Page 11 of Shadow

“Again,” I plead. He rolls his hips just right and I find myself seeing stars.

“Goddamn,” Garrett hisses and slams his hips against me one more time as he comes undone with a low roar. His hands wrap around my body and he kisses along my back as we catch our breath.

My heartbeat slows and he finally pulls away. As soon as he breaks our connection, I find myself missing his presence and wanting him back.

We both reached down and pulled up our jeans, I tucked in my shirt while he stood there with his abs tense, the slightest layer of sweat glistening on his tan skin.

“That was…” Garrett grunts.

I don’t miss the satisfied smirk on his face.

“We should absolutely do that more often.”

“Linds, you’ll be the death of me. If anyone found out…”

“What? What do you think would happen, Garrett? We’re both adults.” All those endorphins start to fade and I remember exactly why I came out to the barn in the first place.

He huffs. “Adults, from two different walks of life, Linds. You really think your family would be okay if they knew about this?” Garrett swirls his finger in the air between us.

“Oh, that’s right. I forgot. I’m the Pony Princess and you’re Garrett Everleigh - just the ranch hand. When are you going to get past that?” I cross my arms over my chest and narrow my gaze on him.

For a man with so much power, so much charm and confidence, he’s always thought he wasn’t good enough for me.

“You’re different and we both know it.”

“No. That’s some lie you’ve made up in your head to keep yourself from being happy. Garrett, you know as well as the next person that I’m not some preppy rich kid from a wealthy family and there isn’t a stuck up bone in my body. For Christ’s sake, I’ve been out here every day for the last two weeks, mucking stalls right next to you - when you’re not busy running from me. You won’t find any other rider doing that. I may be an Addington but you know we were all raised on hard work.”

“You really expect me to believe that you don’t have people to care for Shadow when you’re traveling? No Olympic worthy star is going to be caught dead cleaning up horse shit and you know it.”

“Thatis different. But when I was traveling? I was still putting in hard work and yeah, I still did a whole lot more than the rest of the team, because it’s in my blood. I may have the talent but damnit, I’m nothing like them.”

“And I’m not the guy you think I am. I wish I was.”

“Bullshit.” I stomp one boot into the ground and fight the urge to charge at him and kiss him senseless again as if that will somehow change things. “This is it. Garrett Everleigh, you do not get to run from me anymore. I will not let you deny the heat between us. My family loves you and as long as you treat me right, they’re not going to give a damn that we’re together. You owe it to us, to yourself, to give this a go and I’m tired of waiting for you to wake the fuck up!”

ChapterSix

Garrett

Wake up? What the hell is she talking about?

“You think I don’t know that you’ve been keeping tabs on me? You don’t think that Kevin didn’t tell me about the money you funneled into Addington Ranch’s sponsorship for me? Or how you took a modeling gig with a clothing brand to throw even more money toward my sponsorshipandconvinced the same company that they should sponsor me too? Look me in the eyes right now and tell me that you don’t give a damn. Do it and I’ll walk away right now. I’ll let you go for good.”

She takes one step toward me then stops. “Garrett Everleigh, admit that you’ve always felt something for me, you goddamn fool.”

I’m going to kill Kevin. That’s it. Kevin will die for opening his mouth. No one was supposed to know about any of that. Especially not Lindsey.

“Linds…”

“Garrett, if you lie to me right now I will kick you in that magnificent cock of yours and see to it that you’ll never be able to use it again.”

That all too familiar flight or fight mode kicks in and I want to run. Deep down I know I should but this is Lindsey and I’ve never truly been able to hide from her, even when I’ve tried.

I have to tell her the truth. All of it. I can’t hide from it anymore. I should have done it before things got this far but when she pressed her lips to mine, I couldn’t fight it anymore. I needed her. Us. This. Even if it meant it never happened again, I needed to know what it was like to be buried inside her, to be so lost in the moment that I couldn’t tell where I ended and she began.

“Linds, there’s something you don’t know about me and before I can even begin to tell you how I feel about you, you need to hear me out.”

She takes a seat on the very same bench that I just fucked her on and motions for me to go on.

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