A Promise of Fire (Kingmaker Chronicles, #1)(110)

Eager to change the subject, I wiggle out of his arms, sift through my purchases, and then shove the soap at him. “This is for you.”

He looks surprised. “You got me something?”

I roll my eyes. “It’s just soap. And you paid for it.”

“No, you did. I keep forgetting to give you your wages, so I just gave you everything at once.”

“Oh, well, we’ve been busy dying, and healing, and…everything else.”

A smile tugs at his full mouth. “Everything else?” His voice turns gruff. He seems very interested in the everything else part. “Are you sore?”

A fiery blush paints me from top to bottom, but I shake my head. “It’s better now.”

“Good.” Closing the small distance between us, he wraps his arms around my waist and lifts me up, kissing me deeply. “You know what they say about Ares and Aphrodite?”

I twine my arms around his neck. My feet dangle above the floor. He’s strong and broad, and I cling willingly to his warmth. Our lips and tongues begin to dance, and the awareness I always feel around Griffin explodes into fierce, bone-deep desire.

“Cat?” he murmurs against my mouth.

“Hmm?”

“Ares and Aphrodite.”

I’m more interested in kissing. Griffin lets my feet touch the ground again so he can slide his hands over the curve of my bottom and pull me tightly against him. His arousal presses into my belly, and an ache blossoms between my thighs.

“She’s drawn to his violent nature,” I finally say, breathless.

He chuckles, trailing kisses down my neck and unbuckling my belt at the same time. “That, too. But I was thinking of something else. She’s so beautiful, so coveted, that she can have anyone, and yet she returns to him time and again, even though he’s despised by the other Gods. He binds her to him. She can’t live without his touch.”

I frown. “You don’t have to bind me to you with sex.”

Griffin picks me up and carries me to the bed, lying down next to me. “I’ll bind you to me in any way I can. Sex. Children. Love.”

My heart jerks. My lungs suddenly feel too tight. “We’re together. Isn’t that enough?”

He shakes his head. He undresses me, and I let him. “You’re bright like a star. You shine for me now, but the sky turns. Where will you shine tomorrow? Or the day after? I won’t let you go, not without a fight that would make Gods tremble.”

I shiver, rattled by his words. “You’ll regret pledging yourself to me. It will cut your life short.”

“You’re my life now. We’ll live together, or die trying.”

I shiver again, the chills both hot and cold. “You’ve decided, then? For both of us?”

He nods, smoothing his hand down my naked body. His warm fingers come tantalizingly close to where I’m already slick with want.

I shift restlessly. “I should have a say.”

He dips his head and teases my breast with his mouth while his hand inches toward the curls between my thighs. “Then tell me what you want.”

I moan when his finger slides between my folds, gently rubbing. What I say now will have consequences. Words are binding, each one a promise, or a betrayal. He slips a finger inside me, his hot, wide palm putting pressure on my sensitive nub of nerves. I lift my hips and forget all about talking.

“Agapi mou?”

Tension builds quickly inside me. My pulse is a liquid beat, throbbing between my legs. One finger turns into two, thrusting firmly. I tilt my head back and grip the sheets. “I can’t think when you’re touching me.”

Griffin stops and looks up from my damp nipple. “What do you want?”

I want him to go back to touching me so desperately that I might say anything. Luckily, I’m not that stupid. Or rather, I was stupid before. “In case you missed it, I pledged myself to you last night when I accepted your claim and let you spill your life force inside me.”

He doesn’t rise to my baiting tone. “Live together, or die trying?”

It takes a moment to get the words out. I’m worried about Griffin, and the dying part. “Live together, or die trying.”

Griffin’s shoulders relax. He kisses me long and deep, his sword-toughened fingers wonderfully rough against the inside of my thigh. I slip my hands under his tunic and hold him close, pressing my face into his neck and inhaling his subtle, masculine scent.

I kiss his jaw. It’s official—I am an idiot. At least there are two of us now. “Be my Ares and finish what you started. Otherwise, I might just kill you and all of this pledging will be irrelevant.”

He grins. I think he’s going to touch me again, but he doesn’t. He drags his mouth down my body instead. I know where he’s going, and I can’t wait. He nips my hip and then my thigh, nudging my legs apart. Then his mouth begins a slow, delicious torture, his hands holding me steady while I come undone. He takes his time, tasting, teasing, exploring what makes me buck, and finally wringing a staggering release from me, leaving me panting, satiated, and stunned.

Griffin kisses his way back up my stomach and breasts. He stretches out next to me, leaving one heavy hand on my hip. My eyes lock on his fingers, dark against my pale skin. I wonder if I’ll ever get used to the easy way he touches me.