Maybe for a long time after.
Garrett’s hands slid up my back until he was cupping the back of my head. “I’m here because no matter what you say, or what you do, I want you. I want every part of you. There is something in you that calls out to the messed up pieces inside of me. And I think that you might be the girl to make my world right again.”
Emotion was thick in my throat and I couldn’t say anything. I didn’t know what to say that would come close to how amazing his words were.
Garrett’s blue eyes were soft as they regarded me as if I were the most wonderful thing he had ever seen. Not once in the year that Damien and I had been together had I ever felt that I was it for him. That person that he revolved around. Hell, he wanted to get back together because comfortable was okay with him.
But the passion and desire and absolute totality I saw in Garrett’s eyes blew me apart.
Garrett softly kissed my lips. “Because I’m a mess, Riley. I have spent so long pretending like the future doesn’t matter because I was terrified to plan anything. I had all ready lost the two people that meant the most to me, so I would be damned if I would ever depend on someone like that again. And if I didn’t think too much about what comes next I wouldn’t have to think about the million and one ways I was disappointing my parents.” His breath caught and he looked away, as though shamed by the secrets he had just revealed.
It was my turn to grip his chin and turn him back to face me. “Your parents would be nothing but proud of the man you’ve become, Garrett. You’re talented and motivated by your music. You’re building a future around something you love to do. How many people get to do that?” I leaned up and placed my lips on his for a moment and he held me tightly as we tasted each other.
I pulled back and looked at him again. “You are the guy who took a heart broken girl and put her back together again, whether you realize it or not,” I whispered, my soul close to flowing over.
And it was true. Garrett held me together and he tore me a apart. And what was left behind was complete and total annihilation.
“God, Riley,” he said, making it more of a strangled cry. In one swift movement he rolled us over until he was leaning over me, his hair brushing my chest as he leaned down. This was so much like the hazy memory I had of us yesterday. A recollection of our first time together that was still so much out of reach.
But this time, we were both in the here and now. And the only thing that mattered was each other.
With shaky hands, I unbuttoned his shirt and he sat back and pulled it off, tossing it on the floor. I ran my hands up his chest, the hard ridges of muscles under my palm. I gently touched the tattooed words that wrapped around his waist.
“Blessed are the hearts that can bend; they shall never be broken,” he whispered, stirring the air around us. I remembered the words. Another flash of memory startled me as I recalled reading these words branded on his flesh as I kissed the skin around them.
I brushed his long hair back and cupped his cheek. “That’s beautiful. But why the need to ink it?” I asked, staring into his eyes.
Garrett leaned down and kissed me with trembling lips. “After my parents died, I swore I’d never feel that kind of empty heartache again. That I’d strengthen my heart so it would never, ever break. I knew I wouldn’t be able to survive that kind of pain again.”
I closed my eyes, feeling overwhelmed by this. By him.
Garrett swept his mouth along the curve of my jaw. “My heart isn’t strong enough to survive you, Riley. You won’t just bend it, you have the power to shatter it to pieces,” he said quietly and with enough feeling to bring me low.