“But kids bleed all the time—scraped knees, busted lips. Their blood will be my blood. She’ll know. She’ll take them.”
“Some people don’t even have children,” Griffin says. “It just doesn’t happen.”
I shake my head. “I can’t count on that.”
His mouth flattens, making his jaw muscles bulge. “There are methods. Herbs. Sheaths. I could pull out.”
In my inexperience, those things hadn’t occurred to me, but I know what Griffin means. Irrational disappointment washes through me. It’s ridiculous, and dangerous, but I can already see little dark heads running around the castle, tiny Griffins with black hair, aquiline noses, wide mouths, and green, Fisan eyes. They’re tugging on Egeria’s skirts, playing games with Kaia, climbing all over Flynn and Kato, and getting medicated into stupors by Nerissa’s herbs.
“Live your life,” Griffin says. “For yourself. For me. We’ll deal with Andromeda when we have to.”
I look up at him, a battle raging between my heart and my head. I finally close my eyes against the heat in Griffin’s gaze. I feel him sit up, kneeling between my thighs. He’s going to leave me, and I desperately want to pull him back.
His fingers graze my exposed breasts, sending shivers through me. Then I hear a colossal rip, and my eyes fly open.
“That was my realm dinner dress!” I only wore it tonight to make sure it didn’t need any final alterations before the party. I had it specifically made to fit my new stick figure, and he tore it clean in half!
“I’ll take you to the agora tomorrow.”
“You don’t have time for that!”
“I’ll make time.” His voice rough, his eyes devour me as his fingers feather down my flat stomach and over the now-rather-bony flare of my hips. Disquiet and desire quiver in my belly in equal measures. My skin heats to his touch.
Griffin slowly and deliberately unhooks my shoulder straps, freeing my arms from the destroyed dress. I think he’s waiting for me to protest. When I don’t, he gets a fierce look on his face and pulls me up so that I’m kneeling in front of him. Every caress is like a lick of flame on my naked body—my shoulders, my back, my hips, and my bottom, which he squeezes hard, pulling me against him. His lips part on a low, hoarse sound, and then his hands move back up my front, palming my breasts and gently abrading my nipples.
“Harder,” I moan, needing his hands to ease the growing turmoil inside me. I want him everywhere. I burn for him in places he hasn’t even touched.
He rolls my nipples between his fingers and then pinches them with just enough force to spark a delicious ache. My breathing accelerates. My eyes flutter closed as he kisses my neck, lingering where I’m most sensitive. He nips and sucks, and the wings inside my chest unfold and beat to a familiar rhythm that’s become a part of me. A part of us.
Griffin’s mouth moves back to mine, hungry. I dive into the kiss, sliding my hands under his tunic and up the wide expanse of his chest, finally giving in to the need to touch him, to learn his body, to know every intimate dip and steely curve.
While I’m exploring, he breaks the kiss and slowly unravels my braid, spreading my hair around my shoulders. He rubs a dark curl between his fingertips, and my heart thuds against my ribs. He looks at me like he might not be able to breathe without me—like maybe he wouldn’t even want to. I suddenly feel the weight of the world on my shoulders like never before.
It’s too much.
When I ran, I didn’t just run from my family; I ran from responsibility. The day Griffin came into my life, it came back—him, Beta Team, his family, the realm itself…
I don’t want this.
I don’t want this.
One more time and I might convince myself…
“Take off my tunic,” Griffin orders gruffly.
My pulse surges in my ears, whooshing like a cyclone. I’m so close. So close to…making myself more vulnerable than ever?
Bitterness sweeps through me. I close my eyes. My hands fall to my sides. I can’t do this. I can’t dig Griffin’s grave.
A stormy ocean rages to life behind my closed eyelids. Lightning bolts split the sky. Ragged, blinding trails of light reflect off chaotic waves as an enormous, dark trident rises from the depths, cascading foaming seawater and Olympian power.
I almost gasp out loud. “Now? Really?”
“You reject our gift!” Poseidon’s voice is an angry tempest in my head.
“Griffin? A gift from the Gods? I’d better not tell him that, or I’ll be hearing about it for the rest of my days.”