Page 10 of Beyond The Break

Why couldn’t he be ugly? It would be so much easier to not like him if I wasn’t so damn attracted to the asshole. I can’t stop my eyes from trailing down his wide back and latching onto his veiny arms, flexing as he places my suitcase on the floor at the top of the stairs. He turns to look at me and catches me staring, a smug smile spreading across his face.

I clear my throat and glance around the open concept layout, pretending to admire the coastal decor and the walls littered with team photos and plaques. I refuse to give him the ego boost of watching me check him out.

Prick.

“This is your room,” he says, opening a door parallel to the staircase before he walks in.

I follow him inside and watch as he drops my duffel bag at the foot of my bed and wheels my suitcase to the edge.

“I don’t think I caught your name,” I cross my arms over my chest.

“Griffin,” he answers, sliding his hands into the pockets of his sweatpants and looking around the room curiously as if it’s his first time ever seeing it.

My face pales as I realize he’s the same person Zalea warned me about. And for good reason it seems because so far it has not been a great experience meeting him.

“Griffin, where’s Gabriel?”

“We call him Coach Matthews in this house,” he corrects, turning his back to me as he walks around the room, studying every detail before looking out the window towards the ocean. “He only lets certain people call him Gabriel.”

“Where is he?” I repeat, my patience dwindling.

“With the rest of the team.”

“Where would that be?”

“At Kitso beach,” he turns to look at me and sighs when he sees me raise my brow. “About an hour away from here.”

“When will they be back?”

“Late. Any more questions?”

I swallow nothing as Griffin’s gaze lingers on me and I lick my drying lips. His eyes track my tongue’s movement with an intensity that causes a warmth to grow in my lower stomach. When I don’t answer he approaches me slowly, hands still in his pockets. His eyes never leaving mine until he comes to a stop in front of me, our chests almost touching.

“Are you worried about being alone with me, sunshine?”

“Don’t call me that.” I frown at him, but I sound more breathless than I intend to, his nearness clouding my senses.

“I think I will,” Griffin’s eyes trail down my body before making their way back up and pausing on my lips, his gaze darkening. “Sunshine.”

He blinks away the lust from his eyes, and brushes past me as he walks out of my room and into the hallway. I turn around and lean my head out of my room to watch him walk over to the door next to mine.

He enters the room without a second glance my way and slams the door shut behind him without a word. I roll my eyes and retreat into my new room, resting my back against the door after I close it, and forcing myself to take deep breaths to calm my nerves.

How could someone that attractive be so damn annoying?

Images of his toned arms and perfect abs invade my mind and I groan as I walk over to the bed, picking up a pillow and pressing it against my face. I’m too sexually deprived to be around a man that looks like that. As annoying and rude as he’s been, I can’t deny the sexual tension bouncing between us and the thought causes another frustrated groan to bubble out of me, the pillow doing its job to muffle the sound.

Maybe moving into the house with the team was a bad idea; especially with Griffin being here. I already feel slightly out of control, and I haven’t even started my first official day on the job yet. How am I going to manage taking pictures and videos for the social pages of him shirtless and wet. My cheeks turn a crimson shade as I picture him returning from the ocean after surf practice, water dripping down his defined abs.

I shake my head side to side, attempting to shake the image right out of my head. This is not good. I sound like a horny teenager, and I haven’t even gotten that far yet. After a few minutes of beating myself up for my body’s reaction to him, I walk over to my bag, unzipping it as I empty my belongings.

While I begin to refold the clothes that I’ll be keeping in the dresser, the sound of moaning stops me dead in my tracks. It gets louder and louder until I realize it’s coming from Griffin’s room. He’s either snuck a girl inside his room in the few minutes that I’ve been in mine or he’s playing porn on full volume. This is not what I signed up for.

“Griffin!”I scream, pounding my fists on his door after fifteen long minutes of excessively loud porn coming from his room.

If I wasn’t so worried about catching him mid-masturbation or balls deep in some beach babe, I would have barged into the room ten minutes ago. Another five minutes pass and he still hasn’t answered his door, so I give up and decide to hang out in the kitchen until Gabriel returns. I can ask him to give me another room. There’s no way I can share a wall with this jerk.

I nearly trip down the last three steps of the staircase when my eyes connect with Griffin’s across the room. He’s sitting ontop of the kitchen counter, in a white T-shirt, eating out of an ice cream tub. He smirks at the pure shock and disbelief on my face.

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