A Grim Love: Can't Fight Time (14 page)

Nina wasn’t sure if Grim really believed that, or if he was just trying to convince her. “Grim--”

A slow kiss sizzled through her body, cutting off whatever else she was going to say. Nina didn’t have a chance to escape the addiction that was Grim, before he had her completely pinned against the wall, his hands under her thighs and slowly lifting her up.

The floor was an illusion; Grim and his mouth and his hands were all that existed for her. “Marry me, Nina.”

Nina heard the fabric of her skirt rip, and then a second later her panties sailed to the ground. She desperately wanted to say yes, wanted to pretend that this was a fairytale and she could live forever with her prince charming, and overcome any obstacles thrown in their path.

Fantasy was the ultimate escape, but an escape that could sometimes do more harm than good. They were living in a fantasy if Grim thought everything would work out, and Nina was just enabling him.

“No. Stop asking,” she panted as she slid down his zipper and reached past the fabric of his boxers.

“You will marry me, Nina. You can be sure of that.” Grim growled as he knocked away her hand and gripped her hips hard.

She was ready for him, all slick and needy, but still, the moment he entered her always surprised her. Nina had never felt the overwhelming need to let herself go and give herself to another person like she did with Grim. And that scared the crap out of her.

Ever since her dad had decided to join the crazy murderous train, she’d had a fear of trusting people. If she gave herself completely over to Grim, what would happen then? Would he hurt her? He had that power. Or would he do something--

Who cares?
her consciousness mocked.

Nina reached forward and grabbed onto Grim as he seated himself fully in her body and she felt every ridge, every dip, every muscle, and every drip of sweat that was Grim. Overwhelming her, consuming her, controlling her.

Let go
, her subconscious whispered as Grim pulled out and thrust back in, making Nina cry out at the sensation of him.

The thought was so tempting, so very, very tempting, that she couldn't help but give in.

Because who did care? No one was with them, no one was in their bed. The only thing that resulted from her continually thinking during sex was loss of pleasure. And she didn’t want to lose an ounce of the pleasure Grim was giving her. Especially with the limited time they had.

So she gave herself over to it, let the passion and the feeling of heat just before freezing to death consume her.

“Marry me,” Grim said as he jack knifed into her, and Nina dragged her nails down his back.

Pleasure consumed her, and nearly made her laugh. Nina might have lost herself and her mind in their lovemaking, but she still had a shred of common sense. Throwing her head back she thrust down on him, and screamed into the darkness of their bedroom, a long sound that didn’t sound like a yes… or a no.

CHAPTER TEN

A few weeks later

“Give me one good reason you won’t marry me!” Grim demanded as he paced the length of their bedroom.

Nina was on the bed, laying on her side with her ankles crossed and a book under her nose. She looked up from the novel and rolled her eyes at him. Grim thought he might just snap.

They’d been fighting for about this for weeks now! He’d offered her the world--his world, but she’d repeatedly shot him down, continuing with the “no future here” bullshit.

His power crackled in the air with his anger, but Nina seemed to barely even care about it. Maybe she’d gotten used to it. After all, the only time he seemed to be unable to control himself was around her. She drove him absolutely insane. One minute he wanted to kiss her and screw her up against the wall, and the very next he wanted to shake and scream at her.

Grim watched as Nina levered herself up and flipped the book over on the bed. “I’ll give you three.”

Holding her hand up, she began to tick off her fingers as she listed the reasons. “One: I have a contract with Uri that says I have to go back in three months. Two: I’m pretty sure you keeping me here as your wife is going to piss a whole bunch of reapers off, most of all your actual fiancée. Three: I have accepted that I have to die, because I’m human.”

Grim stopped at the foot of the bed and glowered at her. “You’re being stupid,” he growled.

He watched Nina’s jaw lock and her eyes blaze with fury. Grim flexed his fist as he watched her calmly crawl from the bed.
Where does she think she’s going?

“When you’ve calmed down, you can come see me. I’ll be back in my room.” The words were forced out through gritted teeth as she shoved her feet into a pair of shoes and sailed past him.

A flick of his power sent her careening back onto the bed. Another flick had her spread wide, held in place by invisible restraints. With Nina restrained, the beast within him--that wild part that decided to break all the rules and screw the consequences--relaxed.

“Let me go, Grim. You’re being an asshole again,” Nina bit off, straining her body against the restraints.

Grim snorted and came around the bed to sit near her. She was beautiful when she was angry, fire sparking her eyes, skin flushed and tight. So similar to the way she looked when he made love to her. “Half the time I’m an asshole. The other half I’m an uncaring dick.”

It was true. Which is why he was trying to change. Nina made him want to change. She made him want things he wasn’t supposed to want. “I’m trying to be the man you need, Nina. I’m trying.”

Nina stopped struggling and looked at him with those big chocolate brown eyes, so intelligent, always seeing more than he wanted her to ever see. Then she blew out a gusty sigh and most of the tension that had been holding her left. “I know you are, Grim.” Her voice was soft. “I know you are.”

The conversation with his parents had made him realize something, and seeing Felica had set it in stone. This was his--undead--life! Politics aside, he saw how his parents lived. His father in a quick descent into madness and his mother hating her life and being miserable all the time. Honor, duty, and political alliances had driven them to that. But Grim refused to follow the same path, refused to sacrifice centuries of living for an alliance that wouldn’t even hold.

His feelings for Nina would hold. That, he knew beyond a shadow of a doubt, was true. He might be a possessive asshole, haunted by ghosts, but he needed Nina--needed her like he’d needed nothing else.

“Marry me.” The words were spoken softly as he flicked his power and released her.

A soft palm caressed his cheek, and Grim grasped it instinctively, turning her hand to place a kiss in her palm his thumb passing over Uri's mark as he stroked the top of her hand. “Please,
Amica
.”

“Grim…” a soft sigh. “Why?”

I love you.
The words rested on his tongue, but he knew the walls had ears. “I can’t let you go. You mean more to me than you know.”

For a few tense moments, they stared at each other. Nina looking at Grim, trying to decide what to do, and Grim looking at Nina hoping she would finally say yes. He wouldn’t force her, but he also couldn’t lose her.

“Come lay beside me, Grim,” Nina said gently.

Grim was beside her in a second, reaching out for her, and pulling her against him. It felt right to have her against him, with him. He tipped her face up, looking into wide brown eyes dancing with a hint of curiosity. It was one of his favorite faces, one that most assuredly spelled out trouble for him. It was one of the many things Grim loved and hated about her.

"I don't want to lose what we had at the beginning," he said quietly, pulling her even closer.

Her lashes lowered, shielding her eyes for a second. "We will always have that first conversation, Grim," she said quietly, raising her eyelids and looking at him. "We won't lose that."

But already he felt the easiness between them slipping away and becoming something else. He wasn't sure what it was, or even if it was going to be good for them, but it was there in every word and touch.

Turning away from her, Grim forced a smile and retreated into the past. "Do you remember the second time we met?"

Nina swung her leg over and straddled his hips, placing her ear against his un-beating heart. "Of course," She said, the sound rumbling through him. "You appeared out of nowhere and claimed to be my boyfriend, and then read that detective’s mind. I was so freaked out."

Grim stroked a hand through her hair, twining the curls around his fingers. "You didn't show it. You kept a level head, and didn't as much as let out a peep when I told you I was Death."

Nina laughed the sound carefree and young. He'd forgotten what it sounded like to hear her laugh, really, truly laugh. Grim hadn’t realize how much he'd missed the sound. He didn't realize how integral Nina had become to his life after only a few weeks, just a little more than a month. It was amazing the difference time made.

"Yeah, well, what was I supposed to do? Faint? Scream? Go into 18th Century female hysterics?" She snorted. "Please give me a little credit, Grim."

His lips quirked at her indigent tone. Sometimes she forgot how small and fragile she was, but he never did. Not even for a second. She was a mouse around lions, a lamb among wolves, and unless she suddenly changed her species, that was all she would ever be.

Still, he loved her. A lion loved a mouse.

Grim looked down at her bent head, her ear resting on his heart, her other hand resting across from her. The same hand that bore his brother’s mark. Jealousy flooded Grim's veins, and soaked into his bones. Uri had constantly pushed him, gotten under his skin and made him wonder how much he really needed a brother.

“Give me your left hand.” Grim commanded his voice soft but tinged with jealousy.

Nina lifted her hand and looked quizzically up at him. Whatever she saw in his eyes made her lever herself into a sitting position, and with a tiny bit of hesitation, finally give him her hand. Uncertainty furrowed her brows, but steely resolve hardened her body.

She wasn’t afraid of him, and Grim wondered if she’d ever been. Nina had always been strong, and perhaps whatever power he had over her had just been an illusion. She held all the power, and always had.

Laying a gentle kiss on the inside of her wrist, then her palm, Grim turned her hand over and stared at the intricate marking there. The seal was only as big as his thumb, and could be completely overlooked as a birthmark to humans, but the swirling patterns and complicated spells were more than visible to him. In the heart of the contract, written in a language only ancients could read, was Uriel’s seal.

He would wipe the mark from her body, take away everything that was his brother. Nina had given her consent thus far, or the seal would have repelled him. It was a small dose of Uri’s power inside her body, but Nina didn’t know that.

Rubbing his thumb across the mark, Grim looked up into her eyes. So beautiful, so captivating. Everything about her was captivating. The tight dark brown and red curls, her soft raw-sugar skin, the curves that kept him locked to her, drowning in her. Addicted, that’s what he was.

“Do you trust me?” Grim asked, keeping his voice low so the walls didn’t hear.

Something clouded in her eyes, maybe uncertainty and fear. But it was gone and Nina was leaning down and kissing him like he was a life raft in a tsunami. “I trust you, Grim., Nina said against his lips, a slight tremble in her voice.

He knew how much it cost her to admit that, and he couldn’t be any more thankful. Rubbing his thumb against the mark again, Grim gathered a bit of his energy and forced it into Nina, past Uri’s mark, until Uri’s seal broke and faded away, creating a new contract.

Nina’s body tensed and she bit out a small cry. He knew the pain she was feeling was intense, but it was also fleeting. It was much easier to remove or apply a contract then to override one. But at the time contracts had been used, reapers died more often leaving the woman contracted to a dead reaper. That was why the contracts had been remade, the ability to override another's claim insinuated into the fine print.

“Nina, look at me.” Grim commanded, sliding his other hand into her hair.

Wet eyes met his, clouded with pain. Grim hated to see her in pain. Hated to think that she might have to experience something worse when she returned to the human world. He couldn't let her, he loved her too much.

“Please,
Amica
, marry me.” Grim pleaded and pulled her down to him until their foreheads touched. “I love you.”

Silent tears fell on his cheek as she cried, but he didn’t push her, didn’t force her any further. He just held her; arms locked tight, and let her cry. Let her work out the guilt and the pain and all of the other emotions coursing through her. He was her rock.

Seconds stretched into long minutes before Nina finally calmed. She hadn’t made a sound, hadn’t wept hysterically, or raged. The tears had been an outpouring of frustration, a feeling he understood all too well. He’d shed those same tears a very long time ago, when he’d been in a very dark place with no exit.

“It’ll never work, Grim,” Nina said, so softly he thought he might have imagined it.

Grim drew her closer to him, became everything she would ever need. “We’ll make it work.”

“We fight a lot. I’m constantly negative. You're going to be a king. Then there’s the--”

“Yes or no, Nina. Just one word.” Grim said with a chuckle.

“I…” Nina paused, and Grim looked down at her, saw her bottom lip worried between her teeth.

He leaned down and used his tongue to take away the sting from her lip. “One word.”

“Yes.”

***

“Damnit!” Nina cursed softly as she turned and looked at Grim, relaxed and sleeping peacefully.

Why can’t I be like that?
Nina wondered, feeling a bit jealous of her lover--correction, fiancée. Reapers didn’t really need to sleep, but some enjoyed the act. Grim said that reapers who were born from a human enjoyed the act because they dreamed, and they could escape into another place.

Sighing softly, Nina slipped out from underneath Grim’s body and swung her feet over the side of the bed. The carpet was soft beneath her feet as she wrapped a nightgown and robe around her body.

There was no point staying in bed if she wasn’t going to sleep, and she refused to stare at Grim like some freaky stalker. So she left, closing the door softly behind her, and nodded to the guards stationed outside of their room as she began her walk.

As always the hulking trees ignored her, and only the angry curl of their lips reminded her that they still saw her. But Nina couldn’t care about them at the moment, her mind too consumed with Grim.