Page 57 of Griffin Undone
Liar.
I told my conscience to shove it and forced myself to focus on the screen. The movie choice hit a bit too close to home for me right now, even if it did mean I got to see Scott Speedman without a shirt. But since I hadn’t known we had movies beyond the ones shown on TV till tonight—intentionally, if I knew my trainer—my say in the choice was limited.
“Well, at least it’s notSpiderman.” In any incarnation. I thought we were up to five or six at this point.
Arik gaped in a way that was all the more comical for how serious he was. “What’s wrong withSpiderman?”
“Uh, Spiderman is man and…spiders.” A quiver shook me just thinking about it. “I hate spiders.”
“Of course. Spiders and fruit. We’ll add it to the list.” A snicker pushed its way into my mind.“Which gets longer by the minute.”
I wanted to smack him again, upside the back of the head like I had when we came inside, but…yeah, no. He’d let me get away with it once; I wouldn’t test his goodwill any further than that—or his willingness to share the popcorn.
Instead I scooped up a handful of hot, buttery goodness and tossed it into my mouth. A moan escaped as I chewed.
Arik grinned. “I guess I know what I need to use as incentive in the future, huh?”
I threw him a sour look. “Start the movie, funny guy,” I said, mouth full.
He did. While he laughed at me.
Darkness settled around us, creating an intimate nest there on the couch, lit only by the flickering light of the TV screen. Arik’s hand brushed mine when he reached for the popcorn, his knee bumped mine as he shifted to get more comfortable, and when he laughed—at the most unamusing times, like when some werewolf fell to a vampire’s blade—the sound rumbled through my body to settle in my nipples. I began to wish, desperately, that I’d put on a sweatshirt instead of my normal nightclothes.
We barely made it a third of the way through the movie before the popcorn bowl was empty. Arik scraped the bottom, grunted, then licked the butter from his finger. I watched from the corner of my eye, and all the places he could put his tongue and mouth ran through my mind in startling, arousing detail. The tingle in my nerves became a shiver I couldn’t hold back.
Arik glanced over, finger still in his mouth, gaze assessing. Sliding the digit out tugged on his lower lip in a way I couldn’t look away from. “Are you cold?”
With him next to me, licking his fingers? God no. But I nodded anyway.
Arik stood and walked into the kitchen. I heard water running, then Arik returning as he dried his wet hands on a kitchen towel. When he got close, he tossed the towel on the table and grabbed a soft fleece blanket from the back of the couch. “Here.”
When he draped the throw over me, his gaze met mine. The unmistakable glow of arousal, the same glow I’d seen on the hill earlier tonight, was beginning again. My breath caught in my throat.
Arik reached for the remote, held my reluctant gaze, and pressed the stop button. “I think it’s time to talk, Kitty Kat.”
Well crap.“Okay.” Just to give myself something to do—and to avoid that all-seeing stare—I grabbed the slightly damp towel and wiped my fingers clean. By the time I glanced up, Arik’s amusement was obvious.
I dropped the towel back on the table and settled in again, this time with my knees pulled practically up to my chin. As if that was barrier enough to hide my embarrassment. But hey, at least my too-tight nipples were covered. “What do we need to talk about?”
His words were gravel-rough. “Archai sexuality.”
A laugh choked off in my throat. “We talked about that, didn’t we?”
“Not pregnancy. Sexuality.”
My cheeks felt like they were on fire. “I really don’t need a birds-and-bees talk, Arik.”
“About this, yes you do.”
Oh.“You don’t…uh…have sex like humans?”
Arik sat on the coffee table in front of me, his legs open, knees bracketing my feet where they inched of the edge of the couch. Pushing the blanket close around my raised knees, my feet, he shifted until his body was a breath away from me. One hand cupped my thigh, the heat of his touch searing me almost as strongly as my blush did. “Of course we do. Mostly.” At my confused look, a little smile peeked out. “Depending on shifter species. That’s not the point. Yes, I have sex like a human, but when Archai are…” He actually seemed to grope for a word. “Excited, aroused—”
My hand shot up to cover his mouth. “I get it.”
Arik nipped my skin.
I dropped my stinging hand with a yelp. “How you ever managed to get appointed as a trainer, I’ll never know, Arik. You suck at explanations.”
