Three Rivers by Chloe T Barlow Read Free Book Online Page A

ask him a question. You're so wound up you've got this guy asking enough about you to fill out a visa application for you to go to Abu Dhabi. Least you could do is ask him something back!
    She was having some sort of flirtation stage fright and it was kind of humiliating. She tried desperately to remember how to do this but God she hadn't really flirted with anyone since flip phones were an exciting technological development. She looked down and glanced up at Griffen through her lashes, feeling incredibly self-conscious and for some reason — like a failure.
    She couldn't believe how much she really wanted something to happen with Griffen. They had steamy glances back and forth down but she would have to talk more or they would start looking like they belonged on a show on The WB when what she was really feeling about this guy was more in line with late night on Skinemax .
    Althea felt way out of her league but kept reminding herself:
    This is just a baby step — I can do this.
    Ha, she thought, this guy is no baby step, he is a full marathon of hotness, an Olympic long jump of yumminess.
    Maybe I can still go after that slightly chubby hipster. Is he still here? He seems a better way to get back into things. I mean, he may want to discuss his kitschy collection of ceramic diner milk servers, but I can deal with that. I can't deal with someone this irresistible. At least not yet, right?
    "Hey, are you still breathing over there?" Griffen asked, stroking his fingers over her hand and resting two on her pulse with a smirk. Althea hadn't realized so much time had passed but his touch burned the delicate skin on her wrist, jolting her very much to the present.
    "Oh, sorry, I was just thinking."
    "About what?"
    "You," she said, barely above a whisper.
    "Good," he leaned closer and looked in her eyes. "I like you thinking about me, then I don't feel so alone in the fact that I'm sure I won't stop thinking about you for a while." His eyes darted down to her lips and she wondered if he may kiss her. Instead his eyes looked uncertain for a moment and then he leaned back and picked up her drink. He tasted it and let his tongue dart to pick up a drop that lingered on his bitable bottom lip. "Mmm, a manhattan?"
    "Ye-es, they age it in oak barrels for months to develop the flavor. It's my favorite drink." Althea's voice sounded thick and husky to her ears.
    "Is that so? Well, then you should be enjoying it more, shame to let something so perfectly developed go to waste." Griffen looked down her body then back up to her lips and leaned the glass to them. As he tilted it up, she opened her mouth to swallow the smooth but heady cocktail. Griffen replaced the glass on the bar and moved his rough thumb across the swell of her lower lip to collect some of the drink that remained there. Althea gasped slightly. His thumb was delightfully cool, but she felt like her lip was on fire. Without looking away from Althea's eyes, Griffen placed his thumb gently into her mouth. "Don't want to miss this, do we?"
    Althea looked back at him and sucked his thumb into her mouth. His eyes widened, clearly shocked at how bold she'd so quickly become, but he smiled in glee as soon as he recovered, dimples in full effect. Althea smiled back and let her bottom teeth scrape the pad of his thumb while she sucked at him with her greedy mouth.
    "Althea..." Griffen removed his thumb on a slow groan of her name.
    She was so glad she told him her whole name now. Just hearing those syllables on his tongue had her warm all over and embarrassingly wet between her legs, because in that moment he made her feel so sexy.
    It thrilled her to think that for just one night she could be someone else — not a boring mom or a lonely widow, but a glamorous, desirable woman who could hold her own with a delectable man such as Griffen. The thought that she could turn him inside out, make him want her , was more intoxicating than the strong cocktail in her hand.
    "So, what do you do?"