he forced the words out anyway. “I don’t want you to think I won’t have your back either way. I will always protect you.”
“I know what I want.” That stubbornness of hers reared its head. “I was just…worried.” Her shoulders sagged. “It all harder than I thought. One moment happy, the next afraid. Everyone new and I never know if I doing right. I feel…lost.” Her gaze lifted to his. “Except with you.”
He hauled her close and pressed his forehead to hers. “I can’t lose you.”
She froze.
“It’s not just you who feels that way, wild thing.” He sucked down a deep breath. “None of this is easy, but it’s worth it.”
“Sometimes hard to me to believe. I…I still hear Talg in head.”
“He’s not here now. It’s just you and me.”
“Yes.” Determination flared in her gaze. Gaze locked with his, she unhooked the rope coiled at his hip and pressed it to his chest. “Shut him out. Make me feel safe, free.”
Blood pounding in his veins, he gripped her hand in his. “Always.”
Taking the rope from her grasp, he unfurled it between them.
“You want a reminder that I’m going to take better care of this body than anyone ever could?”
“Yes.”
He skimmed the braided tip over the flush spreading across the hollows over her collarbone, desire and tenderness a raging storm in his chest. “Guard it like the savage, monstrous Other I am?”
Her breathing hitched.
He waited.
“Yes.” The single word was a low, sweet moan. “Remind me.”
Her arms were behind her back and laced tight in the next instant. He tightened the final knot with a quick snap. She let out a soft sigh. Grif’s balls drew tight. She liked to submit. He liked her surrender.
He stepped back to survey his work. “You’re so damn beautiful.”
She looked up at him with that same mix of doubt and awe that threatened to cut him off at the knees. That made him desperate to do whatever the fuck it took to have her looking at him like that for as long as he could.
“For those few moments when I thought you were leaving me, the monster in me roared so loud, the pain was almost too much to bear.” He sucked down another harsh breath. “I don’t do well with helpless.”
“You the strongest, fiercest male I know—and I am right here.” Rising to her tiptoes, she pressed her lips to his collarbone, his chin, the corner of his mouth, whispering the words against his skin, a healing balm of their own. “To do with as you wish.”
His control broke. His mouth slanted across hers. His palms slid to her ass. He lifted her to him, needing her even closer. “Promise me you’re staying.”
“I promise.” She wrapped her legs around him, accepting him, her need as great as his own. Kissing him back as wildly, her teeth raking down his throat as she marked his skin like she had his soul.
Nothing soothed the beast inside more.
“Come inside me, Grif.”
Except maybe that.
His cock thickened, his blood pounding hot as she writhed against him.
“Soon, baby.” As he spoke, he put her down and grabbed the blanket from where she’d dropped it. After a quick shake, he tossed it over the nearest rock. Her trust, as she simply watched and waited, floored him all over again. “We need to go over a little something first.”
He spun her around, bending her face down over the rock, her gorgeous ass tilted high in the air.
She sucked down a gasp.
He slid his thigh between her legs and, slowly, gently, forced hers to spread wide. The deliberate precision and control drew out the anticipation, until her sweet pussy, already so wet and needy, was exposed to his gaze.
“So pretty.” He leaned over, blanketing her body with his, and whispered in her ear. That’s what I see when I look at you. Pretty inside and out.” He nuzzled her ear before drawing back. “But stubborn, too.” He tapped her ass with the flat of his hand.
She moaned.
He dropped to his knees. Ran the tip of his tongue along her slit. “Next time you have trouble with my teammates, you come to me.”
She gasped, stiffening for an instant before her body melted, her thighs spreading wider.
“I’m in charge of this mission. That means I get final say. Not just over you, baby, but over them all. They leave before you do. You hear me?”
“Y-yes.”
He pressed the flat of his tongue to her tiny nub. Worked it good. She mewled, pushing her pussy back against him