Fire & Ice (The Locklaine Boys #1) (15 page)

As I washed my hands, I caught sight of my reflection in the mirror. My green eyes were bright and glazed from the effects of the wine. My pale cheeks were flushed pink. Leaning in, I studied my reflection as best as my blurry gaze would allow. Griffin had seen me at my worst growing up. There was no doubt that those precarious years between child and teenager hadn’t been kind, but I’d grown out of my awkward phase long ago. It wasn’t conceit that made me think of myself as a pretty woman. I wasn’t full of myself; I just wasn’t blind. I knew what people—men in particular—saw when they looked at me.

But as I studied my features in the mirror, I couldn’t help but wonder what Griffin saw when he looked at me. Did he remember the bony, lanky twelve-year old, or the fourteen-year old with pimples and braces? Was he able to forget the past and see me as I was now? These were thoughts I had no business thinking with mostly cabernet running through my blood stream.

“Christ, Pepper,” I scolded myself. “No more wine for you.”

Brushing off my suddenly morose disposition, I flipped the lock on the door handle and pulled it open, only to slam into a moving brick wall that forced me backward.

“The hell?” I sputtered as I stumbled, my back hitting the bathroom wall.

“Shh,” Griffin hissed as he shut the door behind him and turned the lock.

“What are you doing?” I whispered as he closed in on me. The already small room seemed to close in further as his large body filled the space. His intoxicating scent thickened the air around us, muddling my alcohol-addled brain even more.

“Time’s up,” he answered vaguely.

“Huh?”

His face came in close, his lips brushing against mine as he spoke. “I gave you your time to think, now that time’s up.”

“That’s not how it works, Griffin!” I barely got the sentence out when his hand came up and covered my mouth.

“Lower your damn voice.” I stared daggers. “If I remove my hand will you be quiet?” he asked seconds later. I gave the question some serious thought before finally nodding my head in agreement. “Good.”

I was fully prepared to lay into him the instant his hand pulled away, but to my startled surprise, the moment it disappeared he replaced it with his lips. It was no soft exploration of one another. It was a heated, feral battle from the start. Whether I gave or not, he took. His tongue forced its way past my lips, tangling with my own, and there was no holding back the moan that slipped from my throat as the taste of mint mixed with hops exploded on my tongue.

My body began to move of its own accord, rubbing and grinding against the thick ridge of Griffin’s erection trapped behind his jeans. “Oh, God,” I whimpered into his mouth, the need in my body building so hot I feared I’d melt from the inside. “I hate you so much, but I want you so bad.”

Griffin’s mouth disengaged from mine so his lips could trail down my neck, licking and biting as they went. His voice was rough and gravelly with lust as he asked, “On a scale from one to ten, how drunk are you?”

My mouth opened and words poured out before I gave them any thought. “Drunk enough to
willingly
give you the best blowjob you’ll ever have, but not drunk enough to let you anywhere near the back door.”

“Jesus Christ,” he groaned, his forehead hitting my shoulder as his calloused palms slid to my ass and squeezed tightly. “We need to go.
Now
.”

“’Kay,” I mumbled as I wrapped my fingers in his dark hair and tried to guide his face back to mine. No way in hell was I going to argue when he was the only thing standing between me and one killer orgasm. Our conversation from earlier in the day could happen
after
I came. Preferably twice.

I actually whined when he wrapped his hands around my wrists and pulled them away from his head just before stepping back. “As much as I like seeing you pout when I stop kissing you, I need you to focus, baby.” It wasn’t until he spoke that I realized my bottom lip was jutting out in an immature frown. Pasting a neutral expression on my face, I met his gaze, only then noticing how his chilly blue eyes sparked with desire. “I’m gonna check and make sure the hall’s clear. Then you head out and say your goodbyes. I’ll be right behind you. Last I saw, Dex was in the dining room trying to talk Wendy into going to bed.”

I couldn’t be sure if it was the wine or the hormones, but my body immediately complied. Once he gave me the all clear, I headed down the hall and back into the dining room on legs that were even shakier than when I left it minutes ago. As soon as I turned the corner, I saw my brother still hard at work, trying to get his sloshed wife up to bed. “But I’m not tired,” she protested, her body flopping around in his arms like a lifeless ragdoll. When Wendy went in for a sloppy kiss and declared, “I want you to put another baby in me,” I knew it was time to go.

“Uh… guys?” I spoke, drawing their attention to me. “I think I’m gonna call it a night.”

“Boooo!” Wendy belted out. “I was having fun.”

Dex, ever the easygoing husband, simply swung his wife’s arm over his shoulders and hoisted her against his side as best as possible. “Okay, sis. You all right to get home?”

I felt his heat at my back and before I could answer, Griffin was talking for me. “I’ll make sure she gets there safe, man. It’s late. You take care of that one,” he pointed to Wendy. “I’ll get this one.” When he pointed at me I wanted to snap his finger for talking about me and Wendy like we were inanimate objects.

But then I remembered. Drunk sex. So I let it go.

“Thanks, brother,” Dex offered as he guided Wendy out of the dining room and toward the stairs. “I’ll catch up with you guys later.”

I moved their way and gave them each a kiss on the cheek before allowing Griffin to lead me out onto the pouch of their brownstone. Just before the front door closed, I heard Wendy ask Dex, “Chis Hemsworth, Chris Evans, Charlie Hunnam. Who’d you fuck, marry, and kill?”

I’d forgotten how much fun my sister-in-law was.

THE NIGHT MOST DEFINITELY
hadn’t gone like I’d planned. Trying to keep my dick under control when visions of the world’s best blowjob danced in my head like fucking sugarplums was nearly impossible.

We’d been in the back of a cab for all of five seconds, on the way to my place—I wasn’t going back to hers as long as that stun gun was there—when she’d passed out cold. I’m talking full-on snoring likes she’s choking to death, drooling on my shirtsleeve, out cold. I’m pretty sure I even heard her mumble ‘
You’re one sexy bitch, Michelle Obama.
’

By the time the cab pulled up to my house, I knew there was no way in hell she’d be waking up any time soon. After paying the driver and carrying her into my place and up the stairs, I deposited her in the middle of my bed. She let out a snort but never woke as I pulled off her heels. Christ, that woman’s heels always made me hard. Once I had her jeans off—strictly for comfort purposes only—I maneuvered her around to get the covers pulled up around her.

Then I took an ice cold shower, praying the frigid water would soften my raging hard-on. By the time I climbed out my entire body was an icicle. I pulled on a pair of underwear and crawled into the bed next to Pepper’s sleeping body, pulling her warm softness against me. The feel of her snuggling closer into me should have lessened the tension holding my body rigid, but memories of our earlier argument assaulted me. As I lay in that bed with her body heat seeping into my skin like the softest blanket you could imagine, I replayed that night from four years ago in my mind.

Past

HOLY SHIT.

She was a fucking virgin.

I’d just had the best sex of my life with a fucking virgin. And my best friend and partner’s little sister. I was going straight to Hell. But hot damn, was it worth it.

Pepper let out the sexiest little moan in her sleep as she rolled into me. Her delicate arm slipping around my waist had my dick standing at attention. But it would have to wait. I’d already put her delicious body through more than she could handle for one night. I’d have to give her a few days to recoup before going back for more. And there would
definitely
be more. I didn’t know where this was going to go, or what I even wanted to happen; I’d never been a man who was a fan of committed relationships. But I knew I needed more of her.

So much more.

Wrapping my arm tighter around Pepper, I closed my eyes, hoping to get a few more hours of sleep when my cellphone started to ring. “Son of a bitch,” I whispered as I gently moved Pepper’s sleeping frame so I could slide out of the bed. I snatched my jeans from the bedroom floor and pulled the phone out of my back pocket with a mumbled, “
Shit
,” at the sight of Dex’s name on the screen.

“What’s up?” I asked as I stepped from the bedroom and closed the door so I wouldn’t disturb her.

“We got a call, brother,” Dex answered in a no nonsense voice. “I’m already on my way there. I’ll text you the address.”

“All right, man. Meet you there.”

I hung up the phone and went back to the room to get dressed, making sure to be as quiet as possible so as not to wake Pepper. She had a big day ahead of her with the store opening, and I’d already kept her up long enough. She needed her sleep.

I spotted a crumpled napkin on the counter and quickly scrawled a note for her when she woke up so she wouldn’t think I’d bailed on her.

My phone pinged with a text from Dex containing the address just as I stepped out and closed the door of Pepper’s apartment. It took about fifteen minutes to get to the scene and when the cab pulled up Dex was standing there waiting for me.

“Where’s your car, dude?”

“Had a flat,” I lied. I knew I had to tell Dex about me and Pepper, but it was something I needed to finesse. I couldn’t just open with, “I don’t have it because I spent the night at your sister’s apartment. Oh, and by the way, we’re fucking, hope you’re cool with it.” No, I needed to ease him into the thought.

“All right, I’ll give you a ride when we’re finished here.”

“Thanks man.”

As we made our way to the rundown apartment complex where a known drug dealer had taken a bullet in the back, Dex struck up a conversation.

“So, how long did you stick around the party last night?”

“Oh, uh…” I stumbled, taken off guard by his question. My best bet was to tell the truth. One thing I’d learned on the job was that too many lies had a tendency to trip a person up. “I hung around to the end so I could help Pepper clean up. The place was kind of a mess once everyone left.”

“Thanks for looking out for her, Griff. I appreciate it.”

“No problem,” I answered, thinking that was my opening…until he spoke up again.

“I’m so damn proud of her for everything she’s done with that store. She’s been busting her ass for years to get that shit off the ground. Feel like an asshole for even thinking it, but there were times I doubted it would happen. She’s just so young, you know?”

I gave him a nod as we hit the staircase. “Yeah, I can see that. But Pepper’s always been stubborn. If anyone was gonna pull that off, it’d been her.”

“True,” he laughed. “That girl’s always been hard-headed. That’s probably why I worry about her so damn much.”