Page 106 of Crave Me

“All right, good, that’ll give me a little time to get acclimated before I see everyone.” I tossed the covers aside and pushed out of bed. “You up for a smoke?”

“Of course.”

As I crossed to the door with him following after me, I called over my shoulder. “And coffee. Lots of fucking coffee.”

“Wow, thank you,” I said as Ash finished filling me in on him taking over the management of my rehabilitation facilities in my absence. “That’s above and beyond, brother.”

He lifted a shoulder like it wasn’t a big deal in the least. “I was here and in a position to take care of it for you.” He took a drag of his smoke. “Once you’ve had some time to reacclimate, I’ll get you up to speed.”

I laid my hand on his shoulder. “You’ve been away from your loves for long enough. You need to get back.”

“And I will. Once I’m satisfied things are well here with you.”

“Stubborn as ever, I see.” I dragged on my smoke, then asked, “Did anything else happen here while I was gone that I need to be aware of?”

“A few things, yes. But that’s Caspian’s purview.”

Hmm.

“I did conduct one of your therapy sessions with Skylar.”

“She came to you for that?”

“I recognized her struggle, ran it by your boys, and they agreed I should approach her with the offer to conduct a session. She was triggered by her guilt with Wheeler’s involvement in all of this.”

“Jeez, none of this is her fault. I don’t blame her, nobody does.”

“I helped her to see that.”

“Well, if anyone could replicate those sessions of mine, it’s you. Thank you for doing that for our woman.”

“Of course.”

I smiled. “I’m glad Cas called you in.”

A shadow fell over the patio doors and a wonderfully familiar voice rolled through me in the best way imaginable. “As am I.”

I stubbed my smoke out and looked to see Caspian standing there, leaning against the door frame.

I couldn’t remember much about the night of my rescue except for a few bits and pieces of muddled memories here and there, so seeing him now was pretty much me laying eyes on him for the first time in ages.

His long, caramel hair was loose and wild, indicating that he’d just woken up mere seconds ago. His silk pajama pants that he had on lent more weight to that. He was shirtless with a sling supporting his right arm and further down a bandage was tied across the middle of his hand.

I couldn’t keep the grimace from my face at seeing the pain he’d sustained because of me, to save me.

It was the last thing I’d wanted, for him to get hurt protecting me. Those days were supposed to be done with, it was part of the reason I’d left for those two years, so that I wouldn’t be a burden on him, so that I could stand independently alongside him, so we could be partners. But Elijah had stolen that away when he’d taken me.

He'd stolen away a lot of things.

No. He’d tried to.

He hadn’t succeeded.

He fucking hadn’t.

“The sling will be off in a couple of days,” Cas assured me, seeing my reaction. “And the doctor is confident that my hand will heal well with no permanent nerve damage.” He smiled out at me. “I’ll be fine, Caleb.”

“You were shot, Cas. For me.”

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