Fire & Ice (The Locklaine Boys #1) (12 page)

Past

HOLY SHIT! WHAT’S HE
doing here? Dex didn’t say anything about bringing him!

It was official, I was freaking the hell out. Not only was I under stress because Fire & Ice was opening its doors to the public for the first time tomorrow morning, but Griffin Locklaine had just walked into the party me and my staff were hosting in celebration. I hadn’t seen him since I was eighteen years old. My entire body lit up the moment he walked through the door.

“Who. Is. That?” my friend Tomas asked. He and I had just recently met when he came in to interview with me and hit it off instantly. We were like kindred spirits. He as the Jack to my Karen. He was flamboyant, loud, blunt, and hit on every single person with a dick. Which was why he was currently standing beside me, looking Griffin up and down like he was his own personal lollypop.

“My brother’s partner,” I answered, unable to take my eyes off of him. It was ridiculous how much more handsome he got every time I saw him.

“Mmm, mmm, mmm,” he hummed. “A man like that’s enough to make me believe a power higher than the three deities we gays worship to.”

“And who would that be?” I asked as I turned from Griffin to face Tomas.

“
Duh
,” he exaggerated. “Adele, Beyoncé, and the one and only…” he paused for dramatic emphasis, “…Madonna.”

My head fell back on a loud laugh. “Of course you do!” I giggled, feeling the champagne start to loosen my entire body from the inside out.

“Well, look at you.” I choked on my laughter at the sound of Griffin’s voice behind me. When my eyes met his, I saw a look I’d memorized the first time I saw it, only it hadn’t been directed at me.
I
was never on the receiving end of that look. And, oh how I had wished I could have been.

“Uh… h-hi,” I stuttered nervously. “Dex didn’t tell me you were coming with him.”

I looked around for my brother when I heard a “Little sis!” yelled from across the room. He and his wife, Wendy, were coming in our direction, and I felt the immediate loss as Griffin moved away from me, even though it was just slightly.

“You look beautiful tonight,” Griffin whispered quietly just before the Dex and Wendy made it to us. I placed my hand over my belly in an attempt to settle the waves crashing around. I introduced Tomas to Griffin and my family before he took off, having spotted a large, muscle-bound man that he
swore
was sending his gaydar off like the Fourth of July.

I passed the hours drinking and laughing with those closest to me, and to my surprise, Griffin was there with us every step of the way. He made sure to remain at a respectable distance at all times, but he was always there, I
felt
him. It was different than all the other times.

Dex and Wendy left a little after ten, married life having turned them into a couple of senior citizens. Tomas and his Muscle Man left shortly after, Tomas’s instincts having been
very
right.

When the party finally started dying down, Griffin hung around, helping me clean the place up so I could open it the next morning. The conversation between us flowed easily enough, considering it wasn’t all that substantive. But still, it felt like we’d taken some serious strides that night. We’d known each other for nearly ten years, but that was the first time we’d said more than a handful of words to each other.

“Thank you, Griffin,” I told him probably for the third time in the previous thirty minutes. I’d just locked the front door of Fire & Ice as he waited for me on the sidewalk. Even through my champagne buzz, I felt my nerves kick up. I began to fidget with my clutch as I stepped closer to him while he hailed a cab.

“You don’t have to keep thanking me,” he laughed. “I didn’t mind.”

“Yeah, well, you didn’t have to hang around and help me clean up. I really appreciate it. You’ll have to let me pay you back.”

A cab pulled up just then and Griffin leaned down to open the door for me. “And how were you thinking of paying me back?” At the suggestive tone of his voice, I froze with one hand on the doorframe as I prepared to climb in the back seat. I hadn’t meant it to sound like I was propositioning him when I made the offer to pay him back, but with the way he was looking at me just then, I felt exposed… completely naked before him while still being fully clothed.

“W-what?”

He stepped in closer. So close I could smell him, feel his body heat warming me. “You said you wanted to pay me back.” He came impossibly closer, brushing his strong chest against my breasts, which suddenly felt heavier. “I wanted to know what you had in mind.”

My mouth opened and closed like a fish for a few seconds before I was finally able to formulate a response. “Uh… I was thinking, like twenty bucks, or doing your laundry or something.

At that, he laughed, loud and outright. And I absolutely loved that sound. “You’re fuckin’ adorable.” That felt like a punch in the gut. It was like him calling me
kid
all over again. I had to look away. I was a twenty-one year old woman, but in that moment, I felt like a child. That was, until he placed his fingers under my chin and lifted my face to his. “How do you manage to be adorable and sexy at the same time?”

And again, I was at a loss. “Um, genetics?”

His smile grew even wider. I didn’t think there wasn’t anything I wouldn’t do to see that smile pointed at me. “Let me come home with you,” he whispered, still holding on to my chin, his breathe fanning across my lips.

My tongue dipped out to dampen the now dry skin. “Okay,” I whispered back.

And just like that, we were kissing. It was the best kiss of my life. And as he guided my body into the back of the waiting cab, I was so lost I would have done just about anything he asked.

SO THAT’S WHAT SEX
is like
, I thought to myself as Griffin’s sleeping form stirred beside me. He let out a little snuffling snore and I couldn’t help but smile. It was better than anything I could have imagined. Well, once the initial pain had finally disappeared. I’m sure Griffin would have been much gentler if he’d know it was my first time. I was just too embarrassed to admit it out loud. But my cry of pain when he entered me all the way with the first thrust revealed the truth. After that he’d been extremely careful to not hurt me anymore. He was so gentle, asking if I wanted to stop, but I refused. I didn’t want him to stop. I wanted it all.

And that was what I’d gotten.

As exhaustion from too much champagne and amazing sex began to pull me under, I curled my body around Griffin’s, falling asleep within seconds, a smile on my face.

MY BODY WAS DELICIOUSLY
sore. I ached in places I never knew existed. And I couldn’t have been happier. The sun still hadn’t fully risen outside, leaving my bedroom bathed in a soft, grayish-purple haze of pre-dawn light. I wasn’t sure what had woken me up so early, but I wasn’t going to question it. Griffin had woken me up more than once in the night for another round, so it was my turn to return to favor.

Stretching my arms over my head, I released a soft groan and reached over for him, hitting warm sheets where his body had once been. Clutching the sheets to my naked body, I sat up and looked around the dimly lit room, only to find I was the only one in there. It was then that I realized what had woken me up.

“Griffin?” I called out at the sound of my apartment door closing. Had he stepped out for breakfast? Or maybe coffee since I ran out a few days ago? When I didn’t get an answer back, I climbed from the bed, the sheet wrapped tightly around me, and started down the hallway. “Griffin, you here?”

The bathroom was empty, so were the kitchen and living room. The front door closing wasn’t Griffin returning. It had been him
leaving
. And according to the note he’d left scrolled on a discarded napkin saying
Had to get to work. See you around
, he had no intention of bringing back coffee or breakfast.

I could practically feel my heart cracking in my chest as my eyes brimmed with tears, blurring his scribbled writing as I read and re-read his note. Having no other choice, I climbed into the shower to start my day. I had a shop to open, my livelihood depended on it. There was no time to dwell on a crushed heart. My head was in a fog as I went about getting ready for the day.

I was a reasonably-minded person. I didn’t walk around life with my head in the clouds, but when it came to Griffin, I couldn’t help but think that maybe I was jumping to conclusions. Maybe I was reading too much into his note, and he just wasn’t much for words. Maybe he’d call and explain his hasty exit and everything would be okay.

The day passed without a single call or text. There was no acknowledgment from him, whatsoever. My only saving grace was the fact that Fire & Ice was bustling from open to close, or else I probably would have spent the entire day yo-yoing between obsessing and crying.

I didn’t hear from him or see him for a week. It was only by coincidence that I happened to run into him when I did. I’d been working as Rowan Locklaine’s personal shopper for a little less than a year. He was some big shot author and a good friend of my brother’s, so Dex had hooked me up with the job to help supplement my income while I got my boutique off the ground. Some new shirts I’d ordered for him had just come in, so after closing up for the night, I hopped in a cab and headed to his apartment.

Juggling the garment bags in my arms to free up one hand, I knocked on his door and waited. It wasn’t all that unusual for a woman to open Rowan’s door, seeing as the man was a raging man-whore and had a different woman—or women—in his apartment almost nightly.

“Who are you?” the blonde skank asked, her face scrunched up unattractively as she shot me attitude I was so
not
in the mood for.

“Rowan here?” I asked on a huff.

Slut-zilla crossed her arms underneath her gravity defying breasts. “Who’s asking?”

With that, I was done. I had a busy week, I was in a shitty mood, and I just wanted to go home, not deal with one of Rowan’s whores. I let out an annoyed sigh as I shoved past her and into the apartment, ignoring her sputtering and cursing about how I wasn’t allowed to do that as I looked for Rowan so I could drop his shit off and get the hell out of there.

“Rowan?” I called out as I headed down the hall toward the living room.

I heard him answer, “In here, Pep.”

“I’ve got those shirts you wanted me to order,” I spoke as I rounded the corner. “You got lucky this time. Next time I have to deal with one of your bitches I’m setting your shit on fi—”

I came to a screeching halt in the doorway of the living room and the words dried up in my throat at the sight of Griffin sitting on the couch with a lean brunette in a barely-there dress practically sitting on his lap.

“Pepper,” Griffin spoke in a soft, uncomfortable voice as he slid a few inches away from Slut Number Two.

“Griffin,” I offered in a cool, emotionless voice.

“Sorry about that,” Rowan said, coming up to take the bags out of my hands. “I didn’t hear you knock.”

My chest grew tight as I forced myself to break eye contact with him, ignoring the flash of surprise and guilt in their icy depths. It seemed all of the oxygen had been sucked out of the room. “Yeah, well it better not happen again,” I told Rowan, making sure my voice sounded bored. I’d be damned if I let Griffin know how badly I was hurting right then. “This arrangement will work much better if I never have to deal with any of your haram. Deal?”