The Heartbreaker of Echo Pass by Maisey Yates

CHAPTER ELEVEN

HEHADN’TSEENhide nor hair of Iris for a couple of days. He’d overstepped. Yelling at her like he had that day she’d come to the housing site. He didn’t know what the hell he’d been thinking. Well, that was the thing. He hadn’t thought at all. It had been nothing more than feeling.

He’d felt cornered. Invaded in some way. He’d felt like she was getting close to treading on sacred ground and he didn’t like it.

Then she left dinner in the fridge for him, had left all that food for him...

Of course, now it was nearly gone.

It was what enticed him back to the cell phone rock. To see if she’d gotten in touch. He was gratified when a voice mail came in, and he could see that it had come from Iris.

“Hi, Griffin. I didn’t want to surprise you again up at the cabin. Not until we talked. But I’m moving in to the apartment and there’s an issue with the sink. I don’t how to fix it. I need you to either hire a plumber for me or maybe you can come take a look?”

There was a strange note in her voice, and he had a very odd feeling in the pit of his stomach.

“I’d like to see you.”

That pit grew.

It wasn’t just an odd note. It was breathy. Strange. And he recalled the tension that had arced between them when he’d been angry with her.

He’d wanted to...

That was the problem. He hadn’t wanted to hurt her. He hadn’t even wanted to shout at her. What he’d wanted to do was grab her, claim her mouth with his. Punish her with every bit of pent-up rage and desire inside of him in the form of pleasure.

He growled, gritting his teeth.

This was not helping.

He didn’t want to acknowledge it. He didn’t want...

He didn’t want it.

Still, he found himself hitting the return call button and waiting.

She answered. “Griffin?”

“Are you around? Because I could come over and fix that leak.”

What the hell.

“Yes,” she said, her words altogether too bright. “I am.”

“Great. I’ll be down in a couple of hours.”

“I have... Some food for you.”

“Thanks.” He hung up.

He hadn’t misread the look on her face when he’d moved toward her the other day. He hadn’t. She might’ve been upset at him. She might have been a little bit frightened, but she had also been intrigued.

Maybe even aroused.

There had been a time in his life when he would have taken her up on that offer without even thinking about it. Hell, that was just a Friday night. He didn’t need to know a woman to have sex.

At least he hadn’t.

But that was before Mel.

When he’d met her it had changed everything. It had made him want different things. It had made him something else. And then he’d lost everything. Everything that had made him who he was. And he didn’t know who he was on the other side of it.

If he was anything.

Why does it matter? If she wants to have sex...

He took a sharp breath. It mattered. It just did. Right now, it did.

Anyway, her asking him to come fix a leaky pipe could be nothing. Nothing more than his body overreacting to having a woman in close proximity.

Because one thing was for certain, this was most definitely the longest span of celibacy he’d ever had in his life. And it hadn’t mattered. Not one bit. Until Iris Daniels had given him a bite of a chocolate chip cookie, and looked at him with those eyes that seemed to be the last thing he saw in his mind before he went to sleep.

It wasn’t that. If there was one thing he was certain of, it was that Iris wasn’t... He couldn’t imagine her being into that kind of casual thing. She seemed far too sincere. And anyway, she hardly had the wardrobe of a siren.

Seems to be working well enough on you...

Yeah. Well, he was hard up. Whether he wanted to admit it or not.

Honestly. Grief was a bastard that kept on giving. If it could just be there and insulate him from wanting anything, then it would be all right. He could just come up here and hang himself on his cross, work himself to death, suffer but live as a tribute, everything would be fine.

Not fine. But alive, at least. There was a comfort in wanting nothing.

In having no appetite.

There was control to it.

But now all of a sudden his body wanted things. And he decidedly did not.

The grief hadn’t faded. It was still there. It was still telling him the same things.

Not that he was a married man. He wasn’t. That wasn’t the issue.

But he was alive. Mel was gone.

And he didn’t know how the hell he was supposed to keep living, enjoying that life, when she couldn’t.

When her smile and her laugh were gone from the world, and he remained.

He knew how to survive.

It was the rest he wasn’t sure about.

“Well,” he said. “You’re just going to fix a pipe.” He sighed heavily. “And you’re talking to yourself. So you really have reached a good space.”

And he couldn’t deny that the realization he would be talking to Iris in person soon made his blood run hotter.

Couldn’t deny it, no matter how much he wanted to.

IRISHADPUT on the sexiest thing she owned. Which she felt wasn’t that impressive, in the end. A pair of faded blue jeans and a scoop neck T-shirt that revealed just a hint of cleavage wasn’t exactly going to set the world on fire. Or Griffin, for that matter.

She had put on lip gloss, though.

It was the only makeup she had.

She felt a little bit frustrated by that tonight. It would have been nice to be able to fix herself up a little bit more, but Pansy wasn’t really a makeup girl either, and she wasn’t sure Rose even owned a comb.

She could have talked to Sammy, that was true. Her sister-in-law was a feminine goddess, who wore makeup, or didn’t, who wore dresses, or denim with the same amount of ease. Who let her blond hair dry naturally and fly wild around her, or occasionally straightened it if the mood took her. Sammy wielded her femininity with ease. Let it take whatever shape she felt like in the moment.

Iris admired that.

It scared her a little bit, though. And, she hadn’t wanted to talk to Sammy, because Sammy was no longer a safe space. Because if she told Sammy, Sammy was going to tell Ryder.

That had always been a little bit of a tricky situation. But Iris had never had any secrets to keep from her brother.

She did not especially want him to know that she was intent on trying to seduce a man in the apartment she was going to move in to.

She hadn’t even told him that she was moving.

After the reaction she had from Rose, she hadn’t really wanted to get into it.

A text popped up on her phone and she looked down at it.

I’m at the front door. You have to let me in. I don’t have a key.

Her heart scrambled up into the base of her throat, and before she could chicken out, before she could talk herself out of it, she flung the door to the apartment wide and scrambled down the stairs inelegantly. Then she righted herself, fussing with her hair before heading toward the door.

There he was.

She just stood there for a moment, inside the empty shop, staring at the broad, tall figure on the other side of the glass. He was wearing a black T-shirt, and a black cowboy hat. The sight of him made her shiver, even though she wasn’t cold.

Not at all.

If anything, she was a little bit warm.

She realized, suddenly, that she had never seen Griffin outside his natural habitat.

The cabin, the wilderness. She did think of it as his natural habitat. It was hard to imagine him in any other space. And here he was. In town, like a normal human being and not something mythical that was larger-than-life.

He cocked his head to the side. “You going to let me in?” His words were muffled against the glass.

“Oh,” she said, fumbling with the knob and pushing it open. “I’m sorry. Come in.”

“This is a nice place,” he said, looking around. “Good thing I bought it.”

“You haven’t been here before?”

He shook his head. “No.”

She frowned. “What kind of business do you have?”

“Mostly real estate investments.”

“And you buy things you don’t even look at?”

“All the time. I own property around the world. I don’t go visit every single thing that I buy. It wouldn’t make any sense. Wouldn’t be practical either, come to that.”

“But this isn’t across the world. It’s in Gold Valley, and so are you.”

“Yeah. Well. My business manager thought it was a good idea. There’s a reason I hired her.”

“How did you... Get into owning property? I mean if you’re not interested?” She couldn’t quite wrap her head around it. “Financial success doesn’t seem like something you just fall into.”

Then again, he didn’t seem particularly successful. She only knew he was because he had...a business manager and a portfolio.

He was a study in contradictions. On the one hand, he seemed like he would have to be dirt poor, but he owned this building that she could certainly scarcely hope to afford in one lifetime. He seemed to be able to barter the rent money away just fine.

He was building a house. But by himself. At least, that was what it looked like.

He probably came from California. Where there was certainly more money in real estate than there was here.

“I used to be more interested than I am. But there came a point in time when things changed. And I outgrew where I was.”

“Why?”

“It doesn’t matter.” He walked past her, heading toward the back of the building. “I assume the stairs are this way?”

“Yes,” she said, scampering after him.

He had a toolbox clutched in his hand, the muscles in his forearm shifting as he walked. “Very early on,” he said, “I just had to fix a lot of my own things. I got my first investment property really young, and I became a landlord. Then it turned out I was really good at all this. Got into bigger stuff.”

“I see.”

He paused, turning toward her and arching a dark brow. It was the closest thing to playful she’d ever seen on his face. “Did you want to ask if I’m rich?”

“The thought did cross my mind,” she said, embarrassment heating her cheeks.

“Yes,” he said. “Yeah.” He looked around. “I guess I am.”

For some reason, there was a heaviness in his voice that settled hard and strange in her chest. Like she could feel the weight of it. The cost of whatever it was beneath the surface.

“The sink is this way,” she said.

Her hands felt sweaty again.

Great.

How was she supposed to seduce a man if she had sweaty hands? It seemed like a losing proposition to her. And very much like a humiliation just waiting to happen.

She stood there, her heart hammering in her ears, and she just had so many questions. How did you... How did you do this? This was the first time in her adult life she had been all alone with a man who wasn’t family or surrogate family. She looked at his broad back, his muscular shoulders, lean waist and hips. And she felt. Not just desire, but what was filling up her chest was something else altogether. Something deep and overwhelming. Something that almost hurt. She couldn’t explain it. Not if she wanted to. Fortunately, she didn’t want an explanation. Not for any of this. She felt gloriously not herself, in this apartment that would be hers, about the business she was going to open. With a handsome man right there.

Not Iris, who took care of everyone else and pretended she didn’t even know what she wanted. Iris, who didn’t think about whether or not she was beautiful, or if a man might look her way or not. Iris, who had basically become a housewife at fourteen.

No. She didn’t think she was that person. Not now. She was some new adventurous woman who might do any number of things.

Who could be anything she wanted to be. Who wasn’t afraid to take chances.

Who wasn’t hiding.

Behind responsibilities.

Behind fear.

She let out a long, slow breath. And she could see herself, crossing the distance between them. Putting her hand on one of those strong shoulders.

She didn’t need experience. She only needed to follow instinct.

She steeled herself, and took that first step. He pressed his strong hands to the edge of the countertop and leaned forward. And she put her hand at the center of his back. Sliding it up to his shoulder.

Oh. There was no pretending that wasn’t making a pass at him. It felt so much more sensual than she’d intended it to.

It was amazing, how loaded a touch could feel. How very not innocent that simple contact could be when there was intent behind it.

When there was nothing but the two of them in this room. No rules. No limitations.

She felt him go stiff beneath her touch.

“Iris...”

His voice was hard, and she wouldn’t let him put her off. She moved her hand down farther, to his chest.

An arrow of desire shot through her. She wasn’t confused. Not now. Because the places that were lit up from touching him were not confusing at all.

She wanted him.

She really did.

He turned around suddenly, his blue eyes wild. He was so close to her, like he had been that day at the house. He pushed his hand over the top of hers, pressing it flat to his chest, and she could feel his heartbeat raging there. Her own was most certainly keeping time with it. She felt overwhelmed. Overwrought.

Deliciously so.

She had spare few opportunities in her life to feel this way. To feel this much.

Not when it wasn’t bad.

She knew the crushing, absolute devastation of grief. Of shock. The kind of loss that left you feeling hollow. Yes, she knew that.

But this. This exhilaration. She didn’t know what would happen. Perhaps she had put herself out there for nothing. Maybe his heart wasn’t beating for the same reason hers was. Maybe he didn’t want her.

But this felt... Dangerous.

As if she had stepped up to the edge of a precipice and was gazing down at the bottom, impossibly far away.

As if she was staring into that abyss and nearly laughing at it.

She was lost in all that blue. The blue in his eyes, a flame flickering low and hot.

“What are you doing?”

“Isn’t it... It’s pretty obvious, isn’t it?”

“I want to be very sure.”

Her tongue suddenly felt thick, her throat tight. She didn’t know how she was supposed to speak, not now.

She was shaking. Down to her soul, she was shaking.

But again, it was different than fear. Different than sorrow. She was familiar with both, and this was something else altogether. This shivering that was happening beneath her skin. As if the blood in her veins was turned to effervescent lava.

“I...”

“Tell me,” he bit out.

“I...”

He reached up, gripping her chin firm between his thumb and forefinger. “Tell me,” he said again.

“I thought maybe I might...seduce you. You know. Since there’s no one else here. And there is electricity. It seemed like maybe something I could... That perhaps it was a good...”

“Is your sink really broken?” The question came out hard, filled with grit.

“It is,” she said, brightening. “It really is. I didn’t lie. But I did think that maybe you could... Fix the sink and also... Help me out.”

“Help you out.” That was horribly flat and it made her stomach slip down an inch or so in her midsection.

“Yes.”

“Help you out as in you want to have sex?”

“I do,” she said, heat flaring in her body, a blush blooming hard and heavy in her cheeks. She could feel it. She didn’t have to see it to know what was there.

“Why?”

She blinked. “I... I didn’t know that would matter.”

She didn’t want to get into her virginity. Didn’t want to get into the fact that she’d never felt this way before.

“I want to know why. Because you marched up to my cabin just a few days ago holding cookies, and you wanted to open a bakery. I’m fine with that. I’m fine with helping you with that. But I don’t understand what would make you want me. We had a couple of conversations, most of them have ended very well. I was an absolute ass to you the other day, and now you’re standing there telling me that you want me?”

“I don’t know what to say,” she said. “I’m attracted to you. I...” Tears started to fill her eyes. She felt stupid. She felt small. “I didn’t mean to do something wrong. I... I guess you don’t want me. And that’s... That’s fine...”

“Iris, stop talking. I want to make sure you’re not doing this because you think you owe me. That’s it. I don’t need to know about your feelings. Except I need to make sure that this isn’t payment.”

A rush of relief filled her.

“It’s not,” she said. “It’s not. I find it very inconvenient that it’s you. That I want you. Because I guess it’s really messy, and it might cause problems. And I didn’t really want to be in that position, and I didn’t want you to be in that position either. I guess there’s not really anything either of us can do about it. I mean, attraction is what it is, and I... I’m not paying for the bakery with this. I would rather that I felt this way about some guy in a bar. Or maybe a family friend, like it was for Rose. Not that I mean... I’m going to stop talking now.”

So she did. So she went up on her toes and pressed her mouth to his. For the first time in her life.

Sensation exploded inside of her. Need. Longing.

His lips were hot and firm beneath hers, and she was nearly panicked with just how much it made her feel. How did anyone survive this?

He was motionless, but only for a moment. Then he growled, tightening his arms around her and nearly lifting her up off the ground as he angled his head and consumed her.

Her heart was thundering wildly, desperation clawing at her.

This was why people went crazy over a person. She had never understood it.

She had watched Pansy turn her well-ordered life over for West. Had seen Rose and Logan risk breaking the family apart in order to be together. Had watched Ryder and Sammy nearly consume each other with the desperation of their passion and the fierceness of their need to deny it. But she hadn’t understood.

Hadn’t understood how it could make you so crazy. So gosh darn crazy.

But she did now. She understood it. She did.

Because his tongue was tracing black magic spells over hers, and his mouth was firm and perfect. Because she hadn’t even understood why she would want to kiss a man like this, all deep and slick, and in an instant he had brought her into a state of full awareness and understanding.

Because his hands were large and warm as they pressed hard against her back, and made her feel fragile, but shielded, strong and desired all at once.

Iris had never experienced any sort of particular magic in her life.

Her world had been all about practical things. About survival and coping, about giving and learning how to press on when it was necessary.

But this made the case for fairy dust. For the mystical. For the unexplained.

This made a case for miracles. This man’s kiss.

And the fact that he was holding her in his arms.

She didn’t know what she thought seduction might entail. Perhaps more talking. Perhaps her removing some clothing. What she hadn’t counted on was that he would seduce her. Completely. Fully.

Her breasts felt heavy, her nipples pointed into painful buds. And between her legs, there was a raw, hollow ache that seemed to echo inside of her, going on endlessly.

She wanted him. She wanted him more than she could explain. More than she had anticipated.

She didn’t know what she had thought it might be. It had been gauzy and unclear in her head. A tangle of feelings inside of her. An increased heart rate, the barest hint of sensation shivering over her skin when he looked at her. When he got near.

Her stomach getting tight, her heart turning over.

But this was something else entirely. An explosion.

Blooming heat in her stomach, slick need between her legs. Decorum was completely demolished. In her mind, she could already see them, naked and tangled together. And the idea of it didn’t frighten her. Didn’t embarrass her at all.

She suddenly wanted things that she had never even imagined before. Desired him in a way she had thought... Well, that she hadn’t even thought of before.

She could see how you might do anything for another person. How you would crave any touch, any tastes. Whatever their hands, their mouth would offer.

And how you would want to give it in return.

It was all blindingly clear. Just from a kiss.

But suddenly, he was pulling away from her, dragging in deep gulps of air, his muscular chest pitching violently with each indrawn breath.

“What?”

“No,” he said. “This isn’t happening.”

“Why?”

She sounded petulant and small, and she felt utterly defeated. Because everything had been there. Like a thunderclap, and a flash of lightning that had given her everything.

And then he had taken it away. And it was like the clouds had covered the sun again.

“Why?” she asked again, knowing that she sounded small, that she sounded sad, that her pride had been utterly demolished by that one question. And not knowing what she could do about it. Not even knowing she cared.

“I don’t know what you want,” he said. “But I’m not up to giving it to you. I’m not. I can’t.”

“I just want... I just want...”

“I don’t care what you had to say. Whatever you have to tell me. You don’t want some guy to fuck you and then walk out, do you? And that’s all I’ve got in me.”

That word felt like a slap. Hard and vulgar and unlike anything they’d been doing. He’d said it for that reason. To be hard. To be mean.

To prove his point.

“I wanted to be with you,” she said. “That’s as far ahead as I was thinking.”

“That’s the problem. It’s way too easy to only think that far ahead. But there’s life beyond the orgasm, Iris. It would be easy to lay you down here on the floor and have my way with you. You know how long it’s been?” His voice went rough, hard and intense. And his grip was iron on her. “You know how long it’s been since I’ve touched a woman? It would be the easiest damn thing in the world to take what you’re offering me. To take it and not feel an ounce of guilt. I could leave you satisfied. You’d call out my name more times than you’ve ever said it. And I want it.” He wrapped his arm around her then, one hand hard on her behind as he pressed her against his body. As he let her feel the evidence of his arousal. Shock mixed with desire, mingling with rage that stole over her.

“Please...”

“No. You feel that. I want you. You made me want you.” He sounded mystified. Angry.

And she had no idea what she’d done to incur his wrath. But then she hadn’t understood it the other day either. And that was the problem, wasn’t it?

She didn’t know him.

She thought maybe she could have sex with a relative stranger, because Pansy had done it. For all that it had ended up working out well for her, that was how it had started. And she made it sound like it was good and easy. But the problem was, he had trigger points, and she didn’t know what they were. She was watching them explode right now, and she didn’t understand what it meant.

She was wretched.

Wretched and filled with need, and he was only stoking the fire by holding her against his hard body.

Stoking it for both of them, while denying them.

“Let me go,” she said. “If you’re going to say no, then just...don’t touch me.”

He released his hold on her. And she stumbled back. “Look at this,” he said, his voice rough. “This is your first apartment. Your first job out of your house, owning your own business. You’re starting out. And I’m done. I’m just done,” he said roughly. “Don’t waste any time worrying about me.”

He turned and started to walk out of the room.

“What about my sink?”

He stopped, his shoulders going rigid. “Get a plumber.”

“But I...”

“Bill me,” he said.

“What are we going to do? About the rest of this?”

He turned to face her, and his expression was... It was terrifyingly bleak.

“We’re going to pretend this didn’t happen, because we’re still at the point where we can. I don’t think you understand, Iris. But this could turn into something that we can’t come back from. That we can’t fix. And then what’s going to happen to your business? What’s going to happen to our arrangement?”

She wanted to say that she didn’t care. But she realized that wasn’t true.

But this was like the first adult hurdle that she had to cross over. And she was on the verge of failing. Because she was pretty sure she would happily burn her dreams down to kiss him again. And what did that say about her? That she was on the verge of begging to be kissed?

When Elliott hadn’t wanted her, when he had wanted Rose instead, it had stung. But it had also been absurd. Because she hadn’t wanted him. And it had wounded her in strange and complicated ways, but she would never have begged him to pay attention to her. Not ever. She was on the verge of cutting her own pride to pieces over all this. Over the need to be with him. The desire to have him as her own.

Maybe she wasn’t strong, after all.

Maybe she was just a foolish girl.

This had all felt magical only a few moments ago, and now she just felt bedraggled.

“No,” she said. “Right. Just... Okay go then.”

“Iris...”

“No,” she said. “Don’t you dare apologize to me. It’s humiliating enough, throwing yourself at a man and being rejected. I... Thought men basically threw caution to the wind when it came to sex. Whether it’s a bad idea or not.”

“If it was just a bad idea for me, I might have. But it’s a worse idea for you, and that... That’s the problem.”

He started to walk out again.

“I thought you said I was strong?” Pathetic. On the verge of begging. Even that sounded plaintive and tragic to her own ears.

“You are,” he returned.

“Then why are you pretending that it’s me you’re protecting?” She didn’t know what had made her say that. But she knew it was true. She did. As sure as anything.

“I’m not pretending.”

She felt stronger then, buoyed by her realization. “You are. You’re protecting you. But that’s fine. Get out of my apartment.”

He didn’t have to be asked again. He nodded once, then went down the stairs, and when she heard the door close, she stumbled over to the couch and lay across it, her heart beating a steady rhythm of pain.

You’ve been through worse.

She had. She had been through much worse. But it didn’t help. Not now. Because this was bad enough.

So this was living.

Being an adult making mistakes. Living on your own.

She wasn’t sure she liked it.

She hadn’t told Ryder yet. Hadn’t told him she might move up here so she could always go back...always go home.

What she really wanted to do was go back to her brother’s house, curl up in a ball and sink into familiarity. She wanted the kitchen that she knew and her familiar bed. Wanted to be surrounded by her family. Wanted to hit rewind on the last hour.

But that would be losing for real. That was basically the only way she could lose. Quitting.

And she wasn’t going to quit.

That, in the midst of the pain, gave her a sense of determination. A sense that maybe it wasn’t quite so bad.

Because she wasn’t going home. She wasn’t letting his rejection decide what she was going to be.

She had changed. Her life had changed.

And as she lay there, coated in misery, she tried to let that matter.

At least she wasn’t stupid enough to fall for him.