Forty
Garin
Present Day
“Mmm,” I groaned, rubbing my nose against the side of Kyle’s throat.
I’d missed this neck, the scent of her skin. I couldn’t live without either of them now. And I’d missed how she always had a part of her touching a part of me.
She stirred as I climbed into bed, and when she tried to roll over, I pushed my chest into her back, so she couldn’t.
“I hope that’s you, and I’m not dreaming this,” she said.
It made me smile whenever she brought up the dream. She never told me many details about it, but I wished she would.
I kissed her shoulder all the way up to her ear. She was so warm, her skin so fucking soft. I loved that she slept naked, so I could touch her without having to rip any unnecessary clothes away.
“Oh!” She ground her ass over my cock that had been hard since I walked through her front door. “Now, I know I’m definitely not dreaming.”
I smiled again.
This girl.
“Should I get up and shower, so we can go to your plane, or do you want me right where I am?”
I growled into the back of her neck. So willing. So submissive. We’d spent so much time in this bed during my last visit here.
But before I slid inside that pussy again, I had somewhere I wanted to bring her.
“I was thinking we could stay here one more night and go to Vegas in the morning.”
She rolled over as I lightened my grip. There was worry in her eyes, and her hand immediately went to my face. I kissed the side of it.
“Are you having second thoughts about me coming with you?”
“Oh, no, baby. You’re coming to Vegas with me, but there’s one thing my town doesn’t have, and that’s an ocean.”
“I don’t get it.”
“I want to take you to the beach, Kyle. Like when we were kids.” I watched her face as she realized what I was saying, and then I kissed her when she leaned forward.
“My favorite place…you know that.” She bit her bottom lip as she grinned. She knew that drove me fucking crazy. The only teeth allowed to bite that lip were mine. “But none of my suits have holes in them. It won’t be the same.”
“I bought you a new one. See? Some things never change.”
“You didn’t.”
I nodded. “It’s in your bathroom. Go put it on for me.”
Knowing I was going to push Vegas off for one more day, I’d had Mario’s assistant go buy some suits for Kyle and me. I knew it would bring back a good memory for her. The only ones I wanted her to remember were the good ones.
She gave me another kiss. This time, it lasted a little longer. “You’re too much,” she said. And then she disappeared into the bathroom.
I got out of bed and went into the kitchen, grabbing a bottle of water out of the fridge. Since I’d asked her to move in with me just last night, that hadn’t given her much time to pack. But there wasn’t a single box anywhere in here. I hadn’t even seen a suitcase in her room.
“What do you think?”
I turned toward the entrance of the hallway where she was standing in just the bikini. “I prefer you naked.” I walked over to her, hoping I could ease the scowl off her face. “That’s only because your body is too fucking gorgeous to be covered.”
“Garin…”
“You look incredible. Every guy on that beach is going to be jealous of what I have.” I wrapped my hand around her throat, smelling the toothpaste on her lips. “Are you ready to go?”
“Yes.”
“I noticed you forgot to pack. Does that mean you’re having second thoughts?”
She pulled away from my mouth and licked her lips. “I don’t want to take anything with me.”
“Nothing?”
“Just a small bag for some of my clothes, cosmetics, and jewelry. But I’m leaving the rest. I need a fresh start, and I need to leave my old life here, behind me, where it belongs.”
“Are you going to rent out the house?”
“I want to sell it.” She took the bottle of water out of my hand and drank quite a few sips. “The deed is in my name, and there’s no mortgage. I don’t have any debt to pay off, so I came up with an idea.”
“I’ll introduce you to my financial advisor. He’s great. He’ll—”
“I don’t want the money.”
I took the bottle out of her hand and pulled her into my arms. “What are you going to do with it? If you give it to your ma, you know what’s going to happen.”
“I want to donate all of it to the community center. They did so much for me, for all of us. I want to make sure they can continue taking care of the kids who live in The Heart. I want them to have more than we did, Garin.”
Before we were old enough to hustle, the community center was where we had gone when our stomachs were empty and aching. They’d given us a roof, beds, and clean sheets when our power had been shut off. They’d dressed us in warm clothes. A donation as large as Kyle’s would only benefit the kids and give them extras they didn’t even know they were missing.
Kyle was nothing like her brother. Hell, she was nothing like me either.
She was better than both of us.
“Whatever the amount is,” I said, “I’ll match you.”
Her arms tightened around me. “I want to sell my business, too.”
“Let my team help you. They’ll fly here, they’ll get everything ready to sell, and they’ll draw up all the paperwork for you to sign. They’ll make it so much easier for you.”
She looked around the kitchen, as though she were saying good-bye to it all. “I would love that.”
“Good.” I slapped her ass, but before I pulled my hand away, I grabbed the bottom of her cheek. “Go get some towels and sunscreen, so we can go.”
On our way to the beach, Kyle asked the driver to stop at the grocery store. She went in alone and returned a few minutes later with two bags, packing them into the cooler that she had insisted we bring.
“Do you get driven everywhere?” she asked as she got into the backseat.
“I have two drivers, one for each shift. It’s rare for me to drive, but it’s happened.”
“If you need a driver twenty-four hours a day, then when do you sleep?”
I ran my hand over her thigh. The dress she had put on was white and sheer; it was almost as soft as her skin. “I don’t plan on ever sleeping when you’re in my bed.”
She giggled. It was a sound I fucking loved. It showed me how happy she was, and it was so different than the laugh I’d heard at the bar the night of Billy’s funeral. No one would ever know the torture and verbal abuse she had gone through based on that laugh.
She was so strong—stronger than she even realized.
When we got to the beach, I dropped the cooler, the towels, and the sunscreen onto the sand, and I brought Kyle straight into the ocean. Once the water became deep enough, I swam out a few feet and waited for her to catch up. I was still able to stand, so I wrapped her legs around my waist and held her close to my body.
“This water is a little warmer than the Atlantic,” she said.
“That wouldn’t have mattered when we were kids.”
“Are you kidding? Ice water wouldn’t have stopped us.” She rubbed her feet over my ass. “Would you have held me like this? To keep me warm?”
I groaned. “Shit, Kyle, I wanted to. I always wanted to.”
“I know.” She circled her arms around my neck and kissed me. “I’ve been thinking about jobs and what I’m going to do when I get out there.”
“You don’t have to work. I’ll take care of you.”
She tightened her grip. “I do have to work, and I want to work, but thank you for saying that.” She dipped her head back to get all of her hair wet. “I’m thinking I want to start using canvases again, get back into creating real art. Anthony wouldn’t let me sell any of my designs at the shop, so I stopped painting. I think he feared I would make a name for myself, and the shop would come under investigation. But, now, I have the time to do it, and I don’t have anyone telling me I can’t.”
“I’ll build you a studio in our condo.”
“You don’t have to. I can paint in the kitchen or something.”
“There are five extra bedrooms, Kyle. I think it’s okay if we convert one of them into a studio.”
“Five?”
I nodded.
“And a plane? And two drivers? Wow, things have really changed.”
“For the both of us.” I lifted a hand, so I could grip her face. “You’ll get used to it, I promise. It’ll be overwhelming at first. But just at first.”
“Will I be mingling with the bosses’ wives?”
“None of them live in Vegas. But, when I fly back to Jersey every few months, you’ll be coming with me, and you’ll be mingling with them then.” As I moved us a little deeper into the water, she clung to me even tighter. “I have something I want you to listen to, but only when you’re ready.”
A line appeared between her brows. “What is it?”
“I recorded a voice message from Anthony.” I didn’t like her expression, so I cut her off before she could say anything. “Look, I can’t fix what he did, I can’t make it better, and I sure as hell can’t rewind what happened. But he owed you an apology, and I made sure you got one.”
It took several seconds before she responded, “I’m not ready to hear it.”
“That’s okay. It’s there when you are.”
Her legs dropped from my waist, and she grabbed my hand. “I have something I want to show you.”
She led me out of the water and unfolded the towels, spreading them out next to each other. We both sat, and she reached into the cooler. “I got us lunch, but I’m really not in the mood for sandwiches. I’d much rather have this.” She handed me a plastic sleeve of powdered doughnuts. They were the same kind I’d bought when we were kids. “The ones you had made were good, but they were too fancy. These are my favorite.”
“Get over here.”
She laughed so hard as I grabbed her by the waist and pulled her onto my lap.
“How many packs of these did you get?” I asked.
“More than enough.”
“Enough for me to cover your pussy in powdered sugar and lick off every speck?”
“Oh, yes, there’s plenty for that.” She took out one of the doughnuts and popped it into my mouth, laughing again as I coughed out some of the sugar. “I thought about soul mates a lot when I was having that dream. The whole concept really and how I believe they’re revealed only once during our life.” She looked at me over her shoulder. “You’re my soul mate, Garin.”
I kissed the side of her neck, loving how the sun and the salt made her smell. “Do you want to tell me more about that dream?”
“No, not today. Today is all about the beach.”
I pressed my lips against her ear. “Tonight is all about the powdered sugar.”
“And tomorrow is all about Vegas,” she said. “But don’t worry; I’ll tell you sometime soon.”
As she looked out toward the water, she closed her eyes and took a deep breath. She was leaving it behind—every threat Anthony had ever made, every rule, every bit of control. As long as I could help it, Florida was where it would all stay.
“I’m ready to get out of here.” She turned around to face me again. “And I’m ready to start my life with you.”