“Koko!You and Ican collaborate when I get my magic back!”
“I look forward to that very much, sweet girl.” And the look in his eyes made my chest hurt in all the best ways.
“All right, Ko, text Foster what’s up so he can drop a few subtle hints,” Casimir said.
“Foster doesn’t do subtle, but I’m on it.” Koa pulled out his phone.
“So we let Amabel come through the lake, track her into the manor, and spring the trap.” Zane took the magi-goggles from me and hooked them in the neck of his t-shirt. “Then what? Use her as a hostage? Arabesque would think twice about attacking if we had her precious daughter. Or we may need leverage someday.”
I frowned, not liking that idea at all.
“To me, eliminating the threat as soon as possible makes more sense than leaving a loose end. Keeping Amabel alive just gives Arabesque more reason to make a direct attack. And Amabel is both intelligent and dangerous. Even bound and imprisoned, I can’t trust that she wouldn’t find a way to escape.”
“I agree,” Koa said. “Clean, quick, no loose ends.”
All our eyes turned to Casimir. His face was unreadable, his green eyes fixed on a point across the room as he considered our options.
While he deliberated, I suddenly became acutely aware of something else, something firm and increasingly insistent against my backside. Despite the seriousness of our conversation, Casimir was growing hard beneath me.
The realization sent a hot flush through my body, and mischief stirred inside me. Pretending to adjust my position, I wiggled slightly. His breath hitched, so softly that I barely heard it, but the arms aroundmy waist tightened in warning. His jaw clenched, a muscle ticking in his cheek as he fought to maintain his composure.
Well, that’s interesting.
I did it again, a subtle roll of my hips that could be mistaken for a shift of weight. This time, his fingers dug into my sides, and I saw his Adam’s apple bob as he swallowed hard.
“Cas?” Koa prompted, oblivious to the private battle happening in his brother’s lap. “Hostage or elimination?”
I looped my arms around Casimir’s neck, leaning in as if to hear his response better, but using the movement to press my breasts against his chest. His eyes darkened dangerously, and my belly coiled tighter.
“What do you think, Simmy?” I asked innocently, even though there was nothing innocent about the way I was grinding my bottom into him. “Kill her or keep her?”
“I think,” he said, his voice a low rasp, “that it depends on the circumstances of her capture.”
It was a diplomatic answer, neither committing to nor rejecting either option. Classic Casimir, keeping all possibilities open until the moment of decision.
But I wasn’t thinking about Amabel anymore. I was focused on the heat building between us, on the way Casimir’s breathing had changed from deep and even to shallow and quick. On the hardness beneath me that grew more insistent with each tiny movement of my hips. On the power I wield over this dangerous man.
I leaned even closer, my lips brushing the shell of his ear as I whispered, “Is there something you want, Simmy?”
“You, Serafina.” He turned his head slightly, his mouth a breath away from mine.
With deliberate slowness, I pulled him in for a kiss, deep and hungry and filled with promise. His control snapped, one hand sliding up to grip the back of my neck as he devoured my mouth like a starving man.
I dimly registered Zane’s wolf whistle and Koa’s amused chuckle, but they seemed distant and unimportant compared to the inferno building between Casimir and me.
When we finally broke apart, I was breathless and flushed, my body thrumming with need. Casimir’s eyes were dark with hunger.
“So,” Zane drawled, a knowing smirk on his face. “I guess we’re done with strategy for now?”
“Meeting adjourned,” Casimir growled, then stood in one fluid motion, my legs instinctively locking around his waist as his teeth found the juncture of my neck.
The next thing I knew, he was carrying me out of the security room, the world blurring around us. My stomach swooped at his dhampir speed, and I clung to him, a breathless laugh escaping me.
Zane sprinted ahead of us, throwing doors open with his usual drama, while Koa followed close behind, his eyes sparkling with anticipation. My playfulness had clearly ignited something in all of them, inallof us, and my body hummed with excitement at what was to come.
“Bedroom,” Zane announced unnecessarily as he flung open the final door, dropping into an exaggerated bow as Casimir carried me inside.
The now-familiar scent of our shared space wrapped around me, gun oil and dragon fruit dew shampoo and the mate scents that clung to their skin.
