Page 26 of Secrets & Curses of Crimson

My camisole slipped again, but his dagger was pointed under my chin.

“Dead,” he whispered.

My body hummed as he pressed into me harder. Cassius stopped a few inches from my mouth. I felt myself leaning slightly into him instead of away.

“Did you think of me this week when we were apart?” he whispered.

My eyes found his.

“No.”

A sexy smile tugged at his lips. “Such a liar.” His focus moved to my mouth again. “Did you think of me kissing you? Or maybe you thought of me touching you?”

My chest moved quickly with wild breaths. Gods, he was a confident bastard.

“You know, if you want to make your thoughts a reality, all you have to do is tell me,” he whispered. “It can be our little secret.”

My mouth opened like it was going to tell him to take me to the tent, but I shut it quickly and stared at him. When I didn’t say anything, he pulled away from me and turned away, gathering his daggers. He headed toward the three gawking guards.

“That’s it?” I called out, making him turn toward me. “You aren’t going totake a prize?”

His eyes filled with sadness when he looked at me this time, and it made my stomach drop. Why was I playing this game with him? I would lose.

“Until next time, little viper.”

I stood there wondering what the hell was wrong with me as he walked away. My darkness urged me forward, and I listened because I wasn’t ready for him to leave yet. Cassius must have sensed my attack coming because he turned and blocked my daggers with his own. His eyes dragged over me slowly before I shoved him away from me. Cassius stalked around me like he was about to fucking devour me. My stomach filled with lust as I watched him. Images of him and I touching and kissing each other filled my mind.

I shook my head to get rid of the intrusive thoughts. When I focused again, Cassius was smiling at me like he could see every dirty thought I had about him.

“You wanted me, Thea, so come get me.”

I charged at him, and he stepped forward to meet my attack, but this time I wasn’t losing. At the last moment, I released my fire mist and used it to swipe his feet out from under him.

“Oh, fuck,” he grunted as he fell to his back on the ground. I hurried on top of him and smiled as I pressed myblade to his throat. A flash of Cassius in the same position plagued me.I will wait for you in the next life.

My thighs squeezed tighter around him. My hand wrapped around his throat as my other hand held the blade under his chin, barely. I found I didn’t want to hurt him. I just wanted to feel him against me. He hummed when my hand squeezed his throat. Fuck, he was beautiful. Cassius watched me, waiting to see what I would do.

A sharp, angry pain in my thigh pulled me from the thoughts. I groaned when I saw a small throwing knife buried in the side of my thigh. My gaze met the Crimson guard who had thrown it at me. Fuck, it hurt. Cassius looked at the wound on my leg before his eyes locked onto his guard.

His body stiffened as his shadows swarmed from him. He looked terrifying with his solid black eyes and jaw clenched tightly. He was pissed.

Cassius used his shadow magic to wrap around me and lift me gently off of him. I pulled the small knife from my leg and tossed it to the ground without looking away from Cassius.

“One second, my love,” he mumbled to me as he set me on my feet. Surprisingly, he released me from his shadows, but I didn’t move. I was too mesmerized watching Cassius stalk toward his guard.

He grabbed the man by the back of his neck and dragged him over to me. Cassius kicked the back of the man’s knees, making him kneel in front of me.

“Apologize to Thea for wounding her, now!” he bellowed.

The guard's eyes widened when he looked at me.

“I am sorry, princess,” the man trembled.

Cassius grabbed his dagger and plunged it into the guard’s back, killing him. When he looked at me, his chest was heaving with shallow breaths. Gods, he was fucking unhinged as he smiled at me.

Cassius used my moment of shock to wrap me in his shadows again. He moved us over to the side, away from the dead body, where he proceeded to lay back down on his back and dragged me over him, so I was straddling his hips again.

“Where were we, little viper?” He watched me as I stared down at him. “Oh, that’s right.” He grabbed my wrist and yanked my blade up to his throat, smiling. “You were flirting with me.”

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