16. Chapter 15
Chapter 15
Griffin
The warmth of this room is unlike anything I’ve felt before. I’ve slept next to Kaitlyn other times. Granted it was on a sofa, we were fully clothed, and I didn’t really sleep. This is a warmth you feel in your core. It’s not from warm water rushing over your body, a blanket that is created for the reason of creating a temperature increase. No.
This is the warmth you can only achieve with another person. Kaitlyn is not only warm on the outside, she’s exponentially warmer on the inside. While that is the physicality of what we’ve done, it’s much more than that. She’s given of herself to me and I’ve done the same. I don’t want to know if it means anything. I simply want to revel in this pure connection.
I can still feel the gentle rise and fall of her breath through her back against my chest. Her delicate arms are folded underneath mine in a submissive way that allows me, even if only for a moment, to be her protector from the outside world. It feels like a true honor and something I don’t want to give up in the next moment or even the one after that.
Marilyn is stalking across the floor, back and forth from the doorway to the bedside and back, meowing. She’s clearly ready for breakfast, but I don’t want to lose this connection just yet.
“Hey,” I whisper to the feline. “If you can be patient and wait a little longer, I’ll sneak you extra food.”
“I heard that,” Kaitlyn says with her eyes still closed and a smile on her face.
“Shit, did I wake you?” I ask, kissing the top of her head.
“I’ve been awake for a few minutes. You didn’t.” She snuggles back against me, as if we could physically be closer. You couldn’t fit a strand of hair between us.
“How are you feeling?” I lay my chin on the crown of her head and slide my fingers across her arms. She has goosebumps. “Are you cold?”
“Those aren’t from being cold. I think they are the Griffin Shaw effect.”
I chuckle. “What is that exactly?”
Kait turns over in my arms to snuggle her nose into my chest. I can feel her lips turn up into a smile against my skin. “Well…the best way I can describe it is, if you combine standing on the railroad tracks and a train hits you full force and the most stunning book boyfriend you’ve ever read coming to life off the pages. That’s you. I’ve been run over in the best way.”
“I can’t decide if that’s a compliment or if I need to change my approach.”
“Take my advice. Don’t change a thing.”
I hold her in silence for a moment longer before I say the thing I think we both might have on our minds. “We’ve taken the lines and completely erased them. In the light of day, are you okay with that?”
“Shockingly…yes. I’m making a pointed effort to not overanalyze things.” She tips her head back so we can make eye contact. “Are you okay with all of this? I mean, I don’t want you thinking I’m expecting anything more than what’s on paper.”
Why did that sentence make my stomach turn, even just a little?
“Kaitlyn, I have the sexiest woman in the world, naked and in my arms. I’m definitely okay with that.”
“Good, because we’re adults, right? I mean, surely, we can do what we agreed to do, enjoy ourselves immensely, and make sure you get your company.”
She wants to keep this casual and within the terms we laid out before we began this journey. I’d be lying to myself if I said this fact didn’t make me feel disappointed in a way I wasn’t expecting.
But I have to and will respect that boundary.
So, I take whatever it is I’m feeling that could upset this balance, fold it up into a small package, and shove it deep inside my chest where it will remain…where I can ignore it.
I roll our bodies until I’m on top of her. Her legs open naturally to allow me space to settle between them. “Enjoy ourselves immensely, you say?”
“If last night is any indication, immensely isn’t even a strong enough word.” A meow that is cut off when her feet hit the bed beside us interrupts the conversation. “I think someone is trying to tell us to get up because it’s food time. Would you like some breakfast too?”
“I wouldn’t expect you to serve me. How about you give me a moment and I’ll join you while your feline princess dines first.”
“I’ll agree only if we can come back to bed after and watch either movies all day or football. Guest’s choice.”
“American football, I presume? You’d be happy with either?” I ask.
“The only way I’d be pissed is if you said you like the Green Bay Packers.”
I smirk. “Are those the blokes that wear blocks of cheese on their heads?”
“They sure are.”
“Well, I think that’s a deal I can make.”
“Good,” she smiles before wiggling her way out from underneath me. The view of her naked backside is one I want to remember. I want to be able to recall it when the mood, or need, strikes. “I have one condition though,” I call out to her before she can leave her room.
“What?” She turns around and faces me. Her hair is a mess, in the sexiest way imaginable.
“Wear very little clothing. I quite enjoy the view.”
Kaitlyn
“What kind of call was that?” I shout at my television with my arms in the air. “He was clearly out of bounds when he made that catch!” I can hear Griffin chuckling from the other side of the sofa. “What? It’s the truth. I told you; I hate the Packers and this is why.”
He holds up his hands. “I believe you. I don’t know enough about the sport to comment, but I thoroughly enjoy watching you get all worked up.”
I pull my hair into a messy bun and lean over to grab a grape from a grazing platter I threw together for us. I never would have expected I’d be spending one of my days off watching football with Griffin Shaw the morning after he ruined other men for me, sexually. I didn’t know sex could be like that. It was the stuff smutty romance novels were made of.
“Kaitlyn…”
I turn my head away from the game to find Griffin staring at me, wearing one of my father’s sweatshirts. I have three of them in my closet for when I need a bit of home. He doesn’t seem a bit out of place wearing Virginia Tech colors. His hair is still a bed-headed mess from laying on my pillows…with me.
“Yeah?” I ask.
“I feel like you’re sitting too far away. Would it be a contract violation for you to come closer?”
I tilt my head to the side. “Griffin, I think we’re good at adding addendums, don’t you? How about this…let’s make things more natural instead of a bunch of scripted words. I feel like we’re both pretty good at telling each other what we’re comfortable with and not. At least that way, hopefully, your father won’t be able to pick things apart. I mean, that’s the endgame anyway, right?”
“In that case…” He reaches over and wraps his hands around each of my ankles and pulls me across the sofa and into his lap. Then he feeds me a grape. “Much better.”
“You can say that again. Getting fed by a hot man while watching football? So much better.”
“What are your plans this week?” he asks.
“I mean, just work, as far as I know. I have a few big cases I need to finish preparing so I’ll be in it up to my eyeballs. Why? Did you have plans for me?”
“My mind is always spinning with ways to have more time with you.”
“Even all by ourselves when we aren’t serving the purpose of our arrangement?” I rest my forehead on his. “This could get confusing.”
He puts his finger on my lips to shush me. “No. We won’t allow it to. We already decided that we are adults. We can have fun and allow it to be mutually beneficial.”
“Right, but…” I say, but my phone starts ringing on the coffee table. Katarina’s face shines brightly on the screen as she calls.
“You should get that.”
I lean back and stretch, trying to grab for the phone without leaving his lap. It is a bit of a struggle, but eventually, I succeed. “Pretend you didn’t see me struggle with that.” I smile then answer the call. “Hey, babe. What’s up?”
“Whattheactuallyfuckingfuckisgoingonwhydidntyousayanythingtomeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!?” She shrieks so loudly that I have to pull the phone away from my ear.
“Oh my fucking God, Kat. I think you burst my eardrum.”
“I don’t care! You’re DATING HIM?!? It’s everywhere. Your pictures are everywhere. Haven’t you been online today?”
“No. I’m grazing my way through a social media free day watching football.”
“Wait…is he there?”
It’s like the woman has radar, ESP, and cameras living in my apartment. Honestly, I wouldn’t put it past her. “Actually, yes, that’s correct.”
“Well, holy shit. It’s always the quiet ones.” She laughs. “I’ll leave you two to do whatever you two were doing or will do.”
“Gee, thanks. I’ll call you later?”
“You’d better with full details.”
Kat hangs up as quickly as she flew in. “She came in rather hot, didn’t she?”
“Yeah, she will do that now and again. She said something about our pictures being everywhere. At least, I think that’s what my ear heard after the initial air horn presentation.”
It’s almost as if Griffin expected it, he reaches for his phone from the side table next to him. “I’m surprised it took this long, to be honest.”
“Does your personal life tend to cause such a frenzy so quickly?”
“You’d be shocked how fast it happens. Social media has made privacy nearly impossible.” He flips his phone around and shows me an article posted by the Daily Mail. The photo is of our first kiss, after we had dinner, and the headline reads ‘ Real Estate Mogul and Perpetual Rake Taken? ’
“Perpetual rake? What are we, in the 1800s?” I take his phone and open the link to read the article out loud. “One of London’s most eligible bachelors may finally be locked down. Sorry, ladies. Griffin Shaw, of Orion Worldwide Investments, son of CEO Lachlan Shaw, has seemingly fallen for an American lawyer while on a trip to the States. Who is this blonde who has her hooks in one of the UK’s very own? We’ll have that information to you as soon as we at the Daily Mail discover it.”
“Her hooks?” he sighs. “How are the comments? You know what, actually, I don’t want to know. Don’t look at the comments.”
“Why not?” I ask before scrolling down, and he snatches the phone from my hands before I can read any. “Hey!”
“Promise me you won’t read them.”
“Wow. Okay. I promise, but you need to tell me why.”
Griffin turns me slowly in his lap to face him. His eyes tell me a story before his words do. “The spotlight, no matter how bright it shines, can be a cruel place. People you’ve never met can, and will, make assumptions about you based on most anything. Every person has a past. Mine could be taken as unsavory, if you get my meaning. You could be placed as guilty by association. I don’t want that for you, but I’m saying it could happen.”
“Are you warning me that they will go digging into my past and will exploit whatever they think they find in any way they see fit to sell their line of bullshit?”
Griffin smirks. “That’s one way of putting it.”
“Luckily, my parents raised us to have pretty thick skin. My family and true friends know me. The rest of them can suck it.” I wink.
“It’s understandable if you see or hear something that upsets you, and it’s all right to feel whatever you need to feel, but their words and opinions are bullshit.”
“I know that, Griffin.” I take his face in my hands. “I know what I agreed to when I said I’d do this for you. I’m willing to risk their vicious mockery if it means you get to take over something that is rightfully yours.”
He doesn’t reply. He just searches my eyes for a moment then closes the small distance that separates us, sealing a kiss on my lips.
I hear my own voice in my head telling him he will get what is rightfully his, but it makes my stomach drop because when that day finally comes, it will mean our time together is over.