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She winked while helping Markus to their shared room. “Convenient.”
As they disappeared, I looked back at Grayson. “Are you okay?”
He nodded and slowly pulled me closer to him, wrapping his arms gently around me. “Areyouokay?”
Even his light touch had an adverse effect on my throbbing skin, but I wasn’t dying, so I didn’t want to say anything. “Of course.”
He squeezed just the tiniest bit tighter. “Liar.”
I couldn’t hold in the hiss that escaped through my lips. Then, before I knew what was happening, Grayson picked me up and carried me down the hallway.
There wasn’t a single part of me that wanted to object to his caveman ways, so I put an arm around his neck and just enjoyed the lift.
When we entered the bedroom, he kicked the door closed behind us, then gently laid me on the bed with my head on the pillows.
His dark eyes burned a fiery trail down my body before they landed at my feet. He began removing my boots. I considered objecting finally, but beneath all of Grayson’s gruff and tough exterior, he seemed to enjoy taking care of others.
Well, at least me.
Plus, now that we were back in the house and the adrenaline was wearing off, the slivers of pain I’d been ignoring were becoming slightly louder.
Grayson was working on my pants when I let my eyes flutter closed and took a deep breath. His fingers lightly touched my stomach, sending shivers through me that somehow began easing the agony that had been building.
I heard my zipper being tugged downward and nearly melted when Grayson’s hands lightly pulled my pants down my sore legs.
“I’ve got you now,” he murmured over my stomach, pressing his lips to my belly button.
Fuck. Me.
It wasn’t like he hadn’t already touched every part of me in some form or another, but still…
Grayson wasn’t always gentle. Respectful? Absolutely. But “softness” was a rare sight, one that had me forgetting all about the battle I’d just been in and feeling needy as fuck as he continued touching me.
He stripped me down to only my underwear and bra before he moved to kneel over me, one knee placed beside each of my hips. Then his fists pushed in until they touched my shoulders and he lowered himself, making the air between us so thick that I could hardly breathe.
“When that fucker hurt you, I wanted to burn the world to ash,” he said huskily. “I wanted to rip him off of you and pluck each of the hairs from his hide while he slowly bled out from where I intended to lightly slit his throat.”
That was quite the haunting image, but my mate wasn’t done.
“Then I saw how you knew it was better to get hurt and have the upper hand than to drag out an unnecessary fight,” he added. “I forced my wolf and demon desires for blood down and waited, watching in fascination as you did what needed doing. You showed this House that you’re not a weak woman trying to claim something you have no right to just because of who your father was. You showed them that you’re the alpha we can all sense inside you.”
I reached up and cupped his cheek. “I only did what I had to. Nothing more, nothing less.”
His mouth pressed against mine, and he scraped my lower lip before pulling back. “There is nothing ‘less’ about you or what you did, Kinsley Ash.”
Fuck, I wanted him so damn badly when he spoke like that.
For once, my thoughts didn’t seem muddled. The murkiness that had been there after he’d rejected me had been washed away, and all I could see was the light around him that he’d fought to diminish. I held tightly to the euphoric sensations my heart was blooming with as our stares remained locked together.
This man, wolf, and demon… Every part of him. They were all mine.
I’d known that since the moment I’d seen him. I’d only tried to push those thoughts away for a short time because he’d denied me, but I’d learned long ago that one wrong should never be canceled out with another. If Grayson was what I wanted, and he accepted he wanted me in return, then what was the point in denying fate?
I couldn’t see one and, honestly, didn’t want to. Not any longer.
He was trailing kisses over my chest when I’d come to that realization, and his slow, tender movements suddenly weren’t enough for me.
My heart raced and hands shook with the need I was consumed with. The need to touch him…to claim him…to make him mine. Officially.
