Chapter Thirty-One
“Can you agree to that?” I asked.
His eyes drifted shut for a heartbeat, all the striking lines of his face were tense. “Always,” he whispered. “Yes.”
I reacted and pulled away from the rock. Closing the distance between our mouths, I kissed him. I knew the moment my lips touched Casteel’s, the very second his lips parted, that this was real .
I lifted my hands from the rock, looping them around his neck as I took what I wanted, tasting him on the tip of my tongue, reveling in the decadent thrill of his sharp teeth.
I didn’t know what I was doing, only that instinct guided me.
I moved my lips against his, nipping and exploring and learning.
And Casteel didn’t seem at all bothered by the artless inexperience. If anything, it seemed to inflame him. He gave me what I wanted. Kissing me with a wild sort of abandon that bordered on crazed.
When he ended the kiss, he was breathing just as heavily as I was. “We’re not pretending, Poppy? No more? You want me. Knowing everything , you want me.”
“What do you think?” I moved against his hand in demand.
His other hand dropped to my hip, stilling my movements. “I need to hear you say it, Princess.”
Of course, he did.
“Yes,” I nearly cursed. “I want you.”
“Good.” He slipped his hand from between my legs. “Because this is real.”
Before I could feel the loss of his wicked hand, he gripped my thighs and lifted me. I gasped, hands slipping over his shoulders as more than half of my body left the water.
“Hook your legs around my waist,” he commanded softly. “Do it.”
I did as he requested without complaint. It was rare. I hoped he recognized that.
He moved his hands back to my hips as he looked down to where my breasts were pillowed against his chest. “I would love to take my time because there are so many different ways I’d love to be real with you.
Lay you out on the rocks and lick every inch of your body.
Make you come that way. And then I’d want you on your knees and your mouth around my cock. ”
I shuddered at the depraved images his words brought forth. That act had been in Miss Willa’s diary, and it had seemed abhorrent when I’d read it. But now? It sounded… intriguing . “I—I don’t know how to do that.”
“I don’t think you could do it wrong,” he told me, eyes flaring intently. “But I’d show you. I’d show you how to use your mouth and tongue. If we had time, we would play.” His hands tightened at my waist. “But we don’t have time, Princess.”
“No.” My heart pounded. “We don’t.”
His gaze held mine. “I’m glad we’re on the same page.” The muscles under my hands bunched as he said, “Princess?”
“Your Highness?”
Those eyes of his turned to molten amber. “I’m going to need you to hold onto me and not let go, because I’m about to fuck you like I promised.”
I gasped at his lewd—deliciously so—words. “Yes. Please.”
Casteel didn’t respond with words. He did so with action, guiding me down until I felt him nudging my entrance. I bit down on my lip.
“Lower your legs,” he demanded. “Just a little—there. That’s perfect.” His lips returned to mine. “You’re perfect.”
“I—” My words ended in a cry that he captured with a kiss.
He filled me, stretching me until I wasn’t sure if this position would work.
Or if I would work. We’d only done this twice.
I’d only done this twice. But I held on, my fingers digging into his skin as he kept sinking into me, deeper and deeper until there was no space between us, and Casteel shook.
He dragged one hand down my back, folding his arm around me. And then he…he held me there, against his chest, buried deep inside. “You okay?” he rasped, lips brushing mine. “Poppy?”
I nodded, easing my grip on his shoulders.
“You sure?”
“Yes,” I whispered, my eyes closed. It didn’t hurt. It didn’t feel exactly comfortable, but I knew there was more. I shifted, wiggling my hips.
He groaned my name. “Poppy…”
I ignored the way my heart clenched in response to his voice. I didn’t want that. I wanted the hardness between my legs and inside me, needed what it made me feel. I didn’t want my heart getting involved.
I squirmed, gasping as pleasure sparked.
“Gods, Poppy. I’m trying—” A sound rumbled from him, vibrating through me. “I’m trying to make sure you’re ready.”
“I’m ready,” I told him. I’ve been ready.
He cursed, but then he moved, thrusting his hips up as the hand on mine pulled down. My eyes went wide at the raw sensation of him moving inside me, slow and deep. I sighed, muscles I didn’t realize were even tense relaxing.
“That’s it.” His words were barely a whisper. “Gods, you feel…” The hand guiding me spasmed and then loosened as I lifted myself on his length. “You feel like all I could ever want.”
I’d never wanted to believe something more in my life, and that realization threatened everything.
“We’re being real,” I reminded him, seeking out his mouth. “Don’t lie to me now.”
He went rigid against me for a handful of seconds, and then he bit out a harsh laugh. “You’re right.” His hand fisted in my hair, pulling my head back. “We don’t need to lie now.”
His mouth covered mine, and one of his fangs scraped my lip, dragging a husky moan from me. A staggered heartbeat later, we were back at that rock, one of his arms around me and the other hand in my hair, the only things between the hard surface and my skin as he rolled into me, pinning my hips.
And then he did what he promised.
Casteel fucked .
His hips slammed into mine, and the way I was held there, all I could do was whatever he demanded.
I held on as the frothy water foamed and bubbled violently around us.
Each thrust of his hips felt as greedy as the strokes of my tongue against his.
Every plunge of his hips felt more like an act of possession than the one before.
My head fell back but never reached the rock because of his hand, and the world was a kaleidoscope of broken sunlight, slate-colored walls, and vibrant petals.
I tightened—everything in me tightened as his head dropped to my shoulder, his body grinding into mine.
I curled myself around him, pressing my face into his neck, tasting the sweet water and the salt of his skin.
My pulse thundered through me, his just as strong against my cheek.
Our bodies moved in a frenzy, and it felt like he was everywhere at once, stealing my breath.
There was no hesitation. No slowing down or coming up for air.
We were both swept away in the madness, lost in the tension coiling tighter and tighter.
I thought it would shatter me, shatter us both, but he gave me what I wanted so badly.
The feel of his skin against mine crowded out the world until there was only us.
The touch of his lips against my neck, my cheek, had already chased away any protests.
His mouth found mine once more as his hands held me so tightly to him, so carefully, preventing the sting of guilt from even forming.
He moved so deeply inside me that I couldn’t feel anything but him, and when release found me, it also found him, devouring us both, leaving no room to fear what awaited and making what seemed impossible, possible.
I felt weightless in Casteel’s arms, cheek resting on his shoulder and feet floating several inches above the pool’s floor.
I’d attempted to move away earlier, after the last of the pleasure abated and reality started to seep in with the fading sunlight.
I didn’t make it far, though. Casteel didn’t let me. He kept his arms around me.
“Not yet,” he’d said as he guided my cheek to his shoulder.
It felt like permission. I didn’t fight him.
I blamed a lot of things for this, even though I had no desire to fight him then.
The warmth of the pool and his skin for starters.
The way he moved his hand up and down my spine was entirely too soothing.
The languidness in my body was also at fault, and so was the truth that it felt lovely to be held, especially like this, with no barriers between us.
After being forbidden human touch for so long, his nakedness was like being offered a platter of the most decadent chocolates and sweets.
I traced tiny circles on his other shoulder, wishing I had the courage to explore the hardness, the indents and scars.
Instead, I satisfied my curiosity with the way his skin felt under my fingers and how his body felt like steel wrapped in satin.
And I…gods, I soaked in every moment, my eyes glued to the side of his neck, the damp curl of his hair. In the secret chambers of my heart, I cherished these moments.
I didn’t know how long we stayed like that, nothing but the sound of the water and the calls of the birds outside around us. Casteel seemed to know exactly when someone neared the cave.
“It’s Kieran. He’s the only one who would know to find me here.” He gently disentangled himself from me, and I thought I felt his lips brush over the crown of my head. “I’ll be right back.”
I sank to my shoulders as he glided through the water and then rose. I got an eyeful, one that shouldn’t have heated my face as much as it did given what we’d done. He stopped to grab his pants, but didn’t pull them on.
Casteel walked out of the cavern as naked as the day he was born, and if he didn’t stop to put on those pants, Kieran was about to get one hell of an eyeful.
“Okay, then,” I whispered and then laughed, the sound echoing in the chamber.
My head fell back as I stared at the slivers of sunlight, searching for remorse or shame. Like before, I only found uncertainty. Not for what we’d shared, but for what it meant. We hadn’t been pretending.
What we’d shared had been real. No games. No pretenses. No half-truths.
I dragged my teeth over my lower lip. It felt swollen from his kisses. I lifted my fingers to my mouth, shivering as I thought of how he’d claimed it just as thoroughly as he’d done with the rest of my body.