Pulse (Collide) (22 page)

Gavin placed a soft kiss on the crown of her head, and without saying a word, he gently reached for Emily’s hand and led her back to the bedroom. Confusion dripped into her mind as she watched him haul his luggage onto the bed. After unzipping it and pulling out a small black velvet box, he sat on the bed, motioning Emily toward him. When she approached, he stared at her, his eyes soft with concern. Once again, he reached for her hand and guided her onto his lap. With her back against his bare chest, he moved her hair away from her shoulders.

“You don’t let her go, baby,” he whispered as he clasped a diamond-studded, platinum oval locket around her neck. “You hold onto her with everything you have. You carry her with you through every joyous moment in your beautiful future. Your accomplishments. Seeing your children’s eyes for the first time. Your life in general. You shoot for the stars with her in mind. She’ll be there, watching. You forgive her for the mistakes she made while you were growing up, and during the bad times you have to face, you lean on whatever words of wisdom she gave you. But you never let her go. Ever. She wouldn’t want you to let her go.”

Opening the locket, Emily’s breath caught. Her eyes swept over a picture of her mother as a teenager. With the sun shining against her dark hair and her smile highlighting the warm, carefree glow found only in one’s youth in her eyes, Emily couldn’t help but think it was the happiest she’d ever seen her mother. Emily sniffled and more tears fell. However, these tears were delivered by a man who couldn’t even begin to understand the empty space in her heart he’d filled so many times.

Turning, Emily straddled his waist and stared into Gavin’s eyes. The emotions swirling behind them riveted her. She was in awe he was hers. “My God, are you even real?” she whispered.

Holding her gaze, a sad smile lifted his mouth. “I think I am.”

“You make me feel like I’m in a dream,” Emily confessed, wrapping her arms around his neck. “Like I’m sleepwalking and I don’t even know it.” Continuing to take in the pure, honest, unselfish man in front of her, Emily lost herself in the fact he
was
real. “I’m able to close my eyes and just… trust you. You’re the color on my blank canvas, the light in my dark, the air in my lungs, and I almost let you go. I almost erased us from ever happening. I can’t imagine not having you here with me. Please tell me you know how much I love you, Gavin. I need to hear it right now. Please.”

Gavin swallowed, his senses reeling. She owned him, mind, body, and soul. Words. God, he didn’t have enough words to let her know how much he knew she loved him. Even if he did, how could he ever begin to let her know how much he knew she’d risked changing her life for him? Words weren’t meant for this moment and Gavin knew it. He brought his lips to hers, kissing her softly. He kissed her the way she should’ve been kissed the first time a man was ever allowed to feel her body. He kissed her hoping he could banish every headstone of grief that’d taken up an ounce of space in her heart. Wanting to wipe away every sick moment and twisted memory her eyes ever witnessed, he held her closer, trying to shield her from the demons he knew she was battling.

In the silence, with only the sound of their beating hearts, Emily slowly pulled away. The heaviness in her chest lifted, its weight no longer suffocating, no longer draining.

Gavin ran his hands through her wavy hair, his smile soft. “Merry
first
Christmas.”

“Merry
first
Christmas,” Emily whispered, placing another kiss on his lips. After a moment, she edged off him. She hopped to her feet, strolled across the room and dug in her luggage. Pulling out a white bag, she lifted a devious brow. “Now it’s my turn to give you your gifts, but I have to warn you, you have to start using each of them today.”

With an equally devious brow lifted, Gavin ran a hand through his messy hair and leaned against the headboard, the grin on his mouth wide. “These gifts wouldn’t happen to include a black lace ensemble worn by you, double ‘A’ batteries, and your shmexy legs shaking uncontrollably around my head, would they?”

Eyes wide, Emily belted out a laugh. But shit if he didn’t look so hot waiting for her, shirtless no less. She swallowed, suddenly aware of the throbbing between her legs. All humor left her face as she slowly crawled onto the bed. With the bag in one hand, she slightly lowered his sweatpants with the other. She rained kisses along his hip, following his glorious tattoo all the way to the side of his left rib cage. Sighing in pure contentment, she moved her lips back over every delicious peak and dip of his washboard abs. She felt Gavin tense, his muscles tightening. He buried his hands in her hair as she hovered, lightly skimming her tongue along the edge of the evil-looking beast’s wings. In all its evilness, it tasted like the sweetest cotton candy.

Emily brought her eyes up to his, their light-blue sexual intensity shocking her system. She smiled. “So you never told me why you got
this
particular tattoo.”

Gavin blinked, a rush of puffed air escaping his mouth. “Are you honestly going to ask me that after you just
achingly
licked your way up my body?”

“What?” Emily giggled, straddling his waist. Looking down at him, she frowned. “I want to know. You told me
why
you got it where you did, but you left out why you picked a dragon.”

Eyes zeroed in on her lips, Gavin smirked. “I got the dragon because I knew women would never…
ever… ever
be able to resist licking it.”

Emily playfully swatted his arm. “You bastard. Are you saying I’m
not
the first to lick it?” In one quick movement, Gavin slipped his arm behind her waist and flipped her onto her back. Emily gasped, her heart nearly stopping as he hovered above her, lightly brushing his mouth against hers. “Oh my God,” she breathed. “I was right. You are crazy.”

“And you’re trying to kill me with your questions,” Gavin countered, nipping her bottom lip, which she started to realize was something he loved to do. “You’re no longer allowed to say the words ‘lick it’ in my presence. Is that understood, Miss Cooper?”

His demand drifted over her like a caress, but she was about to push a few buttons. She popped a brow, her mouth curled into a smirk. “
Lick
…
it
… Caveman.”

Gavin’s eyes went wide right about the same time he dove his hand under her tank top. Emily squealed, squirming under his embrace. She yanked his hand away from her breast. “Gavin! No, I want you to open your gifts.”

“It’s a done deal,” he replied, his voice a desperate groan. “I’m convinced you’re seriously trying to kill me. I thought I was pretty on point with my game. Where did I go wrong?”

Emily released another giggle. “You could never go wrong, and I swear I’ll make it up to you later.”

Grinning, Gavin shook his head and sighed.

After kissing his cheek, she eased out from beneath him and straddled his lap as he sat cross-legged. Reaching for the bag that had gotten lost under the tangled mess of blankets, Emily smiled and pulled out a small envelope. “Here. This is something that you have to use for the rest of your life.”

Gavin looked at the envelope. Written across the front in Emily’s handwriting was:

With a small smile, Gavin pulled out a thin card, showing Emily had purchased him a lifetime subscription to
Architectural Digest
. It was then he realized she also remembered things he’d told her. Wrapping his arms around her waist, Gavin ducked his head, whispering a soft kiss on her lips. “You’d be happy with me if I was an architect?”

“I’d be happy with you if you picked garbage up off the side of the road if that’s what you wanted to do.”

“You would?” He knew Emily wasn’t with him for his money, but her answer somewhat shocked him. Most, if not all, women he’d encountered would’ve told him to stuff his dreams up his ass if he wasn’t making the millions he did with Blake Industries. Though a career as a sanitation worker would never be his choice, his heart warmed. He’d found a woman who would accept him under any circumstance he might find himself in.

“Of course I would,” Emily replied, tossing her arms around his neck. A teasing smile crept across her lips. “And I’m thinking you’d look pretty damn hot in the uniform.”

“Ah, always an ulterior motive.” Gavin popped a kiss against her forehead. She smiled, and his features sobered as he stared into her eyes. “Thank you. I love it.”

“No. Thank you,” she whispered against his lips. Unwrapping one of her hands from his neck, she reached into the bag and pulled out a small box. “I have more gifts for you. This one kind of coincides with the subscription in a weird way.”

Gavin smiled and started unwrapping it. Once he’d peeled the red wrapping paper away, he found a black box with the name
Patek Philippe Calatrava
engraved on it. Shocked, because he knew his time pieces as well as he did cars, Gavin knew it held a very expensive watch. Upon opening it, his suspicions were correct. Trimmed in gold, the piece was amazing and something Gavin could easily see himself wearing. He ran his fingers over the soft black leather wristband, his eyes taking in the fine, Switzerland-made contemporary design. Though the Breguet piece he was currently wearing dented his checkbook a cool $260,000, this particular Patek Philippe Calatrava must’ve cost Emily upwards of $25,000.

Emily smiled, and handed him a second card with the words:

Now he understood how the two gifts fit together. Gavin cupped her cheek and placed a soft kiss on her lips. “Thank you,” he whispered, stroking her hair. Emily smiled, but Gavin couldn’t help wonder how she was able to afford the watch. “Did you use the funds I put into your bank account to buy me this?” Gavin searched her face. Though she’d argued with him about dumping any cash into her account, spending it on him was the last thing he wanted her to do. “I told you not to buy me anything with that money.”

Emily rolled her eyes. “Do you like it?”

“Of course I like it. I love it. But I don’t want you spending money like this on me, Emily.”

With a sigh, Emily rolled her eyes again. Bringing his face close to hers, her expression became serious as all hell. “Gavin. First of all, I didn’t use the funds you gave me to buy it. I have my own, and I used some of it to purchase that for you.”

“Emily. Even though you make some extra cash waitressing, I highly doubt a substitute teacher’s salary would allow you to spend this much on a watch.”

Emily reared back, her brow raised. “Thanks for the compliment.”

Gavin pulled her closer, tucking her hair behind her ear. “I didn’t mean it like that, baby. But come on. I have a pretty good idea how much this cost. If you didn’t use what I gave you, how could you afford this?”

“Dillon—”

Gavin reared back in shock this time. “What?”

“Are you going to let me finish, Caveman?”

Eyes locked on hers, Gavin nodded. His words came out slow. “Yeah. I’m listening.”

“Thank you,” Emily replied, running her hands through his hair in an effort to settle him. “Dillon took the money I had from my mother’s life insurance policy and threw it into some IRAs, mutual funds, and different CDs. After I called off the wedding, I went through my financials. I took my name off several credit cards we’d had together, and I pulled my accounts from him. I transferred them over to a broker Trevor suggested. Let’s just say, if it’s the only compliment I can give him, Dillon knows how to grow a bank account. It nearly tripled over the year. I took a small loan against one of the accounts and bought you the watch. So again, I used my own cash. Not what you gave to me. Happy?”

“Happy?” Gavin parroted, pulling her closer. “I’m happy the woman I love was smart enough to yank her funds from her asshole ex’s control.” Trailing his hands along her back, Gavin brushed his lips along her jaw. “But I’m not happy she spent some of it on her charmingly sexy current boyfriend after he asked her not to spend that much on him.”

Emily laughed. “Oh, now all of a sudden you’re charmingly sexy?”

“You know it.” Gavin smiled, shooting her a wink. After replacing the watch he was wearing with the one Emily bought for him, Gavin’s face softened. “Really, Emily. Last big spending spree you waste on me, okay? I have everything I need sitting right here in my lap.”