“What triggered the running?”
“Bastian mentioned Onyx.”
“Hmm. Well, he wouldn’t have done so if it hadn’t been needed.”
“I don’t know. Yeah, he’s usually the calm one, being Rein and all that, keeping us all reined in, but, with this, he might’ve slipped a little.”
Cas looked more than a little surprised. The idea of Bastian slipping up these days was out there to begin with. But him actually having a reaction to anybody was a whole other level. He was dead inside. He couldn’t react to things. It just didn’t happen.
I mean, the only time it could be feasible would be if he was entering one of his downward spirals.
“How? What slip?” Cas asked, stopping with stroking me and sitting up.
“He called her beautiful.”
He stilled. “Say that again?”
“You heard me. And he also touched her. I mean, just her hair, but still. For Bastian, that’s—”
“Worrisome,” Cas finished for me.
“Could be.”
“He could also be reacting to her energy. He’s not used to encountering people like her, outside of us. She’s bold, no-nonsense, feisty, with an artistic and liberated side. She’s not a conformist like those who make up Luxe and the circles the Thorns run in.”
“All that was tampered down and he wasn’t liking it.”
“That’s why she ran when he invoked that name.”
I nodded. “Seems she’s trying to conform now, be one of the many at Luxe. Keep her head down and all that.”
“Then Bastian is well-suited to what needs to be done. He won’t like the pretense she’s putting on.”
“It’ll provoke that wolfish side of him.”
“Let him toy with her. Then you’ll take your turn.”
“When he’s opened her up.”
“You’ll drag her into the dark.”
“And you? When are you planning to get involved directly? I know it’s more complicated for you because of the role you need to maintain as head of King.”
“Once she’s submerged, I’ll do what I do best.”
“Ruin her?”
His eyes flashed. “Wreck her to pieces.”
“Mmm, fuck,” I groaned at the delicious promise of his words and every depraved thing it would entail. I reached out and stroked my cock, but he was there in the next second pouncing on me.
I trembled with sudden, pulsating need as he growled at my ear. “Get on your hands and knees. I’m gonna fuck you like a beast until your ass is squirming on my cock unable to take another second.”
“Fuck, Cas, I’ll always take you. Every fucking thing.”
He nipped at my ear. “I know you will, lovely.”
I scrambled onto my hands and knees.