Queen Never Cry novel · Chapter 13 of 32

Chapter 13: Hands

Garret's truck was waiting at the end of the drive with the engine running and the headlights off.

I climbed in and shut the door.

He looked at my face for a long moment and did not ask a single question.

"You did it," he said finally.

"I counted twenty thousand dollars in front of the board."

"Did you cry?"

"No."

"Did you want to?"

"I wanted to put my fist through something."

He turned the key.

"I know a wall," he said.

We did not talk on the highway.

Halfway down Sheridan Road I put my hand on his thigh, and every muscle under it went tight.

He drove the rest of the way with his knuckles white on the wheel.

When we reached the depot he killed the engine and sat there, breathing, with the dark yard all around us.

"Pippa."

"Upstairs," I said. "Now."

We did not make it to the bed.

He got the door open and I pulled him inside by his collar.

The door slammed behind us.

I was against it with his mouth on mine, hard and hungry, and his hands braced either side of my head.

I kissed him back until I couldn't breathe.

"Last time I led," I said against his lips.

"I noticed."

"Tonight you lead."

He went still.

"Say that again."

"You decide," I said. "Everything. I want to stop deciding."

His eyes went black.

He took a slow step back.

He looked at me from head to foot.

"Turn around," he said.

I turned to face the door, my palms on the wood.

He unzipped my dress, slowly, as he had done in Hester's bedroom, and his knuckles trailed down the length of my spine.

The dress fell around my ankles.

"Look at you," he murmured behind me.

His mouth landed on the back of my neck.

His hand slid around my waist and up, over my bra, and cupped my breast hard.

I gasped and pushed back against him.

I felt him through his jeans, hot and thick and rigid against my ass.

"Garret."

"Patience."

He unhooked my bra, stripped me bare, and carried me to the bed.

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