Page 10 of Between the Stars

I watch carefully as Griff approaches me, his hand against my cheek. He searches my eyes in the low lighting.

“You look flushed.”

“I’m fine.” I catch his hand and hold it, refusing to let him feel the heat in my cheeks still present. “What are you doing home?”

He steps back and I see he has a granola bar in his hand he’s been eating. I watch him chewing slowly as his eyes glide to my phone that lights up, then away. “Surgery got canceled. Patient died before we got to him.”

I gasp and reach for my phone, pretending the battery is dying. I don’t look at the message notification as I plug it in on the dresser. “Oh no.”

“Probably for the best.” Griff watches and follows me, stripping off his shirt and setting the remaining granola bar on the dresser next to my phone. “Eight-hour surgery on an eighty-year-old man. Seems like a waste.”

I stare at him. “Griff, that’s rude.”

“No, it’s reality.” Taking a grip on the edges of his pants, he yanks them down, leaving him completely naked in front of me. “The man smoked a pack a day his entire life and drank like a fish. What do you expect?”

Okay, I get why he passed away, but still, empathy is not Griff’s strong suit. “You have no heart.”

He shrugs one shoulder and then waggles his eyebrows playfully, nodding south. “I’m gonna go take a shower. Wanna join me?”

I smile, unable to resist his smirk. “Okay.”

Griff enters the bathroom and I sneak a glance at my phone while he’s distracted with setting the water temperature. My hands shake as I pick up the phone. The screen lights up with a message from Jace.

Guess I’ll have to finish myself.

An image follows.

Drawing in a deep breath, I press my finger to it to view larger. Holy shit. Jace’s hand inside his jeans and all I can see is that faint dusting of dark hair on his stomach, the veins in his forearms and that bulge he’s palming. I zoom in to get a better view and can just barely see the head of his cock pushing against his boxer briefs.

Good. Lord.

Oh my God, don’t stare.

I can’t help it!

I bet you’re wishing you could see it too.

I begin to type out a message, and then stop. I can’t do that. I can’t… tempt myself, or him. I shouldn’t have even answered his call, but I did. Fuck. I bring my hand to my lips, shocked at the coolness of my fingertips in comparison to my face. I shouldn’t be staring at another man’s dick while my fiancé is in the shower.

You’re right. You’reabsolutelyright. Stupid. I’m being incredibly stupid, and I can’t think of Jace like this anymore. That part of my life is over. Or should be. But is it? Can I really let him go?

Powering my phone down, I set it back on the charger and turn toward the bathroom. Steam rolls through the room as I step foot inside, my heart pounding in a rhythm I don’t understand. It’s not beating this wild for the one naked in the shower with me. It’s skipping beats from the one who holds my secrets in his touch.

“Took you long enough,” Griff growls, pressing me against the tile as he strokes himself between us. He towers over my frame, but I can’t bring myself to look into his eyes. I don’t want to look up and want hazel when all I see is blue. I want to get lost in the richness of gold and green that pulls me under.

Griff pulls me toward him, his mouth on my heated skin that’s craving another’s touch. He pushes me to my knees on the shower floor and I fight back a sigh. He doesn’t like to fuck in the shower. No condom in here, and Griff will not touch me without one. Regardless of me being on birth control; it’s a rule of his.

As his cock slips between my lips, he’s not the one I’m imagining. I’m thinking of fall concerts, flannel shirts gripped between white knuckles, and the back seat of an Impala.

“Come with me,”he whispered, dragging his nose up the side of my neck the second his sister was out of sight.

He touched me with calloused hands and my heart cracked under the pressure.

He took my hand and I followed. Always. He could lead me to hell and I’d still join him.

“You’re so drunk,” I teased when he tripped climbing into the back seat of the Impala, my accelerated beats of my heart louder than my words. I closed my eyes, just for a moment, trying not to think as Jason Aldean played “If I Didn’t Love You” in the background. If I didn’t love this guy… we wouldn’t be here now. Years later, after we said we wouldn’t keep ending up like this. But I guess sometimes need is stronger than will.

“You’re all I’ve thought about,” he told me, his fire-lit eyes focused on mine, cheeks flushed, burning with need. Maybe that was his answer for how drunk he was, because he’d certainly been downing the beers since he showed up. Yet, in the confines of the shadows when nobody was looking, his hands weren’t far from mine.

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