Written in Ink (Montgomery Ink #4)(54)

She’d crawled her way into his heart. And he didn’t know how he felt about that.

She wasn’t Lauren. She wasn’t sick. At least not then. Yet Autumn might leave him for a whole other reason.

He’d shielded himself from others and kept his heart safe for a reason.

“Something smells good,” Autumn said as she walked into the kitchen, her voice carefully neutral. He turned to see her, wanting to see her.

She wore a long skirt and a cotton top with long sleeves. The skirt billowed around her ankles, making her look like she was walking on air. She was covered from neck to foot, and yet he couldn’t get enough of her.

There was something wrong with him.

This wasn’t the time to be thinking about his cock, about how good she looked. He shouldn’t want to peel that skirt up and f*ck her hard against the counter. Instead, he should be worrying about her wellbeing. She didn’t have time to be f*cked; her mind should be on other things.

Or maybe they both needed exactly that, he thought as her gaze traveled up his body. He knew what she saw: a shirtless man cooking bacon in jeans and no underwear. He hadn’t bothered to button all the buttons on his fly, so if she looked, she’d see the dark thatch of hair at the base of his cock.

Probably not the smartest thing to be wearing while cooking bacon.

He pushed the pan off the burner before it started to sizzle rapidly and burn his chest or other important parts of him and turned off the heat. Everything was done anyway.

“I made bacon and eggs.” He cursed. “Forgot to make the toast, but we can do that now.”

Autumn walked to him slowly, and he stood still, afraid any sudden movement would scare her.

“I’m not scared of you,” she whispered. “You don’t need to walk on eggshells. I might fear him. But you are not him. Not once did I ever think that.” She stood on her tiptoes and kissed him once. Twice. “Thank you for taking care of me.”

He wrapped his arms around her. “It was nothing.” He didn’t know what else to do, the helpless feeling ready to overtake him.

“It was something.”

He squeezed his eyes shut tightly before opening them to meet her gaze. “I want to tell my family, Autumn. Tell the Montgomerys so they can help.”

She pressed her lips together and nodded. “I can do that. You already know so it’s not like I can hide it from them for long.”

He shook his head. “If you wanted me to keep it a secret, I would.”

“Even from your family?”

“Even from them.” The truth of that startled him.

“We can tell them.”

He sighed and kissed the top of her head; aware they’d kissed and held each other more in the past few hours than they had in their entire relationship.

“We need to go to the police, Autumn.”

She shook her head against his chest. “I don’t want to. Please don’t, Griffin.”

He squeezed her harder. “Baby…Fall…we need to. I know a few people we can talk to that I talked to often when I was doing research. We won’t be talking to total strangers.”

“I don’t know if I can.”

He sighed. “Autumn.”

“I don’t like giving in to you like this. It’s like I’m losing control.”

He leaned back and tilted her head up with his fingers. “You haven’t had true control in far too long. You aren’t a young girl, and these guys aren’t in that bastard’s pocket. I don’t care what he thinks he can do, but he can’t come in here and hurt you. We’re going to fight it. I want you to be safe. I want you to stop...” He paused. “I want you.”

After a long moment, she let out a breath. “Okay. We can go. It’s not like I can run for the rest of my life. But damn it, this is scary.”

He kissed her then. Hard. “You’re so f*cking brave.”

She snorted, but he kissed her again.

“So.” Kiss. “Fucking.” Kiss. “Brave.”

She wrapped her arms around his shoulders and he cupped her ass with his hands—cast and all—lifting her into his arms.

“We’ll heat up breakfast later,” he mumbled and nibbled on her lips. She sighed into his mouth, and he turned to set her on the kitchen counter. She slid her leg up his back, pulling him closer to her.

They kissed greedily; soaking each other in as they explored one another’s mouths, felt along each other’s bodies until they were both panting with need. Griffin leaned down to bite her nipple between his teeth, pleased to find that she wore no bra beneath the cotton shirt. Hands moved quickly as they stripped off her shirt, and he had her nipple in his mouth in the next breath. Autumn’s head rolled back and she tangled her fingers in his hair.

“I need this, Griffin. I need you.”

He growled against her breast before licking across her chest and paying special attention to her other breast. Autumn’s hands went from his hair to his back and then back again. They were both heated, gasping for air as he pulled away to slide his hands up her legs. When he found her bare between her thighs, he groaned.

“Did you forget to pack panties and a bra in that bag of yours?”

She shook her head. “I just want you in me.”

He licked his lips and nodded. “First, I need my taste.” He lifted her legs to his neck, pulled her ass to the edge of the counter then slowly rolled her skirt up.