… Okay, that wasn’t the only thing I wanted to do for Ally. No way. We were in a dark closet—I wanted to kiss her blind. I could make her forget all about Poser … if she’d let me.
I leaned toward her, but kept a slight distance, because, well, this was Ally. I knew all too well, from way too much experience—the girl spooks. At the drop of a hat. And I was going to do way more than drop a hat.
I whispered, “Are we really going to do this or are you just mad at Poser?”
She snapped—like bit my head off, “His name is Aiden.”
Wow, she was defending him, even after he broke her heart.
She let out a breath, losing all her feisty fight. Her words a moment later came out soft and contrite, “No, we don’t have to do this.” Then she added all sweet, “I mean, if you don’t want to.”
My eyes flickered to her. “I want to.”
“Oh,” she squeaked, immediately trembling.
“Relax. I’m not going to hurt you.” I couldn’t keep the amusement out of my voice. I mean, she was practically hyperventilating. Still, I said it as I slowly backed her against the wall. I did it slowly, slowly, trying to not spook her. I ran my fingers through her long blond hair. Man, it was so soft. I brushed my cheek against it, feeling like a werewolf. I swear. I wanted to claim her right here in the closet. Kiss her until she knew she was mine—that she had been ever since she gave me that cookie.
Only she was trembling like a leaf. I bit my lip. Man. I had to move slow—slower. The problem was, I just wanted to attack her. I mean, I only had three minutes with her. Three frickin’ minutes—then she was going to go back to Poser, and I was going to have to go back to pretending I didn’t care. But this getting to touch her bonus was going to make it harder. Way harder.
I was careful not to put my hands on her waist because I remembered last time—how it made her jump. Instead, I gently brought my hands up to either side of her smooth, soft face.
Just the feel of her silky skin, heat shot through me. Plus there was an added bonus, I felt her do this pant-like, passion-filled intake of air. Like my touch took her breath away. It sent happy fireworks through my body.
Slowly, tenderly my mouth cautiously lowered to hers, our lips touching gentle, just tentative. Yet she trembled in the best possible way. So I was enjoying this moment like it was Christmas morning and I’d been a good, good boy.
I kept my eyes on her and kissed her again—just soft. Breathing in her scent. I was being excruciatingly careful. Taking my time. Making sure she was enjoying herself. This was my Cookie Girl and she’d just been hurt by her boyfriend, and I was a scary, scary guy. So yeah, I was going slow. My lips just softly brushing against hers, teasing and coaxing, but gentle, gentle, gentle … until she made this tiny purr noise from the back of her throat.
Every part of me came alive. I was in love with that noise.
I wrapped my arms around her tiny waist, pulling her closer to me, deepening the kiss, my hungry, eager lips wild to cover hers more thoroughly. But didn’t. I was trying my hardest to keep things slow. Cookie Girl … Hurt by boyfriend … Scary Guy. She responded to my lips pressing harder against hers with heart stopping shivers and a sexy as anything hot willing mouth … and more purring. Mmmm.
I was in heaven.
This was heaven—kissing my Cookie Girl.
As the soft heavenly kissing continued, on and on, her trembling hands curled into my hair.
Oh my gosh!
Sharp desire sliced through me. Man, slow! I tugged her closer to my chest, groaning against her warm moist heavenly mouth, thinking I might die from this—keeping things slow. The girl was touching me. Of her own freewill. Okay, I don’t think she had a clue what she was doing—that her hands were in my hair, or what it was doing to my heartbeat. But that didn’t matter so much. Or it made it better even. She was tangling her Cookie Girl hands in my hair and didn’t have a clue. I was seriously dying.
I kept deepening the kiss, just a little—well, tried to keep it just a little. The noises she was making and the feel of her pounding heart was bringing me to my knees.
Still, even with all that—all that—I was still trying my hardest not to scare her. But my slow, gentle kisses could only last so long, then my seduced yearning mouth crashed against hers more heated, my tongue sliding between her lips.
My passion grew every second as I explored her delicious, tantalizing mouth like there was no tomorrow—and she let me.
My mouth was devouring hers, couldn’t get enough.
Only, curiously—she was melting under my touch. Starting to fall over. I swear, I had to hold her up.
“You okay?” I pulled away slightly to study her gorgeous blushing face.
She nodded, out of breath. I still had to hold her up, though, to steady her, so I wasn’t sure.
She smiled shyly. “You—you’re just a—a really good kisser.”
A fire burned inside me—for her.
I gave a soft laugh and went back to kissing her, savoring every second of it. I so didn’t mind holding her up. At all. I liked it—her weak in the knees over me.
I just didn’t want her dying on me. I wanted her imprinted on me—my werewolf cinnamon mate.
All too soon the closet door was flung open, bright light pouring into our love shack (aka: closet).
I groaned in her mouth, but didn’t let her go. I was going to keep kissing her until she made me stop—if she made me stop.
In my head, I was cursing out all the people that voted for the “three minutes” in heaven, rather than the seven. I hated them all. I wanted more time in heaven with this cinnamon-flavored, purring girl.
My teammates cheered in the open doorway, whooping and chanting like I’d made a goal on the ice. That made me finally pull away from delicious Ally.
I lowered my forehead against hers, both of us out of breath and panting. I whispered in her ear, “That went by way too fast.”
That seemed to wake her out of her breathless kiss-daze. (Kind of weird my teammates’ chanting didn’t, but hey, I’m a good kisser.) She scrambled away from me and out of the closet like it was on fire.
My chest rose and fell as I watched her go.
I drew out an amused, frustrated sigh, because, well, she ran from me—yet again. But hey, at least she’d let me do all that kissing stuff—with my tongue and everything. She hadn’t run away during that.
I left the closet with a big happy smile on my face, smelling like cinnamon; liking this game, strange as it was … people waiting around while you kiss in a closet. Most hockey parties don’t go like that—you like a girl, you kiss her, that’s it.… But then again, you don’t end up getting to kiss girls like Ally Grange that way, because her boyfriend wouldn’t get called into a closet, and she wouldn’t need to show him he’s a moron.
So yeah, I liked the game.
CHAPTER 16
After my three minutes in heaven, I stuck around the party. Mostly because I enjoyed sneaking looks at glowing Ally. She was glowing. And her friends kept telling her. I think they mostly did that to make Poser mad—but it only made me smile.
So did her blushing over her friends’ gushing. (The girl has a great blush.)
Her friends kept telling her stuff like, “You’re beaming.” And, “Wow. That must have been some kiss.” They were doing it in fake whispers. So Poser could hear. And he did—hear them. Even I could hear them sometimes, and I was across the room with my friends—eavesdropping. Though so were my friends. Sort of. They would hear what Ally’s friends were saying, then give me a fist pound.
They were all astonished I picked Ally to go into the closet with, of course. Though they thought it was hilarious, and entirely just a joke to spin-up Poser. They thought that’s the only reason I did it. The sad thing was, I figured that’s what Ally thought too.
But, no shock to anyone, my picking Ally did wind-up Poser. So did Ally, herself. She was totally giving him the cold treatment, just talking with her friends
and pretty much acting like he didn’t exist (but also kind of like she wanted to slap him—man, I wanted to see that. Bad.)
Poser’s face was turning all splotchy and red and he looked like he might cry any second. But hey, he shouldn’t have gone into the closet with another girl. He was lucky Ally didn’t kiss every guy in the room.
I kept glancing at Ally. I knew she could feel my eyes on her, the way she kept ceasing to breathe and flushing whenever I looked her way, but she refused to acknowledge my gaze, even when her friends nudged her, whispering about me. Still, she’d look anywhere but at me.
Then once, finally, I looked up and caught her sneaking a look at me from across the room. Finally! Our eyes met for a second. A smile spread on my lips like I just won a trip to the moon. She looked away lightening fast, of course, but not before I gave her a wink.
Man, I dug the girl.
Just catching her looking at me unexpectedly like that made my pulse thump. And now—wild—a piece of my heart was twisting and convulsing, longing for her. What the—???
Hailey caught my moment of awed confusion. She huffed and rolled her eyes. “She’s not your type, Griffin. Do you—and her—and all of us—a favor and knock it off.”
I gave a confused laugh. “Knock what off?”
“The worshipping.”
Oh yeah. Hailey knew my calling Ally into the closet wasn’t a joke. She knew Ally was my Heaven.
Just to change the subject, I jutted my chin. “So, what’s my type?” I quirked my eyebrows with a grin, “You?”
Hailey turned red and looked away. I’d never seen her blush before. Ever.
I just wanted her off the Ally subject—that was the only reason I said that. But she had to admit, the way she was getting so riled up was like a jealous chick. Still, I felt bad. I didn’t mean to call her out.
“I was just messing with you Hailey.” I don’t normally apologize. Or have moments of seriousness. And I don’t usually call her Hailey. I call her Pop-fly, because in fifth grade she caught my pop-fly and won that year’s baseball tournament. But the word “Hailey” came out of my mouth, and that seemed to make her just as red as the call-out.
This wasn’t my night. I mean, it was—with my Heaven. Definitely. But not with my grouchy friend.
“Don’t worry about it, Pop-fly,” I soothed with a grin. “She seems to know she’s not my type—though just for the record, I don’t have a type.” Then I added, “But if I had one—it would be her.”
I don’t normally talk so straight, but I guess I was still flying from my three minutes in heaven. So, curiously, I put the truth out there—to someone. It was to Hailey because she was the only person at the party that suspected the truth. The only person. Ally sure didn’t. She had no clue she was my Heaven.
I knew that (for a fact) because I heard her whisper to her friends when Poser stomped off to the bathroom and she had a moment alone with her friends, she whispered to them adamantly, “Griffin only called me into the closet to make Aiden mad—but at that moment, I’d wanted to make Aiden mad too. But now I know it was a mistake, of course. That kiss …”
She made a groaning half-dreamy, half-tortured sighing sound.
I totally understood the feeling.
Only I didn’t see it as a mistake.
***
“Did you have fun in the closet?” Aiden hissed to Ally.
It was the first thing he’d said to her since she came out of the closet. I don’t think he went to the “bathroom” when he said that’s where he was going. I think he downed a couple of beers, feeling sorry for himself.
“Dang yeah, I had fun,” Ally chirped, obviously trying to sound like she was on top of the world—and like she didn’t have a loser boyfriend willing to go into the closet with a skanky cheerleader that was making it painfully clear she was after Ally’s guy.
Ally flung her hair back and squared her shoulders. “Probably as much fun as you had with Fauna.”
Poser narrowed his eyes at her. “That wasn’t my fault.”
“Neither was mine, Aiden.”
Poser shook his head, looking like he was disgusted with her. That made me clench my fists, ready for action. If he said one mean word to her, I was going to throw.
Poser’s expression was totally take that as he snipped to Ally, “Fauna texted me a second ago. I’m giving her a ride to her friend’s house to get her car. She needs a ride—come on.”
Poser got to his feet, acting like Ally would go along with his morbidly insane, highly inappropriate arrangement—I mean, the guy had just finished making-out with the skank in a closet. Now he expected Ally to give the girl a ride? That was beyond messed up.
It was like he was trying to force a perverse punishment on Ally for going into the closet with me.
The guy was a dirt-bag. He needed to go down. I was itching to do it. The only thing stopping me was Ally. I didn’t want her to think that’s all I do—beat up little punks. Still, that’s what I wanted to do—beat up the little punk.
Ally stayed where she was on the floor, glaring witheringly up at her immature boyfriend like he was insane. Which he was. She said tersely, “No thanks. I’ll stay.”
“I’m not coming back,” Aiden growled through gritted teeth.
Ally gave a long sigh and got up, but not like she was going to go with him. It was more like she just didn’t want to have to talk so loud anymore, since they were kind of making a scene.
She quipped, sounding way more confident than she looked (since the room was full of drunk people—which aren’t the safest drivers), “Fine, Aiden. I’ll find my own ride.”
I was at Ally’s side in a second. (Totally not drunk, as I hadn’t had a sip of beer—hoping for just such an opportunity. Score!)
I grinned. “I’ll give you a ride, Grange.”
A small growling noise came from the back of Poser’s throat. It was hilarious.
He opened his mouth like he was going to protest—loudly—but then he snapped his mouth shut. Without a word. Instead of saying anything, he grabbed Ally’s hand, trying to drag her toward the door with him.
Who does that?
Instead of going with him, Heaven stayed planted, giving him a look that said, ‘Are you kidding me?!’
I exhaled slowly with a smile, restraining myself from bursting out laughing since this seemed like an inappropriate time. But come on. The guy was a walking joke.
Finally, Poser let out an exasperated breath. In a tantrum, he slammed down Heaven’s hand and growled through gritted teeth, “Ally, the guy’s not interested in you. He just wants to piss me off. He’s never even looked at you before.”
I bit back another grin, quirking my eyebrows at Ally. She had to know that wasn’t true. After all, I hadn’t just noticed her before, I’d kissed her before. In room 204. She had put me in a happy werewolf daze that had lasted for weeks.
Fauna cozied up to Aiden. “I’m ready to go,” she purred.
I choked back a laugh. Yeah, Fauna was ‘Ready to go.’ The girl was easy. She was always ‘Ready to go.’ I’d never seen her not ready to go.
Instead of mentioning this—which I really wanted to—but instead, my gaze cut to Ally. I was worried for her. I mean, it had to hurt to see Floozy Fauna snuggling up to her boyfriend. I raised my eyebrows at her, like ‘What do you want me to do?’
I was really hoping she’d say, “Pound the twerp.”
But she didn’t. Of course. She was probably making up a sweet song in her head called “The Night My Boyfriend Broke My Heart.” ’Cause that’s what it looked like. It looked like her heart was breaking. Which did something terrible to mine.
Just seeing her hurting like that made me wince.
Poser said it again through clinched teeth, “Ally, when I go I’m not coming back.”
Heaven nodded, swallowing hard. “Good, don’t. If you leave with her, I don’t want you to come back.”
Yeah, Ally!!
Fauna flashed Heaven a wicked smile
. Then she tugged on Aiden’s arm. “Come on,” she purred. “I’ve got to go.”
But Aiden didn’t move. He stood looking at Ally, and she stood looking at him. They both looked ready to burst into tears. Which was bad. She wasn’t ready to break up with him.
I let out a disheartened breath. “Come on, Fauna. I’ll give you a ride.”
Fauna blinked. “What? No. I want Aiden.”
I smirked. “Yeah, no kidding. We all know what you want. But you’ve caused enough trouble for the Innocents tonight.” I pulled her towards the front door. “Come on. They want to make up.”
“But—but—”
I ignored her protests and led her outside.
I could hear my teammates teasing Aiden, “Look at Poser, he’s about to cry.”
But all I could think about was Ally. She was about to cry.
I yanked my car door open for pouting Fauna, waited for her to climb into the passenger’s seat, then slammed the door shut.
She glared at me as I started up the car. But then, as I drove her towards her friend’s house she started to have a change of heart. In fact, she started flirting. ’Cause that’s Fauna—love the one you’re with. (Or at least stir him up.)
She put her hand on my thigh as I pulled up in her friend’s driveway.
“You can come inside and visit for a while,” she offered all breathy and I’m-an-easy-score-like.
Her hand crept up my thigh. “We can have some fun,” she purred.
I pushed her hand away, pissed I was here instead of making sure Ally got home okay. “I’m not interested, Fauna—not even slightly.”
“Geez, Griff. You seem mad,” she pouted, acting like it was rude of me not to let her get me heated. “I’m the one that should be mad. You dragged me away from Aiden.”
I glared up at the ceiling. “The guy has a girlfriend. Leave him alone.”
Fauna scoffed. “Geez, what do you care? You don’t even like Aiden. You took his girlfriend into the closet just to get him riled-up. It seems like you’d be as glad as me if they broke up.”
Her Kiss (Griffin) Page 6
