49. Come Together

Come Together

"' O ld man'?" he said, baring his teeth in a grin.

"Ancient, even," I said. I waved my hand like a debutante dismissing some admirer. "Practically wizened."

Cass only laughed and switched feet. "Cruel woman," he said, expression warm. "You're lucky I like it when you're mean."

"Yeah?" I said, with a laugh of my own. "You're just going to sit there and take it?"

"Body and breath, Quyen," he said with a bright smile. "You could take anything you wanted from me, and I don't think I would ever tell you no."

"You'd better," I said, giving him a mock-frown.

Cass sprawled down along the side of the pool with a lopsided smile. He wrapped his big hands around my calves and tugged me towards him. "Why would you want me to? You're as hungry as our Court, lioness."

With a snort, I followed him, moving to sprawl alongside him. I held out my champagne glass and Cass let me pour some into his mouth, tilting his head back and giving me a heated look from under his dark lashes. "What conqueror wants to rule over a smoking ruin?" I asked, smiling when he kissed the edge of the flute. I pressed my own lips to his lip-print before taking another sip. "I need to trust you'll let me know before I start doing damage."

Cass gave me a rueful smile. "I'm not certain I'll even notice." He rubbed his knuckles against his cheek. "I'm not certain I'd tell you if I did."

"We'll work on it," I said, flashing him a brighter smile. I clinked my glass against his, making the crystal ring. "Another good reason to go slow."

"Gods." He dropped his head back against the ice-crusted stone, his black hair starkly beautiful against the white. "This is…" His voice trailed off and lashes drifted closed. The sunlight gilded his damp skin, drawing the eye down his throat, his chest, his strong core.

Cass reached up and tilted my chin back towards his face before my eyes hit his groin.

I raised a brow. "Shy, splendor?"

He made a face at me. "Yes, very. Let me bask, will you?"

Our laughter lit the air at the same time, his low rumble paired with my brighter joy. Cass snaked an arm around me and tugged me down against his side, a smile warming his face.

I ducked my chin and hid my own smile behind my glass. "You can bask in peace if you finish that sentence."

He laughed again, the white of his teeth bright against his warm brown skin and his eyes dancing with good humor. "This is incredible, sunlight," Cass said. He settled his arm around me, hand on my hips. "I never expected you to do something like this, and I am so deeply grateful for it." His expression went dreamy as he smiled, warm eyes on mine. "I feel like my universe has a center."

God, he was gorgeous, his smiles so easy and his emotions painted so vividly on that handsome face. It was sort of unreal that I got to be here, hearing him laugh. Making him laugh.

"I should have done it sooner, I think," I said, smiling back up at him; smiling so much the corners of my mouth ached.

His fingers stroked along my side. "Don't expect complaints from me. Your timing was lovely." Cass sprawled back with more decadence, then reached over and poured himself more champagne, lifting it up to shine in the sun. The steam condensed on the cold glass, sliding down in runnels to drip over his fingers.

His fingernails were getting darker, I realized, watching him turning the glass. It was the monster in him, showing more day by day. Where would it end? Would it ever? One day, not so long from now, would I find myself lying in bed with a beast?

Oddly, the thought didn't frighten me. None of the slight changes to my soulmate felt strange or out-of-place. The gold spreading in his eyes, the feathers marching down his spine, the sharpening of his teeth… He was still Cass. I was still his soulmate. If Faery was changing him, it was changing me, too. Faery bound us. It wouldn't forget who we were to each other. Time itself would remember.

"You're beautiful," I murmured, following his hand to his face as he took a sip of the champagne.

The light glinted off his earrings, highlighting his ears as he dropped them down, his shyness coming to the fore. It shivered through me, delicate and tender, like butterflies fluttering around their favorite flowers. "I'm glad you think so," Cass said softly, a hopeful smile turning up his mouth.

My gaze fell to his lips, his shyness frissoning across my desire. I rolled the stem of my glass between my fingers. "So, um. Is it okay for me to want to kiss you now, or is kissing only for the end of a date?" I asked, flicking my eyes back up to his .

Cass' expression softened towards yearning. He reached up and caressed my cheek, water dripping off his fingers. His voice rasped as he said, "It doesn't have to be."

I leaned closer, my breasts against his bare chest and my skin buzzing from how very much I wanted the rest of me pressed against him. My chin lifted, face tilting towards his. "Do you want to kiss me?"

"I've wanted to kiss you since I first laid eyes on you," he said, his voice getting rougher. "I dream about kissing you almost every gods-damned time I sleep, Quyen. There's a reason I'm afraid your desire is merely a reflection of mine."

His yearning pulsed in my blood and ached in my bones, a tidal force of desire that could have swept anyone away. But even a woman caught in a riptide can tell when she's being dragged somewhere she doesn't want to go. I wasn't lost in him. I was caught up in him, carried by his current, and it was exactly where I wanted to be.

"You should give me a little more credit, your splendor," I crooned to him. I set my champagne down in the snow and pushed myself up, water sheeting down my body. "And then you should kiss me."

He moved slowly, setting his glass to the side with his eyes on mine. "You're sure?" he asked. His fingertips brushed against my jaw, tilting my mouth towards his. "You don't need time to think about this, away from me?"

"I've been thinking about this for a long time." I dropped my eyes to his yearning mouth and bit my lip. "Five weeks longer than you have, actually."

Cass let out a panting breath. "Well, then," he said, his voice rough, and leaned his face up to mine.

Warm lips brushed against mine in a delicate caress. Somehow, that touch meant more than all the rest of it—more than his hand in my hair or on my bare hip, than my breasts pressed to his chest; more than even his bare thigh leaning against me had. Cass flooded into me, every door open. In a flash, I was him, my strong fingers buried in the silken strands of my hair, my whole body focused on the places where I touched my other half, my burning desire warring with the certainty that I was too much, too dangerous, too needy— love this love you need you want you—

One of us moaned – I didn't know who – and then we crashed together. Tongues met in a flash of heat, my fingers dragging at his hair and his hands crushing my body to him.

— love you love this take me love me need you don't stop—

I bit his tongue and dug my fingers like claws into his scalp. I couldn't get enough of him, needed to be in him, in his skin , oh, holy fucking black night.

His hand grabbed me by the thigh; dragged me onto him. I was too fucking short, had to be on my knees to reach his mouth, couldn't splay myself open on what ached for it. But, fuck, I would die without his mouth, his tongue, his need.

I chased it. I chased him , kissing Cass with such feral desire that I felt my lip split against his teeth from the forcefulness. The iron tang of blood sang across my tongue and was wiped away by the taste of him, by the hot slide of his tongue against mine— don't stop oh fuck never stop love this love you —

"Cass," I gasped out against his hot mouth.

He groaned and kissed me again, pouring himself into me. Fingertips digging into tense thighs, the sharp heat of peaked nipples, soft breasts pressed against hot skin, groin tight and cock aching—gods, please touch me, just touch me, don't stop—take me have me keep me love me—

I tore myself away, panting, gasping, then whimpered as Cass buried his face against my throat, breathing in great gulps of air. We were still touching, still pressed together, but it was only physical again. My heart pounded with his and our hands shook and our mutual want roared like a forest fire, but I wasn't in his head; couldn't feel the secrets of his heart like they were mine.

"You sure you want slow, Cassie?" I asked in a daze, panting against his wet hair. It kept circling in my mind, the endless yearning in the depths of his soul: take me, love me, I need you, I love you.

"I—" He kept panting, breathing hard, wings lifting with every gasp. "I don't—shouldn't—"

I couldn't keep my self upright on my shaky legs. I slithered down his chest, and that was a mistake, because suddenly I was on his lap with my thighs straddling him and his hard shaft pressed up against my heat. His close-trimmed pubes scraped against my sensitive skin. Need throbbed through me, a demand to take—and to be taken .

"Please," Cass whispered. "Don't… don't."

I was off of him before he finished speaking, moving to put distance between us. I couldn't bear that fear in his voice. I wouldn't hurt him like that. So many people had used him for pleasure; had stolen from him the joy of being wanted, and of choosing. I wouldn't be one of them. Never. Not ever.

He sprawled backwards, eyes closing, breathing hard. I turned away so I wouldn't be tempted to stare. Cass deserved his privacy. I wished I could give him more than physical distance and turning my eyes away. I always wanted to have him under my skin, but I knew he didn't feel the same way. He had a lot more caution than I did, and a sense of self-preservation that I wished was a little less honed.

Cass let out a panting sigh. "That was new," he said softly. The water shifted, lapping at me, and a moment later his toes brushed against the back of my calf in a tentative caress.

My whole body went stiff, freezing up from surprise. Cass made a low sound. His toes pressed more firmly against my leg, and then his power threaded through me in a purposeful touch, relaxing my muscles and easing my stress.

His hesitation shivered through me in the tension of his shoulders and the sensation of one sharp canine hooked over his lower lip. "Is that alright?" he asked. He ran his foot higher on my calf. "Is this?"

"Of course it is." I took a moment to luxuriate in the feel of his magic in my veins before I turned towards him with a smile.

Cass had rolled onto his side again, freeing his wings. His ears lifted hopefully. "You don't feel frightened."

"Oh, sweetheart," I said, relaxing into him. I shifted, settling into the water, and pulled his foot onto my lap. "You don't scare me. You never have."

I saw his throat bob as he swallowed. "I know. But I'm still…"

"Worried?" I asked, when he didn't say anything more.

The corner of his mouth lifted into a melancholy smile. "Not worried, precisely. Uncertain, maybe." Cass flexed his foot against my hand in silent request.

With a smile, I started giving him a foot-rub, my fingers automatically moving to press along the invisible channels through which his power flowed. "Feeling pretty vulnerable, huh?"

His blush warmed my face. "Yes, but I think that went both ways," Cass said, with some trepidation. "At least, I… I think that you were hearing what I was hearing."

The memories of him still sang in my mind, his naked heart bared for me. I knew, somehow, that I hadn't clawed my way in. Cass hadn't been trying to hold the line. For those beautiful, desperate kisses, he'd been willing to give me everything.

Body and breath… and soul , I thought, searching his expression. Aloud, I said, "'Love me. Take me. Don't stop. I love this.'"

I didn't say the rest of it. I didn't want to be the first one to give voice to that part—to how much he wanted me .

"'You're mine,'" Cass said quietly, not looking away from me. "'I hear you. I want you. You're mine, you're mine, you're mine.'" His lashes trembled. Longing shivered underneath my ribs. "'I want more .'"

We stared at each other for the space of maybe ten seconds, the air taut with anticipation… and then Cass cracked a smile, and I couldn't do anything but laugh. My bright voice rang through the air, all the tension vanishing like mist. "Good grief," I said, fanning myself to cool my suddenly raging blush. "Is that actually my subconscious litany? I really am as hungry as the Court."

Cass' smile broadened into a grin, his dimple showing again and the gold in his eyes sparkling. "And thank the gods for that, since apparently I'm begging for it."

"Are you surprised?" I asked, laughter still lighting my voice. "Maybe one day you'll be bold enough to do it out loud. "

He curled his toes over to grab the tips of my fingers and gave my hand a playful little shake. "I liked hearing you in my soul a great deal, but if you're snarling that I'm yours out loud I suspect you'll earn some answering surrender."

My skin flushed and nipples pebbled at the thought. "Can't snarl anything with my tongue in your mouth."

Those beautiful bicolored eyes flashed with the same heated desire that spiked through my blood and made my heart beat harder. "Tease," he breathed.

"Hardly," I purred back, running my thumbs down the center of the sole of his foot. "I'll kiss you again right now if you want."

I saw him considering it; weighing his desire against everything else. The vulnerability, the overwhelming power of it, the way it required him to trust that even in the tempest of his soul I could stand my own ground; all of it posing such a danger to his safety and balance.

Desire still won.

A slow smile spread across his face, and Cass sprawled back with a bit more decadence. "Come here, then," he said in a low croon, "and prove it."