Page 58 of Crowned By the Fae King

I couldn't imagine Cass' outfit taking much longer to remove, and he didn't have makeup, only braids, but even after I was in some comfy pajamas (flannel pants, of all things, and a mortal-side t-shirt for some band I'd never heard of) and Kat had gone off to her room, Cass didn't emerge. Though I could maybe have gotten his attention via paying attention to my sense of him, I decided that was probably too raw, and knocked on the adjoining door, instead.

Cass growled something unintelligible from the other side. The soundproofing between the rooms was really good.

I cracked it open. "You okay in there, splendor?" I drawled.

"I can't figure out these fucking body-chains," he said in a snarl. "If they weren't so gods-damned expensive, I'd cut them off. I'm sorely tempted to do it anyway."

"You want me to help?" I asked, trying to suppress my mirth.

He fell silent for a moment, then made a grumbling sound. "Yes," he said, sounding about as happy as a cat being shoved into a carrier.

Cass gave me a dire look as I stepped into the room. He'd managed to tangle the chains around himself like a girl at the mall trying to take off a too-tight dress. He had one hand trapped up by his collarbone and the other tied down across his chest. He even had a chunk of his loose hair snagged on one of the small metal plates. With his wings pinned against his back so he wouldn't slice the metal and his arms completely immobilized, he was trussed up like a moth in a spiderweb.

I had to bite my lip to keep from laughing. "Wow," I said, barely restraining my mirth.

"I'd get Vaddy, but he'll surely laugh his ass off if he hears about this, let alone sees it," Cass growled. "Can you get me out of it?"

"Not without touching you." I circled him, trying to figure out what he'd done trying to squirm out of the body-chains. "I'm assuming you can't sit."

"I doubt it. But I don't mind the touching, if you don't," he said, sounding hesitant. "I know I'm overwhelming, but you know what you'll be facing, now. You can touch me if you like."

"Well, alright." I grabbed a spindly chair and dragged it over, then hopped up onto it and started puzzling out the clasps on the body-chains. There were a bunch of them, all along a series of jeweled metal plates that were clearly supposed to lie over his spine, but which were now cranked halfway on top of his wing. I picked them open, one at a time, dropping them over his shoulder to dangle down his front.

My fingertips brushed against his warm skin with every clasp I undid, brief moments of contact that sent heat washing through me. It was so easy to lean into, a temptation I couldn't resist. Careful breaths; heartbeat held steady. Trying not to inhale too deeply. The scent of her skin makes me want to sink my teeth into her—Gods, don't even think like that. Control yourself. I swallowed, my mouth watering, and started easing his hair off of the chain it was tangled in.

Cass' finger traced across my arm—no, traced against his, with his wings trembling from the intensity of connection when we touched. H-I.

"Hi," I whispered back.

His mouth tugged towards a smile and melted back into raw enjoyment. S-T-I-L-L-O-K-? he asked, tracing the letters on his palm. It made my hand tingle and all my skin go hot, as intimate as if he'd been writing on me with a calligraphy brush.

I ran my fingers through his freed hair to get the tangles out – he'd already taken out all the braids – and traced Y-E-S on my cheek.

"Good," he said, the soft word shaky.

Touch

Cass stood quietly while I moved the chair to the other side of him and undid the rest of the clasps. When I finally had the whole thing undone and off of him, he groaned and dropped his head back.

I hopped down off the chair, turning away to find somewhere to put the armful of jeweled chains so that I wouldn't stare at the broad expanse of his bare chest. "Better?"

"Much," he said. Cass bit his lip – I felt him bite his lip, the impression of his canine on his mouth making me mirror the motion – and swallowed. "Did you truly think I looked alright?" His hands went up to his ears, starting to remove the earrings. "Not… ridiculous?"

When I set down the body-chains and turned towards him, he had his back to me, the long line of his spine tense and feathers slicked down. "You looked stunning, Cass."

He nodded, in the determined way of someone trying to reassure himself. "And you don't mind how entangled we are? What it's like to touch me?"

I crossed my arms and leaned back against the doorframe, regarding him. "I think it's fucking incredible," I said. My mouth kicked up. "There's a lot more mutually pleasurable touch we could be getting up to, you know. I like you, and I'm sure as hell attracted to you. If you want me, too, there's no real reason to keep our hands off each other."

The muscles on his back stood out, taut and tense. "It might not be you," he said miserably. "Or not only you. I can't not affect you. All those weeks… Quyen, everything you're feeling could be from me."

I pursed my lips, skimming my eyes across his flared wings. While I didn't share the same angst about the source of my attraction to Cass, I could understand why he was worried. He was affecting everything around him, and that included me. Hell, maybe it was from him—but who cared? It was still real, and it wasn't like we were going to suddenly disentangle. Why not enjoy it?

He wanted to touch me. I knew he did. That yearning tugged at me like the tide, a force of gravity dragging at me. The little tastes would never be enough for either of us.

Dani seemed to think that his life being shattered would help the two of us figure out our soulmate bond. If that was true, maybe the best thing to do was finding the center of that breakage, and that was probably his certainty that he was out of control.

He'd wanted to bite me just from smelling me. So that was one thing I knew he wanted, and was forcing himself not to pursue. Maybe that was a place to start.

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