Shadow of the Vampire (37 page)

         
Arms wrapped around her, gently helping her to her feet. Griffon settled her in front of him, and after a heartbeat, he let her go. Unsteady, she stumbled to the side.

         
"Whoa," he said, gripping her again, ensuring she'd stay vertical. "Are you okay?"

         
At the genuine concern in his voice, Tallon looked up, blinking at the tiny knot furrowing his brow. For a split second it appeared he was almost afraid he'd hurt her. Tallon's breath hitched at the random thought. It was then she realized with a start that she actually saw Griffon. Not the rogue dragon who had mysteriously turned up at their mountain lair one day. Not the feared and violent hunter with a past murkier than the darkest cave. Just Griffon.

         
Tiny beads of sweat formed along his dark hairline, his tan skin flushed from their sparring match. True, his face was scarred and she had thought it imposing. Yet right now she found the marks running down his face undeniably sexy. In fact, it appeared that every cut line of his muscular jaw, even the raised line of the scar itself, seemed etched by an artist.

         
Utterly black, his hair reminded her of a starless night. Like all dragon lords, it fell in dark waves over his shoulders and down his back, the thick strands framing the masculine structure of his neck and shoulders.

         
He cleared his throat and Tallon flitted her gaze to his. Deep lavender eyes, edged with thick black lashes, stared down at her, a spark of challenge behind them. One the female in her recognized and instantly rose up to meet. She sighed aloud, her body relaxing, warming.

         
The grin faded from Griffon's lips. His nostrils flared slightly and something she couldn't quite name sparked in his gaze. Before she could blink, he stalked forward. His heavy body leaned into hers, crushing her breasts against the warm wall of his chest and forcing her back against the wall. A wave of acute pain shifted down her spine as the jagged stones jut against her flesh. He didn't notice, and as his hands closed over her wrists, pinning her arms up by her ears on either side, she no longer cared. The dominating strength and size of him fired her blood and had her purring behind her throat.

         
He groaned and dipped his head to her neck. Tallon closed her eyes and waited for his lips or his tongue to brush over her sensitive skin. A hum of anticipation vibrated through her, and she felt herself melting against the wall. Instead, he inhaled her scent in a deep, strong pull. Erotic and slow, he rose up, following the arc of her neck. The tips of his hair brushed against her skin, sending a shiver down her spine.

         
When he leveled his gaze on her again, Tallon noticed his eyes had darkened, only the barest hint of indigo evident now in their shadowed depths. She swallowed again for what felt like the hundredth time since he had come into the room, and his gaze slid to her throat. The air between them charged by degrees, heat rising. The heavy pullover clinging to her skin felt leaden.

         
One of his hands shifted from her wrist, grasping her hip bone. Her body reacted to his touch, her hips bucking toward him. He dropped his gaze to his hand as if in awe of his power over her. His fingers bit into her flesh, gripping her hard and yet not hard enough. Still, she whimpered at the contact. A shudder quaked through his massive body, mirroring the tremors buzzing through her.

         
And then it happened. A slow burn she could only liken to fire ignited inside her, soft and warm. Liquid, the heat poured through her tired and aching muscles, spreading out in all directions. A mewling sound hummed out of her, and her hips again instinctively rocked into his. Griffon's head snapped up, his gaze roamed her face, passing through shock, to anger, to surrender.

         
He felt it, too, she thought, this undeniable, clawing need, like lust on steroids.

         
"Tallon," he breathed her name. The sound both a question and an answer that tightened the knot of desire already twisting low and hard in her belly. He released her wrist, curving his fingers around her face. Large and warm, his hand caressed her cheek, his thumb sliding across her lips, her cheekbone, before he lowered his head. And, oh, gods, he was going to kiss her. And she couldn't wait.

         
Tallon had never felt feminine and demure, but as his mouth lowered, she could have sworn her eyelids actually fluttered closed. Then, soft and tentative, his lips brushed against hers and all thought drained away. All she could focus on was the feel of him. Tallon's heart stuttered in her chest, her sex clenching. Without taking the time to process the hows or whys, she kissed him back, pressing her mouth to his harder, more urgent lips. The taste of him, rich and masculine, made her want more. His scent, earthy with hints of leather and man, overwhelmed her senses and blurred her reason.

         
Tallon reached out, fisting the front of his tunic, pulling him closer. His body leaned aggressively into her, every rock-hard line molding against her softer ones with aching precision. His mouth covered hers, kissing her deeper. Each slide of his lips, each angle she made to meet his demanding mouth, scraped her skull against the stones behind her, but she didn't care. A low moan rumbled out of him, and his other hand came up to cradle her face with a gentleness she hadn't known he possessed.

         
When his tongue swept across her lips, Tallon eagerly parted her lips for him. In a velvety arc, his tongue stroked, sampled and tasted her until her head spun from the blissful storm of emotions pounding through her. Caught up in the maelstrom, Tallon lifted her hands to his face, gripping his jaw. She ran her fingers through his hair, smiling against his lips. His midnight hair was soft and smooth, a dichotomy to the hard man towering over her. She loved the way it felt between her fingers. Loved the way he felt in her arms. The way his back rippled with hard muscles. How his warm skin felt, so slick and firm beneath her fingers.

         
Reckless, wild, Griffon began tugging at the collar of her shirt, as if desperate to touch her in return. The sound of yielding fabric ripped through the room as he tore at her clothes, unveiling the skin beneath. All the while, his scorching and wicked mouth tasted her lips, trailed lower to kiss her throat. Once he had her bare, his hands framed her ribs, moving upward. Tallon sucked in an expectant breath when his palms cupped her breasts, testing their weight in his hands, kneading and teasing each raised nipple. Pleasure shot out in all directions. Her head slipped back involuntarily, a sigh escaping her from the bliss.

         
Then his lips found hers again. His tongue was in her mouth, his hands all over her. Without breaking the kiss, he leaned back. But only long enough to unbutton and discard his tunic. Then he was back against her, his fevered skin blanketing her body. Tallon immediately wrapped her hands beneath his arms, clutching his broad back to her, flattening her sensitive breasts against his chest. The skin-to-skin contact sent a heady tremble through her, fueling the insatiable fire burning between them.

         
Skating her palms down every ridge and contour of his back, Tallon lowered them to the swell of his leather-covered ass, pulling him tightly against her as she opened her legs wider to accommodate him. He fell against her and groaned, the sound deep and dark. Anguished, she wondered? Before she could process coherent thought, he leaned away from her again. Air pricked her heated flesh, causing her nipples to crimp, tight, aching. She yearned for his hands, his mouth. Yet this time he stepped back far enough to see her, and for her to really see him.

         
Tallon's body hummed at the sight.

         
He was big, gorgeous and panting as hard as she was. And she craved him like nothing she could remember.

         
"Tell me to stop," he breathed. "Tell me to walk out that door and forget this ever happened."

         
Tallon blinked at his thick voice, surprised at what he said. Then her eyes fell to his broad, muscular shoulders, following the lines to his narrow waist. Tattoos hugged his belly button, another wound around his shoulder and pec, and a hunter's intrinsic designs covered both forearms. However, her eyes fixed on the low-slung leathers embracing his hips, the scant dusting of dark hair peeking out from beneath the zippered seam. A steady throb beat in her core, nearly making her knees buckle. Her tongue darted out, moistening her already kiss-bruised lips.

         
Realizing she stood ogling him, she forced her gaze to his face and gasped. Griffon's dark eyes were not on her breasts, where she'd assumed they'd be. Instead, he stood watching her drink in the sight of him. His dark eyes hooded, his face taut with desire.

         
"Don't keep looking at me like that unless you mean it."

         
Heat fired her cheeks. She shifted her gaze to the floor for a heartbeat before lifting it back up again. "Mean what?"

         
Instead of telling her, he showed her. Slowly, his heated gaze slid languidly over her body. Each pass made her skin react as if he'd brushed his lips across her flesh. She whimpered and sagged against the wall. At the sound, his focus lifted to her face and a slow grin teased his mouth. He stepped forward, one step, two. Slowly his fingers moved to his pants, unzipping the only barrier keeping her from him as he closed the space between them.

         
"What about Falcon?" he asked.

         
"What about him?" she panted, holding her breath as he eased the pants off his sculpted legs and kicked them out of the way.

         
"You two..." he bit down, his jaw muscles bunching "...care for each other."

         
Tallon nodded. Falcon cared for her and she cared for him. However, something had snapped inside her since her parents' deaths. She'd meant what she'd told Falcon earlier. He couldn't fix her. But she had a feeling Griffon could wrestle the ugliness inside her and maybe even win. She swallowed. The truth, as ugly and cold as it might sound, fell from her lips.

         
"I don't want him. Not tonight," she said, reaching her fingers out to trace the outline of the tattoo on his shoulder. His eyes closed and he tipped his chin back. Fixing her gaze on his chest, she stared at the contrast of her small hand on his tanned and tattooed body, feeling a sharp spike of longing through her heart.

         
"Make me feel something besides the pain."

         
She wasn't sure she spoke the small plea aloud until a finger tucked beneath her chin, forcing her gaze up.

         
"So beautiful," he said, caressing her cheek. Her chest rising and falling in small excited pants, she stared up at him with complete surrender. Like any predator, he sensed it immediately. His hands roamed over her shoulders, her breasts, down her body, finally curving around her butt. With an abrupt pull, he tugged her off her feet.

         
Tallon opened her legs, wrapping her thighs tight around his hips while her arms surrounded his neck. Her breath caught at the feel of him, hard and insistent, at the feel of herself, warm, wet and ready against him. Leaning into her, he positioned her so the wall supported most of her weight. The toothed surface dug into her shoulder blades and the small of her back, but she didn't care.

         
Just sex, what was left of her conscious mind intoned. This is just sex.

         
Nothing more.

         
And then he shifted his hips and, with one swift move, pushed himself inside her. Long and impossibly thick, he filled her perfectly. A strangled gasp tore from her lips, at the same time he murmured an expletive against the hollow of her throat. Griffon held himself hilted inside her, his massive body trembling as he fought not to move. Tallon locked her ankles, ensuring he wouldn't.

         
Then, slowly, he shifted his hips, sliding the hot length of him out almost to the tip before slamming back inside her welcoming body. At the thrust, stars danced behind her closed eyes and her body vibrated with pure hunger. A hunger she sensed in him, as well.

         
As he pistoned his hips, moving inside her, his hot mouth tasted her neck, his tongue laving and sampling her dampening skin. The muscles in her legs burned, the stones at her back dug deep into her flesh, firing her pain sensors into overload. But the currents of pleasure tearing through her dominated them all. And the rush of sensations made her cry out.

         
She'd gone from feeling nothing to feeling everything. The solid thickness of him inside her, against her, the pool of fire building and gathering in her core, even the granite scratching her shoulders, they overwhelmed her, bombarding her from every direction, inside and out.

         
Then, the knot inside her snapped free. She came hard, her body pulsing and throbbing around him. Raw and feral, Griffon groaned, his hips bucking once, twice, before his entire body tensed. Burrowing into the crook of her neck, he gripped her tightly as he released inside her body.

         
He held himself like that for what felt like both eternity and a second before he shifted his hold on her thighs. Tallon kept her eyes closed as he set her legs back to the floor, easing the pressure off her back. However, Griffon did not let go of her right away, and Tallon found it more difficult than she imagined to finally unwind her arms from his neck. And when he slipped free from her body and released his hold on her, all the emotions she'd been feeling accumulated in her heart.