I’m such an idiot.
He fists his hand in my loose hair and tilts my head back until my back bows and my breasts press against his chest. Between fierce, deep kisses, he rasps, “If you had died…” He slowly shakes his head, his hot breath ragged on my fevered lips. The muscles in his shoulders tense, and a shudder runs through him. “Don’t ever scare me like that again.”
I draw back, stunned by the raw vulnerability in his voice. “I didn’t think anything rattled you.”
He skims the pad of his thumb over my bottom lip. My mouth tingles, almost too sensitive to be touched. “Not much does. Everything is different with you. I can’t lose you.”
His words douse the passion blazing inside me. I lower my eyes and turn away from him. What in the Underworld am I doing?
Griffin unbinds our wrists and reopens the cuts before strapping us back together again. I watch the red seep out and blend, wondering whose blood is tainting whose. I’m sure Mother would have an opinion about that.
I press our wrists tighter.
The more our blood mixes, the stronger I get. Griffin insists I eat, and he’s almost comically happy when I swallow a few bites. My small appetite must inspire him because he forces bread and cheese on me until I nearly throw it all back up.
Raising his hands in surrender, he packs up the food. Efficient as usual, he unties us again, cleans and binds the cuts, and then dilutes any stray blood before lighting an oil lamp and putting out the campfire. He leads me back into the tent, closes the heavy flap, and then sits with his back against a sturdy wooden trunk. Setting the lamp aside, he looks at me intently. After a moment, he holds out his arm in invitation, and I go to him, hardly hesitating at all.
Once I’m settled, Griffin turns to me with a wolfish grin. “Do you think we’ll need to exchange fluids every day?”
My eyes widen. Yes! “No!”
Oh my Gods! I’m going insane!
I clear my throat. “No. Uh…no.”
“Funny,” he says blandly. “I was hoping the opposite.”
I shove him. “I’ll bet you were.”
He grins. “Still am.”
Tucked up against him, I’m hotter than Hades, and my stomach is doing all kinds of somersaults. It’s uncomfortable. And annoying. And exciting. “Men are strange. How can you go from fighting with me all the time to this?”
He looks at me with a mixture of indulgence and smugness that makes me want to sink my teeth into him somewhere that hurts. “You’re the one who’s always picking fights. Once I claim you, you’ll see that fighting isn’t the fun part.”
The butterflies that colonized my belly the day I met Griffin take flight, spreading through me on burning wings. He gently pulls me onto his lap like it’s the most normal thing in the realms and then trails his fingers from my throat to the tip of one breast, lightly circling my nipple through my tunic. It instantly hardens, pebbling under his fingertips.
A tremor runs through me, and I bat his hand away. “Confident, aren’t you?”
He nods, completely arrogant and completely male.
I can’t decide if I’m intrigued by his certainty, or disgusted by his ego. Where Griffin is concerned, I’m a mess. “And no one’s claiming anyone.”
“Call it what you want.” He slides his hands around my waist and then down, playfully squeezing my bottom. “It doesn’t change anything.”
Whatever we call it, it changes everything. I wiggle in his grip, shaking my head. “It can’t happen.”
He laughs, the overconfident beast. His next kiss is both dominant and coaxing, long, deep, and completely intoxicating. “You’ll change your mind.”
My mind? I can’t think. I can hardly breathe. “Is that a challenge?” I manage to ask. “Because I can be very stubborn.”
Griffin’s deft fingers find my breasts again, stroking, cupping, learning. He’s not kissing me now. He’s watching me with a smoldering intensity. Sizzling currents race beneath my skin. The low rumble of thunder in my veins makes my whole body quake. I lean into his touch, and he makes a noise that’s gravelly and almost savage.
“This isn’t a game, Cat. That’s not how it works when it’s real. When you want it to last.” He lifts both hands to my face, keeping me from turning away from him. “When the other person means more to you than your own life.”
I swallow hard as my stomach dips. Wholly unsettled, I press my lips together and don’t say anything.