Three Rivers (37 page)

"I don't want to take over your life, Althea. I just want to be in it."

"Wow, look who's gotten so serious all of a sudden."

"You have that effect on me gorgeous. You turn me inside out. All I can think about is being with you. Seeing you again. Please tell me you're with me on this." He pulled her more closely to him, his arms wrapping around her waist.

"I'm still scared, Griffen," she said quietly, her eyes downcast.

He tilted her chin up and kissed her lips so softly it was barely a whisper of a touch.

"Because you haven't tried for more with anyone since Jack?"

"Not exactly. Everyone acts like it was a conscious decision to be alone. And maybe that was the way I looked at it at first, but it has always been pretty easy not to be with anyone. No one really appealed to me so there was no reason to question my decision to just be alone."

"But now?" he asked, kissing each of her cheeks and then her forehead.

Althea sighed and looked in his eyes, "You've turned everything upside down."

"Is that a bad thing?"

"It is if I get broken again."

"I told you. You're the strongest person I know," he ran his fingers through her hair, resting her head against his chest.

"Griffen, I feel like I'm barely held together as it is. There's just a mess of invisible strings and chewing gum keeping my heart in one piece. A stiff wind could knock it all apart and you...the effect you have on me...it feels like it could be a tornado."

"I refuse to believe you're broken. Yes, you're hurting. You've been hurting for a long time, and so have I, but I think maybe we can heal each other. Together."

"And that's what makes me want to give this a shot. Griffen, I don't know where this is going, but you're right, we can't just let it end. I know that. My nightmare last night, my day without you today, all of it just proves that to me even more. I think it's only fair for me to give this a shot until the end of the semester like you asked. I know you want more, but I appreciate you being willing to accept another baby step."

He grinned and picked her up, spinning her around until her legs were shooting out like a pinwheel. Setting her down with a kiss he said, "You've made me so happy, you know that? That you're willing to see this through with me for however long...thank you, gorgeous."

"Yes, but for how long will you be willing to wait for me? What if I'm never ready to move on for real?" she questioned softly, voicing her deepest concern.

He placed his hand on her chin, rubbing his thumb lightly back and forth across her bottom lip. "Please don't do that."

"What?"

"Think about what may go wrong. When the other shoe will drop."

"What should I do instead?"

"Be here. With me. Now. We'll figure the rest out. I promise. Just trust me."

He kissed her and it went from soft and sweet to hot and intense quickly. He palmed her ass and pulled her into his hardness with enough force to make her gasp at the sensation.

He leaned back, gripping her shoulders tightly, grunting out, "Fuck!"

Althea pulled back quickly, "What's wrong?"

"I wanted to take this slowly. Be sweet with you, but Christ, Althea. You were driving me crazy today. Not talking to me. Not letting me know if you wanted to give whatever this is a chance. I've never wanted all this before. And not knowing if you were just going to let me go. Shit. It's just…"

"I know."

"Yeah?"

"I thought about you all day. I was going crazy, too."

"A text message might have been nice," he chuckled. She laughed with him, suddenly feeling her shoulders relax a bit. "Come here," he said. He pulled her in closely and kissed her. It started sweetly, but as was always the case with them, passion and madness rapidly took them over.

They kept kissing as they walked across the suite to the window where they'd first made love. He pulled off her dress and she quickly tore at his shirt. Clothes were flying as they reached for each other and kissed between each garment.

Griffen suddenly held her face in his hands and controlled their kissing, saying so much to her with his mouth and tongue. He handed her a condom and she opened the packet and slid it over his length.

He pulled back, blue eyes blazing and grabbed her waist, spinning her around. He whispered in her ear, "Put your hands on the window."

She obeyed, placing her hands against the cool glass.

Griffen growled at her, "Open your eyes Althea. Watch us together. I want you to see how beautiful you look when you come with me deep inside you." She gasped as he entered her and gently smoothed away her hair so he could kiss her neck, face, and back with each thrust.

She felt him lean back from her as he ran his hand along her spine, his beautiful face reflected back at her in the glass — so intense and sexy, it aroused her even more. With each thrust, she could see her face contort with pleasure and need. His hands moved to her shoulders, using the leverage to drive more deeply into her, making her scream out. He leaned down, his hard body blanketing her smaller, softer one. One hand cupped a breast while the other reached down to stroke her throbbing clitoris.

It felt so good she thought she might shatter from the overwhelming feeling of joy that overtook her. To feel so complete with this man, after so many years of emptiness — it was almost too much.

Tears welled in her eyes but Griffen kissed them away, then licking and kissing her face, neck, and shoulders.

"Look at us, gorgeous, look at how perfect we look together," he whispered in her ear.

She forced her moist eyes open and looked at the two of them in the window's reflection as he commanded. Their joined reflection was so beautiful to her, from their faces pressed together, to their bodies joined as one, to the faintest hint of the city bustling and glowing beneath them.

He stroked her hair as she blinked her hazy lust-filled eyes. She could barely recognize the wanton woman in front of her, but seeing them as one — he was right — they did look so perfect.

The moment finally took over as tremors started deep within her core, making her fingers almost numb and just as Griffen leaned to her ear again and whispered, "Althea, you're mine, all mine," she fell into a million pieces around him.

Yet, she had no fear, because his arms were wrapped around her and as he came with her, she knew he would be there to put her back together again.

CHAPTER NINETEEN

Griffen was jarred awake by the vibrating of his cellphone on his bedside table.

He answered it quickly, sliding his arm out from underneath Althea's warm body and breathing a sigh of relief when he confirmed she was still sleeping soundly.

He whispered into the phone as he walked to the external room of the suite. "Trey, what's up?"

"Sorry to call so late, but it can't wait. Let me warn you — you're really not going to like what I have to tell you."

"Just say it," Griffen's heart rate started to pick up, alternately eager for a resolution of his investigation and terrified at what negative information Trey was about to give him.

"You know how Jack's widow told you he got a bonus?"

"Yeah."

"Right. Well, he did get a direct deposit from an account that on first glance looked like it came from
CMU
, but when I peeled away the layers I discovered the source was actually a Chinese-based account with a fictitious name."

"How'd you do that?"

"It was surprisingly easy, let's leave it at that. Griffen, it was the same fictitious name I traced to the accounts on Jack's spreadsheet."

"Shit."

"I also checked out his phone records. Home and cell were clean, but there were multiple calls from a Chinese number to his office line."

Griffen was silent as the words felt like knives to his chest. "Shit," he whispered again.

"Griffen, I know you don't want to hear it..."

"I know. It looks really bad for Jack."

"And this is real evidence now, dude. I know I'm not usually the voice of the law, but this is the military we're talking about here. Treason type shit. I think we need to report what we've found."

"I know. Christ. But what about you? Won't you get in trouble over what you did to find this stuff?"

"I covered my tracks pretty well. Not my first rodeo dude. Besides, with what's at stake here, our use of my special skills is going to be the least of their concerns. Fact is we can't wait anymore man. When we report it they're gonna look at the timing of our knowledge. I mean, it really looks like his death wasn't an accident. These Chinese purchasers may have killed him, or he could've panicked and taken matters in his own hands and..."

"
Enough! I get it.
Look, I know you're right. Just give me until the morning, okay?"

"Sure."

"Thanks."

"Goodnight man."

"Yeah, goodnight."

Griffen felt sick. He'd hoped he'd have more time to sort through everything, especially before telling Althea. It killed him to tell her and break her heart all over again, but it was better she learn about Jack's secret life and suspicious death from him rather than the Department of Defense.

He walked back into the bedroom of the suite and looked at Althea's lovely face and parted lips, illuminated by the sliver of moonlight peaking through the hotel curtains. Her massive fall of hair surrounded her and fanned out on the pillow.

She was so beautiful — and she could be his — but he knew telling her the truth meant he might lose her forever. He sat on a chair next to her, trying to memorize every inch of her soft skin, every eyelash, every soft muttering as she mumbled nonsense quietly in her sleep.

Griffen watched her chest rise and fall, only to feel his own constrict increasingly. Each breath she took felt like the ticking of a bomb counting down what may be the last remaining seconds of his only chance at love and happiness in life.

Althea slowly awakened to the feeling of Griffen's rough hand stroking her hip. She opened her eyes to see him leaning over her, tracing a circle around her three birds tattoo.

"Good morning, stud. You keep beating me to waking up," she said taking in his perfect bare torso, reaching up to place an open-mouthed kiss on his shoulder.

"Morning, gorgeous. I do like this tattoo, but I think you should get one of cherries, too. Maybe a cherry blossom."

He kissed her as he gripped her hip over the tattoo. She reveled in his now familiar masculine taste. His mouth tasted of bourbon and mint and she couldn't seem to get enough of it.

"Why cherries?" she asked when they came up for air.

"I always think you taste and smell like cherries, and you're so sweet. That and you look fucking smoking hot in red."

Althea preened at the compliment and curled closer into him. "Well, now that you're staying around and we're giving this a real shot, maybe you can go with me to get one."

His eyes looked haunted and he kissed her forehead then looking deeply into her eyes, "Maybe."

"Griffen, you are very bad at hiding when something's bothering you. What's going on?"

He smiled, but there was no happiness behind it and Althea started to get worried.

"Althea, I need to tell you something."

"Well, I'm pretty sure you aren't secretly a woman, so what is it?" she asked with a wink, masking her concern.

He smiled softly, but his face turned serious again. "I never told you but Jack emailed me the week before he died."

Althea straightened.

"Oh. Were you guys still close then?"

"We kept in touch on the phone and over email. He would also talk through my ideas on my books with me."

"Is that what the email was about?"

"No." He swallowed and Althea felt oddly anxious. "He asked to talk — said he needed my help with something. It was weird for him to ask for my help, but I was all wrapped up in
Sunrise
edits and put him off for a week. Then I was too late. He died."

It hurt her to think that Jack reached out to someone else for help instead of her, but the tears in Griffen's eyes pulled her back to the moment, so she reached up a hand and stroked his cheek. "It wasn't your fault. Is that what you think? What you wanted to tell me?"