Rise of the Gryphon (Belador #4)(23)

Evalle leaned forward, her mouth rigid as she gritted her teeth against unleashed anger. “I am doing this, so let’s hope your spell helps channel my inner passive child.”

Yeah, right. She didn’t have a passive bone in her body and there wasn’t a spell on this earth that would turn her into a docile woman.





SIX





Storm drove through downtown Atlanta with one hand on the steering wheel and his other toying with a strand of Evalle’s dark hair while she slept in the passenger seat. This woman had breathed life back into his heart. Had made him care about living again.

How was he going to keep the hardheaded Alterant safe?

If his visions and his spirit guide were right about the witch doctor from South America being close, he had to figure a way to keep that bitch away from Evalle, especially with Evalle’s control compromised.

Turning off Marietta Street, he drove down to an area below the main street levels. His truck tires bumped over the rails of an old train track that gave history to the iconic Underground Atlanta entertainment mall.

Jostled mildly, Evalle slept like the dead, just as she had for the whole trip back from the mountains. He didn’t want to wake her, but she had less than fifteen minutes to get inside her apartment before light leaking over the eastern horizon turned into full-blown daylight.

He didn’t want to leave her either, but he’d finally relented when she’d argued she wouldn’t rest if she spent the whole time worrying about what she might do to him.

Also, with her safe in her underground apartment he’d have time to do some tracking.

Driving across the last section of the cracked concrete lot where knee-high weeds sprouted, he parked in front of a crumbling brick building that shielded Evalle’s basement home.

And sat there for several seconds, indulging in a stolen moment. Just the two of them. No one to save. No one to kill. What he wouldn’t give to make this time stretch into infinity.

He leaned over the console and kissed her softly.

She woke with a start, alert. Her bright green eyes met his. He’d taken her sunglasses off when she’d fallen asleep. They were parked in the dark shadow of the building, where no light would harm her eyes.

Evalle breathed deeply and smiled.

Sunshine came in many forms. The ball of fire that burst into the sky daily had nothing on one of her smiles. She leaned forward and kissed him back, fingers gliding into his hair, then curving around the back of his head to pull him closer.

And just like that, he had the erection from hell.

He held her face, tasting slowly, when he practically shook with wanting her. When he traced his fingers down to her shoulder, he slipped his hand around her neck.

Her skin started to heat, but he was ready this time and broke the kiss. Or tried to.

She wrenched him closer, kissing with more urgency.

“Evalle . . . honey,” he murmured when he could get a word out. “Have to stop.”

“No.”

He didn’t grab her this time. No sudden moves unless he wanted to go airborne. Instead, he said, “The armband.”

She paused, kissed him again, then paused once more, hesitating with indecision, but this time she pulled away and released a sigh weighted with frustration.

He could sympathize. Frustration had become a natural state for him, but it appeared that some of his spell was still holding. “Are you sure you’ll be okay?”

“Yes.” She snagged her glasses off the dash and shoved them onto her face before opening the door to get out. He met her at the front of the truck.

Light glowed in the eastern sky, but she had eleven minutes left until the first rays of the sun broke the horizon. He wanted eight of those but wouldn’t push her for more than she could handle right now, so he stood a few steps away, hands loose at his sides.

Had to be ready for anything.

She crossed the few steps separating them and lifted her fingers to his chin, then her lips to his, kissing him gently. Pinning his hands at his sides to keep from touching her took all the control he had left.

A man could only resist so much.

When she moved back, she kept her fingers on his face. “I’m ready for . . . more. For us.”

Words he’d dreamed about hearing. “You have no idea how much I’d like that to be the case but—”

“But nothing.” She lifted her glasses long enough for him to see her clear gaze before she dropped them back into place. “This is me, Storm. Not the bone. You said to trust you. When I get this thing off my arm, I want to try . . . with you.”

Those words hadn’t come easily.

Her pride had prevented her from taking the plunge before now and either making a fool of herself or harming him. But that same pride forced her to face her fears. To meet him on equal footing. With Evalle’s deep sense of honor, she’d follow through no matter how much the idea might terrify her.

Humbling to be given a trust so precious.

He’d never let her get to the point of feeling terrified, and he believed she had plenty of control over shifting when she was fully in charge of her actions.

No woman could stack up next to this one.

Wrapping his fingers around her hand, he turned her palm to kiss the soft pads. “I’ll be here when you’re ready, but not until you really are ready. Right now, I just want that thing off your arm before you try to kill Sen or Macha.”