by Ashley Hall
And now I was a goddamned murderer.
Sweet Sadie didn’t need to be hanging around with my kind.
But she’d gone and shocked me—which, I had to admit, she did a damn sight more than I expected.
She went looking for me.
According to Riley, she showed up at the police station before the hearing and followed him to the courthouse. She waited on the steps while I took my walk of shame.
I was just trying to figure out why the hell she’d do such a thing.
Sadie didn’t go looking for trouble. It wasn’t her thing. Granted, she could be a wild little minx in bed, but that kind of thing had to be coaxed out of her.
And yet…she ran into danger looking for me.
When I saw her standing at the edge of all those reporters, time fucking stopped. For a split second, I forgot everything. Forgot the million dollars that I had to put down, forgot my encounter from that fucked up morning, and forgot that the entire world was watching. It was just her, that halo of blonde hair, and those gorgeous brown eyes.
She was pissed at me.
The moment we were alone in the car together, I could feel it radiating off her in waves. I wanted nothing more than to kiss her senseless, until she forgot that morning and all the bullshit that clouded it, but I knew better.
Sadie wanted answers.
Answers I couldn’t give without endangering her life.
It was easier to go away.
I didn’t have another fight for a while, so I let Riley know I was headed out to the beach house and made the arrangements. There, Sadie and I could be alone, and I could work out some of the stress that was driving me up the walls without worrying about media coverage.
Christ, I couldn’t believe it had been a week since I saw her. Part of me worried that she’d change her mind, that she’d call and tell me she’d woken up and didn’t want anything to do with my bullshit.
So far, the only call I’d gotten from her was to ask me what kind of clothes she should be packing. She got all huffy and called me an ass when I told her clothing was optional, so I assumed that, somehow, I was still on her good side.
Closing my eyes, I took the last swallow of scotch as I remembered the last time I’d touched her. That day after the court hearing, I brought her back to the penthouse and kept her in bed for half the day. At first, she protested, demanding to know exactly where we were going, but I eventually wore her down. Unlike most women I’d been with, Sadie didn’t use her wiles to get what she wanted. She used them to try to get her point across.
I just had to convince her that her point could wait until a little later.
I just needed a week or so to wait for this whole thing to blow over. A week while Riley worked with my lawyer to come up with a good defense. After all, I wasn’t going to stand for being branded a murderer. No, that shit wouldn’t fly with me.
Murderers were the ones who pulled shit in cold blood; they did it for the sheer joy of things.
What I did didn’t make me happy. Not one goddamned bit.
But it needed to be done. If it wasn’t, everything I built was going to come tumbling down, and I’d be damned if I stood by and watched it happen.
But I wasn’t going to worry about that. Not now.
All I wanted to think about was creamy, smooth thighs, sweet lips, and when I was going to taste them next.
On the table in front of me, my phone buzzed.
I stared at it, my eyes narrow. For about two days after I’d been arrested, the damn thing had been ringing off the hook. How so many media monkeys got my number I’d never know, but I swore to God if I had to listen to one more reporter wanting to be the first to break new developments on the “story,” I’d break the goddamned phone.
Like hell I was picking up.
When it buzzed again, I growled.
I was not changing the number again.
My hand darted out to grab the damned thing off the table. When I read the message flashing on the screen, I froze.
Fuck.
Don’t think we’re done, Webb.
Though the number was unknown, I didn’t need a name to go with the menace in those five words.
Jesus fucking Christ, he wasn’t giving up, was he?
I stared at the message for what could only have been a minute, but felt like a goddamned eternity.
I had to wait this out. The last time I jumped off my ass to solve this, it only made trouble for me.
I was going away with Sadie the next day, and I wasn’t about to fuck that up. For the time being, Ivan could issue all the idle threats his fat, sauerkraut-smelling ass could think of.
I wasn’t taking the bait.
***
It was around eight Saturday morning when I finally made my way to Sadie’s. The media was still hot on my tail so I had no choice but to leave the Jag in the garage and drive something more nondescript.
When I pulled up in front of her townhouse, Sadie stared.
I was almost too busy looking at those ridiculous curves of hers in a sexy little blue sundress to realize that she was looking at me in exasperation. “A Porsche, Griffin? Really?”
I shrugged, unable to keep from grinning. I loved getting under my sweet Sadie’s skin. “The reporters are looking for a Jag, right?”
She rolled her honey colored eyes before opening the door and tossing a small duffel bag into the back seat. When she slid into the leather bucket beside me, I put the car in park long enough to take a handful of her golden waves and tug her towards me. I’d waited entirely too long, and I needed her almost more than I needed to breathe.
Before Sadie, I didn’t know exactly how much a man could need a woman. A willing body to take what you could give was one thing, but Sadie didn’t just take it. She reveled in it, discovered her own body as I was discovering it.
And that, I couldn’t get enough of.
“Griffin…” She didn’t quite catch on until my hands started inching up under her skirt. Squirming, Sadie pulled back to take a breath, her gorgeous face flushed. “The car is still running. We’re in broad daylight.”
I groaned, low in my throat, taking hold of her hips to lift her bodily from the seat and into my lap so a soft sound of protest escaped her. “Give me one good reason I can’t drive while I’m in you.”
Her face went scarlet and she squirmed in a way I was pretty sure wasn’t all embarrassment at how crass I could be.
“Because that’s not a picture I want all over the news tomorrow morning.”
That little tremor in her voice was like a drug. One of these days I was going to have to try it, just to see how she reacted.
But for now, I’d cut her a bit of slack. “Fine, then.” I nipped at her jaw, my palm grazing the underside of her breast a moment before I set her back in her seat. “Have it your way…for now.”
And I truly meant for that moment.
We were headed to a recently purchased property that I was almost certain the media hadn’t caught wind of yet—which meant we’d have total privacy. Sadie could have her way for the hour or two it took us to get there, but after we arrived, all bets were off. I had a whole week to make up for, and I didn’t plan on wasting any time.
Despite how shitty my week had been, that Saturday was bright, warm, and gorgeous. As soon as the sun was high in the sky, I opened the sunroof and blasted the music. It was hard to concentrate on the road with Sadie’s hair whipping around her, making her look like a goddamned angel in the seat next to me.
For all the vibes I’d gotten that she disapproved of this trip, that she was nervous and unsure, for the moment, she seemed to be at peace. She closed her eyes, leaning back against the seat as her face went lax. For twenty minutes, she said little, and I thought she might be sleeping.
“Griffin, are you in some kind of danger?”
The question was so sudden I swerved slightly and her eyes popped open, looking to me in surprise at my reaction. Thankfully, I was used to pulling stunts on
the road, and there wasn’t much traffic. I recovered quickly from the driving; Sadie’s question was a little harder to deflect.
So I did what came naturally: I lied.
“Is it a crime to want to get away when the world is coming down on your head?” I forced myself to smile as I glanced over into her worried honey-colored gaze. “I told you not to worry, didn’t I? All you need to be concerned with,” I reached over to squeeze her thigh, “is sun, sand, and me. Trust me, Sadie, that’s more than enough.”
It worked. Her cheeks flushed and her arousal was enough to take her mind of anything more she might have asked me. Reaching down, she moved her hand to cover mine, her lips parting slightly.
I was instantly hard.
It was more than enough just to see her after a week of waiting and wanting, but when she pulled shit like that… I wanted nothing more than to pull over and give her exactly what she wanted on the side of the road, regardless of who drove by.
But I had promised her she could have her way until we got to the beach house—something I was seriously regretting at that particular moment.
“Griffin.”
I was doing almost ninety, but that breathy, sexy tone of hers was enough to tear my eyes from the road for the fraction of a second it took to see a mischievous glint in her eyes.
I liked that look. I’d come to recognize that it meant my sweet Sadie was about to do something uncharacteristically naughty.
I wasn’t disappointed.
Removing my hand from her thigh, she turned the tables, reaching over to palm the muscles of my stomach. They tightened in reaction and I sucked in a breath as her slender fingers slid lower and lower. I was wearing a t-shirt but it might as well have been nothing, I was so goddamned hot for her.
Watching my face carefully, Sadie tugged my t-shirt up over my abdomen before adjusting her seatbelt so she could lean over my lap. When she exhaled a hot breath against my bare stomach, a harsh curse escaped me. I couldn’t help it. I could say that I hadn’t meant to turn sweet, innocent Sadie into such a degenerate, but that would have been an outright lie.
“You have to promise me…” she murmured huskily, beneath the purr of the engine, “…that you won’t kill us.”
My eyes darted down to see her tongue slide over full lips as she began working at my fly.
Why the hell would I kill us now? I was going to live through this—God knew when the next time I’d get to see such a sight would be.
Even though I’d watched her lean over—watched her undo my pants—when Sadie’s mouth closed around my throbbing cock, the nirvana was almost enough to make me see double. She took almost all of me in instantly, and as my hands tightened on the steering wheel, I fought for concentration.
All I could do was take it mile by mile and try not to fuck up when the glorious suction around my cock was driving me to the edge of my sanity.
I didn’t have to ask; I knew that prim, proper Sadie had never done this with another man before. She’d all but admitted it to me on the first full night we spent together. She seemed almost as enchanted as I was at the delicious, devilish acts I coaxed from her.
But I never forced her. I’ve never forced a woman in my life. What my Sadie did she did out of pure enthusiasm, and that was why I loved it so fucking much.
By the time we actually got to the beach house, I was a complete fucking wreck. My angel hadn’t quite let me come, keeping me on the edge for almost an entire hour and a half while I raced towards the coast at breakneck speed. My cock was hard as nails, every muscle in my body painfully stiff from the effort of keeping the car on the road.
The moment we pulled up in the drive I all but launched myself out of the car, rounding to the passenger side to yank the door open. Sadie looked up at me coyly, her lips still moist from her activities, and a possessive growl escaped me.
No way she thought she could play innocent now.
Reaching into the car, I hauled her out and over my shoulder and a gasp of surprise escaped her. “Griffin! What about our bags?”
“Fuck the bags.” I’d never been more sincere about anything in my life.
Locking the car, I turned back towards the house to start purposefully down the walk.
I took a moment—just the briefest one—to appreciate my investment. About six months ago, I had wondered if it might not be a good idea to purchase a getaway just outside of the city. I had a couple apartments around the states, and one or two in Asia, where I’d done some intensive training, but nothing other than the penthouse in the city where I’d grown up. Riley—I swore the old man could see into the goddamned future—always suggested that I have a backup in case things ever got hairy.
Well, the beach house had every luxury I’d ever need. Situated on three acres of prime beachfront property, it sprawled over carefully manicured lawns and reached out to welcome me with open arms.
To welcome us.
I was pretty sure Sadie complimented me on the house, at least it sounded like she did. I was too busy punching in the key code at the lock to hear her properly. Once we were in the foyer, the motion sensor lights came on automatically.
Not that I would have needed them.
I found the nearest wall and pressed her against it, regardless of whatever expensive decoration crashed to the floor. When I kissed her, I tasted myself and almost two hours of pure fucking frustration. The little minx had teased me until I couldn’t see straight, and now she was going to get her comeuppance.
As I sucked at her lower lip, her jaw, her neck, I palmed her behind and pressed my dick against the soft warmth of her body, remembering how she’d teased me with the tip of her tongue. How she’d taken me down her throat and sucked until I was right on the cusp before pulling away with a mischievous little laugh. Cutest of all was how she got flustered every time I reminded her that people could probably see. She would stop for just long enough to try to regain her propriety before setting back to her task.
But the time for playing was done.
Reaching for the halter straps of her dress, I tore them down so her generous breasts bounced free and she gasped. She might have meant to scold me, I’ll never know. I was too busy getting handfuls of those glorious tits, plumping them to my mouth to taste the sweetness of pebbled nipples.
She tasted like sunshine and warmth, everything that was right with the world. Her hands tunneled through my hair and she clung to me, trembling as she moaned. I wanted to hear more of that. I wanted Sadie’s screams to fill the house—the first and only woman I’d ever brought here. We’d claim the place for our own, and we’d do it slowly.
But for now…
When my teeth fastened onto her nipple to tease, a soft cry escaped her. Her head fell back and she arched against me, all but serving her tits up for my feasting. Only someone out of their fucking mind would have refused such an offering.
Lifting her from her position against the wall, I carried Sadie down the hallway in the direction of the dining room. Luckily enough for me, I remembered the layout of the house enough that I didn’t have to watch where I was going. I could devote all my attention to Sadie’s swollen nipples and her breathy moans. The hard buds all but sprang against my tongue and, one day, I promised myself, I’d take all afternoon just to see if I could make her come with nothing more than my mouth on her tits.
But not today.
Today, my cock demanded satisfaction—the sooner the better.
Shoving a few place settings aside, I cleared a place on the dining room table and set Sadie down, yanking her hips to the edge. Beneath her dress she was wearing some flimsy scrap of lace that I’d take more time to admire later. For the moment, I just stripped it from her, groaning at the gush of wetness that met my fingertips.
Before I could even reach for my fly, Sadie was working at it with dexterous fingers, pulling eagerly until she could undo my fly and my cock popped free. After only a few minutes of being confined to my pants, it bobbed against my abdomen, and Sadie stare
d at it with enough hunger to make my stomach tighten in anticipation. “This what you want, baby?” Taking hold of her hips with one hand, I positioned my cock with the other, running it teasingly up and down her drenched slit.
Sadie moaned unabashedly, laid out on the table before me like my first and last meal, all ready for the taking. “Yesss…please, Griffin. Give it to me.”
Those were the magic words.
It had only been a week, one fucking week, but when I slammed into her, it was like seeing God. I hissed her name as I leaned over her on the table, my hands pinning her wrists to the expensive, gleaming pine.
