He snorted.
“As long as you’re healthy—” She stopped. “You are healthy, right?”
“Of course I am.”
She blew out a breath. “Okay, good. Great, in fact.”
Griffin could only stare at her. This was the weirdest situation he’d ever been in. He’d never had a woman come to him with an offer like this one. He’d always been the pursuer, not the pursued, and frankly, he was a hell of a lot more comfortable when he was calling the shots.
Still, he thought resignedly, there was something to be said for variety, right?
Five
“You’re crazy, you know that, right?”
“What’s your point?” she asked, one corner of her mouth curving.
Griffin smiled and reached for her. “Guess I don’t have one.”
This will be good, he told himself as he plucked her wineglass from her hand and set both glasses on the step. Get her into bed and get over it. Once he’d had her, Nicole would be like every other woman he’d ever met. She’d stop taunting his every damn thought and he’d be able to sleep in peace again. Then they could both move on.
Hell, this was brilliant.
He should have come up with this idea himself, and if she hadn’t been making him so nuts lately, he might have. But, he told himself, he wouldn’t have made a move on her anyway. Not with the single-mother thing. Not to mention the fact that his cousin’s wife would kill Griffin if he hurt Nicole.
Well, hell, what was a little threat of death when compared to a completely alluring woman in a tiny bikini?
“No strings,” she whispered.
“No promises,” he agreed.
“Just a fling.”
“Absolutely.”
“I brought condoms.” She pulled a few foil packets from where she’d stashed them beneath the ties at the side of her bikini.
“Good thinking,” Griffin murmured just before he took her mouth in a kiss he’d been thinking about for days.
The first touch of her lips was electric. The sensation sizzled through him like a live wire dropped onto wet pavement. He was on fire. Every cell in his body shouted hallelujah.
He parted her lips with his tongue and she opened for him willingly, eagerly. Her tongue tangled with his, shooting fresh need through his system. He dragged her closer, pulling her onto his lap, bending her back over his arm, his mouth locked to hers. Her arms came up around his neck, her hands sliding over his warm, wet skin.
The glide of her fingers against his back was frantic, as if she couldn’t touch him enough, and Griffin felt the same. He held her tighter, closer, and still he wanted more of her. Her body was slender yet curvy in all the right places and he wanted to explore them all.
He slid one hand to cup her right breast and she arched into him. His thumb brushed across her hardened nipple and she shuddered.
“Griffin!”
“Oh, yeah,” he whispered, drawing back to look down at her. Her eyes were glazed, her mouth parted on a sigh of pleasure as his fingers continued to tug and toy with her ni**les, one after the other.
She wiggled on his lap and he hissed in reaction. He was as hard as stone and so tight he felt as if he might explode with one wrong move.
So he was going to make all of the right ones.
He took hold of her waist, drew her up and set her across him, straddling his lap. Damn near killed him, but he maintained. Her knees on the bench seat, she leaned in toward him and smiled as her br**sts brushed across his chest. “This is great. Really.”
“It’s about to get better,” he promised in a hushed tone barely audible over the roar of the jets.
“Show me.”
“Just about to,” he said and kissed her again. God, the taste of her, he thought, losing himself in the sensations pouring through him. The feel of her in his arms. Her legs pressed to his. Her breath sifting into his mouth. Griffin was nearly blind with lust. He’d never wanted any other woman so much. Never had been so dazzled by the taste of any woman that he was like a man dying for more.
And though a warning chime went off somewhere in the back of his mind, Griffin ignored it. Whatever was going on between them was a worry for some other time. All he wanted, needed now was to be inside her. To claim her body as thoroughly as he’d dreamed of doing.
He slid his hands to the sides of her bikini bottoms and tugged. Following his lead, she went up on her knees and slithered out of the fabric as he drew it down her legs. By the time she was free of them, she was nearly breathless. So was Griffin.
“Touch me.”
“Plan to,” he assured her and cupped the core of her.
She groaned, a deep, throaty sound that seemed to reach for the center of his chest and squeeze. Hunger radiated through him, and yet there was more than his own need gnawing at him. There was the need to watch her orgasm. To feel release ripple through her body. To see the flash of satisfaction gleam in her eyes.
He slid one finger inside her and smiled when she gasped again.
“That feels so good…”
“Gonna be better,” he said and dipped two fingers into her heat, pushing them high, stroking, caressing the depths of her body until she was trembling and swaying on her knees. He wrapped one arm around her back to hold her still and used his fingers to drive her wild. His touch claimed her in swift, sure strokes as his thumb caressed that one sensitive nub of flesh at her center until she clutched at his shoulders for balance. She threw her head back and her blond hair swung in a wide arc behind her as she gave herself up entirely to the feelings he was causing.
His gaze locked on her, his own body clamored for release, but he was caught up in what she was feeling. His heartbeat thundered, his mouth went dry and as he gently pushed her over the edge, he held her safely in his arms.
*
Nicole could hardly breathe and wasn’t sure if she cared or not. All she could think of was the dazzling pleasure she’d just found. It had been so long since a man had touched her, and even then, she was forced to admit, it had been nothing like this.
She looked into Griffin’s summer-blue eyes and read the passion she’d longed for. That she’d come to him to find. She still couldn’t believe she’d had the guts to lay out this proposition to him, but she was so glad she had. The fire, the heat she saw in his eyes was something she wanted now more than ever.
Her hands slid across his shoulders, slick with water, and she felt the taut muscles beneath his skin. His hair was as black as midnight and the light in his eyes shone just for her. For this one moment, anyway, Nicole was the only woman in Griffin King’s life, and that thought spiraled through her mind and body like a straight shot of warm tequila.