Angie Fox - The Last of the Demon Slayers

“It’s not enough,” he said, moving closer.

Yum.

“I’m always willing to accept more emerald necklaces,” I teased.

“That’s not what I meant,” he said, gruffly.

“Leather jackets?” I asked as he nipped at my neck.

He brought his body flush against mine. Double yum. Heat pooled in my belly. “Well if this is some kind of one-on-one body guarding, then I’m all for it.”

He touched the emerald at my throat. “Will you accept more of my protection?”

“I can’t.”

Dimitri’s powers were different from mine. While I could levitate, he could shift and fly. When I slowed down time, he could speed it up. It made us formidable. But it also made us weak. When I’d fallen, he’d gone down with me.

It gnawed at me that I could expose him and get him killed.

“We need to each maintain our own strength,” I told him.

“Don’t risk, don’t get too close,” he said, completing my thought with a scowl.

I flattened my back against the hard wooden door jamb. “It’s not like that.” I could see he was hurt, and I hated it.

It wasn’t fun, but it was the responsible thing to do.

And there was also a deep, dirty secret I didn’t even like to admit to myself: when our relationship ended – and I knew it would – I didn’t know what I’d do without Dimitri. I didn’t need to make it any worse by entwining my powers with his.

“You think I’m going back,” he said, accusing, but not denying he was needed elsewhere, away from me.

“Your destiny is in Greece with your sisters.” No head of a griffin clan had ever left their homeland for long. Griffins were conquerors. They craved land and security, and Dimitri had left his holdings wide open. Even being here could leave his sisters open for attack. I cared about him, and them, too much to ignore it.

He ran his hands through my lavender hair. “Why don’t you let me decide what’s best for me?”

Stubborn man. “You always do.”

Then he leaned in and kissed me and for a second I wanted to pull back and have our conversation. I wanted to tell him I did know what’s best and I could handle myself and I didn’t really need him but instead I yanked him closer and ground my body against him and never wanted to stop.

His arms wound around me with a resolute, almost bruising strength. He slanted his mouth over mine, deepening the kiss, pulling me against him until suddenly I was on top of him and we were inside the door and on the bed.

“Are you okay?” I tried to move away from his injured side.

“Hush.”

He lay over me, heavy and strong and I kissed him wildly. He had way too many clothes on. I nipped his lower lip and he groaned. Yes, yes. He was mine.

I slithered away from him long enough to help ease his shirt off and toss it over his shoulder. Then I went to work on his belt buckle, a little too eager for my own good, but who cared? My body was on fire. Everything in me screamed for this man. For the second time tonight, I knew exactly what I wanted.

And I’d have it as soon as I could master the buckle. “Is this thing welded on?”

Meanwhile Dimitri was at work on my neck, layering hot kisses until I feared I’d melt from it all. “You’d think you’d have enough practice by now.”

I gave up and ran my hand along the hard ridge below his buckle. He groaned into my ear.

“And you’d think you had an incentive to help.”

“I was busy,” he gasped, solving my problem with two tugs and a tumble out of bed.

He landed with a thud.

“Are you okay?” I sat up to see my powerful griffin on the floor.

“You’d better be naked by the time I get back up there.”

I happily obliged.

He rewarded me with a wet mouth on one breast and then the other, his tongue tugging at my nipples, hot, hungry and oh so skilled. I didn’t care if he dragged me down with the dust bunnies as long as he didn’t stop.

His cock strained hard against my thigh and I shifted and curled, bringing it into contact with my sex.

“Patience,” Dimitri groaned against my breast. He kissed up my chest. “Or I’m not responsible for what happens next.”

Silly man.

I kissed him long and deep.

It had been a rough night. I needed him. Now.

“Come here,” I said, easing the tip of him into me.

“By the gods.” He strained his entire body away from me, but couldn’t quite bear to move himself from between my legs.

“Got you now,” I whispered, nipping his neck.

He swore in Greek.

I had him. I knew it from the way he moved over me, hungry and wild. “Give it up, griffin.”

“Yes,” he said, thrusting home.

He dug into me hard and I savored every second of it, urging him on. Whispering his name in short, frantic breaths. He was so whole and so good and so alive it made me want to scream.

My heels dug into his back, his fingers clutched my butt, holding me, positioning me just so. It was rough and hard and exactly what I needed.

I jolted into a spine-bending orgasm. He shuddered hard groaning as he spent himself inside me.

Afterward, he lay on top of me, holding just enough of his weight away on his elbows. I felt possessed, protected and wonderfully tingly as he planted a precise line of tiny kisses along my collarbone.

“You must accept more,” he murmured.

I ran my hands through his thick black hair. Perhaps. But not yet. Right now, I just wanted to savor the moment.

This man made me feel safe. And needed. And loved.

At present, that was more than enough. As for tomorrow, well, we’d see what happened beyond the old brick walls of Big Nose Kate’s.

The next morning, I headed downstairs with renewed confidence. Dimitri had helped me forget my troubles two more times, with spine-tingling results. My, I loved dating an overachiever.

He’d brushed my lavender hair and he’d even helped me rig up a flashlight holder on my demon slayer utility belt. The Maglite hung heavy on my waist.

Downstairs was deserted, save for a grumpy fairy bent over a ginormous fold-out map.

Sid could have been Danny DeVito’s brother. He was shorter than most and balding. What was left of his hair circled his head like a wiry black halo. He’d tried to cover his natural bubblegum scent with Brut for Men. Trust me, it wasn’t a good combination.

“What?” he demanded without looking up from his map.

He’d flung the enormous thing over two bar tables. It still lopped over the edges. The Martha Stewart in me didn’t know how he was going to fold it all up again.

We’d picked up Sid in Las Vegas a few months back. Actually, Ant Eater had swept Sid off of his little sparkly feet. They were like Ozzie and Harriet on a Harley.

“What’s going on?” I asked the fairy.

Dimitri had headed out back to double check our bikes. I could hear the witches in the back store room, loading up everything they’d unpacked yesterday afternoon.

“Do you mind?” Sid scowled at me as if I’d eaten the last Oreo. “I’m getting us out of here.”

“Good.” I scooted in to get a better look.

Highways and smaller connected roads zigzagged across Sid’s map. They ran between major cities and smaller towns and seemed perfectly normal - until you added a network of winding green fairy trails, with names like Hobblers Knob and Limey Crook’s Shaft.

Maybe I hadn’t gotten enough sleep last night. “Nether Wallup Way? You’ve got to be kidding.” I pointed at a particularly nonsensical route that wound in corkscrews between Trenton and Philadelphia.

“Cut it, Lady Gaga.”

He didn’t have to bring my hair into it.

Sid glared at me. “Nether Wallup Way happens to be the fastest path out of here.”