Chapter 10 The Present #2
I didn’t give it much thought back then, but what if it’s true? What if Cassian is the kind of man who’s cold and brutal on the outside? He kills people, hunts down those who deserve it, but beneath that, he’s a generous lover?
I can’t think about that. If I do, I might—
“Is the idea of me touching you so abhorrent?” he asks, pulling me out of my spiraling thoughts and back to his eyes. That one good eye, always shifting between deep forest green and muted ash. Now it’s vivid. So vivid that just looking into it breathes a new kind of life into me.
How could I not want a man this fucking beautiful?
“What?” I breathe. “No.”
“Would you prefer it was Talon again? Not me?” he asks.
“Please, can we stop talking about him already?”
“We can,” he says, voice low and dangerously steady. “But I need you to focus, Skye.”
He leans even closer, his large hand flexing on my thigh, digging slightly into my flesh.
And damn, it feels good. So good I don’t want him to stop.
His other hand slides up, fingers slipping under my chin.
His whole torso shifts as he moves—pecs straining against his shirt, the lines on his neck getting more defined, his thighs tightening beneath the fabric of his clothes.
“If you hate the idea, just say so,” he murmurs. “We’ll find another way.”
But fuck, how can I say no?
“I don’t,” I manage. “I don’t hate it at all.”
A shadow of a smirk ghosts across his lips. “Good. Because I don’t hate it either.”
His hand drifts higher, stopping just shy of my pussy. His eyes lock onto mine as he starts massaging me there, slow and easy, like he can see in my soul just how much that simple touch is already unraveling me.
“This isn’t about fun, Skye,” he murmurs. “It’s about getting you ready. Strong enough to walk into that house.”
I nod, unable to speak, swallowing down the thick, heady mix of nerves and want.
“But I won’t pretend it’s not going to feel good.”
A shiver races down my spine, heat pooling low in my belly. I’m reacting to him so intensely I’m probably soaked already, and he’s barely touched me.
“Take your pants off.”
My breath catches, but my hands move almost on their own. I fumble a bit, shoving them down, feeling exposed and thrillingly bare as the cool leather of the seat meets my skin.
There’s no way I’m not leaving DNA traces in this shady-ass car. But fuck it, I don’t care anymore.
Cassian watches my every move. “Spread your legs for me.”
I obey without thinking. I’m not even wearing underwear.
It’s just me, his shirt hanging loose over my chest, and my bare pussy pressed against the seat.
The second he remembers that, his gaze drops.
The hand that’s been under my chin this whole time drifts down, pinching the hem of the shirt and lifting it to expose me completely.
His jaw tenses. It looks like carved from stone. Then he swallows. Once. Twice.
“Wider,” he murmurs. “I want to see all of you when I finger you.”
“Finger me?” I echo.
“Why?” His voice darkens. “Not good enough?”
“No, I just—”
“You’re right.”
Before I can finish, he grabs my leg and pulls me toward him, twisting my torso so I end up leaning against the car door. He lifts my left leg and hooks it over his seat, placing the other across the console.
I’m spread open. Utterly exposed. Then he braces one arm on the headrest behind me and leans in, sliding the other beneath my ass to hold me in place.
“Eating you out is better, isn’t it?” he rasps.
I can’t speak. My breath stutters out in a shaky exhale, my pulse crashing beneath my skin. The way he’s holding me, manhandling me, really, makes me feel pinned in place, completely at his mercy, and it’s… fuck, it’s delicious.
“Well,” I manage weakly, “it should definitely do the job.”
“You’re going to get so charged you’ll phase through that goddamn house like you own it.”
I believe him.
But also, I have a feeling I’ll be so charged I won’t be able to stop thinking about this moment for a week. Not that I can say it out loud right now because before my brain can catch up, Cassian flicks out his tongue and slides it suddenly against my clit.
“Oh, god,” I gasp, completely unprepared for the jolt of pleasure that follows.
My head snaps forward, straight into the burn of his green eyes.
He’s still watching me.
“I want you to tell me how you like it best,” he murmurs, his breath brushing hot across my skin. “Like this?” He flattens his tongue and drags it slowly over me. “Or like this?” His lips seal around my clit and he sucks—hard, but just for a second.
My whole body jolts. A broken sound escapes me before I even think to stop it.
Cassian’s eyes narrow slightly. His arm tightens under my ass, locking me against his mouth.
“You liked that one better, didn’t you?” he growls. “Tell me.”
He presses two fingers to my slick entrance, not pushing in, just holding them there.
“You’re already dripping,” he murmurs. “But I don’t want to just turn you on, Skye. I want to know what makes you come undone. You hear me?”
I writhe in his grip.
“You said this wasn’t supposed to be fun,” I manage.
“Yeah, well…” The corner of his mouth lifts. He smiles. He actually fucking smiles. “It’s not. Not for me, at least.”
And if my brain weren’t completely fried—if I didn’t feel like I needed to open my mouth and start panting right here—I’d lose my shit over that smile.
It wipes ten years off him, makes him look like some reckless young guy who could disarm a bomb with a grin like that.
It could disarm me. It could wreck me. Destroy me.
It’s the kind of smile you see in toothpaste commercials or firefighter calendars. The kind that launches a career.
But this one’s better. Probably because it’s real.
And my heart starts pounding so hard I can hear it in my ears.
“If I let myself have fun right now,” he says, “we’d forget all about the mission. I’d keep you in this car until sundown.”
“Cassian—” I start, but honestly? I don’t even know what I’m trying to say.
“Skye,” he says. “I asked you a question.” His tongue does that slow flick again and I nearly lose it. “Which one do you like better?”
His fingers finally press inside me, like he’s trying to show me exactly what I’ve been denying him by not answering. And it’s working. My hips jerk against his hand, my breath shattering.
“Cassian—” I pant. “God. Both. I like both. Just… Don’t stop.”
A dark, approving sound rumbles from his chest. His mouth returns to my clit while his fingers curl inside me, searching for that perfect spot like he already knows my body by heart.
And then he really starts.
It’s pure torment. And pure bliss.
His tongue flattens and drags against me before he sucks my clit into his mouth and gives it a slow, teasing pull, then repeats it, over and over. Ruthlessly steady. Just like everything he does, and yet somehow completely different.
Fuck, does it work.
Every pass builds something deeper. Not just pleasure, but a charge. That strange, electric pulse under my skin. The world starts to vibrate, like it’s not fully real anymore. Like I’m slipping out of sync with it. Phasing.
“There you go, Skye,” he murmurs against me. “Let it build.”
His fingers press deeper, curling just right, hitting that spot that makes my thighs tremble. His tongue never stops.
I can barely think. Barely breathe.
A low sound escapes him—somewhere between a growl and a groan.
“Oh god,” I moan, my hands flying to his hair, gripping tight. “Oh, fuck… I can feel it.”
His fingers thrust deeper. His tongue stays relentless. The pressure coils tighter in my belly, winding until I feel like I’m being pulled apart molecule by molecule—barely tethered to this world at all.
It wasn’t this intense with Talon. It felt fucking good, but I wasn’t nearly as in tune with my power as I am now. And that makes all the difference.
Cassian shifts his hold, tightening the arm beneath my ass to keep me pinned while his other hand angles upward, fingers spreading me wider as his mouth descends again.
“Fuck, I love the way you tremble,” he murmurs, almost to himself, like he’s caught in a trance. His eyes are dark and hooded, his movements growing more focused, more lost in it.
I barely recognize him anymore.
But more than that, I barely recognize myself.
My spine arches so hard it feels like I might snap. My moans go high-pitched, erratic. I’m panting so hard the entire car fogs up from the inside.
I feel charged. Buzzing. Humming. Like I’m some kind of feral succubus, not a dead girl walking.
The moment I come, my powers surge beneath my skin, rushing outward in waves, crackling under the surface. A thousand little explosions ripple through me, a heatwave down my spine before wave after wave of convulsions drowns me in fire.
“There you go,” Cassian breathes against my core, voice thick with hunger and something possessive. His hand glides up my inner thigh as the aftershocks roll through me. Before I know it, I collapse back into the seat.
A second passes. Then another. I can barely blink. My vision swims. My body trembles like a plucked wire.
Cassian finally pulls back. His lips are slick, jaw tight, chest rising and falling with slow, controlled breaths. He wipes his mouth with the back of his hand, but his eyes stay locked on mine.
He doesn’t speak. But he doesn’t need to. His eyes ask the question.
Did it work?
I nod weakly.
“I know I don’t look it,” I whisper, “but I feel more powerful.”
The corner of his mouth twitches.
“Yeah?”
“Yeah.”
That’s when he shifts. His massive frame sinks back into the seat like nothing just happened.
At least for a second. Then he straightens, and something changes.
The gleam in his eye sharpens, like he's barely holding himself back.
His hand reaches across the console again, this time landing warm and heavy on my bare thigh.
For a moment, he just watches me.
“Do you need help getting dressed?” he asks at last.
I swallow, my breath still unsteady as I lift my hands. They’re trembling—visibly and embarrassingly obvious.
“Say no more,” he murmurs. And just like that, he starts dressing me.
Never thought Cassian would do something like that.
Maybe there was truth in what Talon said after all.
Cassian would worship me.
I’m just not sure I’ve grasped even half of it. At least, not yet.