Fire & Ice (The Locklaine Boys #1) (20 page)

THE WAY I SAW
it, I had two choices. I could freak out and use the whole condom thing as a way to push Griffin away and keep my heart safe. Or I could be honest.

My body decided for me. After what we’d just done, I was too exhausted to move, let alone have a meltdown.

“I’m on the pill,” I told him quietly. “And I’m clean, I promise.”

I’d expected a relieved breath or a
Thank Christ
or something. Instead, he pressed a soft kiss against my shoulder blade. “I trust you. And I’m clean too, swear to God. If you want proof—”

I surprised both of us by interrupting him with, “I trust you too.” I hadn’t realized until just that moment that I really and truly did.

“Thank you, baby,” he whispered against my skin, tightening his arms around me.

I wasn’t sure exactly what was happening, but something had most definitely shifted between us. It was in the air, it was in how he held me against him as though I was something precious. Things were different. There was no going back to how things were. There was no more “just sex,” not that there ever really was. I wasn’t sure if either of us believed that lie we were telling ourselves.

I wasn’t going to lie to myself. I absolutely
loved
laying there in Griffin’s arms, sleepy and sore in the best ways possible. But I wasn’t a big fan of the fact that, with the shift that had just taken place between us, it felt kind of like there was a stranger pressed against me. Everything was just
so different
.

“It wasn’t exactly how I’d planned it, but I told you I’d be inside you today,” Griffin rumbled in that cocky voice of his. And just like that,
we
were back.

My face stretched into a big smile. “Don’t be a dick.” I tried to sound stern, but the laughter in my voice wouldn’t allow it.

“Speaking of dick…” Griffin shifted his hips and I gasped in surprise.

“Already?”

“This is what you do to me,” he said gruffly as he shifted our bodies in the bed for round two.

“THAT NEVER HAPPENED!” MY
stomach ached with laughter as I rolled around under the covers listening to Griffin tell stories about Dex and Rowan back in college.

“It did, I swear. I’m pretty sure I still have pictures somewhere.” he chuckled. We’d yet to get out of bed. It was well past midnight, and even though we both needed sleep, we were too busy talking and enjoying each other’s company to try. We weren’t doing anything that would necessarily constitute as special, but for some reason, I felt the need to mark this night down as one of the best of my life.

“So how’d you finally get Dex’s head out of the banister?”

“Well,” Griffin exhaled, his fingers tracing a path along my bare ribs as I laid pressed against his side. “We ran out of butter, and since it was a frat house and no one cooked, there wasn’t any canola oil or vegetable oil the try and grease his head with.”

“So what did you use?” I asked as I outlined the dips and ridges of his abs.

“Lube.”

I lifted my head, one eyebrow cocked. “
Lube
?”

“Yep,” he grinned devilishly. “Like I said, we lived in a frat house. We didn’t have any cooking oil but we had a shit ton of lube. Worked like a charm. Dex’s head slipped right out.”

“You guys are a mess,” I giggled as I lay back down.

“That’s nothing. You should have been there when Rowan superglued Frankie Mulroney’s ass cheeks together. Now
that
was a party. Granted, it ended with a rush to the emergency room and a police questioning, but still. Epic.”

“Rowan physically glued another man’s butt cheeks together?” I asked in bewilderment. “And you don’t see anything wrong with getting that close to a drunken frat boy’s ass?”

Griffin’s fingers paused. “Well, when you put it like
that
I do. I was a drunk college kid. Back then I thought everything was hilarious, cut me some slack.” I burst into another fit of laughter and he held me tight. Once I calmed down his voice grew more serious as he said, “I’ve been thinking…” Those three words are
never
a precursor to something good, but I let him continue anyway. “I think we should still keep our relationship quiet for a little bit—”

“
What
?” I snapped sharply. “Are you fucking kidding me?” I tried to pull away from him, but he held strong.

“Now, hold on and just hear me out, okay?”

“
Pfft
. Screw that! Let me go!”

He didn’t let me go. He rolled his body so that I was pinned between him and the mattress, holding just enough of his weight on top of me that there was no escaping him.

“Listen,” he bit out as that muscle in his jaw ticked. When I remained silent, he continued. “This relationship is brand new. We haven’t exactly had the best track record for getting along the past couple of years—” he put his hand over my mouth when I opened it. I was really getting tired of him doing that. “And I know it was totally my fault. But think about it, sweetness. If we tell everyone now, we’ll have to deal with all their bullshit and opinions about
our
relationship. I’m not trying to keep this a secret. I just want us to have enough time together to build something solid, so when the shit finally
does
hit the fan, we’re in a good enough place to handle it together.”

That was a valid point, and I had to admit I agreed. So I did the most logical thing that came to mine. I licked his palm so he’d get grossed out and snatch it away so I could tell him so.

“Jesus!” He pulled his hand away, his face twisted in a look of disgust. “Was that really necessary?”

I giggled and cocked a brow. “Well how do you expect me to tell you you’re right if your hand is covering my mouth?”

“Wait…” He stared down at me, concern etched in his features. “Did you just say I was right, or did I stroke out a little bit?”

I smiled brightly. “You’re not stroking out. I mean, you are getting up there in age—” I started to tease before he began tickling the hell out of me. “Stop! Stop!” I laughed before trying to suck air back into my lungs.

“Say it again,” he demanded once I’d gotten the giggles out of my system.

“You were right… for the first time ever. We should mark the occas—AGH!” I finished with a scream just as he licked the side of my face from chin to forehead.

IT HAD BEEN A
week since my and Griffin’s relationship had changed, and it had been going surprisingly well. Other than Rowan and Tomas, we’d kept everything to ourselves, building a solid foundation with each other before having to deal with the other people in our lives. I had to admit, I was pretty happy with how it was shaping up so far.

Especially at that very moment.

“Oh God.
Ohgodohgodohgod
. I’m coming!” Griffin’s hand shot up and covered my mouth. I really needed to have a talk with him about that. My thighs clenched around his head as his wicked tongue flicked at my clit and the fingers of his other hand curled up deep inside of me. I thrust my hips against his face as my release washed over me, so strong I thought I might pass out. He stayed at it until the very last tremble left my body.

My back collapsed against the wall behind me. If it hadn’t been for the table I was sitting on I had no doubt I’d have been a puddle on the floor of my sewing room just then. Griffin rose from his knees in front of me, a shit-eating grin plastered across his smug face. “God, I love that you’re a screamer.”

“Shut up,” I laughed, giving him a playful slap before taking his hand and letting him help me off the table. I brushed at the skirt of my adorable green cap-sleeved dress, trying to get out any wrinkles as I scanned the floor for my discarded underwear. “Have you seen my…” I trailed off when I saw my bright red tanga-cut panties dangling from his index finger. “Give them to me,” I warned after I reached for them, only to have him snatch them away.

“Hmm,” he hummed. “I don’t know. I kind of like the idea of you going pantie-less for the rest of the day. I think I’m gonna hold on to these. You know, kind of as a memento.”

“You’re such a jerk,” I muttered as he stuffed my underwear into the pocket of his jeans.

“You love it,” he teased back. He was right. I kind of did. I walked over to the full-length mirror in the back corner of the room and went about trying to fix my hair, attempting to tame the unkempt curls into something that didn’t look like I’d just been ravished for the past half hour. Once I was happy with it, I moved on to re-applying my red lipstick that had gotten smudged off by Griffin’s kiss the moment I shut the sewing room door.

“Have I told you how much I love your lipstick?” Griffin asked as he came up behind me, looping his arms around my waist. “Never wear anything but red. You look amazing with red lips.”

“It goes with the hair…”

“And the fiery personality,” he added, leaning over and placing a kiss against my neck. “It’s all you.”

A sigh escaped my lips as I closed my eyes and dropped my head to the side. His fingers dug into my waist as his teeth nipped at the sensitive skin of my neck. The feel of his erection poking against my back caused heat to coil between my thighs. It had been less than three minutes since Griffin had given me a world-class orgasm and I was already ready for him again.

I was just about to suggest we go for another round when there was a knock on the door. “Uh… Pepper?” My newest employee, Tara, called nervously from the other side of the door. She knew the rules on interrupting me when I was in this room, but she was still new enough to not fully understand how everything in the store worked. “There’s a woman in here who’s demanding the blue blossom maxi in a size two. I told her we didn’t have any in stock and, uh… she kinda got a little… um… rude.”

“Okay, sweetie. I’ll be right there,” I called out, then turned around to face Griffin. “Duty calls. I gotta go.” Wrapping my arms around his neck, I pushed up on my tiptoes and pressed a kiss to his lips.

“Come over to my place tonight,” he said in a gravelly voice that told me he was still just as turned on as I was.

“Can’t. I’m having a girls’ night with Navie and Tomas.”

He pulled back and shot me a look. “Explain to me how Tomas fits into girls’ night again.”