Playing with Fire (21 page)

“Wow!” Claire let her eyes travel the length of his lean body. “So, you’re the guy who broke her heart.”

Cassie’s face heated, and she kicked Claire under the table.

Griff smiled his sexy smile. “I’m also the guy who gave her his to hold—and would never break her heart again.” He placed his hand over Cassie’s and rubbed his thumb over her knuckles.

Claire grinned. “Well, I can see what the fuss is all about. Cassie, my dear, you didn’t half do him justice. I’d give my soul to have some guy look at me this way.”

“Hands off,” Cassie laughed. “He’s all mine.”

Claire smiled at her. “Oh, I can see that. I just have one favor to ask. If there’s another one back there like this one, crate him up and ship him right to my front door.”

Throughout lunch, Griffin found every opportunity to touch her, rubbing the nape of her neck, brushing his fingers against her cheek. He was advertising ownership, sending the silent message to Claire to spread the word, and Cassie had to admit it made her feel good. When they rose to leave, Claire reached out and hugged her hard, blinking back tears.

“Take care, my wonderful friend. Don’t let him get away no matter what you have to do. But remember. I’m always here if you need me, though.”

“I know you are. And thanks for agreeing to take care of things for me.”

Cassie promised to call the next week so they could check in with each other. Then Claire was gone, not looking back.

“She really is a good friend, isn’t she?” Griff said.

“The best,” Cassie replied. “The very best.”

After picking up cartons at the U-Haul place, their last stop before returning to the apartment, was to say good-bye to Mike. That was almost as hard for Cassie as lunch with Claire.

Mike was his usual gruff self, helping her clear out her desk, handing her a final paycheck. “Something happens to her, you’ll answer to me,” he told Griff, taking a hard look at him.

Griff rested a proprietary hand at Cassie’s waist, giving Mike the same look back. “I’ll be taking good care of her.” His voice was firm.

Mike just grunted then gave her an uncharacteristic hug. “Anything at all, you call me.” Then he waved them both away.

“You made quite a life for yourself without me,” Griffin commented when they were back in the car.

“Jealous?” she teased.

“Damn straight. I hate it that we missed all that time together.”

“Did you think I wouldn’t move on? If so, then you don’t know me at all.”

He shook his head. “No, you did just what I was afraid you’d do. You locked me away and moved ahead.” He leaned close and kissed her ear, teasing it with his tongue.

She almost ran the car off the road. “God. Don’t do that when I’m driving.”

“But not quite completely away, right, sugar?” His words caressed her like warm honey.

“No. Not completely.” She smiled to herself. “I think you know that by now.”

“It’s nice to see how everyone respects you, though.
You’re
a
complex
person
, Cassie.
People appreciate you. But so do I. Just don’t forget that.”

Dinner was sandwiches from the deli, eaten while they took a break from packing and cleaning. Afterward, she emptied the drawers in her bedroom.

“Well, well,” he said. “What have we here?”

She turned to see him holding a narrow black case from her nightstand drawer.

“Give it here.” She’d forgotten her vibrator was stashed there. She should have snuck it into her suitcase when he wasn’t looking.

“Uh-uh.” He held it above his head. “Was this your substitute for me, sugar?”

Her cheeks heated, and she lowered her gaze. “Yes. Now, come on. Give it back.”

“Under one condition.” He tilted her face up, forcing her to look at him. “Let me watch you use it. One time, here in this place. Okay?”

She couldn’t believe how embarrassed she was, after all the intimate things they’d done together. “I…don’t think I can.”

“Sure you can. I’ll help you. Come on. We can finish this other stuff in the morning. We’re almost done anyway.” He pulled her against him, his lips brushing her temple, his hand smoothing her hair. “Cassie, I love you. I would never do anything to make you uncomfortable. Whatever we do together is good and right. It would please me to see the pleasure on your face when you make yourself feel good, knowing that you’re thinking of me when you’re doing it.” He brushed his lips against her forehead. “But if you don’t want to, it’s okay.”

“No, it’s all right,” she whispered on a shuddering breath.

He pressed soft kisses to her cheeks and eyelids. “Trust me. Please.”

While they showered, he roamed his hands over her, murmuring in her ear what he wanted her to do and how he wanted her to do it. They’d picked up a bottle of wine, and he’d brought a glass of it into the shower with them, feeding her light sips as he whispered to her. She began to shake just from listening to him.

By the time he’d dried her off and led her to the bed, she was already flushed with the first heat of passion.

“All right, sugar. Like this.” He lowered her to her back then bent her legs so her feet were flat on the sheet. With a gentle touch, he spread her legs as wide apart as he could get them. “Lick your fingers, Cassie. Just the tips. Yes, like that.”

She ran her tongue over her fingertips, wetting them with her saliva, her eyes never leaving his face.

“Okay. Put your hands between your legs and pull those sweet lips apart. Let me see that beautiful cunt that I love so much. Do it, Cassie.” As he talked, he’d shed his clothes, and he sat on the end bed, his eyes focused on the spot between her legs.

Still self-conscious but wanting to share her private pleasure with Griff, she slid her hands down through the nest of curls and separated her labia, already tingling with anticipation. She was wide open to him, and his eyes feasted on her in greedy appreciation.

“Good, honey. Very good. Oh, yes, I love that sweet place so much. Now, show me how you tease that little clit when you’re by yourself and thinking of me. Yes, that’s it. Pull back that tiny hood and let me see it all.”

She closed her eyes, and in her mind she was in her bedroom alone, Griffin’s face dancing beneath her eyelids, her body craving his. She used her fingertips to expose her swollen nub and, without any prompting, began moving one finger back and forth over its tip, the heat inside her escalating.

“Now inside, Cassie.” The sound was a whisper, and his hands caressed the outside of her thighs. “Put your fingers inside.”

She slid two fingers into her pussy and stroked herself as she’d done so many times before. Her body moved with the rhythm, one fingertip still sliding in a steady rhythm on her clit, now so sensitive she could hardly stand to touch it. In and out, her hand moved, while the coil in her body wound tighter and tighter, and, like windswept clouds, any embarrassment fell away.

“Okay, sugar. Now, the big guy.” He handed her the vibrator, already turned on. “God, Cassie, you don’t know how it turns me on to know you did this imagining us together.” He placed his hands on her knees, his thumbs drawing gentle circles.

She fell into her remembered pattern, stroking the instrument over her clitoris, into her channel, around and around the opening damp with the evidence of her desire. As her nerves caught fire, she slid the vibrator all the way inside her, holding it with one hand while she stroked herself with the other.

“Beautiful,” Griff murmured. “Just beautiful.” As he crooned to her, he rubbed the backs and insides of her thighs, ran his fingertips along the crease where her thighs joined her body, brushed over the curls now so wet they were plastered against her skin. “I’m going to give you an orgasm that will blow your mind, sugar. Just keep your eyes closed and feel.”

She couldn’t even think any more, she was so intent on reaching that elusive peak. Her body was one sensual flame, so aroused and so alive she felt as if her skin had been peeled back.

“I love this cream, darlin’.” He held the little tube he’d found with the vibrator. “It smells like peaches. Just like you. Do you use this on the vibrator when you’re fucking yourself? I’ve got a better use for it.”

She was so lost in a sensual fog her brain wouldn’t process what he was saying. But then she felt Griffin’s hand slide into the cleft between her buttocks, massaging the cream heavy on her skin.

He moved his hand back and forth, rubbing the crevice, tickling at the entrance to the one place he hadn’t yet plundered. And then, just as she pressed harder with the vibrator and her hand moved faster, he slipped one finger inside that hot, dark place. His thumb caressing the tender skin just below her pussy, and he pressed a second finger into her anus to join the first. She came, an orgasm so shattering she didn’t think her body could stand it. She cried his name over and over, bucking, twisting, pushing, wanting it to last, wanting it to end.

When it did end, she fell back exhausted, panting for breath, her heart thundering, a fine layer of sweat coating her body. As she lay there trembling with aftershocks, he kissed his way down her body, nipping at her breasts, her navel, the soft hair between her legs. He slid the vibrator out and replaced it with his tongue, drinking the fluid she’d spilled for him. Heat rose in her again.

She reached for his shaft, feeling it so engorged she didn’t know how he kept from going off.

“God, Cassie,” he whispered, “I can’t ever get enough of you. You turn me on like no other woman ever has. I worship you, baby.”

With gentle hands, he turned her over and trailed kisses down her spine, just as he had the other night. No area was left untouched. His lips slid over her calves, the backs of her knees, her inner thighs. Then he was at her opening again, pressing the head of his cock against the tight opening.

“I’ve wanted to do this since that very first night six years ago.” His voice was soft, loving. “I didn’t think you trusted me enough then. You trust me now, though, don’t you, Cassie?”

“Yes.” The word hissed out between her teeth. She was so lost in an erotic fog she couldn’t think. She only knew this was Griff, who could do whatever he wanted with her body and she’d take pleasure in it.

He leaned forward and licked her shoulder. “Good, darlin’, because I want you so bad this way I can hardly see straight. I love you, Cassie, more than I ever thought I’d love another human being. I want to have you every way I can, to make you totally mine. Is that okay, sugar? Tell me, Cassie.”

As he talked, he squeezed more cream from the tube he’d found, rubbing the globes of her buttocks, and slid his fingers along the separation. Then, one knuckle at a time, he eased his finger into that place he had yet to fill with his cock, the heat grabbing the cream from his skin until she was well-lubricated.

“It’s all right, Griff. I love you.” Then she jerked, tensing, as his finger intruded farther. “Griffin?”

“It’s okay. Everything we do is okay, remember? I promise you’ll love this. I promise I’ll never do anything to hurt you. Any time you want me to stop, just say so.” She heard the strain in his words as he fought to hold onto his control. “Cassie, I wouldn’t do this with just anyone. It’s too intimate. Trust me, all right?”

She lay there in a tense state of anticipation as he rolled on a condom. Then he was behind her, pulling her to her knees, separating her buttocks, and pushing inside her with steady pressure. When she cried out at the unexpected intrusion, he kissed her skin again, and pressed his hand against her mound to pull her tight against him.

“Just relax. You’ll be fine in a minute. Breathe, Cassie.”

Slipping the tip of one finger onto her clit and massaging it, he continued his invasion until the entire length of him was swallowed up by her hot, tight rectum. He began thrusting in and out of her, long, slow strokes.

She bit down against the first shock of invasion, but, in a moment, a feeling she could only call lust replaced it. Every nerve, every muscle in her body responded to this new assault. Before she even realized it, she was moving in rhythm with him, shoving her hips back against him, driving him deeper, her body wrapped in sharp, fierce pleasure. He filled the hollow of her body, his cock so large she didn’t know how he got it in, yet it wasn’t enough.

She felt his body against hers, his skin heated, and she wanted to wrap herself in him and stay there forever. He whispered in her ear, erotic words, sexy words, love words. Everything receded except herself and Griff in this time, this place.

It built with rapid speed, the tremors, the spasms, sensation piling on sensation, and she heard herself screaming. “Now, Griff. Now. Now.” As she shouted, she forced herself hard against him.

They came in a simultaneous explosion that shook the bed, Cassie’s screams loud, their bodies convulsing with such force she thought her heart would stop. When they collapsed, he slid out of her and pulled her tight against him for a moment, raining kisses on her spine and the cheeks of her ass, stroking her arms and her shoulder.

“I love you, Cassie.” His words were filled with emotion. “You’re mine. I will do anything in the world to make you happy. All that matters is that we’re together.”

“I love you, too, Griff. More than my life.” That wasn’t a lie. Never had she expected to have this kind of connection with someone, be so treasured and so worshiped.

He left the bed long enough to dispose of the condom. She heard the water running in the bathroom then he was stretched out beside her, pulling her tight to him. She snuggled with him, feeling the slow thud of his heart against her back.

Their bodies relaxed, sated, and they slept.

They were ready to hit the highway as the sun was coming up, wanting to cover as much distance as they could.

“I hope the next residents living here enjoy it as much as we did.” The corner of Griff’s mouth turned up in a teasing grin as they took a last look around.

“Impossible.” Cassie laughed and hugged him. “Just plain impossible.”

The memory of the things they’d done the night before made her body glow. Her last vestige of self-consciousness had vanished, and she wanted to tell Griffin how eager she was to explore more uncharted sexual waters with him.