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CHAPTER FORTY-TWO

Garret puts my bag of clothes on the bed in the room I’ve decided to stay in. “I need to get you a suitcase, Jade. These garbage bags just aren’t working.”

“They work just fine.” I notice a piece of paper on the nightstand. “What’s this?”

“It’s from Lilly. She made it for you. It’s a drawing of you and me that night of the fundraiser. We’re holding the pink punch she gave us.”

I look closer at the drawing. She used a bright purple crayon for my dress and gave me really long hair and bright red lips. She made Garret twice as tall as me but extended his arms so we could hold hands.

“This is so sweet. Damn, if Lilly keeps this cute thing going, she’s going to make me want to have kids someday.”

“I told you she has a way of making you do stuff you never thought you’d do.” He lies down on the bed. I set the drawing down and lie next to him.

“So what should we do first?” I realize as I say it that I sound overly enthusiastic. “We have all this free time from now until Sunday. No tests. No homework.”

He flips on his side to face me. “Is that why you’re so excited right now?”

“I’m excited because I’m staying here in your house without your dad getting mad. And I get to spend Thanksgiving with you.”

My comment brings a grin to his face. “I thought you didn’t care about Thanksgiving. It’s just another day, right?”

“Yeah. I guess it is. But I still like spending it with you.”

He kisses me quick. “So here’s what we’re doing tomorrow. I talked to Charles, our cook, and he wasn’t going to make food just for himself but when he heard we were staying here, it gave him an excuse to make Thanksgiving dinner. That means you should get your appetite ready because he tends to make a lot. I told him not to get too fancy but to stick with the traditional stuff. Turkey. Sweet potatoes. Stuffing.”

“Then I won’t eat anything tonight so I’ll be really hungry tomorrow.”

“You have to eat. Charles is making dinner for us tonight. When someone new comes over, he has to show off his cooking skills. But I told him no fish or seafood. And nothing Katherine would eat.”

I laugh as I get up from the bed. “Show me the rest of your house.”

“Up here is just a bunch of bedrooms that look like this one,” he says as we walk into the hall. We go downstairs to the main level. “My dad’s office is over there just off the foyer. Across from it is the study. And the kitchen’s in the back, off the dining room. And down that hall are the rooms you were in the night of the fundraiser. Those are just used for entertaining. Let’s go to the other wing.”

“You have wings here?” I follow him down a long and narrow hallway.

“This is the movie room.” He goes in a room that looks like a mini movie theater. It has four rows of tiered seating and a massive screen on the wall and there’s a projector mounted to the ceiling.

“You have your own movie theater?” I have to lift my jaw off the floor to say it. I didn’t even know you could put a movie theater in a house.

“Check this out. It even has a concession stand.” He walks to the back of the room where there’s a popcorn machine, a soda machine, and a glass cabinet full of boxes of candy.

“This is the most amazing thing I’ve ever seen!”

“If you want, we can watch a movie later.”

“Are you kidding? We’re definitely watching a movie. I might just live in here.”

“You’re funny.” He grabs my hand, dragging me out of there. “Next is the game room. If you haven’t noticed yet, this is the fun part of the house. The other part is the stuffy, boring part. My dad had this section built for me because he knew how much I hated Katherine. It was his bribe to get me to be nice to her when they got married. But I think he secretly likes having all this stuff himself. He just used me as his excuse to have it.”

The next room he takes me in has a pool table, a pinball machine, and some game machines like they have in an arcade. There’s a huge TV hanging on the wall with odd shaped chairs in front of it.

“Do you like video games?” Garret asks.

“I don’t know. I’ve never played any.”

“Then I’ll have to teach you. We have all the game systems and tons of games.”

“What’s with those chairs?”

“You sit in those to play the games. They have speakers in them.”

“Seriously?” I sit in the goofy chair. “This is so great. Look at all the stuff we could do. Play pool. Pinball. Watch a movie.”

“Come on. We’re not done with the tour yet.” He takes me farther down the hall where there’s an indoor basketball court and a large indoor pool. They also have an outdoor pool.

“I can’t believe you never told me about any of this.”

“I don’t like to brag about shit. Besides, it’s just stuff. It doesn’t make you happy. I tell myself that all the time so I don’t end up like my dad. He’s obsessed with making money. It’s never enough. That’s what happens. You have all this, but then you want more. So then you have to find ways to make even more money to buy more stuff. I don’t want to live that way. I’ve watched my dad all these years. He has all this but he’s not happy.”

We head back over to the other side of the house. “Now that you’ve had the tour, do you want to go somewhere?”

“Why would we go somewhere? We have everything we need right here. I don’t know what to do first. Can we watch a movie?” I sound overly excited again but I can’t help it. The guy has a freaking movie theater and an arcade in his house!

“Sure. We can watch whatever you want.”

I hug him. I don’t know why. It’s the excitement thing again. “Can we make popcorn?”

He laughs. “Yes, but I might need Charles’ help. I can’t remember how to use the machine. Let’s go to the kitchen.”

The kitchen is enormous. It’s more like a commercial kitchen than a home kitchen. It has two stainless steel oversized refrigerators and three big wall ovens and the biggest stove I’ve ever seen.

“Charles, this is Jade. The one you’ve been waiting to cook for.”

A nice-looking, gray-haired older man in a chef’s coat comes over to shake my hand. “Jade, I hope you’re hungry. Garret told me what you like, but if you have any special requests just let me know.”

“Oh, no. I don’t want you to go to any trouble. Really. I eat anything.”

“Garret said you love potato chips.” Charles goes over to a cabinet and pulls out a bowl. Instead of getting a bag of chips, he pulls out a covered container.

“Did you make those?” I ask him as he pours the potato chips into a bowl.

He seems confused by the question. “Yes. Why?”

“I’ve never had homemade potato chips.” I bite into a chip. It actually tastes like a potato, unlike the bagged chips I normally eat that just taste like salt. “These are so good. Garret, I’m eating homemade potato chips!”

Garret gives a look to Charles who smiles back at him. Garret must’ve warned him about my tendency to get excited over little things.

After our potato chip snack, we watch a movie in the theater room. Charles makes the popcorn and watches with us for a few minutes, then goes back to the kitchen to prep tomorrow’s dinner.

When the first movie ends, I insist we watch another one. I could sit in there for days and watch movies. After the second one, we have dinner and Garret asks Charles to join us. I’m sure Charles isn’t normally allowed to eat with his employer but Garret doesn’t care. And I like Charles. I don’t want him eating by himself.

Garret and I play video games after dinner. I’m actually not too bad for someone who hasn’t played before. Garret’s way better, of course, even though he claims he hasn’t played since last summer.

Around 11, I go to my bedroom and Garret goes to his. The bathroom in my room is huge. There’s a massive bathtub and walk-in shower. I take a quick shower to test it out, then get into bed.

I’m not used to a queen-size bed. It seems gigantic. I’ve always had a twin bed. I toss and turn trying to get comfortable. By midnight, I can’t take it anymore. I get up and walk quietly down the hall to Garret’s room. He has a small light on in the bathroom which helps me find my way to his bed.

“Garret,” I whisper as I tiptoe closer. He doesn’t answer. It sounds like he’s sleeping. I sneak under the covers, trying not to wake him.

The bed moves as he rolls over. “Jade?”

“Sorry. I couldn’t sleep. I’m not used to such a big bed. I didn’t mean to wake you up. I’ll just go back over there.”

He hooks his arm around my waist. “You’re not going anywhere. This is the first time I’ve had a girl in this bed.”

There’s something about sneaking into his bed late at night that I find to be extremely hot. That and the fact that he’s shirtless and smells like he just got out of the shower. I move closer until our bodies are touching, then kiss him softly.

Garret wakes up from his half-asleep state and kisses me back. Our light kisses quickly turn more intimate and I feel myself wanting more.

His hand moves over my t-shirt, stopping at my breast, his thumb lightly circling the center of it. My heart rate ramps up and my chest rises and falls as my breath quickens. He slips my shirt off and his tongue teases the area his thumb just warmed up.

Now I really want more. Way more.

I slide my hand under the front of his pajama pants. He must only wear boxers to bed when I’m sleeping next to him because tonight there’s nothing there but him. His breathing becomes heavier and more uneven as I touch him. His pants don’t fit him right in his aroused state so I slide them off.

“Where are you taking this, Jade?” he asks in a deep, sexy voice as he leaves kisses up and down my neck.

I don’t answer him as I shimmy out of my pajama shorts and kick them off. He runs his fingers under the hem of my white lace bikinis, causing a flood of sensation to erupt between my legs.

“Jade, what are you doing here?” He says it softly by my ear. “I need to know.”

My eyes meet his in the dim light of the room. “I love you, Garret.”

“I love you, too. But tell me what you want here. Tell me how far.”

“I want you. All of you.”

“Are you sure?” I hear the surprise in his voice. He probably didn’t expect this to happen for weeks. Or months.

“Yes. I’m sure.”

He looks at me like he doesn’t believe me.

“Garret, I’m ready for this. I want this.” I smile at him. “Don’t you?”

He smiles back. “I’m pretty sure you know the answer to that.”

“So what are you waiting for?”

He keeps his eyes on mine as he tugs my panties down until they’re all the way off. I thought he’d skip straight to the sex, like the last guy I was with, but instead he lies next to me and kisses me as he moves his hand along my body, teasing all my sensitive areas. Areas I didn’t even know were sensitive until he touched them. The guy seriously knows what he’s doing.

When I’m at the point that I can’t wait a second longer, he grabs a condom from the nightstand and rolls it on.

He hovers over me, our bodies not yet touching. “Jade, we don’t have to do this. I can wait. I’ll wait as long as you want.”

“I know. But I don’t want to wait. I want to be with you.” And it’s so true. I’m dying to be with him.

He lowers his body over mine and kisses me again. Then he lifts up slightly and I feel the tip of him brush against me. I panic for a second, not sure if this will hurt like it did the last time. But he inches in slowly, his hips gently rocking until he’s fully inside. I breathe into it and then relax when I realize it doesn’t hurt. It feels good. Really good.

I open my eyes and see Garret watching me, like he’s making sure I’m okay. I give him a look that says that I am, then let my eyes fall shut again as I focus on how this feels.

His lips touch my shoulder, my neck, my mouth, giving me gentle, barely-there kisses. Then his breathing grows more ragged as he moves in and out, slowly and rhythmically, awakening sensations deep within my core.

It’s so much better than the first time I had sex. I didn’t feel anything back then, at least nothing good. Now I’m feeling things I didn’t even know I could feel. And not just the physical things. It’s more than that. I feel a deeper connection to Garret. I can tell how much he loves me by the way he’s touching me and kissing me and watching me to make sure I’m okay.

Garret pauses for a moment. He’s trying to make this last for me which is sweet, but my body is aching for him to keep going. I lift my head up and kiss him hard and with purpose. He gets the message and his hips start moving again, faster this time. My hips instinctively move along with him. Soon every muscle in my body tenses up and I clutch his shoulders, arching back as the tension releases in powerful waves. When he said he’d make it worth the wait, he definitely wasn’t exaggerating.

His movement slows briefly and his head lowers down to place a soft, sweet kiss on my lips. Then he starts up again, moving faster, his breathing heavy, until his body shudders against me.

He rolls onto his back, taking me with him in his arms and holding me snugly against the side of his body. “I love you, Jade.”

“I love you, too.”

Our first time together and it was better than I could’ve imagined. I’m proud of myself for not freaking out. For not hearing my mother’s voice in my head. For not worrying that I didn’t know what I was doing. I just went with it and let myself be happy.

And I’m definitely happy. I finally know what sex is supposed to feel like. If I’d known that, I wouldn’t have waited so long to do this with Garret.

We lie quietly for a moment and I glance around and notice the high school trophies on his bookshelf.

“Did I just make 15-year-old Garret’s fantasy come true? A girl sneaking into his room at night?”

He drops a kiss on my cheek. “You made 19-year-old Garret’s fantasy come true. And you did more than sneak in my room.”

“Hey, it’s not like I intended to do that.”

“I don’t know, Jade. It seemed kind of intentional to me. You wake me up, then start kissing me, then rub up against me, and strip me naked. I think you might’ve taken advantage of me just now.”

His serious tone makes me laugh. “Well, I couldn’t sleep over there all alone in that big bed. What did you expect me to do?”

“So can I look forward to you taking advantage of me tomorrow night? And maybe the night after that?”

“I was thinking of taking advantage of you after I get a few hours of sleep.”

“Well, shit. Then let’s go to sleep.” He gives me a kiss. “Goodnight, Jade.”

“Goodnight.” I laugh as I say it.

We wake up around 7 and as promised, I take advantage of him. I have a feeling we’ll be doing this a lot now.

I go back to my room to shower, then meet him downstairs for breakfast.

“How did you sleep?” Garret asks me as Charles pours us some orange juice.

“Good. Great, actually.” We’re staring at each other across the table. I know we just did it but when I see his sparkly blue eyes and that sexy smile, I’m ready to do it again.

“Jade, I made some donuts for you.”

The words “donuts” and “made” wake me from my Garret-induced sex haze and I realize Charles is talking to me. “Did you just say you made donuts? Like made them from scratch?”

“Yes. I’ll go get them.” He disappears into the kitchen.

“He made freaking donuts, Garret! That guy is incredible!”

“Hey, I thought I was incredible.” He leans across the table. “At least that’s what you said—”

“So we have glazed, sprinkled, powdered.” Charles returns with a tray full of donuts. “I made an assortment.”

“I need to try one of each.” I turn to Charles. “How do you make these? Do you have a machine or something?”

He laughs. “No. They’re not that hard to make.”

I bite into the powdered one. “These are sooo good.”

“What time is dinner?” Garret asks him.

“I was thinking 2. Does that work?”

“Works for me. What do you think, Jade?”

I can’t answer. My mouth is full of donuts. I notice that I now have powdered sugar all over my hands.

Garret shakes his head, laughing at me as he takes a donut. “Never mind. We’ll eat at 2, Charles.”

After breakfast, Garret insists we watch the parade. We go to the game room with the massive TV on the wall and lie on the couch. I’m cold so he grabs some blankets and puts them over us. We lie there together, being completely lazy.

When the parade ends we check on Charles in the kitchen and offer to help, but he kicks us out. I’m sure we’d only get in his way. We go back to the game room and play some arcade games.

I feel like I’m living in a movie. Staying in this fancy estate. Having a cook make all my food. Dating this super hot guy. None of this even seems real.

At 2, we sit down for dinner. Charles brings out a turkey that looks like something you’d see in a magazine. It’s golden brown on top and has garnishes all around it on the tray. The side dishes are already out; the traditional classics that Garret insisted I have at my first “real” Thanksgiving.

“Would you like to carve the turkey, Garret?” Charles asks him.

“Sure.” Garret goes over to it and Charles shows him how to carve it. As they’re carving the turkey, I take in the scene, again feeling like it’s not real. But it is real. I’m sitting at a table eating Thanksgiving dinner. At a house. Not a restaurant. With the person I love.