by Liv Rider
“Don’t go there,” Zach warned.
Griffith grinned. He could poke Zach about Santiago all day, but they had more important things to focus on.
“So what’s the plan?” Tse asked, walking up with Noah at his side. He must have been keeping his senses out for an accord. Griffith wouldn’t call it a peaceful one, but it would hold for now.
“The plan was for you to bring me back some fries,” Zach said. “I thought you could sense things like that.”
Tse shrugged. “I was hungry.”
“Apparently I’m staying out of things while you and Zach hunt Madoc.” Griffith still wasn’t happy about that. But Zach had a point. Besides, it would be hard to protect Noah and hunt Madoc at the same time. “And Zach’s going to call me as soon as you find anything.” Griffith held his friend’s eyes until Zach relented.
“As long as you agree to let us bring him in.”
Griffith suppressed his instinct to argue. “Agreed.”
“Sure you don’t want to go a round?” Tse asked Noah, nodding toward the bowling lane.
“Pretty sure,” Noah said, eyeing it nervously.
Zach clapped him on the back. “Right answer, Noah.”
***
Noah was quiet in the seat next to him as Griffith started the Range Rover and let the engine idle, not pulling out of the bowling alley parking lot yet.
“Do you want me to take you back to your place? We can swing by the cabin to pick up your stuff.”
Noah was silent a moment. “I get why you think I would want to, but I’d rather stay at the cabin and risk it. You think we can resist each other long enough to find Madoc?”
Griffith looked over at him. Noah had a small smile on his face. Lit by moonlight and the orange light of the parking lot, Noah didn’t seem quite real, as if he could fade back into the shadows at any moment.
Griffith remembered that brush of skin, the too-brief taste of Noah’s lips, and found himself responding to the challenge in Noah’s eyes. Maybe it was only because of the mark, but the charged heat between them was palpable.
“Not sure,” he said honestly.
“Me either.”
Griffith put the Range Rover in reverse and backed out of the spot.
He couldn’t help but feel something building between them. Anticipation filled the close quarters of the car. He was already half hard. It was reckless to even think about it; he couldn’t let Noah take the risk of making the bond between them permanent. Noah had his entire life in front of him. He didn’t need to attach himself to someone like Griffith.
Back at the cabin, he tossed his keys in the drawer by the door. Noah stood awkwardly by the couch.
“I’ll sleep there,” Griffith said. “You can take my bed.”
“Griffith,” Noah said quietly.
Griffith stared at the mantel to avoid looking at Noah. The picture of Rafe was skewed where Noah had replaced it. “We can’t do this.”
“That’s what you keep saying, but I’m sorry, Griffith, I know I don’t know anything about this stuff, but I don’t think even a supernatural bond can keep two people together who choose not to be.”
“You’ve never experienced a shifter mate bond before.”
“I take it you have?”
“No,” Griffith said quietly, his eyes still on the picture of Rafe. “But I have friends who are mated; my sister is mate-bonded. It’s not unbreakable, but it’s meant to be an expression of the bond that already exists between two people, not what I did to you.”
“So your dragon already thinks we’re mated?”
“More or less.” Yes, Griffith’s dragon hissed.
“Okay.” Noah sounded surprisingly calm in the face of that revelation. “But you said yourself that shifters are more than their animal instincts. I don’t know anything about the claim you’ve put on me, but I believe people make their own choices, mate bond or not.”
Griffith felt his mouth twitch.
“What?” Noah asked warily.
“Nothing. You just reminded me of my sister Megan for a minute. She’s a lawyer too.”
Noah made a face. “As much as I’m flattered by that, reminding you of your sister wasn’t exactly what I was going for.”
“Not like that.” Griffith ran a hand through his hair. “Jesus, Noah, do you have any idea what you do to me?”
Noah’s eyes—beautiful and intense—flared. “I’m pretty sure, yeah.”
It would be so easy to claim those lips, crush Noah’s body against his. Noah was slighter than Griffith but nearly as tall; it wouldn’t take much to tilt that mouth to his.
Maybe Noah could still walk away with a claiming mark between them, but Griffith wasn’t sure he could.
But his defenses were crumbling, all the logic in the world unable to hold him back from what he wanted. “You really want to risk it, knowing what might happen?”
Noah wet his lips. Griffith’s dragon beat its wings at the surface of Griffith’s skin, sending an inferno through him everywhere. “Life’s a risk, isn’t it?”
It was a short walk to cross the distance between them. Noah’s chin raised when a few scant inches separated them, his eyes blazing a challenge Griffith found impossible to resist.
Griffith brought his mouth down on his.
Chapter Six
It was one thing to say he didn’t believe in fated mates, that they had a rational choice in all of this, and quite another to feel the heat and animal lust that surged through him at the taste of Griffith’s kiss. It was intoxicating and exhilarating, and for a moment only Griffith’s firm grip on his back kept him upright. It was like nothing he’d felt before; it was like drinking fire.
Griffith released him and Noah staggered back. Griffith had a feral grin on his face, an expression entirely different from his usual: he was all dragon now. Some instinct in Noah responded to it. He wanted Griffith to fuck him, to breathe that path of fire over every inch of his skin and claim every part; he wanted to make Griffith crazy with arousal until the dragon broke.
“Still want to do this?” Griffith asked. His eyes blazed orange.
“Yes,” Noah breathed.
He turned for the bedroom, feeling the heat of Griffith at his back.
Once there, his hand went to the hem of his t-shirt. Griffith stopped him with a hand over his, coming up flush against him, his lips on the back of Noah’s neck. His hands skimmed Noah’s hips, smoothed down the dip of his back under his t-shirt. “Oh God,” Noah choked out, and Griffith chuckled, his breath teasing Noah’s skin.
“Yeah,” he agreed.
Then Griffith’s hands slid directly over the mark as he pulled Noah back against him. A blaze of heat took Noah so suddenly a sound of surprise escaped him. The sensation was overwhelming. He was so hard he hurt. He felt Griffith’s hard length pressing against the seat of his jeans, nestling between the globes of his ass.
“You okay?” Griffith asked quietly, his lips still brushing the back of Noah’s neck.
“I really need you to fuck me,” Noah managed to get out.
“Yeah?” Griffith’s voice was rich with arousal and satisfaction and heat. “That works for me.”
Griffith released him, giving him some relief from the intensity of his touch. Noah turned to find Griffith divesting himself of his shirt. His breath caught on the sight. Griffith was hard, lean: a solid block of muscle. He had a scar on his shoulder that looked like an old bite, and four angry lines raked his ribs.
“Wolf,” Griffith said, when he saw what had caught Noah’s attention.
Noah traced the raised scar tissue. Griffith’s skin jumped and shivered under his fingers. “You must have really pissed him off.”
Griffith laughed as if Noah had surprised him. “I have that effect sometimes.”
“So you’re not invincible.”
“No one’s invincible,” Griffith said seriously. “Not even a dragon. But I admit I’d had an off day.”
This time Griffith didn’t st
op him when Noah pulled his t-shirt over his head, seeming just as enthralled by the sight as Noah had been a moment ago, seeing Griffith. Noah wasn’t self-conscious about his body, but the intensity of Griffith’s gaze made him acutely aware that they were losing more and more clothing between them, that soon he’d feel Griffith’s bare skin against his.
“You’ve done this before?”
Noah cocked his head. “Had sex?”
“That, yes, but there are lots of ways to have sex.”
Noah ticked off on his fingers. “Yes, I’ve had sex. And yes, I’ve had a guy’s cock in my ass.”
“Okay, then.” Griffith grinned.
Noah didn’t mention that it had been over a year since the last time. He eyed the bulge in Griffith’s jeans, anticipation blazing a fiery path down his spine. “I might, uh, need a little prep.”
“Wait here,” Griffith said with a growl.
He was back a moment later, tossing lube and a condom on the bed, then Noah found himself crowded up at the edge of it, Griffith’s hot skin searing his. Griffith cupped Noah through his jeans.
“Think we can get these off?”
Noah’s brain had already shorted out. “I certainly hope so,” he managed.
His hand fumbled on the button of his jeans, tangling with Griffith’s in their mutual need to be rid of everything in the way of skin touching. A gentle push sent him sprawling back on the bed. He lifted his hips so Griffith could get his jeans down, making short work of his own before following Noah onto the bed, covering him with his heat and sheer presence.
Noah pushed up against Griffith’s naked length, their cocks rubbing together, and thought he must have died after all, because this was too fucking perfect to exist in this world.
Griffith propped himself on his elbow. “You still sure about this?”
Noah stared at him in disbelief. “You’re asking me that now?”
Griffith’s head dipped to nuzzle Noah’s neck. “Yes.”
The mark throbbed where it lay against Griffith’s bare skin, but Noah didn’t feel any particular coercion from it—just pure natural lust at the thought of Griffith fucking him into the mattress. “I’m still sure.”
The touch of Griffith’s lips turned into teeth scraping the sensitive skin of Noah’s neck. Noah shivered. He wasn’t sure how much more he could take before feeling Griffith inside him. “Now would be good.”
Griffith huffed a laugh. “All right, then.” Noah heard the snap of a lid, then felt Griffith’s lube-slicked finger pressing into him. He shifted his knees to give better access, the rough skin of Griffith’s finger scraping through the lube in pleasurable friction.
“You’re tight,” Griffith commented, his voice hitching a little. Noah was glad to see he was just as affected by this as he was.
“It’s been a while.” He hissed out when Griffith breached him with a second finger.
“Too much?”
“No. It feels good.”
He turned his head. Griffith’s expression was intent, focused on the glide of his fingers in and out of Noah, the fire in his eyes muted to embers. Noah’s gaze moved inevitably down, over the golden furred chest, the hard muscles of Griffith’s abdomen, to the thick hard length jutting out unapologetically from Griffith’s groin. Noah’s own cock twitched, thinking about it inside him.
He felt a little wild, turned on and horny and wanting Griffith so much his bones ached with it. He palmed his cock, and watched Griffith’s eyes flare when he stroked it in rhythm with Griffith’s fingers inside him.
“I can’t—Griffith—” He took his hand off his cock, groaning at the loss of friction but he wasn’t going to last otherwise. Then Griffith was moving, his fingers slipping out as he braced himself over Noah, the blunt head of his cock pushing insistently at Noah’s entrance.
It slid in just as Griffith took Noah’s lips in another blinding kiss.
Noah was still tight, and the stretch was almost too much, but that was insignificant next to the sensation of Griffith inside him. The kiss was sloppy, disjointed, both of them focused on the place where they were joined. Noah arched up when Griffith settled his full length inside him. He pulled his knee to his chest, feeling the brilliant ache and stretch from Griffith’s cock, sparks of pleasure zipping along nerve endings.
“You’re so fucking tight,” Griffith growled out, and there, that was what Noah wanted to see: the dragon pushed past his breaking point, his eyes blazing with the promise of fire, his body golden with the shimmer of scales.
“Griffith,” Noah groaned, when Griffith’s cock hit his prostate.
Something was happening to him. Noah felt it beneath the surface of his skin, a building fire and blaze of white light searing him every time Griffith moved inside him, the slide of Griffith’s cock on the sensitive skin of his hole awakening some deep instinct. Griffith’s hand went to Noah’s cock, stroking with purpose as his thrusts grew more erratic, hips stuttering in buildup to climax.
Noah gave in to the swift hot rush of release searing his stomach, felt Griffith ride him through it before letting go with a gasp inside him.
And felt, in the sweet post-orgasmic euphoria, the overwhelming urge to place his hands just under Griffith’s ribs, to brand him with the same mark of possession Griffith had used to claim him—and heard a roaring voice inside his head, demanding: Mine.
Oh, fuck.
Chapter Seven
Griffith woke to his legs tangled in Noah’s and his arm thrown possessively over Noah’s chest as if to hold him captive, his dragon rumbling its approval of the primitive instinct.
He extricated himself gently, not wanting to wake Noah. He used the bathroom, then splashed his face at the sink. His body ached, satiated and happy. It was a foreign feeling, this unexpected joy; it wasn’t something he thought he’d ever feel again.
It would make everything worse when Noah moved on—Griffith knew that. But he’d gone through loss before. He could survive it again.
Noah was awake when Griffith went back to the bedroom, returning Griffith’s gaze with sleep-heavy eyes and a bit of shyness. “Hey.”
“Hey, back,” Griffith said. He slid under the covers and pulled Noah toward him, ignoring the stab of pain at how natural Noah felt in his arms, the pleasure Griffith felt at having him there.
“That was seriously amazing.” Noah’s voice was quiet in the dawn-lit room, his words meant only for Griffith. Griffith let himself be lulled by the shared intimacy.
“Yeah?” He found the curve of Noah’s ear and nipped it. “I aim to please.” He smoothed his hand down Noah’s chest and ribs, to the place where he’d claimed him. “Feel any different?”
“I….” Noah hesitated. “No. The mark still feels the same.”
Griffith nuzzled his neck. “No overwhelming urge to commit yourself for life to me?” Noah was quiet so long that Griffith drew back to look at him. “Noah?”
“Sorry.” Noah ducked his head and ran a hand through his hair. “I need a shower. Join me?”
That was far too appealing an offer to pass up.
Griffith’s shower was big enough that they weren’t knocking elbows, but small enough that wet skin slid against each other at every opportunity. Last night hadn’t taken the edge off his desire any. His dragon hungered for Noah with single-minded purpose, and for once Griffith found himself completely in sync with it.
He ran his hand over the curve of Noah’s ass, earning a shiver. “Sore?”
“A little,” Noah admitted.
A quick look confirmed that Noah was just as hard as he was. Griffith leaned across him to turn the shower spray off, then nudged Noah back against the tiled wall.
“Are you—shit, Griffith,” Noah said dazedly as Griffith knelt in front of him.
The tiled floor was hell on his knees, but Griffith ignored the ache as he took Noah’s cock in his hand and lipped the tip. Noah had a gorgeous cock—long, full, straight—and Griffith took him into his mouth with pleasure.
Noah’s hands drifted down to rest tentatively on Griffith’s head as Griffith took him in deep, earning a muffled moan as the tip of Noah’s cock nudged the back of his throat. Noah’s voice was tight with arousal. “I’m not going to last long if you keep doing that.”
That probably had more to do with Noah’s age than Griffith’s blowjob skills, but it was still gratifying to hear. He pressed the tip of his tongue against the underside of Noah’s cock and heard a strangled gasp. There was something to be said for experience too.
It had been so different with Rafe. They’d never showered together, for one thing, the act too intimate for Rafe’s compartmentalization of what they were to one another. It was a relief not to have to watch himself to make sure he wasn’t revealing too much.
He drew it out as long as he could, until Noah’s hips started moving in jumps and stutters, and Noah had taken his hands from Griffith’s head to press against the shower tile, probably to keep from yanking on Griffith’s hair. Griffith sucked the tip then took him deep again. “I’m going to—you have to—” Noah tried to pull away but Griffith grasped his hip to keep him there.
Another choked cry, and Noah was coming in a sweet gush, his cock twitching as Griffith sucked him gently through his release.
Noah had a dazed look on his face when Griffith gave him a final lick then creaked back to his feet—his knees were definitely not happy but the rest of him was more than satisfied with the result of his efforts.
“You hungry?” He stepped out of the shower and grabbed a towel that he passed back to Noah.
Noah took the towel as if trying to remember its purpose. “What about….” He gestured self-consciously in the direction of Griffith’s groin.
“I’m good,” Griffith said, rubbing himself down with another towel. He was hard, but it would go down in a bit, and he’d gotten what he’d wanted: to get Noah to a state of blissed-out stupor that had him handling the towel in a daze as he dried himself with minimal success.
They dressed and made it out to the kitchen. Noah resumed his seat at the table by the window after Griffith had waved away his offer of help. His kitchen was a one-man space. He put the skillet on for eggs, throwing on a few slices of bacon for good measure. They’d worked up an appetite.
