by K. A. Linde
Grabbing a white towel off the rack, I wrapped it around my waist and then confidently strode out into my bedroom. This is going to be fun. I was naked from the waist up, and I knew what my body looked like. Even though I wasn’t a gym rat like Vin, I spent time to keep myself in shape. I had defined muscles in my arms and chest, not to mention a six-pack and that V that made sane women crazy.
Aribel’s eyes bulged when she saw me. She hadn’t expected me to walk out like this, and it was clear as her eyes raked my body. They flickered from my abs to the tattoo on my shoulder and stretching across my collarbone. Who would guess Princess Cardigan would be interested in my tattoos? Apparently realizing that she had been gawking, she hastily looked away like she wasn’t supposed to see it.
“Um…sorry,” she whispered.
I wasn’t sorry though. I’d wanted her to see.
All I saw was that she was sitting around in my clothes—my T-shirt and sweats. She looked fucking amazing in them. I liked her wet clothes, but something about seeing her in mine turned me on. I’d never let a girl wear my clothes before.
“I’ll just…yeah,” she said, swiveling in place to completely face away from me.
I dropped my towel to the ground, and I watched her fidget. Yep, completely nude here, honey. Just turn around. But she didn’t. I found a pair of boxers and some basketball shorts, but I didn’t bother with a shirt. She had been interested in my body, and I wasn’t going to give her an out when her eyes had widened like that.
After I changed, I wrapped my arms around her from behind, and she jumped at the unexpected touch. I dropped my lips down onto her neck and tasted her soft skin. She tilted her head slightly, and I took that as an okay to continue. My hands slid up under the T-shirt I’d let her borrow, and I pulled her hips back against mine.
Then, she groaned.
Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Aribel was here—in my room, in my clothes. Her skin was still wet from the rain, and her body was lush and ripe for the picking.
I thought my brain shut down at this point, and all I could do was feel the woman in my arms. This, right here, was what I’d wanted.
“Ari,” I whispered against her skin.
She moaned an incoherent response.
“Bed.” My voice was strained from holding back.
All I wanted was to fuck her until she couldn’t walk the next morning. She was driving me batshit crazy, and I was starting to believe that she had no fucking clue what she was doing to me.
“Grant, no.”
She tried to pull away from me, but I still had her hips in my hands. I yanked her back against me hard, and she squeaked.
I turned her around to face me and repeated myself, “Bed.”
For a split second, I thought she was going to turn me down. Then, I saw her eyes soften, and she swallowed.
“I, um…” She bit her lip and stared up at me under thick black lashes.
Fuck me.
“Get in my fucking bed, woman.”
“Don’t order me around.”
I smacked her ass with a flat open palm, and she yelped, her eyes widening in surprise.
“What the hell?”
“Get in the bed.”
Just as I reached for her, ready to make her listen, she scrambled under the covers. Perfect. I slid into place next to her, and I could feel her tension from a mile off.
I ran my hand slowly down her side. She tried to remain perfectly still, even as I coaxed shivers out of her. I trailed across her flat stomach to her hip bone, and I adjusted her so that she was on her side, facing me.
“Grant,” she murmured, her eyes wide.
She was fighting with herself, and it looked like I was winning. I tangled our legs together and dropped my mouth onto hers. It was like turning the key in the ignition. Suddenly, I couldn’t get enough of her. I couldn’t stop touching her. I just wanted her. I wanted to feel my dick slide into her. I wanted to see her face when she hit climax.
I started tugging the sweats over her hips, and then I grabbed her ass in my hands. Good God. I was an ass man, and she had a great fucking ass. Yanking her hard against me, I knew she could feel what she was doing to me. I groaned into her mouth as her hands slid across my bare chest. Her touches were featherlight at first, like she was just testing the water. I pressed my body against her, craving her touch.
Her hands were trembling, even as they moved across my abs. I tried to slide the sweats farther down her legs, but she wasn’t having any of it, and I gave up. They were far enough. I could reach everything I wanted. I slipped my hand in between us and then into her underwear. Her body was on fire, and even better, when I slid my finger across her, it came back really fucking wet. My cock twitched just at the thought of plunging into that.
She squirmed against me, but I couldn’t tell if she wanted me to stop or keep going. It seemed like she wanted more to me. I gently swiped at her again, probing, until I heard her faint gasp. Fucking fuck, that’s hot.
“Ari,” I groaned, “you’re so fucking wet for me.”
She ducked her head into my shoulder, seemingly embarrassed, but she didn’t stop me. I rolled her over onto her back and yanked the pants down to her ankles. I needed this. Fuck, I need this.
My hand reached for her underwear, but she put her hand out. “Grant…I can’t. Oh my God, I can’t do this.” She frantically pulled up the sweats I’d lent her.
“Ari…” I begged.
I adjusted my erection right before her eyes, and she tried not to notice.
“I’m not going to have sex with you.”
I wanted to show her exactly how wrong she was about that.
But the pleading look in her eyes, rather than the aloofness she would normally send my way, fucking broke me down. I’d give her whatever she wanted even if she wasn’t giving me everything I wanted.
I sank down onto the bed next to her, and I tried to get my head on straight. She’d turned me down. I wasn’t sure that had ever happened…yet I still wanted her here. I still wanted her in my bed.
“You know what?”
“What?” she breathed.
“I want you, Ari.”
“I gathered that.”
“Yeah, I want to have sex with you. What guy wouldn’t? I mean, I want you here, like this. I want you to stay the night. I want you to just be here…with me.”
She didn’t know how much those words really meant. I’d never fucking wanted that in my entire life.
“Then, I want you to let me take you out to dinner. I’ll pick you up, I’ll take you out, we’ll walk through the park, and I’ll even get you home before midnight, so your coach doesn’t turn into a pumpkin.”
She giggled, actually fucking giggled, and I knew I had her.
“What do you say?”
She licked her lips as if she were considering. “All right, Grant. I’ll go on a date with you.”
We kissed until I thought I might combust from the energy coursing between us. How she held such composure was beyond me, but I wanted to respect her. I did respect her. It was the strangest thing that had ever happened to me.
Soon, Aribel nuzzled her head into my shoulder, her breathing slowed, and then she was fast asleep. I wrapped my other arm around her and held her tight.
I’d never had a girl spend the night just to sleep.
After I’d fallen asleep in Grant’s arms, the rest of the world kept spinning at its normal speed, but my life felt like it was moving in fast forward. I’d been shocked at how far I let things go with him, but it had also seemed so easy to just let it happen. I had thought I was going to give myself up. I had never felt like that before in my life. When I was with Grant, I felt safe and secure. Although not completely comfortable in my skin, I was definitely more so with him than I’d ever felt before. And as much as my defenses were normally up, I could feel him crumbling them with ease.
I was glad that Cheyenne had planned to visit her parents in the city for the weekend, so she wasn’t there to see me ge
tting ready for my date on Friday afternoon. I chose a dark blue dress and paired it with my jean jacket and ballet flats. I’d even curled my hair and let it hang loose past my shoulders.
When Grant knocked on my door, I was surprised to find him out of his normal T-shirt and into a polo and dark-wash jeans. He’d cleaned up, too—freshly shaven, his hair styled, his tattoos hidden. My heart skipped a beat.
“Hey,” he said, pulling me against him. “I’ve been thinking about you all week.”
I started to chastise myself for getting giddy because he’d been thinking about me, but then I just let myself feel what was working its way through me. When we weren’t at each other’s throats, I kind of liked being around Grant.
We walked out to his truck, and I hopped up into the passenger seat.
“Hope you don’t mind a little drive,” he said.
“Where are we going?”
He smiled at me. “Down the shore.”
It was an hour before we arrived at a small pizza place. It didn’t look like much with a small sign that read Duffie’s overhead, but the parking lot was jam-packed. I was a little worried about finding a table, but Grant didn’t seem to have any anxiety.
We hopped out of the truck and Grant came around to my side. When he saw the concern on my face, he just laughed and took my hand. “Come on, Princess. It’s the best pizza I’ve ever had. You do like pizza, right?”
Uncertainty crossed his face for a moment, but then it disappeared as soon as I nodded.
We walked into the building together, and a hostess greeted us. Every single table in the place was filled. Waiters were carrying trays of drinks and pizza and joking around with customers. The restaurant had an energy about it that made me relax. I hadn’t known what to expect with Grant, but I was kind of glad he hadn’t taken me anywhere fancy. That was what I typically went for, but that didn’t seem like Grant to me.
“Great. Thanks,” Grant said to the hostess.
“This way,” she said.
We followed her through the crowd, out a set of double doors, and onto a balcony overlooking the ocean. Exactly one table was unoccupied, and it had to be the best seat in the place. How are we so lucky?
I sat across from Grant and waited for the hostess to leave before speaking. “This is…really nice. How did you find this place?”
“I used to come here a lot when I was younger.”
“Oh, really? Are you from the area?” I asked, leaning forward. For the first time, I realized that I knew next to nothing about the man in front of me.
“Moved here from Knoxville when I was ten, and I’ve been here ever since.” He looked a little sheepish before admitting, “This was actually my first job. I worked here through most of high school.”
I’d never pictured him working, which was out of the ballpark of normalcy for me. What do you do?—that had been the only question that really mattered in my parents’ circle of friends.
“I bet you brought all the girls here,” I said lightly. Yes, bringing up other girls is smart on the first date.
“Uh…no, not really.”
“No?”
“I didn’t have to take girls out. I guess this would be the first time.”
I gaped at him.
“So, how am I doing?” Grant asked, spreading his arms wide.
The first time? Like, his first date ever?
No. No way. That can’t be right.
Surely, someone like Grant had had tons of girls flocking for his attention in high school. He’d had to date someone…sometime.
Right?
The longer I stared at him with that smirk on his face, the more I saw the layer underneath. He was…nervous. Grant McDermott was nervous to be on a date with me.
“You’re doing great,” I reassured him. I couldn’t believe it, but so far, this was better than the dates I’d gone on with guys from Princeton.
“Grant!” an older man said as he walked up to our table. “So good to see you home again and with such a beautiful date.”
“It’s good to be back, Randy. This is my friend Aribel.”
“It is a true pleasure, Aribel.” The man took my hand in his, large and strong from use. He had kind eyes and a welcoming smile.
“Randy’s the owner,” Grant filled in for me.
“Oh, well, I love your restaurant.”
“Bah! You haven’t even tasted the food!” He glanced at Grant and laughed. “I like her.”
Grant seemed completely comfortable when his eyes shifted from Randy’s back to mine. “I like her, too.”
My cheeks heated, and I looked away from him. I couldn’t figure out how Grant made my stomach flip the way it did. I’d always been so logical, practical…and he threw those qualities out the window with only a smile.
“We’ll have the special and some water. Unless you want something else?” he asked me hesitantly.
“That sounds fine.”
Randy picked up the unopened menus from the table. “Don’t be a stranger, Grant,” he said before leaving.
“You’ve been incredibly accommodating tonight,” Grant said. “I keep waiting for a snarky comment.”
I shrugged. “Well, you haven’t made any asshole sexual comments yet.”
“I could if you like.”
“Oh, yes, my dream in life is to be sexually objectified every chance I get.”
He cracked a smile. “There she is.”
“Does it ever get tiring?”
“What?” he asked, leaning in closer to me.
“The sexual objectification, the constant stream of girls. Don’t you ever just want more?”
“Babe, I’m usually getting more.”
“Ugh! Not what I meant,” I said, turning my face out to the ocean. “You’ve never been on a date before. From everything I’ve heard about you…you sleep with women and then never talk to them again.” I could feel the heat of his gaze on my face, and I forced myself to look at him. “Haven’t you ever thought there was more to a relationship than that?”
Grant stiffened at my question. There I had gone again. I couldn’t keep my mouth shut. I couldn’t keep myself from asking exactly what was on my mind. I was messing this thing up, whatever it was with Grant, before our first date had even come to a conclusion.
“To be perfectly honest, Ari, until you, I’d never given two shits about anyone that wasn’t family.”
Ari and I left Duffie’s after we finished dinner, and she started walking back toward my truck. I hadn’t driven all the way down the shore just to get pizza. We were on my first date, so I was going to go all out.
I grabbed her hand and looped it with mine. “This way,” I said, taking a side entrance to the boardwalk.
Her dark blue eyes were wide and alert as she took in the scene before her. The sun was low on the horizon and reflecting against the water for miles.
“You ever been down the shore before?”
“Yes. My roommates took me last summer. Shelby and Gabi are from Atlantic City, so they showed us around—um…me and Cheyenne, that is.”
“Where are you from?”
“Boston.”
“Never been there.”
“Oh, you’d love it. My dad is a CEO at a bank downtown, so I—”
I straightened visibly at that word. CEO. Fuck me. Who the fuck am I to take out a girl whose father runs an entire bank?
“What?” she asked, noticing my discomfort.
“Nothing,” I covered quickly.
She knew I was lying.
“Well, you’d love Boston,” she finally said.
Silence lingered between us. I felt something crawl into my chest and spread out, like it was trying to fester through my whole body. I didn’t know what the fuck was wrong with me. I liked this girl. That has to be it. I was completely out of my element. I’d fucked spoiled princesses whose parents had too much money. I hadn’t discriminated against who landed in my bed. But this…this felt fucking different.
“You
have something on your mind,” she whispered finally.
“Yeah.” I drew her into me and kissed her hard on the mouth. Maybe I could drown out my own thoughts.
Her arms wrapped around my neck, and she wound her fingers through my hair. She shivered in my arms, and I wasn’t sure if it was from our kiss or the crisp air as winter rolled in on the boardwalk, but I just kissed her harder, more desperately. I didn’t care who her father was or how much money they had or how much better than me she probably was. She was kissing me back. Whether I deserved it or not, Ari wanted this, too.
As always, Ari pulled away first. Her dark blue eyes met mine, and she giggled against my lips. Since I’d known her, she had always worn such a stern expression with a particularly prominent scowl, so her giggle made me smile.
“Something funny, Princess?” I asked, pulling back to look at her.
She shook her head. “No. I’m just surprised I’m having a good time with you.”
“Ouch,” I said, bringing a hand to my wounded heart.
“Oh, no…I didn’t mean it…” She trailed off and bit her lip. “Sorry. I have a problem with spewing the first thing that comes to mind.”
“It’s not a problem,” I told her quickly.
Actually, I liked it. She knew I was an asshole, and she had still gone on a date with me. I hadn’t given her any other option, but still…
“Well, I’m not one to sugarcoat,” Ari said.
“Me either. That’s why when I told you that I wanted you in my bed, I meant it.”
“Oh, I know you meant that.” Her cheeks turned a soft shade of pink. “But what I didn’t know was if all of this was just an excuse to get me there.”
Huh. As much as I wanted to fuck this girl, that hadn’t been in my game plan, not the way that she was thinking at least.
“And?” I finally asked. “What do you think?”
She took a few steps away from me and leaned her elbows against the railing of the boardwalk, facing out to the ocean. My body responded to the beautiful sight of her body pressed into the wooden railing and her tight little ass sticking out. She glanced over her shoulder and saw me checking her out.