Christmas Griffin - Zoe Chant Page 0,35
want to do that all the time. And once you start building your life around one thing like that, once you start putting your own desires behind whatever grand plan you came up with… Of course you’d get confused.”
He understood her. She should have been terrified. Instead, she melted.
“You weren’t, though. Confused. You knew straight away?”
“From the moment I saw you.” There was a growl in his voice that made all the hairs on the back of her neck stand on end. He raised one hand to cup the back of her head, then dragged it down, smoothing the hairs as though he knew what effect his voice had had.
But he hadn’t said anything. Because—
“From the moment I started hurting you,” she corrected him.
No wince. No grimace of pain. Just a flicker of guilt in the depths of his eyes. Was she seeing him, or his griffin?
Delphine breathed in. Hardwick was all his particular smells, wild and magical, strange and home at the same time. She wanted—God, she wanted—
“Tell me,” he breathed, and the growl didn’t stop at her neck this time; it traveled down her body, prickling and enticing, bringing parts of her to life she’d almost given up for dead. “Tell me when you first sensed something between us,”
“From the moment I saw you,” she admitted. “Sitting there, watching me. I should have been dead—”
“No.”
“I would have been dead. And then I was alive, and you were there, and I felt...”
She kissed him again. She couldn’t help it. The day she’d spent fighting her feelings had stretched her out like a bowstring, and now that it was released there was no way she could fight any longer.
“I know what I want now,” she whispered against his lips. “I want you.”
Hardwick’s arms tightened around her. The hand at the back of her neck held her more firmly, keeping her in place. Where she belonged. Oh, God, how could she have doubted this?
“Say it again,” he growled.
“I want you.”
Hardwick groaned. She tensed, thinking she’d said something wrong, hurt him again—but when she tore her lips from his and stared into his eyes, they were shining and dark, the difference between his pupils and irises barely visible.
“Again,” he whispered, trailing his hand over her jaw. “Tell me something else true.”
Something else true. The thrill of it took her breath away. It felt wrong, somehow. Wicked. It was so opposite to everything she’d built around herself, and so dangerous. To tell the truth was to reveal part of herself she kept hidden even from herself.
“I want you to kiss me—”
He kissed her, his fingers tangling in her hair. She wriggled against him.
“No—here—”
She indicated with her fingers. First her jawline. Then her neck. The thick muscle at the top of her shoulder, then the sensitive skin over her collarbone. She pulled at her clothing. “There—”
He trailed a line of kisses down her chest. Each touch made her bite back a moan until his mouth landed on her breast and she gave in. A shuddering sigh escaped her as he dragged her bra down and kissed her nipple.
“Oh, God—teeth —”
“I’ll be gentle.”
“No—I want—”
Hardwick’s growl of understanding was almost as incredible as the sensation of his teeth scraping against her nipple. He bit her—gently, then harder, as she gasped with pleasure. The pain twisted inside her, joining with the strange, vulnerable wrong-right-ness of telling him what she wanted. Her fingers dug into his shoulders.
“I want you to take your clothes off.”
Hardwick looked up at her. His dark eyes flashed, and he straightened, reluctant, but cheeks flushed with desire.
“No!” she burst out as he pulled on the hem of his shirt. “I want to do it.”
He let out a bark of surprised laughter. “You don’t know what you want.”
“I do.” She grabbed at his shirt. She felt light-headed. “I just keep changing my mind about how to get it.”
“Oh?”
His smile was one Delphine had never seen before. Slow and sly and intimate. It fit his face so much better than the wary scowl she was used to. She kissed him, bunching her hands in his shirt. “You should do that more often.”
“Do what?”
“Look at me like that.”
He let out a ragged breath. “Delphine—”
She pulled his shirt up. He raised his arms, helping her drag the shirt over his head. She didn’t notice where it went. His chest was hot, so hot, his heartbeat strong under her fingers.
And he was just really fucking sexy to look at.
“I love your body.”
Hardwick’s breath caught in his throat. She looked