Chapter Thirty-Five – Mira #2
He continued watching me as I slipped into the cool water. I wasn’t as tall as Cassius; the water came up to my collarbone, but at least I could rest my feet against the sandy bottom.
I swam a few lengths of the lake, trying to warm up and delighting in the feeling of gliding through the fresh water.
On my next lap, I almost collided with Cassius, who had apparently grown bored of watching me swim.
I narrowed my eyes as I stared up at him, but whatever irritation I’d felt earlier was gone, eclipsed by the knowledge of how close his body was to mine.
Cassius’s eyes glittered down at me. ‘I’m surprised you haven’t developed an aversion to water.’
‘Only to sinkholes.’
His laughter was unexpected and surprisingly genuine.
And the appreciative way he looked at me .
. . It made my chest constrict. My breath hitched as Cassius moved even closer, until there was only a few inches between our bodies.
His fingers grazed my cheek as he smoothed my hair back from my face.
I fought back a shiver at even that simple touch.
‘What do you want from me, Mira?’ he asked softly.
This was my chance to hesitate; to walk away before I did something I couldn’t come back from. Getting close to Cassius felt too much like tempting fate – like being drawn to a flame and expecting not to be burned.
But I was tired of playing it safe. Tired of fighting the attraction between us, even if it was ill-advised.
Even if it threatened to consume me whole.
‘You know what I want,’ I told him, and claimed his mouth. Hungry, demanding, devouring – my kiss was all of those things, and Cassius matched them tenfold. His hands tangled in my damp hair, wrapping it around his fist. Drawing my face up to his.
‘Have you thought about my terms?’
My pulse picked up speed – perhaps from the way he was looking at me or the way he held me immobile in his grip. I had never thought that something so possessive could be so arousing.
But my voice hardened as I said, ‘Your ultimatum, you mean.’
‘“Ultimatum” is such a strong word. I like to think of it as an offer.’ Before I could respond, Cassius lifted me smoothly out of the water and set me back on the bank, so that I was half reclining.
For an instant, I thought he was going to leave me there, furious and dripping, much like he had the other night. But the seductive promise in his smile said otherwise.
‘So many options,’ he said, those calculating blue eyes roaming over my exposed body.
I’d thought I felt vulnerable before, but it was nothing compared to how I felt now.
I moved to change my position, but Cassius stopped me.
‘No, no,’ he said, brushing his thumb over my lips.
‘I want to see you. To admire you. You are . . .’ A trace of hunger darkened his expression.
Yet his touch was surprisingly gentle as his hands traced the path his eyes had travelled a few moments before.
I swallowed in anticipation as fingers ghosted over my breasts and then downwards, his touch so light that a high, needy sound left my mouth.
I didn’t have it in me to be embarrassed.
Not as his mouth replaced his hands, fire licking at my skin just like he licked–
‘Oh, Gods,’ I breathed as his tongue flicked over my peaked nipple, sending a rush of heat straight to my core.
And his hand–
I flinched as it grazed the centre of me, tensing at the knowledge of how wet I was. Cassius made an approving sound low in his throat, his mouth still occupied worshipping my breasts.
His hand continued touching me, pleasuring me, but never quite–
I shifted, desperate to get the friction I craved. The gleam in Cassius’s eyes was positively sinful.
‘Don’t hold back,’ he told me – an order. ‘I want to hear you.’
‘I–’ Whatever I was going to say was forgotten as he slid a finger inside me.
Cassius rewarded my moan by adding another finger, curling it in a way that robbed me of coherent thought. I pressed against him, instinct making my hips rock as he drew his fingers in and out of me, making the pleasure build until it was utterly torturous .
He was so good at this, knowing exactly where to touch me to drive me insane. Varying the pressure so that I was never entirely sure what to expect, never quite getting enough–
And then he stopped.
A sound close to a snarl left my mouth until I felt the hardness of him against me. I jerked my eyes up to meet his, and the intensity of his expression made me shiver – in anticipation or nerves, I didn’t know. Probably both.
‘Tell me you’re mine, Mira,’ he said, his lips brushing my ear. ‘Because I’m yours. In all ways.’
Commit myself to him. That was what he was really asking – and beneath the sensual promise of his words, I knew there was a lethal edge I couldn’t see yet. A blade waiting to be drawn.
I didn’t care. His kiss was claiming, consuming, and I was beyond caring about the consequences – about whatever insidious agenda he might have. Let him demand a place at my side. Let him believe he could win power through me.
Let him believe anything if it meant he wouldn’t stop kissing me, touching me, pressing his body against mine–
Light flared, and I glanced down to see strange elemental currents flowing through my body – just as they had after my ritual.
‘Cassius,’ I warned, but he was already reaching for me. Tracing those currents gently with his hands, studying them with eyes filled with reverence.
Beautiful . I could have sworn I saw the thought in his face. His face, which was completely absent of fear, even as the kaleidoscope of light flared beneath his fingers. Coming alive at his touch.
His lips curved, revelling in the way my body and magic responded to him. But when he looked at me, there was a challenge in his gaze. ‘What now, Mira?’
Aching pleasure swept through me as he shifted his hips, making his point clear. How far do you want to take this?
Beyond the question, there was an intensity that was almost frightening. An unspoken promise that there would be no going back after this.
I placed my palm against the hard muscles of his chest. Something flared in his eyes – and I realised that he thought I was about to push him away. For a moment, I thought so too.
Then my hands were pressing against his back. Drawing him even closer, so that his face was poised over mine, and the lower half of his body–
I swallowed as I took in the large length of him, sudden apprehension battling with the heady pulse of my desire.
‘Don’t worry,’ Cassius said, his dark eyes intent on mine. ‘I’ll be gentle. This time.’
He slid into me slowly, watching every bob of my throat, every flutter of my eyelids. A gasp left my lips at the sensation, but it wasn’t a sound of pain. I was so ready for him, needing his fullness, needing the feeling of him moving in and out of me.
My nails raked down his back, making my demand clear. Cassius laughed, not concerned in the least about the blood trickling from the cuts. My gasp turned into a moan as he withdrew, then kissed my neck and filled me in a single thrust that had stars exploding before my eyes.
‘Tell me,’ Cassius said as he thrust into me again, each stroke slow and controlled until the pleasure was almost unbearable.
Until I was desperate for him to move faster, harder, to stop being gentle and ravish me.
‘Tell me what I want to hear, Mira. Tell me that you’re mine, and I’ll give you what you crave so badly. ’
Even though he felt so good, even though my body was arching into his like a moth to a flame, I hesitated. ‘I can’t–’
‘You can.’ He punctured each thrust with his lips. Claiming my mouth, my jaw, my neck.
I could barely think – could barely remember the history between us. Brutal schemes and bad blood wrapped up in an attraction so intense that it was all tangled together. Impossible to unravel.
Instead, I thought of other things. The way he had dug graves alongside my people, how he had counselled me through ruling, the image of him fighting to reach me on that cliff face–
The sincerity in his words as he told me had been trying to do things differently. To prove himself to me.
‘Yes,’ I said, and my stomach lurched just as it had in that cage, when I had toppled into the water below. Looking into Cassius’s dark blue eyes, I felt like I was falling all over again. ‘Yes, I’m . . .’
A smile curved his lips as he stilled inside me. ‘You’re what , Mira?’ he asked, stroking a strand of damp hair back from my face.
‘I’m yours.’ This time, my voice was steady. Filled with startling resolve.
Triumph lit his eyes. Without releasing my gaze, he ran his hand teasingly down my thighs – and then lifted them, so my legs were almost level with his shoulders.
And this time, he wasn’t gentle.
My head fell back and my moans rent the air as he buried himself in me, hitting a place so deep that it threatened to fracture my already tenuous control.
Again and again, until I was delirious with the relentless pleasure, until I was shaking with it, until my thoughts and worries were torn away in a tidal wave of bliss–
Until I knew nothing but him.