He lowered his forehead to mine. I scooted closer atop the comforter, nestling my body into his. Automatically, his arm draped around my waist.
he said.
I answered right away, too loud. I softened my inner voice.
I loved a hell of a lot more than that. Did he remember that we’d already swappedI love yous, or was that wiped out in his most recent reboot?
I could be chickenshit and wait to find out, or I could—
I discovered my eyes closed when I realized I was feeling—not seeing—the warmth of his smile. More like a grin, probably, but I didn’t want to look yet. Didn’t want to pull my forehead from his.
“Yes,” I whispered aloud while my heart fluttered excitedly. I inched my lips closer to his.
Memories of Clyde erupting into a ball of fire that climbed toward the night sky. Then, of the slide of gravel and the groan of metal knowing Clyde was catapulting over the cliff.
Both times, Griffin had been snatched away from me without warning, without a chance to protect him, to fight for him.
As if Griffin understood where my thoughts had veered, he drew me closer, until my breasts brushed his chest and our hips were lined up.
again I whispered into our minds.
He laughed.
He laughed again.
Griffin tipped me onto my back and rolled on top of me, propping himself up on his elbows to keep some of his weight off me, the rest of him pressed along the length of me—mmmmm.
Griffin rumbled in that deep, sexy-as-fuck voice of his. It sounded the same inside my mind as it did aloud.
My breathing and heartbeat were stuttering, or maybe they were coming too fast, I couldn’t tell. My legs melted open, carving out room for his body as if all on their own, drawing him closer to my center. The outline of his dick was hard against me. I clenched with anticipation.
Griffin’s lips lowered to mine, and instantly my mind went blank. At first they were a light touch, as if it were the first time we’d ever kissed and his mouth were still a stranger to mine. But I kissed him back with the pent-up ferocity of someone who’d seen the love of her life murdered in front of her very eyes and had been given a second chance—a miraculous, wondrous second chance—at loving him.
With the phantom fear of believing I’d lost him battering at the edges of my awareness, I kissed him with everything I had.
With every bit of love I hadn’t yet expressed to him.
With the force of every fantasy I’d ever had about him, with every wish and hope and dream and fucking desire I’d ever conjured around wanting—so desperately wanting—a moment with him exactly like this one.
He matched the intensity of my kiss with a savage wildness of his own that suggested some of the things he hadn’t uttered. His lips, his tongue, the way our teeth were sometimes bared almost ferally … they told me he loved me beyond words. Just as he said: like we were meant to be together. Like every sick, twisted, and mega-fucked-up thing that had ever happened to us had been steering us toward this.
Towardus.
A love powerful enough to move mountains and create worlds.
