K. Linde - Take Me for Granted

“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 fucking 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 fucking 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 fucking weeks.”

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

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

“What the fuck does that mean?” she shouted.

“You fucked 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 fucking 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 fucking believed them? You didn’t think to call me?”

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

“I was fucking miserable without you. I wanted to give you the space you’d asked for, but I fucking 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 fucking 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 fucking 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.

“Shit!” she hissed. “It’s cold.”

“Not for long, Princess.”

I trailed my hands down her legs until I found her waiting opening. I circled my fingers around her and then finger-fucked her pussy until she was all warmed up for me. I didn’t want to hurt her, but I wasn’t exactly patient. She squirmed underneath me until her breathing turned labored, and I felt her walls tightening all around me. Fuck, that’s hot.

She was so damn close to an orgasm, and I knew that I was going to push her right over the edge any minute. As I circled her clit, she came undone at my insistence.

“Grant…”

“I know, babe,” I said before covering her mouth with mine. “I’m going to fuck you now.”

Her eyes were wide. She wanted what I was offering, but a spark of fear still crept into her features. Everything about her was fucking hot. Just the way she had her mouth opened slightly like that made me want to shove my dick down her throat. But it was too cold, and I wanted her around me—hot and wet and tight.

I slipped on a condom, and without warning, I thrust forward inside her. She yelped as she expanded to fit me. Fucking hell, she feels so fucking amazing. Everything else paled in comparison. There was only Ari and me.

My fingers locked in her hair, and as I slowly slid out of her, I brushed my lips against her. “Princess, open your eyes.”

She complied, and those big blue eyes stared up at me.

I started up a steady rhythm. “Tell me if I hurt you.”

“Okay,” she whispered throatily.

“Because I’m not going to be gentle.”

Her eyes widened as I took what was mine, and I slammed back into her, hard. She made a small cry, but she didn’t tell me to stop. And I had no plans to. Our bodies met over and over as I picked up the pace. I could tell that I was close to coming, but I needed to hold out long enough for her. I could hold out for her second orgasm…even if it felt like I might explode any second.

“Fuck, Ari.”

“Grant,” she breathed.

“Louder,” I encouraged, and I thrust into her harder.

“Oh God,” she cried a little louder.

“My name. Scream my name.”

She bit on her lip, so I slammed into her again and again until her eyes rolled back into her head, and she really was calling out my name. She probably didn’t even know how loud she was.

Fuck, I couldn’t hold out any longer. I came as soon as I felt her walls contracting around me.

“Fuck, fuck, fuck,” I said, leaning over Ari. I shuddered, and then I was spent.

Her breathing was ragged, and to my surprise, so was mine.

I pushed her hair out of her face, kissed her lips lightly, and sighed. “I love you.”

She smiled up at me in a dreamy haze. “I love you, too.”

After our escapade, we retreated back to Duffie’s for warmth. Grant still had keys to the restaurant. He started a fire in the fireplace, dropped the blankets down on the ground, and snuggled us up in front of it. There was so much that needed to be said, yet…it felt right. Things felt right again.

It wasn’t just the sex. But holy shit, the sex…

My body flushed from just thinking about what had happened outside. As cold as I was, my whole body was also super heated with energy. I’d come here to talk to Grant, and somehow, he’d just unraveled all my plans. Now, we had to decide where to go from here.

Grant’s mouth found mine again, and just when I thought we might have a repeat performance, he pulled back and just stared into my eyes. There was longing, pain, desperation, and desire all rolled into one.

“Ari, about what happened at the lodge…”

“No, you don’t have to say anything,” I said quickly. “Kristin told me nothing happened.”

“I don’t mean about that. I mean, about what I said. I was so angry, and you just laid out every reason I’d been telling myself why I didn’t deserve you. I shouldn’t have said those things. I shouldn’t begrudge you the good life you had growing up. You deserve everything that you have. I love your fucking mouth, and I love how smart you are. I’d never change that because those are the things that made me fall in love with you in the first place.”

I smiled slowly and then glanced down. “I shouldn’t have said you were worthless. That’s not fair to you. You are ambitious. It’s just not what I’d been raised to believe ambition was.” Henry’s face appeared before my eyes, and I shuddered.

“I’ve actually been thinking a lot about what you said, and on some level, I think you’re right. I’ve been coasting most of my life because of what happened. It consumed me, and I never let myself get past it. And…I might not be the CEO of a company, but I got a job.”

“You did?” My mouth dropped open. I wasn’t sure why I was so surprised, but I’d just never thought about Grant working. “Doing what?”

“Working at a recording studio. It’s not a big deal right now, but I like the work. Plus, I wanted to do better, be more for you.”

“Grant,” I said with a smile, “you’re already everything I want.”

“That’s not true, Princess, and we both know it. You deserve a CEO.”

“But I want you.”

“And I’ll be thankful every day for that, but I still have to try.”

He was so earnest that I really believed him. I didn’t think he needed to better himself for me, but I had told him that he wasn’t good enough and that he hadn’t done anything to prove he had changed. Well, here was proof.