A Beautiful Lie (Playing with Fire #1)(134)

When something you’ve wanted for as long as you can remember is finally yours, you have a hard time believing it’s real,” Garrett said softly as he moved closer to Parker and her body angled towards him. “You find yourself wondering if it’s just a dream and in one careless moment it will all be taken away from you.”

Garrett’s voice cracked with emotion as he took another step closer to Parker, bringing himself near enough to feel the heat from her body and see the speckles of gold in her green eyes.

“I had everything I ever wanted right in the palm of my hand, and I thought it was too good to be true. Suddenly, I didn’t deserve that girl. I didn’t deserve the way she looked at me, the way she touched me, and the way she loved me. The bad stuff is always easier to believe. So I walked away before I could get hurt. Before I could find out if the words she said were true and she’d really chosen me.”

Parker struggled to see Garrett’s face through her tears. They were both crying now, standing a breath apart, and it suddenly felt like a weight was lifted from her shoulders. She’d been alone for so long trying to get passed what happened to her in that basement and trying to come to terms with the things she’d done. She’d been so focused on getting rid of the nightmares that she’d lost sight of her dreams. Every word Garrett spoke reminded her that he was her dream. Her father’s last request was that she be happy and not take anything for granted.

Garrett was her happiness. She’d always known that but there, in her father’s living room with ghosts and memories surrounding her, Parker finally let her anger go and took hold of her future. Garrett was the man she was meant to love, the man to lean on, and the man to lose herself in for the rest of her life.

Like she’d told him only moments ago, it was always him.

“The words were true. And I still choose you,” Parker told him as she stared into his eyes through her tears. She reached up and wiped away one of his own tears from his cheek, resting her palm against the side of his face.

Garrett let out a sigh of relief when he felt her touch.

“I don’t deserve you,” he whispered, bringing his own hand up to cup her cheek. “I’ve let you down so much.”

Parker shook her head in disagreement as Garrett inched even closer to her so he could finally feel her against him. He slid his arm around her waist and pulled her close so he could feel her heart beating against his chest.

“It’s a good thing we have our whole lives ahead of us then so you can make it up to me,” Parker told him with a smile.

“I love you so much, Parker,” Garrett told her.

“I love you too, Garrett. I always have.”

They both moved at the same time, closing the final gap between them and pressing their lips against each other’s. They both sighed into each other’s mouths as they clung tightly to each other and deepened the kiss, neither one ever wanting to let the other go.

In the blink of an eye, their clothes were strewn across the floor of the living room, and Garrett was sinking down onto his knees in front of Parker, his gaze zeroed in on the angry, red scar three inches above her hip bone. He gently ran his fingertips over the mark, his eyes welling with tears as he remembered holding her in his arms, his hands covered with her blood. Garrett leaned forward and pressed a light kiss to the area that would always remind him how close he’d come to losing her.

Parker stood above him, slowly running her fingers through his hair as he studied her scar. She knew his memories were threatening to intrude on this moment so she moved her hand under his chin and lifted his face so she could see his eyes.

“I’m okay,” she reassured him softly.

“I almost lost you,” Garrett said as he stared up at her.

“But you found me again. And I’m not going anywhere.”

Parker dropped down onto her knees, not wanting to be so far away from him anymore.

“I love you,” Garrett told her again before he wrapped his arms around her back and brought their lips back together.

He couldn’t stop saying the words. He couldn’t stop reassuring Parker how much she meant to him. He put his endearments on hold and concentrated on the feel of Parker’s warm, naked body against his own. He’d forgotten how soft and smooth her skin felt against his, how the curve of her neck made him want to sink his teeth into her, and how her moans that echoed in his ear made him weak in the knees.

Garrett touched every inch of the body that haunted his dreams for too many weeks to count. When he dipped his fingers between Parker’s legs and the wet heat from her arousal coated him, he wasn’t sure if he could hold off much longer. He ached to be inside of her, to feel every inch of her wrapped around him, and to know that she was his. That she would always be his.

Parker arched her back and cried out softly when Garrett pushed his fingers inside of her and began moving them gently. She’d forgotten just how talented he was at knowing how to touch her. She’d missed the smell of his skin and the feel of his hands driving her to the edge.

Without moving his fingers from the depth of her heat, Garrett guided Parker to the floor in front of the fireplace, positioning himself above her as he moved between her legs, and she wrapped her thighs around his hips. He continued to work his fingers inside of her, pulling in and out with slow, dragging movements until Parker thought she would shatter from the pleasure that coursed through her.