Chapter 18 One Good Thing #3
“She needs strength,” Sava said. “She needs a reason to fight that is not only terror and spite. She needs something that belongs to her before a room full of wolves turns her survival into sport.”
Her gaze moved briefly to the closed door.
“And she likes you,” she said quietly. “Against reason, injury, and several medical recommendations.”
That struck harder than it should have.
Sava’s mouth tightened. “Do not make me regret telling you that.”
“I would never force her.”
“I know,” she said. “That is why I am saying the harder part. Do not make refusal another way of deciding for her.”
There it was, what Cassie had said. Stop taking my answer.
Sava put one hand on the door handle, then paused. “If you go in there, go in as a man. Not as guilt. Not as law. Not as the wolf trying to seal what it already thinks is true.”
She opened the door and stepped aside.The suite was dim, washed in low lamplight and salt air from the open balcony. The curtains moved softly against the night, and beyond them the ocean was a dark line of sound beneath a moon that was nearly full.
Cassie stood by the balcony in a small blue and white sundress.
For a moment, everything Sava had said vanished under the sight of her.
Bare legs. Bare arms. The bandage high at one shoulder, stark against soft skin.
Damp hair loose around her face. Color in her cheeks that had not been there that morning.
She looked less like a patient, less like a prisoner, and more like the woman she must have been before my world put teeth in her shoulder.
Her eyes met mine and the bond warmed. So did she. This time I felt it clearly, her want began quietly, then strengthened when she saw me notice the dress, her skin, the shape of her against the open night.
Her fingers tightened once at her sides. “You’re staring.”
“Yes.”
“At least you’re honest.”
“I am trying to be.”
Her mouth softened for a moment before she steadied it. “Sava talked to you.”
“Yes.”
“About me?”
“Yes.”
“Did she tell you what I want?”
“No.”
That mattered. I saw it land.
Cassie crossed the room slowly, stopping in front of me, close enough for her scent to become the only air, but not close enough to touch.
“You told me last night you would not decide for me again,” she said.
“Yes.”
“I’m holding you to that.”
“I know.”
“Tomorrow night, they are going to send me into the dark so you can prove I count.”
The words hit the room hard enough to make the wolf bare its teeth. Cassie didn’t look away from me.
“I might die,” she said. “I know you hate that sentence, but I might. Evelyn wants me dead. Malrec wants me dead. Ronan probably also wants me dead. The council wants proof, but also wants me dead.”
Her voice shook once, and she steadied it herself before I could even think about helping.
“I want one good thing.”
I could not move. If I moved too soon, I would become everything I feared. If I didn’t move when she asked, I would become another locked door.
Cassie stepped closer. “I want tonight because I choose it. Because I kissed you and wanted more. Because you are the only dangerous thing here that keeps asking me what I want.”
My hands stayed at my sides. “Tell me the rules.”
Her breath left slowly. “The bandage stays safe. If I say stop, you stop.”
“Yes.”
“If I get scared, you ask. You don’t decide.”
“Yes.”
“If you get scared, you say it. You do not punish me with distance and call it honor.”
That one went under my ribs and stayed there. “Yes.”
She lifted her hand and set it over my heart. My pulse hit her palm hard, and her eyes darkened as she felt it.
“There,” she said. “That is yours.”
“Yes.”
Her hand moved lower over my ribs, and the wolf went silent inside me. She took my hand and laid it on her chest.
“And this is mine.”
I closed my eyes once. When I opened them, she was looking at my mouth.
“I’m asking,” she said.
The last of my distance ended. Not control. Never control. Only distance.
I bent my head and kissed her. At first, I was careful because she was hurt, because the first taste of her nearly split me open, because the wolf surged toward the warmth of her mouth with a certainty that had nothing to do with law.
Then she made a sound of frustration and pulled me closer, and that sound changed the room.
I kissed her the way she had asked to be kissed.
Not like glass. Not like a wound. Like a woman standing in front of me with one night in her hands and giving it where she chose.
Her arms slid around my neck, and the mark flared as heat moved through both of us.
I could feel the difference now. Her want had its own shape.
It was not mine. It met mine, answered it, and pushed back against it.
When she pressed closer, I let one hand settle at her waist, lightly, and she pulled it harder against her.
“Like this Ian,” she said against my mouth.
The sound of my name almost drove the wolf through my skin.
I forced breath into my lungs. “Slow.”
Her eyes opened.
“For me,” I said.
She stared at me for one breath, then her mouth curved in a way that belonged entirely to her own brand of trouble. “Then keep up.”
I lifted her carefully, and when her breath caught, it was not from pain.
“Bed,” I said.
“Yes.”
I placed her gently on the bed, but instead of joining her, I slowly lowered myself back onto my knees in front of her, gently spreading her thighs, returning back to where we had been the night before when I essentially had chickened out. Odd thought for a wolf.
Cassie’s scent was a drug, sweet and intoxicating, and I realized I was starving.
I slid her dress up over her hips, and then slowly removed a surprisingly lacey and skimpy thong down her thighs.
The slowness of it was driving me mad, but I wasn’t going to rush this.
I’d never wanted someone as much as I wanted Cassie, and there was no way I wasn’t going to savor every moment.
I lowered my face in between her thighs and the taste of her nearly drove me mad.
The wolf inside had one thought only, mine, but I pushed that aside and turned my focus solely to worshipping Cassie.
I pulled her into me, taking my time to learn the terrain of her body with my tongue, creating friction that made her hips twitch against my mouth, circling her most sensitive areas with agonizing slowness.
She whimpered and I damn near jumped out of my skin, her legs trembling, almost locking my head in place when I pressed my fingers into her, curling upward until she gasped.
“Ian!” She whispered, running her fingers into my hair, nails scraping over my scalp in a way that made me dizzy.
I watched her body as I adjusted the rhythm between my tongue and fingers, moving faster, thrusting in and out, matching the tempo of her shaking.
I could feel how good she felt, how much she wanted it, when I hit just that right spot, and not just through her body, although that was becoming increasingly obvious.
But through the bond too, and it was flooding my senses like my own personal brand of ecstasy.
She came with her fingers locked in my hair and my name breaking out of her in such a raw way, before she could make it pretty.
The bond between us flashed gold, and for one suspended second, I felt her feel it.
Not just the release, but the relief inside of it.
The sharp, stunned joy I felt of her body giving me something that had nothing to do with survival.
I looked up at her, kissing the insides of her shaking thighs gently, still lost in the heady rush of feeling her come in more ways than one. I’d obviously felt myself come before, but feeling Cassie? That felt like the first taste of life.
I sat back and smiled at her, but there was heat still in her eyes.
She looked down at me, breathing hard. “Ian.”
“Yes?”
Her eyes softened and sharpened at once. “Come here.”
She reached down, her hands still shaking, and pulled me up to her, guiding me up her body. Her skin was hot and flushed, but holy shit was she beautiful. Before I could do anything else she began making quick work of my pants.
“Cassie, you don’t—I don’t need…shit. Cassie.” I couldn’t get out a full sentence, because the moment her hands touched my bare skin, I was gone.
She began to stroke me slowly, and I held my breath, doing my best to stay still while my eyes rolled back in my head.
Then…she swallowed me whole and my soul left my body.
The heat was overwhelming. I groaned and my head fell back as I tried to think of anything that would stop me from immediately exploding right there and making a fool of myself.
She took me deep, her tongue pressing on the back of me, making swirling motions around the tip that mimicked my own.
Cruel woman. She rocked into me, not some kind of bobbing motion that felt mechanic, no, this was as if Cassie knew the rhythm of my body and was making damn sure I knew she knew.
This was war. Truly. She was attacking every sense I had, and I was losing ground by miles.
“Cassie, I can’t—you can’t keep doing that.”