Rare Blend (Red Mountain #1)

52. Marisa

CHAPTER 52

Marisa

BETTER THAN ANYONE

T here better be a damn good reason why my boyfriend is waking me up this early.

“Stop,” I groan. “Let me sleep.” I turn away, curling into my pillow, but Ethan rolls me back to face him. It’s only been a few weeks since I came back, but we’ve already fallen back into our rhythm. Except this time, there isn’t a ticking time bomb. It’s just us, and I’ve never been happier.

His beard scratches against my neck as he trails kisses along my jaw. “Time to wake up, baby,” he singsongs.

“Too early,” I protest.

I keep my eyes closed, even though I’m awake now. How could I stay asleep as his hands wander my body? His touch is electrifying, jolting me awake.

“I hate you,” I moan. My lips press together, hiding my smile, and I keep my eyes squeezed shut.

“Liar.” He continues to nip and suck and kneed and massage.

My body becomes more and more loose and malleable. And I don’t mind it one bit. I love waking up with his lips on me and his weight pressing me down onto the mattress. It’s like being cocooned in the most comforting way.

But I also love teasing him. “You’re being too gentle. What happened to the grumpy asshole? Bring him back. I like him better.”

“That’s it,” he declares, getting up and yanking the bedding off me.

My body screams in protest, instantly freezing from the loss of blankets. Before I get a chance to yell at him, he’s picked me up and thrown me over his shoulder, fireman style.

“Ethan,” I screech while giving his ass a hard smack. “Put me down!”

The bastard chuckles. “You said you wanted me to be a grumpy asshole. You got him now, too late to take it back.”

I squirm. “Where are you taking me?”

Instead of answering me, he keeps walking, but I quickly realize he’s taking me to the bathroom. Keeping me locked in his hold, he starts the shower. After a few beats, once the temperature has warmed, he finally lets me go, sliding me down his body, where I feel he’s already hard for me.

“You woke me up this early for shower sex?”

He smirks, shaking his head. “We actually have somewhere to be, but now that you mention it.” He pauses and strips out of his shirt. “Might as well fuck you awake.”

He kisses along my collarbone, his lips never leaving my skin as he takes off my silky pajama shorts and tank top.

He picks me up, this time more gently, and just enough so that my feet are grazing the floor. Together, we stand under the stream of water. Wasting zero time, he crashes his lips to mine while hitching me higher and forcing my legs to wind around his waist. And then he’s nudging at my entrance, tracing his cock along my seam to test my wetness.

“Fucking soaked,” he whispers in my ear.

In one thrust, he’s fully seated. Our gazes meet, lashes dripping with water, and he smiles at me softly. “Good morning.”

The corner of my mouth tilts up. “Good morning.” Using the leverage of my hands around his neck, I lift my body, moving up his cock and sliding back down on it. We both sigh in relief.

“Fuck, baby. I’m never going to get enough of you.” He pulls my bottom lip between his teeth, giving me a soft bite before invading my mouth and kissing me roughly. Slamming me against the tile wall, he fucks me at a relentless pace. I lose myself in him. He consumes me. He devours me. With each moment, the more we dissolve into each other.

Thirty minutes and two rounds of shower sex later, we’re in the truck on our way. To where? I’m not sure, because Ethan won’t tell me.

Strangely, the drive is very, very familiar. “Can you please tell me where we’re going? You know I don’t like surprises.”

“You love my surprises.”

I stay quiet, racking my brain, trying to think of what we could possibly be doing.

“Are we going to your parents’ house?” He tried to take a roundabout way, but there’s no mistaking the direction we’re going.

He shakes his head. “No, not right now. We have other plans.”

The anticipation is driving me crazy as he pulls alongside the empty lot next to Gavin’s. He puts the truck in park, turns it off, and gets out, still not answering me.

Undoing my seat belt, I grumble while he holds open my door and follow after him.

“Well then, can you tell me what we’re doing out here?”

The crunching of gravel draws my eyes to the hill where I see a Jeep rolling down, heading in our direction.

“Perfect timing,” Ethan mutters.

“Who’s that?”

“You’ll see.”

The Jeep parks next to the truck, and a professionally dressed, middle-aged blonde woman exits, walking toward us with a friendly smile.

“Ethan, so good to see you,” the woman says, shaking Ethan’s hand.

“Linda, this is Marisa, my girlfriend.”

A blush scatters across my cheeks. I don’t think I’ll ever tire of hearing him call me that. Linda and I shake hands.

“Alright folks, let’s design a house.”

What?

My eyes fly to Ethan’s. “What is she talking about?”

Ethan looks to Linda. “Can you give us a minute?”

She nods, smiling. “Sure, I’ll go get the prints from my back seat. Be back in a jiff.”

Ethan points to his parcel with a giant dirt pile at the center. I can tell it’s been recently dug up, because the dirt looks fresh.

“Remember when I told you about still wanting to build a house on this land?”

“Yeah.” I hesitate, wondering why it’s dug up.

“I had a company come out and remove the foundation that was poured.”

“Why?”

“Because I don’t want to build that house. I want to build our house.”

Our house.

My heart squeezes, and my throat tightens. Our house .

“What are you saying?” I need him to say it. To voice it out loud and bring it into existence. I need to know it’s real.

His hand cups my jaw, and our gazes hold. With those gentle eyes and that soft smile, it’s hard to believe he’s the same man I met only months ago. “Let’s build a house together, build a life.”

“Really? Because that’s kind of a big deal. What if you get sick of me a few months from now?”

He chuckles. “I’m never going to get sick of you. All I need is you. All I’m ever going to want is you.”

He reaches into his pocket and hands me an envelope. “Here.”

I grab the envelope and open it. Inside is a legal document. It only takes me a second to figure out what I’m looking at, and when I do, my eyes meet Ethan’s. “How did you— Why did you?—”

His hands grab my wrists, with the letter still in my hand, and I realize it’s because they’re shaking. “The deed is in your name. The land is yours.”

When I don’t answer because I’m too stunned to form a coherent word, he continues. “I don’t want you to ever feel like at a moment’s notice, you could lose everything. I thought, what better way to make you feel safe than to put it all in your name. You own it. And once the house is built, you’ll own that, too.”

“But what about you?”

“Baby, if you haven’t figured out that you own every part of me, then clearly I haven’t been doing a very good job of showing you that I’m yours. Completely.”

“I don’t know what to say.”

“Say yes.” He gives me a brief kiss and then pulls away. His lips quirk up as he hands me another envelope.

“Another envelope? What’s happening right now?” I tear into it quickly, my curiosity getting the best of me.

It’s a check. It’s a check for a very significant amount of money.

“Why are you giving me money?”

Ethan laughs, only adding to my confusion. “When you told me that dick was making you pay half of his mortgage, I did some digging and found out he already owned the condo and was basically taking all of your money. I got my lawyer involved, and after some very non-threatening discussions, he was happy to hand over all the money he took from you.”

I should be livid, finding out Brandon had been taking advantage of me, but all I feel is gratitude. Gratitude for the man in front of me who took on a battle he didn’t need to. I’m not going to waste another second thinking about that time in my life when the present is so much better.

Linda returns with blueprints and pamphlets. Honestly, it’s overwhelming. I’m still reeling from Ethan putting the property in my name and the unexpected check. I can’t believe he did that. Maybe to him it seemed like a simple solution, but to me it’s everything. He managed to make me feel safe and secure with more than words. I can’t undo the years of my mom’s warnings of never relying on a man and never putting myself in a situation that makes me vulnerable. I can’t undo the damage and mistrust Brandon caused. Ethan took all of that and threw it out the window. Because he knows me. He knows me better than anyone.

There’s a lot I don’t know or understand about life. If all of our choices aren’t our own and our futures are already determined, or if it’s a series of decisions, each with their own path and the possibilities are endless. I’d like to think I ended up on the path I was always meant to be on. That getting fired and having to move to Red Mountain and crashing into the vineyard was all meant to be. Because not only did it lead me to Ethan, it led me back to my dad, and to this wonderful town, and to a job that makes me happy, and to new friends that feel like family. There’s a cheesy saying I often see floating around that goes something like, Sometimes things have to fall apart so that better things can fall together . Now, having lived it, maybe it’s not so cheesy anymore.

Later in the evening, over a bottle of wine and a box of Cheez-Its, Ethan and I start discussing all the things we want to include in the house—our house. We’re cuddled up, making a Pinterest board, and it’s so incredibly domestic. I love us. I love who we are together. We’re a strange mix, a rare blend. Two people who shouldn’t be compatible, yet somehow our jagged edges seamlessly align, fitting together in a way that feels both effortless and extraordinary.