Playing with Fire (31 page)

The story made every newspaper in Texas and some on the national scene. After all, three upstanding citizens arrested on double homicide charges was fodder for gossip everywhere. Especially in Stoneham. Cassie and Griff had to shut off their cells, checking with regularity in case there were calls they needed to return. After a couple days, they also stopped answering the door. Everyone, it seemed, wanted a firsthand account.

“They don’t deserve anything at all,” Cassie spat. “Not after the way everyone in this town has treated you.”

“We can forget about them now,” he told her. “We’ll be gone soon enough.”

His words turned out to be prophetic. His business sold faster than they’d expected. A man who read the lurid story in the
Dallas Morning News
saw the item about Griff selling out and called. He and his wife wanted to leave “the big bad city,” as he called it, and regroup in a small town.

“At least the notoriety served one useful purpose.” Cassie laughed.

Carol had paraded a steady stream of potential buyers through the house, most of them just satisfying their avid curiosity. But then the couple who’d bought the landscaping business asked if they might get a better price if they made it a package deal. Preliminary contracts were signed, the Marble Hills agent found a rental house for them, and they concluded the transaction on the purchase of the nursery. The movers arrived and carted away their belongings to the rental house, although much of what they had would go into storage until the new house was ready.

That afternoon, they drove into San Antonio, and Griff took Cassie shopping for wedding rings first then stopped at a florist to buy a rose. Afterward, they paid for their marriage license at the courthouse and emerged as Mr. and Mrs. Griffin Hunter. Barry Dangler, in his effort to make amends, had arranged for a judge who was a friend of his to perform the ceremony quickly.

“One perfect rose, Dewdrop. Just like before. That’s you. My perfect flower.” He tucked it in her hair then bought her a bridal bouquet of roses and mums and baby’s breath. All in white. “For fidelity,” he told her. “Just in case there’s any question on your part.”

He grinned when he said it, but Cassie knew the message he was giving her. The past was finished and done with. There was no one for either of them now or ever again. When he kissed her at the end of the ceremony and told her she’d always hold his heart for safekeeping, even the judge got a little teary-eyed.

In two days, they’d leave for a week in Hawaii, but tonight, they were spending the first night as man and wife in their rented house in Marble Hills. As soon as they returned, construction on their new home would begin, one with plenty of bedrooms for the family they planned to have.

On the way home from the city, they teased each other with words and touches, so, by the time they reached the bedroom, they were both at fever pitch, frantic as they removed their clothes. Griff pulled back the covers on the bed and placed her on the cool sheets, lying down next to her. She moved in a restless rhythm against him, urging him, small whimpers escaping from her mouth. She was already so aroused, as much from relief at having everything behind them, that she was sure she could climax by herself.

“Easy, sugar,” he crooned, as she shifted beneath his languid stroking. “We’ve got all the time in the world.”

His thumbs brushed against her nipples, which were already in tight peaks, and stroked down the soft slope of her breasts. Wherever he touched with his hands, he followed with his mouth.

She wanted to pull him tight to her, but he took her wrists in a firm grip, pinning her hands over her head. He used his tongue to draw feathery circles at her navel while he drifted his other hand lower, parting her thighs with a gentle nudge and stroking the dampness between them.

“More,” she moaned, and jerked as his fingers found her clit and massaged it.

“More what?” He watched her with heavy-lidded eyes.

She licked her lips, gaze locked with his. It still amazed her the erotic words they exchanged no longer embarrassed her or made her uncomfortable. They were so attuned to each other, so comfortable in what they did, that talking to him this way had become second nature for her. The words excited her as much as they did Griff.

“Rub my clit more. Rub my slit more.” She shifted, trying to urge him to action with her body.

“And what else, sugar?”

“Fuck me with your fingers. Slide them into me. You know.” As if for emphasis, she arched her body, pushing against his hand.

“Into you where, darlin’?”

“Into my pussy,” she panted. “Way…in. Farther. Farther. Touch me way inside.”

Sliding one long finger into her hot sheath, he felt her wet heat enveloping him.

“And what else? What else do you want me to do?”

“Suck me.” She writhed under his touch. “Suck me, lick me, stick your tongue in me. Do it, Griffin. Now.”

When he replaced his hand with his mouth, shivers raced over her entire body. His erection was hard and throbbing, testing his self-control, but he was determined to draw out her pleasure.

Separating her folds to plunge his tongue deeper inside, he felt her convulse, twisting, clenching at him as shudders overtook her. Her liquid poured like a waterfall into his mouth. He continued to touch and stroke as the storm subsided, just the aftershocks still producing light quivers.

“Good, sugar?” he whispered.

“Yes, but I want it all. I want to feel you inside me. Fill me, Griffin.”

“You want my cock inside you, sugar?”

“Yes. Yes. Now. Oh, God, now.”

Releasing her hands and bracing himself on his forearms, he entered her in one smooth stroke. This was the first time they’d fucked without the thin barrier of latex between them since that insane night on the lawn, and the sensation consumed him with heat. Skin to skin. He could hardly stand it.

Cassie let out a low moan as he filled her. He kept his tempo even, watching her face for signs she was reaching her peak again. When her body surged against him, he plunged hard—once, twice, then a final hard thrust as he poured into her. Her legs wrapped around him and her hands clutched at his straining muscles.

At last, they were quiet again, stretched out with their arms around each other, the lazily turning ceiling fan cooling their sweat-soaked bodies.

“I love you.” She reached up and brushed her hand over his cheek.

“I love you, too, Cassie.” He cradled her head to him. “God, I thought this day would never get here.”

“I know what you mean.”

She lifted her hand and looked at her wedding ring nestled with her engagement ring. The diamonds caught the light filtering in from outside. She wore both of them even when she was naked, insisting they were her talismans.

“Any regrets?” Griff asked as they lay naked on the bed, his hands continuing to touch her with learned familiarity.

“Not a one.” She wrinkled her forehead at him. “You?”

“Are you kidding? I feel like the kid who woke up and found out there really is a Santa Claus.” He kissed her, letting his lips linger over hers. “Tomorrow’s a fresh start, sugar.”

“I know. I never thought we’d get to this point.”

“Are you still okay about going back to testify?” He still worried about how she’d handle it.

“As long as you’re with me, nothing bothers me.” She snuggled tighter to him. “And I’m glad that after all this time everyone will know the truth about my sister and my father.”

“Dangler’s been more than polite and accommodating to us.”

“He should be, damn him.” She sat up. “None of this might have happened if he hadn’t had it in for you from the beginning.”

“Let it go.” He pulled her down again. “Tomorrow is the first day of the rest of our lives.”

“Yes, it is, isn’t it?”

“And I know just how to start it.” He turned her toward him, his mouth coming down on hers. Cassie moaned under him, little bursts of pleasure that told him how heated her blood was becoming. Their bodies were finely tuned with each other, their give and take natural.

When they again lay gasping, side by side, Griffin pulled her to him the way he liked to, stroking her satiny skin, dropping little kisses here and there.

“I think it’s against the law to be this happy.” Cassie smiled, running a fingertip along the arm wrapped around her. “But we deserve it.”

“I don’t know how I got so lucky,” Griffin murmured, “but I’ll spend the rest of my life treasuring you. And our children, when they come.”

“Mmm. Yes. Children. I can’t wait.”

He looked into her eyes and saw everything there he’d wanted for so long—love, desire, caring, and a future. The past six years had been hard on both of them. Seeing each other again could have been a painful ending rather than a new beginning. Whenever he looked at Cassie, he saw complete love and acceptance in her eyes, a love she was eager and happy to surround him with.

He wasn’t a praying sort of man, but he gave thanks every day that circumstances had brought Cassie back into his life and given them a second chance. For the first time, he knew peace. Real peace, after years of torment and uncertainty.

The long journey was over. He and Cassie had each other, and the lies and deceit had been washed away. Cassie was where she belonged, and at last Griffin Hunter was content.

Sign up for the Decadent Publishing Newsletter here
http://eepurl.com/SQ75f
and never miss stories like:

Sexy Designs
by Desiree Holt

Chapter One

“Grace, you’ve done a fabulous job.”

Ben Randall stood in the living room of a Paradise Ranch model townhouse and took in the exquisite décor. Blues and greens blended with subtle earth tones for a feeling of warmth without being overbearing. The furniture was inviting, especially bathed as it was by the sun spilling in from the large picture window.

“I’m glad you like everything.”

“You promised me warm, sexy designs, and that’s exactly what you gave me.”

Grace Traynor slid folders and her iPad into her briefcase and snapped the lock. “Thanks, Ben. I’m happy we got just the look you wanted to achieve.”

What he really wanted to achieve was Grace across a dinner table from him. Lying on the grass in warm sunshine.
Naked and in my bed.
From the day he met her, he’d been strongly attracted to her, an attraction that only increased over time. At sixty-five, his sex drive might be a little lower, but he hadn’t lost any of the nuances of touch. And he’d learned long ago that a lot more than the physical made a relationship spark. He wasn’t slow where women were concerned, but, for months, he’d been searching for the right opportunity to move forward with Grace, and each time it seemed he hit a wall.

In the months they’d been working together, he had made a giant number of casual overtures. She’d politely rebuffed every one of them. At first, he’d figured maybe she just didn’t feel the same physical pull, the same interest in taking this out of the business arena. That would be disappointing, but he’d make himself deal with it. However, the more time they spent together, the more frequently he caught her looking at him with banked hunger in her eyes.

No, Grace was just as attracted to him as he was to her. Over time, he’d noticed whenever he came too close or invaded what he assumed was her personal space, she became as tense as a stretched rubber band. He’d love to know what that was all about. He just had to be smart enough to figure out what the problem was.

“Yes,” he said now. “I agree.”

“You know,” she told him, “when you first brought me out here to look at this place and tried to share your vision with me, I thought you might be crazy.”

He laughed. “Fourteen hundred empty acres with nothing but trees and deer? I might have felt the same way.”

“No.” She shook her head. “You had the vision. And the more you talked, the more I could see it.”

He smiled and lifted her hand, brushing his lips across her knuckles then dropping it before she could tug it away. “But the credit for this goes to you.”

He looked at the view from the sliding patio doors.

Selling the Crooked R ranch had been hard for him. Generations of Randalls had raised cattle on it, very successfully. But, somehow, the cowboy gene hadn’t passed down to any of his three sons so he’d looked for a buyer, one who knew the business. And he’d kept fourteen hundred acres for himself.

It wasn’t just that he needed something to do, although that was part of it. At sixty, he was far from ready to retire. He had visited friends who’d moved to one of the many Sun City developments or The Villages in Florida and been struck with the idea of creating a community for people fifty-five and over. A place where they could begin a new phase of their lives, with every amenity and convenience he could contrive. The community would have a definite Texas theme and be called Paradise Ranch because, as he told his sons, “It’s for people entering a new phase of paradise.”

Working with McMann Brothers Development, seeing his ideas actually come to life, had revitalized him. Paradise Ranch showed him life had a lot of excitement still waiting for him. Meeting Grace Traynor had kicked it up another notch.