Griffin grinned at me, holding the lace up triumphantly. “And I’ll cherish them as the precious gift they are.” He shoved the scrap of fabric into his pocket. “Come here.” Griffin lifted me so I was straddling him, his fingers going to the button of his jeans. His cock sprang free, and I smiled. Apparently, he wasn’t as unaffected as he appeared. “You’re gonna ride me. And I’m going to make you feel only the good things.”

My expression softened, and I took his mouth in a slow kiss as I lowered myself onto him. The stretch and fullness had my eyes fluttering. There was an undeniable sense of completeness. Not that I wasn’t whole on my own, but that somehow with Griffin, I was so much more. My strengths were greater and my weaknesses not as noticeable. With him, I never felt alone.

I began to rock against him, slow, testing movements. Griffin’s hands came to my hips, helping to guide my path. Together, we found a rhythm. The one we both needed. It was both tender and a little desperate. The need to know that the other was right here and that we were alive spurring us on.

Griffin snaked a hand under my dress, his thumb finding that bundle of nerves and circling, drawing ever closer to where I needed him the most. His other hand tangled in the back of my hair. “Look at me. Keep your eyes on me when you come. I want to see that green spark.” Another pass of his thumb, and I was almost there. “I love you, Caelyn.”

His words. His hands. His body. But most of all, the knowledge that I was wholly his. It was all I needed to fracture in his arms, the pieces of me splintering apart and reforming in a way that wasn’t exactly the same person I was before. Because now I knew that I was loved so completely by this man.

Slowly, I came back to myself, my breaths steadying as my heart still struck out a staccato beat. “I love you, too. I wish you could reach inside my brain and heart so you could see how much.”

Griffin’s face softened. “I don’t need to see it. I feel it every day.”

My lip trembled. “Don’t make me cry when you’re still inside me.”

He chuckled, sending delicious aftershocks through me. The tightening of my muscles had him groaning. “You are going to kill me.”

“But it’ll be a good way to go, right?”

Griffin brushed the hair back from my face. “The best.” He carefully lifted me off of him and placed a kiss to the corner of my mouth before settling me in his lap again.