“I can only promise that I will think on it,” she answered softly.
“That means no,” he pointed out.
Maybe it does.
“Cassian…” She nibbled her lip. “How did you feel when you were in love?”
“With Isabella?”
No… not with her. But if it gets you to tell me, since I cannot find the courage to say how much I love you–
“…Yes.”
He stared off into the distant meadows. “To be true, I thought I loved her, but I know now that I did not.”
The first question on the tip of her tongue was,how do you know the difference between then and now?She held back on those words, only for a moment. If there was any time to be brave with her emotions, it was now. He was leaving, possibly for perpetuity.
“How do you know the difference?” she asked innocently, her heart hammering under her breastbone.
Cassian opened his mouth, then closed it, and she could feel him reconsidering his words. “I suppose it is my jaded nature juxtaposed with the naïve man I was back then... I realize I’d confused her care and attention with what love was.”
Her heart plummeted.He feels nothing for me.
“Though I don’t think love has one face,” he continued, startling her. “It may be the calf eyes and sonnets at midnight for some, but for others, acts of service and sacrifice may be love. Guarding and providing from afar may be love… or letting someone go free from an untenable situation.”
Cassian shrugged a single shoulder. “Irrespective, love and desire need not go hand in hand.”
Cecilia found herself confused—whatwashe saying?
Then he shifted his head, and the purewantshe found in his gaze made that wonder fade to the back of her mind. Tingles of desire and anxiety ran up her spine and she licked her lips.
“I know one thing, Idamn welldesire you, and that is never going to change,” his voice dipped.
The air took a sudden turn that it stole her breath, and she held still as he framed her jaw, holding her still for his kiss. His mouth possessed hers with firm, scintillating sensuality that had her letting her desire lead over her logic.
She parted her lips for his tongue, moaning as he explored her mouth, saturating her senses with his hot touch and drugging scent. He kissed heras if she was his… because shewashis, even if onlysheknew it. Beneath the demanding flame of his kiss, she melted into pure sensation.
Breaking away, Cassian stood and took her hands before easing her to her feet. “Come with me.”
She gazed at him, dazed still, “Where are we going?”
“To my rooms,” he smiled conspiratorially. “I want to share one more night with you. Unless… It was your first time, and I could have been gentler.”
She shook her head immediately. “You wereperfect, and I loved every moment of being with you.”
By the time Cecilia stepped into the bathing room, Cassian was already in the tub, eyes closed, head leaning back against the lip. He was utterly obscene like this—all that golden skin on display, dark hair plastered to his forehead. Her mouth watered a little as the firelight licked the taut ridges of his chest.
The planes of his rigid torso stood out against the faded, bare wooden walls; his sinewy arms were draped along the edge, his broad shoulders gleaming in the cozy firelight. The pale, sudsy water lapped indecently low across his hips, and even through the foam she could see the dark trail of hair that disappeared beneath the surface.
Gadz, he is a work of art, she thought with hot pride.And he was mine.
The ‘was’in that last thought had her eyes flooding again, but she quickly rubbed them with the soles of her hands. She refused to waste these precious moments drowning in sorrow.
His eyes opened suddenly, and he twisted his head, his gaze colliding with hers. The mist in those grey depths made her breath catch with longing. As if he were simultaneously a few yards away, and yet halfway across the earth. There was no hesitancy as his grin shone through.
“It’s about time you joined me,” he purred seductively. “Why are you still dressed?”
Hesitantly, she unfastened the tie of her robe and allowed the silken material to ghost down her shoulders and puddle at her feet. His sharp intake of breath was gratifying, as was the way his gaze raked over her naked body—lingering on her breasts, her hips, the curve of her thighs—the undisguised want.
