“Move over. How can such a tiny little slip of a woman take up so much room?”
I squeak embarrassingly and clutch at my chest desperately as I slip and almost end up on my ass. Gryphon gets a hand around my arm and manages to keep me from seriously hurting myself, using my distraction to step into the shower with me and shuffle us both under the stream of water. He’s gloriously naked, some streaks of mud still on his arms and neck from the attack, and the moment my racing heart settles down, I’m going to do something about his rock-hard dick digging into my back.
Like dropping to my knees and swallowing him whole.
“How the hell did you get in here without my bond warning me? I just lost ten freaking years of my life, and you’ll have to be the one explaining that shit to the others!”
He chuckles in my ear, one hand sliding down my stomach and stopping just shy of my pussy. I haven’t recovered enough from the shock yet to be mad about that, but in a minute, I’ll be sassing him out over it.
He moves his hand away from my stomach to grab the soap, dragging it over my already clean skin like he’s obsessed with the feel of me under his fingertips. “You’ve gotten used to us all. Now that you’re happily Bonded and totally satisfied, your bond isn’t going to worry about telling you when we’re around. Why would it need to?”
“I don’t know about totally satisfied—”
He grabs my chin and tugs my face up firmly, swooping down to kiss me senseless. I turn in his arms, my legs steady again, and wrap my arms around his neck to anchor myself to him.
This is what I needed.
Kissing Gryphon Shore is like coming home after the hardest, longest day. It’s protection from a storm, listening to the rage and destruction of everything while knowing without a doubt that you’re safe. If North is my protector and caregiver Bonded, then Gryphon is the surety that nothing is ever going to push these men away from me. Gabe is the one who has proven that he’s all in and accepting, as loyal to me from the very first moment as I have been to them, and Atlas is the epitome of dedication to me. They’re all variations of the same set of values that I desperately need.
All of them.
Except Nox.
I break away and whisper, “Gryphon—”
But he’s already in my head, already knows every last little concern I might have, and murmurs back against my lips, “You said you trusted me. I’m not going to let anything happen to you that you don’t want, Bonded. I’m going to make sure… you’re taken care of. You deserve to have us without your bond forcing it.”
I don’t see how that’s possible.
Not without Nox giving in to his bond or somehow having a total change of heart and deciding that I’m not actually the root of all evil.
Gryphon growls under his breath at the depressed turn my thoughts have taken. He steps away from me, just long enough to soap himself down and wash away the mud and grime from the day. I watch him with a rapt sort of obsession, enjoying the way that his muscles flex as he moves. He’s freaking gorgeous, the type of cut that a man gets from daily training to become a weapon for his people, and I want to taste every inch of his body, to find my own way to worship him.
The moment he’s done washing the soap away, he turns the water off, snapping a towel off of the rack and wrapping me up in it. He has to go searching for one for himself, but he barely swipes the droplets away from himself before he’s tugging me back into my bedroom.
I tense as we step into the darkness, but there’s no one else there.
“You promised that I’d get you tonight. I’m not going to just forget about that, Bonded. It’s been too long.”
I nod and throw my towel off, not really caring about where the hell it ends up, and I practically sprint to the bed. It’s only a handful of steps, but Gryphon moves faster than I do, catching me and throwing me back against the pillows until I’m grinning like a madwoman.
“Spread that pretty pussy open for me, Bonded. It’s been too long. I need to remind it of who it belongs to.”
I do exactly that, splaying my legs out and reaching down to hold my pussy open just the way he likes, and I’m rewarded with long swipes of his tongue against my clit as he wastes no time in eating me the hell out. I’m in awe of this man and his lips. He does it like this is his favorite meal and he’s been starving himself for a week in anticipation.
He doesn’t let me come though, he just gets me right to the edge, my juices dripping all over his face, before he pulls himself back up to kiss me, sharing the taste between us. I could get angry about it, demand that he finish the job, but he’s taught me that he’ll never leave me wanting, and the fun of drawing this out is everything to me.