“How are you?” he asked, cautiously.
“Sore.”
He huffed out a laugh. “Yeah. Being knocked off your horse will do that to you.”
Thalia’s lips twitched into a smirk. She swallowed, the sound audible, before she got out, “You can sleep here if you want. I won’t try and throw myself at you or anything.”
Cassius’s mouth tilted upward.
She thought he’d make some excuse, but to her surprise he groaned, standing up. He stiffly headed toward the bed, his bare torso gleaming softly, no hint of scarring in place. He didn’t move as if he were reluctant to get in bed, more like his body was just as sore as hers.
“Thank the gods,” he said, practically sinking into the mattress. “Here I thought you were trying to seduce me with that red nightdress because you remembered it was my favorite color.”
Thalia flushed, glad for the darkness that hid her flaming cheeks. She had remembered it was his favorite color but hadn’t put much thought into choosing the silk gown. “That would be a rather good tactic, but alas, my choice of nightwear is purely out of comfort.”
She met his stare in the dark, his irises glowing faintly. A soft smile splayed out across his sensual lips. “It does look comfortable.”
“Do you want to wear it?”
Cassius snorted, pulling his legs up to slide under the sheets. “You know I don’t wear clothes to bed.”
Thalia flushed harder. Yes, that image certainly hadn’t left her mind, even after four years. “You’re wearing pants now.”
“I didn’t want you to think I was trying to seduceyouif I took them off.”
Thalia arched a brow. “I think it would take a lot more than that to seduce me.”
Cassius raised his own in challenge. “And what would it take?”
Thalia’s whole body heated in awareness as Cassius shifted, the sheets around his waist slipping, revealing every hard-earned muscle.Thalia’s tongue peeked out to moisten her lips. Cassius’s eyes latched on to the movement, his pupils growing wide.
“What do you think it would take?” Thalia finally got out, her voice much lower and more tense than she’d wanted.
Cassius didn’t pull his gaze from her mouth, his voice dropping. “I would get you flowers.”
“Flowers?” Thalia hadn’t expected him to saythat.
He finally smiled, flicking his gaze to hers. “Not just any flowers—bluebells and poppies. And you would absolutely hate the gesture.” Thalia resisted the urge to cross her arms over her chest. Cassius’s lips stretched even more at her scowl. “But you would secretly like it. Because even though you’d think it to be trivial, no one has ever done it before. At least not in a way that matters. Not because they simply want to see the joy on your face when you realize they were handpicked for you.”
Cassius scanned her face. “I’d tell you to weave those flowers into your long hair, then I’d take you to a pool up near Nanis, the capital of House Santorien. There’s hundreds of pools all tucked away into caves. They glow like starlight, and the caverns are covered with thousands of glowworms. It feels as though you’ve stepped into the cosmos.”
“Then what?” Thalia whispered, her words barely pushing past her lips.
Cassius’s gaze landed right on her parted mouth, his words turning rough. “Then I would take out each and every one of those flowers you’d so meticulously woven into your hair. I’d lay them out on the rocks so they wouldn’t get ruined. Then I’d lay you out.” Thalia swallowed, the sound audible. Cassius’s dark gaze went straight to her throat. But it didn’t scare her; it sent a white-hot pang of awareness straight to her belly. “And I’d worship you. First with my fingers, then with my tongue, and only when you’d been spent would I bury my cock inside you until all that consumed you was me. Until you could think of nothing—scream nothing—but my name.”
Cassius slowly met Thalia’s eyes, his pupils near devouring the twin moons of his irises.
Thalia had never felt his presence so acutely as she did now. Never been struck with such burning desire.
She swallowed, forcing her tongue to unstick itself from the roof of her mouth. “Then I suppose it’s a good thing you aren’t trying to seduce me.”
“Indeed.”
They stared at each other a moment longer, tension stretching and warping like the edges of a mirror.
Thalia forced herself to not give in to the sudden craving ghosting her tongue. To not give in to the insatiable desire dangling before her like sweet candy—to shut out the image of exactly what he’d do to her. If he so much as touched her, she’d give in, and she could not allow that.
She turned her back, scooting as far away from him as possible. “Good night, Cassius.”
