Knowing You (The Jade Series #2) (21 page)

His tongue caresses mine as the hot steam surrounds us and the water cascades over our skin. All this wetness reminds me of our kiss in the pool, getting me even more aroused. He’s already well past that point and I’m wondering if he’s thinking of doing it in the shower. Before I can contemplate how that would even work, he’s got me backed against the tile wall.
 

“Put your legs around me,” he orders as he reaches under my thighs to lift me up. I hook my arms around his neck and wrap my legs around him. He seems to know exactly what to do, which means he’s done this before, maybe more than once. My mind quickly leaves that thought as he joins us together.
 

Everything about this feels incredible and I don’t want it to end, but he’s got my body so sensitive to his touch and his movement that it’s not going to last much longer. Minutes later I struggle to hold on as pure satisfying pleasure ripples through my core, with him following seconds later.

Yeah, he’s definitely done this before. He’s far too good at it.
 

Garret gently sets me down and shuts the water off. He opens the shower door and grabs two towels and hands me one. “That was a great idea, Jade. I’m all about saving water.”
 

“Are we doing this too much?” I ask as we dry off.

“Are we having too much sex? There’s no such thing as too much.”
 

A typical guy answer. I don’t even know why I asked.

“Still, we should try to go a whole day without doing it.”

“You can try, but I’ll still seduce you.” He kisses me as he unhooks the towel I just wrapped around myself.

“Then the plan won’t work,” I say, securing the towel again.

“Exactly.” He smiles. “Besides, I thought you were going to let yourself be happy.”

“I am.”

“And doesn’t this make you happy?”
 

“It does seem to have that effect,” I say, smiling.
 

“Then we’ll have sex as much as we want.” He slings his wet towel over the shower door and stands there naked.

“Can we do the shower thing again?” I freeze as I realize I just said that out loud. I was thinking it. I didn’t mean to say it! But damn, I can’t concentrate with all this nakedness.
 

His eyebrows raise. “Like right now?”

I roll my eyes. “No, not right now. Later.”

“Yeah, we can definitely do it later. Or now.” The cocky smile appears and I find it even sexier when he’s not wearing clothes. It makes me want to take him up on his offer to repeat what we just did. Right now. Not later. But I get control of myself and step out of the shower. I hear Garret behind me. “So you like the water, huh? Good thing you’re dating a swimmer.”

I’m so embarrassed. I never should’ve let him know that. Then again, he probably already knew that about me from our pool encounters.
 

I stop but don’t turn around. “Just because you’re a swimmer doesn’t mean you’re good at . . . other water-related things.”

He catches my waist and hauls me back against him, leaning down so his mouth is near my ear. “Trust me, Jade. I’m very skilled in the water. And it’s not just limited to swimming.” He loosens his grip like he’s going to let me go, but then tightens it again. “Oh, and what we did just now? That was nothing. I can get very creative when water’s involved.”
 

I have no freaking clue what he means by that but I sure as hell want to find out.

He lets me go and pats my butt. “Let’s go have breakfast and figure out what to do today.”

“We should go sledding,” I suggest as we’re eating breakfast. “With the storm yesterday there’s a fresh layer of snow.”

He picks up a carafe from the table and pours some orange juice in my glass. “Sledding is for kids, Jade.”
 

“It’s for anyone. When’s the last time you went sledding?”

“I don’t know. Probably when I was 8 or 9.”
 

“Garret, that’s forever ago! Where’s your sled?”

“We don’t have one.”

“Then let’s go get one and find a sledding hill.”

“Come on, Jade. Let’s do something else.”

“Please?” I tilt my head and smile.

“I swear, you’re as bad as Lilly. You know I can’t say no to you.” He sighs. “I guess we’re going sledding.”

Charles overhears us as he comes in from the kitchen. “You should take her to Bryant Park. They have a great sledding hill.”

“Do you know where that is, Garret?”

He laughs. “Yes. I’m
from
here, remember?”

“I’m gonna go get ready. You should wear layers. You’ll get hot climbing up the hill.”

I hear him sigh again as I’m leaving.
 

We stop at a store in town and pick up a sled, then go to the park. People are already there sledding. It’s a huge hill, surrounded on both sides with trees. We bought a big sled so we could go together, but I go down first to test it out. Then Garret joins me. The snow is slick and we speed down the hill. After several times down, I can tell Garret is having fun. We stay there for a couple hours. He even kicks me off the sled a few times so he can go by himself.

Afterward we go back to his house to change out of our wet clothes, then have lunch and go to a movie. When we get back, Charles has dinner waiting. Just as we’re finishing dessert, the doorbell rings.

“Did you let someone through the gate?” Garret asks Charles. He shakes his head. Garret gets up to answer it. For some reason, I follow him. He opens the door just a little.

“Hey, shithead.” It’s Blake. I’m standing behind the door, so I can’t see him but I recognize his annoying voice. He doesn’t sound drunk yet, which is shocking given that it’s Saturday night. “So you really are here. I thought you were in the Caymans, but Decker said you stayed here.”
 

“Yeah. I decided not to go. How did you get past the gate?”

“I know the password, dumbass. You gave it to me last year because you kept forgetting it when you were drunk. See? It’s in my phone.”

“Don’t keep that in your phone! Now I’ll have to get my dad to change it. I don’t even remember giving that to you. Anyway, I’m not going out, so I’ll see you later.”

“Then let’s party here.” He pushes the door open and notices me standing behind Garret. “Ohio. What are you doing here? Trying to pretend you’re rich or something?”

I see Garret tensing up. “You’re so fucking rude, Blake. Just get out of here.”

“You skipped out on the Caymans for her?” Blake looks me up and down, then flashes a grin at Garret. “You’re finally fucking her, aren’t you? It’s about damn time.”

Before Garret can yell at him, Decker walks in holding his phone like he just hung up with someone. “Hey, Garret. We weren’t sure if you were home.” He sees me and smiles. “Hi, Jade.”

“Hi, Decker,” I say, smiling back.

Unlike Blake, Decker is normal. He’s always been nice to me and he actually likes the fact that I’m dating Garret. I don’t know why Decker hangs out with Blake all the time, although Decker does drink a lot, so maybe they’re just drinking buddies.

“Decker, I was just telling Blake that I’m not going out with you guys.”

“That’s fine,” Decker says. “We didn’t know Jade was here. We should’ve called first. So what are you guys doing tonight?”
 

Blake crosses his arms across his chest. “Yeah. What
are
you doing tonight?”

“We’re busy,” Garret answers.

“Doing what? Fucking?” Blake laughs.

“Blake! What the hell is wrong with you?” Decker glares at him, then turns to Garret and me. “Sorry. We’ll leave you two alone.” Decker goes back outside. “I’m leaving, Blake. If you want a ride, you better get your ass out here.”

Blake follows him, but turns and looks back at me when he’s halfway through the door. “Hey, Ohio. You’ll never be a Kensington, so don’t even try.”
 

Garret slams the door. “Don’t listen to him. He’s just being an ass.”

I keep quiet because what Blake said is true. I’ll never be a Kensington. Garret’s dad may let us date, but there’s no way in hell he’d let it go beyond that. They’d kick Garret out of the family if he ever married me. Given my new commitment to be happy, I try not to think about it. Besides, it’s way too soon to even consider that far into the future.

We spend the rest of the night playing cards with Charles. It’s our last night at the house and I think Charles is going to miss us. I’m going to miss him, too, and I’ll definitely miss his cooking.
 

I sleep in Garret’s room again, enjoying one more night in a regular adult-size bed before we have to go back to our twin-size dorm beds. And of course we end up doing it, first in the bed and later in the shower. I figure we won’t get as many opportunities when we’re back at school. Garret will be busy with swim practice and meets and we’ll both be studying for finals.

Sunday morning, we have breakfast with Charles instead of going to Al’s Pancake House. Then we pack up and drive back to Moorhurst.
 

When we get there people are just starting to return. I almost feel sad coming back. I’m used to spending the whole day and night with Garret and now I’ll only see him once or twice a day, if that.

Garret carries my stuff to my room. “This kind of sucks being back.” He picks me up and lays me on the bed, positioning himself next to me. “I was getting used to our routine back at the house.”

“We had a routine?”

“Sleep late, eat breakfast, watch movies, have dinner with Charles, play poker.”

“You forgot the sex.”

“I didn’t
mention
the sex. I definitely didn’t forget it.” He leaves soft kisses down my neck, making my pulse speed up.
 

“Okay. Don’t start.”

“Why not?” He says it right next to my ear and my heart pumps even faster. “Do you have something else you need to be doing right now?”

“No, but . . .” He takes his shirt off, knowing I can’t resist his freaking hot chest and abs. “I can’t do this in the dorms with people right next door.”

He laughs. “We live here, Jade. There are going to be people around.”

“I know, but it’s embarrassing. What if they hear us?”

“We’ll be quiet.” He whispers it as he unzips my jeans. Something about his whisper is beyond sexy and I find myself moving closer to him.

We hear some girls walking down the hall, stopping just outside my room to talk.

“See, Garret? It’s too—”
 

He kisses me before I can finish and slides his hand down my jeans and under my panties. His kiss goes deeper and I no longer hear the noise in the hall because I’m completely distracted by what his hand is doing to me and the skillful movement of his tongue in my mouth.

And then he stops. I open my eyes to see him looking at me, a devilish grin across his face.

“So you don’t want it?”

“Nope.” It’s a total lie. Every cell in my body wants it. He’s driving me crazy!
 

“Okay.” He takes his hand away, jumps up off the bed, and puts his shirt back on. “I’m gonna go unpack my stuff. Want to meet for lunch?”

“Wait! What? That’s it?” I sit up. “Aren’t you going to try harder than that?”

He smiles and kisses my cheek. “I’ll be upstairs. See you later.” He picks up his bag and leaves.
 

Damn, he’s good. He knows exactly what to do to. Gets things started, then leaves me wanting more. Dying for more! Crap! I can’t believe what this guy does to me.
 

19

I go up to his floor and straight to his room. His door is open so I walk right in, slamming the door behind me and locking it. Then I kiss him like we haven’t seen each other in months as I undo his belt. He goes with it, not even acting surprised. I take his pants off and push him down on the bed.
 

A couple guys are yelling at each other in the hallway but I ignore them. I’ll just have to get used to the noise because I can’t wait until winter break to do this again.
 

When we’re done, that famous cocky smile appears on Garret’s face. “Anything you’d like to share?”

“About what?”

“About what changed your mind.”

“I think you know. And don’t embarrass me about this or we’re never doing it again.”

He laughs. I do, too, because it’s such a lie.

“So I guess we won’t see each other much this week with your swim schedule,” I say, resting my head on his chest.

 
“Yeah, probably not much until next weekend. I have practice every day and then I have that meet out of town on Thursday. But I was thinking we could go to New York next weekend. Maybe spend the night there. It’ll be all decorated for Christmas.”

I sit up. “It will?”
 

He tries not to smile. “Yeah, but I forgot. You don’t like Christmas. So maybe we should wait until January when all that Christmas crap is gone.”

“No!” I say it way too loud. I lower my voice. “I mean, I don’t mind the Christmas stuff. I’ll just ignore it. I think we should go.”