Grigor

by Carole Mortimer

  She nodded. “Are Nikolai and his men still here?”

  “He hasn’t returned to London without you, if that’s what you’re really asking,” he bit out harshly.

  Guilty color warmed her cheeks. “It wasn’t.”

  Grigor stood up to begin restlessly pacing his bedroom. “Let us not fool ourselves, Gayle.”

  “In what way?” she prompted cautiously.

  Grigor kept his gaze averted from how beautiful she looked with her hair tousled about her naked shoulders. “In our case, fate seems to have made a mistake. Unfortunately, because the mating has already begun, there is nothing to be done about it. We either complete the mating or we both die.”

  He had thought about this situation long and hard during the hours he sat in the chair at Gayle’s bedside. The mating had begun and was now irreversible. Nor did he believe his mate, only twenty-two years old and with her older sister already mated to a dragon shifter, had any real desire to die rather than live. Therefore, Grigor, as Gayle’s mate, must come up with a solution that was acceptable to her.

  He continued to pace. “If we mate,” he continued evenly, “there is no reason we have to spend any more time together than necessary to maintain that mating.”

  Gayle’s heart had plummeted at Grigor stating their mating was a mistake. It had now hit rock bottom. “What does that even mean?”

  His mouth thinned. “We complete the mating but afterwards stay apart until the mating fever makes it necessary for us to be together again.”

  Her cheeks burned. “So we have sex when necessary and forget about the rest of the mating?”

  “Yes.”

  “Is that even possible?”

  Grigor’s lids narrowed. “As we are driven to mate by lust rather than love, I believe it can be made to work, yes.”

  She had done this, Gayle acknowledged heavily, with her snide comments and denials of wanting to mate with Grigor. By doing so, she was denying him the lifelong mate he deserved and had waited sixteen centuries to find.

  What Grigor was now suggesting would be a half mating for him. The necessary mating of bodies rather than the heart, mind, soul, and body his brothers and their mates had together. And only then when the mating fever demanded the two of them meet and mate.

  Gayle had no doubt Grigor would continue to protect her as his mate, because it was ingrained in his DNA to do so. But he was saying that anything else, love, affection, companionship, the normal closeness of the mating bond, wouldn’t exist between the two of them.

  She had railed against this mating, determined to maintain her independence, and now Grigor was offering it to her, she had never felt so miserable in her life. She wanted, hungered, for the closeness with Grigor that his brothers had with their mates. That utter oneness Holly had with Dylan.

  She studied Grigor from beneath lowered lashes. The leashed strength of his muscular body. The power he exuded without even trying. The fact he was so handsome, it took her breath away just to look at him.

  She didn’t want a half mating with Grigor.

  How could she accept that when she was already half in love with him?

  But maybe if they mated, were physically joined, those other things might happen too, with time?

  What choice did she have?

  Did either of them have?

  Chapter 11

  “Okay.”

  Grigor blinked. “Okay?”

  Gayle moistened the dryness of her lips. “Yes.”

  “You are agreeing to mate with me?”

  “Yes.”

  That red glow was back in his eyes. “Now?”

  The heat crept up Gayle’s neck and into her cheeks at the eagerness she could hear in Grigor’s voice. “Maybe not right this minute. After yesterday, I’m feeling a bit yucky and need to take a shower and wash my hair.”

  Narrowed lids tempered that wildness in his eyes. “Of course.”

  “And you probably need to catch up on some sleep.”

  “I would rather claim you,” he growled.

  Gayle had never felt so uncomfortable in her life. She was literally propositioning a man for sex. Propositioning Grigor for mating sex, while lying in his bed completely naked.

  Her frown was pained. “Do you have a robe or something I can borrow so I can go back to my own room to shower? I wouldn’t want to shock any of your family or Nikolai and his men if they happen to still be up and about,” she attempted to joke.

  Grigor’s eyes had darkened to onyx when he returned from collecting a black silk robe from the bathroom. “My dragon doesn’t approve of your friendship with Volkov.”

  His dragon, or Grigor didn’t like it? “I’ve known him for less time than I’ve known you,” she said lightly as she slipped carefully out of bed to pull on the robe. A robe that smelled deliciously of Grigor. Spice and mint, and a fiercely earthy smell that was all him.

  “And?”

  She moved uncomfortably. “Instead of exacting retribution, Nikolai and Gregori helped me when I made the mistake of stealing from them. Gregori offered me a job. Nikolai is married, Grigor,” she dismissed when he still didn’t look convinced.

  His gaze sharpened. “I am aware of that.”

  “Well then.”

  “Is the marriage a happy one?”

  “Very.”

  He nodded abruptly. “As long as you understand, no matter what we agree our living arrangements are to be once we’re mated, our relationship has to be exclusive.”

  “Because your dragon demands it?” she teased.

  His lips thinned. “Because I demand it.”

  “Will it be exclusive for you too?”

  He sighed heavily. “Fidelity will not be a problem for me. You are my mate. I desire no other. Besides, I have not felt the need to bed any woman in over a hundred years.”

  Her eyes widened. “You haven’t?”

  “Empty, meaningless sex is exactly that, Gayle.” He grimaced. “And even that becomes intolerable when you have lived as long as I have, with a past filled with having bedded too many nameless faces. Sex, for itself alone, is even more unacceptable now that I have found my mate.”

  Much as it thrilled her to know Grigor hadn’t been involved with any other woman in a century, it didn’t lessen her own nervousness regarding their mating. She was totally without physical experience but was now contemplating giving herself to a man who, before those transient relationships with other women became unacceptable to him, had admitted to having been to bed with more women than she cared to think about.

  Was she jealous of those other women?

  Hell, yes!

  Grigor was hers, damn it.

  Grigor cut softly into her thoughts. “Once you are fully my mate you will understand why I will never desire another woman ever again.”

  “I will?”

  He nodded. “The sex is…deeper and wilder, more fulfilling than anything I have so far experienced. Or so my brothers inform me,” he added dryly.

  Gayle hoped for her sake his brothers were right, because she had no intention of sharing Grigor with any other woman.

  Any more than she intended being a part-time mate.

  That was unacceptable to her.

  Something she hoped Grigor would also realize with time.

  “Okay.” She nodded. “I’ll go and take a shower and then come right back.”

  “I will be waiting.”

  Gayle wished she thought of that as more of a promise than a threat.

  She tried not to think too deeply at all as she took a shower and washed her hair. Too much thought of what was about to happen was likely to send her into panic mode again. And there was nowhere she could run to or hide that Grigor wouldn’t find her.

  She didn’t want to run or hide from Grigor. She wanted whatever this mating entailed. Wanted all of Grigor, his strength and power, his fidelity, even his arrogance.

  His care of her last night and today made her feel cherished. Cared for. And yes, it might be the
mating heat causing him to behave that way, but she also knew it was an integral part of Grigor’s nature to nurture and protect. That he had done it all his long life. First his brothers. Now his brothers and their mates. As his mate, he would protect Gayle most of all.

  It was up to her to convince him that she didn’t want to be a half mate to him. If she couldn’t say the actual words, then she would have to show him with actions instead.

  Which, considering she had no idea how to go about making love with a man, let alone one as imposing as Grigor, wasn’t going to be easy.

  But when had her life ever been easy?

  It hadn’t.

  The choices and decisions she’d made had taken care of that.

  Well, now she was choosing to be Grigor’s full-time mate.

  All she had to do now was convince Grigor of that.

  All?

  Oh God…

  Grigor used the time of Gayle’s absence to take his own shower. After drying himself, he wrapped a towel about his hips before checking the contents of the small fridge in his sitting room, knowing that he and Gayle would need water and energy bars to sustain them through however long their mating took.

  He had originally installed the fridge because he often felt the need to be separate from his brothers and their mates, and it wasn’t always convenient for him to go to his cave in Alaska. Now the food and drinks he kept in his fridge to maintain that need to be solitary could be used to sustain his mate and him during their mating.

  He returned to the bedroom to tidy the bed before turning the duvet back invitingly. The single lamp on the bedside table gave a warm glow to the room.

  The bedroom where he and Gayle were about to complete their mating.

  Grigor’s heart rate spiked at the thought, his cock already hard and pulsing and his sac heavy between his legs.

  Would he please his mate?

  Gayle had responded to him readily enough yesterday, but this was their mating.

  A mating that none of his brothers had chosen to complete here in the castle.

  Perhaps he should have ensured their privacy by taking Gayle to his cave in Alaska—

  Grigor turned the moment a brief knock sounded on the door before Gayle opened it to stand nervously in the doorway.

  She looked adorable wearing his overlarge black silk robe, like a little girl playing dress-up, with her hair a vibrant red cloud about her shoulders and down to her waist. The silk material brushed against her ankles, the belt secured tightly about her slender waist, her pert breasts and aroused nipples visible above. Revealing that she wore nothing beneath the robe.

  She avoided looking at him directly. “It didn’t feel quite right to just walk in.”

  “Everything I am, own, or will ever own is now yours,” Grigor said softly. “Including me.”

  She gave him a brief glance before quickly looking away again, her cheeks blushing a delicate pink. “This all feels a bit…clinical.” She grimaced self-consciously, hands thrust deep into the pockets of the robe.

  It felt the same way to Grigor, despite the muted lighting and the inviting bed. Or maybe because of those things. “We can wait—”

  “No! No,” she repeated with a nervous laugh. “I… Let’s do this.” She stepped into the room and closed and locked the door behind her before untying and then sliding the robe from her shoulders and allowing it to drop to the floor.

  Grigor’s breath caught in his throat as Gayle stood before him completely bared to his avid gaze. He had seen her nude body yesterday, of course, but this was somehow different, was something she had chosen to do.

  Her shoulders were back, her breasts thrust forward above a slightly curvaceous waist and hips, her legs long and shapely. That tempting red triangle of curls covered her mound. Her delicious scent invaded his senses.

  Grigor made no move to go to or touch her as he released and removed the towel from about his hips before tossing it aside.

  Gayle had been slightly hyperventilating before Grigor removed the towel, but now she stopped breathing altogether.

  She didn’t need to be experienced or have seen dozens of naked men to know how magnificent Grigor’s body was.

  Wide and muscular shoulders and arms, powerful chest, hips and thighs, with long legs, and a light smattering of dark hair in a T-shape across his nipples and veeing down to the dark curls surrounding his aroused cock. A cock that was at least eight inches long, thick veins standing out against its length, before flaring out at the engorged tip that glistened with viscous pre-cum leaking from the slit at the top.

  “God, Grigor.” She reached out to place a steadying hand against the dressing table as she swayed slightly, whether from a lack of oxygen to her lungs or this unrestricted view of Grigor’s nakedness, she wasn’t sure. Although she suspected it was the latter. “You’re beautiful.” And mine, all mine, she added mentally.

  It pleased Grigor to know his mate found pleasure in looking at his naked body.

  Mine.

  As it also pleased his dragon, he accepted somewhat irritably.

  “Come to me.” He held out his hand invitingly.

  Gayle’s throat moved as she swallowed before lifting her hand from the dressing table to walk slowly toward him.

  She moved with such elegance and grace, her legs long and coltish. Her hair had fallen slightly forward when she removed the robe, so that it now fell as a silky curtain across her uptilting breasts, giving brief and tantalizing glimpses of plump red nipples. He hadn’t noticed the jeweled ring glittered at her belly button when he’d undressed her yesterday.

  Grigor lifted a hand to cup one of her cheeks as she halted in front of him. “Your beauty pleases me, my mate.”

  Her gaze still avoided meeting his as she stared at his chest instead. “I… Thank you.”

  He placed his hand beneath her chin to raise her face until she had no choice but to look him in the eyes. “I pledge myself to you and your happiness for as long as we both live. Do you willingly take me as your mate?”

  She moistened her lips with the tip of her tongue before answering him. “Yes.”

  Desire spiked inside Grigor, his cock throbbing as his senses became overwhelmed with Gayle’s beauty and her scent of flowers and pepper. “I will do everything within my power to ensure you never have reason to regret your decision.”

  Her gaze remained steady on his. “I know I won’t. Take me to bed now, please, Grigor. Mate me,” she urged huskily.

  His dragon gave an inner possessive roar as Grigor lowered his head to claim Gayle’s lips. She tasted of mint from the toothpaste she’d used, along with that floral heat that was so much a part of her, it caused Grigor to groan as his own need urged him to lay siege, to thrust his cock inside her and simply claim what was his. But he was ever aware Gayle was a virgin. That the fierceness with which he wanted to take her, mate her, would be too much for her first time.

  He continued to kiss her as he lifted her in his arms and carried her to the bed, placing her gently down on the silk sheets before lying down beside her. He was determined to focus on her pleasure rather than his own burning need to simply claim her. Gayle might be his mate, but she was also human, vulnerable to his dragon’s fierceness, and he knew from his mated brothers how important it was that he remember that. The mating bite would ensure Gayle was stronger, less fragile, but until then, he needed to go slowly, without the aggression his dragon nature demanded.

  Gayle arched her back in pleasure as Grigor’s lips moved down her throat, trembling as he lingered to lick and bite at the tender vulnerability between her neck and shoulders before moving lower.

  His large hands cupped beneath her breasts as he kissed and licked them, one at a time, suckling briefly on each engorged nipple before kissing down her abdomen.

  “I like this.” He murmured his approval when he reached the piercing in her belly button.

  Gayle drew in a sharp breath as Grigor licking and sucking on the jeweled ring sent shafts of heated
pleasure directly to her core. Her nether lips quickly felt swollen and damp from the release of her juices as the mating heat built, becoming stronger with each second that passed.

  She hadn’t expected any of this, had believed Grigor would simply bite and claim her, completing their mating as quickly as possible.

  Grigor might not be in love with her, but he was certainly making love to her, and Gayle had no defense against his sensuous onslaught.

  Her hands moved to entangle in the dark thickness of his hair as he moved lower still, parting her legs slightly to allow him access to her clit. She was so aroused already by the mating heat that the briefest rasp of his tongue against that pulsing nub caused her to climax.

  After that, Gayle was aware of nothing else but Grigor as he pleasured her again and again. Taking her higher with each climax, until her body ached and clamored for his possession, the needy heat of their mating coursing through her veins. “More,” she begged. “Please, Grigor, I need more!” She needed him to take her. Mate her Claim her.

  He moved until his body lay flush on top of hers, his lips glistening with her juices, his eyes once again glittering a deep onyx. “Tell me to stop if it hurts too much.”

  Gayle felt the bulbous top of his cock pressing against her opening.

  Grigor breathed heavily as he stilled above her. “Ready?”

  She felt as if she had been ready, waiting for this, for Grigor, all her life. As if he had been there all the time, a presence in her life she could neither see nor feel, but knew was there waiting for her in the shadows. Waiting to claim her, to mate her.

  Perhaps it was also the reason she had never felt tempted into a physical relationship with any other man? Why none of the men she dated had even come close to being allowed the intimacy she now gave so freely to Grigor?

  Because a part of her had always been waiting for him.

  Because he was her destiny.

  Her mate.

  “Gayle?”

  She hated that look of uncertainty on his strong face. “I’m ready.” She placed her arms over his shoulders to hold him closer.