So could she.
With that small powerful thought, a slow grin spread. Her carnal desires must have leaked through her body language because an emboldened smile curved his lips. His reaction gave her the confidence to pry his fingers from the bench and whisper, “Let’s go to your bedroom.”
She’d seen the open doorway when they entered the apartment and tugged him after her as she walked there. When they arrived, she stopped and let go of his hand. He came up behind her, not quite touching but close enough she could feel the heat of his aura caressing her spine.
His bedroom was sparsely decorated and lit gently by the secondhand kitchen light shining through. The king-sized bed pushed against the far wall was draped in a white comforter, copious pillows, and navy linen sheets. Two metal bed-side tables had books stacked strategically next to lamps. The floor was wooden and smooth, the walls white and unassuming, and a balcony window with soft billowing curtains revealed the night-lit Quadrant park below. She could hear a siren, traffic and even the faint thumping coming from the nightclub, levels below.
That wouldn’t do. She crossed the room and shut the window, blocking out all sound. When she turned back, he hadn’t moved from the doorway.
Wow. He was magnificent. Tall, cut, tense.
And he was serious about his promise to let her lead. It made her bold.
“Sit on the bed,” she ordered.
It came out curt and she flinched, but he did as told. He glided to the bed, sat on the edge and faced her, fists on his thighs. She stood between his knees and looked at him. His yearning held her captivated.
Where to begin?
He was a carved smorgasbord of perfection, and she wanted all of him at once, but she needed to take it slow. To relish him.
“Remove your shirt,” she whispered.
Without breaking eye contact, he popped his buttons, one by one until the shirt gaped open, giving her a sinful peek at his sculptured chest. Exactly how she’d imagined it. Hard. Smooth. Bunched with perfect abdominals and a dusting of dark hair that led beyond his waistband. He went to take off his shirt.
“Stop,” she said, voice husky.
He stopped.
“I want to do it.”
Slowly, he lowered his hands.
Lilo slipped one side of his shirt from his shoulder, taking special care to keep the pressure over his skin steady. But that simple touch made his eyes smokey, wanting more, and it made her sweat with impatience. Her nipples hardened. Her sex heated. Slow, Lilo. Slow. She slid the shirt off the other shoulder and it hit the mattress, trapping his wrists.
She could tie him up. Force him to keep his hands from her, force him to keep his promise to let her lead. But the minute she entertained the thought, she knew it wasn’t how she wanted their relationship to start, and that’s what this was—a new relationship. It was more than a simple one-night stand, or a meeting of the bodies. It was a connection that ran deeper than any she’d known.
He trusted her.
She untangled his hands from his sleeves and threw the shirt across the room. It hit the wall and slid to the floor. When she looked back at Griffin, she grinned.
“I like doing this. Do you?”
“Yes,” he breathed, eyes drinking her in.
She stepped back to give herself a better view. The blue light from the window blended with the warm kitchen light, and danced across his hard features, creating deep shadows cut from stone. They held each other’s gaze and with each passing second, she could see his chest lift and fall rapidly. Her own breath rasped as her body swelled with need.
“Now take off the rest.” She pointed to his pants.
Perhaps she should have told him to take his time because his shoes and pants were off in seconds, and then he sat there in his boxer shorts, waiting for her.
“All of it.” Her grin turned wicked as she glared at his boxers. “Slowly this time.”
With heavy lids, and an exhaled shuddering breath of impatience, he did as he was told, hooking his thumbs into his waistband, drawing them low, releasing his impressive erection, and sitting back down, arms at his side, waiting. It was a pose that had his granite-like stomach muscles contract deliciously. Damn her, because she was the one who would lose control in a minute, not the other way around.
“Shit, Griffin,” she mumbled and lifted her hands to her aching breasts. He watched with ardent eyes, tracking her movement as her fingers teased her nipples through her dress. She was so ready for him. Already wet. Aching to lose herself in his touch.
Slow.
She inhaled and trailed her touch from her breasts to the back of her neck and plucked the clasp. The dress released and dropped, slithering along her naked skin, erupting goosebumps of pleasure all over. She was left in a strapless bra and matching underwear and, from the look of his kid-in-a-candy-store expression, he loved every inch of it.
“Lilo,” he begged.
“I’m going to touch you first,” she said, looking between his legs. “And then I’m going to ride you.”
“What about you? When will you let me touch you?”
“Later. First, I want to give you this moment, make it pleasurable for you. Tell me how you like it. Tell me how you want it.”
“It has to be about you, too. Please let it be about you.” He couldn’t stop staring at her breasts and she knew from the heat in his eyes, and the way his tongue touched his lips, that he wanted to taste her there.
She wanted that too. God, she wanted it. Her plans were swiftly unraveling with her urge to have him touch her. That look in his eyes. Primal. Hungry. Pure want. She stepped closer. He widened his knees to make room for her. Every nerve ending in her body throbbed with awareness. She was ready for him.
“Take off my bra,” she demanded breathlessly. “Then my panties. Then I want you to lick me.”
He popped her bra off, releasing her heavy breasts, and hovered his lips near them, hesitating, waiting for permission. His tender breath hit her sensitized skin and made her cry out with need.
“Yes,” she breathed. “Start there.”
His mouth landed around her nipple and she moaned in ecstasy as he twirled and sucked and licked and laved. She barely noticed her panties had been removed because her mind was a pure haze of craving. His rough hands slid up her backside to land behind her ribs and tugged her closer with a growl of restraint. That sound was enough to have her fingers spearing into his hair. His mouth popped off and he stared up at her, eyes dazed, jaw unlocked.
“I’m sorry,” she panted and relaxed her grip. “Was that too hard?”
“It’s okay,” he murmured. “I’m good.”
“Sit back on the bed,” she ordered, but reminded herself to keep it slow. His scars were a reminder of the bad experiences he’d had with touch. She wanted to give him better ones. Heavenly ones. “Back until you hit the headboard.”
She watched with burning eyes as he shuffled and sat patiently. Despite his calm exterior, his insides must be turmoil. She could tell from the way his skin pulled hard over every ropy muscle, as though he used every reserve to hold back. Her heart melted. He was being so good with her.
On her hands and knees, she crawled to him, reveling in the way he squirmed as she inched closer and closer to the proud jut of his cock, sitting upright against his abs.
“I want that in my mouth,” she said.
“I want you in my mouth,” he countered.
“Can we have both?”
“At the same time?” He looked conflicted. “I don’t know.”
The sensations might be too much for him. “How about we save that for next time?”
She circled his shaft with her fingers and squeezed gently, then lowered her lips to touch the crown. She held herself there while he adjusted to his rush of awareness. When his twitching subsided, she opened her mouth and took him inside, groaning as the taste hit her. He canted his hips, pushing into her mouth. It drew another moan from deep within her throat and she increased he
r efforts.
“Too much,” he breathed.
She came off him, concerned, and his eyes were squeezed tight, so vulnerable right now. “Griffin?”
She didn’t want to hurt him.
“Condom,” he bit out. “Side-table.”
In the drawer of the metal side-table, she found what she needed and ripped the foil packet open.
She rolled it onto him. “You feel everything intensely, don’t you?”
“It’s a curse and a blessing,” he laughed painfully. “First time sex is the hardest. The next is easier. Better.”
“The next?” she grinned wickedly. She liked he was thinking the same things. “Already imagining more?”
“Absolutely.” Eyes like lava pinned her and melted everything inside.
She straddled him and positioned his length beneath her sex, then gradually slid lower, keeping her eyes locked onto him, satisfied as his own rolled heavenward in bliss. He dropped his head back to the headboard, Adam’s apple bobbing on that magnificent neck. When he filled her, she paused, letting them both process the new flood of feeling. Tingles and sparks zip-lined to the rest of her body, to her nipples, to her eyes, to her heart.
Lilo put a finger on his chin and brought his gaze back to hers. “You okay?”
His response was to lurch forward, lick her lower lip, and then hold it firmly between his teeth.
“Move,” he growled against her lips.
She began a languid rocking, driving herself while they continued to lock lips. His smell made her heady and impatient, and soon her rhythm picked up in urgency. Their kisses became wild and desperate and somewhere between that, their hands were on each other, touching, learning, testing. But it wasn’t fast enough. She needed more.
“Help me,” she begged, panting, thighs burning.
His strong grip landed on her hips where he pinned her while he drove in from beneath. The sight of his muscles contracting relentlessly made her dizzy with desire.
“Faster, Griffin,” she moaned. “Harder.”
He increased his pace until sweat coated both their bodies with a misty sheen. She gripped the headboard and held on, and he moved the attention of his mouth to her breast, sucking it hard. Each time he slammed underneath, the pressure built inside, edging her toward insanity, and when she felt her insides tightening and nerves bubbling, she cried out soundlessly and broke around him.
Even after she’d come, he pounded harder and faster, insatiably. When she was too languid and weak to help him finish, he switched their positions, so she was on the bottom and he was on top. And then she tasted his loss of control in the most delicious way until he grunted his release and crumbled, breaking around her—collapsing heavily, face buried deep into her throat. He lay so still for a while that she would have thought he’d died, except his heart pounded against hers.
“Griff?” she whispered and placed her palm on his head.
He groaned lazily.
“You okay?”
“That was…” he rolled off her to lay on his back with his hands behind his head. “Intense,” he finished, looking up at the ceiling, dazed.
“Good intense?”
“The best.” He turned to her with a blush staining his cheeks and a brightness to his eyes. “That’s a fact.”
His smile hit her all over, inside, outside, brain pleasure centers, curling toes… and she rested on her elbow to watch him and soak him up. “You mentioned a second time. So, when can we do it again?”
He chuckled. “I think I need a minute.”
“So… only a minute?” she joked.
“Two,” he countered with lust filled eyes. “Maybe three.”
He wasn’t wrong. They made love all night, until she was exhausted and drifted to the sound of his heart beating under her ear, and his hand wrapped around her bare back, dreaming already about the next time and always forever.
Lilo woke to the golden sun shining gently on her face, and the sight of Griffin sitting in a chair on his balcony, drinking coffee and reading the paper. Already showered and dressed for the day in a fitted white cotton shirt and khaki chinos, she wondered how long he’d been awake.
To think that a day ago she’d been as lonely as ever, and now here was a hero who had cut out his own vulnerable heart, and given it to her before anyone else in his life.
He said she was his generous opposite, but he’d given her the biggest gift she’d ever received. The trust, the hope, the love.
I want you to love me, he’d said.
Well, buddy, she had news for him… she did.
A glance out the open bedroom showed the mess in his living area, and her gut clenched. It was so contrary to how he cared for himself, and his bedroom. It must be hell for him.
This was Griffin in here: the neat edges, the straight and clean surfaces, the no frills decor. Out there was like taking a peek into the dark corners of his mind, the side no one else but she knew about. It was his future if she didn’t help him, but she would. With everything she had, she would. As if a weight landed on her chest, the anguish he would have felt when he thieved almost suffocated her. He didn’t want to. He hated it, but there had been no other way to keep himself balanced enough to save the people in this city. How lonely he must have felt. And she was the one person in the world who could save him.
But she was born for this.
If he couldn’t give up those items, then she would do it for him. She’d go through every single piece if it took all day and then find a home for it. There were shelters south of her mid-town apartment, and there were people in her building who needed help. That woman and her baby in the South-Side won’t be the only needy mother on the streets.
She supposed she could hand the items back to the police anonymously, but—she glanced back at Griffin taking a sip from his blue mug, the gentle breeze trying to ruffle his styled hair, but failing—something good had to come out of this. He wouldn’t need to steal with her, he’d said so. She gave him peace, and he did the same for her.
She was so full of love for him in that moment that her chest hurt.
As if connected to her very heart, he looked over and their eyes clashed. He paused, mug hovering mid-air, and then she smiled tentatively. He unfolded his long body and replaced his coffee with another mug before he padded over, barefoot.
“Hi.” His voice was deliciously low in the morning.
“You were up early.”
“I like to get my workout and meditation in before eight.”
He shook himself, as if to remind himself of the mug in his hand, and then handed it to her. “This is for you. I wasn’t sure how long you’d sleep, so if it’s cold I can heat it up.”
She took a sip of the hot, creamy coffee and moaned in delight. Perfect temperature, just the way she liked it. “I could get used to this, you know.”
“I hope so.”
His words brought a blush to her cheeks, and after lowering her mug, she found he had a matching stain in his expression. She glanced down. She was naked with only a sheet gathered around her hips.
“Sorry,” she apologized, thinking how Donnie used to require her to cover up, even in her own home. It’s not proper for a lady to flaunt herself, he’d said. But she’d done it when he wasn’t there. She couldn’t help herself. “I’ve always been a bit free with myself around the home. Does it bother you?”
“No,” he said, a little too fast. “I’m good.”
Her lips curved in a smile. She patted a spot next to her. “Excellent. Now, come and sit next to me.”
He put one knee on the bed, but half way, his gaze snagged on the scene in the living area and he frowned.
“Oh, no,” she said, and tugged him gently. “You don’t have to worry about that anymore.”
As he landed next to her, she pushed him back against the headboard to sit. She shifted the sheet away from her and straddled him, much like she had the previous night.
Naturally, his hands shifted to support her rear.
“Lilo, I’m—”
She put her finger on his lip. “Shh. I’m going to help you get rid of it all, okay?”
Her simple touch flipped a switch inside him, and just like last night, she knew he was reacting hard and fast to her. His skin flushed, his eyes blackened, and he flexed his grip on her backside. He was self-conscious about his sensitivity needs, but she loved taking things leisurely, loved building up their experience, one stroke at a time. Even a well-timed look could have him shuddering in pleasure. This was how she affected him, and it made her pulse rabbit and her body heavy with need.
“Kiss me, Griffin,” she said. “Kiss me and know it’s going to be all right.”
He tentatively touched his lips to hers and moaned, rolling his hips underneath her. “Lilo, look what you do to me” he murmured. “Look how you make me lose control.”
His words were a shot of dopamine to her brain. She unzipped him, and pulled his heavy length out, and then she made love with him fully clothed, and her completely naked, and maybe it was that extra layer of protection around him, or maybe it was the fact he knew she was his, but this time, his passion drove her to new dizzying heights.
When they were done and sated and recovering next to each other, she outlined her plan to help him give away the clutter in his home. He didn’t respond at first, only drew her to his side. She hooked a leg over him and placed her head and palm on his chest, toying with the buttons on his shirt.
“So that’s what we’re going to do today, okay?” she said. “Box by box, and none of your family will know if you don’t want them to. I can keep a secret.” He was silent, and she wasn’t sure if it was her bossiness. She leaned back so she could see his face. “Or we could stay in bed all day. Whatever you want, my little mythical beast.”
Greed Page 22
