The Beginning of Everything by Kristen Ashley Page 0,130
mother was negotiating whatever she was negotiating with four countries we didn’t get along with terribly well, one we warred with constantly, and one we barely knew at all.
I did not know Airen to have Firenz-style baths.
And Cassius had asked me to teach his soldiers my stretches.
But I feared a lifetime yawned in front of me where the things I did to fill my days that had meaning and purpose were gone and such as dawdling in baths (or the like) was my future.
Thus, I told him, “You may release me. I’m to meet the others at the baths.”
“I know you are not her.”
The way he stated that, firm, but pensive, made me focus on his face.
“You need to understand that, Elena. She was lost years ago. I will not pretend I didn’t pine for her. I will not pretend that she isn’t in my thoughts the many times she comes to me and will in the future. But she is gone. I am not. You are my destiny. My daughter needs a mother. Your ward needs a father. It is how it was meant to be, and we must find a way to move forward in that.”
“Do you mind if, perhaps, we take longer than a day to find the manner in which we’ll do that?” I requested.
His lips quirked.
“No. I do not mind,” he allowed, and then said, “You can have today and tomorrow too.”
And really.
Did he also have to be amusing?
I glared at him.
His lips quirked again.
They stopped quirking when he asked, “Why was your sister in Firenz garments?”
It was then I stared at him.
“I did not see her,” he carried on. “But my man did, and he said she was regaled in the finest of be-spangled, female Firenz attire.”
I could not picture this.
I couldn’t even fathom it.
“Serena?” I asked breathily.
He nodded. “Undoubtedly. She’s rather notable, especially wearing the sheers and brassiere of a Firenz.”
Heavens.
“Do you think, your, uh…person, is…?”
I didn’t finish that query.
His other arm came about me, and he burst with laughter.
And…
Really.
Did he have to look so handsome finding something amusing?
“It seems she received an instruction,” he stated through chuckles.
“And thus, she walked through Catrame Palace in garments that surely had her skin burning?”
“I would say, as that was some time ago, about now her skin is definitely burning in one way or another, my warrior.”
My skin started burning, that being my cheeks.
I stared at his throat.
Not a good selection.
I decided on his ear.
“Elena,” he murmured.
I forced myself to look in his eyes.
“I’ll be joining you for dinner.”
Why did that make my heart feel light?
“I’ll alert the heralds,” I quipped.
His eyes danced.
This they did right before his mouth took mine (it was definitely his taking mine that time, not the other way around).
He thrust his tongue inside in a claiming manner that should have outraged me.
It did not.
Instead, I lifted my arms to wrap them around his neck and I tilted my head so he might have more of me.
Cassius took it.
His arms tightened, drawing me up to my toes and deeper into his body, and I drifted a hand over his short hair that brushed toward his forehead, taking that path with my hand, then down, where I did what I wished to do dearly.
I caught hold of his beard at his jaw and tugged.
He nipped my bottom lip with his teeth in response.
I whimpered at the pleasant sting of the bite, my eyes fluttering just enough to take in the heat of his and my mouth was captured again as he ground the hardness of his hips into my belly.
Making him thus, feeling it evident and proud against me, feeling a corresponding flood between my legs, I broke our kiss and whispered, “Cassius.”
His beard scraped my skin as he put his lips to my ear.
“After dinner, you attend me in my room,” he rumbled.
Oh, by the goddess.
“I can’t. I have to look after—”
He fit me more snugly into his hips.
“You found relief this morning, my warrior. I did not,” he reminded me.
Oh heavens.
He didn’t.
I pulled my head back, he lifted his, and I caught his eyes.
“I’m so sorry,” I whispered. “I didn’t think. That was selfish of me.”
He stared at me, desire retreating, contemplation seeping in.
Finally, he spoke. “It is far from the end of the world, Elena. And when you join me tonight, we will first talk, and after, you must know that we will not do anything you don’t wish.”