37. Cassius
thirty-seven
I shoot. Her body falls. Rowan screams.
I shoot. Her body falls. Rowan screams.
I shoot. Her body falls. Rowan screams.
It plays over and over in my head. A never-ending time loop that I can’t escape.
I thought I missed. For just a fraction of a second, but it was enough.
She dropped and my heart stopped.
Collectively, Garrett, Rowan, and I think shock played a factor. Fortunately, her wound was superficial, and we stopped the bleeding and patched Ember up, keeping to the strict schedule she was so intent on. Currently, we are in the air on our way to an unknown destination that even G and Rowan don’t know.
Ember shifts next to me in the bed at the back of the plane. When I lift my eyes to hers, they’re open.
“I should kill you,” I say. “To be fair, I probably should have killed you in the fucking alley. Then we could have avoided this entire mess. I could have avoided this.” I touch my fingers to the bandage at my throat. “You almost killed me.”
“I did kill you,” she says softly, her voice scratchy with sleep and fatigue. “I didn’t have a choice. It had to look as real as possible.”
“You could have filled me in.”
“The pain in your eyes had to be real. They would have known.”
“I trusted you.”
Tears well in her eyes. “I know, and I’m so sorry.”
“How am I supposed to trust you again?”
She shrugs and smiles. “You can’t kill a dead man.”
“Did you just make a joke?” I laugh.
“Love has done crazier things.”
“Is that what this is?” I ask her, pressing my lips to hers and then pulling away. “Love?”
She angles her head in that peculiar way she does that I fucking love. “A queen will stop at nothing to protect her king, even if it means massacring her own court and abandoning her kingdom.”
I kiss her deep and slow, my tongue diving into her mouth. Her hands move to my chest, pulling me closer. I pull away, extracting myself from her grip.
“I need to be inside you. Now,” I say, shedding my clothes as she does the same.
I don’t wait. I don’t waste time on foreplay, we have the rest of our lives for that. Right now, I need to claim her. I need her to know she’s mine. Carnal urge rages inside my veins, and by the time I enter her with a forceful grunt, I’m overcome with so much need that I barely register the soft “oh” that escapes her lips.
I pull out and slam back into her. She bites her lip, her eyes hooded with her own desire. This is a claiming. She. Is. Mine. I thrust hard and deep, her hips pressing up to meet mine. I tease her nipple with my teeth, pulling it until she yelps. Her nails scratch down my back and it takes every ounce of self-control I have not to bang on my chest like a fucking caveman. My dick throbs. I’m hard as stone pounding into her tight cunt over and over again.
“You. Are. Everything,” I say between thrusts.
“Cassius,” she moans. My name on her lips as her pussy squeezes the head of my cock is one of the hottest fucking things I’ve ever experienced. I pull out completely, and she whines as if the loss of me is too much. She wraps her legs around my waist, locking her ankles and pulling me back to her. I glide the head of my cock over her entrance, and she squeezes me tighter, forcing me inside. Leaning back, I lift her hips off the bed, angling myself deeper, aligning myself to that spot she likes. My balls tap her ass with each thrust, and I find her clit with one hand, rubbing gently at first. Then faster, harder.
“Be a good queen and come on your king’s cock, baby.”
As I say the words, I pinch her clit. Her legs tighten around me, forcing me still, and her cunt squeezes me, a vice grip on my dick. Warm juices explode on my cock, and her legs loosen, the sweetest cry leaving her lips.
We flip over, and her nails dig into my chest as she rides me, impaling herself on my hard shaft. She rolls her hips, her pussy doing things to me that I didn’t think were possible. Her tits bounce, and I push myself to my elbows, so I can bury my face between them. She tugs at my hair as she finds a position she likes.
Pulling back, I look her in the eye. “Take it baby, take what’s yours.”
Her hips thrust faster and faster. My hands dig into her sides, pushing her to find that rhythm I know will finish us both. Her eyes meet mine when it happens, that feeling of euphoria building in both of us.
“You are mine,” she says softly and then her pussy tightens, and we both explode.
Together. Always.
Because we’re playing for keeps.