“You were mean.”
“It was necessary.”
“How do you figure?”
“How else am I supposed to help you?” Cassius leaned up on his elbows. “If I don’t allow you to see the darkest parts of yourself?”
“That’s what you want? To see my darkness?”
“No.” His eyes flashed. “I teach you how to fight the darkness—so you can recognize the light.”
My breath hitched.
Warmth trickled throughout my chest as I stared at his mouth. His eyes gave nothing away—and everything at the same time. He kept his expression indifferent, yet I could hear his heart race.
It sounded like mine felt.
I pressed a hand to his chest.
He covered the hand with his.
With a sigh I leaned down and pressed a kiss to his cheek, then brushed my lips against his mouth.
He didn’t kiss me back.
Rejection washed over me. Obviously I’d read the situation completely wrong. His heart was racing but not for me.
“Don’t.” His hoarse voice rattled my confidence even more. “Don’t kiss me—not unless you mean it.”
“What?”
“Kiss me when you’re calm… not when you’ve just come down from what any human would consider the ultimate adrenaline high. Then you’ll mean it. But don’t kiss me out of curiosity, out of thankfulness, or even out of attraction. It doesn’t work that way.”
Ashamed, I looked down, unable to keep eye contact because I hated that he was right. I loved the man.
But he was right.
“And anytime you’d like to get off of me that would be great,” he finished, grinning. “Because as much as I’d like to compliment you on your lithe body—you’re about two minutes away from crushing my liver.”
With a scowl I jumped off him, but when he tried to follow, I pushed him back onto the bed.
He grunted and tumbled over the other side.
I smiled to myself and started walking toward the door. “Hurry up, human. We don’t have all day.”
“You forget,” he said from the floor. “You may be a Dark One, but you gave up your immortality the day you saved my life.”
“I’d conveniently forgotten that part, since it was magically given back to me when you disappeared.”
“I haven’t… forgotten.” Cassius reached for my arm and led me out of the room. “Now, I think I need to eat before we begin.”
“How do you think you need to eat? You’re either hungry or you’re not.”
“I think this pain is hunger.” Cassius rubbed his stomach with one hand and frowned. “And that bird looked delicious.”
“Okay…” I patted him on the back, “Humans these days don’t have to shoot their own birds, let’s just ask Mason to cook something, he’s probably bored to tears anyway.”
We walked by the window.