Page 97 of Griffin Undone
“Christ, Kat.” She was stretched full-length on her stomach, facing away from me. Satisfaction curled in my chest at the sight of her bare lower body. The fact that she didn’t move, didn’t continue across the bed, didn’t attempt to hide herself from me brought out a purr.
Kat flipped. I braced myself for a kick, a fight, but Kat lay still, her hooded gaze on me. Even when I ran my palms up her legs, grasped those sweet thighs, and pushed them apart until she was pinned like a butterfly, all her secrets open and accessible for whatever I desired, she didn’t resist.
“That’s it, Kitty Kat. Give to me.” I bent, brought my mouth to her knee. “Please,” I whispered, voice hoarse, laying my need bare before her despite the power I held.
A deep inhale lifted Kat’s breasts, her ribs. On the exhale her hands drifted to her sides, then out, open, splaying across the bed. Her muscles relaxed. Giving in, giving me complete access. My gut clenched as I followed the mental path that connected our minds.
And it was at that moment that I realized the thing I desired most, Kat’s mind, remained closed to me. Her body dripped cream onto the comforter beneath her, but her mind was locked solid, refusing me entry.
Pain knifed through me. I needed her, in me, with me, surrounding me. That need could only be filled by the sharing of her soul, her sex, and her blood. But I’d forced enough. If she wouldn’t willingly give it all to me, then by God, I’d take whatever she did offer.
I nosed along Kat’s slender legs until I reached her sweet female center. A single swipe satisfied my taste for her arousal, and then my mouth found the artery running so tantalizingly close, right down the inside of her thigh, and I latched on. A quick stick of my fangs. A gasp and jerk from Kat. But it was the honeyed, intoxicating taste of blood and feminine need that filled my senses to the point of drowning. Her blood flowed, thick and rich, down my throat. Kat gasped with each draw, unable to resist the bite. I could feel her desire, her desperation as she lifted her hips to me, her body crying out for the fulfillment only I could provide—and yet, underneath her rising hunger was the steel wall of her will, closing herself off, keeping me from going any farther, denying me the very core of who she was. My mate. My heart. My everything.
No longer.
Placing my palm against her clit, I ground in, the circular motion of my hand matching the rhythm of my drawing mouth. Kat’s final gasp rose to a scream. Against my palm, her center pulsed, squeezed, and she fell over the edge into orgasm. It shimmered in her blood, sending a powerful surge straight to my balls, which drew up tight, desperate to explode. Still I lingered, rasping my tongue over the pinpricks I’d left behind, savoring every last drop until no more remained.
Kat’s eyes were closed, the aftershocks of her climax continuing to rock her, when I came up on my knees and placed the aching head of my shaft at her core. Without preamble, without warning, I surged deep in a single thrust.
“Arik!” Kat tried to jackknife, but my heavy chest blocked the movement, pressing her back down into the mattress. My name on her lips trailed off into another groan when I drew back, then entered her again, harder this time. She was wet and hot and tight around me, and I needed to submerge myself in her, in all of her. I couldn’t get close enough, couldn’t get deep enough, could only force my way in when all the doors between us seemed to be closing in my face.
I needed her, this, now. While I could still get it.
Curving my body above her, I brought one full, beautiful breast to my mouth, trapping the still-erect tip between my teeth and drawing hard, laving her, loving her with every pull of my lips and every thrust of my heavy cock. A surge of energy rippled through her body, tingling on my tongue, but she didn’t push me away. Instead her hands found my head, slid across the rough stubble of my hair. Her fingers clasped the back of my neck to urge me closer. I opened wide, taking in as much of her as I could manage, and feasted on the erotic swell of her breast. One hand slid under her neck, holding her close and still, and the other cupped the small of her back, forcing her up with every thrust, bringing our bodies together with a power that sparked flames along my spine and down to the full sac brushing her ass with each advance. I swelled inside her, dragging my pelvic bone against her clit. On the third desperate push, Kat went rigid beneath me, a cry escaping her lips, and with a final hard suck and equally hard plunge, we hit our high together, the roar of pleasure drowning out everything but the hunger that had brought us together.
Minutes later, when the wave finally subsided and reality settled with gentle insistence on my shoulders, my mind sought my mate’s, the bone-deep connection we had discovered in each other only a few days ago. The link that made me whole.
And hit the barrier Kat had created, strong and impenetrable. Leaving me with nothing.
ChapterForty-Two
Kat
The chest bumps and boisterous calls of the thirty or so Archai preparing for battle reminded me of a football locker room. Replaceopponentwithenemyand the conversation would be remarkably similar, except these males meant it literally when they said they planned to annihilate the enemy. The experience was surreal, even a bit funny. Unfortunately, the Kevlar vest and neck plate Arik was currently strapping me into precluded any laughter. We really were going into battle, in a war, with damage and pain and casualties.
One of which, unbeknownst to anyone else, I had declared myself responsible for.
I pushed the thought away to focus on Arik. Right now he wore his battle-ready face, the same one he’d worn when he took me out to face the gargoyle. Determined. Inflexible. The male that had faced more battle in his life than I could possibly imagine despite the images of his past that I held in my head. His hands on me were impersonal, detached. Not like they’d been last night. I wasn’t even sure what they’d been last night, but definitely not impersonal. Anything but that.
After giving the last strap a final tug, Arik slapped the shoulder of my vest like he would a male teammate. “You’re good to go.”
I glanced down, thinking all over again that the design was ingenious. The front of the body armor was shaped much as the ones I’d seen on TV dramas, but in the back it extended up my spine until just above the base of my skull. The sides tapered down to an open front, allowing me to turn my head to see, but the back protected my spinal cord top to bottom. Despite being uncomfortable, I was thankful for the added protection. I’d never gone to war before, and with so many blades flashing around, I had no desire to leave myself vulnerable.
Eyeing Arik’s normal black fatigues and combat boots, I asked, “What about you?”
“What about me?”
“Aren’t you suiting up?”
Arik shook his head. “I’ve been fighting this way for centuries. Not changing anything now.”
“Are you that anxious to leave me without a mate?”
Arik’s eyes narrowed, his mouth going flat. Without a word, he crossed the room to grab a vest and strapped himself into it on his way back.
I wanted to savor the sight of him, devour every second I had left. Instead I glanced uneasily around the room. When Arik and I had arrived at the staging area, the number of warriors had surprised us both. Over the past hour, they’d reviewed plans and handed out weapons and armor, and the tension coiling in Arik’s body had risen higher and higher. Remembering what I’d glimpsed of his parents’ funeral through our bond, I couldn’t blame him, and yet the warriors crowding around us didn’t exclude or ignore him. Many of them had greeted him personally. Most he didn’t seem to know, but the few he did… Well, apologies were in some ways as uncomfortable as anger. Especially now, on the cusp of facing his enemy.
The numbers alone were enough to put off a dedicated loner like Arik. Even I found my breath getting short as the room filled with more and more muscle and testosterone. A few females mingled among the males, but not many. Still, whether it made either of us uncomfortable or not, we needed an adequate force to cripple the Anigma army and rescue the females the Archai had learned were being held there. I had no doubt these warriors could do it.
