LITMIR.BIZ

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amused grins from only hours ago.

      He’d never gone to a dress fitting before.

      Torture.

      He sat on a chair outside a line of dressing rooms and watched as the ladies came out to stand before a huge mirror, where a busy little woman picked and poked and stabbed the material until she’d shaped it to her liking.

      He’d been doing fine, answering emails on his iPhone, until Kate came out and took his breath away.

      He watched her hop onto the platform and model the dress, exposing her slim, creamy ankles as she discussed the length with the short, busy-bee shop attendant. He felt as if a grenade had just exploded in his chest. His blood heated as he remembered the hell of watching her grow up, grow breasts, wear her hair longer, develop those curves. He’d seen her in her prom dress, in a barely there black bikini that hugged her silken curves in all the right places and made Garrett hurt in all the wrong ones.

      He’d seen her naked in his bed...writhing in his arms....

      And once he got her back there, he never wanted to see her dressed again.

      He wanted to touch her, hold her.

      He wanted to hear her breathe next to him at night. He just knew if she slept at his side, the mere feel of her would make all his nightmares vanish.

      He suddenly saw, clearly, how he’d be complete and whole with her. How he’d feel worthy and needed in a way he had never, ever felt before. But at the same time, he’d be vulnerable. Because, holy God, he needed this woman so much.

      He saw her eyes go bright when the girls came over, squealing in delight.

      “That blue looks so good on you,” Molly gushed.

      “Oh, your date is going to be so thrilled!”

      Garrett cocked a brow as he pushed himself off the chair and came over, listening to her ask if they were sure.

      He stood next to her and caught her gaze in the mirror. “Date?”

      She spun around to face him and her lips trembled in a smile. “I don’t know. We won’t be catering so I’ll have some time to spare.”

      “Exactly. Flirt around with a man. Have a little fun,” Molly said from nearby. Garrett couldn’t miss the mischievous glint in Molly’s eyes as she surveyed Garrett for a reaction.

      He gave her none.

      “Do we want this fitted...?” The saleslady maneuvered Kate’s skirt, and Garrett watched in rapture as the woman tucked the fabric around her waist to enhance Kate’s luscious curves even more.

      He studied her breasts, how lush they were, tightly constrained by the corsetlike bodice. His mouth watered and his hands ached. He was in hell and heaven at the same time, and it was the most puzzling feeling he’d ever experienced.

      Kate stared at his reflection, her blue eyes shining in concern and somehow pleading for a compliment. “Do you like it?”

      They both stared at one another, and for that one moment, nothing mattered but her. She held his gaze, and he held hers. His world centered around this one woman he’d always tried not to want.

      His eyes trailed along her body, taking her in, and he heard the soft, amusing sound of her breath catching. The gown was sapphire-colored, consisting of a tight corset top clinging to her body like second skin, then flaring into a wide skirt. He wanted to toss it up in the air and bury himself between her legs. Her arms were toned and slim, her breasts perky and tightly constricted, making him want to free them. Her glossy hair, too long and beautiful to keep restrained, hung down her shoulders.

      She was gazing at him nervously, wetting her lips. “Garrett...do you like it?” she repeated.

      He nodded while his body burned under his skin.

      Smiling tremulously, she hopped off the platform and started toward the changing rooms, but within three steps, he caught her wrist and spun her around. As if shocked, she looked down at his fingers curled around her flesh, then watched him, wide-eyed, as he lifted her hand in his and kissed her knuckles, one by one. “Speaking of dates,” he whispered when he was done, “do you have one?”

      Surprise and excitement flickered in her gaze, and his smile widened as he watched her struggle for a reply. He should probably ask Cassandra out on a date, start playing up appearances, but the hope he saw in Kate’s pretty eyes... He wanted to kiss her eyelids, and track her jaw with his tongue. Then go to the shell of her ear, where he would whisper all sort of things to her, naughty and nice. He wanted to have what his brothers had; he wanted all of that, with Kate.

      This talk of marriages of convenience and business mergers...

      Did any of it matter to him? If he didn’t have Kate?

      He didn’t deserve her, but he was damned ready to work to get her. He wanted to stop punishing himself, stop blaming himself for people dying, and just dream of all that life and love he felt when he looked at Kate.

      “I...” She hesitated, then shook her head, her cheeks coloring pink. “It’s best I go on my own.”

      She quickly pried her hand free and disappeared behind a velvet curtain to change once more.

      * * *

      Garrett Gage asking her out on a date?

      No. Not a date. Garrett Gage asking her out to the wedding.

      And he hadn’t really asked her. He seemed to be checking whether she already knew whom she’d go with, which was different.

      Still. In her heart, her gut, in the way he’d looked at her...oooh, how it had felt when he’d asked her that question.

      Kate was still reeling at the possibilities as they dropped off Beth and Molly and then rode in silence back to her place. Rain caught up with them by the time he pulled over in front of her one-story house. The drops were so big, they made huge splattering sounds on the windshield and the top of the car.

      “Oh, no,” Kate groaned.

      Garrett reached into the backseat and grabbed his suit jacket. “Remember this? Something like this has saved your pretty head from getting wet before.”

      The memories surfaced, and when his teeth flashed wide in a white smile, there was no future in Florida, no painful past, only Garrett and his coat, and the rain outside.

      He grabbed the door handle. “All right, Kate, here we go.”

      Heart pounding with emotion as she remembered other times he’d saved her just like this, she watched him sprint around the car and jerk the door open, holding his jacket over both their heads as he pulled her up against his side and onto the sidewalk. As her flats began getting soaked, she pressed close to his massive chest and suddenly his arm slid around her waist, his eyes glinting. “Ready? On three.”

      She nodded breathlessly, a gasp already poised in her throat.

      “One, two, three!”

      They ran for cover to the door, the fresh puddles at their feet splashing at each step as they both burst out laughing. Kate knew this wouldn’t have happened if her catering van hadn’t been parked in the middle of her driveway, but rain in Texas was truly rare and she hadn’t expected it at all.

      Once at the door, she struggled to fit the key into the doorknob, and she could hear Garrett breathing at her back as he hunched his shoulders over her, the jacket covering them both.

      “Katie, be any slower, and we could just shampoo here already.”

      “I’m getting it!” she cried, laughing at her own awkwardness as the angle of the rain managed to get them both wet from the sides. The door clicked open at last, and she hurried inside, turning to see him standing just outside the door, getting wetter by the second. She couldn’t bear to leave him there like that, so she motioned him inside and slammed the door after him. His white shirt clung damply to his back and right

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