Page 46 of Griffin Undone
I deserved that. Worse, probably, though I refused to let her see it. She wouldn’t thank me for not taking her when my mind had been on someone else, and an orgasm was obviously inadequate recompense. I knew, because the blood I’d taken had done nothing to ease my own dissatisfaction.
Risk’s shoulder knocked into mine as she slipped by. Each step contained an obvious wobble I refrained from commenting on, just as I refrained from arguing. Risk knew the score between us. An off night didn’t mean Kat had any hold on me.
Jealousy wasn’t an emotion I would’ve associated with the street-savvy Risk, but she was a female, after all.
That wobble replayed in my mind. I was a hard-ass; she was right about that. Still… “Risk—”
She turned to face me, the light from the alley’s opening outlining her strong body. “Let me know if you need anything, Arik,” she called back to me. “Of course, I think the price just went up.”
My eyes narrowed. “Making me pay, Risk?”
A wry smile tilted the corner of her kiss-swollen mouth. “Shoulda thought of that before you used your hand instead of your cock.” And then she was gone, leaving me alone in a dirty alley, relief even farther away than it had been at the start of this night.
ChapterTwenty
Arik
The door to the lair closed with a slow, unsatisfyingwhoosh—made sense, considering it weighed about 200 pounds. What I really needed was a slam. A whoosh was nowhere near loud enough to express the roiling emotions surging through my body.
Even a shift and long flight with my griffin hadn’t erased the argument with Risk from my head, the outcome of the night, the reason I’d been left with a pulse-pounding, highly fucking unsatisfied hard-on when I’d had satisfaction right up against it.
Risk’s words echoed in my head:“Only one thing does that to a man.”I wanted to deny them, needed to deny them with everything I was. Kat was an itch I needed to scratch, that was all, not the fucking love of my life. The circumstances surrounding the past few days had simply sucked up my libido, that was all. Really. Happened to every man—or shifter—every once in a while.
That had to be it. Nothing else was possible.
I shoved away Risk’s words and stomped through the front rooms of the lair. Relief eased some of the tightness in my chest when I saw that all was dark. Kat must’ve gotten tired of waiting and gone on to bed. At least facing her hadn’t been added to the clusterfuck that had been my night.
Stepping into the living room area, I saw the low flickering of the TV, muted, shadowing the depths of the room and almost concealing the blanket-covered mound laid out across the deep leather couch. Kat lay sound asleep on the slate-gray cushions, a matching throw drawn over her head until only her closed eyes and delicate nose peeked out into the chilly underground air. Her breath sighed into the room, deep and even, the only sound in my ears besides my suddenly thundering heartbeat.
Soft yellow light began to spill from my eyes as my animal and my hunger rose.
Thank fuck she wasn’t awake.
I began a slow stalk across the room, warning my griffin to shut that shit down before I reached the couch. It took long minutes for my control to firm enough that I could kneel beside her, minutes spent tracing the length of her body with my glowing gaze and arguing with myself.
She’s not as fragile as she seems.
Solidify your position before your cock gets involved.
This torment isn’t going away, is it?
Fuck.
I scooped Kat, blanket and all, into my arms. She nestled her cool nose into the hollow between my throat and shoulder, each exhalation a searing caress that made me damn near cross-eyed as I moved toward the hall, desperate to get her in bed—herbed,alone—and get the hell away from her. Yet every step rocked her soft curves against my body, the sweet scent of her rising to taunt me, tempt me. I didn’t need light—my eyes glowed brighter with each inhale. By the time I reached her room, I was struggling to ignore the call of her body and my sex and my animal all at once.
As I stopped beside the bed, Kat moaned against my throat. I wanted to drop her like a hot potato, but I couldn’t. Nor could I rush from the room—after laying her gently on the covers, I turned to leave, but the sight of her bare toes peeking from under the blanket stopped me in my tracks, refusing to allow my escape until I’d covered them with the quilt.
That moment, more than any other since I’d left the lair earlier tonight, shook me to my core.
Lust I could accept, but I couldn’t. Fucking. Care. I knew better. But as I stood outside in the hall, staring at Kat’s closed door, the drumbeat thundering in my chest threatened to overpower what I believed. As objective, as detached as I wanted to be, that little female on the other side of the door seemed to be tearing my detachment away and replacing it with something I refused to accept. I had no room in my soul for anything but revenge.
Since the moment my father’s scream had echoed in my head, I’d promised my parents retribution. It was the only honor I had left. Everything else had been systematically stripped away, first with my parents’ murders, my clan’s attempt to kill me, then every encounter with Maddox and his sick games in the years following. Giving a fuck about anything else, letting it rule me—including a vulnerable psych and the hunger she stirred up—was a betrayal of everything I lived for, everything I’d promised my parents and myself.
It had to stop.
Leaving the light off in my cold office, I keyed up my computer. I’d been reviewing security footage around Nashville, searching for more details regarding Anigma activity, but though I’d seen Maddox’s teams on camera, the bastards had been careful to keep what they were doing hidden. Even Kat’s attack had been arranged in an area out of surveillance range. Still, the Anigma team had targeted Kat because she carried Archai genes. She couldn’t be unique; I’d bet my wings on it. Other attacks, if they existed, would give me a better idea of what my enemy was planning.
Several hours later I stood and stretched, my back aching from the time in front of the computer, eyes still on the screen as the bank feed I’d managed to download and unscramble shot by on fast-forward. I should head to bed after this; I needed to sleep before Kat woke u—
