I was a trembling, quivering mess when he finally pulled his fingers out of me and put on a condom. Barely able to wrap my legs around his waist, Garrett put his hand underneath my rear and lifted me up so I could meet him as he thrust deep inside me.
“Oh God!” he groaned, stopping a moment as my body adjusted around him. Feeling him like this I knew I was where I was meant to be.
Reaching around I gave his ass a little smack, startling him. He peered down at me questioningly as he slowly withdrew from my depths and then plunged forward again.
“I’m not gonna break, cowboy. Fuck me like you mean it,” I challenged, throwing my head back. And accept my challenge, he did. Garrett fastened his lips to the base of my throat and gripped my hips as he thrust into me as hard as he could. I screamed at the top of my lungs as he screwed my brains out.
Garrett’s yells joined my strangled cries. The shadows of our bodies loving each other in a brutally passionate way urging us on and over the edge. And when I came, it was knowing he was right behind me.
Afterwards, we lay in a sweaty, tangled heap. Our legs were pretzeled together, our arms clinging. My ear was pressed against his chest and I could hear the erratic thud of his heart. He was still deep inside me and I knew he needed to dispose of the condom but I didn’t want to move. This connection was the most amazing thing I had ever felt.
When we were finally able to breathe again, Garrett slowly pulled out of me and made quick of wrapping the condom in a tissue and putting it out of sight. He was back in my arms before I could complain about missing him.
“Please tell me this is real,” he said quietly into my hair, his hand running lazy trails up and down my back.
I looked up at him and kissed his chin. “This is as real as it gets babe. There’s no getting rid of me now.”
Garrett leaned back and pulled the battered guitar case over. I lay there, completely naked as he started to mess with the strings.
It was such a surreal moment. Garrett Bellows and Riley Walker, in the afterglow of some seriously amazing sex, sitting together in all of their nude glory. And I didn’t feel remotely self-conscious. A first for me.
Garrett started to thumb a tune. Just a simple combination of notes but it was amazing. Then looking at me with eyes full of the most beautiful emotion I had ever seen, he began to sing.
My mask means nothing
You see who I am
Breaking me down
on the ground where I stand.
I wanted to lose you
In the face of your pain
Stranded in the dust
Hounded by shame.
You hated
I loved
I was wrong
You were done
If tragedy had a soul
It was mine you took hold
Caught in the vice
It felt so right.
Terrified to lose
What I never could keep
Drowning in regret
Push it down deep.
But the sun does shine
On the wicked and mean
You licked all my tears
Scraped my heart clean
Together we are more
than the sum of it all
Mighty shall stand
While the weak shall fall
My mistakes almost ruined
The place I belong
Beside you, behind you,
For ever how long.
Take this heart
That no longer bends
Wrap it up tight
It still needs to mend.
My beautiful girl
My breath
My life
I will love you
Hold you
Whatever the price.
Stay with me now
Until time grows old
And only then
Beautiful girl
Will our story be told.
For about the millionth time since I met Garrett, I was struck speechless. He put his guitar back in the case and leaned over to kiss me.
“I told you I had nicer stuff to sing to you,” he said with a grin.
I grabbed the back of his neck and tugged his hair playfully. “You are so getting laid again.” I bit his bottom lip gently, pulling it into my mouth and smiling as Garrett groaned.
“I knew it would work,” he said breathlessly as I pulled myself up to straddle his lap, pressing against his rigid erection.
“Every single time,” I agreed, kissing him and letting out a moan as Garrett, after covering himself with a condom, lifted me up and settled me back down on his cock. Taking me deep.
As we moved together I felt nothing but grateful that he had taken another chance on me. To think there was a time I had looked down my nose at him. Thought him beneath me. I had regretted our first night together as the worst mistake I could have made.
What a stupid, stupid fool I had been.
Because if he was my biggest regret then it was the most perfect regret of my life.
Epilogue
“You have your plane ticket?” Garrett asked and I could hear his anxiety over the phone. I grinned and rolled my eyes, even though I knew he couldn’t see me.
“Yes, Mr. I have to worry about everything. I will be on the six o’clock flight to St. Louis. Gracie will be here to drive me to the airport in an hour.” I dropped my voice down into a sultry whisper. “Which means you’ll have me naked and ready in just over four and a half hours. So instead of freaking out about whether I will get on my plane, you need to be thinking of the million and one ways you’re going to make me scream once you have me alone.”
Christ, I was getting myself all hot and bothered. Not a good thing when I would have to spend over an hour in the car with Gracie and then another two hours on the plane.
Garrett’s answering chuckle made me glad I had gone all phone sex operator. He spent entirely too much time waiting for the other shoe to drop. I hated that the way we began still defined so much of who we were now. I knew I had a lot of making up to do for the way I had treated him before. My callous disregard and outright disrespect for him in the early days of knowing each other had unfortunately made Garrett more than a little anxious where I was concerned.
But I was determined to make it up to him. In every way that I could.
“Well shit, baby. I’ve got a radio interview in forty-five minutes. I’m not sure if that’s enough time to take care of this problem that’s just popped up.”
I laughed too. “Well let’s see what we can do about that,” I purred and then made sure to explain exactly what I would do when we were together again.
I wheeled my suitcase into the living room and looked around, making sure I had turned off lights and emptied the trash. It was spring break and instead of heading off to a beach somewhere, I was jumping on a plane to St. Louis to see my suddenly very popular boyfriend and his band while they were on tour.
After that night Garrett and I had made love in his family’s cabin by the river, we had thrown ourselves into building a relationship that mattered. And as we fell more and more into the world we were creating together I knew without a doubt that this was the life with meaning that my dad had wanted me to have.