Fire & Ice (The Locklaine Boys #1) (10 page)

I had nothing.

Instead, I jacked my music up louder, blaring Silversun Pickups’ “Nightlight,” and stuffed the phone back in my pocket. The song’s second verse had just started when, all of a sudden, the buds were yanked from my ears and a hand clamped around my upper arm, spinning me around.

Using the momentum of the spin, I balled my fist up and shoved it into my attacker’s gut while screaming at the top of my lungs.

My assailant let out a deep
oomph
as he bent at the waist, releasing my arm to hold his stomach. I’d just stepped to the side in order to run when I heard a pained voice say, “Fuck me, Pepper! Are you determined to kill me?”

My mouth dropped open in shock.
“
Griffin
? Are you crazy?!”

“Me?” he shouted incredulously, standing to his full height. “
I’m
the one that’s been physically assaulted by you twice in the past few days!

“Well if you wouldn’t keep scaring the shit out of me, I wouldn’t have to kick your ass!” The last three words were punctuated by slaps to whichever part of his body I could reach. “You’re lucky I didn’t have my stun gun on me this time! How did you even get in here? We’re closed for the day.”

“The door was unlocked. I called your name when I walked in. It wasn’t like I was in stealth mode, Pepper.” He stared down at me, his eyes narrowed in angry slits. “And if you hadn’t avoided me all fucking day, maybe I wouldn’t have had to track you down in the first place.”

“So it’s my fault you’ve turned into a stalker, is that it?” My words dripped with sarcasm as I channeled all my frustrations in an attempt to drown out the longing I felt for his touch.

His glare morphed into a wicked grin. “I prefer to think of it as determined. It has a better ring to it.”

“Call it whatever you want,” I shrugged like I didn’t care one way or another. If there was one thing I had mastered when it came to Griffin, it was feigning indifference. I’d had
years
of practice. “But I’m really busy, so you need to go.”

Instead of turning for the door he did something that seemed to be becoming a habit over the past few days. He came at me, crowding me against the closest surface, which just so happened to be a wall this time. “Correct me if I’m wrong, but I’m pretty sure I told you
exactly
what would happen if you ran from me.”

Good Lord! I knew Griffin was hot. You didn’t secretly love someone for close to a decade without noticing how good looking they were. But Dominating Griffin was something else completely. Something unexpected. Something I had absolutely
zero
defenses against. All he had to do was growl in that raspy voice and my body turned into a quivering mass of want.

“We can’t do this,” I objected weakly, forcing the words out at the same time my body screamed in objection. “This is a mistake.”

“I disagree,” Griffin said softly as he ran his nose along my jawline. “I think it’s a
brilliant
idea. And I know you think that, too.”

“Do not,” I argued breathlessly, tilting my head to the side to give his lips better access to the length of my neck.

He pulled his face back far enough to look me in the eye and asked, “So if I were to slide my fingers into your panties, you’re telling me you wouldn’t be wet?” I could see the shimmer in his icy blue gaze. He was all but daring me to lie.

“I didn’t think so,” he smirked knowingly when I couldn’t say the words. “Now,” he spoke as he slid his hands down my ribs on either side, only stopping when he got to my hips. “Do you want your spanking before or after?”

I let out a yelp as he lifted me from the ground like I weighed nothing, intuitively wrapping my arms and legs around him and holding on. “You aren’t spanking me,” I insisted as he walked us across the room.

“You sure about that?” he chided. Coming to a stop, he lowered me to the table that ran the length of the back wall. “’Cause I think I am.”

He most definitely wasn’t. On that, I’d fight him tooth and nail, but when it came to sleeping together? Well, I was giving up the ghost on that one. “We can have sex, Griffin.” I crossed my ankles behind his back and ran my fingertips over his shoulders and down to his firm, defined pecs. “But if your palm comes anywhere near my ass, I’ll kill you. Understand?”

His lips twitched with humor as his hands slid up the outside of my thighs, continuing their journey upwards until the flouncy skirt of my dress bunched up at my hips. I could feel the rigid length of his erection as he pulled me even closer to him. Clamping my teeth into my bottom lip, I fought to bite back the moan that wanted to work its way from my chest. The pressure of him pressing against my core sent bolts of electricity through my bloodstream.

“Any more rules?” He asked as he rocked against me, his fingers curling around the thin material of my panties at my sides.

It was so hard to concentrate when he was working my body into a frenzy, but somehow I persevered, getting out the most important part of our deal. “This is a one-time thing,” I muttered against his cheek, relishing the feel of the rough stubble against my lips. “After tonight, we go back to exactly how we were before. We never talk about it, and there are absolutely
no
repeats.”

His eyes darkened and his fingers tightened, straining the flimsy fabric covering me to the point a loud
riiiiip
sounded through the room. Griffin lost all sense of restraint, jerking my skirt the rest of the way up with one hand as the other fumbled with his fly. I gasped as the cool air hit my damp, bare flesh, and I was lost. I needed him inside of me,
immediately
.

“Griffin,” I whispered, pleading with him to hurry.

“Condom in my wallet,” he grunted as he yanked at his belt. “Back left pocket, sweetness.”

He didn’t have to tell me twice, by the time I unearthed his wallet and pulled the condom out, he’d managed to pull himself free. Snatching the condom from my fingers, he ripped it open with his teeth and sheathed himself quicker than I’d ever seen any man move before. Between one breath and the next, he was inside me, causing me to cry out as his thick length stretched me, forcing my body to let him in. The spike of pleasurable pain was absolute ecstasy. I thought I might come just from having him fill me, but when he pulled out and shoved back in on a hard thrust, that intoxication combination only got better.

“
Shit
,” he cursed, his teeth clenched, jaw tight. “Never get enough of this.

“Oh,
God
,” I groaned as he pounded into me, over and over. I felt myself tightening around him as each snap of his hips pushed me closer to the edge. “Griffin. Oh
fuck
!” My nails raked down his chest as I tried to find purchase, something to hold on to in order to keep from plummeting over. It was so good.
Too
good. It was the most intense feeling I’d ever experienced. And it terrified me. “Too much,” I panted. “It’s too much, Griffin.”

“You can take it,” he grunted, never letting up as he pushed me down on the table. The new position had the head of his shaft hitting something inside of me that caused my eyes to widen in shock as every muscle in my body grew tighter. “Take all of me, Pepper. I want to feel you drench my cock while you scream for me.”

I clawed at him in earnest, trying to pull him closer at the same time I felt the need to push him away. I was so close to coming harder than I ever had in my life. I was talking a blackout-inducing, vision-blurring, earth-shattering orgasm that would leave my body completely boneless once it finished ravishing me.

“You really think once will be enough?” Griffin asked, ripping me from my lust-induced fog as he pulled out and punched back in.

The determination staring back at me as my vision cleared made my throat go dry. “Griffin—”

“You think you can act like this never happened?”
Thrust.
“Just walk away and feel nothing?”
Thrust
.

“Stop,” I begged as the edge of that cliff grew closer and closer.

“You can’t have something this good just once.” He hissed through gritted teeth. The exertion he was putting forth to hold back his own release written all over his face.

“
Pleeeeease
,” I cried, writhing underneath him. I wanted him to shut up just as much as I wanted to come.

“You know you want more,” he coerced. “You’re just as addicted to me as I am to you.”

“I hate you,” I bit out. And at that moment I really did. The way he manipulated my body, taking all control away from me as he pushed and pulled unrelentingly. He dangled my release right in front of my nose, only to yank it away at the very last second.

“Doesn’t mean we can’t enjoy
this
. I’ve heard there’s nothing better than a hate fuck.”

He wasn’t wrong there. This was, by far, the best sex I’d ever had.
Ever
. “It’s just sex,” I gasped, locking my legs around him as the waves of pleasure started to build even stronger.

“Just sex,” he agreed.

I tangled my fingers in his dark, silky hair, simply to have something to hold on to as I crashed into oblivion. Something to ground me. “It doesn’t mean anything.”

“Not a damn thing.”

“I still hate you.”

“Fine with me, baby. But fucking come already,” he growled, picking up the pace and slamming into me once, twice, then I went off like a rocket. My head thrown back, eyes screwed shut, I shouted my release until my throat grew sore.

The rough, gravelly, “Ah! Fucking
shit
!” Griffin bellowed just before he buried himself balls deep and came with my name on his lips sent renewed tremors through my body.

“HOLY SHIT,” HE SAID
once we were both able to breathe again.

I dropped my arms from around him, one falling limp against the table while I brushed my damp, sweaty hair off my forehead with the other. “That was…” I had no words to properly describe what just took place. Not only because it was
epic
, but also because anything positive I had to say would only lead to Griffin’s ego growing even bigger. Not a risk I was willing to take.

“Jesus, sweetness. If that’s how you fuck when you hate someone, I’d hate to see how pussy-whipped the poor schmuck you fall in love with is gonna be.”

A sharp pang radiated through my chest at his words. Because little did he know, he
was
that guy… once. And look how well that had played out.

“Get off. You’re squishing me.” I gave his shoulders a shove, but it was like trying to push a boulder.

He kept me pinned to the table from his chest down, but lifted up on his forearms just enough to get a good look at my face. “You know, usually when I make a woman come so hard she goes hoarse, I at
least
get a thank you for the effort.”

I glared up at him. “And I just
love
it when a man talks about the other women he’s slept with when he’s still inside me.”

The humor fled from Griffin’s expression “I’m sorry,” he whispered just before lowering his head and kissing me gently on the lips. It wasn’t until that moment that I realized we hadn’t kissed once during sex.

“It’s okay,” I whispered back, feeling myself melt just a bit under the affectionate action. “But you’re still squishing me.”

“Still think that was a mistake?” He asked with a genuine smile.

“I’m thinking you probably shouldn’t piss me off when your pants are down,” I shot back, “seeing as I’ve taken you down twice already.”

His smile got even bigger and my belly fluttered. “God, you’re cute.” It certainly wasn’t what I’d expected him to say after threatening his man bits, but apparently good sex made Griffin positively jovial.

No, scratch that. It wasn’t just good sex. It was friggin’
brilliant!

He stood straight, holding on to me to help me sit up, and slowly pulled out. An immediate sense of loss washed over me once I was empty. Pushing it to the back of my mind, I stood on slightly shaky legs and smoothed my dress back into place as Griffin discarded the used condom in the trash can. When he turned back around, his pants were zipped back up, but the belt and button were still undone.

“On the off chance you were even more difficult to persuade than you usually are, I took precautions. I was totally prepared to butter you up in any way necessary.”