Page 105 of Griffin Undone
“Why was he still out there?” I finally managed to mutter. The flush on my cheeks wasn’t all from orgasm. And just because he’d embarrassed me, I gave Arik a good smack on the chest. The orgasm insured it was a girlie smack, so I wouldn’t damage anything.“You…you…male!”
My mate chuckled. A kiss on my forehead turned into a mumbled, “They worry, Kitty Kat. Just like I do.”
Oh. But… I shook my head at my first instinct, which was to deny that anyone cared one way or the other.
“I’m gonna help you change that,”Arik promised.
I hoped he would. I tilted my head back and pulled him to me, brushed a kiss over the rugged surface of his cheek. “Thank you,” I whispered right into his skin.
Arik leaned back just enough to look at me, to catch the sheen of tears in my eyes. His mouth tightened. “For what?”
“For bringing me home with you. For finding a healer for me. For teaching me. For loving me.” And maybe most of all, “For letting me love you.” I brought my lips to his, rubbed them gently together. “We just gotta work on your attitude.”
Arik snorted, but then his eyes closed, but not before I saw them go wet. He melded our mouths together, his hand gripping my thigh and lifting. His body moved on top of mine, against mine, into mine. I closed my eyes and opened myself to my mate, mind to mind, heart to heart, revealing all that I was, all that I felt, all that my soul held. Utterly bare before him.
Our matebond clicked into place.
I gasped into his mouth. Arik thrust deep inside my body as he filled my mind, flooding me with himself, drowning me in the emotion spiking inside him. He stunned me, his love so much deeper, so much more than three little words tripping off his tongue.
He loved me, absolutely, completely. To the depths of his soul. And God, I wanted that love, more than I’d ever wanted anything in my life. Wanted him all for my own. I knew it wouldn’t be easy, but he would be worth it. We would be worth it.
That Arik wanted me just as much shook the foundation of everything I’d ever believed.
Opening my eyes, I saw my mate above me, his beautiful body straining with each surge and buck against me, his eyes wide open and glowing, his animal joined with the male as the two of them saturated themselves with their mate. I widened my legs, letting Arik drive in deeper, and expanded our connection, letting the griffin see how much I needed and wanted him. In response, Arik’s wings unfurled around us, throwing off the covers and taking their place around my overheated body.
So soft. So good. I pushed up as Arik bore down, taking all of him once, twice, and then I seized around him, dragging him over the edge with me this time.
A while later, when breath was no longer ragged and our bodies were worn out, Arik said, “We should probably get dressed,” though he stayed wrapped around me, his cock inside me. I touched his mind and found no intention of moving. Such a simple thing, but it brought a smile to my swollen lips.
I, however, needed to move a bit—between fighting and almost dying and sex, my body was protesting. A long stretch of my spine felt like bliss. “I think we need to talk first.”
“Didn’t we already do that?” Arik sounded distracted. I knew why when he clasped the round breasts I suddenly realized were shoved toward his mouth, and buried his face between them. “What were we talking about?” he asked, words muffled in my soft flesh.
I laughed, but even Arik’s all-too-male hunger couldn’t dissipate the tension in my chest. My mate, of course, sensed it. I found myself pushed onto my back, Arik’s frown looming above me. “What? Spill it, Kitty Kat.”
“I’m not going back to the Archai, Arik. Not unless you come with me. I’m not living without my mate.”
His frown softened into a smile. He didn’t make fun of my fear, didn’t dismiss me, just gave me a calm, “Of course you’re not.”
“You’re not going to argue about it?” ’Cause that would be a first.
Arik shrugged a shoulder without releasing his hold on my breasts. “I chose a strong female that can make her own decisions—well, some of her own decisions. Some of them we make together. And some…well, I’ve never been mistaken for a modern male, so we’ll probably argue about the rest. I don’t think I’ll ever be able to not put your safety above anything else.” He hesitated a moment. “I can’t promise you I’ll ever go back to the clan. Sun…we’ve made a start, but that’s all, nothing more.”
Relief filled me. We’d get there; I had no doubt. And being Archai, we had all the time in the world. But I didn’t argue the point. Instead I hooked my leg around my mate’s hip and tugged him deeper, felt a sudden rush as he hardened once again. “I don’t need anything more,” I assured him, “just you.”
Arik’s eyes turned to glowing gold at the feel of me wet and ready around him. His fingers drove into my hair, gripping my skull to position me for his hungry kiss. I opened my lips, let him fill me, inside and out. Soaked in the words of love he whispered into my mind, over and over, urging me to believe him. He didn’t have to—I already did. He loved me. I saw it in his eyes, felt it in his body, and when we linked like this, doubts became a thing of the past.
I would never be alone again, and neither would he. We weren’t lost anymore. We’d both come home.
ChapterForty-Six
Risk
Looking through binoculars, I watched the factory complex from the roof of a building several blocks away, seeing the aftermath of battle, the decimation of so many of the forces Maddox had built. If I knew Arik, Maddox was dead, but the dregs had scattered like cockroaches, searching for the dark. Giving me work to do.
Right now it was time for me to go. It wouldn’t be long before Sun’s soldiers headed this way. I needed to be safely out of the area before that happened.
Just as I moved to lower the binoculars, two warriors exited the warehouse toward the middle of the complex, one with bright, shining red hair, and the other short and blond. The blond carried a wrapped bundle in his arms. The sight of Arik walking across the compound, the female secure in his arms, was a stab to the heart, but I hadn’t been able to stay away. Needed to know he’d survived, even if it meant seeing him with someone else. My first instinct when I’d learned about her was to take her out, but I didn’t have the kinds of gifts Arik’s female was capable of. Still, all I had to do was close my eyes and I went right back to those moments when he’d heldme, took care ofme.
