22. Chapter 21
Chapter 21
Kaitlyn
My bed is cold and it rouses me from the perfectly suitable sleep I was having.
I reach out and find the sheets that once covered a very large, incredibly attractive Brit to be empty.
Pulling my phone from the nightstand, I check the time, squinting when the screen lights up. Three seventeen in the morning. What the hell?
I quickly pull on a hoodie over my shorts and tank top to head down to look for my missing bedmate. The floors creak every few steps, the hardwood making it nearly impossible to sneak throughout the house. It made trying to be a teenager who was up to no good very hard sometimes.
I don’t find him in the living room, but a light from the kitchen lures me in. I find him sitting shirtless at the breakfast bar with a sketchpad on the counter and his hand moving across it holding a pencil.
“Griffin? Are you all right?”
He flips his sketchbook over before turning his body toward me. “I couldn’t sleep. What are you doing awake?”
“The bed was mysteriously cold and empty. What are you working on?”
“It’s nothing. I just doodle when I can’t turn my brain off.” Griffin opens his thighs and tugs on my sweatshirt, pulling my body between his legs. “Let me get you back to sleep. There’s no sense in both of us being tired.”
“Why won’t you show me?”
“It’s just random sketches. It’s not a big deal.”
“If it’s not a big deal then why won’t you show me?”
I manipulate his hands to the small of my back, scandalously close to the top of my ass. It’s a place I know he won’t let go of. Once his hands are busy, I reach over with my right hand for the drawings. “Hey,” he protests.
The subtle light in the kitchen casts over the pencil drawings. The first page is split in two. It’s the old ranch we passed on the main road. He only saw it once and while he was driving. I can’t even believe the details the front and back contain. “Is this what I think it is?”
“Yes. I was thinking about if it was moved out to the empty pasture land at the back of your father’s property. I think it would have looked amazing on the river.”
“You changed the roof line,” I add.
“It wasn’t the proper architecture for the time. It needed dormers on either side to bring it back to its original ranch style.”
“Griffin, it’s beautiful. You can do this, but you just make the deals?”
“Just make the deals? If I didn’t know you, I’d find that insulting.”
I sigh and nudge him. “You know what I mean. You have an incredible eye for this. Why aren’t you doing this instead?”
“I thought about it once upon a time. I even went to university for it, but ultimately, I was needed elsewhere. Especially once my brother passed. Orion needs me.”
“But what about what you need? You spend all this time thinking about everyone else. When was the last time you thought about you ?”
Unprovoked, he leans in and smashes his lips to mine in a rough kiss. I melt into him and let him pull me as close as he needs me to be.
I’m not even sure when he stood up from the barstool, but in the blink of an eye, I’m spun around, pushed farther into the kitchen and smashed back against the cold refrigerator door. I gasp.
“Shhh,” he whispers against my mouth. “Don’t be too loud.”
“Griffin,” I whimper when he sinks his teeth into my plump lower lip. “I thought you said…” He said he wouldn’t touch me under my father’s roof.
“I know what I said.” His fingers slide down the front of my body and hook into the waistband of my shorts. “I just want a little taste. I miss you.” My father is a light sleeper. I’ve never done anything like this in his house before. However, I’ve never been here with Griffin before.
I know what he’s doing. He’s completely ignoring the question I asked him. In any other situation, I’d call him on it. He said he misses me. The truth is, I miss him too. I wrap my arms tight around him, holding him close, praying the sex gods give me five minutes. Just five. That’s all I know it will take.
His alpha ways are annoying as hell when they stomp all over my ability to handle things on my own. However, the way he’s taking charge of my being, I know I can’t even form a single thought of protest.
I stretch my lips up to his ear. “You don’t know how bad I want your mouth to do every dirty thing I know is in your head right now, but…” I press my hand to his cock, cupping it gently through the fabric. “Show me your skilled fingers instead,” I pause, “for now.”
I hear the vibrations of his throat as a chuckle blends into a groan. “If you only knew what was in my head, baby.”
The term of endearment makes my stomach flip. He can’t just say things like that when he’s touching me this way. My heart and brain can’t tell the difference.
He slips his hand into the front of my shorts and presses his palm firmly against my pussy on the outside of my panties.
“Oh God,” I sigh and rock my hips, searching for friction, any friction at all.
He shakes his head. “No god here. Only me.” Then he claims my mouth at the same time he yanks my lace panties to the side and slides his middle and ring fingers through my wetness and down, sinking inside.
My head drops back and hits the fridge with a thud as I cover my mouth.
We both go still except for his fingers, which are hooking in a come-hither motion, caressing that delicate spot deep inside that makes my legs quiver.
When we’re both sure that we won’t be caught, his lips turn their attention back to my neck, biting and sucking across my collarbone. “If I didn’t care so much,” he breathes, “I’d mark you for everyone to see. Let them deny us then.”
I hear what he says. I have so many questions and thoughts about it, but the devil on my shoulder slaps the angel, telling her to shut the fuck up and enjoy. The gentle roll and flick of his fingers make me want to scream. When I said this man was and is my best time, that doesn’t only hold true for when the weight of him is hovering over me. It’s now. Right now.
Rising to my tiptoes, I pull him close by the back of his neck. I want to feel every inch of him. My mouth cradles that space between his ear and his collarbone. The scent of his cologne, mixed with the entirety of the day, evaporates the last bit of resolve I have left. The shake and shiver of my release starts at my connection to the ground and rockets to my connection to Griffin, like an express elevator on the way to the clouds.
I feel like my entire being might evaporate into thin air when he whispers into my ear, “Fuck, you look so beautiful when you come for me.”
I’m not even sure how long I stand here, barely attached to the ground, holding on to him for dear life while my orgasm ricochets through my body. Eventually, I go limp in his arms and pant, trying to force oxygen up into my brain.
He plants kisses along my jaw, cheek, the tip of my nose, and finally my lips. I watch him in awe as he rights the parts of my clothing he had wronged, and then gathers his sketchbook. “Let’s get you upstairs,” he says, extending his hand.
We still have so much to talk about, especially after our conversation on the horses, but for now, I’ll let him take care of me the way he always does.
Our problems will still be here in the morning.
Griffin
Kaitlyn fell asleep in my arms while I gently stroked her hair. There was something about the way she looked at me when I told her about my sketches, my designs, that made my heart open up a little more to her than it was before. She believed in me, in what I could be doing if the stars aligned, and it cracked me open to the core.
I was too vulnerable, so I took control.
Eventually, I dozed off too and, in what felt like the blink of an eye, there was a knock on our bedroom door.
“Kait?” I whisper. “Wake up.”
“Hmm?”
“There’s a knock at the door. It would be bad if I got up to answer, if you know what I mean.”
“I’m seriously warm, seriously comfortable, and seriously in need of ten more minutes.” Another knock at the door tells me whoever it is isn’t going away. My girl lets out a sigh for the ages before she responds, “Come in.”
The handle of the door rotates before the door opens a crack. “I hope you kids are decent.”
Well, fuck.
“What? God, Dad. Yes.” Kaitlyn adjusts her sleepy body so she’s sitting up against her headboard.”
“Just checking. I thought you should know you’ll have visitors in about fifteen minutes. I let you sleep as long as I could.”
“What? Who’s coming?”
“My other favorite daughter and her family. Originally, she wasn’t going to be here until after breakfast, but apparently her teething son had other thoughts on the matter so they got an early start.”
“WHAT?!” she shouts and jumps up from the bed like she’s been electrocuted. “Gillian is coming?”
Sam laughs at her excitement. “She is. I figured you’d want to get dressed. I’ve got flapjacks in the works and coffee brewing. Come on down.” Then he closes the door and leaves us to get ready.
She turns to face me with her hands on her cheeks like the kid from Home Alone . “I get to see my nephew.”
“I can see that excites you.” I chuckle and scrub a hand through my messy hair.
“God, you’re getting thrown into the fire today,” she replies, dropping her hands to her sides. “I didn’t think you’d have to meet the entire family. I can say you don’t feel well, if you want.”
I climb from the warmth of the bed we share to place my hands on her shoulders. “Absolutely not. I know your sister will want to size me up in your defense.”
“But, Griffin, she knows everything. If she does, that means Jason does. Dad will be the only one in the room who doesn’t and that means everyone is lying to him. I don’t know. I just don’t know.”
“Hey. Shhhh. Don’t spiral.” I place a comforting kiss on her forehead. “Most of how we are isn’t an act. I know I like you and I think you like me. That’s real. We’re entering into a business partnership. That’s real. I treat you with the tenderness you deserve. That’s absolutely real. So if you think about it, there’s more truth to our situation than falsity.”
I’m not sure who I’m trying to convince, but I hope it’s working.
Kaitlyn releases a slow breath and nods. “All right.” She pushes up on her tiptoes and kisses me. “Let’s do this.”
I opt to wear black slides and a deep, hunter-green collared shirt tucked in with a black belt. I think it was a good choice, considering Kaitlyn fanned herself when she saw me. I just want to make a decent first impression. If I thought Sam was going to be a hard sell, Gillian and Jason are ten times more important because they know the truth.
We both hear car doors from outside and with a peek out the window, Kaitlyn bolts to the door. “They’re here!” She takes my hand and all but drags me out of the room and down the stairs.
I stand to the side in the foyer while Sam and Kaitlyn greet Gillian, Jason, and their little one, Joseph. He’s sleeping with his head lolled against his father’s shoulder.
Gillian looks extremely similar to her sister, except she’s a bit shorter. She’s beautiful, of course. Jason shakes his father-in-law’s hand before hugging Kaitlyn. As he does, his gaze immediately casts to me. He’s immediately formidable and none too happy about Kaitlyn’s current situation. I hope he respects her enough to not embarrass her in front of her father.
“Gilly, Jason. I’d like you to meet Griffin Shaw. Griffin, this is my sister, Gillian, her husband, Jason, and this sweet little buddy is Joseph. He’s gotten so big. I just want to eat him.”
“Wait to devour him, Kaitlyn,” Gillian begs. “He’s only been asleep for twenty minutes. We’ve been up since three. I need him to sleep for even an hour.”
I lower my voice to just above a whisper, “It’s a pleasure to meet all of you. Could I get any bags from the car for you while you tend to the young master’s sleeping arrangements?”
Jason stands tall with his full stature facing me. “I can get them later. Thank you though, Mr. Shaw.”
“Please, call me Griffin.”
I want to say something else, however, at least for now, I need to read the room before our entire house of cards comes tumbling down.