He settled, and his open eye fluttered closed; as she went on to tend to his bruise, Cassian leaned into her touch. Gently, she nursed the wound until the swelling went down, and Cassian seemed to have slipped off into sleep.
He looks like such a boy when he’s asleep, doesn’t he?
“A handsome, mischievous boy,” she whispered to herself.
Shifting away, she dropped the cloth in the bowl and made to stand—only for a firm arm to wrap around her middle and pull her back.
“What—” Cassian had her back on the bed in seconds. “—I thought you were asleep.”
“I have a strange ability to linger between sleep and awake,” Cassian replied, his eyes lowering to half-mast. “It is remarkable, actually. But that is not what I want.”
Her breath held in her chest. “What do you want?”
He kissed her in the way he seemed to do everything: with focus, intensity, and precision. His lips dragged against hers, firm and velvety, stoking a feverish heat beneath her skin.
The faint taste of coffee met her tongue, but the heat of his body resting atop hers made her nerves sizzle.Heat. Desirously, her lips parted to widen the kiss, and her fingers speared into his hair.
Cassian spun her and slotted himself between her legs, rucking up her skirts as his large hands splayed under and gripped her bottom, yanking her closer. His thigh wedged between her legs, the intimate invasion lodging her breath.
His lips strayed to her jaw, and he captured her earlobe between his lips. The hot suckle on her tender skin made her breath stutter in her chest, and her fingertips dug into his scalp.
“You still have not told me what you want,” he rumbled in her ear.
She shivered, “I hadn’t thought over it.”
“Think now,” he kissed down her neck while a hand slid up her torso to cup her right breast. “And think fast.”
“O-or what?”
“I’ll choose for you,” Cassian slid a hand up her thigh. “And I will not start with something easy.”
Shifting her legs so she cradled him perfectly, she whispered, “You never do anything by half-measures.”
His hand slid further, singing her skin. “Are you saying you trust my judgement?”
“In these matters,” she gasped when he sucked on her pulse point. “Yes!”
“Do you know—” Cassian got to his knees and pulled her with him. His hands found the pearl buttons of her blouse and expertly pulled them apart, “—a woman can reach her crest by a man sucking on her breasts?”
“No,” Cecilia shook her head gently.
She flexed her shoulders as he peeled her blouse down, and she fluttered to the floor. He cupped her breast and then undid the stays of the laces in seconds. He tugged the chemise down, and when he drew a thumb across the taut peak of her breast, she fell back to the pillows, gasping.
He rubbed her nipple harder at the same time as he caressed her breast, pinching the needy tip. He bent his head, and his lips were hard and commanding as he sucked her nipple into his mouth.
“Cassian!”
The first, hot swipe of his tongue drew a ragged moan from her. And the second made her back bow off the bed. While he took the aching peak into his mouth, his other hand strummed her nipple with the same rhythm as his tongue did.
Sensation doubled in her mind, replacing all thought, caution, and discretion. Pleasure was the guiding force, the flame that lit the moment. He tongued her breasts, switching mouth and hand, back and forth.
“God…” she writhed.
“High praise, sweetheart,” Cassian pulled back to nip a tight bud. “But it’s only me.”
She didn’t have time to reply as he resumed the sensual torture, and as her legs shifted restlessly, his knee shifted between them, his thigh bowing at the right angle, applying frictionpreciselywhere she needed it.
Covertly, she tipped her core up to meet him, rubbing herself where she desired it most. She knew Cassian realized her innocent action as he gave a gravelly, throaty chuckle, but he did not stop her. As she pleasured herself on his thigh, she felt an iron bar pressing into her own thigh.
