“No!” Seri lunged forward, nearly face-planting into Koa’s chest in her panic. “Don’t punish him! It was my fault! Hurt me, not him!”
Ice crystallized in my gut.
“Noctem maledicta,” Cas hissed through clenched teeth.
Koa steadied her with hands that barely concealed tremors of his own.
“Punish?” His voice came out strangled. “Beloved, no one is punishing anyone. Cas is just saving us from any more dumbfuckery tonight.”
“Really?” she sniffed. “No punishment?”
“Never, baby,” he assured her, cuddling her to his chest. She sank into him like he was hot milk and she was chocolate syrup. “You’re all right. Everything is fine.”
“Okay.” Two syllables said in a tiny voice begged me to intervene again.
“Save me a spot in your dreams, my queen!” I called as I let myself be dragged backwards, blowing her an elaborate kiss through honey-tinged chamomile drips.
Her watery giggles chased us down the hall, scattered and breathless and alive, as Cas towed me to the locker room off the home gym.
He stared at the rainfall showerhead like it held life’s secrets.
“She kissed you.”
“It was just a peck.”
“You stopped breathing over thatpeck.” He raised one razorblade brow.
“Well, damn.” I slumped against the cold tile wall. “You saw that?”
A beat passed, then Cas did something so terrifying that I nearly called an exorcist.
He grinned.
“You looked…” A rumble built in his chest.Laughter?Nah. Can’t be.“Shocked. Like this.”
He contorted his face into what could only be described as constipation personified: Mouth agape, eyes bulging and faintly crossed. Then he jabbed a knuckle in my ribs where he knew it would tickle.
“Asshole!” The bark of laughter ripped through me like buckshot. “You’re one to talk. Saw how you held her like she was blown glass.Andyour eyes when she admitted she starved herself to feed Brummy.”
Cas snatched a loofah from the shelf and scrubbed at my scalp with industrial vigor.
“Point?”
“Point is,” I wheezed as pine tar invaded my sinuses, “you’ll fold faster than origami when she touches your—”
The loofah muffled my brilliant observation. Through sudsy eyelashes, I caught Cas’ jaw working like he was chewing barbed wire.
“As previously discussed, she’s not ready.” His voice dropped to a gravel-road rasp.
“I know that. And even when sheisready, I’m… ” Something hot and bitter surged up my throat. “Dark take it, Cas! It’s not like any of us have ever done it before! I’m worried I’ll fuck up and disappoint her! My control is shit and… And what if I scare her? What if… What if Ihurther?”
The loofah stilled.
Then the admission slipped out of him on a nearly silent puff of air.
“Same.”
For three heartbeats, we stood there, two idiots breathing in steam and worry, until Brumous’ howl ricocheted from the kitchen like a drunken tornado siren.
