Not right now.
When he’s fully inside me, my hips grind quickly, moving forward and backward, my hand wrapped around the back of his neck.
He pulls his mouth away from my breasts, tilting his head up and crushing my lips.
As I bounce, he slaps my ass, grunting, groaning, and then clutching me tight.
“Fucking love your pussy,” he growls.
“Yeah?”
“I do. I fucking do, Angel.”
I push him back so that he’s pressed against the sofa. His eyes run all over my body, and I bring my hands up to my hair. “Let me prove myself to you,” I pant.
His mouth twitches, and his eyes begin to roll back as I rock my hips, adjusting my feet so that I can bounce on top of his thick, delicious, nine inches.
“Shit,” he groans, grabbing my ass.
“Forgive me, Griff,” I beg, still riding. I drop my hands to hold his face, rounding my hips in circles. “Say you forgive me.”
“You know I can’t,” he groans.
“Why not?” I lean forward and kiss his lips, clenching his cock as I lift up and then drop back down. His entire body locks, and I smirk behind our kiss.
“At least say that you still care.”
He watches my eyes, our foreheads meshed. He grabs my waist, and I ride him harder, faster, so fast that I can’t help my cries of pleasure.
My body is jolting, stilling, my pussy gripping him so tightly I can feel his every throb.
I grip the top of the couch, the perfect view of Miami ahead of me, working my body to the fullest, craving every ounce of his release, as well as my own.
“Damn, Angel.” My cheek drops on his, and with three more effortless swirls and full, deep drops, Griffin shudders and a feral growl fills his throat, the sound of it thick and heavy in my ear.
“Fuckkk.” He drags out the word as I whimper in his ear, milking his cock, barely straddling because I’m too caught up in this moment.
Filled up with every inch of him.
I finally relax, still panting, my body landing on top of his. I lay my head on his shoulder, my face right at the crook of his neck, and I breathe him in. He always smells good. Always. Even while sweating, he smells divine.
“Look at me,” Griffin says, and I tilt my head back, meeting his warm, now-soft brown eyes. He blinks slowly, and his throat works hard before he speaks. “I care about you, Angelina. And trust me when I say I love that sweet, wet pussy of yours.” He cracks a smile and I giggle.
“But?” I fill in, suddenly dreading the conversation.
“But… my head isn’t on straight right now. Not for this. I’ll sign the contract soon. You’ll get what you need in the meantime. I’ll handle the Jenkins matter as best as I can. I’ll take care of everything. I can trust you somewhat with business and work and getting shit done… but when it comes to us—me and you?” He sighs, head shaking. “Well, I’m just not there yet.”
“I understand,” I whisper. And I do, but I wish I were an unjustified type of person just so I can say I don’t get it at all. “So… even if the contract isn’t signed, we’re still working together?”
“At least two times a week for now.”
“To build our foundation again…?”
“Something like that.” I drop my head but he tilts my chin back up. “I see your potential, Angelina. I want you by my side, but that can’t happen if I can’t fully trust you. I’m not making any rash decisions with my business or putting it in jeopardy no matter how good we seem together. We’ll work, I’ll keep my eye on you, and once I feel comfortable enough to have you by my side every day of the week for work, I will sign it. But until then… I need you to show me. Show me that it was just a mistake, and that it will never happen again.”
“I can do that.” I nod my head. “I get it.”
“Good girl.” He smiles down at me, and then kisses my lips. It’s much softer than the first one. Much sweeter. It feels like our lips are literally melting on top of each other. “Now, let’s get dressed. I have a conference call in about five minutes and I may need you there.”
I hop up, staring at him with wide eyes as he stands as well. “Seriously? You want me there?”
“It’s with a guy named Bryan from an energy drink company called Riot. He’s talking stuff with settlements and brokers but he doesn’t trust or want to make investments with them anymore. He needs more money. The bigger fish. His contracts aren’t over with the people he’s with until next month, so if I have questions or need some input, I don’t want to second-guess myself. I’ll need you for that. I don’t usually work with people that are in between contracts.”
“Oh.” I beam as I gather my skirt and tug it on. He spins me around so that he can zip the back. “Well, I can help with that. I’m good in that department.” I pause, glancing at him. “So… I’m guessing this is the start?”
“Of what?”
“Rebuilding our foundation.”
He zips me up and then twists me around again. Adjusting his tie, he smirks and says, “If that’s how you’d like to think of it.”
But I know what it means. He just has too much pride right now to let me in. It’s cool. We will get there again. We have to.
“After this conference, though, I want you to go to the hotel and reconsider a few things—a few liabilities that may derail your future with me.”
“What do you mean?” I ask, collecting my clutch.
“Scott,” he says, and my smile immediately fades, my face going straight.
“What about him?”
“I can’t work with him. I know he put the idea inside your head with the contract, getting to Jenkins—all of that. I can’t be affiliated with him in any way.”
“But… I can’t just get rid of him, Griffin. It’s his business. Not mine.”
“He shrugs. “Then start your own.”
“He’ll be broke, Griff.”
He shrugs again. “And that will be his problem, not yours. Whether you decide to help him rebuild is up to you, but I’ve done some thinking and I can’t have a man like him under my wing. If I do that, I should already expect to have my feathers clipped off. With him, I won’t be able to fly. I’ll be damaged and worthless. I won’t have it.”
“So you want me to just quit Stratford and Clark and come work for you?” I ask, anger laced in my voice.
“I never said that.”
“But it’s what you’re implying,” I state, a little agitated. “Griffin, I don’t think you realize how long it took for my father to actually get his business started. It took him years, and with that were lost moments with his kids. I’m not going to just abandon it.”
He blinks at me. “I’m not asking you to abandon it. Just go to the hotel and consider your options, Angelina. I mean, think about it,” he says, zipping his slacks. “Who put most of their trust in me when this first started? Though you had a motive, you trusted me, and you still do, am I right? I have never let you down.”
“Yes…”
“But Scott… I know he doesn’t trust me.” He laughs. “Not one bit. And I’m certain as his sister, he has let you down plenty of times.”
I don’t speak, but it’s true. Scott despises Griffin. Call it jealousy, or call it accusations. Whatever it is, there’s something there that makes Scott have so many negative things to say. And about him letting me down—yes, that has happened. But that’s family in general.
We get past it and move on.
“I sent him an invite to the fall banquet,” he says. “I wanted to tell you to come too.”
“Why?” I ask.
“Because I want you there.”
“No. I mean, why Scott? If you don’t trust him, why have him there?”
“Because I know you, Angelina. You’re not going to tell him a thing I just said. And if you won’t, I will. The contract will be signed, but as it so clearly states, I’m only working with you. I’ll have my lawyer look over it some more so Scott can’t pull
any bullshit, but this is it, Angelina. I’m not saying you have to choose, but I’m done playing games. I’m done being the one who gets burned.”
He turns for his briefcase and gathers a few papers that are on his desk. “I don’t even know what to say to him. He owns the company. It’s in his name, not mine. I’m just his sister, really.”
“You’ll think of something, babe. You always do. Sign the contract as a sole proprietor, for all I care.” He winks. “This is a golden opportunity, and it will help me regain my trust with you.”
He studies my look of utter disbelief and sighs, planting his hands on his waist.
“Look. Think of it this way. I’ve had fire tossed at me for years. I’ve been through hell and back and though I’ve overcome it, it still ticks me off to know that I could have done something about it, but never made the move. I blow it off, pretend it didn’t happen, or treat it as a minor incident. And that’s my fault. I can admit that when it comes to my personal life, I’m not good at handling my situations. I blow shit off all the time. I ignore it so I won’t have to deal with it.”
He lifts a finger. “But I figured, why not accept it, you know? Sooner or later a person gets fed up with the bullshit and stands his ground. He becomes less lenient and just a little harsher. That man—the one who is fed up—is me.”
His eyebrows draw together, his eyes no longer soft.
“What are you saying?” I whisper.
“Keep handing a man like me flames and I will burn anything that stands in my way down to the ground.” His eyes are dark now. “And if that means cutting Scott off, cutting you off, or even cutting Colette off just to achieve my happiness again, then it will happen. I’m tired of losing. I’m done being a stepping-stone.
“Those knives that have been shoved through my back have been snatched out by my own bare hands and the throats of those who’ve deceived me will be slit if they come across me the wrong way again.
“I’ve been nothing but generous and lately it seems that my generosity is only being taken for granted. Enough is enough, Miss Clark. This is business now. You wanna be in my world so badly, you take what I give to you,” he murmurs, gripping the door handle and pulling the door open, “or you leave with nothing. I only want what’s best for you, and that twin of yours… well… let’s just put it this way. If he can go low enough to sell his sister out to a man he hardly knows, just to get back to the top, and not feel a single ounce of regret about that, what the hell else would he do to you? Hell, to me.”
He steps between the frame of the door, and with each word he’s said my heart rate has doubled in speed. There’s an ache in my chest, but not because of what Griffin has confided.
I get it. I understand why he’s acting this way. I get why he is fed up, and me interfering with his life didn’t help the situations he was in before he ever met me.
Griffin isn’t the problem at all.
It’s because I have been blinded by everything.
Blinded by this business.
Blinded with success, power, and greed.
Blinded with work and getting what I really want and need.
Blinded by Scott. My own flesh and blood.
I knew I had to do this with Griffin. I knew it needed to be done regardless, but now I wonder… how far would Scott go to get what he wants? How far would he push me just to reach the throne, to snatch the crowns right off of their heads?
Something tells me I’d end up with bruised knuckles and scraped knees by the time he gets what he wants. Leaving me as the beggar, the one to pick up scraps and deal with the repercussions.
I love Scott. He’s my brother. My twin.
But he is not perfect or completely honest, and I’ve known that fact for a while, yet all I have ever wanted was the very best for him.
I owe him a lot, too. He had access to pretty much all that was left of Dad’s savings. The few thousand he had.
He was selfish and greedy with it, but I always believed the excuses he made about how he needed to save as much as he could for future investments. He’d say that, but then I’d see him with a new watch or a new car.
Now that I think about it—now that Griffin has put this reality right in my face—there is only one question running through my mind.
When the hell has Scott ever wanted the best for me?
Chapter Eleven
Griffin
“Oh, hey, I wanted to ask you about the former contract,” Angelina says as she follows me back into my office. “I left you a voicemail the other day but I assume you haven’t listened to it yet.”
“Not yet. Don’t check them much unless they’re voicemails from my office line. What about the contract?” I ask, dropping my briefcase on the desk. I fold my arms and turn in her direction as she meets in front of me.
“Do you still have it? Is it here?”
“No.” I cock a brow. “Why?”
Her face drops, turning serious. “Griffin, where is it?”
“I don’t know. Probably still with Gabriel or in a trash bin somewhere by now.”
“You think he’d actually throw it away?”
I drop my arms. “Angelina, what are you getting at?”
She sighs heavily. “My lawyer told me that we need to destroy that contract—that if it’s in the wrong hands it could be used against us later on since we are working under Jenkins’s nose. I know you found out about Gabriel and your wife and stuff, but I don’t know him at all and I don’t feel comfortable knowing that he still has it.” She pauses. “I know he’s the last person you want to see right now, but do you think you can get it back and then shred it? I would feel a lot better about things.”
“Fuck, Angelina!”
She gasps, jolting a bit. “What!?”
“Shit, why couldn’t you have told me this before I got him fired!?”
“I tried! And you got him fired?” she asks incredulously.
“Yes.”
“Why would you do something like that?”
“What the hell do you mean? I trusted him! He was my best friend. There is no forgiving that. He knew I was trying to do everything I could for her.”
She blinks rapidly, and then smashes her lips together, giving me a look of sincerity.
“Don’t do that,” I mutter.
“Do what?”
“Don’t… look at me like that. Don’t give me pity.”
“You consider me caring about how you feel, pity?
I look her over briefly before exhaling. “I apologize.” I step around her, going for the door. “I’m heading out early. I can’t go to Gabriel, I refuse. But I know who can.”
She thinks on it for a second, dropping her gaze. “Your wife…” she murmurs.
I barely nod my head. The mere thought of Colette going to him again pisses me off. I don’t want Colette anywhere near him, no matter how upset I am with her.
I know that jackass. He’s a tricky son of a bitch, and she’s just as conniving. I don’t trust them together. I don’t know what the hell they talk about while they are together—were together.
For all I know they might team up and take me down somehow. I don’t know. She makes me paranoid as hell now.
“Yeah… I guess.” I shrug.
“You think she’s going to do it? She’d be doing it for me, really. Not you.”
“I know… but if I’m involved, it means she can go down too. Colette has too much pride—too much to lose to go down for him. She doesn’t care about him at all. She only did it because she knew it would hurt me if I ever found out.” I swallow thickly. “She did that, but I knew she would hold off on mentioning her affair unless it came down to something like this—finding out that I did something else wrong.”
“What do you mean something else?” she asks, her head tilting.
I look away. “Nothing. Just… go to the hotel. Relax. I will take care of the old contract.”
She stares at me for several seconds, those blue eyes boring into mine. She
then sighs, tucking her clutch beneath her arm and walking in my direction.
“I trust you,” she whispers just as she stops in front of me. She is less than an inch away, her lavender scent running by my nostrils. Her hand caps my shoulder, and she leans into me.
I twitch in my pants, averting my gaze to the left, but her hand comes up to my face, forcing my eyes back on hers.
“Griffin.” Her voice is stern as she holds my gaze. “I. Trust. You… Okay?”
“Why?” I whisper.
“Because…” She breathes deeply. “You haven’t let me down and I don’t think you ever will.”
“Don’t say that.” I lean in closer, the tip of my nose running across her cheek. “I have let a lot of people down in my lifetime. I don’t try to, but it happens. I’m not perfect. I make mistakes too. Colette has witnessed it firsthand. It’s why she hates me now.”
I force a laugh, but I can’t lie and say it doesn’t hurt my chest.
“I know… but we all make mistakes.” Her mouth catches mine before I can turn my head, and she clasps my face in her hands, kissing me deeply.
Our bodies mold instantly, the door bumping against the wall as I step back. Her hands drop, arms hooking around the back of my neck, and I sigh.
Fuck.
What is it about this girl?
What is it about her that makes me so weak?
Is it because maybe, deep down, I know that she really cares? Or is it because for the first time in a long time, I feel a connection? I feel something that sparks my soul on fire.
Around her, I ignite. I am confident and strong and never belittled.
Around her I am not walking on eggshells or wondering when she’ll throw a pillow over my face and suffocate me in my sleep.
Okay, maybe that last part is a little far-fetched, but it could happen. You never know when dealing with a crazy bitch like Colette.
When our kiss breaks, Angelina’s forehead presses on mine and she drops her gaze, smiling as she sucks in her bottom lip.
I love her coyness at times like this, like a girl in high school, kissing her boyfriend for the first time.
It’s adorable.
Sudden Flames (Sweet Promise #2) Page 9