Page 43 of Griffin Undone
And then her lashes swept down, her head tipped to the side, giving Cale better access, and I decided I must have mistaken what I saw—or didn’t see—in her eyes.
“Hey, baby,” Cale said. Stepping back, he turned to present Risk to me.
“Nice to meet you,” I said.
“My pleasure.” Her husky voice held just a tinge of come-hither that crawled along my nerves. Granted, she wasn’t outright coming on to me, but she belonged to Cale; even a hint made me uncomfortable. As if the strange attraction I’d felt at the sight of her across the room could drag me under without warning, and her voice would be the trigger.
She reached out a hand, and I was forced to clasp it in mine. Her fingers felt delicate despite the long red fingernails that tipped each one. The moment our palms met, an electric charge hit my body hard enough to rock me up on my toes. White lightning froze everything, a single second in time, before jolting me forward into the next.
Not only her voice, then. God.
Sound returned. My grip tightened. My phoenix leaped into my throat, wanting out. The shock forced me to suck in a breath, and Risk’s scent coated my tongue as my groin flared to even harder life. And all the while, those blue eyes were glued to mine, the expression fathomless, a brick wall between me and everything my body screamed for.
Damn it.
This human was aptly named.
A coaxing tug on my hand made me realize I still held her fingers in a ruthless grip. I forced myself to release her, my jaw clenched. What the hell had I walked into?
I pushed my brain to shift from my crotch to my people’s situation as Cale and Risk led me to the very back of the room, zipping away the guilt over my reaction to Cale’s woman. I could examine the strange intensity another time. Not like I was planning to do anything about it, and we had much more important things to focus on than an unrequited hard-on. Even if I wasn’t the prince and head of the Archai army, I would never betray a fellow warrior. I’d had enough experience with that 900 years ago.
Cale got right to business as we settled into a corner booth. “Sun is the man who wants to hire you, baby.”
Risk bumped the male playfully in the side. “I’m not that kind of girl, Cale. You know that.”
I winced inwardly at the implication that I would have to resort to hiring a hooker.“Do I look that hard up?”I asked Cale silently, ignoring the male’s not so silent laughter. My animal squawked with offended pride.
“Suck it up, buttercup,”Cale sent back.
Grumbled words escaped under my breath. I must seem like a stodgy old male compared to the two people sitting across from me.
“Youarea stodgy old male,”Cale supplied.
Of course. I was a male with a long history behind me, a history entwined with Arik’s. Thinking of my equally old friend stirred my anger, and I took a deep breath, held it, then allowed it to release, slow and sure. Still, my words came out sharper than intended. “So why should we trust you, Risk?”
The flirtatious grin on the female’s face melted away. In that instant her expression flickered, and I caught a brief glimpse of something dark in her eyes before Risk straightened, leaned forward.
Steel, that’s what I saw in her eyes.
“You shouldn’t trust me, Sun,” she said in that husky voice. “We all have secrets; no one can convince you they don’t, and if they try, they’re lying.” She eased back against the wall of the booth. “I can’tproveI’m trustworthy; that comes with time. All I have to point to is my reputation, which speaks for itself.”
It wasn’t enough in the given situation, and if not for Cale being ready and able to stay on top of the female—literally, I thought with a grimace—I wouldn’t accept it. But Cale was, and we’d already put boundaries in place to ensure the clan’s safety in the event Risk proved unreliable.
I studiously ignored the whisper of my animal deep inside, proclaiming me the best male to watch over Risk—in every way.
Cale was smoothing things over with his usual skill. I stayed quiet and let the warrior outline what we needed. Risk nodded her head at significant points—whether in agreement or understanding, I wasn’t sure—and only balked at the money we offered.
Her snort vibrated the delicate rings in her nose. “Oh, big boy, I don’t think so.” The number she spoke was twice ours, and negotiations began. We ended up somewhere in the middle, almost exactly where I had expected.
“I’ll take half up front.”
“Not here, you won’t,” I growled. “Let’s go for a walk.”
Risk searched my face, and I swore I felt a brush of psychic energy across my mind. Instinct flared, slamming down thick walls of protection hard enough to reverberate painfully back through the connection, but Risk never flinched. Someone else, then?“Cale?”
The griffin’s yellow gaze scanned the club before he jerked his head in a negative.“Nothing.”
“Get her moving.”
