“I—”
His entire body trembled when she slid her hand from his arm to his ribs, to another scratch that had already healed and was nothing more than a thin red line. Her fingers traced the puckered ridge, and his body jerked, a movement that multiplied tenfold the power she was feeling.
He captured both her hands before she could touch him more. “Maelea, stop.”
She lifted her eyes to his, searched his face for proof that’s what he really wanted. Didn’t see it. She saw want and need and hunger. The same hunger overwhelming her.
The knowledge electrified her. Thrilled her. Empowered her. This suddenly wasn’t about seducing him to get away. This was about easing a need she’d sensed since he first touched her in the caves beneath the colony.
“I’m not going to hurt you, Gryphon. I just want to say thank you. I haven’t been very nice to you so far and…and I’m trying to tell you now…I’m sorry. Just relax and let me thank you.”
She rose up on her toes, brought her mouth close to his. He drew in a sharp breath again, one that told her yes…yes, this was what they both needed. She didn’t know why, but an uncontrollable urge to prove that and so much more to him consumed her.
Just before she kissed him, he blocked her by bracing his hands against her shoulders. “Maelea, don’t. You don’t know what you’re doing. You don’t know what I’m capable of.”
“Yes, I do,” she whispered. “And trust me, Gryphon, we both need it.”
He went still as stone as she pressed her lips to his. His hands fell from her shoulders. She eased in closer, until the tips of her breasts brushed his skin. Skimming her lips over his again, she laid her hands against his hard, warm chest, her body growing more needy with each long, silent second that ticked by. Growing more frustrated too, because he wasn’t kissing her back the way she wanted.
Was he not as attracted to her as she thought? She’d been so sure this was what he wanted too. She lowered her heels to the floor, stared up at him in the dim light. Searched his eyes for what was holding him back.
Fear. Stark and raw. But not of her. He couldn’t be afraid of her, could he? No one had ever been scared of her.
“Gryphon,” she whispered.
A strangled groan rumbled from his chest. Then he snagged her at the waist and jerked her tight against his body before she could gasp.
And just as he lowered his mouth to hers, he whispered, “Skata. I do need you.”
***
Her mouth was everything he’d remembered and had been afraid to taste again. Warm, wet, inviting. She opened for him on reflex and drew his tongue inside without hesitation. Her fingers slid to his shoulders, dug into his skin as he kissed her. She tasted of darkness. Of hunger. Of need. Of heaven and hell and everything in between.
He groaned, changed the angle of the kiss so he could taste her deeper, pulled her tighter so he could feel her closer. His hardening erection pressed against the soft indent of her belly, sending shards of heat ricocheting through his groin. She moaned, and the darkness inside him hummed in pleasure. Vibrations that echoed through every inch of his skin, even as that place inside that had been broken since the Underworld lurched toward her, as if she were a magnet. As if she were the antidote to his pain. As if she were his very last chance for salvation.
Which she was. She was all that stood between him and insanity. Between him and the voice that had been calling to him since he’d left the Underworld. The one that made him twitch, made him want to claw his skin off, made him want to scream. And now he knew why. Because of the light inside her. The light that was counteracting the darkness simmering inside him. The light that was interfering with Atalanta’s hold on him. With her ability to summon him.
“Gryphon,” she whispered against his lips.
The sound of her voice drew him back. He stared down at her swollen lips, at her wide and aroused eyes, at that tangle of damp, dark hair around her face. Did it matter why he was attracted to her? Did it matter if it was the darkness of the Underworld pushing him? If he’d met her in his old life, would he have wanted her as much as he did right this second?