Playing with Fire (12 page)

“Oh, yes I do,” she insisted, pushing herself upright.” I’ve waited a long time for this. I didn’t think I’d ever have it again. I hated you for so long despite the fact I never got over loving you. And now?” She gave him a slow smile. “Having your baby would be the frosting on the cake.”

She heard herself talking and wondered if she’d hit her head, but she couldn’t seem to shut her mouth. And she
did
want Griff’s baby. Last night had ignited that need stronger than ever, and she didn’t want to wait.

“And then what would you do?” he asked.

“What do you mean?” A tiny chill crept into her with a sudden blast. What did he mean? “Are you saying you wouldn’t want to marry me?” She stared up at him. “You were willing to marry Diane. Was this just sweet talk to scratch a six-year-old itch?” The words were out before she had time to think.

He tried to roll away from her, but she refused to let him.

“Don’t pull away,” she demanded. “You pushed this thing. Now you have to tell me where we’re going with it.”

Again, she couldn’t believe the words coming out of her mouth. Just because he said he loved her didn’t mean he was planning a long future with her. Did it? Everything was moving so fast. Still, being together with Griff again let her know she either needed it all or she had to push him out of her life. A life he could easily turn upside down.

Silence hung between them.

“Do you know what you’re saying?” he said at last, shaking his head. “I was selfish tonight. I saw you, I wanted you. I wanted to make you mine. But like I told you, I’m a pariah in this town, a marked man. People would talk about you all the time if we were together.”

“So, this was just about getting me into bed for one night?” She shook with anger. “That’s your unfinished business?”

“No, sugar, it’s way more than that.” His voice was low. “I never thought you’d come back. When I saw you, I…. God, Cassie. You think letting you go again would be easy? I said I love you, and that isn’t a lie. But if I love you, I have to think about what’s good for you. How would you live here, anyway? You have a job, a life to go back to. And I’m stuck here, in small town hell.”

She chose her words with care. “A job is a job. I can get one anywhere. Since the night I left here, there hasn’t been anyone else for me, Griffin. As angry and bitter as I was, when I looked at any other man, I saw your face. I was sure I’d never see you again. Then my mother died, and here I am. We just did things and said things to each other…. Do you think it would be easy for me to walk away from that, regardless of what the town busybodies do or say?”

“Let me sit up.” This time, he forced her to let him roll away and sat with his back to her. “I’m trying to do what’s right for you, Cassie. I love you, but life isn’t even the same for us.”

She moved closer, reaching for him, bereft at the loss of contact. “No, it isn’t. But that doesn’t mean it’s bad. We could make it good together. You keep saying you love me. Do you mean it?”

He looked down at her, caution in his gaze.

“Do you really love me?” she prodded.

He was mute for so long, she panicked. What was she doing, anyway? Yesterday, she’d wanted to erase him from her life. Today, she wanted his child. First, he said he loved her then he said it was a mistake. She was crazy. He was
making
her crazy. She held her breath, waiting for his answer.

It seemed forever until he spoke. “I have loved you for as long as I can remember,” he told her, his words slow and deliberate. “If I’d been someone other than who I was, I would have told you a long time ago. But what could I offer you then? What can I offer you now? Not respectability. You have to realize that.”

Now, she was the one who pushed away. Hard. “I guess I forgot to ask that question. Is that what I’m supposed to do? Ask what you can offer me?”

She raged, all the lovely indolence of sex gone in an instant.

“Just what is it you think I want, Griffin Hunter?” She clamped down on the surge of anger. “Answer me that.”

“I told you.” He uttered his words in a flat monotone. The moonlight glancing in through the window outlined the sharp angles of his face, giving it a harsh look. “I’m an outcast in this town. People tolerate me, but the men lock up the women, and the women harbor secret thoughts of shameful sex with the town exile. Not to mention the fact that Diane’s death will always hang over my head. I had no right to do this tonight. You have to want more out of life than what a relationship with me will do to you.”

“Tell me that you love me again,” she insisted.

“God, Cassie.” He drew a ragged breath. “You just don’t give up. All right, I love you.”

“You know, I was the one holding back, afraid to give myself to you again, and you came on here like gangbusters. Now, I’m ready to jump off a cliff with you, and you want to pull away. How stupid is that?”

“Cassie,” he groaned.

“I want to show you something.”

With fingers that trembled she opened the locket still hanging on the slender chain. When Griffin saw what was inside, he clenched his jaw. Emotion flashed deep and dark in his eyes.

“A long time ago, you gave me your heart and told me to take care of it for you. I’ve been doing that ever since.” She pulled him down beside her and curled up close to him. “You keep saying we have a lot to talk about. Well, we’ve talked. And I’ll bet we’ve got a lot more talking yet to do. Maybe I’ve got more to lose than you do, although I doubt it. But if I’m willing to chance it, why aren’t you? Or were you lying to me just now.”

With a moan, he pulled her into his arms and slanted his mouth hard against hers. This wasn’t just a passionate kiss, it was a searching kiss, a probing kiss, claiming her, his tongue seeking answers.

“All right, Cassie.” He lifted his lips and stared straight into her eyes. “You want the truth? Fine. I want you more than my next breath. I feel as if I’ve loved you all my life.” He raked his hand through his hair, desperation lining his face.

“Then….”

His words fell like block of concrete. “Then you’d better be prepared for a hard ride. If you’ve got the guts to do it, though, who am I to argue?”

In answer, she shoved him back on the bed, leaned over him, and took his shaft in her hand and stroked it with slow sweeps of her fingers, feeling the ridges that pebbled the velvety skin. “You’re right, we have a lot to do, so we’d better get started.”

She knelt beside him and leaned forward. When the heat of her mouth enclosed his hardening cock, he almost came off the bed. Her tongue swirled and dipped and licked, covering his hardening erection with the warm moisture of her mouth.

“Jesus, Cassie.” His hands gripped her head, his fingers weaving through her hair.

She lifted her mouth from its journey. “Am I doing it wrong?” This was something she’d read about in great detail but never had the desire to do with anyone else. “Help me, Griff. Teach me how to pleasure you.” She bent to her task again, loving the sweet, salty taste of him, the feeling of his penis growing and expanding in her mouth.

“Gently.” His hoarse words sounded like rusty steel. “Touch my balls, Cassie. Tease them with your fingers. Yesss,” he hissed, as she cupped the heavy sac and stroked it from back to front. “That’s it. Oh, God, you’re killing me.”

She swirled her tongue at the tip of his cock, stroking the drop of liquid she found there over the rest of the head, then sucking the entire erection into her mouth. She moved her hand on his balls in cadence with the rhythm of her mouth, sucking and caressing and licking, until time lost all meaning for her.

She heard Griffin’s harsh cries, felt his body thrusting against her, as she lost herself in the erotic joy of pleasuring him.

“Cassie, I’m gonna come,” he groaned, trying to lift her head away.

She responded by clamping one hand around his cock, pushing him harder into her mouth, and stroking the shaft with her tongue. The hand at his testicles felt the pre-orgasmic tightening, and then, with a harsh cry, he exploded into her mouth.

Liquid jetted down her throat, and she swallowed reflexively, still sucking and stroking until the last convulsion of his climax had left him. When she lifted her head, her mouth was wet with his semen, and she licked every drop of it from her lips.

“Cassie,” he moaned, pulling her toward him. “Oh, God, Cassie.”

He kissed her, and, against his mouth, she whispered, “Now, you belong to me, too.”

Whenever Griffin looked back on this night he thought of it as a reawakening. The first frenzy of stored passion abated, followed by long, slow exploration.
Do you like this? How does that make you feel?
Griff was experienced while it was evident Cassie was not, a fact that thrilled him. He was delighted to use his expertise to bring her to one shattering orgasm after another.

They had always made love in the dark, but now it was important they see every inch of each other. Her body was lush and ripe, her nipples still taut and darkened with passion, the inside of her thighs still slick with her juices.

In the brightness of the lamplight, he watched as she took his shaft in her hand, staring at it in wonder, caressing it, exploring the tip with her finger, the touch so gent that, even as spent as he was, he almost came in her hand.

Swearing at his near loss of control, he covered her hand with his and moved it to the side, maneuvering her to lie flat on her back. With hungry eyes, he examined every inch of her body, touching it in all the secret places, memorizing her. He ran his fingers over the hollows at her hip bones, teased at her navel, brushed his hands against her breasts now swollen and heavy with passion. With delicate strokes he laved the hard, rosy nipples, grazing them with his teeth then soothing them with his tongue.

With a gentle touch he bit the tender spot between her shoulder and her neck, nipped at the pulse pounding at the base of her throat. Not even her arms were left untouched.

Kneeling before her, he pulled her legs over his shoulders, leaving her entire vaginal area open to his assault. With gentle fingers, he parted the lips and just stared his fill at the slick, pink flesh and soft, pouty lips exposed there. He separated them more, a fraction at a time, until her entire channel was exposed to his heated gaze. He brushed back the curls clinging there, damp with the fluids of her sexual release, so no inch of her luscious skin was hidden from his sight.

“Do you like this, darlin’? Can you tell me yet what you want? Can you say the words?”

Cassie lay there moaning.

“It’s all right, sugar. I can read you, even if you don’t say the words. But, one of these nights, you will, Cassie. You’ll feel free enough to talk to me like I talk to you.”

Then, lifting her hips, he carried her to his mouth, and, in one swift stroke plundered her with his tongue. In a frenzy of feasting, he lapped every internal inch of her, scraping his tongue against the sensitive flesh, flicking the tip against her clitoris now so sensitive just the merest touch made her jerk in response. Her skin was so tender, so delicious, he thought he would never get enough of her.

The more he stroked her with his tongue, the louder the mewling sounds emanated from her throat. Only his strength kept her anchored in place as he took her higher and higher, using his tongue and his teeth to touch every nerve in her hot, secret places. He was like a man possessed, so famished for every inch of her that he couldn’t find enough ways to take her.

When a low, moaning sound escaped her, and body began the clutch of orgasm, he pressed her thighs apart with his forearms and opened her vaginal entrance with his fingers as wide as he could. While his penis twitched to slide into her, he was obsessed with watching her body convulse in passionate response to him.

His breath jerked as he watched her sweet pink flesh clench and unclench and heard her screaming his name as her climax rolled through her. His hungry gaze reveled in the sight of her hot fluid pouring from her opening and into the cleft of her buttocks.

His cock was so swollen, his body so aroused, he needed every bit of control to contain himself. He wanted to plunge himself inside her and never pull out, but he wanted more of her body first, more possession to slake his need. Griffin had been with a lot of women in his life, but compared to Cassie, everything else had been calisthenics. Cassie touched his heart, his soul, making him want to brand every inch of her as his.

Her fists were still grabbing the sheet and her body still shaking when he flipped her over and kissed the length of her spine, wet, moist kisses, punctuated with swift stabs of his tongue. He was like an addict, unable to get enough of her. No matter how much he drank of her essence, he couldn’t slake his thirst.

He nipped at her ankles and slid his mouth up the insides of her legs, delivering little feathery touches that had her squirming with desire. Every spot was an erogenous zone—her calves, the backs of her knees, the juncture of her thighs at the crease of her buttocks. She moaned as he pressed each moist imprint on her tender skin.

When he reached the base of her spine, he kneed her legs farther apart, separated the luscious globes of her buttocks, dipped his head low, and lapped the juice that, only seconds before, had seeped from her body. His hands cradled her as he pulled her up to him and his tongue sought the rosy inner flesh that had given up its secrets to him.

She bucked under his ministrations, calling his name over and over, begging, pleading, demanding his entry into her body. As his tongue licked away the last of the liquid, he stroked the cleft with his thumbs, pausing at the tight opening he had yet to penetrate just long enough to hear her cries intensify.

Barely remembering in time, he reached for another condom and rolled it on with shaking fingers. Then he pulled her to her knees, separated her folds and, with one swift stroke, thrust himself into her from behind.

The moment his cock was buried in her to the balls he stopped, unwilling to have the feeling of ecstasy end too fast. This was where he belonged, he’d always known it. He’d cherished the little spark of hope that this would happen for so long he had trouble believing this was real. Cassie. The woman who’d stolen his heart. The woman willing to step into the mess that was his life, without regrets.