Grip Trilogy Box Set - Kennedy Ryan Page 0,178

and in her voice.

“No way. I thought we had a point to make tonight.” I squeeze her waist. “That we have nothing to be ashamed of or to hide.”

I turn her around to get a proper look at her. She’s wearing this green dress that cuts low between her breasts. The quarter-length sleeves cling to her arms, and the rest of the dress flows freely to her knees. A fragile gold chain adorns the bare strip of skin just above her cleavage.

“This is pretty.” I lift the delicate gold links.

Her breath catches when my knuckles brush against the warm satiny swell of her breast. Looking into her eyes, I slip my hand into the bodice of the dress, cupping the weight of one breast, bringing the nipple taut with my thumb.

“Grip, don’t start or we’ll be late.” Her voice is husky, her eyelids half-mast over the desire building in her eyes.

“Uh huh.” I squat until I’m level with her chest, pushing the dress aside to expose one full, berry-tipped breast. I lock eyes with her when I take the nipple between my lips, sliding my hands down her waist and spreading both palms over her ass.

“Grip, stop.” Her hands contradict her words, pressing my mouth deeper, urging me to scrape my teeth over the nipple. My hand wanders under her dress, skates over one silky thigh and into her panties.

“Shit.” I massage her clit, plumping it between two fingers before slipping them inside of her with shallow pumps. “How am I supposed to get through this dinner knowing your panties are soaked?”

“I’ve got a solution for that,” she says breathlessly. She reaches under her dress and slides the panties off, letting them ring around her bare feet. “No more wet panties.”

I step back, gripping the knot of terry cloth at my waist, and pointing a warning finger at her.

“You know you’re getting fucked so hard when we get home.”

“Promises, promises.” She turns back to the mirror with a smile, her cheeks and the soft skin of her throat and chest still flushed.

I’m dressed when the buzzer sounds. It’s probably Amir. As much as I typically discourage him from “guarding” me, there will be a lot of people at this event tonight. For whatever reason, much of the shade seems directed at Bristol. I want him along more for her safety than for mine.

“That’s Amir.” I kiss her cheek on my way to the bedroom door. “I’ll be down in a sec. Just finishing my hair.”

“’K. We’re downstairs.”

Amir comes in, surveying my black dress shirt, gray slacks and short black boots hidden under my pants.

“Nice.” He nods like I pass inspection.

“I try.” I walk back into the loft. “Bris’ll be right down. You want something to drink before we hit the road?”

“Nah.” He glances up the staircase at my closed bedroom door and then back to me. “I do have an update on that thing we talked about.”

“What thing?” I ask absently, strapping on my old black plastic watch. It’s become a habit I can’t break, and it feels good to wear it again even if it does seem cheap and out of place.

“You know,” he says, voice barely audible. “The thing.”

I sit down on the couch across from him and give him a puzzled look. “Why you talking in code?”

“Corpse, dude.” He looks cautiously up the stairs again. “I talked to my cousin.”

“Oh.” I lean my elbows to my knees, now on high alert. “And?”

“I just asked him if he was still, you know, handling things for people.”

“And is he?”

“Yeah.” Amir looks like I’m pulling his back teeth. “But on a very limited, exclusive basis.”

“I can be limited and exclusive.” I pause to catch his eyes. “You know I’m not asking him to kill Parker, right?”

“Man, are you crazy?” Amir eyes the corners of the room, searching the ceiling, I presume for cameras or other devices. “You can’t be saying that shit out loud.”

“It’s my house,” I say wryly. “I think if there’s anywhere we can safely talk about this, it’s here. And I just want options. It would be a drastic situation. He’d have to do something pretty stupid for me to need Corpse, but I just want to know what’s out there.”

“Well you may have provoked him in that Legit interview,” Amir says, mild reproach in the look he gives me.

“I just told the truth.” I shrug. “When Meryl asked about Parker, I said I’m the only man Bristol’s in a relationship with. End of story. It’s true.