Chapter Thirteen Ruby #3
“Please,” I whispered, taking one step closer. “Please show me.”
A muscle twitched in his jaw. “What are you doing?”
My tongue darted out to lick at my suddenly dry lips, and my stomach flipped weightlessly when his eyes tracked the movement. “You asked me last night what I’d do if this was a real date, right?”
With slightly narrowed eyes, Griffin nodded. “That’s what you’re doing now?”
“I guess.” My voice shook a little as I spoke.
Underneath the thin layer of his shirt, it was just muscle.
We all had them, right? It shouldn’t have felt so shocking.
But his muscles were different. Firm, hard, and hot, and my whole body went up in flames at the feel of them.
My fingers spread out wide, covering a paltry amount of his pectorals. “Please show me, Griffin.”
He exhaled a quiet laugh, blinking slowly as he stared over my shoulder for a moment. “You’re a little too good at this already.”
I bit down on my bottom lip when a smile threatened. “Is that a yes?”
“I’m gonna regret this,” he groaned, shifting the canvas out from under his arm and handing it over to me.
There was a stunned beat of silence while I tried to figure out what the hell I was looking at.
I didn’t want to laugh, but honest to God, I couldn’t help it.
My face was huge, my eyes too small, and there were no whites to be seen around the bluish gray he’d created. Tiny lines for my eyelashes and monstrously huge lips in a bright red. My hair was made from yellow sticks protruding from my head, and he’d forgotten to paint my nose.
“Oh my gosh,” I wheezed.
Griffin crossed his arms, shifting his weight. “Okay, get it out.”
“Griffin . . .” I wiped at tears, my stomach seizing from how hard I was laughing. “This is terrible. Do you think I look like this?”
His hands rose and fell helplessly. “Obviously not, but . . . I can’t . . . How am I supposed to just look at you and paint what I see?”
After another moment, I was able to suck in a deep breath and calm myself. A little. With a last glimpse at his attempt, I set it down on the floor and faced him. His cheeks were flushed pink, but his gaze stayed steady on mine.
“I love it,” I told him.
“You do not.”
“I do. I’m keeping it forever. Framing it in my house.”
Griffin growled under his breath, a playful sound of exasperation that sent my pulse skyrocketing. He stepped forward, his hand raised like he was going to reach for me, then stopped.
Without thinking, I gripped his wrist before he could pull his hand away. “What were you going to do?”
He inhaled through his nose, studying my face through heated eyes. “Not sure I should tell you that, birdy.”
“What if we renegotiate so you can?” I said in a rush.
Everything about this felt real and crisp and vivid, and I didn’t want it to end. I wanted to feel more of it, bask in this perfect little moment and let it play out so I could remember it someday.
“You really want that?”
God, his voice. There was desire in that rough-edged voice, and it was stamped all over his face. I wasn’t sure when it had happened, but it was heady. Dangerous. And oh, I wanted more.
Dazedly, I nodded, my hand still tight around his thick wrist. Griffin stepped forward, backing me up against the desk, his hands sliding easily around my hips as he boosted me up onto the surface. My legs split open, and he crowded into me, cradling my jaw with both big, calloused hands.
My head spun from the sudden, overwhelming proximity of his large body.
He dipped his head to run his nose against mine. “I was going to touch your face like this,” he said in a low, fierce voice. “Tell you how beautiful you look when you laugh. That you should do it every day. Every fucking day.”
A helpless whimper crawled up the back of my throat, and his hands slid back into my hair, where his fingers tightened.
“That’s a nice little sound, Ruby,” he whispered. “What else can I do to make more of those?”
My hands curled helplessly into the front of his shirt, and I tilted my chin up, drowning in this thick pulse of desire that felt like fireworks all over my skin.
I didn’t want it to end. Let it be real, I begged quietly in my head.
And I said the most terrifying thing I could imagine, words I could never take back once they were out, but I refused to let the fear hold me back.
Not tonight. Not with him.
“You could kiss me,” I whispered back.
He rolled his forehead against mine, sucking in a sharp breath. “You gonna let me? You gonna beg me for it if I hold out much longer? Tell me you want this, baby.”
That unthinking nickname flipped a switch under my skin. It wasn’t a holdover from our childhood, something cute and sweet and innocent. It was tossed out in the heat of the moment, falling off his tongue because he couldn’t stop himself.
Tell him I wanted this? Easiest thing I’d ever done.
“Griffin, please—”
The word was barely out when Griffin slanted his mouth over mine—a skillful, bold first kiss. Nothing like I’d expected, which was what made it so achingly perfect. It wasn’t tentative and innocent. It was sex in a kiss. The kind that made for sweaty skin and whispered dirty words.
And when his slick, hot tongue teased the line of my lips, I opened immediately, throwing my arms around his big shoulders and holding on for dear life.
The man could kiss. If there was anything he was better at than this, I’d explode before I ever got the chance to experience it.
His arms moved down my back, gathering me closer to him as his lips worked in a devastating push and pull over mine.
He sucked at my bottom lip, soothing it with his tongue afterward.
That tongue moved back into my mouth, tangling with my own until my back arched, pressing my aching breasts into his chest.
When I dug my hands into the thick length of his hair and tightened my fingers, he groaned, the sound reverberating deep through my bones as I lost myself in that kiss. Lost myself in Griffin.
How easily I could let him carry me away completely. When did this happen? When did he become the safest man I knew? The only one I trusted with this kind of mindless desire, this frantic, clawing desperation.
His hips rolled against my center, and I gasped, throwing my head back as I registered the hard, hot, big length of him.
“Oh,” I exhaled.
“For you, baby,” he murmured against my throat, then dragged his teeth against the line of my neck.
For me.
There was no faking this, no polite veneer over the way his hands clutched my body to his. All this . . . for me. God, the way it made my mind spin and spin and spin.
Being wanted by Griffin was power unleashed, my skin sparking with invisible bits of magic. There was a reason this was addicting, why desire became a trembling sort of craving that couldn’t be ignored.
He wanted me. There was proof hard against my body, and even if it was just for this moment, I wanted him too. More than I’d wanted anyone in my entire life—to a senseless, illogical degree.
It wasn’t really senseless, though. I could pull threads of logic in every single step that got us here, with his mouth on mine and his arms curled tight around my frame in a way that made me feel . . . everything. I felt everything with him, and it was perfect.
It was a loss of control that I welcomed because handing it to him felt like the only conclusion I could possibly reach.
Griffin sucked at the sensitive skin underneath my ear, licking along my jaw until he took my mouth again in another searing kiss.
It didn’t matter that I wasn’t entirely sure what to do, that the steps of this dance were unfamiliar to me, because he masterfully led me through each kiss, each twist of his tongue around mine.
His hands dove into my hair again, tilting my head so that the angle of the kiss changed into something luxurious and decadent.
Our kisses slowed, deepened. Burrowing farther into his arms kept me from trembling, and it was the heat of his body that had me sighing softly as he changed the angle again with a deep, rumbling groan.
The way his hands mapped out my body, along my back and waist, up over my shoulder to cup the base of my neck, using his thumbs to lift my chin into another kiss.
There were too many clothes in between us, and a restless sort of energy built and built in my fingertips, desperate to tear at whatever separated us. This was a possession, a not-so-simple kiss from the absolute last person I should be touching.
He slid one big palm around to cup my breast, his thumb circling around my impossibly hard tip. “You feel incredible.”
I couldn’t breathe. It felt so good I couldn’t breathe.
Then his hand settled over my sternum—and a bright throb of panic made my eyes snap open. “Wait,” I gasped.
Immediately, Griffin pulled back, his eyes searching my face while he pulled his hands off me. “Too much?”
I settled my hands over my chest and took a few deep breaths, willing myself to calm down. “Maybe,” I whispered.
“I’m sorry,” he said. Griffin ducked his head down. “I’m sorry.”
“No.” I cupped his face and pulled his forehead down to mine, letting them rest together while we struggled to catch our breath. “Don’t be sorry. That was . . .” I shook my head. “That was incredible.”
He gave me a tiny smile. “I’ll paint you a thousand pictures if that’s the way you want to thank me.”
I exhaled a laugh. “Please don’t.”
Griffin’s smile widened, and he stepped back from the desk, holding his hand out to help me down. “If that were a real date, that would’ve been a hell of a way to end it.”
Something about his words made my bones ache, and I forced a smile.
I wish it was real, I thought. Don’t you?
But I couldn’t force the words out. They wouldn’t budge from where they were anchored in my throat. Saying them would change everything, and for the briefest of moments, I felt naive and silly for even thinking them.
“It would,” I replied softly.
He waited patiently while I turned off the lights in the library, then locked the doors. As he walked me to my car, neither of us said anything, and I had a sinking feeling we’d just wrecked something that couldn’t be fixed easily.
“Well, when should we get together next?” he asked. “Maybe do a practice date at my place and you can show me all your newfound skills? I’ll flutter my eyelashes and everything.”
A breathy laugh escaped before I could stop it.
His charm was effortless, and instead of being annoyed by it like I had been at the beginning, it threatened to reel me in.
The lights in the parking lot cast a filmy, mysterious air around us, and with the way he stood, his hands tucked in his pockets—just out of reach—it lent an air of innocence to this entire exchange.
Ironic, given that only a few minutes earlier, I’d been two seconds away from stripping naked on my desk, the devastating side effect of Griffin King’s ability to kiss me stupid.
Leaning against my car, I gave him an apologetic smile. “I’ll be really busy the next couple days with the fair. I’m not sure I can get away easily.”
Griffin nodded. “Make sure you still get your beauty sleep. It’s good for your health, I hear.”
“I will,” I promised. “Don’t get too bored.”
“Oh, I have plenty to keep me busy. Sense and Sensibility tomorrow night.”
A shocked laugh fell from my lips. He was joking, right?
He had to be.
He gave me a dangerous smile and told me good night, watching while I hooked myself into my seat and started the car. After I’d pulled out of my spot, I glimpsed in the rearview mirror and saw him standing there, hands still tucked into his pockets and watching as I drove away.