Page 86 of Mine to Protect

His lips sealed over mine, pressing hard. Desperate to rid my rapid thoughts of yesterday, I gripped his short locks between my fingers and tugged. My need for him must’ve sparked something inside him, as one second I was on top, controlling the kiss, and the next my back pressed into the soft mattress, his hard body half covering mine.

“Fucking hell, I love kissing you,” Cas muttered reverently against my lips. “You make me feel… wanted.” He pulled back, his dark eyes boring into my hazel ones. “Mine,” he gritted out.

“Show me,” I said between labored breaths. “Make me yours.”

Whoever this woman was saying these things, precisely what she was feeling, was a badass—I liked her a lot.

He ripped the sweatshirt over my head fast and rough, snapping my head forward and then back against the pillow. Naked from the waist up, Cas stared at my exposed breasts, licking his lips that were pulled into a feral smile. Every inch of my exposed skin sizzled under his perusing eyes. With his focus locked on my hardened nipples, his calloused palm skimmed up from my belly and between my breasts to wrap around my neck.

My breath hitched as his hold tightened, which only made his smile grow wilder.

Deviously slow, he moved closer, so close that his hot, panting breaths brushed over the swell of both breasts. I knew what was coming, based off the last time he had me in a similar hold, but I still gasped, my eyes rolling into the back of my head, when his teeth sank deep into the soft tissue, marking me. A slow, soothing lick quickly followed, almost as an apology, only for him to kiss his way over to the other side and complete the same territorial claiming.

Pulling back, he smiled at his handiwork. Shifting his gaze, he watched me as his free hand dangled over a peaked nipple. I squirmed beneath him, but couldn’t go far with his weight on me and his hand still around my throat.

“Patience, Lady,” he chuckled. “You wanted to forget, and I’m making sure this is the only thing you ever remember.”

The heat from his fingers teased as he lowered them, barely brushing over the stiff peak. My sigh of pleasure at his touch turned into a groan as he squeezed the tight bud between his thumb and finger. Shocks of pleasure and pain swirled, making the slow pulse between my thighs turn unbearable.

Cas watched from his high perch as I squirmed and whimpered with each twist and tug. With a slow grind of his hips, pressing his hardness exactly where I needed it, I shifted back and forth, matching his rhythm and adding to my misery.

Taking my lower lip between his, he sucked hard while continuing his other forms of torture below. My breaths came faster and his pace quickened, thrusting his erection over my sweat pants and creating delicious friction between us.

With his teeth nipping at one nipple and fingers tugging on the other, I crumbled beneath him, gasping for air as stars burst behind my closed lids. His deep, proud chuckle made a slow smile spread up my lips.

Tugging the sweat pants down my thighs, he tossed them and my underwear to the floor. My mind flipped to last night when he helped me get dressed, and now here he was ripping it all off.

“Last night,” I whispered. “Last night you took care of me.”

The soft lips working their way up my thigh paused. Looking down, I found confusion in his eyes.

“You’re mine to take care of, Lady. Never doubt that.” When he resumed his sucking up my inner thigh, I felt more than saw his lips spread in a smile. “This is my favorite way of taking care of you, just so you know.”

Closer and closer, his mouth moved toward my center. The ache that was tamed earlier had returned, causing a deep, wild throb with my rapid pulse. Everything faded to black when his lips wrapped around me, sucking my nub between his lips and lightly scraping his teeth down. I released the sheets that were balled in my hand to weave them through his hair, pushing and tugging him for more.

A quick pang of soreness hit as his finger slid in deep. His hand and mouth stilled.

“I’m fine,” I said, my voice shaking.

“Lady, if you’re sore from that”—concern laced his features as he stared where his finger had dove inside my body—“I’ll break you. I don’t want to hurt you.”

“Please, Cas,” I begged. Tugging on his hair, I pulled him up my body, putting his face inches from mine. “I need this. I need you.”

For a brief moment, I thought he’d say no. Panic set in at the idea of his rejection.

With a deep sigh of resignation, he turned to kiss the inside of my palm.

In awe, I studied every move of his muscled arms and abs as he pushed from the bed. After grabbing a condom from his duffel bag, he placed the wrapper between his teeth and tugged his shorts down. My eyes widened at the bulge restrained in his tight black boxer briefs.

Chewing on the edge of my thumb, I glanced up, only to find him already looking back with his face pinched like he was in pain.

“I’ll be fine,” I encouraged.

With a nod, his briefs hit the floor and he was standing stark naked before me. I held a breath, ready to fight back the inevitable panic attack. But it didn’t come. Instead, scanning every inch of the most masculine man I’d ever seen, Cas’s nakedness did the opposite. I needed him. Now.

The tear of the condom wrapper inched up the pulsing anticipation. Every part of me was ready for him, wanted him. Yesterday didn’t matter right now. The case, Benny, Sadie, John—nothing mattered except what was going on in this room. Us. Together.

Cas climbed up the bed, hovering over me with a lingering look of apprehension in his eyes.

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