Page 92 of Catching Sparks

Wouldn’t it just be easier to urge him to pull over and climb onto his lap instead?

No. It wouldn’t.

Huffing a breath, I turn away from him and stare out the passenger window. “Do you even know what it means to grovel? Or why you need to in the first place? It probably would have been smarter for me not to agree to go anywhere with you without a serious apology.”

He nods tensely. “I can’t say that I’ve ever had to grovel for anything or anyone in my life, Poppy. But I’m a quick study. And as far as why I need to . . . I thought that was obvious to the both of us.”

“I want to hear you say it,” I reply stubbornly, even as his statement of never having to do something like this for anyone else but me makes my heart sing in triumph.

He inhales slowly, calmly. “I’m sorry, Poppy. I hurt you. I walked out when you asked me for nothing but honesty, and it was the wrong move. I knew it was wrong the moment I left, but I’m a stubborn bastard with an ego the size of the sun, and quite frankly, you scared the shit out of me. You’ve been scaring the shit out of me. If I could go back, I’d tell you the truth and promise never to walk out on you again. But I can’t go back. Only forward. So, now, I’m hoping you’ll give me a chance to earn your forgiveness, because I—because I don’t want to spend the next few weeks without you.”

The admission is a blow to the chest, but I don’t give myself a chance to focus on it yet. Not until I know everything.

“And what is the truth, Garrison? Because you called yourself my boyfriend back there, and that seems to be a conversation that we’ve skipped entirely.”

I sneak a glance at him and find his cheeks flushed a soft pink. He grips the steering wheel tight, but not angrily.

“Seeing you with that guy upset me. Fuck, it more than upset me. It pissed me off and turned me into a raging, possessive beast. You’re not supposed to be on dates with other men, Poppy. Only me. I’m the only man you should be gifting your time to.”

He stares at me, waving a hand up and down the empty space between us. “Look at you. Christ, you dressed up for him. Do you have any idea how gorgeous you are on a normal day, let alone right now? Wearing that dress and those shoes that make your legs look a million miles long? I’ve wanted that lip gloss smeared all over my mouth like a brand since the moment I saw you sitting there with him.”

My heart threatens to burst free of my chest. The heat in his stare is almost too much. It sucks the air from my lungs, filling me with him and only him. Every word he speaks is more than I anticipated. The sincerity in them is shattering, almost hard to take in all at once.

“Are you saying that you have feelings for me? Real ones? I asked you back home whether you get this possessive over all of your fuck buddies. Is that what this is?”

I hold my breath and wait for him to respond. I’m being extra cautious, more so than I’ve ever been with a man. But this feels different than it has in the past. I have to know for sure if what he’s explaining is what I hope it is before I allow myself to get whisked away in the fantasy of being with him just to find myself heartbroken in a few days’ time.

“Yeah, honey. I have real damn feelings for you. That’s why I’m here when I know I shouldn’t be.”

“And the washer and dryer?”

He chuckles, the sound of it striking at my already weak will. “Absolutely not nothing.”

“They’re beautiful, by the way. I’ve never had cleaner clothes,” I murmur.

He reaches across the console and grabs my hand from my lap, intertwining our fingers before resting them on his thigh. I don’t stop him.

“Yeah? Good.”

“I would have been fine with a much cheaper kind, though.”

He shrugs a shoulder. “I wouldn’t have been.”

I don’t have a fitting reply to that. I’m too scrambled inside. The last thing I want is to give in too easily. He has to work for it a bit, even if I’m dying to tell him that I fear my feelings may be far stronger for him than his are for me.

“I suppose you want to know how I feel now?”

His thumb strokes the back of my hand. “It would be appreciated.”

“Let’s see what you have planned for me first,” I say.

“Patience has never been my specialty, Poppy.”

I turn my head and lift a daring brow at him. “Looks like you’ll have to learn, then.”

A smile parts my lips when he lifts our hands to his mouth and nips at my knuckles.

“Yeah, I guess I will.”

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