The Wedding Pact Box Set - Denise Grover Swank Page 0,189

get through to her.

He went through the back door and found her in front of the sink holding onto the counter, panic in her eyes.

“What do you know about love, Garrett Lowry?” she said, looking at the side yard through the window. “You found our love so disposable you were willing to toss it aside to sleep with someone the very next night.”

He gave up all pretense of playing it cool and spanned the room in four footsteps to stand at her side. “I didn’t sleep with her, Blair. I swear to God. I was an idiot the night I walked out and an even bigger idiot when I got so drunk with my buddy that I couldn’t drive. I let Jody take me home.”

“I don’t believe you.”

He held out his hands. “Why would I lie now? Why not just own up to it? I won’t deny I slept with quite a few women afterward, so why would I lie about that?”

“I don’t know.” Her voice cracked.

Time to go for broke. “I’ve spent five years regretting both of those nights. If I could give up everything I’ve achieved in the last five years to go back and live that first night over again, I’d do it.”

She shot him a look of indecision.

“I was too stupid to see that you were lashing out because something had happened. I’d gotten a bad grade on my paper—the one I’d worked on relentlessly for two weeks—and I was mad and upset. All the way to your apartment I kept thinking about how much I wanted to see you. I knew you’d help me put everything in perspective. Then I walked in, and you got pissed because I hadn’t picked up laundry detergent for you, and the next thing I knew we were both yelling, and before I could even process what was going on, I’d packed my things and left.”

“I didn’t know,” she whispered as she turned to face him.

They were inches apart, and without thinking, he reached for her face and cupped her cheek. “And I didn’t know about your dad. Oh, God, Blair. You have no idea how devastated I was when I heard.”

She closed her eyes and leaned into his palm.

He wrapped his other hand around her back and slowly pulled her to his chest. “Nothing happened with Jody. I swear to you. She brought me home. I stumbled inside my apartment, and before I knew what happened, she kissed me and then stripped off her clothes before I pushed her away.”

“How can I believe you?”

“If I wanted to break up with you, why would I have run after you? Why would I have stood outside your door half the night, begging you to let me explain?” His thumb stroked her jaw, and he couldn’t believe she was in his arms again. Could it be this easy? “I was crushed, Blair. I didn’t have a clue how much I really loved you until I lost you. I had this gaping hole in my heart. I knew you’d never give me another chance, so I tried to find other ways to fill it. But no one ever came close to you.”

Her eyes fluttered open, and she looked at him with such longing it stole his breath.

“I love you, Blair. I never stopped loving you.”

She lifted her hand behind his neck and kissed him, her lips soft on his, hesitant. His tongue slid along her lower lip, and her mouth parted. Her grip on his neck tightened, and her tongue joined his as she dropped her guard and lost herself to the moment.

The fire that swept through his body caught him by surprise, and he pulled her closer, his hand sliding from the small of her back down to her ass and pulling her against his pelvis.

She groaned, and he felt her free hand grabbing his own ass, pulling him closer.

The sound of a doorbell barely registered in his head, but the voice he heard several seconds later sent ice water through his blood.

Neil was at the front door.

Chapter Fourteen

What the hell had she done?

She heard Neil at the front door. “Hey, Josh. I didn’t know you were here,” he said. “I thought I’d crash the party.”

Shit.

Blair froze in Garrett’s arms and tried to jerk away from him, but he held her tight.

Josh answered, “Bart invited me over to hang out in the basement and watch a game. He was feeling outnumbered. Noah’s here too.”

Panic flooded her, and she pulled against Garrett’s vise-like