Dyna dug her nails into her palms until pain washed the thought away.
“You are to meet the King of Greenwood tomorrow,” he said. “It wouldn’t do to arrive with your face bruised. What would the court say?”
It was merely an excuse to heal her, yet as Dyna looked at him, kneeling in front of her, she couldn’t help but give in.
She nodded.
Taking out his white opal knife, Cassiel cut his fingertip and gently traced the gash. His thumb brushed against her jaw, sending shivers down her neck. Every contact of their skin sent a flush of warmth through her body she tried to ignore.
“Why do you continue to care for me?”
His expression tightened as if the question pained him, and he wiped away the rest of the blood from her face. “At yekarah li.”
Dyna told herself she didn’t understand, but it was a lie. Regardless of how cold and cruel she was, no matter how much she hurt him and pushed him away, she was still precious to him. “But I am terrible to you...”
Yet I cannot deny what remains true.
The tattered strands of the bond danced in her chest at the sound of his soft voice passing through her mind. It wanted to reform itself, and Dyna couldn’t deny a hidden part of herself wanted it too. Her heartbeat fluttered in her throat as they gazed at one another.
He was close enough to feel the heat of his body, and she still remembered what it felt like to have it on her. To feel the touch of his breath on her bare skin. Her throat dried.
Cassiel’s eyes grew darker—heated. And she realized her shield had slipped again, exposing the desire that she had tried to hide since last night. His silver eyes dropped to her mouth. Her pulse drummed as his warm breath brushed over her skin, and her heart beat faster, air locking in her lungs. Taking her elbow, he leaned closer, enveloping her in his heat. He watched for her reaction, weighing … deciding. She didn’t move away because all of her burned with need.
And he knew it.
The inch of space between them closed, and his lips brushed hers. Lightly, tentatively. The sweet kiss made her insides glow. But it was too much like their first kiss. The memory of that innocent moment made her eyes well.
Because they were not those people anymore.
“Cassiel…” Dyna whispered. “We can’t.”
His lips grazed the shell of her ear, and her body trembled treacherously. “You deny me, but I know what you desire,lev sheli. I can feel it.” His lips moved along her jaw, and each caress echoed in her bones. “Your Essence is spent. Let me help you restore it,” he murmured, every word vibrating.
His mouth pressed another light kiss beneath her earlobe, and it sent her skin ablaze with need. But she stiffened, chest rising and falling with shaky breaths to resist him and the ache of her dwindled Essence.
Cassiel lifted his gaze to hers. “Dyna … you’re suffering needlessly. I can feel your physical need and your magical one.” His brow furrowed with frustration, and his eyes became pleading. “I feel how much ithurts, and I hate knowing I can take it away. Let me help you. Not because I am a foul male who wants you, but because you need it.”
“I don’t need you,” she snapped, feeling her face redden. “If I want to be bedded to restore my Essence, I can find anyone else equally capable.”
He stared at her, taken aback by her blurted response. She didn’t know why she said something so callous, but he didn’t look angry.
Cassiel trailed his fingers along her collarbone, eliciting a current of heat across her flushed skin. His thumb traced slow circles over the pulse fluttering at the base of her throat. “As much as you detest me, no one else can illicit what you feel with me.” His nose skated her cheek.Only I know exactly how you liked to be touched, Dynalya.
His husky voice in the bond sent a shock of heat through her body.
“Tomorrow you can return to ignoring me, and I can return to pretending that it doesn’t kill me. But right now, let me take care of you.”
Dyna trembled, every part of her wanting to give in. But the shattered pieces of her soul trembled within the confines of her being. If he hurt her again, she could not survive it. “Please … go.”
Cassiel pulled back with a faint sigh. His hand slipped away from hers, taking all his warmth. She already missed it. He didn’t touch her again, and she was relieved, because her head was pounding, her body aching, and she needed air.
He turned to go, nodding to the package of herbs left on the table. “Please, drink your tea. Call if you need me.”
“I won’t.” Taking Cassiel’s arm, Dyna pulled him to the door and put him out into the hall. “That will never happen again.”
Then she shut the door before he could say anything else.
CHAPTER 68
