Page 53 of Griffin Undone
But the minute the word left my mouth, the lava cooled and disappeared, fizzling out like a sputtering candle. I didn’t have to hear the silence to know nothing had happened.
“Kat—”
Irritation peaked, at myself and him. My eyelids flew open as I swept a hand around to bat away his interruption. “Shut up!”
Before my unbelieving eyes, the row of bottles on Arik’s side of the circle popped open as if a blade had struck them all in a single swipe. A loud splash sounded.
Arik grunted as water hit his face.
For a moment neither of us moved. And then, despite the thunderhead gathering in Arik’s expression, I burst out laughing. “You— You look—” Oh God. He looked like a drenched cat, actually. Water dripped down his hair, his skin, even his eyelashes. One laugh rolled into another until my stomach hurt, until I was rolling on the floor, crying and laughing and clutching my middle to still the pain. And every time I thought I had it under control, one look at him sent me off into orbit all over again.
It was a good five minutes before a grin began to sneak its way past Arik’s glower. He shook his head, spraying water over the floor and me. “You’re a mess,” he told me, amusement teasing the words and me.
Wiping tears from my cheeks, I couldn’t resist. “I think that’s you.”
“Yeah, well…” He got up, crossed the room, and nabbed a towel from a nearby shelf to dry off, but not before rewarding me with a sexy wink. “You and me both, then.”
ChapterTwenty-Three
Kat
Arik strode into the kitchen, the Mr. Sadistic face he wore when we trained firmly in place. Great. “You ready, Kat?”
If I’d learned anything in the past weeks, it was to read Arik’s moods. Outside of the workout room, he was charming, to say the least. Friendly, considerate—he made me feel at home in a world I didn’t truly understand. He’d even handled the awkward conversation about my lack of a period without flinching. Turned out Archai females only ovulated every few years. If they hadn’t—I considered the possibility of being fertile constantly for a thousand years and shuddered. Yeah, I was perfectly happy with a period every five or ten years, thanks.
And then there were those moments when just a look from Arik seared me with desperate, hungry heat. That, I was slowly getting used to. He’d kept his promise, not pushing me faster than I could handle. If my days in bed had become long hours of lust-filled dreams, that wasn’t his fault, at least not entirely.
But either of those moods was preferable to this one. That tone of voice was allI’m gonna enjoy this, but you probably won’t. Like the crack of a whip. This Arik, the one I’d come to think of as Trainer Arik, I’d learned to be wary of, because it usually meant I’d be hurting and exhausted by the end of the night.
“Ready for what?” I asked, gathering my dishes to dump into the sink.
He jerked his chin in the direction of my plate. “Finish that fruit and I’ll tell you.”
“Does that mean I don’t have to eat the fruitordo whatever you’ve got planned?” I emphasized the sugary-sweet note in my voice and batted my eyelashes like Betty Boop.
“Don’t know. Why don’t you try me?”
Uh-uh, not with that look in his eye. I sat back down with a pout. The pull on my lower lip made me feel like a two-year-old, but dang it, I didn’t like fruit. I wasn’t trying to be difficult; it was a texture thing.
Just stomp your foot while you’re at it, Kat.
Maybe he’d reward my noncompliance by coaxing me the way he had the last time we’d had this argument.
“Eat, Kat,” he commanded.
Or not.
Fruit and torture. Not a good morning. The smile flirting with Arik’s sensual lips as he watched me choke down the rest of my breakfast, made me want to hit him—which, I was beginning to suspect, was why he did it.
“Good girl,” he said when the last piece of banana—gag!—disappeared into my mouth. I flashed him a strained smile and swallowed the piece whole, no chewing. A shudder shook me as my throat threatened to close. The fact that it was soft just made the whole thing worse.
A quick swirl of water helped wash the taste away.
“Grab the coat, boots, heavy socks, and gloves I put in your room.”
Well, that was different. We were going outside? The realization that I’d be breathing fresh air for the first time in weeks sent me in a giddy rush down the hall, yucky fruit almost forgotten. By the time I returned, I was vibrating in my boots. I caught a sly grin on Arik’s face as he led the way out the massive front door of the lair.
Icy-cold air slapped me in the face with my first step outside. Brrr. Winters in Nashville were mild compared to the rest of the country, but thirty-five degrees was thirty-five degrees, and we hit it often in the middle of the night. “At least it’s not snowing,” I grumbled.
