Page 38 of Dangerous Heat

FREYA

Nolan didn’t show his face again.

We saw Amabella and Clement and the guards who brought us fresh sheets. The bed was still damp with the proof of our tryst, but we would have to manage. Curled up with each other, Caspian nuzzled against me and stole all the closeness he’d been wanting, and my Omega side preened. Maybe my Omega side was a little too excited about taking a knot for the first time, because I felt the familiar warmth and itch of an upcoming heat. I’d known it was coming, but Caspian had sped up its arrival with his vigorous fucking.

I still had a day or two until it hit for real, so I could worry later.

When Caspian had finished sucking a fourth hickey into my skin, I pushed him back from me and moved to hover over him again. We were both still naked and this position was where I’d taken his knot, the memory and proximity bringing a flush to his cheeks.

“I’m going to have Shan punish you for thinking I’d be willing to kill you,” I murmured, leaning down to nip my teeth against his neck.

He whined, his cock going hard beneath me. I ignored it. “Shan is already going to punish me,” he said, biting his lip. “I didn’t tell him about what happens when I kill people. He’s going to be furious. Not to mention me feeding from Nolan.”

Ah. Nolan. He was a problem I wasn’t keen on dealing with at the moment. I knew where Caspian had been coming from, and why he’d been drawn to the man while frantic with need. The vampire was far from what I’d expected and his cinnamon pastry scent made having him close feel like being in the embrace of a welcoming home.

However, we would have been better off if none of us had acted on our budding attraction. Yet another detail I’d deal with later.

“Why didn’t you tell him?” I asked. “That man is obsessed with you, he’d be happy to feed you as much as you need.”

His shoulders moved up and down in a shrug. “I don’t know.”

My hands slid to his throat, my delicate, long fingers making quite the vision wrapped around his tan skin. I didn’t put any pressure, but his breath hitched all the same. “Lover boy, ‘I don’t know’ isn’t an answer.”

He avoided eye contact, fingers clenching on the blankets, and I sighed. The pressure I put on the sides of his neck brought his attention back to me. “He’s going to want an explanation,” I said. “And he’ll be rougher than I’m being until you give him one. I want to one, too. Keeping something like that to yourself is asking for trouble.”

“I didn’t want him to think I’m a freak.”

Fingers loosening their grip, gentle choking turned into a light caress. “You’re not.”

“Yes, I am. I’ve never heard of anyone else having a reaction like that to killing people. It’s terrifying, because if I get to the point where I’m feral, it’s like I don’t have room for anything else in my brain. All that exists is a desperate need to kill and regain the high I’d gotten, but one kill isn’t enough to sate me. I keep going and going until I’ve snuffed out five or ten or twenty lives, and then I can calm again.”

“You’re not a freak, Cas. You’re unique, and I get that it’s not a kind of unique you want to be, but if you accept our help we’ll make sure you never have to feel out of control again.”

“I wish I was normal. Just an incubus or just a fae. I don’t care which.”

“I know.”

Settling myself back beside him, I pressed myself to his side. This kind of touch was a guilty pleasure for me. I shouldn’t be doing it. The situation we were in didn’t have room for affection, not when any of us could be killed by Kylan before we were done. Now he’d told me he loved me, though, I’d be showering him in affection. I wouldn’t be able to stop myself, and if anyone died during this fiasco I would make damn sure it wasn’t him. “Emmett would have helped you out too, and he seems a lot more open-minded than Shan. Did he know about you?”

“He had… suspicions. I asked some questions a while ago and he picked up on it being more than scientific curiosity. Em doesn’t push. He waits for me to go to him.”

“You’ll need someone like that, being with Shan and I,” I said, laughing. “If you haven’t realized, I push.”

“Does this mean you’re, uh, OK with how things are right now?”

“I’d prefer to not be imprisoned in a nine square metre cage, honestly.”

“That’s not what I meant, sweetness,” Cas said with a chuckle.

I rolled my eyes and traced my fingers down his chest. “Your relationships are up to you. I’ve got nothing against Emmett. Hell, I know nothing about him except that he has white knight syndrome and enjoys helping damsels in distress. I was drawn to him when we first met. If he’d come back in another night instead of following me into the alley, we might have ended up like I did with you and Shan.”

“Lying to each other and trading barbs?”

“Flirting was more what I was getting at. But yeah, also lying to each other.”

We went silent, fingers idly brushing against each other’s skin, until we were abruptly joined by a fluffy orange guest. Caspian let out a brief scream as he bolted up and pushed away from where Oswald had manifested. The guards peered into the room before rolling their eyes and turning back to face the hall.

“If you ever leave me alone like that again, I’m going to claw your eyes out,”Oswald said dryly, licking his paw and glaring.

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