“Yeah, you’re probably right,” Rhys murmured as he looked up at her. “God, why didn’t I just tell you all thisdaysago.”
“Well,dayago, to be fair,” Maisie panted as she reluctantly pushed herself up from his chest. “Though it seems likewaylonger, somehow. I can understand why ‘Oh, by the way, I’m a griffin and we’re fated to be together forever and ever’ might seem more like a conversation you should have after you’ve known each other slightly longer than twelve hours.”
“Okay, point taken.” Rhys grinned as, standing, he grabbed her wrist and pulled her arm over his shoulder, before sweeping her up in his arms bridal-style and carrying her up the glistening white sand to the greenery that sat in the center of the island.
Maisie yelped again, laughing, before allowing herself to rest her head against his chest, listening to the strong thud of his heart.
Safe. He makes me feel safe.
It wasn’t a feeling she was used to – not from another person, anyway. She’d always had to look out for herself, especially once she’d moved to the city and her parents had been hours and hours away. She’d had bad boyfriends, and she’d usually been too slow to break up with them, because she’d felt it was her responsibility to try to fix them and find the goodness they kept buried – though all too often, that goodness had simply been a figment of her imagination. She’d often felt alone even when she’d been in a relationship.
But with Rhys…
She’d felt confused, frightened, and shocked as things had unfolded with Rhys, but she’d always felt, she realized now,safe. She’d known, somehow, she could trust him.
And not to be shallow, but God, can he ever kiss…
Fire seethed through her veins as he carried her up the shore, as if she weighed nothing at all. Her dress was clinging soggily to her, and by the time Rhys laid her down on a patch of greenery, she was desperate to get it off.
His lips were on hers, searingly hot, as soon as he’d put her down. Rhys leaned over her, and his weight on her sent a shivering thrill down her spine as she reached up to drape her arms around his neck, pulling him down even closer against her. She could feel his growing erection against her thigh, and she couldn’t stop herself from arching up against him.
Rhys groaned into her mouth, his fingers lacing through her hair as he kissed her. His kisses were growing more urgent by the second, and Maisie could feel the same hot, insistent desire rising within her – the same impatience with everything that kept them from lying skin to skin.
She pulled at the knot of her dress where it was digging into the back of her neck, but her fingers felt clumsy, and after a moment, she felt Rhys’s rumbling laugh against her lips.
“Need some help with that?”
“Yeah, if you wouldn’t mind,” she muttered, but she was smiling, and he returned it, his eyes hooded and dark. Maisie couldn’t help but shiver as they raked over her face. He lifted her hair out of the way, and his fingers made short work of the tie – she wasn’t sure if he actually untied it or just pulled it apart with his bare hands, and right now, she found she didn’t care. She just wanted him – more than she’d ever wanted anything before in her life.
“God, Rhys,” she gasped, as he finally stripped the wet material away from her upper half, revealing her bra, which, just like the rest of her clothes, was soaking wet.
Rhys kissed his way down her throat, his hands cupping her breasts, his thumbs rolling over her nipples, still covered by the thin material of her bra. She shivered, gasping, as sensation tore through her – she’d never felt anything like it before. Her fingers tightened on the muscles of his shoulders as finally his mouth found her breasts. He pushed aside her bra to mouth at her nipples, teasing with his teeth and tongue.
Maisie cried out, writhing beneath him, her eyes flying open to take in the endless blue of the sky above.
“You are seriously going to drive me crazy,” she managed to gasp out when Rhys raised his head from her breasts, lookingwaytoo pleased with himself.
But despite his apparent smugness, she couldn’t help but return the smile. As his eyes drifted down her body – her exposed breasts, the skirt of her dress rucked up around her thighs – she realized suddenly that he was still fully clothed, and this simply did not seem fair to her.
“Hey, when are you going to get naked, exactly?” she asked teasingly, as her fingers fumbled at the buttons of his shirt. “I think it might be your turn now.”
She made short work of his buttons despite her shaking fingers, and Rhys quickly stripped the wet material from his shoulders as soon as she’d undone enough of them for him to pull it off.
Maisie couldn’t hold back her gasp at the sight of his body – of course, she’d seen it back when he’d crashed into her apartment, butthistime he wasn’t also covered in blood and mystery green goo.
Wonderingly, Maisie ran her fingers over the place on his shoulder where the bullet wound she’d treated had been – there was only the faintest of pink marks there now, barely noticeable. No scarring, and definitely no bullet hole, even though it had only happened a day or so ago; it seemed impossible, and yet, she was seeing it with her own eyes, touching it with her own hands.
Even as he kissed her again, Maisie was wondering how it could be possible, and whether there was anything medicine could learn from shifter healing powers –Imagine if it could be used somehow to help other sick or injured people…
But right now, Maisie thought, all that was in the future. Right now, all she wanted to do was run her hands over Rhys’s sun-kissed skin, trailing her fingers over his hard pecs and the tight grid of his abs, and through the dusting of hair that led down into the waistband of his pants.
She knew she was staring, but she just couldn’t help it – and evenlookingat him was enough for more wetness to gather between her thighs.
Rhys was clearly as hungry for her as she was for him, if the look on his face was anything to go by. He was looking at her as if he was a starving man, and she was a six-course meal of all of his favorite food. She threw her head back as he kissed her neck, his one hand on her breast, the other sliding down her hip to pull her dress up higher, his fingers skating over the sensitive skin of her stomach. She jerked with every movement as electricity thrilled over her skin.
Arching her back, she pressed herself against him, her fingers sliding down his back and over his hips to scrabble at the buttons of his pants. She felt as if she’d go insane if she didn’t touch him – her blood pounded in her ears, her chest heaving with her breath. She was so wet that she was sure he must be able to feel it as his fingers slipped over the outside of her underpants, teasing her and making her shiver.
Finally, she tore open his pants and slid her hand inside. He was hot and achingly hard against her palm, his hips jerking as she ran her fingers over his length, gasping at the feel of it.
