9. Griffin
S torming down the dimly lit hallway, I toss back half of my drink, as I burst out of a back door of the gallery into an alleyway.
I’m praying the cool night air can offer me a slight reprieve from the burning anger inside of me, but I don’t have high hopes.
It’s been building for months now, years if I’m being truly honest with myself, and right now I can’t take another fucking second.
I just need it to stop, but karma is never on my fucking side.
I know the second I’m not alone, just as I know exactly who it is who has followed me out here. Aurora Gray, aka the bane of my fucking existence.
I sip more of my drink and roll my shoulders before I turn to look at her, pretending that just the sight of her isn’t fucking blinding. “Stalking me, sweetheart?” I ask, taking a step back so I can lean on the wall opposite her, attempting to keep some distance between us, just like he wants.
“You wish,” she snorts, taking her own spot against the other wall, as if she knows we shouldn’t be out here like this together.
“You’re the only stalker around here, Griff,” she adds with a smile, sipping her drink, but then her smile drops.
“Well, at least you used to be,” she adds, and the cold, detached tone in which she says it, is like a knife through my fucking ribs.
“Missed that, huh?”
To my surprise she nods. “No one else is throwing rocks at my window and trying to claim my hand in marriage,” she teases, slipping right back into the easy way we used to communicate with each other, and fuck it feels good.
It feels like it used to feel when we were kids, but that’s the problem, we’re not kids anymore.
“Yeah, well we all have to grow up sometime, right?” The words taste sour on my tongue and I wash them down, the champagne tasting both thick and flat.
I see the tears gather in her eyes, as she pushes up off the wall and walks toward me. I have to fight myself not to pull her into my arms, especially when her voice shakes, as she asks, “What happened, Griff, why did you leave me?”
I’m already shaking my head and willing the wall at my back to disappear so I can keep myself away from her. “Don’t do this, Ro,” I beg, starting to move, but she blocks my retreat.
“No, please, just help me understand, I can’t ask Everest again, and Harden won’t tell me, so that just leaves you.” Her eyes are pleading with me for answers that I can’t help but give.
“You know what happened, Rora,” I tell her, moving to push past her, knowing she has to have realized what made us leave her behind, but she doesn’t stop.
“No I don’t, the only thing I know is that we were friends, we were more than that…” she trails off, her voice breaking, and fuck it tears me up inside. “And then, we were nothing, it was like I didn’t even exist, so please, just tell me why.”
A tear falls to her cheek and it only strengthens the anger inside of me, and though it’s not aimed at her, I can’t help but snap. “You can’t seriously be this fucking dense, Rora, you know what happened, you know why things fell apart, so please just stop.”
This time I do push past her, but she follows. “If I knew, I wouldn’t be here begging for fucking answers, Griff, so instead of feeding me bullshit, just man up and tell me.”
Those last few words make my drunken resolve snap completely.
Fuck it.
Turning around, I step forward, tossing my drink aside, gripping her cheeks in the palms of my hands and dragging her toward me.
Her eyes widen, but I’m too busy tilting her head and slamming my lips against hers to care.
I kiss her, I kiss her exactly how I have envisioned kissing her at least a thousand times over the years.
Hard, fast, and filled with so much need I’m surprised I don’t fucking explode, and then I do what I’ve been trying to do for the last fucking year. I let her go.
She stumbles a little, staring at me in complete shock, as her own drink falls to the floor. “Griffin,” she whispers, a one word phrase that captures my heart in a vice.
“Do you think I’m the only one who wants to do that, Rora?” I whisper, pleading with her to understand what I’m not saying, what I can’t say, but her stare only narrows in confusion, and I sigh. “Please, just let it go.”
I turn on my heel and head back toward the door, knowing I need to get out of here before I make things even worse, but she calls out to my back. “Griffin.” That one word is said with so much desperation that I pause and turn to look at her.
She holds my stare for less than five seconds, before she erases the space between us and smashes her lips to mine, catching me completely off guard.
She kisses me, stunning me for a moment, my hands remaining frozen at my side, until she opens her mouth and teases my lips with her tongue.
Only then do I move, grabbing her and pulling her against me.
It’s been years of stolen glances, lingering touches, and pleas I’d never said out loud, but not anymore.
No, if she is going to kiss me, then I am going to enjoy every fucking second of it.
It’s soft at first, exploratory, as if she has thought about this moment as many times as I have, but it deepens fast, turning almost desperate.
One of my hands gently cups her throat, tipping her chin back, so I can deepen the kiss even more.
Our tongues work together in perfect harmony, as my other hand fists her hips, holding her against me.
I’m sure she can feel my thickening length beneath my slacks, but all she does is press in closer.
At the thought of her wanting me as much as I want her, I stumble until her back hits the brick wall, but she doesn’t pause, doesn’t even flinch, just kisses me even harder.
It’s hot and filled with longing, it’s history, and everything we’ve been holding back for too damn long, and I’m too drunk to stop it.
She tastes like champagne and strawberries, and nothing has ever been so fucking sweet, and when her hands curl around my neck, her nails biting into my skin, I feel like I have died and gone to heaven.
Both my hands capture her waist, dragging her against me, and she wraps her legs around my waist, before I’m pressing her back into the wall.
She moans into my mouth, the sound hot and dangerous, as my erection rubs against her core, and I’ve never wanted to shred through layers of clothing more in my fucking life.
Our hands explore one another, both knowing that this is both reckless and ruining, but neither of us willing to stop.
My lips travel down to her throat kissing and sucking, before sinking my teeth into it and no doubt leaving my mark, before I trail back up to her mouth.
I kiss her like I am claiming something that’s mine, and she is, but she’s also theirs, something that hits me like a bucket of cold water, when a throat clears beside us.
We both gasp breathlessly, as we pull apart, our chests heaving, as we turn to the side and meet Harden’s intense stare.
His eyes flick between the two of us, taking in her legs around me, one of my hands on her thigh, and the other around her throat, as hers are clutched in the lapels of my suit, clinging to me like she never wants to let go.
“Harden,” she breathes, his name sounding too tempting, as it falls from her swollen lips, and fuck I don’t know why the thought of him watching us gets me even hotter.
The car is ready to take us home . Harden signs, his hands shaking a little, as if he struggled to even communicate those few words, and I drop my head on the wall beside Aurora’s.
“I guess our time is up for now, sweetheart,” I whisper in her ear, relishing in the full body shiver my words erupt, as she trembles against me.
When I pull back, her eyes dance from Harden’s to mine, and I can see she is even more confused than ever with what’s going on here, and I want to laugh. How the fuck did things get this bad? And more importantly, why did I let it happen?
“Then you better let me go,” she whispers, and I laugh, as I let her body slowly trail down mine until her feet hit the ground.
What the fuck does she think I’ve been trying to do for the last year?
“Trust me, I’ve been trying,” I mutter, and her eyes narrow, clearly hearing every word, and I can see her turning them over in her mind.
“Go on, you better head inside and make sure that prick doesn’t leave without us,” I add, and she nods mindlessly, looking between Harden and me again, before she excuses herself and heads back into the gallery.
We both watch her leave, and then I brace myself.
Harden slams me against the wall and I flinch, the force of it knocking my breath out of me a little, before he releases me with a shove.
What the fuck do you think you’re doing? He furiously signs, the anger is rolling off him in waves, and I don’t know what he’s angrier at. The fact I broke our friend’s promise, or that I kissed her and he didn’t.
“You saw exactly what I was doing,” I snap back, my hands flexing and my jaw grinding, and I’m not sure if I’m desperate for another drink, or just more of her.
We made a deal . He signs, his hands more firm and sure this time, as his fingers move to each word.
“That deal is bullshit and you know it. She wants this, she wants us, I know she does,” I reply, and even I can hear how desperate I sound, and Harden just shakes his head.
Everest was right, none of us deserve her . He signs, looking at me with disappointment, before he turns on his heels and storms back inside.
I don’t know what I hate more, him being disappointed in me, or the fact that he’s actually right about this.