Page 165 of The Protective Gryphen

And laughed.

“Newsflash, Ian, I get wild when I drink. I can go longer, stay harder, and I fuck like a drunken Marine. Don’t worry about that.”

When he hopped off the counter, Gryphen was confused.

“Where are you going?” he asked.

“To get us wine. I want to start having some now, so by the time we get to the rug in front of our fire, you’re drunk and disorderly.”

As soon as he said it, Ian stopped moving. He froze there, as he was hit with something he didn’t expect.

“Ian?” Gryphen asked, seeing him standing there with his eyes closed, and he’d gone pale. “What?”

It took him a second.

“I’m okay. It just hit me.”

Yeah, now, Gryphen was worried. He turned off the shower, dried off his body, and got back into his prosthetic.

“What?” he asked.

It looked like he was going to need Gryphen a lot sooner than he thought.

“I smelled him,” he said. “I said drunk and disorderly, and I had a flash of Will assaulting me while he was drunk. It just caught me off guard.”

Oh, Jesus.

It had been a while since he’d had one of the assault flashbacks, and Gryphen knew this was going to be rough on the man.

Needing to help him, Gryphen wrapped a towel around his waist, and he opened his arms.

“I won’t drink tonight. I don’t want you to be afraid of me like you’re scared of him.”

Ian went into his wet body and Gryphen held him.

“It hits at the weirdest times. That’s all. He was having martinis. I could smell the vodka and olive juice. I could feel his breath on my neck, even as he slammed my head against the floor.”

When his legs got weak, Ian sat so he didn’t pass out and hit his head.

Immediately, Gryphen sat down, and pulled Ian into his body to protectively cradle him against him. Together, they sat on that shower floor in the steamy bathroom, just trying to get through it.

“I have you,” Gryphen promised. “I have you, my one and only love.”

Thank God for that.

“Talk it out. You’ll feel better.”

So he did.

“He told me I was nothing to him. He told me I was absolutely nothing to anyone in the world, and that I needed to die.”

Gryphen kept him locked to his body, protectively housed in his arms.

“He tried to steal my life away,” he whispered. “Because I was nothing to him.”

Well, he was everything to Gryphen.

“I’m glad he didn’t. If he did, I would have been alone for the rest of my life, Ian. You’re my soulmate, and I know that to the bottom of my heart. It was always meant to be you with me.”

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