Chapter 16
Griffin gave himself permission to be devious. Critical times called for critical measures. When Lily walked into the hotel lobby, he knew any man in America would forgive him.
Her hair was down around her shoulders, and she wore a short red dress and red sandals with at least a three-inch heel. A delicate silver anklet of moons and stars circled one slim ankle, a tiny detail that excited him almost as much as her low-cut neckline.
Judging from the fit of the dress, he’d be willing to bet she wasn’t wearing a bra. His nerves sizzled. He supposed she didn’t own any frumpy outfits, but she couldn’t walk around looking like that when he was feeling like this and not expect something to happen. Something would.
He walked over to meet her. “Hi.”
Her smile was as warm as ever. Whatever had made her decide they should stay apart the night before seemed to have melted away. Her brown eyes sparkled as she gave him the once-over. “Hi, yourself. That navy suit looks good on you.”
“I like that dress on you.” And he’d like it even better when it was off her. He cupped her elbows and pulled her in for a kiss that wouldn’t get them thrown out of the lobby but would let her know he’d been thinking of her . . . a lot.
She kissed him back with enough enthusiasm that he decided he’d be wise to end this activity before she shorted out every brain circuit he possessed. He eased back and gazed at her, drinking in the sight of her flushed cheeks and full lips. “It seems like forever.”
“I’ve missed you, too.” Her glance roamed over his face. “I suppose we’d better go in and order our lunch. You probably have a tight schedule.”
“I do, so I thought I’d save time and order for us.”
“Good idea.” She started toward the restaurant.
He caught her arm. “This way.” He turned her in the opposite direction.
“Griffin, I don’t mean to be difficult, but the sign says the restaurant is—”
He guided her toward the bank of elevators. “I ordered room service.” If he hadn’t been holding her arm he might have missed the slight quiver that went through her. But he didn’t miss it, and it made him smile.
Her reply was deceptively casual, though. “You did, huh?”
“Yeah.” He turned to look at her. “We have an hour.”
“Mm.” She nodded calmly as if they were discussing the length of a business meeting, but her breathing was a little faster than normal. “Do you think that’s long enough?”
“I hope so. I have an appointment at one fifteen.”
“So, what . . . ah . . . what did you order for us to eat?”
“Mostly finger food. Things that taste okay even if they’re cold or room temperature. Things that you don’t have to fool with, unless you want to fool with them.”
He let that suggestive thought dangle as the elevator opened and he guided her inside. He would have loved this to be a private elevator ride so they could continue the discussion of food. He hadn’t told her about the strawberry shortcake with whipped cream.
But a middle-aged couple, hotel guests who had been out shopping, judging from the bags they carried, joined them.
“So, where are you folks from?” the man asked.
Griffin’s brain stalled. He shouldn’t care what the people on the elevator thought, but he’d been a straight arrow for too long. He didn’t want to tell them he was from Chicago, which might lead to conclusions that would be completely accurate, such as he was checking into the hotel for a nooner with this gorgeous, sexy woman.
“Actually, we’re from Peru,” Lily said. “Just got back from studying native herbal remedies down there.”
“Really?” The woman gazed at Lily in obvious disbelief. “Were you tramping through the jungle, then?”
Griffin decided to jump in and help. “I did most of the tramping. Lily stayed in camp and . . . and . . .”
“Sorted through the data,” Lily said. “I’m a top-notch data sorter.”
“She sure is.” Griffin nodded. “I was lucky to have her on the dig—uh, I mean, in the field, or rather, not in the field but in the camp, where she sorted data. Lots of data to sort on one of these trips.” Sheesh. He should have kept his mouth shut. He was terrible at lying.
“Well, that’s interesting,” the man said. “I’ve never been to Peru. What’s the climate like?”
At the same time Griffin said hot Lily said cold. She widened her eyes at him before turning to the man. “It depends on the time of year, of course. Like here, it’s hot in the summer and cold in the winter.”
The woman was gazing at them with barely disguised suspicion. “Except aren’t their seasons the opposite of ours?”
“Technically, that’s true,” Griffin said. “So what Lily meant was, during our winter, it’s their summer, so now that it’s almost summer here, it’s—”
Mercifully, the elevator jerked to a stop and the doors opened before he could dig a deeper hole for himself.
“That’s our floor!” The man ushered his wife out and gave them a wave. “Nice talking to you.”
The doors stayed open for a few seconds, which allowed Griffin to hear the woman’s voice as it floated down the hall.
“Jerry, those two are no more from Peru than my cat Fluffy.”
“Gabby, shh! They might hear you.”
“I don’t care. I’ll bet they’re . . .” The elevator doors slid closed, blocking out the last of her comment.
Lily grinned at him. “Here’s a tip. If anyone asks you to take a job with the Secret Service, just say no. You suck at espionage.”
“You, on the other hand, could get a job as a spy with no problem.” Although he was teasing her, he was also thinking about Kevin’s suspicions. How much of herself was she hiding from him?
He could ask, of course. But the elevator had just stopped at their floor, and asking her to explain herself wasn’t going to help his cause any. He hadn’t been able to keep his mouth shut before, but he sure as hell better do it now if he wanted the next hour to go well.
“This is it.” He slid his hand beneath her silky hair, cupping the back of her neck as he guided her out of the elevator and toward the room number he’d been given. Touching the bare skin of her nape made his pulse jump with excitement.
Their footsteps whispered on the thick carpeting of the hallway. Griffin wondered if he’d make it to the room or whether he’d have to throw her down right here. He was just that desperate.
“This feels decadent,” Lily said.
“It’s supposed to be.” Amazingly, his voice sounded normal and civilized, while inside he was battling his inner caveman. Primitive urges made him think of taking her by the hair and dragging her into the room so he could have his way with her.
“When did you set it up?”
“Right after I talked to you.” He couldn’t dial that phone fast enough. He’d considered reserving the penthouse, but decided that should be saved for a day when they had more time.
“And what did you say?”
“That I needed a reservation, that I’d be there a little before noon, and I wanted them to have food waiting in the room when I got there.”
“Wow.” She glanced at him as he paused in front of the door to their room. “You sound quite experienced at this kind of thing.”
“I’ve never done this before in my life.”
“Then I’m honored.”
“You inspire me.” He pulled the key card out of his pocket and noticed that his hands were trembling as he inserted the key in the lock. Finally he would get to hold her again, and it couldn’t be soon enough.
He opened the door and gestured for her to go in ahead of him. “Are you hungry?”
“Starving.”
“Then maybe we should have some of that food to start with.” He closed the door, flipped on the privacy lock, and turned back to her. “I—” Whatever he’d been about to say vanished from his mind without a trace.
In the time it had
taken him to lock the door, she’d slipped out of her dress, and she stood there in her high-heeled sandals and red thong. As he’d suspected, she’d worn no bra.
But she’d chosen to put on that slender ankle bracelet. Some people called it a slave bracelet, but if either of them was a slave, it was him, not her.
She walked toward him, her gaze fixed on his. He tried manfully to keep his eyes on her face, but he’d never watched the movement of her bare breasts as she walked. She had firm, high breasts, and the gentle sway was subtle, which made it all the more riveting.
Did she hypnotize you? Kevin’s question popped into his head, and he hated that. He wasn’t hypnotized by her almost naked body, but he sure as hell was fascinated and aroused by it.
“You said we only had an hour,” she murmured. “So I decided to get this party started.”
She seemed to be lit from within. Her fiery energy called to him, and he wanted her with such intensity that he was nearly speechless. But not completely speechless. “I love you,” he said.
He hadn’t expected to say that, but once the words were out of his mouth, he knew they were absolutely true. He loved her. That would explain everything.
She stopped and stared at him. Then, to his dismay, her dark eyes filled with tears. “You do?”
“Yes.” He stepped forward and cupped her face in both hands. “I don’t know why it’s taken me so long to realize it.”
Her voice was choked with tears. “Griffin, it hasn’t been very long, not . . . not really.” Tears dribbled down her cheeks.
“Don’t cry.” He brushed her tears away with his thumbs. “Loving someone is a good thing.”
“I know!” Her reply came out as a wail. “Oh, Griffin.”
“You don’t know if you love me back, do you?” He kissed her damp eyes, her damp cheeks, her trembling mouth, but softly, not urgently. For now, the urgency had been replaced with the tender knowledge that he loved her. “Don’t worry if you don’t love me yet. I can wait for that to happen. It will happen.”
She gazed up at him with brimming eyes. “You’re a good person, Griffin Taylor, and I don’t deserve you.”
“That’s ridiculous.” He captured her mouth with his, this time with more insistence. If she was having a crisis of confidence, he would have to show her how much he worshipped her, and maybe that would take the tears away.
She might be crying, but she still wanted him. He could tell by the way she unknotted his tie and tugged it free. Her hands were everywhere and he loved it. Her eagerness to undress him bolstered his hope that someday soon she’d admit to loving him, too.
He shrugged out of his clothes as she got them loose. They were so frantic to get naked and into the bed that it became funny. She laughed as he fumbled with his shoes, and he laughed with her. God, this was so great, to be here with her, each of them eager for what was about to happen.
In a frenzy they made their way to the big bed with its mound of pillows and rose-colored comforter. By that time he was down to his briefs and his socks. Her thong panties had been tossed to the far side of the room.
Gasping, she pulled her mouth away from his. “You take off your socks and I’ll take off my shoes.”
“Leave the shoes.”
Her eyebrows arched and she laughed again, breathlessly this time. “All righty, then.” She flung herself backward onto the rose-colored comforter.
The picture she made lying there, gazing up at him in welcome, would be burned into his memory forever. He decided that she loved him, whether she knew it or not.
She giggled again when he hopped on one foot so he could get rid of the blasted socks. She was so full of life. How could he not love her?
Shucking his briefs, he grabbed his slacks and fished in the pocket for the condom he’d put there earlier. He tore open the wrapper and started to roll on the condom.
“Wait.”
He glanced up to find her gazing at him with the kind of admiration that did wonders for his ego.
“We’ve never done this in the middle of the day,” she said. “I want to take just a moment to look at you. You’re . . . magnificent.”
He could live with that. In fact, few things in his life stacked up to having Lily Revere say that his package was magnificent.
Her smile trembled on her full mouth. “Thank you. I needed that. Now, if you have that little raincoat handy, we’re burning daylight.”
He was just burning, period. Climbing onto the bed, he slid his arms under her knees. Those do-me shoes of hers flashed red in his peripheral vision as he cupped her bottom and angled in for that first glorious thrust. He took it slow, enjoying the way her pupils dilated and her cheeks flushed as he eased into her.
Then he was locked in tight, and her sigh of pleasure made her nipples quiver. He liked this position, where he could watch her as he stroked lazily back and forth, but he also craved more body contact. Shifting while staying deep within her, he propped his forearms on either side of her shoulders.
There. Now he could lean down and nibble on her mouth, which he did, relishing the velvet feel of her lips and the tiny puffs of warm air as her climax drew near and she began to pant. He could lower himself just enough that his chest brushed her puckered nipples with every thrust. She wrapped her legs around his waist, and those crazy shoes rubbed against his butt as he moved within her.
There was nowhere else on earth he’d rather be than right here, making love to Lily. He kissed her again as the mounting tension urged him to go faster.
Then he lifted his mouth to gaze down at her. “I love you.”
She moaned and closed her eyes. “Don’t say that.”
“Then I’ll say this.” He pumped faster. “I love being naked with you. I love pushing deep inside you and making you come. I love the sounds you make and the way you clench around my cock when you’re ready to . . . like that . . . just like . . . that.” He came in a rush at the same moment that she cried out and arched upward, pulling him deeper, letting him feel the steady pulse of her climax.
He covered her body with his, wanting to absorb her tremors, wanting her to feel his. And while he tried to keep some of his weight on his arms as he braced them on either side of her, she wouldn’t let him. She hugged him to her, as if desperate for the contact, as if even one milliliter of space between them was unacceptable.
She might not want to talk about love, but her body was expressing every emotion she didn’t want to admit. He didn’t know what demons she was fighting that kept her from acknowledging her feelings toward him, but eventually he’d find out. Until then he’d just keep on loving her.
Chapter 17
Lily knew that when the man of your dreams says he loves you, it should be cause for celebration. It should be, unless you’ve given that man a potion that has altered his perceptions and so his feelings for you aren’t real. Then it is cause for misery.
As miserable as she felt, she shouldn’t be able to enjoy sex this much, but she blamed the magic buzz she still had going on. Sex was a great pastime when you were feeling both high and agreeable. Besides, she hated for the finger food to go to waste.
Now that their immediate lust had been satisfied, they took the remaining time to play with what Griffin had ordered. He smeared cream cheese on her nipples and licked it off, which she found quite stimulating, so much so that she agreed to have him try the cream cheese lower down.
After she recovered from that successful experiment, she commandeered the whipped cream. “I’ll make this quick,” she said. “You have a meeting.”
He groaned as she smeared whipped cream on his firm penis. “Forget the damned meeting.”
“No.” She began to lick away the whipped cream. “You’ll make your meeting.”
“As if I care. Ah, Lily . . .”
She reapplied more whipped cream to the very tip.
Then she closed her mouth over that treat and sucked in deep. He gasped and clutched the sheets in his fists.
She rel
eased him for a second. “Now, concentrate, Griffin. We’re going to take it on home.”
“I don’t care if I’m late. I don’t . . . oh, dear God . . . that’s incredible. Sweet lord, but you know how to . . . ah . . . ah!” With a groan of surrender he came.
She loved knowing she’d given him pleasure. It was the least she could do under the circumstances. She coddled him a little as he came back to earth, and then she nudged him until he gave up and went in to take a quick shower.
She didn’t join him there. On top of her other sins, she wasn’t about to add career sabotage. Instead she stretched out on the bed and pulled the covers up to her chin. She hadn’t slept much the night before, and all this great sex had relaxed her.
Sure, she still felt guilty as Hades, but she had no immediate solution for her problem, and the sheets were soft and Griffin was whistling in the shower. For some reason it didn’t bother her so much this time.
He came out of the bathroom and dressed quickly. Then he crossed to the bed and leaned down to kiss her. “You make me very happy.”
“Thanks. Same here.” She wondered if making a man happy was such a crime. He hadn’t seemed particularly happy before she’d given him the elixir. Now he was enjoying great sex and thinking he was in love. Was that so bad?
With a sigh of regret he moved away from the bed. “Gotta go. But relax here for as long as you want.” He shrugged into his suit coat. “The room’s reserved for the rest of the night.” He paused. “Too bad you have to work, or we could hang out here.”
“Except I do have to work, and there’s the matter of Daisy.”
“Right. Didn’t mean to forget her. So I’ll see you at the Bubbling Cauldron, then.” He looked adorably uncertain. “And later? Is it okay if we—”
“Yes. That being-apart thing didn’t work out very well.”
“It sucked.” His smile was brilliant with joy. “Okay, then.” He touched two fingers to his forehead in a mini salute. “See you tonight.”
As he left, she thought the phrase a spring in his step described Griffin’s exit. And she had put that spring in his step. Sure, eventually she’d have to straighten this whole thing out and get right with Griffin. It wasn’t as if they could live their whole lives with a huge secret between them.
Chick with a Charm: A Babes on Brooms Novel Page 16
