“Look at me, Lorelei,” Griff breathed in her ear.
She turned her face away and sobbed, “No.”
“Look at me, baby, and feel me.” He took her hand and forced it downward.
When she felt her hand being pressed against his cock, she felt a swirl of heat radiate through her groin.
“With that, there’ll be no more sleepless nights no more unsatisfying erotic dreams, and no more cold beds.”
“Let me go, Griff.” She sobbed desperately, feeling her own weakness choking her. “Let me out of this room.”
“You’re not going anywhere tonight.” He reached up, yanked the dress material that covered her out of her hand, then looked down at her and took the pin out of her hair, allowing it to tumble carelessly around her shoulders. “My god, you’re beautiful,” he whispered.
Lorelei looked up at his perfect, movie-idol face with tear-filled eyes and felt his hands on her shoulders as he gently lowered her to the bed. She stiffened when he nibbled on her earlobe. “So you’re going to rape me, is that it?”
“You can call it rape if you want.”
She closed her eyes as his hot breath soothed her cheek.
“I call it making love.”
When she felt the velvety warmth of his kisses, she wanted to respond, but she suddenly remembered the other women and her fury returned. “Get the hell off me, you bastard,” she yelled as she bucked wildly.
“Relax, you little hothead. You’re not leaving this room without a piece of Griff Nyle you won’t soon forget.”
The more she wanted him, the angrier she became. When he leaned down to kiss her, she grabbed his lower lip with her teeth and bit down as hard as she could.
“Owwww! You little bitch!” he yelled. He pulled himself away, and Lorelei received a stinging slap across her face. She reached out and slapped him back. When he slapped her again, she began beating on his chest and pushing against him. When she tried to come up off the bed, he caught her wrists again and pulled them up above her head.
Realizing she was his prisoner, she glared at him and whispered, “I hate you, Griff Nyle. I hate you worse than I hate lice, cockroaches, spiders, snakes, and more than all of them, I hate being your wife.” When she looked at him through her tears, she could see the muscle move in his jaw that told her he was angry.
“All right, so you hate me, and maybe I’ll never be able to undo all the damage I’ve done to you. But before this night is over, you little bitch, you’re going to be throwing rocks at all the Dash Nilsson’s you’ve ever had.”
Lorelei began screaming, thinking that maybe someone would hear and come to her rescue.
Griff immediately leaned down and stifled her scream with a kiss.
She struggled at first, but when his tongue licked her mouth, a fire leaped up inside her with every stroke. She couldn’t resist the erotic gesture and slowly began to respond.
“Mmmm,” he whispered as he tasted her lips. “Cherries. Red, sweet, plump, juicy, cherries,” he mumbled as he continued to taste her lipstick.
Lorelei hated herself for responding, but her mouth opened and received his tongue. Their kisses became hot and heavy.
“All right, you bastard,” she sobbed through short, jerking breaths. “I give up. I can’t fight you anymore.” She began crying hard, knowing she was defeated and hating herself for wanting him so much she ached. “But you’ll remember this night,” she hissed, “I promise you. You’ll remember and be sorry you ever touched me.”
She gasped when his large, strong hands ripped at her panties and hose as if he were a madman. When she was naked, he opened his mouth against her flesh and ravaged her breasts. The hungry mouth that had covered one of her nipples began a biting, licking path from one breast to the other, and a cry of joy burst from her lips.
* * * *
Griff moved himself over her and moaned when he felt her eager body moving beneath him. He forced her legs apart, and just as he was settling himself between her soft, silky thighs, he whispered in her ear, “Take it, Lorelei.”
She didn’t stir for a moment, and then hesitantly closed her hand over his cock and caressed it. “Harder,” he whispered as he buried his face in the curve of her soft, smooth neck. “Punish it,” Griff urged her, his voice breaking with emotion.
She grasped it greedily and fondled its thick girth as if it were a dangerous, jeweled dagger. A wanton look crossed her face as she began to push and pull roughly, causing Griff’s mouth to open in a long, passionate moan.
“Oh, god,” he cried out, like a wolf baying at the moon. As she continued, he felt himself urging toward that elusive peak, and his passion drove his tongue deeply into her ear, causing her to buck and cry out like a cat in heat. Lorelei labored unbearably along the entire length of his cock with punishing movements. It seemed to be beating like a heart, and he didn’t know how much longer he could last without entering her. “Lorelei,” he spoke with a wet whisper in her ear. “I’m afraid I’m going to cum in your hand. Hurry, baby, and take me inside.”
She lifted her legs, opening herself wider, and pressed him against her cleft.
“Are you ready?” Griff whispered out his passion in her ear.
“God, yes, Griff,” she moaned, breathing heavily. The tip of his cock pushed gently at first. Then, with a sudden brutal force, his hips pushed forward violently, burying himself deeply in her hot, tight darkness.
He watched the delicate lashes that shadowed her cheeks fly up, and then she screamed. The scream quickly morphed into cries of passion, and her breath came in short, jerking moans. She arched herself upward toward their joining and clenched her legs around him, then closed her eyes with a look of utter bliss on her face. At last, her sharp intake of breath rushed out in long surrendering moans and he recognized the shudders of her orgasm.
Lorelei peppered kisses against his chest while he repeatedly thrust himself deep inside her. Each plunge took him to greater heights until he found the one that would satisfy his aching need.
As the spasms of Lorelei’s satisfaction gripped him, a jolt of electricity arched through him, and he moaned and jerked with the welcome release of a mad whip crack.
At last, the two lovers lay exhausted in each other’s arms, but the night wasn’t over. Griff couldn’t keep his hands off her, so he found himself reaching for her over and over again. He couldn’t get enough of the fiery redhead that he used to hate. She seemed to fill him with a red-hot passion that had to be satisfied time and time again.
The dark, sweaty bodies that moved against each other moaned in the night. Griff heard his name cried out time and again as Lorelei responded to his passion and occasionally took her own pleasure by mounting him in the silver glow of the moonlight. He watched as the shimmering essence draped over her and caused her bouncing body to gleam. She looked like an untamed goddess riding on the winds of lust. As his passion swirled around inside him, Griff couldn’t keep from crying out with his own wild savagery. He watched her beautiful, gleaming body as it continued to bounce in utter abandon, bringing him with her into the hot fires of ecstasy.
As the night ended, Griff could almost hear the last strains of a beautiful love song that became softer and softer as the night slowly crept away. At last he knew what the love songs were about. He understood why some people stayed married for forty or fifty years. He could see now that mere sex was cold and meant only to satisfy a need. But with someone special, the word was love. It was a sharing of not only your body, but everything you were. He knew now that the Madame was right. Making love was the peak, the height, the zenith—the final act that could not be expressed in mere words, only passion. He looked over at Lorelei and smiled. He wanted her again, so much, but he had to let her rest. Going to Madame Jacqueme—Yvette—for advice had been the smartest thing he had ever done. He heard her deeply accented words echoing through his mind.
What do you expect her to do, come to you and tell you when she is ready? It will never happen, monsieur. In
matters of the heart, a woman does not want to be asked, she wants to be told. She wants her man to take her, not ask her. Believe me, mon cheri, she will thank you in the morning when she is lying in your arms satisfied.
Chapter Fifteen
The next day—
Griff felt great—complete somehow—on top of the world. But as wonderful as his world was at this moment, he ultimately had to pull himself away from Lorelei, get dressed, and head down to his office. As soon as he arrived, Betty told him that Sean McTammany, one of the White House attorneys, had been asking to see him.
Looking down at his watch, he replied, “Send him in.”
After the two men shook hands in friendship, Griff invited him to sit. “What brings you here, Sean? That development company giving you a problem again?”
“God, I wish that’s all it was.”
“Come on, now,” he teased. “It can’t be that bad.”
“Oh, no? How bad is blackmail?”
Griff’s smile turned to a frown. “What the hell did you say?”
The lawyer looked at him with a somber face. “We’re in trouble, Griff.”
“Trouble? What do you mean? What kind of trouble?”
“The worst kind of trouble. Woman trouble.”
Griff sat waiting for the last bomb to drop, then looked up at Sean. “Well, don’t stop there, damn it. What’s the rest of it?”
“She’s got one of those ambitious D.C. lawyers. He’s young, ruthless... a climber. You know the type.”
“Who?” Griff yelled, staring hard at Sean.
“His name is Herkey Wilson. He has a reputation for...”
“I’m not talking about the goddamned lawyer. Who is the woman?”
“Her name is... uh...” He looked down at his notes. “Here it is,” he said, sliding his finger across the paper. “Gabrielle Valdis.” He lifted his eyes and looked intently at Griff as he continued. “Alias, Margine Moore.”
“Alias? You mean that woman that came in here from Dallas wasn’t—” He hesitated as he glared at Sean. “Then who the hell was she?”
“I’ve asked around, but it’s hard to find out anything about her. Either she’s too new to Washington, or they’re just not talking. Those who do know say she’s kind of strange. Screw loose, or something, you know? She’s latched on to some creep who keeps her in food and a place to sleep. One guy told me that she dabbles in the black arts. She’s got this idea that she’s reincarnated, you know? She talks about her past lives... or her sisters, as she calls them. Real weird. Before she came out here, she was in an asylum in Texas.”
“All right, so she’s got a screw loose, but she’s just a woman, for god’s sake. I don’t understand the problem. I mean, we’ve had this kind of trouble before and handled it. Why can’t we just sweep this one under the rug along with all the rest?”
“I could probably list the reasons in alphabetical order and run out of letters, but I’ll try and make it short. A—she’s the only woman that ever came away from the experience hurt. B—because of what she’s been through, she’s determined to make you eat dirt and die, and C—she’s got one hell of a story. She claims she was... well... presented to you by the First Lady especially for sexual purposes. Griff,” Sean said, staring at him with an incredulous look on his face. “This woman is threatening to tell everyone that you and Lorelei get sexual partners for each other. She makes it sound like you two run a regular den of iniquity right here in the White House. She claims that she was brought into the Oval Office, introduced to you, then the First Lady left the two of you alone to have sex.”
“My god, what an imagination. Maybe she ought to run for office.” He turned back to Sean. “Why the hell would she say all that?”
“Who knows? Maybe being a little tramp that sleeps around isn’t too lucrative and she needs money. This little farce is her way of getting it.”
“Farce... you said farce. Does that mean you think she’s putting on an act?”
“It could be that she just wants your attention.”
“But you’re not sure.”
“Not at this point.”
“How do we find out?” he asked, grabbing Sean by his collar. “How the hell do we find out?”
“Please,” Sean said, pulling himself out of Griff’s tight grip. As he straightened his clothes, he continued. “First of all, you need to tell me your side. I need to know how much of what she says is true.”
“My god, Sean, none of it’s true. I mean we did have sex, but...” Griff paused and tried to keep his face from showing anything.
“What is it? Did you remember something? Griff, you’ve got to tell me everything, no matter what it is. It’s the only way I can help you.”
Slowly, Griff sat down opposite Sean on the couch, and for the next hour, he told him the whole story of how the situation with Margine had come about. When he got to the part about what happened on the couch, he began nervously raking his fingers through his hair and pacing worriedly. “I don’t know... something happened to me. One minute we were sitting on the couch, the next I’m fucking the hell out of her. It’s the first time a woman’s ever... I mean I didn’t even make a move toward her. Before I knew what was happening, wham, bang, it’s over.” Griff looked over at Sean. “Sean, you said she dabbles in the black arts. Well, if I didn’t know better, I’d think someone put a spell on me. By the time I came out of it, I had a fuckin’ hangover without drinking a drop.”
“My god, Griff, you don’t expect me to believe that fairy tale, do you?”
“I swear that’s what happened. Sean, I would do a lot of things, but there’s no way I would have made a move toward her right here in my office, for god’s sake. Lorelei was due to be back any minute... in fact, she caught us. Sean, you’ve got to help me. I’ve just now managed to convince my wife that I really love her.” He looked at the lawyer pleadingly. “We’ve got plans, Sean. Plans of having children, and after this is over, settling in a little house somewhere far away from this whole political nightmare. This couldn’t have happened at a worse time. If this thing breaks now, it’ll destroy everything... including my marriage.”
“I understand. I’ll try to handle it as quietly as possible, but it’ll be difficult. I don’t think she’ll even take a settlement.”
“You mean she wants to sue?”
“Not necessarily.
“Then what, the media?”
“I think she wants a confrontation.”
“With me?”
“No, with the Cookie Monster.” The attorney frowned. “Yes, of course, with you.”
“But why?”
“I don’t know why. Maybe she wants to yell at you, spit in your face, put a spell on you, or...” He shrugged. “Maybe she wants a piece of you... again. Whatever the answer is, one thing’s for sure. She’s not going to let you off easy.”
“I can talk her out of it. I know I can.”
“Maybe.” Sean looked at Griff critically. “It’ll take a lot of charm, though. I hope you’re not out of practice.”
“Charm?” Griff churned out a gritty chuckle. “Get real, Sean. The only thing a woman like that understands is the rough stuff.”
Sean shrugged. “I’m sure you know women better than I do, so—”
Impatient, Griff interrupted. “So, what’s the first step?”
“Well... first, let me feel her out. I’ll go through the formality of offering her a settlement, but like I said, she probably won’t take it, at least not from me.”
“Meaning she might take it from me, right?”
“It’s possible, but only if it’s wrapped up nice and neat in a little sexual encounter.”
“No!” Griff shouted. “I won’t sleep with the bitch.”
“I’m not saying sleep with her. Just see her. Maybe you’ll get lucky, and she’ll take a settlement, then get lost. We have to try.”
Griff didn’t like where this was heading and nervously raked his fingers through his hair.
&nb
sp; “Griff, feel her out. See what she wants, what her next move will be. You’re a talker, a con man, a charmer. If she’s nothing more than an adoring fan, maybe you can buy her off with a few kind words and a little money.”
“I guess I have no choice.”
“Fine. I’ll contact her lawyer.”
“No!” Griff yelled. “No lawyers, no Secret Service, no... nothing.”
“But, Griff, they say she’s dangerous.”
“I know what I’m doing. If I’m going to con this woman, it’ll have to be strictly between her and me. I don’t want any goddamned lawyers or Secret Service men looking over my shoulder.”
Sean frowned. “Griff...”
“It’ll be okay. Just set up the meeting, and I’ll take it from there.”
“You’re headed for trouble, Griff.”
“It’s the only way. If I know this bitch, she won’t want any third parties either.”
“But you don’t know her.”
“I know the type.”
“Griff...”
“You’re wasting time,” Griff hissed impatiently through stiff lips.
Sean hesitated for a moment, and then relented. “Okay. When, where?”
Griff thought for a moment, then looked up at Sean and narrowed his eyes. “Tonight... the bomb shelter.”
“The bomb shelter? But that’s—”
“I know what it is, but it’s the only place I can go without having a whole shit load of Secret Service men following me. In the shelter, I can be alone with her, so set it up. Get her here, pass her through the Gatekeeper. Everything as usual. No need to worry, it’ll just look like I’m having a liaison.”
Sean remained silent, unconvinced.
“Contact her immediately. And Sean... tell her she got my attention.”
“I don’t like this, Griff. You’re playing with fire.”
Griff ignored his warning. “Say it in just those words, understand? And I don’t want anyone to find out about this, especially Lorelei. I’m not going to lose the only woman I’ll ever love just because some cheap little whore wants a rerun.”
The Sweet Thief Page 14