Never to Love (22 page)

“You could come over for dinner,” he said, breaking eye contact, “if you want.”

“That’s not a good idea, and you know it.”

“Why?”

“This whole thing is way too complicated, and it has nothing to do with Colton or Natalie. I mean, having a psycho ex complicates things, but that’s not what I’m talking about.”

“Then what is it?”

“This was supposed to be a one-night fuck. Then it turned into three. Then the limit was waived. Then emotions got involved—” Thomas opened his mouth to offer a rebuttal, but before he could, I raised my hand. “—I’m not talking about love or any other bullshit. You were really fucking angry with me, and that made me feel angry or hurt or something. Whatever it was, I didn’t like it.”

Thomas’s weak nod shouldn’t have made me feel like an asshole. It shouldn’t have made me feel anything at all. “I’ll text you about meeting up sometime so you can see Colton.”

“Okay,” I replied. “See you later?”

Before I could pull the door open, I felt Thomas’s body heat invading my personal space from behind. “Julianne…” he whispered.

Strong hands wrapped around my waist, guiding me as I turned to face him. My entire body quivered as I stood in place, anxious because I knew what was coming. But I had lost the ability to speak, and I couldn’t pull away. As his lips moved closer to mine, the desire to stop his advance vanished.

Julianne Fucking Griffith be damned.

Thomas

Radiating from where my lips joined with hers, warmth spread throughout my body. The foreign sensation scared the shit out of me, but I couldn’t bring myself to break the connection. Not yet. Juli and I had kissed before, but it had always been rough and primal.

This kiss was different. Thinking back to the days when I was young and naïve, when I believed in love, when I thought I loved Natalie, it had never felt like this.

Just as I began to realize I needed to pull away, I was pushed. Hard. “What the fuck was that?” Juli asked while gently ghosting two perfectly manicured fingers across her flawless lips. Her clear, pale green eyes were wide with bewilderment.

“Fuck if I know.” What I did know was that my dick was hard enough to hit one out of the park.

“We shouldn’t do this,” she said, trying to regain some sense of control.

“Why not?”

She looked at me as if considering my question, and then looked past me as if trying to find an answer other than the one she’d come up with. Returning her gaze to me, she said, “Fuck if I know.”

Reaching past her, I flipped the lock on the door and then pressed the button on the media panel built into the wall to draw all of the blinds closed.

Not wanting to miss a thing, I left the lights on and pulled Juli over to the long, wide table in the center of the room. Running my hands down her spine, I couldn’t find what I was desperately looking for. “How do I get you out of this thing?”

Pushing my hands away, she reached behind her and pulled on a zipper that began halfway down her back and ended just past the curve where the small of her back met her ass. When the dress let go of its death grip on her waist, she easily pulled it over her head.

Fuck. Her full, firm breasts had defied gravity yet again, having stayed in the perfect position all day without an assist from a bra.

With desperate hands, I fumbled with my suit jacket and shirt, grateful I hadn’t worn a tie. When I’d won the battle with my clothes, I looked up just in time to watch her shimmy out of her tiny, lace panties and pull them off over her shiny, patent stilettos.

Still fully dressed from the waist down, my pants were forgotten as I stared at her perfect body. My eyes caught on a tiny sparkle between her legs, and I nearly came hands-free.

Unable to wait another second to touch her, I grabbed two handfuls of her luscious ass and lifted her onto the table. She scooted backward until she was close to the center and settled into position, propped up on her forearms with her knees bent and legs together.

My eyes stayed locked on her as I fought with my belt. Before I had it unfastened, she slowly parted her legs, revealing her wet pussy and giving me another glimpse of the tiny diamonds.

Forgetting my pants once again, I crawled onto the sturdy table, eyes focused on the prize. When I was almost close enough to make out each of the facets, I licked the evidence of her arousal from the jewels, eliciting the sexiest moan I’d ever heard.

Never one to relinquish control, Juli shifted her weight onto her left arm, grabbed the back of my head with her right hand, and shoved my face between her legs.

All too happy to oblige, I dove in, licking and sucking and burying my tongue inside her. As she writhed in ecstasy, she alternately pushed back on my forehead and pulled me closer, trying to get the perfect amount of pressure to detonate her orgasm.

The moment I shoved two fingers inside of her, she convulsed around them, shouting my name as she pulled my hair with involuntary spasms. After letting her ride out her orgasm on my face, I pulled back, wiped my mouth with the back of my hand, and finally managed to unfasten my belt.

As usual, when it came to this woman, I couldn’t wait. Sitting back on my heels, I grabbed a condom from my wallet, shoved my pants and boxer briefs halfway down my thighs, rolled the latex down my impossibly hard dick, and then crawled a little farther up her body. As I leaned over her, she wrapped her legs around my waist, and I plunged into her with one desperate stroke.

“Fuck, you feel so good.” Thrusting as if I were going for gold in the Sex Olympics, I fought to keep from blowing my load too soon. “Why do you feel so fucking good? How is it possible?”

Her reply was a groan and ten sharp fingernails digging into my ass as she did everything she could to get me to fuck her harder.

Just a little bit longer
, I prayed, desperately wanting to come but never wanting the feeling of her tight pussy wrapped around my cock to end. Having plans of their own, as I slammed into her, my balls pulled up tight against my body, readying themselves for imminent release.

Rolling her hips, Juli ground her clit against me, setting off another nuclear climax. This time, she dragged me into the explosion along with her.

“What the fuck was that?” Juli breathlessly repeated her earlier question.

“Fuck if I know.” My knees ached as I rolled to lie beside her on the unforgiving surface. After tying off the condom, I adjusted my pants and shoved it in the pocket.

“So, you’re not mad at me?”

“I was going to ask you the same question.”

“Call it even?”

“Works for me,” I said as my phone buzzed. I glanced at the screen in case it was Colton’s school and ignored it when I saw it was Finn.

“What do we do now?” Juli asked as I tossed the phone beside me on the table.

“Nap?” I suggested.

“I wish,” she said as my phone buzzed again. “Do you need to get that?”

“Nah. Finn needs to learn patience.”

“You must have the two of you confused. Finn is one of the calmest people I’ve ever met. He has to be to put up with you.”

“He sure has you snowed.”

“Maybe being around you has made everyone seem more laid back to me.”

Buzzing again, my phone proved her impression of Finn wrong.

“For the love of God, will you just—”

I rolled on top of Juli’s naked body when the glass wall between where we lay and my office suddenly cleared. Looking over, I found Finn on the other side, gesturing with the phone in his hand.

“Hey, Finn,” Juli said having snatched my phone and answered. “Let me put you on speaker.”

“Dude,” my brother said, glaring at me through the window. “There’s a meeting scheduled in there in eight minutes. People were gathering outside. Did you not hear them jiggling the handle?”

“We’ve been a little busy.”

“No shit. I herded everyone into my office, but you need to get out of there. Now.” Finn ended the call and walked away. A moment later, the window was opaque once again.

“Shit.” I moved off of Juli to let her up and then righted my clothes.

“There’s a wet spot,” she stage-whispered, nodding toward the table. As she zipped her dress, she added, “And it smells like sex in here.”

“Can’t imagine why.” With my shirt back in place, I pushed the button to open the blinds. Unfortunately, the windows were made with solid panes of glass and couldn’t be opened.

Darting to the corner of the room, I opened one of the doors beneath the counter we used as a buffet when we served food. After a particularly messy meeting involving Buffalo wings, we stashed some all-purpose cleaner and paper towels in the cabinet.

“How the hell do you know where the cleaning supplies are kept?” Juli asked as I sprinted back toward the scene of the crime.

“I’ve seen Finn clean up before.” Usually after I made a mess.

Once the table was free of all bodily fluids, I wrapped the condom in the used paper towel and threw the wadded up mess in the trash. By the time I returned the cleaning supplies to the cabinet, Juli was completely put together. From looking at her, you’d have thought we’d been in here discussing revenue projections instead of fucking like the world was about to end.

I discreetly unlocked the door and pulled it open, picking up in the middle of an imaginary conversation as we walked out. “Do you think that will work?”

Juli glared at my vague question. Unless she wanted our post-meeting activities to become blatantly obvious, it was up to her to come up with a slightly more detailed response.

“No, I don’t think so. Your personal contribution is much, much smaller than Brady’s. He should have first right of refusal.”

Through narrow eyes, I watched her lips twitch in poorly contained amusement. She knew she’d kicked me in a sore spot—a couple of sore spots—but as her tongue darted across her cherry lips, my irritation was quickly shoved away by lust.

*

Later that afternoon, I headed to the courthouse for a hearing. The path to family court was committed to my muscle memory, but I had to look at the building directory to find my way to criminal court.

The State of California was the plaintiff this time. My attorney, Scott, and I weren’t required to attend the pre-trial hearing, but there was no way in hell I’d miss it.

After missing Natalie’s arraignment and subsequently discovering she had been released on bail, I vowed never to miss another court date. Of course the bitch had pleaded not guilty. She was as guilty as fucking sin, and she wouldn’t get away with it. I wouldn’t let that happen.

The only good thing that came out of the arraignment was the extra-strength restraining order the judge had granted, forbidding Natalie to come within a thousand feet of Colton or attempt to contact either of us except through my attorney. I knew a restraining order was only a piece of paper, but so far it had done its job.

From my seat in the front row of the gallery, I watched as the judge called the room to order and reviewed the documents handed to him by the bailiff. The DA had told me Natalie’s legal team filed a motion to dismiss the charges, but assured me that happened in almost every case and would most likely be denied within minutes.

“Your Honor, I request all charges against my client be dropped on the grounds of illegal evidence.”

“Counselor, I’ve reviewed the evidence in this case and everything appears to be in order. The detectives in charge of the investigation obtained proper warrants, as well as signed releases from the child’s biological father.”

“We would like to argue that the evidence was created illegally, not obtained illegally.”

“Continue,” the curious judge said.

Scott leaned over and whispered, “That’s a load of shit. The judge is probably only listening to have a good story to tell his golf buddies.”

“Aside from the medical records created the night of the twenty-fourth, all evidence against my client is circumstantial. The medical exam and subsequent lab work were performed without parental consent.”

“Your Honor,” the Assistant District Attorney interrupted. “Copies of the Consent for Treatment form signed by Thomas Ramsay have been entered into evidence.”

“The electronic consent form signed by Mr. Ramsay is time stamped eighty-three minutes after my client’s son was checked in. I also have witnesses who will testify Mr. Ramsay was not present until after the physical examination began. Given a twisted ankle isn’t covered under extenuating circumstances, all evidence related to the hospital visit or obtained with warrants granted due to that visit is inadmissible.”

“That is the thinnest argument I have ever heard.”

“I also have witnesses who will testify Ms. Julianne Griffith, who has no legal relationship to my client’s son whatsoever, gave verbal consent for the examination. We request Ms. Griffith be charged with custodial interference immediately.”

If my attorney hadn’t physically restrained me, they would’ve been filing assault charges against me. Desperate to do something, I whispered to Scott, “What if I tell them I gave her permission to take Colton to the hospital?”

“Based on what you’ve told me, you made it clear to everyone within earshot that she did not have your permission. You’d be charged with perjury before you finished telling the lie.”