I wasn’t sure what I was expecting when I pushed through the front door of my new home later that day.

I guess I thought Garrett would be the slightest bit remorseful for his behavior at the café, but I was totally wrong. He sat on the sofa in the huge den with Liddy in his lap. Nick Jr. was on the television, and his feet were kicked up on the coffee table. He looked like a man without a care in the world.

My little girl was the first to greet me, pulling the purple popsicle out of her mouth to shout, “Hi, Mommy!”

I stopped at the back of the couch and leaned in to get a sticky, sweet kiss from my daughter. “Hi, monkey. You have a good day?”

“Yeah!”

I stood tall and waited to see what Garrett would do. He turned his head to peer at me over the back of the couch, those dimples popping out. “Hey, baby. How was the rest of your day?”

Is he serious? “Are you serious?” I glowered with my hands on my hips. “That’s all you’ve got to say?”

He examined me for several seconds. “Uh, you hungry? I was thinking of ordering Chinese.”

A strange, garbled choking noise exploded past my lips as I threw my hands up and stomped from the room. I passed Sylvie on my way to the stairs and could have sworn she was struggling to contain her smile. Glad someone was finding Garrett’s childish antics funny, because I wasn’t.

I stomped into my room, ready to strip out of my work clothes and wash the day away in a nice, hot shower, but the moment I entered my bathroom I discovered everything was missing. “What the hell?” I rushed to my dresser and started pulling drawers open. Each one was empty. So was my closet. All the pictures and personal effects were gone. My laptop was missing from the desk. I spun around, prepared to rip Garrett a new asshole, only to discover he was standing at the open door, arms crossed over his chest as he watched me.

“Where’s all my stuff?” I demanded in a semi-shrill voice.

He answered in a calm monotone. “I had Sylvie move everything into our room. You can redecorate in there if you want, but from here on out, your stuff is where it belongs—with mine.”

I looked up at the ceiling for divine intervention and came up empty. “Gah! You are such a pain in the ass!”

“Why?” He charged into the room, his face thunderous. “Because I know what I want and I go for it? Because I’m not afraid like you?”

“No!” I shouted. “Because you steamroll over anyone in your way to get it! You wanted us to move in here and the next day it happened. I barely had time to wrap my head around it. You didn’t ask me if I wanted you to move all my stuff. If you had, I would have told you yes, but you didn’t. You wanted it, so my opinion didn’t matter.”

He threw his arms out and thundered, “What the fuck does it matter if you wanted the same thing? Christ, Gwen!”

“It matters because you took my choice away! Yes, moving in here was the right decision. Yes, I want my stuff to be next to yours, to sleep with you every night in a bed that’s ours. But that’s not the point! The point is that you don’t take me into consideration at all! Steve showed up at the café today and you automatically went on the offensive. If you hadn’t jumped to conclusions, I could have handled that situation so much better. I would have let him down without a scene, Garrett. I would have told him the truth, that I’d reconciled with Liddy’s father, that I was in a relationship with someone I really cared about. But you didn’t do that! You wanted to mark your territory, so you just did it. And fuck what I wanted!”

He came closer, like a predator eyeing his prey. His eyes sparked feral as his voice rumbled from his chest. “Because if I didn’t take charge, nothing would ever change!” he demanded. “You’re so fuckin’ scared of things going bad that you’d be content to never move forward!”

“I’m here, aren’t I?!” I cried. “I’m right here! Yes, I’m fucking terrified, Garrett. How you treated me in the past damn near broke me. Putting my trust in you scares the shit out of me, but I’m doing it! I care about you so much that if things go bad, I don’t know if I’ll be able to put myself back together this time, but I’m trying anyway! Because you’re worth it! Because I care! But you can’t move this relationship at your pace. You have to be willing to compromise, damn it! This is supposed to be a partnership, not a fucking one-man show.”

I barely got the last word out before I was pulled against him and his mouth was feasting from mine in a kiss that was pure possession. His tongue forced its way past my lips and devoured, owned, branded me. By the time he pulled away, I was clinging to him like a lifeline as I pulled in ragged breaths.

“I’m sorry.” His voice was gruff, his eyes closed when he touched his forehead to mine. “I’ll try to do better. I swear.”

My eyelids fell shut for a brief moment and I sighed with relief. “Thank you.” I pulled back enough for him to see the honesty on my face. “I’m in this with you, Garrett. You have to trust that. I don’t want to be anywhere else.”

His face changed, like the weight of the world had been lifted from his shoulders. He seemed lighter as he opened his mouth to speak. Unfortunately our moment was interrupted.

“Uh… Mr. Wilder, you have a visitor.”

“Christ, Sylvie,” he grunted, still holding on to me but turning us to face the door. “Not now. Tell whoever it is to fuck off.”

“But sir, it’s your manager. And he’s rather… insistent he speak with you.”

Garrett raked a hand through his hair and grumbled, “Fuckin’ Chris,” under his breath before grabbing my hand and pulling me out of the room behind him. I had to jog to keep up as we quickly descended the stairs.

Chris stood just in the entry, his head shooting up at the sound of our arrival. His expression went from mild irritation to straight-up pissed when he saw Garrett dragging me along.

“Sylvie, keep an eye on Liddy, will you?” Garrett asked. “This won’t take long.”

Sylvie flittered off to the living room, and from the way Chris’s cheeks began to turn from red to purple, he was none too happy with Garrett’s blatant disregard.

I stood as far back from the two men as I could, seeing as Garrett was still holding my hand. Chris looked like his head was about to explode, and I didn’t want to be in the line of fire.

“Why are you here?” Garrett asked, his voice flat and dull.

“You know exactly why I’m here.” Well, that left me the only one in the dark. Not awkward at all.

“I already told you, the answer is no. So back the fuck off.”

Chris’s laughter was full of venom. I had absolutely no idea what was going on, but whatever it was, I had a feeling Chris thought it was my fault, judging by the narrow-eyed glare he shot me.

“You know, you’ve changed since she came back into the picture,” he spat hatefully, causing all the little hairs on my body to stand on end.

“Leave her outta this.” Garrett’s warning sent a chill up my spine. “Swear to God, Chris. She has nothing to do with it.”

“She has everything to do with it!” He laughed bitterly. “It’s the goddamn American Music Awards, Garrett! And you’re saying that not only will you not perform, but you’re not even going. Civil Corruption’s nominated for favorite rock album, for Christ’s sake!”

“You are?” I broke in. “Why won’t you go if you’re nominated? That’s crazy.”

“No shit,” Chris snapped bitterly. “And you’re the reason he won’t go, sweetheart.” I wanted to knock his teeth down his throat for calling me sweetheart, but I didn’t think Liddy was at the age that “do as I say, not as I do” would work on her. “You’re the reason he won’t go to the goddamn award show, why he doesn’t want to release another album and tour. He doesn’t want to leave you behind, but you won’t make your relationship public so you can tag along. Way to fuck up my top-earning band, Yoko.”

Garrett lunged, but before he could reach Chris and do God knew what, I beat him to the punch. Literally. I punched Chris in the nose as hard as I could. The sound of bone crunching was insanely gratifying, and it worked wonders to take my mind off the shooting pain in my hand.

“Son of a bitch!” Chris wailed, hunching forward and cupping both hands over his bleeding nose. “You broke my goddamn nose!”

“She did,” Garrett answered. “And if you don’t get the fuck out in the next five seconds, I’m gonna break both your legs.”

“This is bullshit!” he continued to rant. “I’m your manager! I’m trying to help you.”

Garrett moved to the front door and threw it open. “No, you’re trying to help yourself. Only reason you want us putting out another album so soon is so you can line your own damn pockets. You don’t give a shit about us. You only care about yourself. And if you want to keep your job, I suggest you get. The. Fuck. Out.”

Chris leaving was punctuated by the sound of the front door slamming, pulling me from my thoughts. “Hey,” Garrett said softly, taking the hand I was cradling against my chest and bringing it to his face for closer inspection. “You okay? Think you broke anything?”

“I’m fine. Garrett, was he telling the truth?”

He didn’t meet my eyes as he slowly uncurled my fist and gently poked at the bones. “Maybe we should take you to the hospital, get an X-ray.”

“It’s fine,” I repeated, pulling my hand from his. “Nothing’s broken, see?” I flexed my fingers, only wincing slightly. “Now answer my question.”

He blinked slowly, pulling air in through his nose. “It’s not a big deal,” he replied, trying to shrug it off.

“But… I thought you said you and the guys wanted a break. That’s why you weren’t putting out another album.”

“We do.”

“But…?” I coaxed, definitely sensing a “but” in there somewhere.

“But….” His hands went back to his hair and he tugged in agitation. “But I want to be close to you and Liddy. And I can’t do that if you’re here and I’m traveling all over the fuckin’ country.”

My mouth hung open as I openly studied at him, really studied him, for what might have been the first time. And what I was seeing made my blood burn and my chest swell so big I wasn’t sure my body could take it. “Oh my God,” I breathed to myself.

He cupped my cheeks, worry lining his gorgeous face. “Gwen, baby, talk to me. Is it your hand? Do I need to take you to the hospital?”

“Oh my God,” I repeated, too astounded to say anything else.

“That’s it,” he growled, “we’re going to the hospital. Sylvie!”

That snapped me out of my daze. “No! No hospital. I don’t need it. It’s just….”

“What?” He looked positively frantic. “Baby, what?”

“He was telling the truth,” I whispered. “Chris was telling the truth. You did that for me. You’re not going to that award ceremony for me.”

“I don’t want to be there if you’re not standing next to me.”

God, I am so in love with this man.

“Everything okay?” Sylvie’s gentle voice called from behind me.

Before I could answer, Garrett scooped me up and began carrying me up the stairs. “Everything’s fine. Can you keep an eye on Liddy? Gwen’s going to take a shower.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Oh, and will you bring an ice pack up in about fifteen… no, make that a half hour? She hurt her hand.”

“Oh no,” Sylvie gasped. “On what?”

I could hear the smile in Garrett’s voice, but I was too busy just looking at him. “On Chris’s face.”

I was sure I heard Sylvie’s laughter, but I was too focused on other things to pay much attention.

It wasn’t until I was on my feet in Garrett’s—well, our—bathroom that I got all my senses back. “Wait, what are you doing?” I asked, batting at his hands as he pulled at my top.

“Getting you undressed. We’re taking a shower.”

Sparks of electricity went off between my thighs as my nipples puckered into hard peaks. I really liked the sound of that. But… “Wait.”

He growled like an animal about to strike, which only made my desire that much stronger. “No more waiting. Get naked.”

I couldn’t help but laugh as I fought with his roaming hands once more. “This’ll only take a second, Garrett. Just hold on.”

He let out a frustrated huff but stopped pulling at my clothing and met my eyes. His were dark with a hunger that I could totally relate to. “Fine, one second. Go.”

“You’re going to that award ceremony,” I stated authoritatively.

“Gwen—”

“No.” I help up my hand and stopped him. “You’re going. And you’re going to agree to perform. Besides, I’ve never seen you play, so what better time, right?”

His hands fell to my waist, and I got an upfront view as his pupils dilated with pleasure. “What are you saying?”

I smiled and moved in closer, wrapping my arms around his waist. “I’m saying I’m going with you. We’re taking our relationship public.”

His fingers clenched so tight it was almost to the point of pain. But I didn’t care.

“Are you serious?”

“I am,” I said softly. “We’ll keep all mention of Liddy out of it for now, and we won’t mention my name. But I’ll be right there, standing next to you. And when we agree that it’s time, we’ll tell the truth. You told Chris no for me.” I cupped his cheeks, sliding my fingers back into his soft hair. “Let me do this for you.”

A sexy rumble worked its way up Garrett’s throat, causing my skin to break out in goose bumps. He dropped his head and kissed the skin below my ear. “Fuck, baby. I don’t deserve you.”

“I disagree,” I panted, fisting his hair even tighter.

“Get naked. Now,” he commanded, standing to his full height and whipping his own shirt over his head. “I need to fuck you so hard you’ll feel me for a week.”

I didn’t need to be told twice.