Even now it strikes me that if any other man I’d been with would have said these things to me, especially this soon, I would be running for the hills. Terrified of the commitment. But Griffin’s words don’t cause fear. If anything, they have the opposite effect.
I turn my face so I can whisper my lips over Griffin’s throat the way he’s teasing mine. He shifts to allow me access while his hands continue to roam over my body in a slow dance of seduction. Griffin hisses in a breath when I bite the bottom of his ear softly. His palm slides under my ass and he grinds down against me.
There’s a light banging on the door. I blink and try to steady my breathing. The image of Letty standing in the hall sours my mood. She already stopped by once earlier today. “While we’re doing this, it’s just us, right?” I know it doesn’t seem fair to ask that of them, considering I get both of them, but I would have never initiated this kind of relationship without their prompting. I won’t do this if they’re still with other people.
Griffin’s brows furrow. “It will only ever be us, you’re our mate.” He searches my eyes as if he can’t understand how I don’t already know this.
The door slams and I jerk, tilting my head back to see Evan standing in the doorway with a huge tray in one hand and a bag in the other. “I see you’ve been busy while I was gone.” The banging must have been him trying to get in, not someone knocking.
“Your mate?” I question, turning my gaze back to Griffin who still has me pinned to the couch. He scoots back and shoves his hair out of his face, the rings he never takes off gleaming in the light.
“I already told you that.” He looks at the ground, his eyes darting right and left like he’s examining our encounter.
I inch back to the other end of the sofa, curling my knees up. “No, no you didn’t.” My heart’s beating fast, but it’s not from fear, oh no, my treacherous body is excited about his announcement.
“I told you, your blood sings to me.” Griffin leans forward, daring me to tell him differently. I open my mouth to argue, but I can’t. That’s exactly what he said, I just didn’t realize what he meant by it.
“So much for giving her time to adjust.” Evan drops the tray on the coffee table and the silverware jumps off and lands on the ground. Silly that I notice, but everything seems to be moving in slow motion in my head.
“Is this because you exchanged blood with me?” I ask suspiciously.
“No,” Griffin scoffs. “But tasting you sure didn’t help my patience,” he admits.
Evan lowers himself until he’s kneeling next to me. “We can still go slow, Quinn. We don’t have to rush into anything,” he cajoles.
“So, it’s both of you?” I point between them, my heart thudding roughly. Evan nods, his face almost solemn.
“But…how is that fair?”
“What do you mean ‘fair?’” Griffin’s hands are balled into fists over his thighs.
“That I would be both of your…whatever,” I hedge, not wanting to say mate. It seems too foreign.
“Why isn’t it fair?” Evan tilts his head. “You don’t want to be with us?”
“No, that’s not it,” I counter. “Because there’s only one of me,” I reason, looking between them.
Evan drops back on his haunches, a slight smirk tugging at his lips. “You’re worried about it being fair to us?”
“Well, yeah.” I scoot my legs out and move around him so I can stand. This conversation is way too serious to be having while sitting between them. I think they just fried my brain. The rigidity in Griffin’s posture relaxes as his eyes track my movements while I pace the space in front of the television.
Evan
Leave it to Griffin fucking Stone to use a battering ram when we could have used a feather. He’s watching Quinn pace like he might pounce on her at any second. I don’t blame him. I can smell her arousal. I would have been a lot more worried about what I heard him say when I walked in if that sweet scent of hers had not been so strong.
Quinn stops mid-step. “Why aren’t you bothered about sharing?” Her head tilts to the side and her eyes are calculating. “Does that mean you think I would share you with someone else?” If she wasn’t so damn human, I would think she was a shifter by the way she growls the words.
Griffin’s face lights up with a genuine grin, and Quinn lasers her gaze on him. Uh-oh, he’s not smiling for the reason she thinks, but if he doesn’t knock that stupid smirk off his face, he’s going to make both of us regret it. “No, that’s not what it means,” I answer, cutting my eyes to Griff to tell him to straighten up. He can get excited about her being territorial later.
Ignoring me, Quinn plants one hand on her hip. “What’s so funny?”
I groan inwardly. Griff is not used to dealing with women, he’s used to getting what he needs and dismissing them. “You’re cute,” he tells her. I watch Quinn’s eyes widen.
“This is cute to you?” Her voice is deceptively soft. Griff shrugs, his lips still curled in satisfaction.
When Quinn turns her back on him, as if praying for patience, I punch him in the arm and shake my head quickly, resuming my pose before Quinn can turn back around.
Griff finally drops the smile. “I don’t know how this is cute to you!” She looks around like there’s an answer somewhere.
“I didn’t say this is cute, I said you are cute, beautiful.” Griff looks at me for confirmation. My God, he’s too stupid to live right now. He still doesn’t get it.
Quinn mutters about being cute under her breath. “Griff’s just happy to have it out in the open.” I’m trying to get this train wreck back on track.
“What out in the open? I still have no idea what any of this means!”
I stand and reposition myself on the sofa. “We can explain everything to you, anything you want to know,” I promise.
Quinn paces a few more laps, but drops down into the chair heavily, eying both of us like she can’t trust us. I don’t like that look, not one bit. Fucking Griffin.
“Let’s start with the basics.” Quinn nods as if she’s proud of herself for remaining grounded. “How do you know I’m your mate, mates?” She waves her hand. “I’m human,” she adds, like we didn’t already know.
I almost chuckle, but then I remember how pissed she got at Griff. “I knew the moment you walked into the school—well, maybe a little after that, but it was fast. I just wasn’t ready to admit it,” Griff answers, and I almost applaud his honesty and straightforward response. Now we’re getting somewhere.
Quinn blinks rapidly like he surprised her, then focuses on me, waiting for my answer. Shit. “I was a little slow on the uptake,” I admit begrudgingly. I found her attractive the moment I laid eyes on her, but I was too far in denial to ever think she was my mate at the time. “The gym was a defining moment for me.”
Quinn scrunches up her nose. “The gym. When I yelled at my boss.”
“No, when you called and I knew no matter what I was doing I would answer.” Quinn’s shoulders fall and her head tilts to the side. I think I just made her swoon. I smile, I can’t help it.
She flushes, I think she knows I caught her. “The books don’t have a lot of information on mating. I didn’t even realize it worked with a human or across species.” She flushes deeper like she said something wrong.
“I assure you, it can and does.” Griff relaxes back onto the sofa in his usual lazy sprawl.
Quinn leans forward a little, drawn in by the allure of learning something new. “Explain why it’s different than any other relationship and what it means for us in the long term.”
My phone beeps with an alert, and I groan. “Not now.” Jerking it off my belt, I bark, “Yeah?” into the phone.
“The kid’s gone!” Paul pants.
“What?” I’m up off the couch the moment the words are out of his mouth.
“I came down to check on her before my shift was over and the room was empty.”
“How could she have gotten out?”
&n
bsp; “Someone would have had to let her out.” Paul is still panting. “I’m going to send out an alert. I wanted you to know first.”
I turn to look at Griff, his eyes are already on me and watchful. “Good, let me know if you find her.” I toss the phone, disgusted that she was able to get away so easily.
“What happened?” Quinn asks before Griffin can.
“Michelle’s gone, someone let her out of the containment room. She could be anywhere.”
Book Two of Havenfall Harbor coming soon
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Havenfall Harbor: Book One Page 32
