Chapter 21
Griffin
Cricket hasn’t wasted a minute. As soon as she hangs her hat on the hook by the front door, we tiptoe like we’re sneaking out of our parents’ house and not sneaking into her own.
She slows and walks even more carefully when we pass the second door on the left. Glancing back at me, she smiles and picks up her pace again before pulling me into the last room on the right.
My eyes aren’t quite adjusted to the darkness, but when they do, I look around at her bedroom. Bed against the far wall and two nightstands with a couch at the end of the bed anchoring it. I approve of the large screen TV hanging on the opposite wall from the bed.
The curtains are open, and although the moon isn’t hanging over this side of the house, some of its light still manages to filter inside. “It’s very . . . neat.”
She laughs after shutting the door. It’s not as boisterous as it was at Whiskey’s, but it holds the same joy in it. “I don’t think you’d be surprised that I have someone who helps me out.”
“It’s not a crime, Little Chirp. I paid someone to clean my apartment in St. Louis—not because my mom didn’t teach me to clean up after myself, but because I was exhausted and busy icing my body when I dragged my ass in after practice or being on the road.”
After locking the door, she comes closer, taking smooth but calculated steps as she approaches.
“My mom didn’t teach me how to clean because she’s never cleaned a day in her life.
” I’m still not judging, though I think she set me up for a reaction.
But cleaning isn’t why we snuck into her house and tiptoed to her bedroom.
And I have no intention of letting that steam slip away.
I meet her halfway, cupping her cheeks and angling her face up for our lips to meet in the middle. We start slower than we did outside the front door, sweeter, and when her hands tug to untuck my shirt, I deepen it.
Suddenly putting air between us, she rips the snaps apart and smiles like she got herself a treat when she sees me.
Tucking a finger under her chin, I lift it. “Eyes up here, sweetheart.”
She giggles. “How long did you have that ready to use?”
“Since you said it at the stadium.”
“All’s fair in love and war.” Between the smile gracing her face and the magnificent sound of her laughter, I feel like I just won the World Series.
“But for the record, you’re very distracting.
” She moves ahead with what seems like her plan all along and strips the cotton from my shoulders.
When it falls to the floor behind me, she adds, “There. That’s better. ”
Before I have a chance to say anything, she attaches her lips to my chest and kisses upward until she’s lifting on her toes to reach my shoulder.
I rub around the soft skin exposed at her waist and then move higher to run my fingertips under her denim vest. “I want this off.” The words come in the form of a rumble in my chest. The buildup of this moment with her, after the years of imagining it would never happen, I can’t be patient.
Fortunately, she’s grappling with my belt, appearing to be in a bigger hurry than I am.
She pauses, then abandons my belt for her vest. “You want this off?” The glint in her eyes says she already knows the answer. Starting on the lowest button, she frees it from the buttonhole.
“That’s what I want.” I run my hand to mess up my hair, wishing I’d done it earlier to remove the dents I know I’m sporting from my hat.
She undoes the middle button and says, “Those jeans look really uncomfortable.”
“They are. I should take them off.”
Her smile grows. “Great idea.” The last button is released, revealing a white lacy bra bright against her tanned skin.
She slips the denim down her arms and tosses it to the couch at the end of the bed.
She slides her skirt down, giving me a full view of the lace thong that matches the bra.
My smile fades when I glance down as she steps out of the skirt.
Seeing her standing before me in nothing but lace and leather boots, I watch as shyness washes through her, brightening her cheeks.
Doesn’t matter that spice and moxie got us here. I won’t allow her to have any doubts about us being together. “Look at me, babe.” When she does, I brush her hair back to admire her face. “We’re just having fun. No pressure or strings. Whatever you want, I’ll do for you.”
“It’s just been . . .” Taking a harsh inhale, she holds it before exhaling. I hope it’s not nerves, but I feel some in my belly, too, and that’s never happened before. “It’s been since you.”
The message is heard loud and clear and causes my chest to ache.
Bringing her against me, I wrap her in my arms and kiss the top of her head.
I can feel her heart beating and her breath breeze across the plains of my chest. I kiss her once more and then whisper, “Understandable once you’ve tasted greatness. ”
She cracks up, her entire body rattling in my arms from laughter. Shoving her way out of my arms, she says, “I knew I’d regret telling you.”
I reach for her again, sliding my hands under her fine ass and lifting her. Her legs wrap around me, her boots crossing behind my back. With her looking in my eyes, humor still dancing in hers, I whisper, “Thank you for trusting me.”
Her breathing picks up, and with her arms around me, she pulls me down for a kiss.
I grip her tighter. When she grinds against me and moans, I turn around and move to the side of the bed.
After laying her down, I take hold of one boot of hers and then the other.
She strips her socks off while I start tugging off my boots, hopping on the opposite foot like it somehow helps.
They’re both dropped at the foot of the bed, and time seems to slow a bit.
I take my socks off and then my boxer briefs.
Moving to the bed where I left her, I study the beauty as if she’s my next art piece, noting the small patch of freckles just off her belly button, and how her hair falls to the side of her delicate neck.
Her gaze travels over me and down, her mouth opening for more air to enter her lungs, judging by the rate of her chest rising and falling. “Like what you see?”
“I always did and still do.”
I run my palms slowly across the top of her thighs and down again, detouring to the underside of her knee.
In one quick motion, I pull her back to me.
Legs spread. Her tempting mouth rounded from surprise.
The sight of her makes me as hard as steel.
“You deserve to feel good.” Selfishly, I take my time taking her in, drinking in the beauty of seeing every inch of her body again.
Almost every inch since bits of lace cover the sexiest parts.
The curve of her waist has me wanting to slide my hands along the flow and into the swell of her hips. The soft slope of her stomach is such a turn-on. Womanly and makes me want to spend time kissing right there.
Moving back up, I lean over, anchoring my hands on either side of her head to kiss her.
No way am I going to miss out on tasting her mouth before I get to taste her pussy.
Pushing up, I say, “I want to make you feel amazing.” I take a harsh breath, my erection pulsing for attention.
“I’m the luckiest fucking guy in the world that I’m the one you chose to pleasure you. ”
She brushes the tips of her nails around my ears and down my neck to cover the top of my shoulders and then my back. It both tickles and arouses me, though it might be the way she’s looking at me like I just gifted her the moon that has me aching to be inside her. “God, I want you.”
“I want you, too. So much,” she replies through bated breath as she watches me pull away to kneel beside the bed, dragging the lacy thong until it’s on the floor behind me.
When I look up at her, she’s freeing her amazing tits from the other confines of lace.
The bra is dropped over the edge of the bed just as I lift her legs over my shoulders.
Kissing the inside of one knee and then the other, I go higher to trail kisses up her thighs and follow with a swipe of my tongue to tease before I reach my destination.
Her head falls back, but I can still see her hands grabbing the blanket in my peripheral vision. “It’s going to feel so good, babe. I promise.”
The first touch from the tip of my tongue causes her to buck, so I maneuver my hand higher to her hip to hold her in place while sliding through the softness of her lower lips.
The first taste is sweeter than the ripest peach in high season, delicate on my tongue as I explore the forbidden enclaves of her body.
Each time she pushes against me, my tongue holds position, letting her help herself.
I rise to reach her clit, encircling it to tease a moan out of her and a gentler buck from her hips.
When I dive into her entrance, the bed dips as she pushes into it and arches her back.
I look up to see her reaction just as I start fucking her with my tongue.
Her face is hidden, but I can hear her breath on the other side of her breasts that are peaked at the tips.
I never forgot those beauties and can’t wait to have my lips wrapped around her nipples again.
Her fingers find my hair and pull hard as moans escape her on every delve and dip, pull back and thrust again.
I reach up to toy with her needy bud when she whispers, “Oh my God.” Her thighs shiver as her body stiffens.
“Please, please, please,” she chants between breaths as she sinks against my mouth, her fingers ready to pull my hair out.
Her breath catches before her release hits.
I taste every tremor, feeling the squeeze around my tongue. It’s when her body melts to the mattress, replete with her arms falling wide, that I place a kiss, then dig a condom from my pocket. She warned me, so I don’t show up anywhere with her without protection.