“So spank me,” I pant. And I mean that in whatever sense.
His chuckle is dark and thick, like a hot summer night. It makes me want to lick salt and sunshine from his tanned skin and worship his sculpted body with my mouth.
Griffin positions himself at my entrance. I’m so wet and ready that the head of his shaft slips right in, and we both shudder from the shallow joining.
The deep groan expanding in Griffin’s chest resonates against my back. A bead of sweat drips onto my shoulder. He’s as tortured as I am.
I turn my head. Heated silver eyes meet mine. They reach inside me and yank out my soul. If it weren’t already Griffin’s, he’d have captured it all over again.
“I love you.” The words spring straight from my heart. I couldn’t stop them if I wanted to.
The look he gives me scorches me to my toes. “Where do you belong?”
I can’t wait any longer. I need to feel him fully inside me. I need to know we’re one. “With you,” I gasp out, starving for the deep thrust I know is coming. “I belong with you.”
Griffin drives upward and buries himself to the hilt inside of me with a sound of pure masculine satisfaction. A bright light flashes from me, illuminating the shadowed corners of the room. A long rumble of thunder vibrates in the air. I throw my head back, my mouth open and gasping for breath. He pumps his hips hard, just once, and my inner walls contract. My body gathers sensation, holding it tightly for that potent, suspended moment before racing toward bliss.
Griffin thrusts again, and I shout his name, beginning to pulse around him. He presses deeper, and my toes leave the floor. He holds me up, pinning me at my very center as release pounds through me in powerful waves.
His breath ragged on my temple, Griffin unhooks his arm from under my leg. My feet touch the floor, and my legs nearly buckle. He lets go of my wrists in order to band both arms around my waist. My arms fall like lead weights, and I groan, blood flowing back into them in a stabbing rush. I slump against him, weak and limp, but he doesn’t give me time to recover. He pivots and drops me onto the bed on my hands and knees. My arms collapse, and my upper body lands on the mattress, leaving my ass in the air.
“There’s a handprint on your arse.”
I turn my face so I can breathe. “Are you sorry?”
He grunts. “Not one bit.”
I grin beneath a curtain of hair. I’m not either. Not one bit.
Leaning over me, Griffin sweeps the tangle of curls out of my face. He gets ready to enter me from behind, something he’s never done before besides those few mind-blowing thrusts against the wall. I twist my head so I can watch him. He looks like a God—massive, handsome, stern, his countenance dark. Torchlight flickers over his face, illuminating some parts and obscuring others. His eyes are in shadow, but they still smolder as he stares down at me.
I start to lift up on my aching arms, but Griffin’s hand lands on the small of my back. He slides it along my spine, pressing me back down. He gives a gentle push when he reaches my nape and then moves his hand to my hip, holding me steady as his other hand guides his arousal back to where we both want it. He goes slowly until he’s fully seated and then begins to thrust.
He’s not gentle, and he’s never been so deep inside me, like he’s pounding my heart with every powerful stroke. I whimper, weak and hot, slick and needy. Vulnerable. Pleasure builds—coiling tension, tingling warmth. The sensations aren’t just physical. Griffin’s behavior since he pinned me against the wall—his insistent question, his barely checked aggression, this dominant position—they all tell me a lot about how he felt when he thought I was gone. I may be the one on my knees right now, but I bring this earthquake of a man to his knees as well. He’s big, and strong, and commanding, but he needs me. I’m vital. He’s becoming the air I breathe, but maybe that’s all right, because I’m the air he breathes, too.
I grip the rumpled blanket and press back with a throaty sound I didn’t even know I could make. Griffin’s hands tighten on my hips, stopping my rocking motion. He’s in complete control, and it makes me wild and greedy and frenzied for more.
“I love you.” He drives into me. “I love you more than anything in this Godsforsaken world.”
My heart does a hard flip. I believe him. I feel his truth as deep inside of me as he is, hammering me just as fiercely. Griffin would choose me over anything, which is why I can never get in his way of trying to make a better world—of bringing Thalyria back to what it once was.
And if I can’t stop him, I’ll have to help him.
“I will never leave you,” I vow, feeling the magic in my words bind me. “Only death can tear us apart, and even then, I will wait for you at the edges of the Underworld until you come to me again.”
“Cat.” His voice breaks. His thrusts falter.
Griffin pulls out of me, flips me over, and then covers me from head to toe, burying his face in my neck and his shaft between my legs. He makes love to me with fevered intensity, no longer dominant or in control. He shudders and rocks, and we chase each other blindly up a wave that builds, crests, and then finally crashes when I topple over the edge with a hoarse cry.
Griffin’s eyes capture mine. He holds my face in his hands. “You. Belong. With.Me.” He gives a final, hard thrust before his seed explodes inside of me, his claim still ringing off the granite walls. A magical tempest erupts from my body. Lightning and words collide in the air, the storm searing his declaration into my heart and mind. I’ll never doubt us again.
The room rocks. A crack snakes up the wall near my head, splitting the stone. Plaster dust shivers down from the ceiling. Reining in whatever is happening is beyond me. My emotions are raw and blazing, fanned into combustion by the beat of wings in my chest.
Griffin throws his head back. The sweat-beaded muscles in his corded neck bulge as his whole body goes rigid. It’s the most glorious sight I’ve ever seen. I drink it in. Drink him in—his scent and his seed, his love and his life force. My arms stop aching, and strength infuses every part of me, leaving me bursting with energy. And ready to start again.
Griffin tenses one last time and then slowly relaxes. He settles so he’s not crushing me, using his forearms to carry the bulk of his weight. His hands still hold my head. Brushing hair out of my face, he looks at me with sated, adoring eyes. He kisses me. “Kardia mou.”
I wrap my arms around his neck. I’ll bet my eyes are pretty sated and adoring, too. “You’re my heart as well.”
