Dream With Me (With Me Book 4) (13 page)

“You’re really hung up on that tit cloud, aren’t you?” I say jokingly.

But the daring in Griff’s low voice calls to me, and it makes me want to play. And I am very good at cloud gazing. Sure, I might lose a few rounds, but I also know I’ll win some. Will Griff strip or chose truth? I’m not sure, but I’m going to find out.

“I’m in,” I say. “Let’s get started.”

We settle in, both of us focused overhead. I’m completely confident I’ll be the first one to spot something. Griff hasn’t done this in years. And he was skeptical, and there’s no way he’ll—

“A heart,” Griff says.

“You have got to be kidding me!” I glance over at him. “Are you cloud sharking me? Pretending you don’t know what I’m talking about and not seeing it, all the while lulling me into thinking you stink at this.”

Griff’s smile is slow and dangerous. “Maybe.”

“It is on,” I say.

“It’s always been on.” Griff waits a moment. “So, Evie, Truth or Strip?”

In answer, I sit up to reach under the skirt of my dress. I’m careful to not reveal any glimpses of my naked flesh to Griff. It is Strip, after all, and teasing him with what he can’t see is all the fun. Slowly, I lower my underwear down my legs. Black with tiny white hearts and lace trim along the top. I dangle Griff’s prize out to him.

He quickly snatches it from me. “So, it’s going to be like that, is it?”

His low, dangerous voice makes me clench with need.

“It’s going to be like that,” I say, resuming my prone position. “You might have won this battle, but I’ll win the war.”

“Key!” I say victoriously. Ten
minutes into this game, and I’ve won many rounds. Griff’s surprised me when he’s lost. Sometimes, he’ll strip; other times, he’ll reveal something about himself. He’s shirtless and barefoot. And the only thing I’ve removed has been my underwear.

I’ve picked Truth during the few times I’ve lost. Despite our agreement to not ask easy questions, we have started off with simple ones. Favorite colors (his: blue, mine: orange). Favorite dessert (strawberry shortcake for me and Griff prefers a homemade peanut butter banana milkshake). Favorite movie (I could watch
Never Been Kissed
countless times and Griff picked
Big
).

“So,” I say gleefully, “which is it?”

Griff glances around the meadow. We’re still all alone. And then he takes off his shorts, leaving himself clad only in tight black boxer briefs. All those gorgeous muscles on display. That beautiful honey-colored skin. I’m so hot for him.

“A kiss,” Griff says.

“A . . . a what?”

He gestures to a cloud. “It looks like a kiss.”

“It does.” My skin grows heated, and not because of the sun. “I’ll choose—”

“Choose Truth, Evie.”

I bite my lower lip. “Okay. Truth.”

“What is your biggest dream?”

“Oh. That’s easy.” I relax more on the blanket. “To be successful with my makeup, of course.”

Griff rolls over to his stomach and looks at me. “No, we’ve talked about that. I mean, the dream you haven’t told anyone. The dream you hold closest to you.”

“Those dreams are secret,” I say softly. “Saying them out loud is like telling someone what you wished for when you blew out your birthday candles. It won’t come true.”

“Tell me,” he urges.

“Only if you tell me yours.”

“That’s fair.” Griff pauses. “Do you want me to go first?”

“But I lost the round.”

He shakes his head. “That doesn’t matter. I’ll go first. That way you know I’m not backing out.”

“You wouldn’t back out. I trust you. And because of that, I’ll go first.”

Griff nods, then keeps his dark, heated gaze on me.

“My dream is to be successful,” I say. “I want my makeup line to do extremely well. I’d love to see it sell in department stores and online. And sometimes I just want to start the company now and not do the internship. It’d be hard, yes, but I’d put everything I had in it. I’d start out small. And build and build. I want to grow an empire. But . . .”

“But?”

“But there’s more,” I say.

“Tell me,” he says again.

I have to look away from Griff’s searching gaze and glance back at the sky. “It’s easier to talk if your eyes aren’t on me.”

“Got it.” After a moment, I can feel Griff move onto his back and get comfortable.

The clouds have rolled by, leaving a wide stretch of infinite blue.

“I’ve always had these dreams,” I say on a soft whisper. “Even when I was little. Mer—she’s my oldest sister if you remember—and I would play with dolls. Vanessa was still a baby. Mer would make up wild stories for our dolls to act out in. When Vanessa got older, she’d join in and make castles and houses and dragons and anything you could imagine out of whatever things were nearby. So, Mer told the stories, Vanessa built, and I’d be fascinated by the colors and my mother’s old makeup.

“I must have been six or seven. But I remember taking my mom’s old makeup and starting to mix the stuff together. I did ballet, so there were a few performances throughout the year, and some of us were cast in the annual production of
The Nutcracker.
Have you ever been backstage before?”

“No.”

“It’s an organized chaos. People are running around, doing last minute things. Making sure they’re completely ready for the show ahead. I was always ready and on time, because I was just that kind of kid. But I’d manage to break free and wander the hall. I’d pass the dancers doing last minute stretches and find myself standing near dressing rooms where some were still applying makeup.” I smile at the memories. “Here, ordinary people were transformed into something
more
. Whether it was a fairy or a nutcracker or the rat king. I’d watch and see how it was done. And then I’d look in magazines and TV shows to watch the play of colors. Soon, I was trying to make my own things and doing makeup on my sisters, cousins, neighbors, and friends.”

“You must have been adorable as a kid.”

“I always thought there was something more for me out there,” I say. “That I was meant to do something bigger with my life. I always believed it involved makeup. And you know, I thought Mer would end up being a writer and Vanessa something more artsy. But Mer’s a stockbroker and my younger sister is going into engineering. And there’s nothing wrong with that, if that’s what they really want. But sometimes I wonder if they—Mer, especially—gave up their dreams because they weren’t practical enough.”

“Or the dreams changed for them.”

I acknowledge this with a nod. “But I’ve never wanted to give up my dream. I’m not sure if I’ll be successful. If I’ll ever get a makeup line to take off. But I have to go for it. I have to try and see what happens. So, yes, my real dream does involve what I want for my life, career-wise, but I want so much more.”

“Like . . . ?”

“Like everything,” I say with a small laugh. “My dreams include it all. I want to be happy and fulfilled. I want to love and be loved for who I am. Be accepted. Respected. I want to fall in love with a man who will be my partner in life, my equal, but also someone who will challenge me. I’d love to have a place near the beach and walk along the shore with a dog. I don’t know about kids, but if that happens, I want them to be fearless in their pursuit of their dreams. I dream of never giving up, no matter the odds. But I mainly dream of finding that one. You read romances. You know what I mean. He doesn’t have to complete me. I don’t think anyone should ever complete you. But, like I said, in my wildest dreams, I meet this man, who falls head over heels in love with me, and sticks with me, through thick and thin.”

I can feel Griff’s hot gaze on me and wonder what he’s thinking.

“But I don’t know if any of that will ever happen. I’m going after the dream with my makeup, and if other things happen . . .” I exhale slowly. “Other things happen.”

“You’re confident with your makeup line,” Griff says.

“I am, but I also know there’s a huge chance I’ll fail.”

“You won’t fail.”

“That’s sweet, but—”

“You won’t fail. Not in the long run. There’ll be obstacles, but you’ll get past them. You’re determined to make it happen. That goes a long way.” Griff reaches for my hand. “But why aren’t you so confident about the other things?”

“Love is harder to find,” I say. “I don’t know what your past experiences have been, but I’ve been in love before. Of course I didn’t think when I was dating my boyfriend at sixteen that he was
the one
. And in college, it’s been just fun and easy. I’m not looking for a commitment.”

“Why is that?”

“Because we’re young.” I stop looking at the sky and turn toward Griff. Almost as if he can feel my gaze on him, he glances over at me. He then readjusts his position so that he, too, is on his side, facing me. “I’ll be twenty-two in July. You’re twenty-two. We’re in college.”

“All of my friends who are in serious relationships met in college. Some in different ways,” Griff says. “Hailey and Caleb. Daphne and Nick. Jamie and Zelda. I definitely think those three are in it for the long haul.”

“They’re the rarity, not the norm. The fact is, though, we’re young. We’re about to graduate. We won’t be the same people in ten years. We’ll have changed and grown up. And sometimes the relationship falls apart because of that.”

“Then it wasn’t meant to be,” Griff says. “But if you love each other, you find a way to make it work. Through thick or thin, remember?”

“Even when you’re hundreds of miles apart? How do you make that work?”

Griff stills. “Are you saying what I think you’re saying?”

“I don’t know what I’m saying.” I sit up and rake a hand through my tumbled curls. “I don’t even know what
this
is between us. And trust me, I’ve been trying to figure it out. I thought I hated you. I thought you hated me. It turns out I was wrong about . . .
everything
.”

“I never hated you,” Griff says. “I just . . .”

I whip around to him. “But that’s my point. I thought one thing, and now I think . . . I don’t even know what to think.”

“Don’t think, then. What do you feel?”

“I feel that everything I thought was wrong. That
I
was so wrong about you.” I meet Griff’s eyes. “These last few days have been . . . mindblowing. And not just because of the orgasms. But it’s . . . we hardly talked in four years of college and then it’s been . . . well, you know how it’s been. All of this has happened so fast and feels like
more
, but I don’t know if that’s because we graduate on Sunday. Every time I think about how this will end badly or how it can’t work out, I keep coming back to the strongest thing. I want you. I like you a lot.”

“I like you a lot, too,” Griff says. “And you know how this would work? With us being hundreds of miles away? We’d visit each other.”

“Long distance relationships don’t work.”

“We’d make it work.
Ours
would work.” Griff grabs my hands. “I also don’t know what this is, Evie. And yeah, I have the same worries and concerns that you do. But I’ve always wanted you. I want to find out what this is, and if there’s a chance for us.”

I rub my lips together. “What exactly does this mean?”

“Well, for starters, it means,”—Griff entwines his fingers with mine—“that we’re a couple.”

“A couple.”

“Yeah, that word that usually means you’re together.”

I let out a small laugh. “Smart-ass.”

Griff laughs, too.

“I thought this was a one-time thing,” I confess.

“It was never a one-time thing. I think the first night proved that. And the last few days, too. We can’t get enough of each other.”

So freaking true. “You just had to turn out to be a sex god.”

“Fitting, since you’re a sex goddess.” Griff brushes a stray piece of hair off my face. “There’s only been you. But if you want to see other—”

I place a finger over his lips and shake my head furiously. “No,” I say. “I don’t want to see anyone else. I only want you.”

His throat works. “I’d like us to be exclusive, Evie. Call you my girl.”

His girl.
Nothing could sound sweeter.

“As for the rest . . . let’s just figure out the rest as it comes along,” Griff says. “I like you. You like me.”

“I can do that. So,” I say, nudging his shoulder. “Tell me what your dream is.”

“My dream has always been you.”

There goes my heart, exploding into a million and one different pieces. “Seriously?” I ask, my voice softer than a whisper.

“Seriously.”

How can I worry about anything that involves Griff? This is fun and easy, but it’s way more than a fling or something easy. I know that. A week ago, I wouldn’t have thought Griff was even in my future. I had everything set.

But now?

Now, I’m thinking of a future that involves Griff.

Wednesday, Four Days until Graduation

‡

Today has been chock full
of activity. I picked up my cap and gown on campus with Chloe and Taylor and we grabbed a bite to eat at Scones ‘n’ Such. Then, I spent the day working on nail colors and other makeup products. Chloe, who is an Art major, was busy doing something in her space, while Taylor, who is a Computer Science/Drama major, was on the computer in the main living area. Around four, we picked up and got ready for our weekly Hump Day Dinner. Afterward, we headed to a bar on Church Street to meet up with Griff and his friends, and have been here for the last few hours.