We came full-circle at the next dance class, an entire week after we met. How has it only been a week? I hadn’t seen Griffin since our late-night tryst on my couch, but he called every day and we had a date after class. Kind of a date. Well, it was a family thing with us, the girls, Harriet, and Briggs at the park. So not a real date. Harriet had been begging to keep the girls for us, but Griff was paranoid about leaving Celia, so we set up a playdate with my best friend and her future baby daddy. She had gotten a tattoo from him a few days before and Jovie had made a point to go for the sole purpose of torturing my … whatever he was after a week. If only I could have been a fly on the wall for that conversation. Jovie had rehashed it for me, pretending to be innocent in the whole thing, but she was a crappy liar.

The attire in the dance room was the opposite of the week before. Gone were the yoga pants and ponytails. They all looked like they were ready for an episode of Desperate Housewives with their gobs of makeup and perfect hair. I had changed after my half day at work but didn’t dress up. Why bother? The man had seen me naked so what I wore didn’t matter. By the way he acted, Griffin would have preferred me naked.

Five heads turned at warp speed when I opened the door and strode to my seat at the other end. I never felt smug, but in that moment, I was all kinds of cocky. They only wanted to screw him anyway, or just look at him. Each one of them was married so unless he was stooping to the level of secret fuck buddy, it wasn’t happening. I should have let the women lust and kept quiet, but I wanted them to know. I wanted each of those bitches in the room to know without a doubt that Griffin was mine, at least for a while. I wanted to write it on the glass and scream in Karen’s stupid face that he would never be her dirty little secret.

Griffin walked in, taking up nearly the entire doorway, and making eye contact with me as I turned casually to see him. Is the man even more beautiful than last time? The tight shirt was doing its best to stay together over his arms and accentuated every ripple of his stomach muscles. Before the guy could even make it to me, Karen stopped him. Bitch.

“Come sit with me for a second. I want to talk to you about something.” She touched his arm making me want to fly out of my seat to claw her eyes out, but I gripped the metal folding chair instead. Griffin had turned me into a possessive monster in a single week. Karen tossed me a cocky smile, and I smiled back. Whore. Griffin sat next to her, but with a seat between them, until she moved closer. I was possessive as hell over him, but it was stupid. We talked every day, had slept together a few times, but it didn’t mean he was mine, no matter how badly I wanted him to be. Griffin had called me his, treated me like a girlfriend, but I knew better than to get my hopes up. Well, no I didn’t know better. If I knew better, I wouldn’t have been pissed over Karen Tolley touching my man.

My man. Good God, the guy has made me crazy.

I turned back toward the glass, listening to what she was saying. I knew she wanted me to hear it anyway. Karen wanted me to know she was talking to him and would want me to hear every word. I was determined to stay classy, not flip out, but it was not an easy task. “So, Sophie’s birthday party is next weekend, and she was hoping you would bring little Celia. They had such a good time in class last week.” I rolled my eyes, focused on Celia and Axel stretching together and giggling while the other girls stayed clustered at the other end of the barre. It was a mirror image of the parents. “It’s at the country club next Saturday at noon. We have entertainment coming and it’s a princess theme. Oh, there will be swimming so bring a suit.” I swallowed the urge to vomit at her syrupy voice and innuendo. The slut might as well have said, “Please come so I can see what is happening under your shirt.”

Griffin said something to her quietly, then there was shuffling, and he dropped down next to me. I slid my eyes to him, crossed my arms, struggling not to laugh at how uncomfortable he looked. Being the hot dad at dance class had him out of his element. Good, if I had to feel like a jealous lunatic, Griffin could be uncomfortable. Then I noticed his haircut and unshaven face. Damn it, I couldn’t even be mad about Karen anymore. The hair on the sides and back was buzzed short with long dark hair on top was tousled over to the side. And that beard. I would cut him off if he thought he was shaving it again. I wanted my hands in it, wanted to feel it on every inch of my skin.

“Hey, babe.” He nudged me with his knee, but I was going to milk my pretend anger as long as I could. The more pissed he thought I was, the more he would try to make it up to me later.

I looked around, making sure to catch Karen staring. “Oh, were you talking to me?” I smirked, he glared, then we both laughed. “You got quite the invitation. I think you should go. Oh, take pictures so I can laugh at the uppity bitches later.”

Griffin leaned in close to my ear. “Watch this.” He leaned back, turning back to Karen. “We don’t have plans, right, babe? So, we’ll be there.” I nearly died laughing at the look on Karen’s face. I wasn’t invited, neither was Ax, but she knew he would see it as rude if she said that, and the skank wanted in Griffin’s good graces, or just his bed. So, she smiled and nodded until Griffin focused back on the class, then she killed me with her look. Priceless.

“You are so fucking hot right now, and I’m not even talking about the beard,” I sat back, crossing my legs, and he draped his arm over the back of my chair. Maybe I stood exactly where I thought. Maybe Griffin was mine too.

We watched the rest of class, somehow managing to keep our hands to ourselves, and after class let out we walked out to collect our kiddos. When Karen approached, I couldn’t help myself. “How is Shane?” Her husband. “I haven’t seen him since you were sick a few months back and he brought your little sweetie in.”

“He’s fine.” Then her gaze went determined. “Works long hours to keep us up, you know how it is. Oh, wait, no. You don’t know how that is, do you?” Then she smiled. I had asked for her low blow, but I wasn’t going to back down. I’d rather earn my way than brag about some cheating piece of shit “keeping me up.”

Sophie walked over to her mom. “Hey, Sophie. Looks like Axel and I will be at your party too. What kinds of things to you like? I know Ax will love shopping for you.” No one moved toward the door, everyone watched it unfold. Sophie started naming off all the things she liked while I picked up Axel. The list was a mile long, because she was a spoiled brat, but I smiled and nodded the entire time. “Your party sounds so fun. Axel’s party is this weekend; you guys should come. The water park downtown at two Sunday.” Then I patted Karen’s arm. “Thank you so much for inviting us to Sophie’s party. We can’t wait.”

Then she stooped even lower, setting her sights on Griffin. “When she starts driving you to a coke habit too, you give me a shout, Griffin.” I bit my cheek, hard, feeling my face flush. Fuck her. I rolled my eyes dramatically and started toward the door, pretending I wasn’t about to completely break down. If I took the bait, Axel would be without parents, because I would kill the bitch. When I realized Griffin wasn’t following me, I turned to see him put Celia down and usher her toward me. Then he stalked toward Karen, making her back into the wall with everyone watching. The woman was even shorter than me, so he made her look tiny as he loomed over her. Then he leaned down close to her ear, boxing her in with his hands. My stomach clenched at the sight of him so close to another woman. Her face flushed, she bit her lip, and he shoved off her. Griffin strode past me, scooped up Celia, and held the door open for me. The look Griffin gave me told me to move my ass, so I ducked under his arm with Axel. We walked down the sidewalk with our girls whispering behind us.

Halfway to the park, he snatched me up by the waist, spun me into him to devour my mouth. I’m talking dizzying, weak knees, toe-curling, gasping for breath kind of kisses. Axel giggled and I shoved off him, trying my damnedest to look pissed.

“It’s cute when you do that, babe. I like when you get feisty.” Then he took my hand while we walked the rest of the way to the park. Harriet and Briggs were on a bench waiting, cuddled up with a book between them, but stood when we got close. They were almost sweet enough to give me a damn toothache.

Harriet’s smile faded instantly. “What’s wrong?” I shook my head, forced a smile and hugged Briggs quickly. She dropped it, but I knew she would bring it up again later. Griffin pushed the girls on the swings and Harriet breezed over to talk to him, leaving me with Briggs. We chatted about mutual friends, mainly Lydia and Jacob, as we strolled over to the swings. Lydia was due with kid number three in a few months, and we couldn’t wait to meet the mystery baby. Then Briggs’ brother showed up. I hated Beck Layton. Not the way I claimed to hate Griffin, but true unadulterated hate. Harriet wasn’t a huge Beck fan, either, and she loved everyone for fear of bad karma. They had made peace, but I still hated Beck, had since the day we met.

Beck hopped out of his convertible, not in the mood to be inconvenienced by a door, then swaggered over to us. Briggs offered me an apologetic look before his twin spoke. “Cori Sharpe, I had no idea your fine ass would be here.” He smirked a half smile and I rolled my eyes. The guy had a cocky switch that was stuck in the on position. Beck blocked my view of Briggs, turning his back to me, and whispering. As bad as I wanted to listen in, I wandered over to Griff, staying far away from Beck.

“What did Beck say to you?” I loved when he got bossy.

“Tell me what you said to Karen. Her face turned awfully red and she looked like you melted her conservative panties clean off.” Griff laughed at my vulgarity, but I was dead serious.

“I told her the only habit I had was fucking you, so she should learn to play nice and we would see her at Sophie’s party.” He shrugged like it was no big deal, looking down at me expectantly. I was going to kill him. Harriet giggled uncontrollably behind me, and I felt my face flush.

“Please tell me you didn’t say that. Please.” I covered my face, shaking my head. As nice as it was to see Karen blush, being taken down a peg or two, I truly hoped he hadn’t aired our sex life to a woman in the dance class. The last thing I needed other than being viewed as the class charity case was to be the class whore.

Beck and Briggs walked over and Beck shook Griffin’s hand. I kept my eyes on the tension in his face, trying not to die from embarrassment.

“Hey, eyes up,” Griffin growled, making me turn in time to see Beck look up from my ass. I nearly giggled, but then realized Griff wasn’t teasing. He looked like he could jump Beck at any second, and I moved between them.

Beck stepped around me into Griffin’s face. “Excuse me?” Briggs grabbed for his brother and I stepped wedged between them again, putting my hands on Griffin’s chest, thanking the Gods that the girls were sliding at the other side of the park. “Get the fuck off me, Briggs. If this clown wants a fight, I’ll give him one. No one talks to me like that, friends or not.” Beck was obviously dumber than I thought because Griffin was way bigger than him.

Griffin growled and I leaned up to his ear. “Celia is here. Beck isn’t worth it. Please just stop. It’s not a big deal.”

“Don’t be a piece of shit, Beck. You know she’s mine.” Griffin glanced down at me and spun to go play with Celia, leaving a pissed off Beck and a relieved Harriet. Briggs yelled at Beck, telling him to leave, but Beck lingered around, asking for Griffin to beat his ass. Once Beck finally left, the tension eased, and Griffin still seemed off, but it was better than a fight.

We played at the park until dinner time then walked back to the cars with Griffin agreeing to let Harriet watch the girls for us one night, so we could take another stab at a real date. Harriet clapped and squealed, swearing to have it all planned out soon. The woman swore she didn’t want kids, but her reaction to babysitting made me question her.

“Come to my place for dinner.” He took my hand, jerking me into him, “I need a reminder of what’s mine.” He smirked, but I scowled.

“Don’t act like a caveman. It’s not sexy,” I lied. Griffin shrugged and opened my door. I took it to mean the conversation was over so I got into the Jeep, cursing him under my breath. He pulled out, and I followed him to his place right behind Needles.

The house looked like something from a fairy tale, not at all like the place Griffin would live. It was three stories and slate gray with white trim. The flower garden overflowed with bright pink flowers. It was like Pleasantville, but in color. Perfect lines were in the fresh-cut grass; the second story even had window boxes. We got out and I looked up at Griffin with what had to be pure confusion. He shrugged, took my hand, leading us up to the black front door, complete with a summery wreath, and pushed it open. I almost expected someone, the real homeowner to stop us, but no such luck. Celia pulled Axel in and down the stairs of the split foyer. Griffin pulled me up the wooden stairs to an open kitchen with a dining room and sitting room. It was decorated elegantly with antique furniture and oil paintings. Not prints, genuine oil paintings. It was like walking into The Twilight Zone, but in a good way. Textured walls ran through the house, a complimenting wooden floor was dotted with area rugs and a few family photos adorning the walls. Yeah, Twilight Zone.

A gigantic buckskin Pitbull came thundering down the hall, sliding across the hardwood floors, feet scrambling to get traction. The dog slid into Griffin’s shins and he dropped to the ground to tickle the dog’s belly. “Who’s a good boy?” Griffin crooned over the dog, rubbing his belly, “Tank’s a good boy. Tank is.”

“You have a dog?” I crossed my arms over my chest, not believing that the guy had a dog and never told his … whatever I was.

“Tank is my boy.” The dog jumped to his feet, letting me pet him before scrambling to go see the girls. “Would have made sense to tell you, huh?” I rolled my eyes and he pecked my forehead.

“Griffin?” His mother appeared from the hall and startled when she saw me there too. “I didn’t know we were having company.” Lily took my hand and squeezed it lightly.

“Cori and Axel are staying for dinner, but I’ll order out.” Griffin kissed my head leaving me to stand awkwardly in the hallway with his mother.

“I didn’t mean to intrude. We were just down at the park.” Lily started shaking her head fiercely. Griffin was already on his phone, dialing us up some food.

“You aren’t intruding. I’m so glad you’re here.” She hurried into the kitchen after Griffin, fussing for him to hang up so we could. Griffin silently asked if I was okay with cooking. I nodded. Cooking with Lily sounded like fun, especially once the girls got involved. The kitchen was as gorgeous as the rest of the house with plants in every window and tons of granite counter space. Ax and I could do some serious cooking in there.