.

“To your other brother’s place?” I asked, trying to connect the dots even though he wasn’t making sense. I knew about his living situation. He was crashing with his two brothers and their lifelong friend. It had made sense. Rent in California was outrageous, especially in the Los Angeles area.

“Yeah, the middle one.”

“Marc?”

“Yeah.” There was something playing in the back of his dark eyes. I waited him out. “Okay, so don’t freak out or anything, okay?”

“When someone tells you not to freak—” I couldn’t say another word because he covered my mouth with a finger.

“Marc, my middle brother, the one who owns the place, well, he… doesn’t really stay there that much now that he’s married and has a family.”

“Okay… so, you rent his place?”

“No. I live there with our friend, but he has a place closer to the city.”

“City?”

“Yeah.”

“Which city, Garrett?”

“Calabasas. Though, most his shit is in a high-rise apartment in Burbank.”

“Okay.”

“Have you ever watched…” he elaborated, asking about the comic book franchise turned summer blockbuster. I nodded.

“You would have to be hidden underneath a rock to never have seen those.”

“My brother—”

“Bryan?”

“No. The middle one. He worked on those.”

“Marc?”

“Yeah, Marc,” he confirmed, and I blinked once. Then twice.

“Marc,” I repeated and took a step away from him. This time he let me. “Marc Wright? You mean Marcus Wright?”

“Yep.” He crossed his arms and tried to do the serious intimidating thing with his face where he shut down emotionally, but I couldn’t help it. I started to laugh. The more I laughed, the deeper his scowl got, until it faded, and I could see he was trying to bite back his own humor as I wiped tears from my eyes.

“Are you saying my big, bad soldier’s little brother is none other than Marcus Wright? Hollywood’s Mr. Right?”

“Babe.” He lifted a manly brow, and I shook my head, looking away and off toward the lake. “And you bought this place?”

“I wanted somewhere for me. A place for quiet and space.”

“You totally have space here,” I said softly, taking in the view, noticing for the first time he really didn’t have that many neighbors around him.

Then I thought of my own neighbor.

How just last week I had heard Mrs. Ferraro sneeze through our walls, and I took her chicken noodle soup before I went to work that morning. I turned to take in the house, the amazing balcony, and the expensive outdoor furniture with fresh eyes. It was painfully obvious that we were from completely different worlds. Owning a place like this was so far off even my daydream spectrum, yet this was his reality.

“You must hate my apartment,” I blurted without thinking. His frown was hard to miss, and I shook my head. “I just mean it’s tiny in comparison. No wonder we’re always at the hotel.” I shrugged and shook my head. “I don’t mean anything—”

“We get back, no more hotels,” he stated, kindness and warmth in his eyes I felt. God, I could feel it in my bones, and then I felt more as he kept talking. “We get back, I’ll stay with you when I’m in town, and in the meantime, we look for a place.”

“A place?” My eyes widened, and my heart felt like it was about to leap out of my chest.

“Together.”

“Together?”

“I was serious last week, Stef. You take a chance on me, you got me.”

“All of you?” I whispered. Holy smokes!

“Yes.” He cut the small space between us and lifted me up, my legs wrapping around his waist, my hands resting on his shoulders. I wondered, how the hell had this become my life?

“I want all of you, too,” he whispered roughly, and my eyes turned glassy.

“Well, if you insist.” I winked, blinking away tears. We both laughed right before he lifted me into his arms, carrying me like a child would a teddy bear, like it weighed nothing, then he took us to the bedroom to have his fill of me.

Garrett

Stroking her hair, her face on his chest, her body slack, her weight on the side of his body, infused a stillness in him he didn’t know existed. A serene strength she seemed to give off and somehow penetrate through him. He fed off it. He couldn’t help it. He hadn’t felt this way in longer than he cared to remember.

Garrett’s phone vibrated on the nightstand. He picked it up before it would wake her. He had come to find she was a very light sleeper.

“Hello.”

“Garrett?”

“What’s up?” he asked his brother, staring at the clock on the wall wondering if something was wrong.

“She talked to you?” he asked, his voice low. Garrett swallowed hard wondering if he had fucked up telling the kid to talk to his brother.

“Marc—”

“Thank you,” his brother said, his tone full of emotion. He closed his eyes and took in a long, deep breath. “I was over it. The shit in Montana that went down between us, I could get through and try to work on forgetting. But whenever I let myself think about the way you talked to Grace, the way you laid into her, the way you risked my future with her and Lexi, man, G, I gotta be honest with you, I’d get pissed all over again.”

Garrett couldn’t blame him.

He had been a dick of epic proportions.

“I hope one day, you meet a woman who means even just a third of what Grace means to me, just so you can understand the protective nature that overcomes a man in love. And before you bust my balls, I know that sounds fucking cheesy.” Marc chuckled, but Garrett looked at the beautiful woman snoring lightly in his arms, and he knew exactly what his brother was talking about.

“Marc, about Montana—”

“Thank you for talking to Lexi,” he quietly interrupted, ignoring Garrett’s words. “She called me Dad.” Marc cleared his throat, and Garrett knew why. Lexi calling him that meant a fuck ton to Marc. “I didn’t know she was having a problem with it. I thought she would just say it if she ever felt right about it—”

“That’s what she has her uncles for, dipshit,” Garrett teased as he cut off his little brother and heard Marc grunt.

“We’re good. You and me. Nothing, all the shit from then… I just wanted to call and say thanks.”

“At two in the morning?”

“Jet lag,” Marc confided. “Plus, Don mentioned you were going to the cabin. Figured you would probably be up anyhow. Your old ass never sleeps.”

“Whatever.” He opened his mouth wanting to tell his brother about his bit of sunshine, but he closed it.

“Okay, well, I should get going. I have a scene I need to memorize. You still up for doing that stunt this week?”

“Sure.” Stunt work and training some of the stuntman were a side gig he had no clue how the hell he had picked up, but he didn’t shrug his nose at it. It kept him active, and it made a nice chunk of change he could put away. That, his low overhead, and investments had been one of the many reasons he had been able to purchase the cabin without blinking.

“See you then.”

“Night.”

“Marc,” he called out before his younger brother ended the call, “I’m sorry I was such an asshole.”

“You don’t—”

“It had to be said.”

“So, it was. Now, all that shit’s done. Come out and have dinner with us this week,” he invited. Garrett grunted, not wanting to commit, and he didn’t miss Marc’s sigh. “Maybe let Grace fix you up with someone.”

“I don’t think so,” his voice rumbled. Stef shifted in his arms. He had to tell his family about her. Just not at that moment. “Look, I gotta go.”

“Think about dinner.”

“Right.”

“Night.”

“Night.”

“Late night calls, soldier?” she nuzzled her face into his side, and he felt his lips tip up.

“My brother.”

“Kinky.”

“Why do you have an answer for everything?” he wondered out loud, not that he was complaining. He really fucking liked it. He really liked her. Mine.

“Mmm… I’m good like that.” She lifted her head and stretched. The sheet dropped, and he could see her bare-naked body come into sight, and his body came back to life.

He was closing in on forty, but she had him feeling half that.

“You’re fucking perfection.” He groaned as she lay back, her hand up over her head, her hair fanned over the pillow. He lifted himself up on an elbow as she sleepily looked back at him.

Jesus, the woman was innocence and sultry seduction all wrapped up and shaken up together.

“Far from it, soldier boy.”

“Far from a boy, sunshine.”

“Hmm.” She bit her bottom lip, and just like that, he was ready to go. That plump flesh bitten into by her made him fucking crazy. “Show me,” she tempted sweetly, his body waking up from half to full mast.

“Show you…” he repeated. Need and desire wound him up. There was something about her that made him go from zero to sixty in a ridiculously small amount of time. “Show you how much of a man I am?” He tilted his head, nuzzling her neck, taking in a long breath, inhaling her intoxicating scent. “Show you how you belong to me?” his voice rumbled.

Belong to me. His own words made him pause, and his cock jerked behind his pants. Hell yeah, she belonged to him.

“Garrett.”

“Say it, sunshine. Tell me you belong to me. That I’m the only one you give this sweetness to.”

“You are. Baby—” she gasped, and he felt her fingers dig into his shoulders. He couldn’t help but smile against her neck.

“I bet that sweet pussy’s dripping for me, isn’t it?” he goaded. Jesus. He felt like a feral animal, wild with lust. Starving for her body and her sweet little sounds.

“Soldier,” she gasped, and his lips quirked up.

“Dripping.” He nipped her skin as he continued dirtying her up with his words.

“Coating your sweet thighs.” He opened his mouth, taking a swipe of her flesh, feeling her tremble beneath his touch. “All mine. My sweet, sunny girl. Only I get this.”

Before she could respond, he rolled them around, his body caging hers. He lifted her up in his arms, her hands going around his neck. She rested her forehead on his, skimming her nose over his, and he stopped dead in his tracks. There was something about that moment. Something huge and spectacular, so much he knew he needed to stop to savor it.

He had never, in his thirty-eight years of life, felt whole.

Complete.

Not until that very moment.

Not before the bombing.

Not before enlisting.

Not ever.

He was whole with her.

No frayed edges or missing pieces. The idea left him breathless. He had found her. He knew she was special and unforgettable, but holy fucking shit. She was it. She was irrevocably his.

“Garrett?” She searched his eyes, snapping him out of his epiphany. “What is it?” she asked. Her hands held his face. Her small but strong hands felt so damn good. He breathed in, exhaling slowly before rolling them over and getting both of them off the bed. He didn’t take his eyes off her as he set her down gently until her feet touched the ground.

“Stef.” The ragged tone of his voice was filled with so much emotion he hardly recognized it. “Let me show you.” Let me love you, the words clung in the air without being spoken.

“Anything,” she breathed, and his lips quirked up along with his heart rate.

“You should be careful who you offer anything to, baby.” His face dipped, and his lips touched her collarbone, stealing a glimpse of her bare body.

“I trust you.” She moaned the moment his mouth touched her skin.

He went ball achingly slow.

He had no idea where this need to make love to her was coming from. He was flying by the seat of his pants like some virgin, but with every slow lave of his tongue against her flesh, he gained control.

He wanted her to feel everything she meant to him.

As he moved unhurriedly down her body, her hands moved to his shoulders and then to the top of his head. His lips kissed around her sweet little belly button. Her hands on his body… Fuck. He had flashes of her taking care of him. Touching with him so much kindness he couldn’t help but wordlessly hope he was returning it in kind.

Her soft whimpers and mewls filled the room. She wasn’t loud, but he could hear the way her breathing was off. He could feel and see her sweet body writhe below him.

“You’re a feast for my senses, sunshine.”

“You’re teasing me.” She gasped as he licked right above his promise land.

“Mmm.” He blew warm air and brought his mouth down to give her a soft kiss. Slowly but surely, the heat between them burned hotter. Brighter. His mouth tasted the ambrosia of her body, and he savored it.

He took his time as the temperature rose between them. He brought her to the precipice of pleasure with his hands and mouth, and before he could pull back, she fell over and all he could do was watch her. Her body undulated on the mattress, like a goddess. His goddess.

Kissing his way back up her body as she caught her breath, he had no idea how the fuck he was holding his shit together. How he had managed not to sink balls deep into her sweet pussy, but he’d found the strength to have some kind of semblance of control.

“Garrett,” she panted, pulling him up on her, kissing him. He liked her tasting her feminine essence on his lips. It made him feel powerful. He’d made her go over the edge of pleasure.

“Please,” she said, pulling away and opening her legs wider. He aligned himself with her entrance. Bowing his body over her, their eyes pinned on one another, he felt her brace, and when he sunk into her slowly, he nuzzled her nose.

“Slow,” he gritted through his teeth, the feel of his tip at her dewy entrance so fucking good he had to fight shutting his eyes. “Slow, baby,” he repeated, sliding back and forth, not going in as deep as they both needed him to.

The mushroom tip of his cock entered her, and she hissed. Fuck, that little sound made him want to lose his control. But he held on.

He stretched her little by little. She might have come on his mouth, but she was still tight. He took his time as her hands roamed his shoulders and back. The room was silent apart from the sound of their heavy breathing and moans.

There were no words, dirty or sweet, spoken between them.

Time faded away, and everything around them blurred. Her hands clenched, and his speed picked up. Before he knew it, their mouths fused together, sharing the same sex-filled air as they fell over the edge and crashed into a pool of bliss almost simultaneously.

It was intimate and intense. Two things he avoided, but staring into her eyes, he found he didn’t mind it.

He liked it.

He wanted more.