Panting, dazed, deliciously fragmented, I slowly come back to myself and open my eyes. I feel deconstructed to my most basic components. Realigned.
Griffin cradles my head in his hands. “Should I pull out?”
I don’t answer. I don’t know.
“Cat! Tell me now.”
I open my mouth to say yes. The exact opposite pops out. “No.”
The sound he utters is rough and guttural—satisfaction on the most primal level. Griffin wraps his arms around me and pumps his hips rapidly, at last thrusting into me with a harsh groan. His release is a hot tide. His ragged breath warms my face as he holds himself rigidly above me. With a final shudder, his whole body relaxes, settling onto mine.
After a moment of absolute stillness, he trails his lips across my cheek to my mouth, kissing me and whispering gruff praise. I flush and grin like an idiot while his lips slide down my neck and chest. He rests his forehead on my shoulder, and I feel him smile against my skin.
I stroke his midnight hair, completely at ease for the first time in my life. I smile, too, until a strange, invigorating sensation sweeps through me. Griffin’s liquid warmth doesn’t stop at my core. It spreads to my limbs, my head, my fingers, and toes. I take a deep, surprised breath and feel like myself for the first time since Ios.
“You fixed me!” I say, laughing.
Griffin lifts his head. “Hmm?”
“I think you just gave me my life force back.”
He grins, looking way too smug, as usual. “I knew we should have been doing this for days.”
I’m not about to admit he’s right. I groan, pushing on his shoulders. “You’re as heavy as an ox.”
He chuckles and lifts some of his weight off me. Instead of moving over, though, he strokes me again—inside. “Maybe you need more life force.”
I roll my eyes. “Put a leash on your hips, Beta Sinta. I need to recover.”
He stops moving instantly. “Was I too rough?”
I shake my head. “No. You were”—amazing, mind-blowing, better than anything I ever imagined—“fine.”
He grins and kisses me. “High praise, coming from you. I’ll let those high-pitched kitten noises speak for themselves.”
“You do that,” I mutter, shoving him off me.
Griffin rolls to the side, withdrawing from me and making me shiver. He gets up and goes to the washbasin to dampen a cloth in the cool water. Despite my rather violent protest, he washes between my thighs before wiping himself clean. There’s some blood on us. Not much, but enough to concern us both. There’s a spot on the sheet, too, along with a Cat-shaped scorch mark that neither of us comments on. I’m going to have to figure out this new thunder-and-lightning thing soon. Thank the Gods I can’t hurt Griffin with magic since I don’t seem to have any control over it, and he definitely brings it out in me.
After throwing his clothes back on, Griffin takes the sheet, the cloth, and the basin out of the room to burn my blood in the kitchen fires and dilute the water in the castle sewers.
While he’s gone, I find a new sheet at the bottom of the bedroom wardrobe and put it on the bed. Ten minutes later, Griffin strips naked again and then sinks onto the mattress, pulling me against him, my back to his front. Within seconds, he’s hard and ready again. He pushes my hair aside and starts nuzzling my neck, his breath coming faster and warming my skin.
“Tempting,” I say, wiggling my bare bottom against him.
“You’re playing with fire,” he growls in my ear.
“Speaking of fire…” I face up and exhale Dragon’s Breath, leaving the ceiling charred. “It’s back!”
“Good.” Griffin splays his big hand over my stomach. “You never know when you’ll need to melt someone.”
CHAPTER 30
I wake up way too hot. It doesn’t take long to figure out why. There’s a naked warlord plastered to my back. I inch forward, trying to get away without waking him.
A steely arm bands around my waist, dragging me back. “Where do you think you’re going?”
There’s no trace of sleep in Griffin’s voice. He’s been awake for a while, holding me. My heart lurches, and I feel the intense need to run.
He rolls me to face him and looks at me like he wants me again, like all he wants is me. His eyes are shadowed pools I could lose myself in, completely and forever. My heart swells until a tangled mass of emotion clogs my throat, choking me.
I panic, turn invisible, and scramble off the bed.
“Cat?” Griffin grabs blindly at where I just was. Frowning, he sits up, throwing the sheet back.