Page 79 of Crash
Her experience with love was nonexistent. In the weeks since she left Griffin, she imagined this was the feeling she had been searching for. The fear of losingGriffin forever made her sick to her stomach, while the thought of never seeing him again made her cry herself to sleep every night since leaving him behind. Or how her chest felt hollowed out like she was missing a vital organ. She was barely alive, yet her body continued to exist without the missing piece.
Quynh never wanted to feel that way again.
Now he was here, the hollow space was no longer empty.
thirty-seven
QUYNH
At some point, they must have fallen asleep because the next thing she knew, she was being woken up by a desperate mewling. Jerking awake, she tried to sit up, only to be pulled back by powerful arms.
“What the…” The memories came back to her in pieces as she recalled how Griffin showed up on her doorstep. Her cheeks flushed as she relived the moments after that led her to be imprisoned by his steely embrace.
Pickles’ wailing escalated to a fevered pitch when he realized she was awake. A glance at her bedside clock showed she was barely late with Pickles’ dinner by a few minutes.
Rolling her eyes at the dramatic furball, who was acting as if he were starving to death, Quynh tried to wiggle out of Griffin’s tight embrace. He grumbled in his sleep and squeezed her tighter to his chest. She was essentially a human teddy bear for the large, grumpy bearin her bed. He squeezed her so tightly it was almost hard for her to take a deep breath. She shoved at his chest, and he relaxed his hold slightly. Griffin glared through narrow slits at her.
“Let me go, you brute. I need to feed the animal before he eats my face.” She sighed dramatically. The last thing she wanted was to deal with an extra irritable Pickles. He could be a real dick when he wanted to be.
Griffin merely closed his eyes without acknowledging her. Quynh let out a huffed breath as a smile stretched across her face when he refused to let her go. Just when she thought she’d have to figure out another way out, Griffin reluctantly loosened his hold, his fingers lingering on her arm a moment longer. She leaned over his sleepy form, planted a kiss on his pillowy lips, and whispered, “I’ll be right back.”
He grunted before letting his hand finally fall to the bed. Quynh made a hasty escape before he could change his mind, swiping up her discarded sweatpants from the bedroom floor and hopping into them as Pickles paced frantically in front of her. His meows became louder at the prospect of getting fed.
On bare feet, she padded into the kitchen for the wet food she kept in the cabinet. The sound of the can opening stirred another round of frantic meowing and pacing from Pickles. She’d barely placed the wet food into his food dish before he buried his whiskered face in it.Quynh chuckled at the sounds he made while he devoured his dinner. You’d think she was starving the poor guy, not that he got fed wet food twice a day. And he had a steady stream of dry food throughout the day.
“What are you doing?” The sound of Griffin’s gruff, sleep-raspy voice made her jump. Startled, she whirled around with her hand on her chest. She hadn’t heard him approach.
“Feeding the dying rabid animal,” she said. Her words came out more breathless than she intended. “I was late with his dinner. Pickles hates it when I’m late.”
Once, she was stuck at work with a patient, which meant his dinner was delayed. She came home to her apartment completely trashed. He ripped through her couch pillows, which were more expensive than any pillows ever needed to be. Pickles pushed the glass cup she had left out on the counter over. The gleaming of the shattered glass and water taunted her when she finally came home.
After cleaning up the broken glass, she found another surprise in her bathroom. Pickles had completely unfurled her new roll of toilet paper. Lying in a heap of toilet paper was Pickles. Licking his paws. He gave her a mean side-eye and continued to clean himself. Pickles acted like he hadn’t destroyed her apartment, and when she only gaped in outrage, he’d merely gotten up and sashayed past her. She knew exactly where Pickles wasgoing. Right into the kitchen, where he sat pointedly staring at his empty food dish.
Since then, Quynh tried her hardest not to run late with a client. In the grand scheme of things, it was probably the least damage Pickles was capable of. His giant Maine Coon frame probably could break her window if he tried.
With Pickles happily chowing down on his food, Quynh straightened up and wiped down the countertop. She could sense the heat of Griffin’s eyes on her as she moved around the kitchen. She shivered helplessly, trying to ignore the dull throbbing between her legs at the sound of his voice.
It was late evening, judging by the time on the oven. She ate nothing today, and her stomach growled in protest.
Quynh heard Griffin’s muffled curse as he made his way into the kitchen. She turned around to see him open her fridge to look inside, though she winced when he slammed it shut a second later. Fighting the urge to slink back into the bedroom and hide from his wrath, she shifted her weight on her feet as she waited for Griffin to say something. She knew what he saw. Or didn’t see. It was empty, and had been for some time.
“You don’t have any food in here.” Griffin’s voice was a low, gravelly rumble sending shivers down her spine. She grimaced, knowing she was on shaky ground. Griffin stoodwith his back to her. The tightness in his muscles and the stiffness of his spine betrayed his simmering rage. His body was a coiled spring.
“When was the last time you ate anything?” The low growl resonated in Griffin’s voice. Despite its quiet tone, she sensed the warning of an impending storm.
When she didn’t answer him right away, he whirled around to face her. Quynh took a reflexive step back as he slowly approached her. His taut muscles, corded and tight, belied his barely controlled agitation. She gulped even as her panties became soaked with her arousal.
“Um…I can’t remember.” She gasped.
“You can’t remember the last time you ate?” he echoed in disbelief.
“N-no…?” It shouldn’t have been a question. She really couldn’t remember what she ate.
Griffin stopped just short of her, hands planted firmly on his hips. His eyes burned with fury as he glared at her. His face was a mask of repressed rage. She knew he hated it when she forgot to eat. She had no excuses that would placate him. Quynh looked up at him from beneath her lashes as she worried at her lower lip between her teeth. His gaze softened, though she still sensed his ire. He stepped closer and wrapped his arms around her.
“You need to stop forgetting to eat,” he whispered quietly against her hair. He pulled back to look down at her. “Or else.” His face hardened with the looming threat.
His words hung heavy in the air. The unspoken menace in his words was clear enough. The thought of his punishment sent a shiver down her spine, a strange blend of dread and exhilaration she couldn’t explain. It was an inappropriate reaction. When it came to her eating habits, she knew it wasn’t worth provoking his anger. He was right.
