“So very brave,” he reiterates with a soft smile, reaching across the counter and taking my hand in his.
“I don’t feel like it was enough to pay for my mistakes,” I admit.
Griff scoffs. “Seven years in prison without your kid? You kept your country safe. You more than paid for it. I’m telling you, you need to let that go. Your family and friends have. I don’t care what you did then—I only care about the person you are today. So quit being so hard on yourself.”
I squeeze his hand, my smile a little stronger. I know he’s right. If I had a nickel for every time I heard that from one of my friends—Kynan, Dozer, Saint, Cruce, Joslyn, and Anna.
Even Aaron. My wise little boy knows the entire story, and he’s told me the same.
Let it go.
Griff lifts our hands in the air, giving a tug to lead me around the counter until I come to stand directly in front of his big body. He returned from New York four days ago, and he’s been staying with me at the Jameson apartment since then. We’ve spent our days down in R&D, brainstorming and ultimately tinkering with my USB device we’ve simply dubbed The Hijacker, since we want it to capture Bogachev’s network. We’re going to be testing it out with Kynan and Joslyn tomorrow to see if it will do what I’ve created it to.
The nights, though, have been spent in my bed.
The couch.
Even the floor.
Wherever Griff decides to take me.
My sexual reawakening has been profound. Griff has done things to me—had me do things to him—that had never even crossed my mind. The years when I should have been experimenting with my lovers were wasted behind bars where access to penises was impossible.
I’ve made up for lost time. Griff lets me touch him all I want, taste all I need. He encourages me to explore. In return, he turns me inside out with his demanding ways. Sometimes, I find myself just staring at his body when he’s asleep, memorizing the planes. I touch his skin as often as I can, noting the differences between his and mine. I’ve gotten over my early embarrassment about how much he loves his mouth between my legs. In turn, I’ve come to learn I love having his cock in my mouth.
I feel like springtime… like I’m waking up to a new dawn with endless possibilities.
“Come here,” Griff murmurs in a low rumble. One more tug brings me flush against his body. His hands go to my hips, and he looks down solemnly. “I think you’re amazing. Every bit of you. The part that was so smart you went to MIT to the part that was brazen enough to start hacking to make your way. You’re an incredible mother. And, as a lover, you’ve rocked my world like no other.”
His words thrill me. Settle me.
Just the way my skin tingles when he touches me, yet my soul feels quiet at the same time.
Griff renders me completely speechless, and his eyes sparkle with mischief because of it.
Hand squeezing my waist, he dips his head closer to mine. “We’re testing out the Hijacker tomorrow morning. Any last-minute fiddles you need to make?”
I snort at his terminology. “I think what I do is a bit more complex than fiddling, but no… it’s ready to go.”
Lips curving upward, he nods. “So that means we have the rest of the day and the evening to ourselves?”
“That we do,” I reply, my voice dropping to a husky level because I know where he’s going with this. Then I amend with a grin. “Except seeing to Brutus’ needs.”
“He’s good for several hours before he has to go out again or even eat,” Griff points out.
“Which means we could say… just get naked for the rest of the day?”
“Oh, we can totally do that,” he agrees before bringing his mouth down on mine. My hands go to his face, fingers stroking the softness of his beard. I wonder what he looks like underneath it, but not thinking I could love his face better without it. Really, with Griff… it’s all about his eyes. They’re so expressive in their green beauty I could just stare into them for hours.
Griff’s lips turn from sweetly exploring to persistently demanding. His hands work at my shirt, tugging it up and over my head, breaking the kiss for mere seconds to get it off me. My bra follows, his large hands covering my breasts. He squeezes, rubbing the pads of his thumbs over my nipples. The sensation is so exquisite I start to make all sorts of unholy sounds deep within my throat.
Before long, my jeans are unzipped and Griff’s hand is pushed into my panties. I’m drenched, his fingers filling me up. My clit pulses, and his first brush against it about brings me to my knees.