I shook my head. “But it feels like you have—like I remember you calling me that.”
“I did while you were in stasis,” he said, a muscle flexing along his jaw. “What just happened?”
“I don’t know.” I pressed my hand to my chest, feeling my fast heartbeat. “I got a sudden cold chill, and it felt like…something shifted.”
“Shifted?” he repeated.
“Like something shifted in the realm—the realms,” I tried to explain. “I know that doesn’t make sense, but I got this feeling of…”
“Dread?” he answered for me.
“Yes.” My gaze flicked up to his. “I’m guessing you felt that, too?”
“It was impossible not to.” His eyes searched mine. “You don’t know what caused it?”
“No.”
He slid a hand up my arm. “And you don’t feel it anymore?”
“It’s gone,” I told him. “I have no idea what just happened.”
“I think…” Casteel’s throat worked on a swallow. “Fuck, Poppy, you scared the shit out of me.”
My eyes widened as I realized he’d been shielding his emotions. I felt the crack then—the bitter and cold bite of fear.
“But you’re okay?” he asked, cupping my cheeks and tilting my head back. “You don’t have a headache or anything?”
“No,” I assured him. “It’s probably just some aftereffects of being in stasis.”
Relief flashed in his eyes before he closed them. “Gods, Poppy. I’ve been so afraid. So fucking terrified this whole time that you wouldn’t come back to me. And I thought—fuck, I thought it was happening again.”
My heart clenched. “Casteel—”
His lips closed over mine, silencing my words. He kissed me then like a man who had spent an eternity fearing he would never be able to do so. It was a wrecking, desperate kind of kiss.
Casteel broke away, breathing heavily as he rested his forehead against mine. I could feel his entire body trembling, and…
I tasted the dull bitterness of his lingering fear, which sent apprehension buzzing through me. With everything Casteel had been through, all he had survived, he rarely felt fear. There was even a time when I didn’t think he wascapableof such an emotion.
But he felt fear when it came to me. When I was gravely wounded in New Haven and when I left with Lord Chaney in hopes of preventing more heartless and senseless killing. I’d tasted his fear as he held me among the ruins of Irelone. And just now, he’d kissed me as if trying to convey all his anxiety. Hisfear.
What in the realms had happened to cause that? It was hard to focus when every breath I took was filled with his lush scent.
His next words didn’t help.
“There is so much shit we should be doing or talking about right now, but I need you,” he breathed, the words melding with a broken breath that seemed to have been pulled from the depths of his being. “I need you more than anything. Can I have you? Please?”
His desperate plea, spoken in a voice rough with desire, shook me. He was right. I had no idea what’d just happened or if it really had to do with me coming out of stasis. And therewasso much to discuss. But none of that was important. Only he was, and he needed me.
Clasping his cheeks, I moved his head so our eyes met. “Always and forever.”
That rough, needy sound came from him again, but this time, it was part snarl. Then his mouth was on mine once more, and there was something raw in the way he handled me then—something infinitelymore. Our lips smashed together. Our teeth—ourfangs—clashed. My senses were spinning as he wrapped his arm around my waist and lifted me, deepening the kiss.
One second, he held me against him. The next, I was lying on the bed with him hovering above me. Then, his mouth returned to mine. The sharp edge of his fang grazed my lower lip, causing my breath to catch. I could feel him through his breeches, thick and hard against my hip. Desire flared to a point where it bordered on pain, stroking the humming essence in my chest.
A raw, needy growl came from Casteel as his fingers tangled in my hair, our kisses coming in short, rough bursts. Each sweep of his tongue ignited sparks throughout my body—sparks that would surely consume both of us if we ever lost control.
“I should be taking this slow,” he said, his voice thicker and deeper as he kissed my cheek—the scar there.
