by Rayne, Piper
“You’re so fucking beautiful.” His head dips and captures my nipple in his hot mouth, his tongue twirling the already peaked pebble. “So talented.” He tugs on my nipple with his teeth. “So incredible.”
My fingernails scrape his back, holding him to me so that he can’t move away. “Griffin,” I say just above a whisper, clinging to his body and writhing under his touch.
His hand slides down from my breast, pushes my panties to the side, and teases my center again. A low, deep groan erupts out of him and he tears his mouth off my breast. “Shit. You’re soaked and I’m losing control.”
He slides me to the side and stands. My legs hang off the bed as he manipulates the snap and zipper on his jeans before sliding them down his legs, leaving him in a pair of black boxer briefs. With his tanned skin, long hair, and hard length stretching the confines of his cotton briefs, he’s model material.
He holds out his hand for me and I accept, getting to my feet. I’m on my feet for less than a second before his fingers dive into my skirt and push it past my hips. I step out of it, but Griffin already has my panties following suit, and he falls to his knees.
With a light push, he has me falling back onto the mattress. He grabs my legs, pushing to spread me open. His lips travel the path up my inner thigh, and the anticipation has my orgasm hanging like ripe fruit dangling from a tree branch.
The first swipe of his tongue makes my head fall back against the mattress as my hands grip the sheets next to my hips. Sliding me closer to him, he swings one leg over his shoulder and all I feel is him.
A hot puff of air hits my clit, and I look down to see his eyes are fixated on my core. The sight of his tongue emerging from his mouth has my insides clenching. I watch intently as the tip of his tongue connects with my clit, and my head once again falls back down to the mattress. Taking his time, he circles my clit with his tongue. His movements are painfully slow and a torment of the best kind. He groans, his tongue sliding down and back up before concentrating on my clit once more.
I clench my lower half to keep my orgasm away because I don’t want him to stop. His exploration of my pussy continues, and all I can do is grip the sheets tighter and try not to buck against his face. When his finger joins the party, rimming my entrance, I lose control. His other hand grabs my breast, squeezing the way I love because apparently, he’s a quick learner.
The slow and meticulous stroking of his tongue builds my orgasm as though it’s a whole tree of ripe fruit ready to fall with only a shake of the trunk. His finger pushes into me and arches up while he sucks lightly on my clit. My orgasm rips through me and I buck with abandon against his face, crying out. The speed of his tongue increases, and his hands grab my ass. He allows me to ride his tongue until white dots are all I see.
My pelvis finally falls to the mattress and his fingers loosen their grip, easing my legs off his shoulders.
“Whoa,” I say, still trying to catch my breath.
Griffin has more plans though. He rises up, kissing a path from navel to breast. He takes a pit stop on each breast and sucks hard on my sensitive nipples. Will I ever be finished with Griffin? If he fucks like he just ate, I’m going with a hard no.
He widens my legs with the nudge of his knee and settles over me. I use my hands to push his hair from his face, and his lips capture mine in a slow and bottomless kiss that makes my naked body warm from head to toe. His lips explore while his hard cock is pressed into my center, grinding and teasing.
A carnal urge to have him deep inside me has my hands gliding down his chest. Understanding where I’m going and where my goal resides, Griffin raises his hips. I pull down his boxer briefs, stroking his steel length with my palm.
His lips stop kissing me, and he rests his forehead on mine. “Damn, Phoenix.” His eyes close briefly, only making me grip him harder. He grinds into my palm and I take my time to perfect the way he likes to be stroked. “Are you on anything?”
“I have an IUD but…”
“You’re right.” He gets up off me and my body goes cold, watching him walk over to his bag. “You make me lose all common sense.” He pulls off his boxers, rips the foil packet, and runs the latex down his length.
“Come here.”
When we’re in the same position we were in moments ago, I guide him to my entrance, and he sinks into me inch by inch until he’s fully inside and I’m stretched around him.
“Fuck,” he growls and circles his hips once. Sliding his hand down my leg, he brings it to rest over his hip and drives into me deeper.
It takes me a minute to get used to his size, but I meet him with each rock, our hips moving as one. Our mouths find refuge with one another and the world outside becomes a blur. My arms grasp to keep his body to mine, needing him as close as I can get him. His tongue slides and glides into my mouth until his lips travel down my jaw to my ear where his heavy breathing rings in my eardrums.
I bring my other leg over his hip. His breath is warm and his moans soft while he cups my ass with each dive into my depths.
I keep pushing away the impending orgasm because I never want the weight of his body off of me. I don’t want to wake up from what feels like a dream. My hands slide into his hair, and I pull his lips to mine.
I can’t hold back any longer. The fruit is ripe, heavy, and ready to be plucked. I fall apart around him, pulsing against his length while bliss travels through my nerve endings and I’m moaning his name.
His pace increases, and he rises up on his palms, staring at me as he drills in and out of me. His eyes darken in a way I’ve never seen from him before, and it only adds another layer to my arousal.
His chest heaves, and after a few uncoordinated thrusts, he stills inside me. I reach my hand up his sweaty chest and bring his lips down to mine once more. We kiss for what feels like hours.
Eventually he withdraws and disappears to the bathroom, returning after a minute. He pulls the sheets back for us to get under, then he slides one of the trays over to his side of the bed.
“I bet you’re hungry now.” He lifts the plate of fried green pea pods and sets it on my lap.
I dip one in the ranch dip and bite off a piece. He grabs a plate of fries with parmesan and aioli sauce on the side. I steal one, and he grabs a pea pod.
“Can I ask you a question?”
“That’s scary. Right after we have sex?” I say.
He chuckles and his hand slides under the covers to my bare thigh, which he squeezes. “When you said you hadn’t had many partners, you meant what exactly?”
Heat rushes to my cheeks. “That noticeable, huh?”
“No, you’re amazing. The way you have sex is so you.”
“Meaning?”
He shrugs and grabs another pea pod. “You looked to me the entire time to make sure what you were doing was making me feel good.”
Now I laugh. “Um, that’s not me outside of the bedroom.”
He presses his lips to my bare shoulder. “It is when it comes to me and Maverick.”
I choose to ignore the warm feeling in my chest his words conjure up. “That’s probably because my experience at being a nanny is the same as sex. I’ve only done both with one other person until now.”
“Really?” He chokes on his pea but grabs a glass of water before I have to save him.
“Okay, so far, the post-climatic bliss isn’t very blissful.”
He picks up our plates and puts both on the tray next to him. Sliding under the sheet, he leans over me. “I was curious, that’s all. But it changes nothing. You’re amazing in bed. I was barely able to hold out for as long as I did and…” He peers down under the sheet. “Now I’m ready for round two.”
I palm his steel length. He’s hard and ready. All those fears and worries fade away, and he buries us under the sheet, his lips falling to my neck.
“I hope those fries and pea pods filled you up, because we’re not coming up for air for a long time.”
I giggle and slither down, never growing
tired of the weight of his body over mine. Yeah, I’m in trouble. This only made me want Griffin more—not less.
Twenty-Six
Griffin
As sad as it is, I’ve never felt this way before. Sure, there’s always that feeling at the start of a new relationship, when you can’t keep your hands off each other. I went through that with Maggie. But as I lie in bed with Phoenix sprawled on my chest and my hand running the length of her back, I know this is different somehow.
Maybe with Maggie, it was our busy schedules from the start. But when we went through the new relationship “sex all the time” part of our relationship, it was quickies then on to the next thing. When I was feeling romantic after she got pregnant, I booked us a bungalow over the water in Tahiti—only for her to complain about the internet not being strong enough so she could call her agent. I was writing a song. We spent the majority of our time apart, since I was up late at night, working to the sound of the waves.
“Parents?” Phoenix asks.
We’ve been going back and forth, asking questions of one another. Usually I’d be hesitant to share anything personal, but I want Phoenix to know everything about me.
“Dan and Deena Thorne. Dan owns Dan the Man Carpentry and Deena guides the youth of Oberlin High School.”
“Dan the Man?” She props her chin on my chest.
I look down into her gorgeous brown eyes. “Yeah. I better get the sink in before they come to visit.”
“It’s not like your dad’s a plumber.”
“No, but to my dad, you do jobs like that yourself. And if you don’t know how, you learn. He might be the first dad to be disappointed his son is a successful music producer.”
She slaps my stomach playfully. “I doubt that.”
“Wait until you meet him.”
She says nothing and lays her cheek back on my chest, her finger twirling in my chest hair.
After a few moments of content quiet, I ask, “When did you first realize you wanted to sing?”
“That sounds like my music producer asking, not the man I just slept with.”
“I’m curious.” I bring my free hand down to move her chin up to look me in the eyes.
“I was young. My sister and I were obsessed with The Parent Trap movie. Not the Lindsay Lohan one, but the original with Hayley Mills. My parents had gotten into a fight. I don’t remember about what, but Sedona and I planned this entire night and sang that song, ‘Let’s Get Together.’”
I nod, knowing what she’s talking about.
“Sedona can sing too. My sister can hold a note, but my dad picked me up and swung me around. He said he couldn’t tell the difference between Hayley Mills and me. That someday I’d have a spotlight over me, and the world would love me.”
“That would do it.” I smile at her, picturing a young version of the woman in front of me.
“After they died, singing felt more important and took over my life. I felt like I had to do it, you know. For him.”
I feel the corners of my lips go down. “I’m sorry.”
She buries her head in my chest, and I sit up straighter to make sure I didn’t make her cry. When she picks up her head because I shift, she wipes her eyes.
“You okay?” I ask.
She nods. “You have this way about you. Why are you always making me cry?”
I chuckle and pull her into my arms. “Sorry. Ask me anything. Make me cry.”
She laughs, which sounds even better when she’s naked and in my arms. Though I think I might prefer the low moan she makes right as I take her nipple into my mouth.
“Are you sure you’re ready to be in the hot seat?” she asks.
“Take your best shot, lady.”
“Where’s Maggie?”
I cover my throat and my head hits the headboard. “Man, right for the jugular, huh?”
“I’ve wondered is all. You never mention her.” She shrugs.
“She’s off filming.”
“This entire time?”
I nod, taking her hands. I slide my fingers through hers, tightening our grip then doing it all over again. “She likes to work.”
“I know, but other than a few phone calls I’ve heard Maverick answer…”
“Yeah, but honestly, I can’t fault her. We’re the same in a lot of ways. Maverick hasn’t really had either of us present throughout his childhood so far. He might be closer to me, but only because I don’t travel for work. Maggie’s gone. She tried to take Maverick with her once, but it was too much work, even with a nanny. Plus, once Maverick got to school age, I told her I wanted him to attend school, not just be sitting in a set trailer with a tutor.”
“He’s a great kid.”
I squeeze her hand. “Thanks. That means a lot.”
“How come you and Maggie didn’t work out?”
I chuckle. “Because of everything I just told you. She’ll film movie after movie away from home. Maverick was… a surprise.” I hate the word mistake and I refuse to use it in reference to my son. “He wasn’t on our radar yet, since we’d just started dating not too long before. I’m not even sure I’d use the term dating. More like hooking up exclusively.”
She’s quiet, so I continue. “We married because we were young and into each other and when you have that much success, you rarely think bad things can happen to you. Anyway, I’m not sure I was happy throughout the entire marriage. Her either. Obviously. You’ve read the tabloids, right?” I quirk my eyebrow.
Her lips form a thin line, but she nods.
“I finally had to stop caring how many people she cheated on me with.”
Her hand runs down my chest. “I can’t imagine why anyone would cheat on you.”
I capture her hand. “I’m a lot different than I was then. I’d obsess over clients and spend weekends at the studio. When I built one in our house, I thought it would help, but it turned into me working all the time. I’d go down, telling myself I just wanted to listen to a recording one more time to adjust something or tell a client one more hour, and it always turned into four. I had my priorities backward.”
“Still. She didn’t have to cheat.”
I hear the judgment in her tone. I’ve forgiven Maggie for everything except sleeping with my business partner Adam. There was no reason for either of them to do that. I might as well just get everything out while we’re talking about this.
“It was over between us, but it screwed with my head when I caught her and Adam. Maybe because he was my sounding board during the divorce. Did you know Adam was engaged? They screwed over that girl too.” I shake my head, remembering how badly it sucked.
She swings her leg over my waist and her long hair falls to one side of us. “There’s one upside to your marriage not working out.”
My hands run down the length of her torso, my eyes eating up her bare tits with the Hershey kiss nipples ready for devouring. “What would that be?”
“I’m in your bed tonight, not her.”
I flip her over and she squeals. “You’ll be in my bed for more than tonight.”
Her hand lands on my chest. “Should we talk about this? Whatever’s going on between us?”
I kiss her forehead. “Let’s take it as it comes. Not put a label on it and see where it goes.”
She smiles and rubs her hand on my beard.
I don’t have the heart to tell her that she’s going places and we’re not headed in the same direction. But that’s okay, because when it’s time to say goodbye, she’ll be living her dream and barely miss me. I’ll be the one left behind.
“Okay, good idea. I guess that’s why you’re the older and wiser one between us.”
I tickle her ribcage and she squirms under me. “I’m not that much older than you.”
She stops laughing and looks at me with a serious expression. “Does my age bother you?”
I hem and haw for a minute. “At first I felt a little pervy, but to be honest, no, not really. Maybe it’s a byproduct of living in LA for so long,
where there are all kinds of older men with younger women on their arms, but I think it has more to do with the connection between us. As long as you don’t call me old man, I’m good.”
“Kiss me,” she says, and I gladly lower my lips to hers.
She might’ve been named after the city of Phoenix, but she represents the symbolism of her name well. She’ll always resurrect herself and rise. I just hope I don’t suffocate in her ashes when she soars to heights only few in this world ever reach.
Twenty-Seven
Phoenix
I never realized how fast things would move once I had connections and a demo. Griffin sent Van and Trey my demo first—with the warning that he was sending it to other people as well.
“I thought you trusted Van and Trey?” I ask him, sitting on the counter while he tries once again to install the sink.
Maverick’s at school. The best part of that, other than I get to have Griffin all to myself, is that he’s making some friends and looks forward to going to school now.
“I do trust them.” His breath is labored. “But I’m not doing my job if I don’t give them some competition. Believe me, they aren’t the only ones who are going to want you. What we want is a bidding war. If my friends win, then great, but I won’t let you end up in the hands of the wrong label.” He slides out from under the sink and looks at me. “You know how distracting you are while I’m trying to do this?”
I hop down from the counter and straddle his middle, running my hands under his T-shirt. “How distracting?”
He groans and I rock my pelvis. “Very.” His hands tighten on my hips to keep me in place.
“Have I told you I love track pants?” I slide off him.
His hands reach for me. “Why is that?”
I pull down the front of his track pants and his cock springs up. That I can get this reaction from him so quickly feels addictive. I rub up and down his shaft, my thumb teasing the tip.
“What are you doing?” He groans and the wrench falls from his hands onto the wood cabinet.