Page 69 of Griffin Undone
This…this hurt.
I didn’t reach out. I curled onto my side, facing away from him, pulled my knees up to ease the unsatisfied ache low in my belly. I could hear Arik’s ragged breathing, loud in the silent aftermath. Questions circled, but no answers came in the endless moments of waiting except one: I hadn’t meant to say it. I’d known on some level that I was falling in love with him—how could I not? He was the first person I’d been close to, the first person who seemed to understand me, enjoy being with me. My first lover. I’d known, and now Arik knew too.
And even tightly closed eyes and the gathering of my ripped clothes around my naked body couldn’t protect me from what I knew was coming. What I didn’t know was why.
“Shit!”
The word was low, vicious, more cruel than any I’d heard from this man who’d befriended me when I needed it most. It lashed at me like a whip. I hugged my knees closer, wishing I was anywhere but here. But moving was impossible; instinct froze my muscles in place, leaving my body and soul vulnerable to the man behind me.
The sounds of Arik crossing to the bathroom scraped at my ears, then clothing slapping, sliding, accompanied by more curses, but it was the distinct slide of Arik’s zipper that jarred my self-protective instincts. I wasn’t a coward, whether he believed that or not. We were stuck here together, Arik was my trainer if nothing else, and we couldn’t work with this between us. I rolled to a sitting position, facing off with my opponent.
The movement drew Arik’s attention. He stilled, every molecule of his tight, angry form seeming to zero in on my barely covered body.
“What’s wrong?” I finally asked.
Not a great opener, but hey, I was new at this.
Arik snorted. Scathing. Ugly. Who the hell was this male? He was nothing like the Arik I’d agreed to drink blood from a mere handful of hours ago, nothing like the man I’d thought I was giving my virginity to. This Arik, the one who’d just crawled through my body as if he owned it, was a stranger, and yet, like a mask lifting from my eyes, I had the uneasy feeling he’d been this man all along.
“What, you can’t figure it out?” He snagged his T-shirt from the floor before pinning me with his gaze again. “Come on, Kat, you’ve got psych abilities. Read my mind. What the hell do you think is wrong?”
I sat, stunned, tongue-tied, watching him yank the tight black tee over his head. A cool breeze reminded me of my lack of clothes. I grabbed the sheet, pulling it up and over my bare breasts and shoulders. The cloth gave me some small semblance of safety.
I managed a shrug. “You’ll have to enlighten me.”
“Just forget it.” Running a hand over the rough bristles of hair across the top of his head, he clamped his eyes closed, then opened them. The dark depths were impossible to read. “Just forget this ever happened. It’s gone way too far.”
I cringed, down deep inside where I prayed he couldn’t see, but refused to back down. Thinking over the last hour, I considered the drive, the need he’d seemed to have to tame me. He’d been upset when I found him in the office, and then my words had set him off. Was he starting to feel something he shouldn’t?
Ignoring the childish thrill that sent through my body, I asked, “Is it because you’re my trainer? You can’t get involved with me because I’m your responsibility?”
Arik took a fast, threatening step toward the bed. “You’re not my goddamn responsibility; you’re my prize.”
Prize?
“So this”—I waved a vague hand in the air, indicating what, I didn’t know—“is all just part of the training, is that what you’re saying?”
“How the hell should I know?”
Really, could he confuse me any more? I rubbed cold fingers between my brows, hoping some clarity would miraculously appear. “If you’ve never trained anyone before, why did Sun send me with you?”
“He didn’t. I stole you, right out from under their noses, babe.”
Taking advantage of my stunned silence, Arik stepped closer. “You wanna know why you’re here? Not because Sun sent you, not because that freak Grim sent you. You’re here because I took you away from them.” A rough laugh punctuated the words. “You’re a means to an end. What happened here”—he threw a hand toward the rumpled bed—“this was…nothing.”
I didn’t respond, didn’t breathe, but I couldn’t look away from the train wreck bearing down on my heart.
“That team that attacked you? Their boss and I go way back. I knew the minute I saw what was happening that there was no way I’d ever let him have you. You are my best chance of finally taking that bastard out for good. The perfect bait. The perfect weapon.” He ran a frigid gaze along my stiff form. “If you can manage to get your act together, that is.”
That earned a flinch. I couldn’t help it. There was no denying the truth of his statement, not that I had to like it. I was good enough to fuck, to use, but only if I performed. Obviously I’d failed on both fronts.
Might as well go for broke. “So…I’m a weapon to you? Something you plan to use against…?”
“Maddox.”
“Maddox. That’s it?” I shook my head slowly. “That doesn’t require you to sleep with me.”
The grim line of his sensuous mouth twisted. “Just scratching an itch.”
