CHAPTER FOURTEEN
CASEY
Griffin hangs out at the bar for the rest of my shift, with those puppy dog eyes and bulging biceps that could make me say yes to anything he wanted. Once I’ve tipped everyone out and grabbed my things, we walk to his truck in expectant silence.
I want to hop on him. Hold his hand. Suffocate him with kisses.
But I can’t. Right?
“Why are you so quiet?” He pokes me and I shrug.
“Just trying to contain myself until we get home,” I admit.
He grabs my bike from the bike rack and pops it in the back of the truck while I go around to the passenger side.
I’m barely seated with the door swinging shut before he has my face in his hands, giving me the hungriest, deepest kiss of my life.
“Why wait for home?” he asks with a silly grin once we’ve come up for air.
“Because people will see?” I giggle as I buckle my seatbelt, and he pulls out of the parking lot, heading for his house. “I don’t know. We lived in a sex cave for a few days, then you left, and now I don’t know what the rules are.”
“Who cares if people see?”
“Well…I guess it seems easier if they don’t.” I frown, thinking about the situation. “I guess I don’t know how to categorize what’s going on between us, so…”
He sniffs as he slows to a stop at an intersection. “Two friends having a good time, right?”
I nod. That’s all it should be. “Yeah.”
“Friends with benefits.”
“Exactly,” I agree, even though there’s something inside me that is shattering. “Great friends, even greater benefits.”
He looks over at me, then nods. “Yeah.”
“I don’t expect you to be…my boyfriend.” I can barely say the word, only because Griffin as my boyfriend would be heaven on earth.
“I can’t be anybody’s boyfriend,” Griffin says, shrugging. “Just not in the cards for me.”
“Right,” I say, feeling oddly wounded. Like maybe our incredible few days of sex would have changed everything for him, prompted a come-to-Jesus moment where he realized I was the woman he’d been waiting for his entire life.
But no. This is going to be a puck bunny situation, and I need to be okay with it.
“I mean, it makes sense,” I go on, eager to distract myself from the nervous churn in my belly. “You know what you want, and it’s casual sex, good fun. I know what I want, and it’s something like this until, you know, I move back to Chicago and I find the right man.”
Griff lifts a brow. “What’s he like?”
I stare out the window, trying to find a way to not describe Griffin to a tee.
“I don’t know yet. I want to be with someone who wants to grow with me.
Someone I can come home to every night. Make dinner together.
Share our wins and our losses. Date nights.
It sounds so stupid and basic, but Jake never gave me that.
I had to schedule time. I was an afterthought.
He wanted a trophy on his shelf, not a partner in daily life. ”
Griffin nods, scratching absent-mindedly at his arm as he drives. His lack of a response is odd to me. I can tell there’s more beneath the surface.
“So, we shouldn’t tell our friends, right?” It’s weird to talk about the terms of this arrangement. It should be easy and fun, but I already know our friends will get too invested if they learn about this.
“Absolutely not,” Griffin says with a laugh. He pulls into his driveway and cuts the engine. “Let’s just keep doing what we’re doing. We can be friends in public, and way more than friends in private.”
“Let’s keep the benefits flowing,” I joke, slipping out of the truck. Then I remember what was bothering me over his endorsement weekend. Once we hit the porch, I hold up a hand. “Okay, one more question.”
“Shoot.” Griffin unlocks the door, then ushers me inside with a hand on my lower back.
“You’re not getting benefits with…anyone else, right?”
He looks taken aback. “No. Definitely not.”
“Okay.” I pause. “Me neither.” Not that he expressed any worry about that. I feel a little out of my element with this. He probably does this so often it’s second nature. And here I am, in my first friends-with-benefits situation, fully ready to marry the guy.
“Are you ready for your next round of benefits to be released?” he asks as we step inside. I burst into laughter.
“Is it health insurance or is it sex?” I tease, dropping my bag on the small bench near the front door. I slip my shoes off, placing them neatly in their assigned spot as he does the same. I’ve barely turned around before Griffin sweeps me off my feet. Suddenly I’m airborne and giggling.
“Where are you taking me?”
“Wherever we can go explore the benefits package.”
“What about the couch?”
He grunts, veering in that direction. “Excellent idea. I’ve had a fantasy about bending you over the side of this thing.”
This information delights me. I still can’t believe that this six foot three hunk of gorgeous manhood has fantasies about me.
I’m a bookworm who spills drinks on herself at parties and has an older sister complex, hardly someone to fantasize about.
But clearly there’s something he likes. He sets me down gently then gets to work undoing the button of my work capris.
He’s got them peeled off and is working on my underwear when I realize what he’s angling for.
“Oh, wait,” I protest, suddenly embarrassed. “I worked all day, maybe I should get in the shower—”
He shakes his head, cupping my now-bare ass cheeks beneath his huge palms. “Nope. Can’t wait.”
“Griffin.” I wriggle my hips as he presses kisses along my naked inner thigh. “This is the first time you’re doing this. I want it to be—”
“Hot? It already is.”
“I meant special, and, you know, appetizing.”
His gaze drops to my core, his eyes going hooded. “This is more than appetizing.” He swipes a finger over my crease, knocking ever-so-gently against my swollen clit. “I’m fucking starving for this cunt, Casey.”
My entire body flushes hot at the surprise dirty talk, and suddenly I couldn’t care less if I take a shower or get myself perfect for this. He’s ready, and he wants me now. Who am I to argue?
He swipes his tongue over the length of my pussy, and a deep, grumbly sigh escapes him.
Like he’s actually been waiting for this.
Is this man real? He actually cares this much about my pleasure?
My head is spinning as he dives in. He’s urgent, hungry.
There’s nothing restrained as he quite honestly feasts on my pussy.
My head falls back as he sucks and licks and lavishes me with more attention than I could have dreamed of.
But Griffin isn’t content just eating me out. His hands roam my legs, my belly, up to my breasts. He squeezes my tits, worshiping me with his mouth and his hands.
He brings one hand between my legs and eases a finger inside me as he sucks my swollen clit. Then he eases a second finger in. A low moan shudders out of me, and I flop back against the couch. I’m entering the jelly phase of things, and he’s only getting started.
“You like that, Case?”
I can’t even answer him in anything but a whimper. “Like” is a galaxy away from my feelings on the matter. I am wild about this man and this sensation and every single thing he brings to my life. To say I liked it would be offensive.
But words are not wording right now.
“You need more?” he asks. He pushes a third finger inside me and flattens his tongue against my clit.
I sink my fingers into the couch cushions, desperate to grab onto something.
The pleasure threatens to carry me away, dismantle me entirely.
He pulls back, gaze fastened between my legs as he drags his thumb back and forth over my clit.
Each time he does it, my thighs tense and I jolt.
Jesus Christ, this man knows what he’s doing.
“How do you feel now?” His voice is a husky whisper.
“So…fucking…yes.” Not quite perfect English, but close enough. “More.”
I reach for his hair, tangling my fingers in his thick, hickory tresses. I buck against his head, desperate for that contact with his soft lips and that punishing tongue.
“More,” I gasp.
“You’re close.” It doesn’t come out as a question. There’s an evil glint in his eye.
I whimper, grinding against his face. “Yes.”
“But you’ve never come on anyone’s tongue before,” he reminds me. I huff, rocking my hips as though reminding him to return to the task at hand. “You said you weren’t able to.”
“Griff,” is all I can manage to say. My brain has shut down, and my body is in control now. Now is not the time to start shoving my own words in my face. He’s being cocky and he knows it. “Please.”
“I don’t know if I want to break your little track record,” he teases. He nudges my clit with his nose and everything inside me goes taut. I am so fucking close to bursting, and he knows it. He has to know.
“I swear to god, Griffin,” I moan, fisting his hair. “I need it. I need you.”
He flattens his tongue against my clit again, his hooded eyes swirling with desire. “Who makes you come? Tell me.”
He eases his fingers back inside me as he covers my clit with his mouth. He’s devouring me again, and the tension inside my body finally snaps.
“Y—you do,” I gasp. “Fuck, Griffin. It’s you!” An electric wave courses through me and I’m saying his name, over and over again, giving him exactly what we both wanted.
The pleasure rolls through me and I’m rendered useless. Pure jelly. A puddle of satisfied need, made possible by Griffin Keegan. My eyes flutter shut, and a smile curls my lips.
He presses one kiss to my inner thigh but stays right where he is.
He doesn’t rush me or press for more. He just lets me bask—in the pleasure, the perfection, the absolute ease of this thing that has blossomed between us.
It all seems so simple.
But come the end of the summer, I have a sneaking suspicion it will be anything but.