Page 50 of Griffin Undone
Crouching on massive lion’s legs, the griffin bowed before me like an oversize kitten, head resting on its front paws. Wings fluttered gently, sending a gust of wind forward that blew my hair back from my face and tugged a surprised laugh from me before settling, spread like a feathered hang glider, across the floor. And still the animal’s height easily matched the top of the thick mattress I rested on.
When I could take a breath again, I scooted to the edge of the bed and slid, slow and careful, off the side, making my way inch by inch until I knelt beside the griffin’s massive body. One trembling hand reached out, far more brave than the rest of me, and buried itself in the furry feathers of the animal’s nape. “Oh, Arik,” I whispered. “It’s magnificent.”
A pleasured huff answered me. I clenched my hands in the soft fur and smiled. I moved lower, lower, tracing the heavy muscles of the animal’s shoulder, the steel of each vertebra, and tried to ignore the excited, terrified trembling that had taken up residence in my body. Arik’s animal squirmed under my touch but didn’t move away.
When I reached the front edge of the closest wing, I trailed my fingers along it. The griffin’s body tightened where I’d leaned against him, a low growl filling the air. I snatched my hand back. “I’m sorry.”
That massive head shook, whether to warn or deny me, I wasn’t sure, but then it ran its cheek and jaw along my arm. Reminded of a kitten begging for attention, I complied. The animal tucked the wing opposite me under its body and shifted onto its side, baring its vulnerable belly to my touch. I reached for that softest fur.
I’d no sooner flattened my palm against its stomach when suddenly, the change shot along its body and the animal I’d been petting was no longer beneath my fingers. Instead a very naked Arik sprawled in its place, my open hand still flat against the slight trail of hair leading from his belly button to his highly aroused sex.
“Oh!” Snatching my hand away, I scrambled backward, my gaze fixed on his pelvis.
Arik smirked as he stretched onto his back, allowing me to look my fill. “Like it?” he asked.
“What?” Did he mean his shifted form or his naked, aroused one? “I-I…” I swallowed audibly. “I…um…”
A full-fledged belly laugh shook his frame, head to toe—and everything in between. With a wicked grin that did nothing to ease my arousal or my embarrassment, Arik assured me, “That’s all right, Kitty Kat. I’ve had enough stroking for one night.” He nodded toward the chair. “Can you pass me my clothes?”
ChapterTwenty-Two
Kat
“Trouble sleeping?”
Yes, and it’s all your fault.
Arik stood in the doorway to the workout room, those ice-blue eyes trained on me with unerring attention, reminding me exactly why sleep was so hard to come by. Every time I closed my eyes, I saw Arik’s, saw the glimmer of gold begin to glow until it was a bright, shining amber, until it wasn’t Arik looking at me but his griffin, its beautiful, furry down so soft against my skin. The trail of hair below his belly button hadn’t been soft like that.
I desperately needed to stop thinking about his belly button, the treasure trail that had led to far more intriguing places, just…all of it. The griffin too. But the animal and the male both walked in my dreams, making me restless. Needy.
I rubbed my gritty eyes. “Yeah.”
Arik stepped into the workout room, the dim light from the hallway painting shadows and highlighting hollows on his bare torso. Damn it, did the man never wear a shirt? No wonder I couldn’t stop thinking about him, picturing him like this, like he’d been the other night on my bedroom floor. Like he could be if he took me to bed…
I snarled at my libido to stand down.
“Making progress?” he asked as he crossed the room, oblivious to my internal arguing.
“Not really.” The answer was actually no, but I was reluctant to admit that straight out. Not that Arik didn’t know. He tracked my training like an Olympic coach with his eye on a gold medal. Unfortunately for him, I wasn’t gold-medal material, but he seemed determined to get me there.
Good luck with that.
“You know you need to push it, Kat.”
I thought about that bright red blush on his ribs after I’d “punched” him.I’m afraid to push it.And this was my future, my body, right? Maybe I wanted a little more control over both. Maybe it was time to question things a little more. “Why?”
He looked at me like I’d lost my mind, but I forced myself to speak up, to voice at least one of the hundreds of questions swirling in my head like water in a toilet bowl stuck on flush. “Why can’t we just let it happen…naturally? Let me adjust to all this”—I twirled a hand in the air, indicating the lair and…well, everything, really—“before I have to worry about fighting? It’s not like I’m going anywhere.” I hadn’t been out of the lair since I’d arrived, and yet I hadn’t even questioned that. Why? “I mean, I’m safe here, right?”
Please say right.
Arik stopped in front of me, shaking his head. “No.”
Fear clenched my gut into a knot.
“I told you what happened when you were triggered, Kat.”
I cringed, wishing again that he hadn’t.
