His hands were pressed into the stone on either side of her head, as if he was trying not to touch her. He leaned over, so he could look her eye to eye. His hair was curled and disheveled, like he had been running his hands through it. He did that when he was frustrated. With his arms up like this, the bottom of his shirt rode up. She saw a flash of familiar muscle, and heat flared in her core at the sight.
“Stop,” he commanded.
Her brows came together. “Stop what?” She wasn’t even moving. Or speaking.
“Your emotions,” he barked. Oh. He could sense her desire. Of course, he could.
She had actually been feeling a host of emotions, but now that she mentioned it...a memory flashed in her mind. Of them. Against a wall. Doing something other than arguing.
His breathing became heavier. “Stop,” he said, a ragged plea.
She wasn’t trying to. She knew he was being awful, and that they were in a dungeon. But he was her husband. She loved him. Shemissedhim. It had been a long time since they had been together. She couldn’t look at his face and not want him, not when he was gazing atherjust as thoroughly as she was at him. She guessed that if she could access his abilities, she would be sensing desire from him too.
And maybe that’s why he was so pissed off. It wasn’theremotions. It was what they inspired in him.
“I’m not doing anything,” she said, pulse thundering.
“You’re doing...everything,” he said, his voice full of barely leashed restraint. His hands flexed against the wall. He grimaced like there was a war within him. He shut his eyes tightly.
After a moment, with what looked like pure and complete control, he straightened. Without a word, he strode off down the hall.
She remained where she was—pressed against the wall, heart racing.
She had just dropped her gaze to the floor in disappointment when she heard his steps slow. He turned.
“Fuck it,” he said, and then his mouth was on hers.
She gasped in surprise, and then her blood ignited as he parted her lips. Kissing Grim felt like the first time and every time since all rolled together.
His tongue brushed hers and flames blazed through her, and she groaned as his hands curled beneath her to lift her to his height, so he could kiss her properly.
Her legs locked behind him, and she didn’t miss the strangled sound he made in the back of his throat. He almost seemed like he might pull away, but instead he pushed closer, so she was pressed firmly against the wall as he devoured her.
He wouldn’t have remembered how he had kissed her thousands of times before. In his mind, this was the first time he was doing this,and she noticed the similarities from that original time in his room. How he was a little clumsy, a little forceful, how he didn’t even stop to breathe, like he couldn’t stop himself from tasting her.
Her hands curled around his neck, to pull him closer, and she could feel his pulse racing against her fingers. When he finally pulled away, he was gasping. His eyes latched onto hers, bright and shining, and then he dove back for more. He growled as she bit his bottom lip, as she wove her fingers through his hair and pulled.
Then, his lips dragged down her throat, and she made a sound he seemed to like because he hummed against her throat, and then she felt his teeth, lightly skimming her sensitive skin, and it was the echo of when he had bitten her there during Creetan’s Crag. She bucked her hips as he trailed lower, desperate for friction, desperate to feel the heat of him against her.
She only moved slightly, rolling against the hard length of him—and his mouth stopped its path along her collarbones. He pulled back.
This is it, she thought. The moment he finally ended this.
But instead, he said, with a voice dark and jagged as the stone behind them, “Do that again.”
GRIM
She slowly ground herself against him, and he whimpered.
Hewhimpered. He was losing his fucking mind.
“Tell me what you want,” she said.
He was powerless against the intensity of his feelings as he sputtered out, “You.”You.
“You already have me,” she whispered in his ear, and she did it again, bucking her hips, and he had ruled for centuries, he had folded away his emotions for most of those years, he had been an efficient and merciless warrior on the battlefield...
But in that moment, he lost control completely.
