Chapter 9
CHAPTER NINE
MARLEY
This can’t be happening. Griz being here. Him seeing my house in disarray. Seeing that someone had come in and violated my home. Sure, they didn’t do more than toss things around, flip things over, and knock stuff off tables. Oh, and I can’t forget the message they wrote in freaking permanent marker on my damn mirror.
But none of that is what I can’t believe is happening right now. It’s the fact that Griz is telling me what’s going to happen.
I swear the man is a total nutso.
I could easily have cleaned up my living room without his help, but I have to admit it’s nice to have him here. Knowing someone was in my home that hadn’t been invited doesn’t sit well with me. I have a security system, and I remember setting the dang thing before leaving the house.
Or at least, I’m ninety percent sure I did. Griz had been at my door when I was leaving, so I could have been distracted. I’m pretty sure, though, that I did set it.
What also got to me was the fact Griz was under the assumption the two of us were going to do the dirty. After he blew me off three weeks ago, I was not going to just give in and let him between my legs like that. No way. No how. Nope. Nada.
To make things worse, I ended my date early because I couldn’t enjoy my meal with Griz being at the diner. He’d been so close to me, and after that kiss he’d given me, I’d been unable to think of anything else.
David Riggs hadn’t noticed this. He was more about talking about himself and work that when I found the chance to end the date, I did by faking a phone call. It was easy, telling him that I had to go. Something had come up, and he took it all in stride. Even asked me to dinner again, to which I had to tell him I’d have to check my plans for the upcoming week.
What I didn’t tell him was that I had no intention of going on another date with him.
This doesn’t mean I was going to jump right back into things with Griz, either. He freaking ghosted me for weeks. He stood me up and then showed up out of the blue.
Why won’t he just leave?
Right, because he sayswe’re going to get shit cleaned up, talk, then he plans to fuck me. Oh, and he said tomorrow we’re gonna talk some more. What’s there to talk about?
Sighing, I shake the thoughts out of my head and take a breath, readying myself to face off with Griz. It didn’t take long for us to get my living room cleaned back up, thankfully. Whoever did this probably wanted to freak me out, but all it did was annoy the hell out of me. I mean, it’s immature bullshit, in my opinion. Trying to scare me off isn’t going to do anything else but tick me off.
I actually like where I live, and I don’t plan on moving. They’ll have to come up with something else to scare me away.
“Well, that’s done now,” I mutter, wiping my hands on my jeans and facing Griz. “You can tell me what it is you want to talk to me about so you can leave.” I don’t mention him screwing me because I can still remember the feel of his mouth on my breasts.
Griz grins and stalks across the room, coming right at me. His arms come around my waist, and he shifts us, twisting. He sits down on my couch and brings me down on his lap, my legs straddling either side of his hips. “Now that we’ve got the room cleaned up, it’s time we talk.”
“There’s nothing to talk about.” I huff, crossing my arms in front of me, knowing just what my arms crossed does to my breasts. Griz doesn’t even hide his interest in the fact my breasts are pushed upward. Or that my shirt is showing an ample amount of cleavage.
“Sweets, we can either talk, or I can take you to your room and fuck you, your choice.”
Okay, that did not go straight between my legs and make me cream my panties. The huskiness of his voice mixed with the look in his eyes and his fingers stroking my waist, it’s all nearly too much. All right, so it is too much. Way. Way. Way. Too much. He’s going to my head, and it honestly baffles me how easily he gets to me.
“Fine talk,” I snap. I lean back, planting my bottom fully on his legs.
“Why’d you go on a date with Deputy David Riggs?” he asks.
“That’s none of your business. Get to the point of you being here already.”
I just wanted him to finish this conversation and leave.
Griz loses the glimmer of lust in his gaze, his eyes darkening in another way. One I don’t know how to decipher.
“I fucked up, sweets,” he states, his tone deepening further, almost gravelly. “Three weeks ago, I fucked up by not showing up to take you out.”
Well, at least he acknowledges that he screwed up.
“The last bitch I was seeing put out a bogus protective order against me. The club’s lawyer was able to get to the bottom of that shit and get it dismissed. But it all fucked with my head. I ended shit with her because I don’t deal with liars. I can’t stand a liar. I do what I gotta do to protect my club. I didn’t like the fact she didn’t tell me that she was a cop’s daughter, and her old man was going to fuck with the club.”
“I’m not following how she lied.” The words were out of my mouth before I could stop them.
“She hid the fact that she was a cop’s daughter from me. That in itself was a lie.”
“A lie of omission.” I could understand that.
“Exactly, anyway, I ended things with her. It fucked with me because I did like her. Thought I did, at least. What it was that fucked with me most was that I let a woman get under my skin and close to me. Again, l thought I did. For a while, that’s what I thought. Then you popped by the garage, served me those fuckin’ papers, and damn, if I didn’t learn the difference. Learned it quick, and that alone was enough to fuck with my head all over again.”
“I’m not following,” I tell him. His words are a bit confounding. I mean, sure, I get some of where he’s coming from, but I don’t get the parts about me and how I get under his skin.
“Three weeks ago, I made the decision that I wasn’t going to see where things could go with you. It’s why I fucked up and didn’t show for our date.”
Now, that didn’t make me happy in the least. I didn’t need him telling me this. I already knew. Him saying it now is like him rubbing it in.
“What you gotta get though is I’m here with you now. Because in those weeks, I also learned that I can’t get the taste of your mouth out of my head. I can’t even get the feel of you beneath me while I sucked your tits in my mouth out of my head. All I keep thinking about is how good you felt under me. How I liked the sounds of your moans. You, sweets,” his fingers of one hand shift upward until he curls his fingers along my neck and pulls me forward, his head tipping back slightly, “you got under my skin in a way I didn’t want to understand. Hell, I wanted to fight it. But I can’t. I want you too damn much to think of anything else.”
With those words leaving his mouth, he claims my lips. His tongue plunges in, and there’s no other way to put it, but what it is, he kisses me thoroughly. Beautifully. I didn’t think a kiss could be like this. Even the one we shared weeks ago holds no resemblance.
Griz shifts us until I’m under him in the same position we’d been in the last time we were here like this.
I whimper into his kiss, loving it, at the same time hating it. I don’t get why. Okay, I do, because I know I’m going to end up giving in to his touch. Giving in to him in every way I know I shouldn’t. He’ll take what he wants from me, then leave me in the dust right alongside every other girl who gives in to a man like him.
Griz needs to get the word heartbreaker tattooed across his head as a warning because that’s exactly what he does to women. He just doesn’t know that’s what he’s doing.
Needing more of him, I tighten my arms around his shoulders and rub myself against him.
Unlike last time, I intend to make sure that the two of us finish what we started. I’m not going to let him leave me longing for him again. Not this time around. I won’t be left burning for him when he’s done with me. I’ll take from him just as he takes from me.