The Queen

She hit Delete.

Poof. It was gone.

Just like that.

Elle smiled although it had hurt.

Daddy’s little girl was all grown-up now.

Slightly shaking, Elle got up out of her chair, logged off the computer and walked back to the stacks, searching for a book, any book, anything to take her mind off what she’d just written, what she’d just done. She felt freer now. Stronger. Lighter but emptier in a way. But that’s what she wanted, wasn’t it?

From the shelf in front of her she pulled out a book, an Agatha Christie mystery she’d always meant to read. She wasn’t quite in the mood for a mystery right now. She needed something else...but what? When she put it back on the shelf she saw a pair of eyes staring at her from between the books.

Familiar eyes.

Without thinking, Elle shoved the books on the shelf to the side and there he was, staring at her like a goddamn creeping creeper.

“Griffin Randolfe Fiske, what the fuck—”

“Um...sorry. Also, hi, Nor.” He put his hand through the gap in the shelves and waved, calling her Nor like he always had. He hated “Eleanor,” thought it sounded too prissy and prim. Prissy? No wonder Søren had liked the name so much. “Missed you. Welcome home.”

“Jesus H. Christ.” She rolled her eyes, walked around the end of the stacks and found him in the next aisle over looking as sheepish and self-conscious as a six-foot-tall, two-hundred-pound weightlifter with a trust fund as well-endowed as he was could look. He was dressed in his usual uniform of stylishly ripped jeans and a heather-gray fitted T-shirt. He’d grown a beard since she’d last seen him. No, not quite a beard but more than a five-o’clock shadow. “What the hell are you doing here? Are you following me?” she whispered, but loudly.

“Um...maybe.”

“No more ums. Use your words.”

“Yes. I’m following you.”

“Care to tell me why you’re following me?”

“King told me to.”

“King told you to follow me?”

“Yes, if you left the house, which you did. He’s trying to keep you safe.”

“Safe from who?”

“Yourself, I think.”

Of course he was. Kingsley knew her, knew she’d be tempted to go back to Søren. Somehow he’d cajoled Griffin into saving her from herself. Well, as plans went it wasn’t the worst one she’d heard.

“And you couldn’t say, ‘Hi, long time no see’? You had to follow me?”

“King told me not to tell you I was around.”

“Why not?”

“Um...”

“What is it, Griffin Fiske?” She crossed her arms over her chest and glowered at him, domme-style.

“King said if you saw me, you’d probably jump me, and if we’re fucking I won’t be able to do my job of keeping an eye on you if we’re having sex since I do most of my thinking with my cock.”

“King thinks that although I haven’t seen you in over a year, I will jump your bones the first chance I get and then you won’t be able to follow me because I’ll know you’re there? That’s the situation? That’s why you’re stalking me?”

“Well...yeah.” Even with the beard, Griffin looked terribly young and innocent, and she had a feeling he’d grown the beard so he’d look less terribly young and innocent. Caught red-handed. Shamefaced. Slightly embarrassed. Utterly adorable. And Griffin looked at her as if Christmas came early this year, and he’d been a very good boy.

Merry Christmas.

“Well, you want to know something?” she asked.

“What?”

“King was right.”

She dropped her backpack and crooked her finger. In an instant Griffin was in her arms, pressing her back into the bookcases. He kissed her hard, and she kissed him back harder. So hard. Everything was hard. The kiss and Griffin’s cock and how much she wanted it inside her.

“Did you miss me?” she asked into his lips.

“So much,” he breathed as his hands scored her back and clasped her tight to his chest.

“How much?” She raised her chin to give him access to her neck. She needed neck kisses. She needed all the kisses.

He pushed his erection against her.

“This much.”

When he kissed her ear she could feel the scruff of not quite a beard but more than a five-o’clock shadow tickling her neck. She wanted this, didn’t she? Wasn’t this what she’d been waiting for, what she’d been aching for since she’d come back to Kingsley’s? A male body, strong arms...power? Right? And Griffin kissed masterfully. He could dominate with a kiss alone by setting the pace, holding her where he wanted her, keeping her captive and mute with his tongue in her mouth so that she couldn’t raise a word of objection.

But.

It wasn’t quite right.

Something was missing, and she knew she needed it if this were to go further than one good kiss.

“Please...” Griffin growled in her ear. She loved to hear him beg.

“Please, what?”

“I have to fuck you.”

“No one has to fuck me. You want to fuck me. Going without sex never killed anybody.”

“But why take that chance?”

Elle reached down between their bodies and pressed her hand into his cock through his jeans. Already erect, Griffin stiffened even more in surprise and what must have been a modicum of discomfort.