“I do not break as easily as you’d think.” Finnian closed in and propped his hands up on the surface of the counter behind Cassian, pinning both arms around him. The tips of their noses grazed.
Cassian’s jaw set. He turned his head away, internally scolding his willpower.
“Cassian.” His name left Finnian’s lips, a whisper, pleading. The sound of it slowly spread through him like spilled honey, weakening his resolve.
His breath trembled as he reached for his good sense. To turn away and leave. But yearning was all he could find—spilling out of the chambers of his heart, overflowing, warping his better judgment.
Fate be damned.
He snapped his arms up, cupped Finnian’s cheeks, and whisked him into a kiss.
The undying thoughts of Ruelle silenced.
His mind stilled.
The kiss was depraved breaths huffing into mouths, fingers tangling in hair and in clothes. Cassian had not realized how starved of Finnian he’d become until the taste of him touched his tongue.
Finnian’s teeth sunk into Cassian’s bottom lip.
Pain ruptured in his nerves and a quiver zapped down his middle as Finnian’s hands slid up his back. One tangled in his hair and gripped the side of his head, while the other clung to the back of his shoulder, fingernails clutching the material of his tailcoat.
He used the grip to deepen their kiss, reaching down inside of Cassian and making a mess of him.
“I loathe you,” Cassian said against his lips. He ran his hands down the sides of Finnian’s neck, over his shoulders, around his waist, and grazed underneath the back of his shirt. “I long for you.” He traced his fingertips over Finnian’s spine, memorizing every divot of bone, the lush terrain of his skin.
Finnian tightened his grasp in the back of Cassian’s strands and lightly tugged, breaking apart their kiss and pulling away with hooded eyes, dark and full of lust. “Let me seeyou.”
It took a second to process Finnian’s request through the state of his arousal. “Is Everett’s appearance not to your liking?”
Finnian dipped beneath his chin, leaving a trail of wet kisses down the bulb of his throat. “If I am going to kiss you…” He smoothed his palms over the plain of Cassian’s pecs to the starched knot at his collar. “...run my hands over you…” He unraveled the knot with one hand, working the buttons of Cassian’s waistcoat with his other. “...then I’d prefer it to be the real you.”
Heat unfurled in Cassian’s abdomen at the request.
He inhaled a breath of humid air from the boiling teapot and rearranged his appearance into his true form.
Finnian’s movements turned sluggish as he slipped the waistcoat down Cassian’s arms, fixing his attention on the transformation.
Cassian felt his jaw jut out and square, the rigid slice of his cheeks sharpen, and the swirling hue of blue irises brighten into two golden diamonds. “Happy now?”
Something primal crossed Finnian’s features.
He chucked the waistcoat over his shoulder and devoured Cassian with another kiss—a feral rush of swollen lips and twirling tongues; hands tangling in clothes and fingers knotting in hair; bodies curving into one another; a desperate frenzy to drink the other in.
Tension twined through Cassian’s insides. He held Finnian’s cheek and kissed down the line of his jaw. He wanted to taste every inch of him. Explore the scape of his skin with his tongue, over the contours of his collarbones, down his chest.
He gathered Finnian’s shirt over his head, careful not to let it catch on his hearing aid, and tossed it somewhere across the room—having only a brief thought to pause, neatly fold it, and place it somewhere more appropriate than a ball on the floor.
As if Finnian could sense his thoughts, he tightened his grip on the loose knot of his collar. “Don’t even think about it.”
Cassian chuckled as Finnian yanked him off the edge of the cabinet, their bodies hard and pressed against each other.
Finnian’s divine energy pricked the air. A cloud of crimson fabricated around them.
Cassian was nudged back as his feet left the floor. He stumbled on his footing, landing on a satin-covered mattress.
“I take it this is your room,” Cassian said, breathless, glancing around at the cluttered bedside table and cloth strewn in an unmade state.
Finnian climbed on top of him and pulled the hem of Cassian’s tucked shirt out of his waistband. His movement ground his arousal against Cassian’s pelvis, creating a friction of pleasure that rose into his lower belly.
