Once she’d bumped into the wall, he pressed close, running his hands down her back to settle on her hips. She arched closer to him, the sweet sound she made now sounding less oh-please and more oh-yes.
Stupidly, he was urged on, knowing that he had done something to satisfy her. He ran one hand lower, cupping her ass and bringing her up against him more fully. Now her moan was purely more-of-that.
He kissed along her jaw to the sweet spot behind her ear. Damn, he didn’t know what they put in this perfume, but he wanted to smell it all over his pillows and sheets. Hell, he wanted to smell it all over his skin. But only if it was transferred from her skin to his.
Her fingers dug into his shoulder blades as she tipped her head back. She arched closer to his mouth and the hard length of his erection behind his fly. He slid his hand from her ass to her upper thigh and lifted her leg. Her skirt was loose enough that the material fell away from her thighs, hanging behind her. The back of the skirt was longer than the front, and the hem now brushed the barn floor. And there was now a lot of enticing bare skin. The position also allowed him to settle between her thighs against the soft spot where he instinctively needed to be.
“Griffin,” she gasped.
His name, said like that, from this woman, was exactly what he needed without even knowing he’d needed anything.
All of this was crazy. The way he was feeling, the way he was thinking about this woman, his stupid, irrational, emotional reactions to her.
But she wasn’t from here, she was leaving, and she was going to be far away and untouchable. And she knew the score. That was key. She didn’t want his last name any more than he wanted hers. All of that made this safe, and the emotions he’d been holding back for all these months now seemed to have an outlet. A sweet-smelling, soft, silky, sassy-flirty-funny-charming blond outlet.
Now that the lid was off, it seemed he had feelings and desires spilling out all over the place.
But he wasn’t going to have to clean this mess up. It wasn’t even going to be a mess.
“More. More, please,” she pleaded in a breathless voice.
This woman was the best thing to happen to him in months.
And he wanted to say thanks.
He pressed his hard cock against the V of her thighs. She gave a happy sigh. He smiled. God, there was something about being with someone who let you know exactly how they felt and that you were the one making them feel it. Especially when the feelings were good.
He had people and situations where he hadn’t minded making people feel pretty damn bad too. Sorry. Full of shame. Regretful. Even angry. He didn’t care. Sometimes people deserved to feel those things too.
But this woman, tonight? She deserved to feel very, very good. Because yeah, she was making him feel better than he had in a long time. Now that he’d let the thought in, let the emotions flow, there was no denying it.
He stroked his open palm along the back of her thigh as he kissed his way down her neck to her collarbone. Her hands moved up to the back of his head, her fingers spreading through his hair.
“Thank you for wearing a strapless dress,” he said against her skin.
Her fingers curled into his scalp. “I would’ve gladly unzipped anything for you.”
He gave a huff of laughter but continued kissing across her collarbone to the base of her throat. He gave her skin a little lick and suck and then kissed down to the top edge of the bodice of the dress.
“In fact…” She reached behind her, and he heard the faint rasp of a zipper. The material at his chin loosened, and he realized she’d unzipped the top of her dress.
He lifted his head to look into her eyes. She met his gaze directly.
“You sure about this?”
“What did I tell you about me being okay? I will let you know if my status changes.”
“I just want you to know that with the taste I’ve already gotten, I’m about this close to already being addicted to you.”
Heat flared in her eyes, even as a smile teased her lips. “Then let’s keep going. I’d really like to get you all the way to addicted.”
Griffin felt the corner of his mouth twitch. He wanted her more than he’d wanted anyone he could remember in a very long time, but he also felt the constant urge to smile in the time he’d spent with her, and dammit, if he didn’t still have the urge to hug her.
Just then, he felt a familiar, hard bump against his leg.
He looked down. Sugar looked up at him and gave a short, loud bleat.
She was feeling neglected.
Dammit.
“Go away,” he told the goat.
She head-butted his leg again.
He nudged her with his knee. “Go find Spice and Stan.” He glanced at Mike, the duck, who was never far from Sugar. “Do something.”
Mike was very unhelpful most of the time. But he loved Sugar and followed her around like a puppy. While she followed Griffin around like a puppy. It was ridiculous. And annoying a lot of the time.
“Hey, Sugar,” Charlotte said. “You can have him back in about an hour, okay?”
Griffin looked at her. “An hour, huh?”
“Approximately,” she told him with a sexy smile.
He suddenly wanted a lot more than an hour.
Dammit.
“Hey!” Charlotte suddenly exclaimed, looking down.
Sugar had now head-butted her. But harder than she did Griffin. With Griffin, it was for attention. It now seemed she was actually getting aggressive with Charlotte.
The goat bleated at her and then grabbed a mouthful of Charlotte’s dress.
“Hey!” Charlotte said again, grabbing the skirt of her dress and trying to tug it away.
“Enough,” Griffin said. The dress was going to get torn, or Sugar was going to take another bite and get some skin this time.
He leaned over and grabbed the goat. He turned and set her away from them and gave her a little push. “Get lost.”
Then he turned back to Charlotte, took her by the waist, and picked her up as well, carrying her to the nearest empty stall. The floor was covered with hay, and there was less light in here, but there were no animals in it at the moment, and the door would shut, keeping any more curious—or jealous—creatures out.
He set her down, pulled the door shut, and latched it.
Sugar trotted over and stuck her head between the slats. She gave them a pissed-off, “Maaaaa!”
“Ignore her. She’ll go away,” he told Charlotte, who was holding the top of her dress against her breasts to keep it from falling down.
He really wanted it to fall down.
“A lady should never tolerate being ignored,” Charlotte said. “She should dump you.”
“I agree.”
She nodded and glanced at the goat. “Also, she should not watch her crush get it on with someone else. Have some self-respect, Sugar.”
Griffin felt himself snort softly. “Get it on?”
“I didn’t know if I should use bad words in front of her. How old is she?”
“Six.”
“Yeah, I definitely shouldn’t say ‘fuck’ in front of her.”
But she should absolutely say it in front of him. To him. As in begging him for it.
He reached for the blanket that was draped over the short wall that separated the stall from the next one. He draped it over the door, letting it hang to the floor on the inside—where Sugar couldn’t grab it with her teeth and yank it down.