Take Me for Granted (Take Me #1)(84)

I thought the person had passed by until a shadow fell over me. There wasn’t much light out here, but there was enough to know someone was standing over me.

I dropped my hands and started to sit up to explain to the cop that I was going to leave, but I just stopped everything I was doing and stared.

“Ari,” I whispered. My voice was strained.

She was here.

How?

No. This didn’t make any sense.

She was a vision, a beautiful ethereal vision.

Before I knew what was happening, I scrambled to my feet and reached my hand out to touch her cheek. Her skin was warm beneath my icy fingers, and she shivered. Oh God, she’s real. She was so soft, and f**k did I want her. It wasn’t just physical need either. I wanted to f**k her, but I wanted her. I just wanted to pull her into my arms and know that she wasn’t f**king going anywhere.

“Hey, Grant,” Aribel finally murmured.

“How did you know I would be here?”

“I didn’t.” She sighed softly. “Can I sit with you?”

“Sure.” I gestured for her to take a seat on the blanket. “So…if you didn’t know I’d be here, why did you come?”

“I just had a feeling, and I needed to talk to you.”

“So, now, you can talk to me?” I didn’t know why those words had left my mouth, but I couldn’t help it. I’d pounded down her door. I’d been messaging her for weeks. She hadn’t said a word. Now, she was just showing up with no explanation? Fuck that.

“Yes,” she snapped. “Now, I can talk to you.”

“How did that space work out for you, Princess? You have a good time? Go to any fancy parties?” Yeah, I was pretty much purposely antagonizing her. I had no f**king clue why.

“Would you shut up?”

“Not likely, darlin’. You drove all the way out here to see me. You’re going to have to sit here and have a conversation with me.”

“This isn’t a conversation! This is us yelling at each other again!”

“Well, I’m just trying to figure out why it was so damn hard for you to use your f**king phone in the last three weeks. Is it broken? Did you not get any of my messages?”

“No, my phone is not broken! I just needed some space. I believe I told you that.”

“I didn’t think space meant you were going to ignore all your problems for three f**king weeks.”

“And I didn’t think space meant that you were going to go and f**k someone else!”

I snorted. “That’s good coming from you.”

“What the f**k does that mean?” she shouted.

“You f**ked Donovan, Princess! Did you think he wouldn’t tell me?”

“Now, you are being ridiculous!” Her hurricane blue eyes were so dark, and she looked f**king shocked at my suggestion. “When would I have slept with Donovan? And even if I had the opportunity, you think I’d just sleep with anyone?”

“How the hell am I supposed to know? You disappear without a word for three weeks, and then I get wind that you slept with Donovan. To be honest, I beat the shit out of him for it.”

“He deserved the ass-beating. He kissed me, but I didn’t sleep with him!” she cried. “I would never sleep with someone I just met. But you would…and did on New Year’s.”

It was my turn to look shocked. “Why does everyone keep saying that? I didn’t sleep with anyone on New Year’s. And how would you even know if I had?”

“I was there.”

“At the show?” I asked in disbelief.

She nodded. “I came backstage to find you after…well, after you stormed offstage, but you were already gone. Donovan and some Hollis guy told me that you’d left with someone else.”

I grabbed her hands in mine and forced her to look at me. “And you just f**king believed them? You didn’t think to call me?”

“I wouldn’t want to interrupt your good time,” she said darkly.

“I was f**king miserable without you. I wanted to give you the space you’d asked for, but I f**king wanted you with me every goddamn second you were away, Ari. I don’t know what else I can say to prove that to you.”

The truth was that there wasn’t anything else I could say. She either knew, or she didn’t. And right then, looking into her eyes on our beach…she knew. She’d come here for me. She f**king wanted me. She had said that she had fallen for me completely. That shit hadn’t gone away in three weeks.

My lips dropped onto hers before she had a chance to reply. There was no hesitation on her part. She kissed me right back as hard as she possibly could while grabbing my jacket tightly between her fingers. Her lips were like a double shot of espresso to my exhausted system.

The energy crackled between us, heating the crisp night air. There was too much space and decidedly too much clothing between us. The weeks of pent-up frustration was colliding into this one moment, and neither of us could keep our hands off the other. I just wanted to touch her, feel her, consume her, bury myself in her. I needed her. I f**king needed all of her.

My lips moved to her neck greedily as I pushed her back onto the blanket. Her fingers deftly dragged the zipper down on my jacket. She was already shaking from the cold or from what we were doing, so I threw the remaining blankets over us. My hands found the waistline of her jeans, and after unzipping them, I dragged them down her legs.