Page 150 of Crowned By the Fae King

Though I knew he could have taken us directly back to the Clement Palace, Cass took his time flying. The cold bite of the winter air didn't chill us, so despite his state of nudity, it wasn't particularly uncomfortable to fly, save for the sensation of air sweeping across his bare skin. I didn't have any complaints. Every moment spent in his arms was another moment of reassurance that he was alive, that this was real, that we were balanced soulmates with an eternity of time set before us.

I'd expected Cass to eventually make us an aerial door (or maybe to spend the next fifteen hours flying back to the palace so that he didn't have to put me down), but before too long he banked into a shallow dive, aiming for a wooded region of the mountains. I picked my head up off his shoulder to peer up at him. He merely cocked an ear in my direction, a smile hovering on his lips.

"Where're you taking me?" I asked, burying my face against his neck again.

The rumble of his laughter vibrated against my skin. "On a date."

I snorted, surprised into it. "Seriously?" I looked up at him again. "After all that, it's date time?"

Cass flashed a smile at me, showing his teeth. His canines weren't as sharp as they'd been before he'd—before. Maybe he wasn't a carnivore anymore, either. "I'm feeling inclined to indulge in affection, my Queen, and the moment we set foot in the Clement Palace I suspect it's going to be a shitshow."

I laughed at the mortal slang. "You sure you're not just avoiding everyone finding out you're the resurrected god-King of Mercy?" I asked, giving him a playful tug on his ear.

He flicked it at me. "That's precisely the shitshow I'm anticipating," he said, sounding amused. He dropped a kiss on my forehead, picking up speed. The wind lashed at my hair and stung his bare skin. Cass' arms tightened around me. "Hold on," he said, all the warning I got before he leaned to the side and dropped into a vertical dive.

My ensuing squeal was as much from glee as surprise. His answering chuckle, a warm vibration against my chest, was the best thing I'd ever heard.

Cass pulled up seconds before we splattered on frozen stone, the wind of our passage kicking up snow-devils, then backwinged and landed with precise care. A haze of steam from the pools of the hot springs he'd found mixed with the flurrying snow. He set me down and stretched with the exuberance of a cat, then took a step backwards and flopped ass-first into a deep pool of scorching water, looking extremely pleased with himself.

The ensuing wave of hot water sloshed all over the place, soaking my boots and melting a broad swathe of snow before trickling back into the pools. I gave him a look, which did absolutely nothing to dampen the sunlit joy streaming through me.

"Come join me, dove," he said, ears lifted in high spirits and a broad grin warming his face. That damn dimple of his beckoned. "The water's lovely."

Shaking my head and laughing despite myself, I shucked off my clothing. The casual clothes and down coat had been thoroughly ruined via impalement, and everything was already wet from melted snow. I didn't even bother folding it, dumping it all in a heap.

When I turned back to Cass, he was staring at me with heartache. My shoulders hunched in automatic self-consciousness. He'd never looked at me like that before, as if the sight of me was a sorrow.

His eyes lifted to mine, and his expression softened. "Come here," he said gently, holding out a hand to me.

I did, cautiously, stepping off the frigid snow into the water with him.

Cass took my hand and tugged me down to him, pulling me onto his lap and wrapping himself around me. His thumb stroked along the thick scar marring my side. "I did this, didn't I," he murmured, face buried against my hair. "When we were attacked. When Tarra…" Cass stopped talking, his throat working, all that tension making my ribs ache.

"Scars fade," I said softly, relaxing as I realized the reason for his unhappiness. I ran my hands down along his strong arms. "You would have died, and not in a fixable way."

He huffed a laugh. His thumb ran along the scar again, leaving tingling warmth in its wake. Something popped in my side with a sensation of relief, like cracking a knuckle.

My rib, I realized, eyes widening. It must have been broken—must have healed badly when I'd yanked us through time to save his life.

"Mm-hmm," Cass hummed. The tension in his body eased as he tended the damage left on mine. My breathing got easier, the scarring replaced by healthy tissue as Cass kept stroking his thumb along the injury. The skin stopped pulling with each breath. Sensation went from the distant wrongness of a fresh scar to the pleasurable touch of my soulmate's hand against my smooth skin.

His fingers slid down along my ribs, counting each one and coming to rest over the knob of red scarring where I'd had a tree growing through me. I wasn't even sure when that had gotten healed.

His other hand curled over my right bicep where I'd been cut by a sword, massaging the tight muscles. His touch eased the strain. Piece by piece, he set my body to rights.

Cass nuzzled me as he undid what had been done by necessity. The touch of a command healer left my body whole and healthy, with only faint pale marks to show where I'd taken those brutal wounds. His strong hands moved with such tenderness. I fell into it, melting into his warmth and love, leaning into the sensation of his fingers tracing the curves and hollows of my body.

"You're so beautiful," he said in a low murmur. "A goddess well-worth worshiping." Those big hands stroked down along my sides and onto my thighs, the warm brown of his skin looking exactly right against my paler tones. He traced his fingertips back up, leaving glittery sensation in his wake. Affection radiated into me, like sitting next to a campfire on a chilly night.

I shivered, heat pooling in my core and my pulse picking up. "'Goddess,' huh?" I asked. He palmed my breast and I let out a sharp pant, the pleasure of his hand pressing against my stiff nipple sending a shock of need straight to my groin.

"Why not?" he asked. "If I have to get called a god…" Cass let out a sharp breath and pressed his mouth against my pulse. …I might as well get to call you my goddess, he finished silently, all but moaning out the words.

He panted against me, his magic amplifying my want, the desire humming in our blood. Cass tugged my hips back against his. The hot length of his ridged shaft brushed against my ass. It was like throwing gasoline on a fire. Lust flared so hot that we moaned in unison, my pussy clenching down with aching need and his cock throbbing against me.

"Besides," he added in a low groan, "a woman like you ought to have a man on his knees in worship."

"Then what the fuck are you waiting for?" I panted out, mind fixated on exactly that.

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