8. Griffin
Griffin
I stop my truck in the dirt that overlooks one of the town’s waterfalls. It’s a hangout for the teenage kids to come and mess around in, but we have it all to ourselves tonight. Sitting across from her at the restaurant and listening as she moaned with every bite of food had me aching for relief.
Still, I wasn’t ready for our date to end tonight, and that’s why I suggested dessert. My heart stopped when she asked for a different kind of sweet treat. I’m more than happy to satisfy both of us.
I’ve barely put it in park when she flings off her seatbelt and climbs into my lap. Any worries I had about her hesitancy on the twenty-minute drive are gone. She’s made it very clear she wants this.
My hands go to her hips, and I grip her, feeling her silky slip through the material of her cotton dress.
When I showed up to pick her up for our date, I didn’t expect the pin-up fantasy that greeted me.
She has no idea how sexy she is or how badly I want her.
But I’m not going to mess this up. I’m going to take my time and show her just how much I care.
“You’re beautiful,” I say. I want her to know that every day for the rest of her life, that I think she’s the prettiest thing I’ve ever laid eyes on. I’ll never give her a reason to doubt how important she is to me.
“It’s the dress,” she answers.
I squeeze her hips tighter, wanting her full attention since it’s too dark out here for us to see each other properly.
“It’s the woman who’s wearing it. The fighter who hasn’t given up despite overwhelming odds.
The warrior who carries the weight of the world and makes it look effortless. She’s incredible, and she’s all mine.”
She swallows and puts her hand on my chest. “I like the way you see me.”
“I’ll spend the rest of my life telling you how amazing you are,” I promise, meaning the words. When I told her over dinner that I didn’t plan for her to be a single mom too much longer, I wasn’t lying.
The only thing standing in our way is her past. Once the men who are after her are in jail, I’m going to tell the world she’s mine.
I’ll slide my ring on her finger and pound on my chest in front of our family and friends as the pastor tells them what I knew since the moment I laid eyes on her: this girl is mine.
Cupping her face, I press my lips to hers. She’s sweet tea and precious innocence. I’ll protect her for the rest of my life. It will be my greatest mission and my highest honor, caring for this woman.
She shifts, moving to put her knees on either side of my thighs. When she does that, she pulls away from my kiss. “Seatbelt.”
I blink, sucking in oxygen and trying to figure out what she’s saying.
She giggles, her breath stirring my beard. She tugs on the belt across my chest. “Take this off.”
I yank it off, my fingers brushing against the soft skin of her legs.
How is she so soft and lush everywhere? I’m going to have to resign from the department and stop working the farm.
I’ll spend my days in bed, doing dirty things to my angel.
I’ll make her sigh in bliss every day, bring heaven right to her door.
She’ll want for nothing as I wait on her hand and foot.
I groan. “You’re going to destroy me, honey.”
She goes for the buttons on my shirt, yanking it open to reveal the white muscle shirt underneath.
“Why so many clothes?” She protests with an adorable pout to her voice. I never knew that sound could be sexy.
“Right back at you,” I whisper as I slide my hands up her legs and underneath that silky slip so I can touch her curves. I love the way they fill my hands. I can’t wait to watch them shake and shudder when she’s in my bed, feeling me pleasure her.
“Not there. I’m self-conscious about my belly. Too many stretch marks,” she tells me, pressing a hot kiss to my neck. Her lips are an inferno, stoking the fire burning in my body even hotter.
“This belly carries nutrients for your body. It gives you energy to do all those things I love watching you do, like singing under your breath and reading your favorite steamy books. It’s carried the little one I want to call my own.
This belly deserves nothing less than my complete respect and devotion.
” Since we’re in my truck, I can’t reach down and press kisses to her precious belly so I kiss my palms instead and rub them over her skin.
She whimpers my name. “That’s really…I hadn’t thought of it like that.”
I kiss her again, sweeping my tongue into her mouth as my fingers continue to dance across her skin. I cherish the lumps and bumps, the cellulite and the silvery stretch marks.
It amazes me that warriors are taught to celebrate their scars as proof they lived, and women are taught to diminish their stretch marks as though there’s something shameful about their survival.
There is nothing shameful about my woman’s body.
Every inch of it is beautiful, and I can’t wait until the moment I can stretch her out in my bed and examine it properly.
She pushes herself against me, her chest bumping mine.
I love the weight of her breasts, the way I can feel every heaving breath.
The way she gasps into my mouth when my fingers go beneath her belly, cupping her feminine heat.
She grinds against my hand, seeking the friction she so desperately needs.
I play her body slowly until she’s writhing against me, finding her release. It’s the most sacred experience of my life, feeling her fall apart in my arms and knowing I caused it.
When she slumps against me and buries her face in my neck, contentment thrums through my veins. Yeah, I made a mess in my pants while making sure she got what she needed. It was still the best moment of my life.
The windows of the truck are fogged, and the air is filled with the smell of her sweet nectar. I’m dying for a taste, but I want it straight from the source.
I hold her as her breathing evens out. When it does, I feel her smile against me. “Do we have to rush back?”
“We have as much time as you need,” I reassure her. As long as no one calls to say there’s trouble at my aunt’s house, I have no intention of ending this night early. I’ve wanted her for too long to give her back now. If that makes me selfish, I don’t care.
“Then can we go to your cabin?”
“You want to see where I live? It’s hardly anything.
It’s a little shack that needs updating and more than a few modern amenities.
I’m lucky there’s hot water,” I admit in case she has any vision of my place being something she sees featured in those farmhouse magazines with matching throw pillows and a sleeping dog on the front porch. That’s the life I want to give her.
“I want to be in your bed,” she huffs out.
It dawns on me that she’s not all that curious about my place. “You want to be in my bed the first time I make love to you.”
“That’s exactly what I want.”
“I’m warning you now. Once you climb into my bed, I’m not letting you up until I’ve fulfilled every fantasy I have of you. That’s going to take the next four decades, give or take the occasional leg cramp.”
She giggles. “We’ll have to massage those out very slowly.”
I groan. “You’re going to destroy me.”
“That’s the idea. Now, drive me home. I want to see this bed of yours.” She wiggles her way out of my lap, making sure to brush against me in a way that has my blood pumping all over again. What is it about this woman that makes me insatiable? I wasn’t joking about those four decades.
The drive to my cabin passes in a blur of raging lust. It doesn’t help that she keeps her hands on my leg. Every mile, she inches a little bit higher. I didn’t take her for a seductress, but I’m not complaining. It’s thrilling to know she’s as crazy for me as I am for her.
When I pull the truck to a stop, I’m out and around to her side. I pull her out, carrying her up my porch. She purrs in my arms, and I love her weight. She’s not a delicate little thing that I’ll break in my bed. No, she’s a woman with curves I can cling to as I bring both of us into paradise.
I step into the cabin. It’s a one-room home. Two if you count the bathroom. I turn in each direction, rattling off to her. “Kitchen, living room, bathroom through that door, and the bedroom.”
“It’s so homey,” she says, and there’s not a hint of sarcasm in her voice. There’s only sweet Missy, giving me more kindness than I deserve.
I cross the floor in four easy strides, setting her gently on the bed. I step back to admire her. “Yeah, it is now.”
She grins and reaches for her dress, yanking it over her head. She’s wearing a thin little slip underneath, all silky with a lace pattern over the bodice. Her pale skin is flushed from her earlier release and her anticipation of the next one.
“Don’t stop now,” I tell her, reaching to squeeze myself through my jeans. Being around this woman tests my self-control in ways I never imagined.
She shakes her head. “Not until that shirt is off.”
It takes me less than two seconds to get it undone, buttons pinging on the floor. Don’t care. I’ll spend my life buying new shirts if it means I’ll always get that hungry look from her. My undershirt is next, crumpled in a heap.
The heat in her gaze makes me think she enjoys what she sees. I’ve never done this before, never been intimate with a woman. But I’m not sorry I waited, because now all I’ll ever have is memories of my future wife. Call me a romantic, but I like that idea.
She pulls off her slip, and now I’m staring at her in a matching bra and panty set. It’s simple white lace that has my mouth watering. Can’t believe I’m going to get to come home to this woman every night for the rest of my life. When it comes to love, I’m definitely the luckiest of them all.
“Lie back there. Yeah, like that. There’s a good girl. Now, let me see you, all of you,” I tell her before joining her on the bed. There’s a reason I didn’t ask her to remove her bra and panties. I wanted the privilege of doing that.
I bare her slowly, unwrapping my future one inch at a time. I examine every place on her, connecting her freckles with my fingers and tracing the hollows in her spine with my tongue before I settle between her thighs.
I take my time, savoring her flavor and learning all the little things she likes until she’s crying out to the ceiling and chanting my name.
As she floats back down, I reach for my nightstand.
I yank the tiny drawer a little too hard and the box of condoms goes spilling into the floor, the rubbers rolling everywhere.
I mutter a curse under my breath, and she puts a hand on my arm. “No, I want you bare. I’m on the pill, and I’m healthy. I promise.”
“Also healthy, but are you sure?” I ask, knowing that sometimes the best contraception fails. Not that I’d mind having a kid with her. I want a dozen babies that look like their pretty mama. Nothing would make me happier than that.
“I want to feel you bare,” she says, her cheeks coloring with the admission.
I could explode right there from those six words. But I manage to keep from embarrassing myself as I ease inside her body. I go as slow as I can, gritting my teeth the entire time. I’ll never let her regret giving herself to me.
She whimpers, and I force myself to still. It’s mind over body and sweat drips from my skin onto hers. “If it hurts?—”
“It feels amazing. Why is this so amazing?” She rolls her hips.
“Because your man is making love to you,” I answer, letting myself relax all the way into her. She’s so warm and soft, her curves jiggling with every movement. I’m fascinated as I watch them.
I kiss her slowly, my tongue mimicking what our bodies are doing. It’s intense and sweaty and the best thing I’ve ever experienced. I keep kissing her until she’s gasping and panting.
“It’s…I’m…” Her words fail her as her mouth opens in a silent scream.
Wonder and affection are evident in her gaze.
She may not have said it yet, but I’m almost positive she’s half in love with me.
It’s enough for now because I’m already gone.
I’m completely in love with this woman. With that realization, I shatter.