We didn’t voice what we both knew. There was no point. Not with thisthingblazing between us.
Finally, he shifted, his knee knocking against mine in what could have been an accident. I tried to suppress the flutter that happened in my stomach every time he touched me but it was impossible. His hand came to rest on my thigh, warm and possessive. I kept my eyes down, staring at where we touched, my breath catching.
“Look at me, Princess,” he said quietly, nudging my chin with gentle fingers until I had no choice but to meet his gaze. The intensity there almost undid me. If I hadn’t been sitting down, I think my knees would have buckled.
“I can’t deny this anymore.We,” he stressed roughly, “can’t deny this. You are my mate. You’remine,and I’m yours, and this need to claim you, to claim the bond, is consuming me.” His thumb traced along my jawline, and I shivered from the contact. “The harder we try to fight it, the harder it holds on. I don’t want to fight it anymore.”
His hand moved from my jaw to stroke my cheekbone with devastating gentleness, then slipped back to tuck my hair behind my ear. His fingers lingered there, sifting through the strands as though he couldn’t bear to stop touching me.
His thumb again rubbed over my jaw and I felt the caress all the way to my toes. “You asked me for something real.” His voicedropped in volume, becoming intimate. “Well, here it is, Princess.” He cupped my face in both hands, holding me captive. But I couldn’t have looked away if I tried. “I don’t wantsomethingfrom you, Lexa. I wanteverythingfrom you. I want to be the one you turn to in happiness and in sorrow. The first face you see each morning and the last each night. I want your every heartbeat, your every smile, your every frown. I want to claim your every breath, kiss by kiss. I want you, all of you, forever.” He leaned closer, his forehead nearly touching mine. “You were never a duty, Lexa. Never an obligation. You are the very reason I draw breath, the other half of my soul.”
My breath hitched, my blood humming. Tears blurred my vision as he spoke, words that echoed what I’d heard him whisper between our souls when I was fighting my way out of stasis. Fighting my way back to him.
My heart was hammering so hard I was sure he could hear it. I opened my mouth, but no sound emerged.
“What is it?” His hand caressed my cheek, thumb catching a falling tear.
“That’s the most words you’ve ever said to me at once.”
He let out a rough laugh, raw and vulnerable, as I threaded my fingers through his. He brought our clasped hands to his mouth, brushing a gentle kiss against my knuckles. “I’m choosing you,” he said against my skin, his breath warm against my fingers. “Choosingus. Now and forever, Lexa. I’m never letting you go because I can’t. You are a part of me now.”
I looked down at our entwined hands, feeling the weight of the moment. My heart hammered against my chest, my thoughts swirling. Of course I wanted him. I’d wanted him since the first moment I saw him, although I’d tried to bury it so deep I could pretend it didn’t exist. Fighting the pull these past several months had become like fighting a part of myself—futile and exhausting.
Everything was clearer when he was present. And there was something akin to physical pain when he was not. I’d tried to convince myself it was just attraction, but I knew better.
Breathing out heavily through my nose, I met his gaze. The raw need blazing there nearly shattered my composure entirely.
“If you need time—” he started, but stopped when he saw the decision written across my face. Hope lit up his features.
“I don’t,” I said softly, leaning toward him. “I need you.”
He caught my face in his hands, just before I could kiss him. “Just to be absolutely crystal clear, you’re accepting this? Accepting the bond? Accepting us as mates?”
Something in his tone suggested there was more to this than I understood. “Is there anything I should know about accepting the bond?”
His eyes burned into mine with possessive fire. “Just that you will be mine, completely and irrevocably. And there is no turning back, Princess.”
A slow smile crept over my face as I saw the intensity of his desire etched into every line of his face.
“I accept.”
Chapter
Thirty-Five
I was right. Thom and Mira are mates. They accepted the bond and now they’re disgustingly happy and can’t keep their hands off each other. There’s something strange that happens when mates accept the bond—a honeymoon period that is rather sickening to be around. And it’s also rather cute.
—From the journal of Violet Andrever
The expression on Griff’s face could only be called elation. His head moved toward me slowly. He hesitated, only for a moment, as though he couldn’t quite believe I’d chosen this. Chosen him. Chosenus. So I closed the distance between our lips and something wild broke loose in him.
His lips crashed down on mine with a hunger that stole my breath. If I had thought our last kiss was intense, it was nothing compared to this one. Heat exploded through my veins as we ignited, and the golden light inside me flared to full strength, threatening to burst from my skin.
He didn’t just kiss me. He claimed me, and the bond settled into my bones, a recognition that went deeper than flesh and blood.
His arms wrapped tight around me, molding me against him, and I opened for him eagerly as his tongue tangled with mine. Nohesitation, no careful restraint. Just a brutally deep, possessive kiss that tasted of forever, and I drank it in greedily.
I pressed ever closer to him, desperate to eliminate every fraction of space between us, and gasped when he hauled me into his lap. I straddled him as he devoured me, my arms clinging to his neck as I buried my fingers into the silky hair at the base of his skull.
