What the Heart Desires (Contemporary Erotic Romance) (10 page)

There was a pause on the other end of the phone.  Then
Garrett said, “Kimmy, is that you?”  His voice was gentler now – and surprised-sounding. 

“It’s me.”

“Kimmy…it’s 4:00 a.m.” Garrett said, stifling a yawn.  She detected a faint slur in his words, suggesting he was just coming off a long night of working, also known as partying and drinking.  “Are you okay?”

“Oh.”  In her haste to talk to
Garrett, Kimberly hadn’t even considered that it was the middle of the night.  Suddenly she felt very foolish.  “I’m okay,” she said, cringing.  She wished she hadn’t called.  It made her seem desperate and stupid and…

“Why are you calling?”
Garrett asked.

It was a fair question.  Unfortunately, Kimberly didn’t have a good answer.  She really hadn’t thought this through.  Wincing, she awkwardly said, “I haven’t heard from you in a long time…”  She trailed off, unsure of what else to say.

“Well yeah,” Garrett retorted, sounding slightly defensive.  “The ball was in your court, Kimmy.  I gave you my number and you didn’t call.”

Kimberly swallowed hard.  There was a lump in her throat.  Hearing
Garrett’s voice brought something out in her that she couldn’t quite name.  “I’m sorry,” she told him.  “I didn’t see that you’d written your number on the back of the card until tonight.”

“So I take it you aren’t shacked up with Not-Husband yet,”
Garrett observed.  “Or does he just not care that you call people in the middle of the night?”

“Not-Hu – I mean Felix and I are taking a break,” Kimberly informed him.  She felt embarrassed admitting it to him but at the same time, she wanted him to know.

“I see.  Is that what you kids are calling breakups these days?” Garrett quipped snidely.

Kimberly felt her temper flare.  She hated the way he managed to be so condescending and arrogant with only a few select words.  “This was a bad idea.  I’m sorry for bothering you,” she said.  “Goodbye,
Garrett.”

“Hey, wait.  Sorry I’m being an ass,”
Garrett said quickly.  “I’m a little drunk.  But it really is good to hear from you, Kimmy.  Want to meet up?” 

“Now?” she asked, somewhat indignantly.  What did he think it was – a booty call?  An obnoxious little voice in the back of Kimberly’s head self-righteously pointed out that maybe that assumption wasn’t so far from the truth.  She quickly silenced it, not wanting to entertain the possibility.

“No, you’re right,” Garrett conceded.  “We’ll go to dinner tomorrow night instead.  I know a great Italian place down by the river.  I’ll text you the address.”

Was it a date?  Or was it an innocent meeting of two old friends?  Kimberly had no idea. 

If it was a date, surely the chivalrous thing would be to pick her up rather than making her find her own way to the restaurant, right?  Surely
Garrett intended the dinner to be strictly platonic.  She probably wasn’t his type anyway. 

He probably went for sluttier, sexier women…bottle blondes with fake tits and no panties.  Kimberly tried to think of such women with scorn but really, the thought just made her feel inadequate in comparison.  She wasn’t a model.  She didn’t look like a porn star.  She wasn’t worldly or daring or seductive or flirtatious.  She was just…Kimberly.  No, she concluded, she definitely wasn’t
Garrett’s type.

Even so, a part of Kimberly secretly hoped he’d be waiting there with flowers for her.

Garrett was waiting for her, but there were no flowers.  He didn’t stand up when she arrived, let alone pull out her chair or kiss her hello.  Instead, he gave her a casual wave and turned away, engrossed in a phone call. 

Finally, he set his cell down.  “Hi,” he said, his eyes traveling over her before settling on her face.

Kimberly blushed.  She’d put more effort into her appearance than usual, pinning her hair back with a delicate barrette and choosing a simple but flattering dress that brought out the green in her eyes. 

She wasn’t sure why.  Clearly she was setting herself up for disappointment.  Even so, deep down she was pleased by
Garrett’s appreciative look.

Kimberly didn’t know why she’d been so nervous to see Garrett.  He was slightly standoffish at first, but his mood soon improved.  Before long, he was telling his usual raunchy jokes and scandalous stories, making her blush furiously while simultaneously collapsing in giggles.

She’d missed him.

She wanted to tell him so, but felt too shy.  Kimberly had always felt like she could tell Felix anything without fear of being judged or scoffed at.  With Garrett, it was different.  He made her nervous.

Around the time they were finishing their second bottle of wine, the conversation became more sexually charged. 
Garrett had just finished telling Kimberly a disgusting, hilarious tale of a kinky hookup gone horribly wrong. 

“So the hotel maid really walked in on your girlfriend handcuffed naked to the bed?” Kimberly asked, feeling a twinge of excitement between her thighs.  The thought of bondage play intrigued her. 

“She wasn’t my girlfriend,” Garrett corrected her.  “I don’t have girlfriends.  But yes, the maid got an eyeful.  She barely even reacted…I take it she’s seen far worse working at that hotel,” he chuckled. 

“Why are you so against having girlfriends?” Kimberly wanted to know.

Garrett shrugged.  “It’s more trouble than it’s worth,” he said dismissively.  “Why deal with all that ‘romance’ and ‘commitment’ bullshit when you can just hang out, have fun and get laid?  It’s so much easier.”  Then he motioned to the waiter to bring them another bottle of wine.  

Kimberly leaned forward on her elbows, resting her chin against her hand. 

“What?” Garrett demanded as she stared at him.

“What happened?” she asked softly, her tone empathetic.

“What do you mean?” he said gruffly, looking around impatiently for the waiter to return with more wine. 

“I mean,” Kimberly said as the waiter brought them the wine and cleared their empty bottle away, “you must have had a pretty painful breakup to be so against relationships now.  So who was she?”

A look of annoyance crossed Garrett’s ruggedly handsome face.  He quickly washed it away with a big gulp of wine.  “Sorry to discredit your theory, Kimmy,” he said in a deliberately light, nonchalant tone, “but no girlfriend has ever broken my heart.  In fact, there haven’t really ever been girlfriends.”

Kimberly was surprised.  She’d assumed
Garrett had a past filled with passionate, torrid love affairs and messy, painful breakups.  He just seemed to be the type, somehow.  “How do you know you’re opposed to relationships if you haven’t experienced them before?” she challenged him.

Garrett
chuckled.  “Before you lost your virginity, did you want to have sex?” he asked, his eyes twinkling mischievously.  He clearly enjoyed teasing her, saying things that made her uncomfortable just to delight in watching her squirm.

Kimberly blushed.  “I’m not sure that’s any of your business!” she retorted drunkenly.

Garrett’s chuckled became a full-fledged laugh.  “It was a rhetorical question, Kimmy,” he explained, amused.  “Of course you did.  There are some things you just know you want, even if you haven’t experienced them before.  Or in my case, some things you just know you
don’t
want.”

Although she wasn’t completely satisfied with his explanation, Kimberly did have to admit it was reasonable enough.  “Fine, you win,” she grumbled, plucking a breadstick from the basket left over from their meal.

Garrett regarded her with amazement.  “How can you still be hungry?”

Kimberly reddened.  “I’m not,” she said, “but I need something after all that wine.”

He looked impressed.  “You have had a lot of wine,” he agreed.  “I like that – a woman who can eat and drink me under the table.  Well, almost,” he corrected himself with a wink. 

“I’m not sure anyone could drink you under the table.”

“No,” Garrett said thoughtfully, “I suppose not.”

“Are you an alcoholic?” Kimberly blurted out before she had a chance to think about how the question would sound.  That was one of the unfortunate side effects of alcohol for her; an inability to filter what she said.

To her relief, Garrett didn’t seem offended. “I’m not,” he said, “but I do drink too much.  Sometimes because it keeps me company when I’m on the road alone,” he explained.  “But other times – like tonight – it’s strictly social.” 

“Is it lonely, being on the road all the time?”

“Sometimes it is.  Other times, it’s nice.”  Garrett cleared his throat and then lowered his voice conspiratorially.  “But enough about that,” he murmured.  “I saw the way your eyes lit up when we were talking about bondage earlier.  You’re into that, aren’t you, Kimmy?”

Garrett
’s eyes glimmered with amusement as Kimberly reacted with embarrassment.  Finally she managed to spit out, “I’ve never done that before.”

“But you want to.”
  It was a statement, not a question.

“No!
” she protested a bit too quickly.  Then after a pause, she confessed, “Well…maybe.  I don’t know,” she mumbled, averting her eyes.

“Want to find out?”

She should have said no.  She probably would have said no had she not been light-headed and tipsy, warm and tingly from all the wine.  Well, maybe.  Actually, she wasn’t sure.  Even if she’d been completely sober, Kimberly suspected she still may have returned to
Garrett’s hotel with him.  He had a strange effect on her.

“So you live in hotels?” she demanded as she stumbled into his executive suite.

“Pretty much…I have room service and a maid cleans up after me; what’s not to love?”

Kimberly bent down to take off her stilettos.  She was already unsteady on her feet thanks to the alcohol and the impractical shoes weren’t exactly helping. “I just think it’d be strange to not have roots anywhere, you know?” she explained as she leaned against the wall and tried to unfasten the ankle strap without falling over.

Wordlessly, Garrett knelt down in front of her and unfastened the shoe for her.  He slid the sexy stiletto off her foot.  His hand lingered on her ankle for a moment before he had her shift her weight to her now-bare foot so that he could remove her second shoe. 

“Roots are overrated.”

“But it’s like you’re a…a…a perpetual wanderer!” Kimberly insisted.  “Isn’t it lonely?”

“Why would I be lonely?”
Garrett asked as he stood up and ran a hand through her slightly disheveled dark hair.  “You’re here.”  He leaned down and kissed Kimberly, preventing her from replying. 

Maybe it was the wine or maybe it was their chemistry.  Whatever it was, Kimberly’s knees went weak and she nearly fell when
Garrett’s lips pressed against hers.  She’d fantasized about kissing him for so long and now it was happening!  It was even better than she’d imagined.

Garrett
caught Kimberly easily as her legs gave out.  He picked her up as though she weighed nothing at all.  Then he carried her through the foyer and into the bedroom.  There, he deposited her on the four poster canopy bed that looked like it was fit for royalty.

She gazed up at him, too inebriated to be nervous.  “What are you going to do to me?”

“Right now,” Garrett informed her, “I’m going to cover you up and lie down beside you so we can sleep off the wine.”

“And then?”

Garrett gave Kimberly a wink that made her heart flutter.  “It wouldn’t be nearly as fun for either of us if I told you,” he said cryptically.

~~~

When Kimberly awoke, it was still dark outside.  She could feel Garrett’s breath on her neck.  His arm was wrapped around her possessively and his body contorted to press against hers.  She liked the way it felt to have him so close.

“You’re awake,” he said when he noticed her stirring. 

“Mmhmm,” she murmured, reluctantly pulling away from Garrett’s warm, safe grip.  “I’ll be right back.”

In the bathroom, Kimberly freshened up before returning to the bedroom.  Her stomach was in knots.  It was nervous anticipation.  She felt equal parts excitement and dread.  She’d never submitted to anyone before and the intense jolts of electricity she felt every time
Garrett so much as looked at her were overwhelming.  Was she really going to go through with this?

Garrett
, apparently, was wondering the same thing.  “You sure about this?” he asked when she returned to the bedroom.  Clearly he suspected she’d only agreed to the kinky sex games due to her drunkenness.  Now that she was sobering up, he probably thought she’d back out.

“I’m sure,” she said bravely, he voice only wavering slightly.

Garrett grinned.  “Good.  Take off your clothes.”

Kimberly hesitated.  “Right here?” she asked, trying to buy time while she thought of a way out.  Felix was the only man she’d ever been with and even he had never seen her naked – not really.  She’d always disrobed under the cover of darkness or hidden beneath the sheets.  To strip down and bare all to
Garrett was a mortifying concept.