Chapter Twenty-Three Griffin #2
Her shaky sigh was noticeable only because of my arm banded around her frame, and from my mouth trailing along her temple, the pulled-back curls tickling my cheek. Ruby turned her head slightly, her hand clutching my arm as she arched her back.
With her big, sweet eyes aimed up at me, the trust I saw there was enough to break my heart. Then she licked her lips, slow and intentional, rolling up on her tiptoes as she turned in my arms. I clutched her backside as she tugged my head down toward her mouth.
“Nothing,” she whispered, her lips brushing the shell of my ear.
The hair on the back of my neck lifted, my skin buzzing with a bright shock of desire, something that spiraled quick and fast. In a slight daze, I pulled back to meet her eyes.
There was a question there. A wicked request that I was helpless to deny.
“You sure, baby?” I asked, my hand curling gently around her throat, using the slightest pressure of my thumb to tilt her chin up. She swallowed, and the flare of heat in her eyes with my hand around her like that almost brought me to my knees from the bone-cracking shot of lust.
Ruby’s tongue darted out and she licked at her bottom lip, then nodded slowly.
I dropped my head down, rolling my forehead against hers. Her hands clutched at my biceps, and I struggled to think clearly. We were in a house full of people, and I couldn’t find it in myself to care. “The party,” I said weakly, one last grasp at sanity. “It’s a full fucking house, Ruby.”
Her hands cradled my jaw, easing me back so that her gaze met mine. “Then you better not scream too loud.”
I exhaled a shocked laugh, and God, my heart felt seven sizes too big in my chest. It almost spilled over into something maudlin and ridiculous, where I just wrapped her in my arms and asked her to let me hold her all night instead.
Almost had me asking if sex could wait and I could simply kiss her for hours and hours and hours.
“Please,” she whispered.
My forehead fell against hers again. “Anything,” I told her. With every molecule in my worthless body, I meant it. I’d give her anything I was capable of giving. All she had to do was ask.
Clutching her hand behind my back, I turned and started weaving through the group of people, occasionally smiling and nodding at some of my teammates as we passed. Marcus lifted his hand as he came into view, and as soon as he was within reach, I gripped his shirt and tugged him closer.
“Don’t come looking for us, and if you turn down that music, I’ll break every bone in your body.”
He grinned, giving me a crisp salute. “You got it, birthday boy.”
The very best thing about Steven’s house was that once you passed the main bedroom and his office, then went past the gym, another hallway branched out, leading to the extra bedrooms. I’d chosen the one at the end because it had a large slider overlooking the backyard and I liked the view of the mountains as the sun rose.
The sound from the party faded, and as soon as Ruby cleared the doorway, I slammed it shut, locking it with a decisive click, crowding her against the hard surface as her chest heaved on deep, panting breaths.
Our kiss was brutal, my hands gripping her ass as she tried to fucking climb me where we stood.
I boosted her up against the door, my tongue licking into her hot mouth as her legs wound around my waist. My hands worked under her dress, and I groaned into her mouth when I found that she was, in fact, wearing nothing underneath.
“You wicked, wicked girl,” I whispered against her lips, my nose brushing hers as I skimmed my fingers along the bare curve of her ass. She dropped her head against the door, writhing in my arms as I teased her with soft brushes of my fingertips. “You’ve been thinking about this, haven’t you?”
“Yes,” she moaned, sweet and impatient. “Please, Griffin. Don’t make me wait.”
With one arm banded around her ass, I latched my mouth onto hers and whirled around to deposit her carefully onto the bed. She was light enough that I didn’t need to set her down when I braced my knee on the mattress and lowered my weight over hers.
Ruby’s hands fumbled with the buttons on my shirt, and I paused the kiss to help her. Once half the buttons were undone, I ripped the shirt off and tossed it onto the floor.
Her pupils dilated as she stared at my chest, her fingers dancing over the newly uncovered muscles. “Look at you,” she whispered. “I don’t understand how you’re real.”
I let her look her fill, flexing my arms as I pulled at the buckle on my belt.
“You want me to prove it to you?” She chewed briefly on her bottom lip as she nodded, shifting her hips on the bed, which worked the hem of her skirt high enough that my mouth started watering.
“Good, because I finally found what I want for my birthday.”
Anchoring my hands easily around her ribs, I pushed her higher onto the bed, then slid my palms down her thighs, letting my fingers curl into the warm flesh there, pressing her legs open with a slight pressure on her knees.
“You tell me if you want to stop, okay?” I said, easing myself down between her legs. I kissed the inside of her thigh, draping one and then the other over my shoulders as she nodded jerkily. “I mean it, Ruby. Any time. At any point. We stop if you don’t want any more.”
She raised her chin. “What if you want to stop?”
My eyes closed briefly, and I let out a low, dangerous chuckle. “Oh, baby, I won’t be stopping us.” I rucked her skirt above her waist, making sure she could see my eyes as I lowered my mouth toward her. “I want this too much.”
If this was my only night to have Ruby Tate in my bed, I was going to tear her world apart with nothing but my tongue and fingers and lips. I was going to rip down any reservations that made her feel less than or not sexy or not good enough.
“Happy birthday to me,” I said against the warm skin of her inner thigh.
Before she could say anything else, I pressed my hand onto her trembling stomach and locked my gaze with hers as I licked straight up her center, groaning at the taste of her.
She clutched my hair in both hands and moaned so loud that goose bumps sprang up on my arms.
New life goal: find every sound that this woman could possibly make with my mouth between her legs. Fuck the Super Bowl—this was the only thing I wanted to win for the rest of my life on this earth.
Through sweet little rocking motions, Ruby worked herself against my mouth, and I found very quickly that she liked it when I used my fingers along with slow, tongue-heavy kisses.
Her moans turned to choppy, rib-shaking, gasping breaths, and her hands were so tight in my hair that I had to pinch my eyes shut, my own hips rocking against the mattress to seek relief.
What made her break, though—mouth wide open on a silent scream, her back arched helplessly—was a simple twist of my wrist and press of my fingers, my tongue soft and slick against her.
I watched her ride it out, her ribs rising and falling on shocked gulps of air. Sitting up on my haunches, I wiped my mouth on the side of her thigh and pushed my pants and boxer briefs off.
She watched me hungrily, still catching her breath as I wedged my hand underneath her body to find her zipper. When it loosened, Ruby helped me wiggle the dress up her body. Every inch of skin that was uncovered sent blood rushing between my legs.
Her breasts were high and firm. No more than a small handful, they were so sweet and pretty, and I let my fingers ghost over the hard tips as she shyly eased the dress over the top of her head.
With the dress gone, her hair fell around her shoulders, and even after the muscle-melting relief of her orgasm, the nerves clearly returned in the pinch of her brow and in the way she bit down on her bottom lip.
I was quiet at first, gaze following the path of my hands over her body.
The curve of her ribs, the dip in her belly, and the perfect little circle of her belly button.
My hands skimmed the skin over her hips, and I let my fingers spread wide as I pushed them back up her midsection, my thumbs brushing gently at the bottom curve of her breasts.
Her scar was a long, thin line, and I let my fingers trace that, too, holding her eyes while I sat between her legs and took in the absolute fucking glory of her naked body.
“You’re perfect,” I whispered, spreading my hand over her chest, my fingers brushing over the curves of each breast. Ruby sucked in a sharp breath, sliding her hands up my arms to tug me down over her.
Our kisses weren’t as rushed and furious as when we’d first come into the room.
They were sweet and slow, luxuriating in each brush of her tongue on mine.
A hundred years. I could kiss this woman for a hundred years, and it wouldn’t be enough.
A million days, a billion hours. Nothing short of forever felt like enough, and I found myself clutching her against me with a trembling sort of possessiveness that rocked me to my core.
Her hands coasted over my shoulders as I rolled my hips between hers, allowing my hardness to drive her mindless again as I teased her.
For the first time, there was a slight shadow of nerves over what I was supposed to do next. The urge to make this perfect for her had my breath sawing in and out of my lungs while we kissed endlessly.
And there was that too . . .
I didn’t want this to end. I didn’t want to leave. Didn’t want to leave her, more specifically. It was the type of fear that had me kissing her harder, clutching her more tightly in my arms, like it might imprint this moment somewhere permanent.
Maybe this was what forever felt like. Where the wanting of forever began.
In kisses that could never be deep enough or long enough. In exploring her body and finding it perfect for me. In the unexpected ache coiling tighter and tighter and tighter in my chest.