It was Garrett coming at me that finally snapped me out of my stupor. He was closing in, reaching out to touch me when I stepped back. Rationally, I knew he’d never hurt me, but his anger and stony expression made me nervous. I’d seen him mad before, sure. But never like this.

I paused as the muscle in his jaw ticked. His voice was like gravel when he spoke. “Don’t be scared of me. Not you, Gwen.”

“I-I’m sorry,” I stuttered. “I just—”

I didn’t realize I’d been crying until he closed the distance and cupped my cheeks, his thumbs brushing away the tears only to have more fall. “Are you okay? Christ, I’m so sorry, baby. I didn’t know she’d….” He squeezed his eyes closed for a moment. “Why did you leave by yourself? Why didn’t you tell me?”

“I—” I hiccupped and sniffed back the tears. “I just needed to get out of there. Garrett, I didn’t belong—”

“That’s bullshit!” he snapped, his fingers clenching tighter around my face. “That’s just Kimber filling your head with shit. You can’t listen to her.”

“But she’s right!” I cried, pulling from his hold and moving across the room. I needed space to think. When he was near me, I couldn’t concentrate on anything but him, how he made me feel. I needed a clear head, not one full of all things Garrett. “She was right, Garrett. She didn’t say anything tonight that I wasn’t already thinking myself. Why do you think I left?” More tears spilled past my eyelids and down my cheeks. “I don’t belong in that world. I was so out of place, so uncomfortable. You were in your element tonight. I could see it written all over you. You fit. But I didn’t. You would get bored with me. Or end up resenting me, which is worse!”

“Stop it!” he boomed, charging me. But I moved around the bed.

“Think about it, Garrett. If it weren’t for Liddy, you never would have looked twice at me. We wouldn’t be standing here right now!”

“God damn it!” he shouted at the top of his lungs, then snatched the lamp off the bureau and sent it flying across the room. It smashed into the wall and broke into thousands of tiny pieces, the crash so loud I let out a startled yelp. He lunged, too quick for me to escape that time. His arms were like steel bands, wrapping around me and pinning me against him. “Stop it!” he shouted. “Just stop! You promised, Gwen. You said you were in this with me!”

“I am!” I choked out. “But what does it matter if you aren’t going to feel the same in a year, or two years? I—I can’t… Kimber was right. I can’t give you what you need.”

“I need you,” he croaked, his voice sounding like he’d just swallowed glass. “Christ, Gwen. I need you. You and Liddy. Can’t you see that? God. Baby, nothing matters if I don’t have you. I’m so fuckin’ in love with you it hurts.”

A sob worked its way from my throat at his declaration.

“You promised me,” he continued, his words and his hold on me growing desperate. “You promised. You can’t leave me.”

“Garrett—”

“You can’t.” His lips smashed against mine, bruising, punishing, owning. His tongue forced its way into my mouth. His need for me was almost as ravenous as mine for him was.

The sound of fabric tearing was quickly accompanied by cool air on my skin as my tattered dress fell to the floor, leaving me in nothing but a small, lacy pair of panties.

“Oh God,” I moaned, my head dropping back as Garrett sucked one of my hard, puckered nipples between his lips. His teeth scraped the delicate skin, sending shockwaves of pleasure through my whole body.

“No one can do this for you,” he panted, one arm still holding me steady as the other skated between us. He shoved his hand into my panties and began toying with my slit. “No one but me. I’m the only one who can touch you like this, who can make you wet, who can fuck you until you see stars.”

“Garrett, please,” I begged, lost to everything but his touch and his words.

“Stay with me, baby.” His words were dripping with distress as he continued to manipulate my body. “You promised you’d stay with me.”

I fisted his hair and pulled until I could reach his mouth. “I’m here,” I breathed, standing on my toes to kiss him. “I’m here.”

“When Ian told me you left,” he said against my lips, his face ravaged. “God, Gwen. You can’t do that again.”

I fought with his shirt, pulling and stretching the cotton. “I’m not going anywhere.”

Within seconds we were both naked. Garrett fused his mouth to mine in a hungry kiss as he pushed me back onto the bed, following after me. “Let me in,” he demanded. I spread my legs, wrapping them around his trim waist. His cock drove into me with one brutal thrust. “Let me in,” he repeated as he began fucking me so hard my teeth clattered together. That was when I knew he wasn’t just talking about physically.

“Look at me,” I coaxed as he continued to move, each plunge of his thick cock driving us farther up the bed. His eyes hit mine, the green nearly black with need and longing even though we were already closer than two people could be. “You’re in,” I whispered, meaning it in spite of how terrified I was. Then I said those three words I’d only spoken to four people in my whole life: my parents, Corrine, and Liddy. Three words that meant everything to me. I couldn’t have contained them if I wanted to. “I love you.”

His eyes screwed closed, like hearing them was almost too much to bear. “Fuck,” he grunted, pounding into me even harder. “Fuck. Say it again.”

“I love you.” I was close, so close. I could feel the pressure building inside me, threatening to explode.

“Again,” he hissed through clenched teeth.

A tear broke free and trickled into my hair at my temple. “I love you.”

Garrett braced himself on one forearm, his free hand coming up to my throat. His thumb put pressure on my chin, forcing my face to his. “I love you so much, baby.” Each word was punctuated by his hips slamming against mine.

“I love you too.”

His eyes hid nothing. I could see every single raw emotion staring down at me. “I need you, Gwen. Please don’t leave me.”

The moment was so staggering that all I could do was promise, “I won’t.” Then that pressure built to a crescendo and I was spiraling down, down, down. I screamed his name until my throat hurt as I came, wave after gigantic wave crashing over me.

He buried himself to the hilt, his muscles locked, and shouted out his own release. I’d barely caught my breath when his arms gave out and he began to drop. But before I could take his full weight, he twisted, rolling to his back, taking me with him without breaking our connection.

His cock twitched against my sensitive walls, causing me to shiver. He held me close as he shifted our bodies and pulled the covers over us. We remained silent for what felt like forever, until I couldn’t take it anymore.

“You broke a lamp,” I whispered, nuzzling my cheek against his warm chest.

“I did. And I’ll destroy this whole fuckin’ room if you pull that shit again.”

My eyes were open, but I didn’t see anything around me as I stared into space. “I just had to get out of there,” I admitted, still speaking softly. “It was all too much. Then I saw you with that woman….”

The vision of her in my mind was a blow to the gut.

His voice was as hushed as mine as he asked, “What woman?”

“You know.”

His softened dick slid out, making me gasp as he rolled me to my back and hovered over me. “I don’t, Gwen. What woman?”

I swallowed down the lump in my throat and willed myself to answer. “The redhead.” Recognition flared in that jade green. “You looked… well, you looked really happy to see her, like she was important to you.”

“Shit,” he muttered, glancing off to the side for a second. “Baby, that was Tate.”

My head jerked back against the pillows in confusion. “Who?”

“Tate. Tatum. Christ, Gwen. She’s Declan’s ex. If it looked like she was important to me, it’s because she is.” I tensed, and he must have felt it because he quickly explained, “We all grew up together. She was like a sister to me. She and Deck were practically attached at the hip since we were teenagers. He’s still in love with her, probably always will be. But when he fucked up, he wasn’t the only one who lost her—we all did. I hadn’t seen her in almost ten years before tonight. What you saw was me catching up with an old friend. That’s it.”

That ache in my heart I felt at the sight of them finally began to subside. “He’s still in love with her?” I breathed.

“Yeah,” he whispered back. “Always will be. And she’s still in love with him, whether she’s willing to admit it or not.”

“What….” I licked my lips, unsure if it was my place to ask, but too curious not too. “What happened?”

He smiled down at me, full-on with dimples and everything. “That’s a story for another time when your head’s screwed on straight. Right now, all I care about is knowing you aren’t gonna run again.”

The sigh that whooshed from my chest was weary and exhausted. “I didn’t fit in tonight,” I said. “I didn’t like where we were or who we were with. I don’t belong in that world, Garrett.”

“You belong with me,” he growled, his nose almost touching mine. “Fuck everyone else. Fuck the parties and all that bullshit. You fit me. That’s all that matters. You get me?”

I didn’t, at least not completely, but I gave him what he needed. “Yeah.” I nodded. “I get you.”

His tone gentled. “You love me?”

“I do. You love me?”

He ran the tip of his nose along mine and answered, “More than life. This’ll work, baby. You give me a chance and I’ll prove it to you.”

I wanted to believe him, but somewhere in the back of my mind my doubts still lingered. I could hear Kimber’s voice echoing my own insecurities. But instead of admitting it, I simply said, “Okay, Garrett.”

We left the lights on that night, neither of us willing to let the other go to turn them out. It didn’t take Garrett long to find sleep, but I wasn’t so lucky. The doubts were screaming too loudly in my head for me to drift off. I lay awake for hours wrapped in Garrett, enveloped in the heat he radiated in his sleep, praying he was right, that we could work, that two people as different as us could make a life together.

Because I did love him… more than life.

But as the sun began to rise across the California skyline, I still wasn’t sure I believed it.