Chapter Twelve
***Autumn***
Dayspassedwithoutany incidents. Zeke hadn’t come back. Con was busy with work. Griffin had been spending the days in the city, working. It had just been the kids and me mostly. Grace and I were besties. Caroline and I were working on it. Jones still hated me. There wasn’t much I could do, except show him that he was stuck with me. At least for the summer.
With the brothers being gone most of the time, I’d taken to serving the kids breakfast on the covered balcony. If it was too warm, we turned the big ceiling fan on. If it was too cool, we ate with blankets wrapped around us. We watched the water and talked about what we’d do that day. It was informal, with our feet propped up on the railing and lots of grabbing food with our fingers.
I’d even made it a rule that we all wore our pajamas to breakfast. Jones didn’t follow it, always coming to breakfast dressed, but the girls loved it. It was an easy start to the day. We relaxed and woke up together.
The first day of the weekend, I strolled through the dining room in my cut-off T-shirt and leggings, bare feet slapping across the cold floor. I was headed in to grab breakfast for the kids, but I was stopped by a throat clearing behind me. Jerking around, I gasped.
“You scared the life out of me!” I braced myself on one of the fancy dining chairs and clutched at my chest. “I think you just killed at least five years off of my life.”
Griffin sat alone at the big table, an unamused look on his face. He lifted his arm and looked at his watch. “It didn’t take long for you to throw order out the window, did it?”
I lifted an eyebrow. “Excuse me?”
“You’re just letting the children sleep in and do whatever they want?” Shaking his head, he stood up and tossed his napkin down on the table. “The kids need order. I don’t know what you’re doing, but they should be having breakfast and getting ready for the day. Not sleeping in while you stroll around, enjoying yourself.”
Bracing my hand on my hips, I straightened and glared right back at him. “You really just show up and start throwing fits again, don’t you? It almost felt like a house around here for a few days while you were gone, but here you are. For your information, the kids are upstairs, waiting on breakfast. We’ve been having breakfast on the balcony. I was getting food for them before you interrupted me.”
“What the fuck is that supposed to mean? It almost felt like a house?”
I waved him off, angry at myself for letting my guard down with him. “I think you know what it means. Now, I have breakfast to serve.”
I stomped into the kitchen and saw Greta putting the final touch on the tray for the kids. She smiled at me, but her eyes went wide when the door flew open behind me.
“We’re not finished.”
Ignoring Griffin, I smiled at Greta. “Thanks, Greta. This looks amazing.”
“Tell me what you meant.”
Greta backed away. “I think I’ll just go.”
“You don’t have to leave, Greta. I’m just grabbing their food and going.”
Greta continued out the door anyway.
Griffin gripped my upper arm and pulled me around to face him. “You are the biggest pain in the ass. You could’ve just told me where the kids were.”
I glared up at him. “And you could’ve just asked. Instead, you sat there, being condescending and judgmental right off the bat. How do you even get that much stick up your ass so early in the day?”
Grabbing my other arm, Griffin lightly shook me. “You have got to be the least professional person I’ve ever hired. Who do you think you are, talking to me like that?”
“I’m professional when I’m treated professionally.”
He pulled me closer, his fingers tight on my arms, his glare hard. “I should fire you. I should throw you out of here on your ass and find someone who has an ounce of respect for me.”
I bared my teeth at him. “Do it. Fire me. Find someone who lets you walk all over them and who doesn’t mind being treated like shit. Maybe you’ll be lucky enough to find someone who can even stomach you in the process.”
Growling, he jerked me into his chest and slammed his mouth over mine. His kiss was punishing and hard, his anger coming through clear. I lashed out at him, hitting him and twisting my hips to try and kick him, but he wrapped both of his big arms around me and crushed me against his hard body. He growled into my mouth and then slid his tongue over mine.
Griffin tasted like expensive coffee and chocolate. The chocolate caught me off guard, and I wanted to know why the rule-following asshole had snacked on chocolate before breakfast. His kiss turned into something marginally gentler as he tasted me. Still fierce, his palms stretched out across my back, holding me in place as he kissed me like it was do or die. There was none of the teasing that Zeke did. It was just a devouring kiss that sucked me in and wouldn’t let me go.
I didn’t know when I’d stopped fighting against him and started clutching at his shoulders, but I kissed him back just as fiercely and tried to get even closer to him. I wanted more of his chocolate taste, and I wanted to suck in more of the sensual smell of him. I wanted to climb him and tangle myself up in him.
Griffin held me so tightly that I couldn’t move like I wanted; I couldn’t take more than he was giving me. He was in control, and I was being man-handled by the man I’d just insulted in a big way. His hand moved up and grabbed a handful of my hair, pulling my head back enough to break the kiss and stare down at me.
His eyes were the color of a lost forest, deep at night, as they moved over my face. His lips were damp and swollen from the kiss, but it was his eyes that showed the effect I’d had on him. Dark and daring, they revealed the beast I’d originally thought he was, hiding just under the surface of the handsome prince.
“Your temper gets you in trouble a lot, doesn’t it?” Stepping away from me and adjusting himself, he looked around the kitchen like he was seeing it for the first time. “Behave, Autumn.”
I snarled at him, all sexy feelings vanished. Most of them, anyway. Okay, some of them. “You behave, Griffin.”
“I’m trying to.” He took a step closer again and gently cupped my jaw. “This mouth of yours makes it hard, though.”
I sighed as he turned and walked away, his heavy footsteps sounding farther and farther away as he went. Sinking against the cabinets behind me, I covered my face in my hands and groaned. What the fuck was that? Why had I allowed him to kiss me? Why had I liked it so much?
Greta swept back into the kitchen, a wide smile on her face. “Well. I’d say that is a new way of handling Griff. I can’t say that I’ve ever seen anyone do it quick like that before.”
I gasped. “I didn’t kiss him! He kissed me!”
Pausing and then laughing, Greta went back through the door to the staff dining room. “He kissed her!”
“You didn’t see?” I sighed when she shook her head. “And I just told you. Great.”
“Don’t worry, Autumn. We won’t tell anyone.” She grinned. “Jeremiah and I are both very interested in how this goes. Griff has been so cranky for so long. It’s nice to see someone get a different mood from him.”
I grabbed the tray of food and shook my head. “That never happened. Any of it.”