Chapter Thirty-Six
“Do not peek out the window.”
Garrick sat at the table with his laptop open, and I was in the captain’s chair across from him. As promised, we were headed to an undisclosed location on one of Garrick’s smaller planes. All the window shades were drawn.
“Can I have a hint?”
He shook his head and laughed. “Patience.”
“Patience” was used on purpose as payback after the way I’d teased him before the gala. “I thought you said patience was a line of bullshit someone said to make themselves feel better about waiting.”
“I may have been wrong.”
I giggled, and he grinned at me before refocusing on his computer with his lips turned up in a smile. After analyzing his outfit, I concluded in frustration that the jeans and dress shirt revealed nothing of where we were headed.
Camille laid our lunch in front of us, but Garrick kept staring intently at the screen, so I ate in silence. I didn’t want to disturb him. Since the door closed, he’d been engrossed in his work. Well, actually, for the last two days. I understood. It had given me time to catch up with Kurt and Sawyer.
The first day he’d felt guilty and hung around the apartment. The second day he went to his office and was gone all day. When he got home, I could tell he’d worried about it, but I understood. Being together 24-7 was not sustainable or healthy.
He scowled at the screen and made a note on the papers on the desk. I loved the little furrow that appeared when he was in deep concentration and how he rubbed his ring finger with his thumb when he contemplated.
When he scrubbed a hand down his face, I remembered his whiskers rubbing against my leg.
~ ~ ~
“I love your flawless skin. It’s pure perfection,” he’d whispered against my flesh.
I’d squirmed as his scruff had moved up my inner thigh. Garrick had been at his office all day. The moment he’d walked through the door, he hadn’t been able to keep his hands off me. I’d loved the attention.
“Please. Move higher.”
His tongue had reached my clit and I’d raised my hips off the bed.
“The only place I wanted to be all day was here with you. Feeling you. Loving you.”
“Oh, Garrick.”
He’d tasted me in the most intimate way.
~ ~ ~
“Ms. Knox, are you okay?”
I focused back to see Camille standing in front of me. “Um, yes. What did you say again?”
“Should I clear your plate?”
“I’m still working on it. Thank you.”
Nodding, she refilled my water. “Of course. I’ll check on you in a few minutes.”
Before I could respond, she turned and walked away. Oh geez, I’d been caught thinking about last night. My face heated. Garrick was still absorbed and oblivious to everything else, thank goodness.
He made a few more notes, and I smiled. When we were apart, he seemed starved for me. I felt the same way about him. But I refused to become clingy—it wasn’t in my nature.
Instead, I filled up my days getting Kurt settled. In college, he’d lived with Dylan, and from what I could tell, he hadn’t changed.
Sawyer was a neat freak. Kurt… well, he left things lying around. I wouldn’t call him messy, but things he used frequently found their home elsewhere—jackets on the back of chairs or shoes at the front door. His thought was, Why put it away if it will be used in the near future?
It was going to be cataclysmic. Oh, they were going to kill each other.
Plus, Kurt had a knack for aggravating those he liked. And I imagined that, regardless of his not “shitting where he ate,” he liked Sawyer. But he refused to admit it. If Sawyer hadn’t taken the job, I’d imagined a bit of wooing coming from my friend.
“Mr. Shaw, would you like anything else?”
“Coffee would be good. Thank you, Camille.”
She smiled pleasantly.
I took another bite of the poached pear salad. One of the chefs at a high-end restaurant in town had prepared today’s meal. Garrick definitely lived extravagantly. Thinking about it was intimidating at times, but I remembered I was self-sufficient, financially. The materialistic aspect wasn’t important, but I worried others would question it, considering Garrick’s position.
None of it matters. Only you and Garrick knowing the truth does. My therapist’s words from yesterday helped me keep it in perspective.
Checking my phone one last time out of habit, I saw I’d received a text message prior to takeoff.
Mom: Sunday for dinner sounds great. Let me know what time you want us.
On Sunday, we were having dinner with my parents. Monday we were going to hang out and maybe watch a movie at the apartment.
Garrick clipped the papers together, and then typed on his computer. Beside him, his dinner was barely touched. I gathered my stuff, and Camille was there in a flash. “I’ll get that, Ms. Knox.”
“Thank you.”
For a few seconds longer, I watched Garrick work. The stress on his face grew more evident, and his eyes became tighter. I wanted to comfort him the way he’d done for me on more than one occasion.
Slipping in next to him, I kissed his cheek. “I’m going to go back to the other couch and read for a bit. Do you need anything? You look a little stressed.”
Garrick stopped working and wrapped his arm around me. “I’ve been neglecting you these last couple of days.”
Memories of Garrick making love to me each night and showering me with love flashed through my mind. I looked to see where Camille was. She sat in her seat, reading something. I kissed his neck. “I don’t think I’ve been neglected. In fact, I think you’ve taken good care of me.”
He cocked his eyebrow. “I’ve been working fifteen- to twenty-hour days.”
“You have companies to run. I’m not bored. I’ve made myself busy. If it were safe, I’d be out and about. You know, if you want to hang out with friends, you don’t have to make every night about me.” Though I wanted to spend as much time with him as possible, I never wanted to suffocate him.
“Since Hastings, I’ve kept people at more of a distance. It was safer that way. I’d consider myself as having acquaintances, not really friends.”
It was hard to see Garrick as a man who wanted to keep people at a distance. With me, he constantly craved intimacy. “Why’d you let me in so fast?”
His fingers intertwined with mine, and he brought them up to his lips. “Why were you willing to let your guard down so fast?”
Thinking back, I realized that Garrick had consumed me before I’d even seen him. “From the moment our eyes connected, I was lost to you. I was drawn to you unexplainably.”
“Same here. I tried to push you out of my mind the day I saw you with Cameron. But it was futile. Before I made it to my office, I’d already ordered you flowers.”
“I loved the flowers.”
The laptop pinged with an e-mail, and Garrick’s eyes went to it, tightening as he read.
I kissed him again on the cheek. “I’ll let you work.”
“I’ll be working the rest of the flight, I’m afraid.”
“No worries. I’m going to go read.”
His lips grazed my jawline. “I wish we were in the plane with the bed. Then we’d have some fun.”
I slapped his chest playfully. “What were you thinking? That would have definitely been a fun flight.”
Garrick’s hands slid up my sides, but I stopped the progression. “No way. If I have to wait to find out where we’re going, you have to wait, too. And you need to work.”
He raised an eyebrow in challenge. We both knew he could easily win this if he wanted. I slid out from the table. “If you work hard, you might get lucky tonight.”
“I’m fairly confident that will happen.”
I laughed. “We’ll see…”
Taking a seat on the other couch, I blew him a kiss. The predatory hunger I saw in his eyes had desire clenching inside me. He glanced to the cockpit door and started to move.
Yes. I wanted him. I needed him. I loved him.
Camille shifted, and I blinked, bringing me out of the trance. I shook my head to clear the fog. “No, sir. You’re going to have to wait. Patience, remember?”
“Knoah.” Just my name in that voice was nearly my undoing. The carnal need in his tone sent tingles racing across my skin.
Stay strong. “I love you. Now back to work you go. If you have to work when we get to our mysterious location, that won’t be very fun for either of us.”
The smile on his face deepened, and the hunger in his eyes cooled. “Good point.” He gave me a wink. “I love you, too, sweetheart.”
Once again, I was filled with warm, fuzzy, happy feelings, and I reveled in how I felt at this perfect moment—complete.
Garrick returned to his work, and I grabbed my tablet. For the next thirty minutes, we stole glances at each other. It was sweet seeing his face light up when our eyes met.
I’d found love again. The difficult conversation I’d had with Brooke yesterday came to mind, but I pushed it away. It was too deep for me to digest. I wasn’t ready to face those realities yet. Later.
The purr of the engines caused me to sink further into the couch, and before I knew it, I was curled up and cozy. When I could no longer fight it, my eyes drifted closed.