Chapter 36
CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
GRIFFIN
All I wanted was to hold my daughter, and collapse into bed with Violet, and forget the relentless, noisy world existed for a few hours.
The door clicked shut behind me and I kicked off my shoes, leaving them by the door. I started tugging at the buttons of my team polo but paused, frowning at the suite. Something was wrong.
The main sitting room was dim, lit only by a single lamp in the corner, casting long shadows across the area Hazel’s travel cot usually occupied. It was gone.
My heart kicked like I’d missed a gear. For a split second, exhaustion vanished, replaced by cold, electric panic.
Where was she?
“Griffin?” Violet’s voice called from the kitchenette, warm and familiar, saving me from the spiral. “That you?”
“Yeah.” I moved fast, cutting across the marble, my gaze still flicking back to the empty space in the living room. “Where’s Hazel?”
Violet appeared in the doorway, mug in hand, wearing nothing but the shirt with MICHAELS 7 emblazoned across her chest and a pair of tiny black knickers that almost made my heart stop.
“She’s with Cleo and Imani tonight,” Violet said. She handed me the mug and continued, her tone softening as she read the worry in my eyes. “One floor down. They practically wrestled her from me. I have their room number, they have my number, and they promised to call if she so much as hiccups.”
She crossed her arms, the shirt stretching tight across her chest. “It’s the first night you’ve been away from her. It’s okay to be worried.”
I was. The suite felt wrong, like a limb was missing. But seeing Violet so damn beautiful and at ease, it sent a different kind of energy buzzing through me.
“Good,” I said, my lips curling up in a lazy but triumphant smile. “Because I’ve just had a brilliant idea.”
She raised an eyebrow. “Oh god. What?”
“We should go out. Celebrate properly.” The exhaustion was a distant memory now, replaced by the sudden, urgent need to do something for us. “I’ll book us a table somewhere nice, quiet. We can have dinner, some wine. Whatever you want.”
I’d eaten but that wouldn’t stop me spoiling her.
Violet stared at me for a beat, then she burst out laughing. It was a bright, musical sound that made my chest ache with how much I loved it.
“You’re ridiculous,” she said, shaking her head. “You’ve just won the Austin Grand Prix. You’re the biggest name in this city tonight. Where exactly do you think we could go for a ‘quiet’ dinner without causing an international incident?”
She had a point. But the part of me that was a hopeless romantic sap where she was concerned didn’t care about logic.
“I’ll wear a hat.”
“That didn’t work last time and it won’t work now.” She laughed again, walking toward me. She stopped just out of reach, her eyes dancing with amusement. “Besides, I can think of much better ways to celebrate your win. Right here,” she said, her voice dropping, low and suggestive.
I closed the distance between us. “Is that so?”
“Mmmhmm.” Her fingers traced the collar of my polo shirt. “We have the entire suite to ourselves. No baby monitors. Just us.” She met my gaze, her own dark and full of promises. “I think we can find something to do to fill the time.”
My hands gripped the hem of her shirt and I rubbed the soft, worn fabric between my fingers.
“You wore my name today,” I murmured, my voice thick.
“It was just clothing, Griffin. Don’t let it go to your ego.”
“Bollocks.” I backed her up until her legs bumped against the sofa. “It wasn’t just a shirt. Do you have any idea what it did to me? Seeing you in the crowd, holding Hazel, wearing my number…”
“Enlighten me,” she whispered, her hands coming up to rest on my chest.
The kettle clicked off in the kitchen, but neither of us moved. The world had shrunk to the space between our bodies.
“It was thrilling,” I said, my voice dropping lower.
“Like having a secret waved under everyone’s nose and they had no bloody idea.
” I traced the curve of her hip through the fabric.
“You walked around all day with my name on your back, and no one knew it was because you are sleeping in my bed. That you belong to me.”
“I don’t belong to anyone,” she breathed, but her body melted into mine, belying her words.
“Don’t you?” I leaned down, my lips brushing against her ear. “Then why does it feel so right to have you wearing my name? You wore it for me, Vi. Admit it.”
A soft shiver ran through her. “You are pathologically sure of yourself.”
“I’m pathologically sure of us.” I pulled back just enough to look at her, to see the desire etched on her beautiful face. “Now, I’ve had a problem all day. A real dilemma.”
“What’s that?”
“I couldn’t decide what I wanted more,” I murmured, my hands sliding up her hips, catching the edge of the shirt. “To strip this off you the second I saw you… or to fuck you while you were still wearing it.”
Her breath hitched. “Decisions, decisions.”
“I think I’ve decided on both.”
I lifted her into my arms, and she let out a surprised squeak, her legs instinctively wrapping around my waist. She clung to me, her center pressing against the hard line of my cock. Just a whisper of lace and thin cotton between us, and it was all I could do not to tear us both bare.
It was the best kind of torture.
“Definitely the second option,” I muttered before kissing her.
She melted into me instantly, arms twining around my neck. All I’d wanted all damn day was this. Her. The taste of her mouth, the heat of her skin, the way she sighed against me like she was coming home. I’d craved it, starved for it.
All I wanted was to celebrate with her. To show her with my mouth and hands exactly what this win meant. What she meant.
I carried her through to the bedroom, our mouths never parting, her breath coming quicker as I lowered her to the mattress. I followed her, bracing myself over her so I could keep kissing her, feeling every shift of her body under mine.
She tugged at me, pulling me closer, her hips rising to meet mine. I rocked into her, grinding against the heat of her. She gasped, arching into me, her hands sliding under my t-shirt to press me closer, greedy for skin.
I pulled back, breathless, and just stared at her. “You drive me fucking mad, you know that?”
She bit her lip, eyes full of desire. “Pretty sure that’s mutual, Michaels.”
“All I wanted after that race was this. You. This is how I want every race weekend to end.”
She smiled and I kissed her again, slower, savoring her, letting my hands slide under the shirt to cup her breasts. I teased her nipples with my thumbs, loving the way she arched and groaned my name. Every sound went straight to my cock.
“The team thinks I’m your good luck charm now,” she whispered, amused.
“You are.” I kissed her forehead, her cheek, the corner of her mouth. “First race you wear my name, I win. That’s not a coincidence.”
She huffed. “That’s superstition.”
“No, that’s fact.” I grinned, fingers circling her nipple again, making her shiver. “And I plan to keep you in my colors for every race from now on.”
“Is that so?” Her hips rolled up, teasing me.
“Absolutely.” I kissed her again, trailing my mouth down her throat, worshipping every inch. “Starting with right now.”
“Griffin…” My name was a sigh on her lips, and I swallowed it, grinding into her, letting her feel exactly how much I’d needed this.
She tugged at my waistband. “Off.”
I smiled, kissed her one more time before getting off the bed. I stripped off my team polo, my eyes never leaving hers. Trousers, socks, everything followed until I stood before her completely naked. She watched me, pupils blown, cheeks pink, legs parted and ready and all mine.
I climbed back over her, resisted the urge to strip the shirt off. Part of me wanted her bare beneath me, but the sight of her half-naked, flushed, desperate, wearing my colors was too much to give up. At least not yet.
With my mouth pressed to the hollow of her throat, I trailed my lips lower, over her collarbone, to the swell of her breast. I took her nipple into my mouth through the soft fabric of the shirt, and she moaned, her fingers tangling in my hair.
She arched beneath me, and I groaned, fighting the urge to tear the shirt away and lose myself completely.
I worshipped her like that for what felt like an eternity, my hands and mouth exploring every inch of her body that the shirt revealed. When I finally moved between her legs, she was slick and ready for me. I traced her entrance with one finger, watching her hips lift toward me.
“Fuck, you’re already soaked for me.” My teeth grazed the inside of her thigh and I enjoyed her shiver. “Have you been like this all day?”
She whimpered, her fingers twisting in my hair. “Griffin…”
“Tell me what you want, Vi.” I slid one finger slowly inside her, relishing the tight heat that clenched around me. “Use that clever mouth for something besides arguing tonight.”
She let out a desperate laugh, breathless. “Don’t make me beg—”
“Who says I’m making you?” I slipped a second finger inside, letting her feel the stretch. “But I do like hearing you ask.”
She arched, frustrated, wrecked, her voice fraying. “I want your mouth. Please. Griffin, I need you—”
“That’s better.”
I lowered my head, blowing a soft stream of air across her clit before flicking my tongue against the swollen bud. She cried out, her thighs trembling against my shoulders.
“Like that?” I asked, sucking gently as my fingers worked deeper inside her.
“Yes! Oh god, yes...”
I settled into a rhythm, fingers thrusting, tongue circling, thumb applying just the right pressure to her clit. Her moans grew louder, more desperate, filling the room. When I felt her inner muscles start to flutter around my fingers, I closed my lips around her clit and sucked hard.
“That’s it, Vi. Let go. I need you to come in my shirt, need you to lose it for me.”