Her eyes stayed open and fixed on mine.I gave her every chance to pull back or change her mind or shove me away.Then I waited for her to decide what came next.She lifted her chin higher.Her grip on my shirt tightened, knuckles pressing into my chest.And she didn’t look away.
“Griffin.”
I lowered my mouth to hers, kissing her gently.But that didn’t seem to be what she wanted.She nipped my bottom lip and slid her arms around my neck.And when she forced the issue, she didn’t kiss me gently.I doubted she could have, not after everything she’d been through.
I gave her control for several long seconds, letting her set the pace until the tension in her body told me she was ready for me to take over.And God help me, I knew she wanted exactly that.
I pulled her closer with one arm around her waist, lifting her slightly off the tile floor, and she made a sound against my mouth that was half relief and half anguish.
We stumbled backward through the bathroom door, still tangled together.Her back hit the wall in the short hallway between the bathroom and the bedroom and she gasped, but she was already tugging my shirt from my pants.
I pulled back just enough to look at her.“You sure about this?”She used the separation to finish shoving my shirt out of the way.I pulled it over my head and tossed it aside.
“I’ve been sure since you told Iron’s man I was your woman.”
Her words hit me hard.She’d heard that too, standing in the dark while I crouched over a dying prospect and claimed her, making it clear I’d defend her with blood.
“I meant it,” I said.
“I know.”Her palms were soft against my chest.I loved the way she mapped the ink on my shoulders and the scar on my ribs.
We moved into the bedroom and I kicked the door shut behind us.She reached for the button of my jeans but I caught her wrist.“Veda…”
Her gaze snapped to mine, a wildfire burning in them.“Don’t.”The word was a razor’s edge.“Don’t you pull back from me now, you bastard.”
“Not stopping,” I promised, my voice low.“Just making sure you’re still here with me.You focus on me or I bring you back.I don’t want anyone or anything else in this room with us.”
A shudder went through her.She leaned in, pressing her forehead to mine.“I need…” She didn’t finish, but I knew what she needed.
Her fingers trembled.I helped her with the zipper, the sound rasping loudly in the charged silence.She shoved me toward the bed, taking back the assertiveness she’d momentarily lost.I let her, sitting on the edge as she straddled me, her knees digging into the mattress on either side of my hips.This wasn’t about tenderness.This was about exorcising demons.It was a claiming, and I was more than willing to be claimed.
Chapter Eight
Veda
Was having sex with a man I barely knew the most intelligent thing I’d ever done in my life?Probably not.Thing was, I didn’t really care.I could have died at several points along the way over the last months, but most especially since the night of the fire.Had it really been less than two days?Felt like an eternity.
I’d never had a man lay any kind of claim to me.For any reason.Mostly because I could be… prickly.Up until now, I’d been too off-balance to do anything but blindly follow where Griffin led, but hearing him tell that Steel Serpent asshole I was his woman did something to me.On the inside.I actually thought that, maybe, I’d claim him right back.
I straddled Griffin’s hips, my hands clamped down on his shoulders hard enough to leave half-moon crescents under my nails.I didn’t care.He didn’t seem like he did either.
Griffin lay back on his elbows, watching me with those deep green eyes, his breath coming nearly as fast as mine.The room smelled like him.Leather and motor oil and a clean, woodsy combination of pine and cedar underneath.The single lamp on the nightstand threw shadows across the planes of his chest, and I could see the ink crawling over his shoulders, the old scars I hadn’t had a chance to map yet.
“You good?”His voice came out rough, scraped raw.“You here?With me?”
“Yes.”The word came out a sharp hiss.I needed this.Not just the act as a primal way of feeling alive, but I needed the man.Griffin.The fact I didn’t even try to fight this sudden and all-consuming need tugged at my brain like a snag on a sweater.I knew I needed to slow down, but I didn’t think I wanted to.If I decided I’d made a mistake later, I’d deal with it.I didn’t want to deny myself at least one night in this man’s arms.
I shoved him flat against the mattress and he let me.That was the thing to seal my fate.A man built like Griffin, two hundred and some pounds of solid muscle, and he let me push him down like I had any kind of power over him instead of immediately rolling us and taking control.
I ground down against him through the rough denim of his jeans as I touched his bare chest, trying to memorize everything at once.If I never got to fuck him again, I would do everything in my power to remember it forever.All the lust, desire, and desperation coursing through me settled between my thighs.His cock -- already hard -- put much needed friction against my clit.I shuddered, whimpering and making sounds I didn’t mean to make.The half growl / half moan sounded almost mean.Or at the very least, like something was most decidedly wrong with me.Maybe there was.
“Veda.”His hand came up and caught both my wrists, gentle but immovable.“Look at me, honey.”I looked.His face was tight with restraint, but his eyes were steady as he held my gaze.“You here with me?”
“Don’t.”The word came out like a slap.“Don’t treat me like glass, Griffin.”
Something flickered across his face.Like I’d just confirmed something he’d already figured out.A slow smile curled one corner of his mouth.“All right, little wildcat.”He let go of my wrists.“You take what you need.”
I went for the button on his jeans, my fingers steadier now.His hands settled at my hips, warm and heavy and grounding.He didn’t try to slow me down or take over.Just held on while I dragged the zipper down and shoved the denim out of the way.
