Page 75 of Tattered Souls
When they didn’t move fast enough, Garrick slammed his fist on the table and started to stand.
He would never hit a woman, and that fact caused me to smile, but he could be intimidating as hell.
And per Harlee’s words... I changed them... he got my motor revving.
Watching the women scurry away, I giggled.
Garrick winked at me, then sat back down.
And then... watching him... standing up for me... wanting me... protecting me... loving me... I couldn’t help it.
The words fell out of my mouth before I could freak out about it.
Telling him something that I’ve only ever told one other person. Granger.
I looked at Garrick, who had a worried brow, and even though he more than likely couldn’t hear me, I said, “I love you.”
He froze.
I sat there and watched it.
His eyes didn’t move; his chest didn’t move.
But then, like a shot, he was out of his chair so fast that it flew back and hit the wall, and then he was prowling towards me.
When he made it to me, he wrapped his hand around the side of my neck, and with a rasp he said, “Say it again.”
“I love you,” I whispered.
Garrick froze for a nanosecond, and then I was up and over his shoulder, as he carried me out of the bar.
Without a word to me, he handed me my helmet and then climbed on in front of me.
Then we were off.
This was my fourth time being on the back of his bike, and I loved it.
We rode and rode, until we stopped high up on a hill, and he pulled over.
Then with his arm, he wrapped it around my waist and swung me around his body so that my legs were wrapped around his hips and my back was to the handlebars.
“Need you to say it again,” he rasped.
“Honey,” I said.
His eyes closed. “That’s two. Say it again. Please.”
I waited for his eyes to open, and then I smiled. “I love you, Garrick Lucas Griggs.”
So... having sex on a bike was definitely one for the books....
So was him saying, “I fucking love you too, Tatum Leanne Rogers,” and knowing that he truly meant it... a huge chunk of my heart that he hadn’t already mended.... closed.
With him inside of it.
‘Difficulty calls us to rise up. And in that rising, we learn what we are capable of.’
– Frank’s words to his children.
