Page 11 of Beyond The Break

A hot anger sparks back to life at that stupidly sexy smirk, and I slowly close my jaw as I step from the last step.

“Is there a reason you have porn blasting in your bedroom?” I stomp over to him, hands curled into fists.

The smirk never leaves his face as he spoons up more ice cream and pops it into his mouth. I glance down at the tub and notice the flavor is mint chocolate chip.Gross. Of course he eats that crap. Everyone knows Caramel Crunch is the best flavor of ice cream.

“Is there a problem with mint chocolate chip?” he asks, studying my disgusted expression.

“Yeah, it’s disgusting. Are you going to answer my question?”

“I bet you’re a vanilla type of girl,” he says, dropping the spoon back into the tub and placing it next to him, jumping off the counter so that he stands in front of me.

“Excuse me?” I ask, outraged.

“There’s nothing wrong with that,” he says, his smirk slowly fading. “I like vanilla, too.”

“You know what, I’m not entertaining this conversation.” I say, my cheeks aflame as I lean into the corner space of the counter. “Explain the porn.”

“I heard it helps with the feng shui.” he says, tapping his chin thoughtfully, shrugging his shoulders.

“This can’t be real life,” I practically whisper as I close my eyes and press the tips of my fingers to my temples.

Someone this dense can’t possibly exist, let alone be a professional surfer. There’s absolutely no way.

My breath hitches as I feel his arms brush against my hips. My eyes spring open and the breath is knocked out of me as I realize he’s trapped me between the counter and his hard body,his arms resting on either side of me on the edge of the counter.

“Are you sure you can handle living in this house? I promise I’m the least annoying one here.”

His breath tickles my face as I stare up into his eyes, unable to look away. He’s breathtakingly beautiful and the way he fills out his white T-shirt should be illegal. My eyes leisurely travel from his flawless face down his round shoulders and pausing on the veins along his arms. Who knew something so simple could cause my nipples to turn rock hard and my breathing to become something more akin to panting.

“My eyes are up here, sunshine.”

His voice snaps me out of my trance, and I look up to find him smirking down at me. His ego must have grown while he watched me practically drooling over his veiny arms. I shove him away and walk around him without a word, deciding this conversation isn’t worth the mental strain.

I open the fridge and study the shelves stocked with so much food of various colors that I find it almost overwhelming. I quickly grab all the ingredients I need to make a fruit salad and make quick work of arranging it all into a bowl.

After putting away the ingredients, I pick up my bowl and turn towards the island, finding that Griffin has relocated himself there, ice cream nowhere to be seen. He scrolls through his phone distractedly, so I reluctantly convince myself to sit beside him, doing my best to pretend he isn’t there.

The last thing I expect is for him to slide his hand over and grab onto the rim of my bowl, dragging it towards himself, but that’s exactly what he does. I watch in shocked silence as he lifts my fork to his mouth and devours my fruit salad right in front of me, not looking up from his phone once.

“There’s no way that just happened,” I squeak in disbelief, watching him put the last bite into his mouth before returning the fork back to the bowl and sliding it over to me.

I stare down at the empty bowl, feeling my frustration begin to bubble. Slamming the door in my face was one thing, playing porn on full volume to piss me off was another, butthiswas uncalled for. As if twisting the knife deeper, my stomach growls hungerly.

“Oh, I’m so sorry,” he says sarcastically, placing his hand over his chest in fake shock. “I had no idea you were planning to eat such a horrible salad.”

I blink twice and without a word I get up and return to my bedroom, slamming the door behind me. I pull my phone out of my duffle bag and call Gabriel, like I should have done earlier.

“Eliana, did you make it to the house okay?” is the first thing he says.

“Hi, Gabriel, yeah I did,” I pause. “Thank you for arranging the ride and paying for it too.”

“My pleasure. Are you settling into your room, okay? I’m sorry I couldn’t be there to welcome you on your first day. I hope Griffin has given you a tour of the place.”

“That’s why I called you,” I say, sitting on top of my bed and crossing my legs in front of me.

The porn in Griffin’s room goes quiet, but I try to ignore the suspicion that it’s because he’s listening in on my call through the thin bedroom walls.

“Is there any other room I can switch to in this house?” I pick at a loose thread in my sweater.

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