Chapter 18
Chapter Eighteen
BINGO
Griffin
“Dad, can you tuck me in bed?” Theo called when he was ready.
Jessa came down the hall from his room, and winked at me with a knowing smile. She brushed my hand with hers along the way.
“Here. I made this for you.” Theo proudly presented me with a handmade board game as I perched on the edge of his bed.
On a cereal cardboard cut-out labeled *Dad’s Birthday Bingo*, a grid of drawn squares had things like:
*Groans about email.*
*Says he’ll only be on the phone 20 minutes. Takes an hour.*
*Attends my entire game, start to finish.*
Pasta pieces already marked some spaces.
It was a slap in the face I hadn’t expected but sorely needed.
I had no idea how much attention he paid to those things.
I set it aside and gathered him in my arms. He’d grown so big. I had about eight years until he was an adult. And suddenly, this past year felt lost. Stolen by all my hours at work.
“I’m sorry I haven’t been around much lately, buddy. I’ll do better. I promise.”
“That’s okay, Dad. I know you love me. That’s all that matters.”
His little voice choked me up.
I sniffled and tucked him in. “Okay. Which book tonight? Any book you want.”
“Jessa already told me a story. She’s really good making stuff up. Can you just stay here and rub my back until I fall asleep?”
He turned over. Curled around a huge dinosaur that was a gift from Archer Bellamy.
“I love you, Theo. Best buddy in the whole world.”
“Love you, too. Best buddy.”
He yawned. I shoved the world out of my head. Slowly rubbed his back. Simply forced myself to stop and be in the moment.
Once he’d fallen asleep some time later, I closed the door on his quiet breathing.
Now I had to find Jessa and thank her properly for all of this. It was my birthday after all. And if anyone knew how to make a man forget his age, it was her.
When I found her, she was asleep on the couch. Was she wearing one of my Brioni shirts and little else?
My line of sight ran up her leg. Caressing the soft curve of her thigh as it rounded into the globe of her ass. I tore my eyes away to her hair spilling like spun gold over her shoulder. A smear of frosting dotted her cheek.
I should have covered her with a blanket and gone to my office to work through the night, ignoring the sleeping beauty. Should have forced myself to forget that a woman was sleeping in my penthouse. In my shirt. With possibly nothing on underneath.
Instead, I slid an arm beneath her knees and another behind her back.
She startled awake halfway down the hall. “Put me down. I’m too heavy.”
I snorted. “Trust me. I lift more than your weight. My trainer is brutal.”
“Don’t drop me.”
“I won’t. Relax, Jess.”
Her fingers curled in my shirt. “I know a man who needed to relax. And for once, tonight, he did. Did you like your party?”
“I loved it,” I said truthfully. “Best birthday in long time.”
“So I get Employee of the Year?” she teased, voice husky with sleep.
“You’re more than that.”
Her lashes fluttered open, catching mine. “Then what am I?”
My voice dropped. “Dangerous.”
She smiled, slow and knowing.
I set her gently on her bed. But I didn’t step back. So many thoughts came to mind. None of them good. All of them very dirty.
“You know by now you’re more than an employee. We have a contract between us that says so.” I dropped my voice low. “You have no idea what I’d love to do to you to reward you for my little party tonight.”
“I think I have an idea.” She toyed with my tie, still hanging from my neck. Eyes hot and wicked. She tugged me closer by both ends of the tie. “Lie down and let me give you another birthday present.”
“Another present?”
“Anything you want,” she purred, and lifted up enough to brush my lips. “Anything.”
“Fuck,” I grated. Honesty had a way of ripping out of me around her. “I can’t resist you when you do so much for me.”
Her kisses turned urgent. Hot and claiming. The stress of the day melted off my shoulders.
“Jessa…” I moaned on her lips.
She smiled against my mouth. “Say my name again. But next time, say it when you come inside of me.”
My restraint cracked.
I sat up and stripped my shirt off. She dragged the hem of the Brioni over her head and tossed it aside.
How could I be upset about her treatment of a thousand-dollar shirt when she lay there with no bra, no panties? Just warm skin and a whimper that went straight to my bloodstream.
“Is it my imagination,” I said when I could speak, “or have your tits actually—”
“—swelled?” She flushed. A sly smile appeared wickedly . “Not your imagination.”
“I have something else that’s swelled, and needs your attention.”
I guided her hand to the proof pressing hard against my zipper.
“Yes,” she breathed.
“What I really want for my birthday…” I rolled onto my back. “Get on my face. Let me taste you.”
Her breath hitched. “If that’s what makes you happy.”
“It’s the perfect happy ending to my day.”
She swung a leg over. All thought dissolved.
Her thighs smothered me. My tongue took over.
Searching through her folds to flick her clit.
Her sounds multiplied, sharp little gasps that broke into ragged moans.
I gripped her hips, and held her to the rhythm she set.
Jaw aching. Heart banging. The world becoming nothing more to me than her taste, her heat, and her shaky laugh that turned into a curse when I changed the angle.
“Griffin!”
I laughed breathlessly against her as she trembled apart, panting like she’d run a mile.
Not waiting to recover, she slid down and freed me from my pants. Slow and on purpose, she reached for my twitching cock. Her fingers worked me over like a promise. Her mouth took all of me, until my head hit the back of her throat.
When I was plenty wet, she sank onto me, slick and hot. My head arched back against the mattress.
“Oh, Jessa… your tight walls.”
“Feel good?” Her hands found mine and laced our fingers, pinning them above my head as she moved.
Control was my native language. With her, surrender tasted better.
She rode hard, wild on top of me, making me forget my words. Lost in the haze of her movements, heat and glide and the slick sounds between us.
Then I flipped her. Caged her body under mine. Swallowed her next moan with my mouth. A firestorm of passion between us, I turned possessive, greedy for more.
“Hands and knees. Take me like a good girl.” I helped pull her into position. The sight of her lower-back tattoo did absolutely everything for me. I traced the entwined hearts and vines with my tongue. “God, so sexy. You could ruin me. I love your tattoo and curves, woman.”
Love… that slipped out. But fuck, her body did everything for me.
She arched her back and spread her thighs wider to receive me.
I slid my thick cock into her on a growl, stretching her, filling her with my manhood.
I squeezed my eyes shut and fought against coming too soon, when greeted by her tight heat.
With one hand playing with her breast, tweaking her nipple.
the other gripped her hip, digging into the smooth flesh there.
I pulled out almost all the way, then plunged deep.
“Christ. It feels like I’ve been holding my breath for years.
You remind me how to breathe, Jess.” Confessions kept rolling out of me that I had no business making, as a man on a short-term contract.
But I couldn’t help it; the entire evening for my birthday had been made special because of her.
With all the strength within me, I set a demanding, thrusting rhythm that had her gathering the blanket in her fists, muffling cries of my name into it.
“Yes, Grif, so good…”
I fought the sensation, struggling to hold off my release a little longer, taking every second of pleasure inside of her. Until my pulsing cock raced to climax.
“Fuck, Jess…” I clasped her hips, pulling her hard into my final thrust. I stilled on a bone-deep growl filling the room, stars entering my vision. Every muscle tensed and released, leaving me in a state of pure bliss.
After I calmed, I rolled off of her, my spent shaft still twitching. I eased onto my side. She lay next to me on her stomach. I traced her tattoo, curious.
“Did this hurt to get it done?” I asked.
“There are things in life that hurt much worse. The tattoo I had removed did.”
“Where? What was it?”
She shifted and lifted her full left breast up to show me the spot just underneath on her ribcage. I hadn’t noticed it before.
“Don’t laugh, but it was the name of my first boyfriend when I was sixteen. Dwayne.”
“You had Dwayne tattooed on you under your boob?” I snickered, biting down my jealousy. If I’d seen another man’s name on her body… I shouldn’t feel this way, not when things are temporary between us.
“I said, don’t laugh.” She playfully hit me and laughed too. “I learned a very important lesson about marking things on my body. It’s permanent and shouldn’t be taken lightly.”
“I don’t particularly care for needles, so I doubt I’d ever get one.”
“That’s okay. You can admire mine anytime.” She kissed me and snuggled into me. “So… those things you said to me just now—you’re into curvy women?”
“Correction: I’m into your curves, sweetheart.”
“Wouldn’t have pegged you for it.”
“What does that mean?”
“Nothing.” A moment of hesitation. “Sam had told me the first time I met him that I wasn’t your usual type.”
“He did? That asshole has no idea what my type is. Put that out of your mind, sweetheart.” If he was here right now, I’d punch him.
“Okay. But then I saw a photo of Theo and his mom in one of his drawers while I put away laundry. She was so thin—”
“Don’t.” I pressed my mouth to her shoulder. Breathing her in. “I’m fucking you, not the past.” It bothered me that the past crept into our time together at all.
“How long were you married?” She would not let this go. “Griffin, tell me, please. We haven’t talked about any of this before.”
“Two years. Elsa wanted her career. Runways. Covers. I wanted a family. Our goals weren’t the same.” I swallowed, then shook it off. “I put the past behind me, Jess. You should too.”
“Some things never leave you though.” She traced my jaw with her thumb.
“My father used to say failure wasn’t an option.
” The words tasted bitter. I sighed and continued.
“It made divorcing my ex that much more painful. Felt like the biggest failure of my life. But Elsa wasn’t ready to start a family.
She was a model and had issues trying to maintain her weight.
I never knew until she got pregnant, the extent of it.
She wouldn’t eat, feared gaining an ounce.
Theo was a fighter though, and thrived in the womb, anyway.
After she left him with me and a note that said she couldn’t do this anymore, I carried a lot of guilt and shame for getting her pregnant in the first place. ”
She lifted her head; her gaze, steady. “That’s a heavy burden to carry.”
“Yeah.” I swallowed. “But Theo was worth it. He’s everything. This time with you lately too, you make me forget the past ever happened.”
Something flickered across her face. A shadow. She hesitated, then whispered, “I know what it’s like to carry too much.”
My brows pulled together. “What do you mean?”
Her eyes glistened with unshed tears. “I grew up broke, Griffin. My mom’s sick.
Has been for years since my father— I had to hold it all together for my sisters’ sake, pay rent, take care of her, take care of each other.
I’ve always been responsible for everyone.
And nobody’s ever really been responsible for me. ”
My chest twisted hard. “Jesus, I had no idea of the extent of it.”
Her smile wobbled. “You never asked.”
The words cut deeper than I expected because she was right. I’d been so wrapped up in what I needed from her—help with Theo, distraction from my stress, a better reputation, even sex—that I hadn’t stopped to see the woman in front of me and her needs.
I cupped her face, brushed a tear away with my thumb. “I should’ve asked, I’m sorry.”
“It’s okay,” she whispered, leaning into my touch, stifling a yawn.
“Come on. Enough talk. Let’s get some rest.” I brushed my lips on her temple, and settled us into a spoon position. Her body melded with mine, warm and supple, and it was everything right now, especially after unloading things from my past I never expected to share.
We connected on a deeper level, and I should be scared of it, running into the other room, remembering how much I vowed to avoid another relationship. But I stayed, holding onto the fear anyway. Holding onto her. Only because I was too tied to get up, which was a lie.
“This has been the best birthday ever. Thank you.”
“You deserve it.”
Did I?
She drifted off, and I watched with my arm around her, and let myself, for one reckless night, hold something more than I deserved.