She set the baby monitor on the bedside table and looked out the window into the backyard. She couldn’t see the hot tub from here, but her mind provided the image she was interested in: Griffin, sprawled in that hot water, eyes still hazy with passion, body still primed for more.
A tingling sensation opened up inside her, low and deep and achy. Nicole sighed, relishing that feeling even as she worried about it. She should have been satisfied with what had happened earlier. She’d needed an orgasm and boy howdy, had she gotten one. Well, two. That didn’t mean she’d be getting more of the same. This was supposed to be a one-night thing. A moment’s excitement. A simple release of tension. Have sex with Griffin, then go back to the way things had been.
But it felt like more than that, and she didn’t know what to do about it.
What she really needed to do was talk to her best friend about all of this.
She turned away from the window, flopped back onto the bed and stared blindly at the ceiling. “Idiot,” she muttered. “You can’t call Katie. You don’t want Katie to even know what you did with Griffin, remember? You can’t call her.”
And it was pointless to talk to Sandy again. She already knew what that friend would have to say—“Go for it!”
But she couldn’t. Could she?
Her door opened and her heart jumped. She turned her head to see Griffin, standing in the doorway. He was still wearing his bathing suit. But then, she was still draped in a towel.
“Connor okay?”
“He’s fine. Just a nightmare.” Silly to be nervous. Almost as silly as having him close his eyes when she got out of the tub. But it had been a long time since she’d done anything like this, and Nicole felt a little on edge. What was she supposed to do here? Welcome him inside? Tell him to go away? Drop her towel and ask for more of what she’d already had?
Okay, that’s the one she wanted to do.
So, deliberately, she sat up and tucked the end of the towel more firmly into the drape between her breasts. “He went right back to sleep.”
“Good.” He walked into the room, and closed the door behind him. “That’s good.” He stood there, back to the door, and watched her.
Tension sizzled in the room between them and Nicole could have sworn that every breath singed her lungs.
“I wanted to talk to you,” Griffin said, his voice a low rumble.
“Okay...about what?” Oh, God, don’t let it be something like, You’re a nice woman but, seriously, the sex wasn’t that good and you should probably think about joining a convent.
“I’m not done,” he blurted.
“What?” Heat shot through her.
He shoved one hand through his hair, then scrubbed that hand across the back of his neck. “I’m not done. With you.”
Six
Nicole’s breath came short and fast. Her gaze was locked on the man staring at her as if she were a banquet and he was coming off a long fast.
“The thing is,” he grumbled, “you came to me. You wanted one night.”
“I remember,” she said.
“Now I’m coming to you.” Griffin braced his bare feet wide apart and folded his arms over his really fabulously sculpted, broad chest. “And I want more than one night. Do you?”
Here was her chance. To stick to the plan. To relish the orgasms she’d had and let the promise of future ones slide away. Return to normal. Return to the way things had been between them and try to pretend nothing had changed.
Problem was, she didn’t want to do any of that. What she wanted was Griffin.
“Yes,” she said, swallowing hard, loving the swirl of nervous expectation that was suddenly flooding her. “I’m not done with you, either.”
He gave her a fast smile that lit up his eyes and did some pretty amazing things to her body, too. That sense of expectation was skyrocketing, and the tingling sensation at her core was practically vibrating.
“Okay then.” He walked toward her in long, slow steps. “New rules. We let this play out until we’re both finished. Or until you move back to your place.”
Funny, just yesterday, she’d been thinking how anxious she was for things to get back to normal. Now, not so much. As for the other thing, she didn’t want to think about being finished. She wanted, right now, to grab hold of Griffin and feel again what he’d made her feel just a little while ago. Now that she’d had a taste of what she could find with Griffin, she was greedy and not ashamed to admit it—at least to herself. Her body was coming back to life with a vengeance.