Page 57 of Supernova

Maybe River wasn’t so much ‘home’ as he was comfortable and familiar. Either way, it was no longer the case.

But as much as I may have wanted Griffin in more ways than just this, I also knew that he would never settle down. A real relationship with him was tantalising yet unattainable. He was a stoic bastard who masked how he felt with a lethal combination of charm, sarcasm and a hell of a lot of flirting. It was so hard to know what he was actually thinking, and I had a feeling I’d never truly find out.

At least we got here. At least I got to experience this. And boy was I glad I did.

If I thought I was hooked before, I had another thing coming now. Everything prior to this was just a gateway drug. Now I wanted the hard stuff.

I still couldn’t shake how scared I was of how this might end. Scared of the state my heart would be left in if I let him in. Griffin was getting to me. This had to stay as meaningless sex, even if I desperately wanted it to be something more. I had to hope he’d want to keep doing this though.

My thoughts were interrupted by a small snort of laughter. Turning my face, I saw Griffin was awake now, his deep grey eyes watching me curiously.

“Thinking about me, Supernova?” His voice was husky, his words slow and tired but amused. With his lips near my neck, the sound vibrated through my body like electricity.

I was so fucked, and I didn’t just mean physically.

“No.” The word came out a little too fast, revealing my panic. So much for playing it cool and not making a big deal out of this. Why did he make me so nervous? I swear I wasn’t a stupid person but around him I seemed to be.

“Mmm-hmm,” he mumbled. He nibbled on my neck, pulling the skin into his mouth softly. This time it wasn’t my whole body the tingles took over, but instead a very, very specific place on my body.

“Fuck.” The word came out a stifled moan against my will. He seemed to have that effect on me a little too much for my liking.

“That can be arranged,” he smirked. His lips trailed down my neck to my collarbone. “Didn’t think my high-achiever would be ready for another round so soon.”

Did he just say ‘my’?

Nope.

Nope, nope, nope, nope.

Nope.

I could not let him have this hold on me. I just couldn’t. I was already over thinking things more than I should. I couldn’t let someone else get close to me. Couldn’t give them the power to hurt me again.

With all of the self-control I could muster, I turned my body so he was no longer kissing a spot that was way too close to my boobs, and pushed him away.

I suddenly felt very cold.

He chuckled at my attempt to escape, knowing the chokehold he had on me.

I leaned over and found my phone on the floor by the bed. I had texted the girls in our group chat when we left and I had a few unread notifications from them. The thread was now full of excited words of encouragement followed by various inappropriate emojis, as they clearly took it upon themselves to have a competition to see who could come up with the dirtiest and most outrageous combinations. I only glanced at them but I didn’t know how Kit would have had time to participate considering her own activities for the night. The girl was competitive.

It was 9:23am now, meaning we had missed breakfast, gym and the first hour of boxing. Actual training would start in thirty-seven minutes.

“I’m gonna be late for training,” I spat out as I rushed off the bed, grabbing my panties and locating my beautiful red dress that was left in a heap on the floor. After all my restraint in not drinking much last night, I couldn’t believe how late we’d slept in. Although, it made sense considering we did tire ourselves out quite extensively.

He propped his head on his hand, once again his gaze fixed on me. I couldn’t read the emotion on his face, but there was emotion there. I didn’t know what he felt or what we were or what this meant. I just knew I wanted it to happen again.

His expression suddenly changed, like he realised he was acting odd and a little too passionate for someone of his bad boy demeanour.

He laughed at what I had said and then retorted with an excellent point. “I lead training.”

I had to think of a reasonable excuse. “Exactly, and I’m not going to get any brownie points from the rest of the squad if I’m the reason the trainer is late.” I thought I handled myself well … considering the temptation I was fighting.

“I can think of a way you can earn some extra credit,” his tone was titillating.

“Nope.” It took everything I had and more to say that word to him. Everything inside me screamed yes and because of that, it came out more squirmish than I hoped. I didn’t want to be the naive girl that fell for him. Even though I think I already had. But I truly thought if I tried hard enough, I could pretend that I didn’t and it would be convincing. To myself and to him. Pretty sure I failed at that one.

He got up from the bed, the sheet falling to the floor. He had on a pair of dark underwear but the rest of his naked, sculpted body stalked towards me. I stilled in awe, drinking it all in. Usually when I’d see him even close to this naked in the bathrooms I would force my eyes away, but after last night, why deprive myself of the beauty?

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