“It feels like I did.”
“You didn’t.”
Guilt still gnawed at me as my gaze swept over his features once more and then lowered. It was hard to look at the angry wound on his throat, knowing I had caused it—
Ihadcaused that. With myfangs.
I stiffened, then jerked back again, catching him off guard. This time, I plopped down on my ass and lifted my fingers to my mouth. Good gods, I actually had fangs. They had come in after I—
After I ended the Blood Queen. Isbeth. Mymother. My throat dried. While my head was still a bit of a disjointed mess with memories forming with hazy edges, the terror in her face and her voice was all too clear as I broke her bones and…shattered her spine before she took her last breath. Casteel had wanted me to look away, but I hadn’t. Maybe I should’ve.
Chest squeezing, I shut those thoughts down. I wasn’t ready toreallygo there.
“Poppy?”
I glanced up at Casteel, picking up on the concern in his voice. “I forgot,” I said, poking at my teeth. “I have fangs.” I dropped my hand.
Casteel stared at me for a moment, and then he let out a deep, throaty laugh.
“What?” I asked.
“Gods, I’ve missed you.” He closed the distance between us in one fluid motion, his palms sliding up my bare arms. The rough calluses from years of handling a sword caused a wave of heat to surge through my body as energy danced from his skin to mine. He tugged me onto my knees and against his hard chest.
“Poppy, I…” he said, his voice straining. I felt his hand tremble as he cupped my cheek.
I searched his gaze, feeling tangy anguish with a touch of bitterness brushing against my senses. My heart turned over heavily. “Cas—?”
His lips met mine, and the knot of turmoil within him seemed to loosen, unraveling slowly. The kisses were slow and infinitely tender but no less fierce than the deeper ones that bordered on madness. A tremor swept through me as my bloodheated, stirring the essence beneath my skin. The spicy, smoky flavor of his lust mingled with the sweet and rich taste of his love as he circled an arm around my waist. He deepened the kiss, his tongue dancing with mine and then flicking over the tip of my fang.
I gasped as an intense, nerve-frying pulse of red-hot pleasure shot from there straight to my core. My gods. Would it always feel likethat? With just a touch of his tongue to a fang? My eyes closed, and I wrapped an arm around his shoulder, burying my fingers in his hair.
He pulled me tightly to him, and I felt the length of him hard and thick against my belly.
Groaning, he broke the kiss. His head dropped to the crook of my neck. “Gods, Poppy.” He breathed in deeply. “You have no idea…” He kissed the skin next to the sleeve of my gown. “How much self-control it’s taking for me not to get between those pretty thighs of yours and then inside you.”
A surge of liquid heat pounded through me, gathering in that area he had just spoken of.
His lips grazed the slope of my neck. “I want to…” he whispered, nudging my head back, his mouth traveling up the column of my throat. “I want to fuck you until neither of us knows where we end and the other begins.”
A heady flush stained my skin as muscles low in my stomach coiled. My heart pounded. “I want that, too.”
Casteel’s hand slid up my back as he pressed a kiss to my neck. “That’s not helping when I’m trying to behave myself.”
I shivered as I felt his warm breath against my pulse. “Why would you do such an out-of-character thing?”
Casteel’s chuckle was low and smoky. “Because I’m trying to be mature.” He fisted his hand in my braid and pulled my head back more.
The hold was possessive. Dominant. And the essence flared inside me, almost as if it were its own entity, urging me to push back—to take control. But at the same time, his actions sent a wanton bolt of heated desire through me.
His chest rumbled against mine as he no doubt picked up on the scent of my desire. “Poppy,” he growled. He nipped at my skin, dragging a sharp whimper from me. “I’m trying to be responsible.”
The ache between my thighs pulsed. “It really doesn’t seem that way.”
“I know.” His hold on my braid loosened. “I’m really bad at behaving.”
“It’s one of the many things I love about you.”
“I do remember a time when you found that personality trait of mine to be quite infuriating,” he noted.
