Page 45 of Griffin Undone
I didn’t look back as desperation hurried me across the lair and out the door. The minute I stepped into the night, I pulled out my phone and texted Risk.
You free?
I had the low-slung car Risk had found for me cranked and heading toward town before my phone buzzed in response. I glanced at the screen.
You know it, baby. Where?
Relief slashed through the weight on my shoulders, and I accelerated down the empty road.The usual.We typically met at a bar on the outskirts of town.
Be there in no time,Risk responded. Then, a couple minutes later,Missed you.
I typed in one last message before traffic took over my attention:Hurry.
At the bar I seated myself in the far corner, gathering the familiar cloak of dark and isolation around me. Away from the lair and Kat, I could let Mr. Nice Guy fade away and the predator step forward. My prey would be here any minute, bringing with her blood and sex, and though I hadn’t run her down and overpowered her, the satisfaction of the hunt was still there. I called; she came. Exactly what my animal needed, if not the prey I would have chosen.
The barstool next to mine squeaked as it received a visitor. I didn’t have to look; I breathed Risk in on a rough inhale. She smelled like hot female flesh, the way she always smelled around me. Her long, blue-tipped fingers came to rest on the bar centimeters from my arm. Her desire was so strong I could taste it on my tongue. The tang of it filled my neglected erection, but it was the scent of blood rushing like a river just beneath that vulnerable skin that lengthened my thirsty fangs. Awareness pulsed between us, heavy and sweet, but my chest remained cold.
I’d work with what I could get.
Reaching out, I ran a single hard finger up the back of her hand, along the smooth ink of the tattooed sleeve that covered one arm, up to her bare shoulder. The leather dress lovingly cupping her body hung from thin straps that left her skin unprotected—and accessible. As my touch rose higher, I shifted, my body brushing hers, until we were squared off and her turned head brought our lips within air-mingling distance.
“Arik,” she whispered, something vulnerable, tremulous twisting the word between us. I ignored it.
“Come with me,” I commanded and watched her eyelids close in response. With a shaky hand Risk reached up, pulling her long black hair over her shoulder, an unconscious invitation that wasn’t lost on my fangs, and held herself still, waiting.
I closed the last couple of inches between us, allowed my lips to barely brush that silken skin, and growled, “Now.”
Risk shivered, swallowed hard, and stood. I abandoned my near-empty beer on the bar to trail her out the back hallway, my gaze shifting from her high, round, leather-covered ass to the area behind us, confirming that no one followed.
The dark alley running behind the building stank of trash and urine. Both of us ignored the smell as Risk led me toward our second dark corner of the night. Some remote part of my mind wondered why I wasn’t more eager as I came up against Risk there in the shadows. With her mouth hot on mine, I told my mind to shut the hell up and thrust my tongue forward.
Risk moaned around my invasion. The sound, so full of temptation the last time we’d had sex, now sent cold chills down my spine. There was something off about it, something off about her touch as she cupped my face and pulled me closer, rubbed her body against mine. My dick responded to the stimulation, but even as my cock grew rigid, my urgent need to fuck died.
Desperate, I let my animal rise, let the wild out. I shoved Risk back against the brick wall, knowing the rougher I was, the quicker she got off on it. I watched as if from outside myself, detached, erect but uninvolved, until the thought of her blood quickened my breath. I gripped her thick hair in a tight fist and tilted her head, my fangs aching, my tongue sliding down the delicate slope of her neck. At the taste of her, my stomach cramped with hunger. Tilting her head farther, I scraped my sharp canines along the vulnerable line of her throat, found the perfect spot, and tapped down harder than I normally would to open her vein.
The sharp taste of A positive filled my mouth, drowning me with need. Feeding was carnal, wholly physical, and for the recipient, often sexual. Done right, the donor might never realize what occurred. Risk did. She writhed against me, cries echoing as the suction of my mouth on the sensitive curve of her neck drove her higher and higher. I pushed her toward the edge but not over, wanting, needing the satiation of both hungers, physical and sexual, after the frustration that had filled my body this week.
A week filled with Kat.
The moment her name entered my mind, I couldn’t shake it. The feel of her, the scent and taste of her saturated my thoughts. I broke off the feeding, licking up the trickle of blood that made its way across Risk’s collarbone before pressing my thumb hard over the punctures to stop the bleeding.
Risk’s breasts were flattened against my chest, nipples hardened into sharp points of desire, reminding me there was more than one reason I’d come here tonight. I dropped down to mouth those hard tips, to push us both farther. Risk’s pelvis tilted to rub my hard-on just right, catching that sensitive ridge under the head with every thrust of my hips, and yet with Kat filling my mind…nothing. Only when I surrendered to the images of a smaller body, fuller breasts, and red, curly tangles did my pulse speed up and my heart begin to pound with something other than the need for blood. Risk moaned, but it was Kat’s needy cries I heard. Risk ran long fingernails beneath the hem of my shirt, along my spine, but all I felt was Kat’s grip when I’d kissed her.
Frustration roughened my touch even more. I pounded the female into the wall, and Risk took it, arching her back to get closer. “God, Arik, do it.”
But I couldn’t take her. Not with Kat consuming every molecule of my brain. Even I wasn’t that much of a bastard.
Groaning with frustrated hunger, I slipped my hand between us, lifted her short skirt by the hem, and sought out the moist center of her heat with my fingers. I filled her roughly, plunging deep, once, twice, then again. Risk tightened around my penetration and went over the edge with a keening cry.
Coming down didn’t take her long; Risk shoved me away, turning her back as she struggled to straighten her clothes. Strangled breathing filled the silence between us. Leaning a hand that visibly shook, even in the dark, on the wall I’d just forced her to climax against, she fought for calm. Long moments passed before she finally spoke, her husky voice more mangled than ever. “Who is she?”
I clamped down on my instinctive need to protest. “Why would there be a she?”
Risk laughed, the sound tinged with a bitter flare. She straightened enough to look at me over a bare shoulder. “Because before tonight you were hot enough for me that you’d jump my bones without any encouragement whatsoever.” Her gaze dropped to my crotch, cocking a brow at my waning hardness. “Now you’re a cold fish.” She turned to lean against the wall, her position a mocking reminder of the one I’d had her in just minutes before. “Only one thing does that to a man.”
“Really?”
“Really.” Pushing off the wall, she walked toward me, her eyes dark pools I could no longer decipher. “Don’t worry, baby,” she said, her words harder than a slap to the face, “I won’t tell. Wouldn’t want to ruin your hard-ass reputation, would we?”
