I paused, my hand tightening on his arm, the weight of what wewere returning to pressing down on me. “We can’t tell anyone,” I said slowly, hating the words coming out of my mouth.
He went completely still beside me. Through the bond, I felt his shock turn to something darker. Hurt. Anger. Shame.
“No, no. Griff, look at me.” I hastened to explain, my hands cradling his scratchy face. “I’m not ashamed of this. I want to shout it from every tower in Valdris. I want everyone to know you’re mine.” I kissed him fiercely, pouring every ounce of truth into both the kiss and our bond until I felt some of his tension ease.
“Then why?” His voice was rough.
“Because… Finn.” My voice broke on the name. “I can’t bear to see his face when he realizes what this is. I care about him too much to hurt him like that without warning. We need time to figure out how to tell him gently.”
Griff closed his eyes, exhaling heavily. Through the bond, I could tell his brotherly instincts were warring with his possessive need to claim me publicly. “I hate this,” he ground out finally.
“I hate it too.”
He backed me against the stone wall beside the gates, tucking my body tightly against his. “Understand this—even if we delay telling the world, I will be in your bed every night, claiming you so thoroughly that no one could ever question you’re mine.”
The ardor in his voice sent heat spiraling through me. “Is that a promise?”
“Yes.”
As soon aswe entered the castle walls, Andrei appeared, some sort of instinct informing him when his wayward patient appeared. Probably his soul channel. We managed to avoid everyone as he steered us toward his office. Ushering me in, he blocked Griff’s entrance. “You can come in once I examine her.”
Griff’s mask had returned but I felt him bristle through the bond as Andrei shut the door in his face.
Andrei rested his fingertips against my head and my heart, eyes closed, reading whatever signs he had access to. Shaking his head, he pulled his hands away. “You’re in surprisingly good shape for someone who was buffeted through time, survived an ancient battle, lived through magical stasis, and…” His eyes flicked meaningfully toward the door. “Whatever recent activities have left you glowing like that.”
I blushed, but he ignored it and kept going. “I would tell you to stop overdoing it but I know it would fall on deaf ears.”
“I’m shocked you think I’d overdo it,” I replied innocently.
“Drink this.” He handed me a small glass of clear liquid.
I sniffed it suspiciously. It smelled overwhelming of peppermint. “What is it?”
“A contraceptive. You’ll need it until your channels develop enough for you to control your fertility naturally.” He paused, noting my flaming cheeks, eyebrows raised. “Unless I misread the situation?”
I felt myself turn an even brighter red.
“Drink up.”
“Hurry it up there, Princess.”Griff’s impatience blazed through the bond.
“Got somewhere urgent to be?”
The answer was not in words but in vivid imagery that made my knees weak—me perched on Andrei’s desk, Griff kneeling between my spread thighs, his mouth…
I choked on my next breath as I clamped my legs together.
Thank Erde I was already blushing.
“Stop that,”I flung down the bond as I drank the contents of the glass in one gulp, spluttering as it burned going down. I think it was supposed to be sipped.
Andrei’s eyes narrowed shrewdly. “What aren’t you telling me?”
Trying and failing to ignore the images Griff was sending—images that were now of my body moving under his—I shifted my weight from side to side. There was certainly too much to convey before Griff lost what was left of his patience and broke down the door.
“Don’t think I haven’t already contemplated it.”
Andrei was staring at me, probably wondering why I was taking so long to answer. Or maybe not. He was astute.
