Page 107 of Crave Me

Asher looked between us, then stubbed out his smoke and told us, “I’ll give you some time.”

“Get some sleep,” Caspian told him kindly.

Kindly? The two of them? More specifically, Cas being that way with him. It was beyond hard to believe, let alone actually witnessing it playing out right in front of me.

Ash gave me a chin lift, then headed back through the patio doors, Cas giving his shoulder a brotherly squeeze on his way past.

Wow.

“I absolutely didn’t see that coming,” I told Cas as he stepped out onto the patio. “You and Ash becoming what really looks like friends? Do I still have some of that sedative in my system and I’m actually hallucinating this?”

“That was more than a sedative. It was also more than one drug, it was a cocktail. It was meant to render you compliant, susceptible to suggestion, to weaken you, and to put you in a dazed, barely aware state.”

“Jesus. No wonder Ash said that I’ve been out for days.”

“How are you feeling now?” he asked, his gaze raking over me in a very studious way.

And I hated it. Hated how it was a clinical assessment, how he’d barely moved an inch closer to me since we’d laid eyes on each other. I hated how there was so much tension emanating from him, indicating he was struggling with keeping his distance, but forcing himself to do so anyway because he believed I needed it.

“Is that why Cas isn’t here? He thinks I’m damaged?”

It sure as fuck looked like I’d been right on the money there.

So, I forced a bright smile beyond all this heaviness and doubt and told him, “I’m great now that I’m back.”

He cocked an eyebrow. “Great?”

“Yeah. I’m back here where I belong. That shit is out of my system. I woke up in your bed. And here you are after way too long standing right here in front of me. Once Bastian and Skylar wake up and I get to see them again too, it will all be perfect.” I stepped up to him, closing the distance between us. “The only thing that detracts from that is seeing you hurting because of me.”

“Caleb—”

I wrapped my hand around his nape and tugged him down to me, stopping the continued concern, his disbelief in my assurances.

Words wouldn’t work here, not with this.

A physical demonstration was in order.

And so, that’s exactly what I gave him, crushing my mouth to his.

As soon as our lips connected, there was absolutely no room for slow and careful, no easing back into it. I’d been away from my loves for so long that I’d been starving for their touch, the connection with them—both physically and emotionally. I hadn’t realized just how much given where my focus had needed to be, so it took me over quickly, overwhelming my senses and every fucking thing within moments.

I was bruising his lips with mine, biting them, then soothing the sting away with my tongue.

It was frantic, needy, and absolutely fucking raw.

It took him a beat or two to respond from the surprise of it and the intensity that I just couldn’t keep in check for the life of me.

He returned it tentatively and I could feel him trying to hold himself back, to not respond in kind. But as he opened for me on a sexy groan, and I hooked my tongue around his, tasting him, he succumbed to the explosion of passion and desperate need between us just like me, tangling with me, his good hand snapping to my hip and holding me to him in a harsh grip.

My hand left his nape and I fisted it in his glorious mane of hair, tugging, needing him closer still.

I was shifting my weight then, planting my knee between his legs, then using the better angle to grind my cock against his.

I moaned into his mouth as I felt him rock-hard for me through the thin barrier of his silk pants and my sweats.

“Fuck, Cas,” I uttered, pulling my mouth from his and nibbling at his ear, his throat, sucking on his Adam’s apple. “Been too long… way too long.”

He rolled his hips, a needy guttural sound coming from him that had my balls drawing tight, it was so fucking carnal.

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