More, even. There was no hesitation from Caz. No holding back. He’d thrown himself into this from the second he’d come back for me. Now he was ready to claim me the instant I asked him to, and the consequences be damned. Not just personally, but for the entire kingdom. Whatever they were, he wanted to face them at my side.
It was almost too good to be true.
And that leads to another thing to think about. He might be Caz to you, but he’s the ice tyrant to everyone else. You can’t forget that. You have to be sure you aren’t doing more harm than good to him by being in his life.
From what little I’d seen of him in his ice tyrant persona, life was already difficult. He sheltered me from much, but I’d picked up bitsand pieces here and there. Life in the Ice Citadel was not easy, nor pleasant, for many.
The elites loved to play games, and the ice flowed downhill. Weaker elites suffered at the hands of stronger, and so on, down the chain of power. All the way to the grounded like me. Who only ever suffered.
Caz had enough problems—from elites bothering him for favors or attempting to involve him in their schemes to his own family wanting to oust him. We hadn’t seen Andrik or Mirko since the terrarium, but they were out there. Somewhere.
Introducing a mate as weak as me to his people would make things a million times harder because he would have to defend us both. His attention would always be split. Every hallway I walked would be a danger to us both. I could never freely stroll through the palace. I’d have to stay in guarded areas forever.
Have I just exchanged one prison for another then?
I sat up straighter, unsure of how to answer my own question. Or, perhaps, I had already answered it, and I just didn’t like what it meant.
Because I couldn’t stay in these quarters for the rest of my life. I couldn’t do that. Caz or not, I would leave first.
The door to the bedroom flung open and Caz burst through the opening, bubbling withenergy.
“Good morning,” he boomed as I clutched the blankets up around me.
“You know, it’s polite to knock,” I said, pointing at the door.
Caz grinned.
I frowned. “What if I was naked?”
Caz’s smile slowly turned wicked, and a growl formed in his chest as he eyed me up and down. “Don’t you tempt me with an even better time.”
I gathered the blankets with one hand and pointed a finger at him. “That isnotwhat I meant, Caz.”
Now was not the time for that. Not if I was to talk to him about leaving the citadel, about how I couldn’t stay there.
“Don’t care,” he said bluntly. “It’s what I thought. I can still taste you from last night, and I want more of you. Always. So my mind is going to go there every time.”
My throat constricted at the lust in his voice. Thankfully, he frowned at me instead, shifting gears.
“You aren’t wearing my shirt anymore,” he complained, pointing at the button-up tossed at the side of the bed.
“It was dirty,” I said, going with that instead of my first response of “I like to sleep naked.”
“You look good in it.”
Was he pouting? He was definitely pouting. Damn, he was cute when he did that.
“Here,” he said, going to the row of closets on the far side of the bed and opening up one to pick out a new shirt. “You can put this on after you shower, so I can pull it off of you when I get back.”
I perked up. “Get back? Back from where? You’re leaving me alone here, with your cousin and uncle still roaming around?”
Caz’s eyes glowed green as his dragon pressed forward at the reminder of the threat to me. “Guards will be stationed at the door at all times with more close by. More than enough to deal with them. Besides, I hope not to be gone very long.”
“Where are you going?”
I wasn’t letting this slide. Not that easily. If he got to leave, I wanted to as well.
His grin returned big and broad, much to my surprise. I’d expected him to tell me that he was off on some secret ice tyrant business. Apparently not.
