Hours later, I get back into the building without any trouble from Frederick—who, I notice, stays as far away from me as possible. I smirk a little bit at that then dismiss it as unimportant and swing through the doors. I got the exact shots I needed, and I’m ready to get everything uploaded and stored before I start packing for the trip home.
The plan: upload these photos to my laptop for safe keeping, and then to the Cloud as well, pack my stuff, say goodbye to the beautiful apartment, and chill. Tomorrow, I meet Sage for a quick coffee before heading to the airport.
I’m mentally going through the things I need to pack—and where they might be in the apartment—when I step onto the elevator…and find Griff waiting for me. With a bouquet of sunflowers. Seriously, how freaking romantic is that?
“I thought I might find you here,” he says, holding the flowers out to me.
I give him some serious side eye. “What have you been doing, riding the elevator all day just to try to catch me in it?”
I do take the flowers, though. Because sunflowers.
He shrugs. “I mean, you do what you have to do when you’re trying to accomplish a romantic gesture.”
At that, I relax a little bit. Because romantic gesture. I bet you’re wondering why am I even entertaining this whole situation?
Here’s the thing, Griff has apologized over and over. I know he’s sincere and that’s enough to help me move forward. Don’t get me wrong, forgiving him isn’t meant to erase what happened; I’ve simply decided to let go of the resentment and find peace.
Still, that doesn’t mean I’m going to let him get off easy.
“And why would you want to accomplish a romantic gesture, exactly?” I stab the button for my floor, but Griff hits the ‘freeze’ button, stopping us from making any progress.
“Look.” He steps toward me, backing me up against the wall of the elevator and sliding his hands down to my waist. His chest brushes mine. My nipples—hard—rub against him. “It took all my strength not to ask you to come to my place yesterday,” he says in that sexy voice of his.
“Oh.”
“I stayed up thinking about us all night.” His head bends low, gaze focusing on my mouth. “To be honest, I’ve been thinking about us since that night in Las Vegas. You’ve never left my mind. Never. Not even when I have a million other things to think about.”
“I wish I could say the same.” A complete lie of course, and by the smirk on his face, I have a feeling he’s not buying it either.
“I know I screwed up,” he says. “I know I’ve been screwing up ever since. And then you got here and surprised me, and I realized something.”
I swallow and reply, “What’s that?”
“Every piece of me aches for you.” He leans in and kisses me, deep and passionate. His hands slide down to my ass and pull me up against him so I can feel how hard he already is. All the fight in me dissipates. I groan and push harder against him, rocking my hips in appreciation of what I can feel, my free hand tangling in his hair to pull him closer to me.
God, I want this man. My body is singing for him, my skin burning up with need.
But that doesn’t mean I can have him. Because remember what I said about us not living in the same state. Yeah, the complication of a long-distance relationship with Griff hits me full force, so I break the kiss and look up at him. “I live in North Carolina.”
“Well aware of that.” He kisses me again, this time he catches my bottom lip between his teeth and tugs. “I’d like to make a suggestion.” He leans back and meets my gaze. “Want to hear it?”
I can feel myself grappling with all of this, struggling desperately to keep my cool, but he just added fuel to the embers that never fully went out, and now there’s a fire blazing inside me. If this were any other guy, any other fling, I would be saying something brazen, maybe even cracking a joke, but instead, I can only stare into his big green eyes and ask, “Are we negotiating?”
“Date me.”
“What?” The question is barely a squeak.
“You and me.” He peppers kisses along my neck. “Let’s give us a try.”
“But—”
“I know you’re always on the road.” His lips find mine again, sending a shockwave over my entire body. The moan I’ve been stifling escapes. He grasps the back of my neck, angling my head for a better fit. His thumb brushes along my jaw right before he nips at the bottom of my lips. Then he breaks the connection, a cocky grin on his face. “I figure if you want a steady person in your life, I can be that guy. What do you think?”
Oh, sweet lord. All the air has whooshed out of my lungs. It takes all my willpower to put a finger to my lips in a thinker’s pose and look up at the ceiling. “So basically, you want me to give you my free time when I’m in the city. Maybe even call you my boyfriend?”
“Not just when you’re in New York, I want us together even when we’re miles away and if you want to label us…yeah.”
Right, so it goes against everything I just said about us not living in the same city and having no future. It definitely wouldn’t be a settled-down relationship. But based on the electricity racing between us right now, I have to say that it would at least be real.
And my heart rises into my throat, the tears gather in the corners of my eyes. Those things tell me exactly what I want to say. Regardless of my earlier opinions.
“Yes,” I whisper, leaning forward. “Let’s try this thing called a relationship.”
Chapter 14
#IWantYourHandsOnMe
When we get off the elevator, he’s actually carrying me.
Yeah, you heard that right. He’s carrying me just like a bride, kissing me, and that sticks all the way from the elevator to the door of his penthouse. He manages to slip the key into the lock and turn while still holding me and kissing me, and I’m filled with something that feels like a cross between butterflies and lightning bolts at the thought of dating this man.
Holy cow, the man can kiss. I eagerly meet his hunger with a voraciousness of my own. Somewhere deep inside me, the desire that’s been locked away in a safe ever since I met this man is finally bursting through. And this time, I don’t fight it. Neither does he.
He carries me through the doorway, slams the door shut with one foot, and walks right into the bedroom. I mean I’m not surprised. We just made it official, and I have a flight first thing tomorrow. The bedroom is the obvious place for us to end up.
Still, a jolt of nervous energy runs through me. Griff and I are dating…boyfriend and girlfriend. Yep. You got it. We even stamped a title on us to make it official. And that somehow changes things in a way I never realized it could. It somehow makes us even more significant. More exciting.
When he slowly lowers me onto the bed, I allow myself to do what I’ve wanted to ever since I first clocked him at the Bellagio pool. I thread my fingers through his hair and say half joking, half sultry, “Well, now you have me. What are you going to do with me?”
He gives me a half-grin, acknowledging the semi-joke in my tone. “Let’s find out.”