Chapter 34
THIRTY FOUR
Honey
Gryff’s hand is lightly calloused and so, so warm. He looks into my eyes so intently I think he’s looking into my soul, except I kinda just flashed my soul at him and the universe so…
“How much of what I just said did you hear?” I want to look away, but he has me captive, falling into his rich hazelnut eyes. Still so sad but somehow different from before. As if some of the darkness has been chased away by a glowing amber light within.
“Everything. I heard everything.”
Oh god. Is this the part where he tells me I’m a sweet girl but he left because he can’t return my feelings or because he doesn’t want me like that?
“And I should have heard it sooner because you’ve been trying to tell me for a while, haven’t you?”
“I have? I mean, I’m not sure I knew myself until I said those things out loud, but I’ve been… feeling this way for a while. It sort of crept up on me, and oh, I guess I have!”
His thumb brushes across my lips, silencing me. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry I wasn’t listening right. I’m sorry I pretended I couldn’t sense it and I lied to you.”
Oh no. He’s sorry. That means he doesn’t feel it and he’s going to break my heart and shatter my silly dreams and—
“And most of all, I’m sorry I was too scared to tell you what you mean to me. What you are to me.”
My heart actually stops in my chest. Like freezes up and hangs on the next thing that comes out of Gryff’s mouth because one way or the other, I think it’ll change me forever. My next words come out as a whisper. “What I am?”
“Honey, you’re mine. My fated mate. I’ve known since—” He coughs, and suddenly I’m hella curious about when he knew, but I bite my tongue because he’s not done. “Let’s just say I’ve known it for a while, and I kept it from you because I couldn’t see that meant I am also yours. But I am, aren’t I?”
I’m a little bit confused about where he’s going with this, but I nod, unable to deny it. “Yeah.”
“And I know what it feels like to go without your fated mate. It feels like there’s a big damn hole inside you. Like you’ll be bleeding out forever, one miserable day at a time.”
“Oh, Gryff!” The tears well up again, and everything goes all blurry. He’s been feeling like that? I hate that. “I know exactly what that feels like because that’s how I’m feeling too.”
He wraps his arms around me and pulls my cheek against his warm chest, and I’m surrounded by his scent—pine needles and fresh lake water and something deep and musky. “Shhh. Don’t cry, babygirl. I know I hurt you, and I’m sorry. I’m going to do my best from now on not to do that anymore, OK?”
I sniff. “What are you saying?” God I hope he means what I think he means.
“I’m saying I’m not going to fight this anymore. Us. I’m going to do my best to be the best fated mate to you that I can be. You got saddled with the worst one the universe could have thrown at you, so I’ve got a lot of making up to do.”
I pull back, frowning at him, and give him a little push for good measure. “Hey, that’s my mate you’re talking about. No one talks about Daddy that way!”
His brows shoot up, but the next moment his eyes crinkle in a laugh. “Is that right?”
“Yeah. That’s right.”
“And what do you plan to do about it, little girl?” His voice gets all dark and dangerous, and a shiver runs through me.
“Um… I hadn’t thought that far ahead actually. I—”
Gryff walks his hands toward me until we’re nose to nose. I’m trying really hard not to whimper because all I can think about is his lips on mine and on the throbbing ache between my legs.
“I did promise not to do anything that makes you sad, so I won’t go on, but just know you’re worth a hundred of me any day, gorgeous girl.”
I can’t think because he leans me back until we’re almost inside the tent, and my heart has gone from frozen to racing in moments. Then his gaze flicks up to a point behind me.
“Now let’s talk about why there’s a pair of the most delicious panties I’ve ever smelled hung up like a signpost just waiting for any stray alpha to come here and claim what’s mine.”
I’d almost forgotten about the panties. “Did it work? Did you smell them?”
He breathes out a chuckle against my neck as my head tips back. “Babygirl, I smelled you from five miles away. I didn’t need those panties.”
“You didn’t?” I shiver as his teeth graze my neck all the way down to my shoulder, and I have so many regrets that I’m not naked like he is right now.
“I didn’t. I would catch the scent of your lush pussy underwater, tied up in plastic wrap, and with a gasoline-soaked rag tied around my face.”
That’s not exactly the romantic vision I had in mind, but the growl he delivers it in is enough to keep me right on the edge so I’m not thinking clearly.
Gryff huffs out a sigh of frustration. “You see? See how I’m not built for this? I’m going to stop talking now and put my mouth to better use, but you have to tell me you want that.”
I pulse with need. My belly clenches. “I want that.”
He lifts the sweater over my head, and the tip of his nose trails between my breasts. “What do you want, hmm?”
He tugs up the hem of my T-shirt and plants a hot, wet kiss on my trembling belly.
“I—I want your mouth on me.”
“And?”
His teasing tongue laps at the waistband of my leggings.
“Where would you like my mouth, Honey? I want you to say it.”
If anyone was here to look, they’d see me flushing beet red, but Gryff isn’t paying attention, and I’m too far gone to care. “My pussy.”
He lets out a long growl of satisfaction. “Good girl. I’m going to put my mouth on your wet little pussy now and eat up all the slick you’ve just made for me. But I’m not going to make you cum.”
I can’t help the whimper of protest I make as he tugs down my leggings and presses me back into the grass. It’s everything I dreamed of, but in my mind I’m replaying the last thing he said. “Why not?” Even to my ears my words come out as a whine.
He laughs against my mound, and things get a whole lot wetter, which is saying something because it’s like Noah’s flood down there.
“Why not? Because I can smell how much you need it, and do you know what that does to me?”
“No.”
“It drives me wild, babygirl. Makes me feral for you. The second you cum for me today I’m done for, and I very much want my knot stuffed deep inside your pussy for as long as possible. Don’t you?”
I respond with a moan as he pushes my thighs wide and kisses the crease of my leg. Everything is a needy tangle waiting to feel the pull of his mouth on my clit.
“Don’t you, Honey? Use your words.”
“Yes!” I don’t even really know what I’m agreeing to. Everything? Anything this man wants to do with me. I’m down for it. I’m down bad for him. Especially because I’m starting to see maybe he’s down bad for me too.
My back bows off the grass as his hot, wet tongue makes its first swipe up my pussy and lands on my clit. I gasp.
Gryff lets out a long, loud groan as if it’s him who’s been edging for days. “Baby, you taste like heaven. Like the best thing I could imagine. It’s going to be a chore to drag myself away from this sweet little pussy long enough to fuck you. I could eat you all night.”
Oh god! The things he says. I’m lost to it, writhing under his touch as his tongue spears inside me and laps up every drop of moisture only to leave me dripping in response. Every time he drinks from me, my body produces more slick, until I’m damp and trembling and so, so ready to explode.
Then he stops. “Not yet, Honey.”
I groan in frustration as he lifts his head and uses the pad of his thumb to rub circles through my moist slit, avoiding the place I want him most. I writhe against him, desperate for more, but he evades me, pinning me down with his other hand on my lower belly.
“Gryff, please!”
“Please what, babygirl? You ready for me to fuck you now?”
“Yes, Daddy.”
I gasp as a throaty growl tears from him, and he pushes me back and climbs over me. “You want it, don’t you? Teasing me like that with those sweet words. Do you know what it does to me every time you call me Daddy?”
I shake my head.
Gryff rolls his hips, rubbing a very hard, hot cock right through my wetness. “This is what it does to me, Honey. Feel that? It’s fucking torture not being inside you right this second.”
I tremble as he slides past my entrance. So close and yet so far.
“Do you remember the first time you ever called me Daddy? You were just playing around. You couldn’t have known. I stood in that parking lot at the hardware store with a boner for a good ten minutes after that wondering what the fuck just hit me.”
I stare at him, but I know Gryff. I know he’s telling the truth. “I never knew.”
“I know, baby. I know. I was trying so hard to tell myself I couldn’t have you. That I was all wrong for you, but I got it wrong, didn’t I?”
“Yeah.”
“Yeah I did, and I’m sorry. Now I make it up to you.
” He lowers his head and presses his forehead against mine for one long moment.
Then he reaches down and lifts my leg, hooking it over his hip and pressing inside me in a slow thrust that adds to my need with every hot inch, every torturous quiver of my flesh around his.
When he finally bottoms out and sheaths himself completely, he pauses. It’s only then I notice the tendons standing out in his neck and the tension in his body.
His breathing is labored, and I feel him pulse inside me.
“This right here could never be wrong. You feel so damn right fitted around me I can’t believe I didn’t see it sooner.”
I can’t speak. All I can do is cling to him, urging him on wordlessly.
“I want you to know I’m right here with you now. I’m yours, and that’s not ever gonna change.”