Take Me for Granted

Chapter 32: Aribel

Grant stormed back into the room like a thundercloud. Our breakfast had been forgotten in the midst of Vin and Miller’s fight. He slammed the door closed behind him, scooped me up like I weighed nothing, and tossed me back onto the bed. I bounced once and then lay flat.

“Are you turning into a caveman on me?”

“Is this some new thing?” he asked, yanking his shirt over his head.

“I suppose not. Are you pissed about Sydney?” I could tell he was, but I wanted him to talk to me about it.

“I knew she’d fucking be trouble on this trip the moment she called and asked me to take her with me. She’s a fucking mess—bed-hopping, wearing those ridiculous clothes, acting like a dumb slut.” He shook his head in frustration. “She’s actually a really smart girl. Full scholarship to the University of Tennessee, straight A’s, on the fucking Dean’s list. She’s just a fuck-up in her personal life.”

“Doesn’t sound like anyone else I know.”

Grant turned his dark eyes on me, and his whole body softened. “Nah. I’m not as smart as Sydney.”

“You wouldn’t say you fucked up your personal life?”

“Last I checked, you’re in my bed, Ari. I’m a fuck-up, that’s for fucking sure, but I must have done something right because you’re here. Or maybe I’m a real fuck-up, and you deserve someone better than me.” The words tumbled out of his mouth before he even realized what he’d said.

A part of me knew that he felt that way, but still, I didn’t think he’d actually meant it.

“I think you’re spouting off stuff that you don’t mean,” I whispered, grabbing his hand.

“How do you know I don’t mean that?”

“Because you don’t.”

He didn’t say anything. Up until we’d gotten involved, I would have thought the very same thing. Actually, I’d spit that at him when he first pursued me.

“You’re just worked up about the argument. I can think of better things to take your frustration out on other than yourself.”

His eyebrows shot up, and a small smirk crept onto his face. “I have a feeling I like where this is going.” He crawled onto the bed after me.

“If Vin was instructed to fuck Cheyenne all afternoon to get over the argument, I think it’s only fair that you take your own advice.”

“You want me to fuck your friend?” he asked with that mischievous glint in his eye.

“Yes, I want you to ruin your relationship and the band all in one swoop,” I said sarcastically.

Grant just laughed and then rolled me underneath him. “I believe you’re asking me to fuck you.”

“I didn’t—”

“Ask me.”

“Ask you what?” I played coy.

“Ask me to fuck you.” He leaned over and nipped at my ear. “Talk dirty to me. Tell me what you want.”

I squirmed underneath him. There was no way I could do that. I was…not that kind of person. Now, I didn’t mind it when he would talk dirty to me while we were in the middle of our escapades. Actually, it usually really turned me on.

I tried to force them out, but the words stuck in my mouth from embarrassment.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t hear you,” Grant teased. “Do you want me to eat you out, suck on your clit, finger-fuck your pussy?”

My whole body flushed at that word. His lips trailed down my throat.

“Do you want me to spread you wide? Do you want me to slide my cock deep inside you? Tell me what you want, love.”

My breathing was heavy as he started circling his hips against me. God, even through his jeans, I could feel him getting turned on.

“I want you,” I whispered.

“To fuck you.”

I swallowed hard. “I want you to fuck me, Grant.”

There was no hesitation on his end. He didn’t even ask me if I was still sore, which I was, but at this point, I just didn’t care. I was pretty sure I’d suffer for this later, but damn, I wanted him.

Grant grabbed my head, and our lips met with an intensity and ferocity that had been missing in our gentle embrace last night. He kissed me like a starving man with his first morsel of food, like a heroine addict getting his next hit, like a reigning boxing champion clamoring for his next fight. I was his drug of choice, and he was using me to feed his addiction.

Our lips moved against each other, tongues twisting and massaging. His teeth latched onto my bottom lip and dragged it back toward him.

I couldn’t get enough. I needed his touch. I needed him pressed against me. I needed us to be connected like this.

We quickly removed the remainder of our clothing, and Grant slipped on a condom. His hands found the backs of my legs, and he dragged me out flat on the bed. Our bodies were aching for each other.

He went in easier this time even if it hurt like a bitch. I bit my bottom lip hard and tried to push the pain back. Oh God, nope. It still felt like he was tearing me open. I took a few deep breaths as he filled me all the way.

He started moving sooner than he had last time, and I found that the more he slid in and out of me, the less I noticed the pain. Actually, all I was starting to notice was the pleasure rushing up my body and spreading to my fingertips, causing me to clench the covers and curl my toes.

“Fuck, Ari,” Grant groaned, leaning his body over me.

“Oh my God,” I whispered.

“I should slow down,” he said reluctantly.

I shook my head. Yes, he should slow down, but no, I didn’t want him to. I didn’t have to tell him twice about that either. Grant pulled one of my legs up and leaned forward into it. My eyes widened. I hadn’t thought that he would be able to get deeper, but clearly, that was not the case.

My head tilted back into the pillow. My world was spinning. Pain mixed with pleasure in a way I’d never experienced and had no way of explaining. Grant was moving not too fast but not slow either, and all I could feel was the energy building inside me.

“Grant,” I moaned.

My walls tightened all around him, and I couldn’t hold back the release rocking my body. I dug my fingers into the duvet and felt like I was ripping through the material.

A moment later, Grant gasped and then shuddered as he finished just after me.

Exhaustion pulled me under, and when I finally woke up again, it was already early afternoon. I’d practically missed the whole day with Grant, and I was starving. But when I woke up, Grant was missing. Where did he go?

I stretched out my aching muscles and then made the mistake of trying to stand up. Holy fire and brimstone! My body was down for the count. Besides the tenderness between my legs that felt like I’d just run a mile, I was so weak with hunger that it took real effort to keep the dizziness at bay.

My skinny jeans were somewhere on the floor, and I winced as I pulled them on. This was not going to be fun. After throwing my shirt and cardigan back on, I went looking for Grant. The bathroom was empty, but the shower seemed to beckon me. I would die for a shower and a hamburger right about now, not at the same time. Maybe. I peeked my head out of the room to make sure I wouldn’t get caught in any crossfire this time, and I found the room mostly empty.

Grant was sitting on the couch with his guitar in his lap. He expertly picked at a few chords and repeated one line over and over again. I recognized it from their song “Letting You.” They liked to close with that song, and it was one of my favorites.

“I like that one,” I whispered, coming out of the bedroom and taking a seat next to him.

“Yeah. It’s one of Miller’s best. How did you sleep?”

“Like a rock. You couldn’t sleep?”

“Too pumped about the show.”

He strummed out a melody I hadn’t heard before, and I stretched out as he played it on repeat.

“You’ll be great.”

“All I know how to do, Princess.”

“What’s this song? I haven’t heard it.”

“Something new.”

“I didn’t know Miller had written something new for the show.”

Grant stopped what he was playing and ran his fingers back through my loose hair. I sighed and closed my eyes.

“I wrote this one,” he finally murmured.

“Oh,” I said, surprised. I hadn’t known that he wrote music. “Will you play it again?”

He picked up on the rhythm he had been playing, and I let the music soothe me. Now that I was listening, I could tell that it had a different quality than what Miller usually came up with. It was softer, yes, but it was almost more emotional with more heart.

“Are you going to sing for me?”

“Tonight.”

“You’re singing for the whole lodge tonight.”

“I’ll only be thinking about you.”

I giggled and sat up. “I bet you say that to all the girls.”

“You’re accusing me of charming girls with music?” he asked with his distinctive smirk.

“Oh no, not you. Certainly not you.”

I knew that he’d used his music hundreds of times to pick up women, but I wished that this song were just for me and that I really was the only girl he would be singing for. Maybe I was being petty. He was my boyfriend. Just because we were together and had sex didn’t mean that I erased everything that had ever happened before that. And I didn’t need to. We were together, and that was what mattered.

“You know,” I said, letting the music take me away, “we work well together.”

“You think?” he asked, amused.

“Against all logic…yes.”

“Yeah, you’ve got the world at your feet, and you’re with a guy like me,” he said offhand.

I knew it affected him.

And he was right in a way. We had come from two different worlds, had grown up in two shockingly different ways, and had coped with our lifestyles in completely different fashions. My parents were high society, and his father was in jail. It didn’t make sense.

But it did.

“Even though we grew up differently, we’ve come out very similar.”

That did surprise Grant. “What? You’re a boozing manwhore? Did I miss that?”

I laughed. “No! I just mean that up until you, I’d never let anyone close enough to really get to know who I am. My parents aren’t exactly emotional, and my education was my escape.”

He nodded in understanding. “Before you, there was no one. Just the next high.”

“Yeah. It’s easier to be emotionless even if that means trying to come off as a carefree playboy.”

“Hey, that’s not an act!”

I rolled my eyes. “Sure. But do you get what I mean? I kind of bring you back down to earth, and I think you open up my world a bit.”

“Just a bit,” he said with a wink. His hand traveled down my thigh.

I laughed and shook him off. “I’m being serious.”

We were shockingly different yet perfectly in sync. It was a harmony, a yin and a yang. In that moment, as I lay there listening to him play his music, I felt like things were right where they were supposed to be.

“That’s why I keep you around.”

“To be serious?”

“Someone has to be,” he said, reaching for me again.

“And here I thought it was for the sex,” I joked.

“When you put it like that…”

I shook my head at him, and he captured my lips again.

“Definitely more than the sex,” he said.

I liked that answer.

“We could always go again.”

“Whoa there!” I held up my hand to stop his advance. “I should go back to my room. I bet my friends are freaking out. Plus, I really need a shower.”

“I can arrange a shower.”

He reached for me, but I slipped out of his grasp.

“I’m not sure I’m capable of showering with you.”

“Might get tempted?”

“Might break in half.”

“I don’t see a problem,” he said, looking at me hungrily.

“I’ll see you at the show.”

“Hey, Ari,” Grant called when I reached for the door. “Come early. I want to show you a real backstage.”