Mid-thought.
His gaze lands on me… And freezes.
“What the fuck?” he growls. A muscle ticks hard beneath his right eye, the kind that means he’s a heartbeat away from breaking something.
“Nathaniel,” he snarls. “Were the two of you fucking this whole time?”
Well.
Um.
Busted.
Nathaniel straightens slowly, like a man who didn’t just make me see God, his entire flock of angels, the pearly gates, and all pillars of hell at the same time.
“I calmed her,” he says simply, as if that explains the state I’m in. “She was anxious.”
Cassian’s nostrils flare. “You—what?”
“It was in order.”
Cassian’s gaze snaps to me.
His whole body moves on brute instinct. Three long strides and he’s at the bedside, leaning over me, brushing the drool from my cheek with his thumb.
“Was this your idea?” he murmurs. His jaw flexes. “If you didn’t look like an actual hospital patient I would fucking spank you.”
“Don’t mind him, love,” Nathaniel says behind him. “He’s just upset he wasn’t here to share.”
Cassian’s head whips toward him. Murderous.
But when his eyes return to mine, something has shifted. Less heat. More hunger. More… conflict.
It tells me everything.
Even if the world was burning, Cassian would still fuck me through the fire.
“Skye,” he says quietly, “are you okay?”
I try to speak.
I really do.
But all that comes out is a soft, ruined sound.
Cassian’s eyes darken.
Deeply.
“This is really not the time for this,” he mutters.
“This is theonlytime for this,“ Nathaniel counters. “If we’re about to go on a hunt to an unknown location, the next time we’ll have a moment to ourselves will be after it’s done, and you know it.”
“Motels exist, you sick fuck,” Cassian growls. “Travelling with Skye will be different than just the three of us.”
“It will be.”
“Then why the hell would you do this?” Cassian snaps. “She can barely get up now.”
