Chapter Eighteen Ruby #3
“I took the day yesterday, like you asked,” I said. I found myself staring at his hands where they rested on his thighs. Staring at the curl of his big fingers, remembering with vivid clarity what they felt like inside me.
“And?”
The rough edge to his voice had me pinching my eyes shut for a moment, only opening them again when I felt a bit steadier.
“Did you know that regular sex not only improves your blood circulation, but studies have shown that it can reduce the risk of heart disease in women by up to fifty percent?”
His firm, beautiful lips stayed in a straight line, but oh, the way his eyes smiled—I felt it like a lightning bolt.
“No kidding. Any other interesting tidbits?”
“It’s a natural pain reliever too.” I stood straighter, inching closer to him, allowing my hands to rest on his forearms, curling my fingers around the smooth skin and roped muscles there. “Orgasms release oxytocin and endorphins into your system. It can even help with menstrual cramps.”
“Keep talking, birdy,” he whispered, easing his hands forward until they slid up the backs of my thighs. “I’m surprisingly turned on by talk of blood circulation and menstrual cramps.”
Even though he was teasing me, I licked slowly at my bottom lip, gratified when his pupils flared slightly. “You’d be good for my health, Griffin. Doesn’t that sound nice?”
A deep hum came from the back of his throat, and I wanted to hear it against my ear.
Wanted to hear it while he held my hands down on the bed and worked my body until I was screaming so loud the neighbors could hear.
My head was dazed and spinning, standing in the bright sunshine, no one to see us but the trees, and his hands slowly coasting over my backside to tug me even closer.
He adjusted his seat on the car, bringing his hard body flush with my center.
“Not sure anyone’s ever said that to me before,” he said, eyes full of wondrous heat.
When I’d gotten dressed that morning, I had thought about touching him. I had thought about watching when he tipped over the edge of control, like I had in the bathroom—shuddering and gasping in the circle of his arms.
I leaned forward and placed a featherlight kiss on his lips, and when I pulled back, he rested his forehead on mine, his hands gripping me firmly around my hips. The hard press of his thumb into the sensitive skin just underneath my hip bone had me hissing in a breath.
Prying my eyes open, I looked down at his lap, at the impressive bulge underneath his joggers, and I licked my lips again.
“Why the hell are you looking at me like that, baby?” he whispered, raw and rough through gritted teeth.
I lifted my head and remembered what Lauren had said before he picked me up.
If I wanted to . . . I should.
No matter what it was, and no matter how many times I might have talked myself out of it under normal circumstances.
“I owe you,” I whispered back, tugging slightly on the waistband of his joggers with curled fingers that brushed against the heated skin of his stomach. “Let me.”
“Fuck,” he groaned, tipping his head back. “What if someone drives back here?”
I placed a light kiss at the front of his throat, where the hard wedge of his Adam’s apple stood against his tan skin. He didn’t stop me, though.
On the contrary, Griffin helped me tug his pants down just far enough that we might not get arrested for indecent exposure. He braced one hand on the car, adding a slight barrier for anyone who might approach from that side. From a distance, we’d look like a couple embracing.
“You really want this?” he asked. “With me, I mean.”
I held his gaze unflinchingly. “Yes.”
Griffin exhaled, the sound as unsteady as any I’d heard from him, and eventually he nodded. “Who am I to say no to Ruby Tate?” he asked, and then he dropped his mouth to my neck and sucked at the sensitive spot where my shoulder curved.
When he was free of the confines of his pants, it was a really good thing he wasn’t looking at my face, because my eyes widened almost comically, my jaw hinging open.
If there was a part of my psyche still trapped in middle school, I would’ve run screaming from the sight of the absolute monster he was hiding in his pants. But considering the height and the big hands and the big feet . . . he was very, very proportional.
I almost let out a panicked laugh, but blew out a slow breath and focused instead on the heat of his skin as I started exploring.
Griffin was nosing against my neck, licking lightly at my skin, grunting softly as he helped me wrap my fingers around his length.
“Like that,” he groaned. “You won’t hurt me, baby.”
I exhaled shakily, relishing the way he felt. Hard. So hard. Soft and smooth as I moved my hand. And beautiful, but I didn’t dare say that out loud.
My fingers wouldn’t touch as they wrapped around him, and there was something wildly intimidating about that, as was the way he tightened our intertwined grasp so much harder than I ever would’ve dared.
“What else do you want me to do?” I asked.
Griffin snaked his arm around my waist and brought us closer, fingers gripping my ribs under the mesh shirt, and with my hand between us, I worked him with small rolling motions of my wrist. When I tightened my grip, squeezing hard, he slanted his mouth over mine with a groan, his tongue seeking mine in a demanding sweep between my lips.
It felt so wicked, being kissed like this, with arguably the most beautiful penis in existence in my hand and Griffin King making helpless growling noises into my mouth.
I’d never felt wicked in thirty years on this earth, and wearing that mantle now scrambled something delicious in my brain. I don’t know what cosmic intervention brought this man back into my life’s path, but I wanted to send them a giant freaking thank-you basket.
I sucked lightly on his tongue, and he grunted into my mouth, pulling back from the kiss to tug at my wrist until my hand was up by his mouth. As he held my eyes, he licked a wide swath over my palm, and I gasped when he settled our joined hands around him again.
“That’s it,” he groaned.
“Tell me if this is good,” I begged, words tumbling out unchecked. “What do you think about when you do it to yourself?”
His eyes fixed on mine, color rising in his cheeks. “Lately? I think about you on my lap, baby.”
“Really?”
“Oh yeah,” he groaned. “Wanna see that soon, pretty girl. Want to see you scream while I’m underneath you. Want to feel you fall apart when I’m inside you. Want that so fucking bad, even if I shouldn’t.”
The imagery, with his guttural, demanding voice narrating it, had me letting out a shaky breath. Maybe I was in over my head, but there was no way I was backing out of this now.
I wanted it. So I was going to do it.
I wanted him. So badly that I was trembling.
Our hands moved faster, and he sucked in a sharp breath. “Ruby,” he growled, “that’s it, baby.”
Griffin tipped back his head as he let out a low groan and came over our joined fingers. I stared down in awe, watching while he slowed the movement of our hands and worked himself through the last pulses of his pleasure.
He let out a shocked laugh, staring at me like he’d never seen me before. “Holy shit, Ruby Tate. You just blew my fucking mind with that one.”
I grinned, and he ducked down for a hot, searing kiss. When he pulled back, my head was spinning again.
“You’re trouble, you know that?” he whispered. We kissed again, luxurious and slow. “You just keep making me want more.”
The way he said it had me studying his face. At first, I couldn’t even pinpoint what I’d heard. Reluctance, maybe, and a hint of resignation.
“I’m guessing you don’t want me to return the favor while we’re out here,” he said, lips brushing mine softly.
Breathing out a laugh, I shook my head. “No. I just wanted to do that for you,” I told him.
He hissed in a breath. “Baby, you keep saying stuff like that, and I’ll have to give you one anyway.”
My breath was coming in short pants. “It’s okay, really.”
Griffin kissed me again—lingering and dirty and the kind of kiss that started things, not ended them.
His hand slipped underneath my shirt, and he pulled back to watch my face while he dragged his thumb over the front of my sports bra.
“I bet I could slip my hand right between your legs and have you moaning without laying a single finger on your pretty little—”
I slapped my hand over his mouth, and his eyes twinkled. “Later,” I told him. “Show me later. Now, maybe we should figure out how to clean each other up.”
I held up the other hand with a wry arch of my eyebrow, and Griffin’s muffled laugh behind my hand made me smile. He licked my palm, and I removed my hand with a scoff.
“Hold on,” he said, sliding off the car and tugging his pants back into place. He popped the trunk and fished out his gym bag, jogging back around to the front of the car to cradle my hand in his while he cleaned it off with a small white towel.
“Well, that’s handy,” I said primly, because watching him clean his own mess off my fingers was giving me a slight out-of-body experience. “Didn’t know you’d packed for a night out.”
He laughed. “Oh, we’re not gonna be gone overnight. We’re going to the gym.”
My brow furrowed. “What gym?”
Griffin kissed me again, smacking me firmly on the ass as he pulled away. “Team facilities. Team doctor and head trainer are meeting us there.” With a wince, he glanced at his watch. “We’ll be late at this point. I’m sure they won’t mind.”
My mouth hung open. “What?”
“Your fault,” he said smoothly. “I did not have hand job in the parking lot on the itinerary, but I’ll leave it up to you if you want to tell them that or not.”
I fixed him with a glare, and he laughed again.
“Come on, birdy. We’ve got another forty-five minutes until we get there. You keep glaring at me like that, and we’ll have another problem on our hands.”
“You are impossible,” I told him, sliding back into the car.
Griffin grinned, carefree and wind-blown and staggeringly handsome, as the car engine roared back to life. “Don’t I know it, Ruby.”