The sound he made, a mixture between a groan and a growl, sent heat spiraling straight to my core. I tugged harder, wanting to hear that sound again, and was rewarded for my efforts.
I could have kissed him forever. A sense of absolute rightness settled through me, warm and certain. This was what I’d been waiting for: the feeling of coming home after wandering lost and finally knowing exactly where I belonged.
Safe. Wanted. Cherished. Claimed.
Griff held me against him, alternating between deep, devouring kisses and gentle sips at my lips, as though we had all the time in the world. How was this only the second time we’d kissed? I could feel my soul recognizing his, as though it had been waiting for this moment for eternity.
I shrieked as he stood, lifting me as though I weighed nothing. My muscles protested from my recent ordeal, but I locked my legs around his hips anyway, trusting him completely. His fingers dug into my thighs, his mouth never once leaving mine.
He carried me toward the cottage with determined strides. As we approached, the door swung open for us without his touch. The moment we crossed the threshold, it closed with a soft click. Then Griff spun me around, shoving me back against the wooden surface, and I gasped as I found myself trapped between that hard door and the solid planes of his body. I melted into his embrace, our mouths fused together. I reached between us, hooking one thumb into his waistband, desperate to reach the thick length I could feel straining against the fabric.
“No.” He pulled back slightly, his eyes dark with barely controlled desire. “I’ve waited too damn long. I have plans for this moment. Iwant you naked, stretched out beneath me. Where I can taste and worship and enjoy every glorious inch of you. Our first time is not going to be taking you against a wall.”
“But maybe our second?” I asked coyly, pressing kisses along his jawline and tasting the salt of his skin.
“Definitely our second,” he muttered, almost in pain.
“Promise?”
“I’ll promise you anything you want right now, Princess.”
“Then find us a bed in this place,” I whispered against his ear, letting my teeth graze his earlobe. “I’m tired of waiting to be yours.”
His groan vibrated through his chest as he hoisted me tighter against him. I bit his bottom lip gently before slanting my mouth over his again, exploring his warmth. I clung to him as he carried me up the stairs, our lips constantly seeking each other, neither of us willing to break contact. I strung kisses along his throat as he tried the first door.
“Fucking library,” he muttered, and I laughed against his skin as he swore and pivoted to the second door, kicking it open with more force than necessary.
“Thank Voda,” he breathed as candlelight revealed a bedroom with a large, inviting bed. I didn’t question how the candles were already lit or the fire warming the room. This place reverberated with magic.
“Don’t you mean ‘thank Solais’? It is a soul mating bond.”
“I’ll thank all seven gods if I finally get to have you.”
He lowered me to the bed and followed me down, pressing me into the mattress. He braced himself with one hand while the other worked the laces of my corset. He was going too slowly, so I pushed his hands away, my fingers fumbling with the ties. The two sides gaped open, leaving my chest bare to him as I wiggled out of the restrictive garment. While my experience in this certainly wasn’t vast, I’d never seen anything like the ravenous hunger in his eyes as they consumed my body.
“You’re the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen,” he growled,before gently cupping one of my breasts. I arched into his touch, chin lifted in silent invitation, and he took my plea for a kiss. I tugged at his shirt, and he broke away for just a moment to rip it off his head.
My mouth went dry. I’d seen him shirtless before, seen him train, watched him spar, hell even swam with him in the ocean, but this was different. The candlelight flickered across his sun-touched skin, illuminating every sculpted muscle, every scar. The broad expanse of his shoulders. The chiseled abs disappearing into the pants he was inexplicably still wearing.
I pulled him back down to me with renewed urgency, needing to feel his skin against mine. He lowered his body, my head tucked into the cradle of his arm, as that perfectly muscular chest pressed against mine and crushed me into the bed. I met his mouth hungrily as he kissed me with unrelenting intensity.
My hands went to his waistband. Never taking his mouth from mine, he made quick work of stripping his pants. I lifted my hips as he divested me of my pants just as quickly, before he stopped and pulled back.
I lay splayed out on the bed before him, completely exposed. Completely vulnerable. My hair fanned out beneath me, my skin flushed from his kisses, every inch of me bare to his gaze. And yet I didn’t care. Didn’t feel the urge to cover myself or hide. All I felt, as his eyes traced over my body with a reverent gleam, waswant.
His gaze traveled slowly, deliberately, as though he was drinking in every curve, every place where light and shadow danced over my skin. His breathing grew ragged as his eyes paused between my legs, where I was already slick with need. His pupils dilated with pure desire as heat flooded through me again.
“You’re perfect,” he rasped, with barely controlled restraint. “Absolutely perfect.”
I felt powerful in my nakedness, seeing this strong, always controlled man tremble with desire. It was intoxicating. I stretched languidly beneath his gaze, letting him look his fill, reveling in the way his eyes darkened with myevery movement.
And I needed him. Needed this man. “Touch me.” My voice came out husky. “Please, Griff. I need you to touch me.”
I barely saw the elation cross his face before he crushed me to him, running his hands down my ribs only to capture my wrists and pin them above my head with one of his large hands. The motion caused my back to arch and my breasts to lift. He smiled his satisfaction.
“Months I’ve wanted to do this. Feeling these against my arm every night, longing to touch them.”
His head bent to my nipple and sucked it into his mouth, while his free hand kneaded my other breast.
