“You’re doing it.”

That felt…

It felt…

Beautiful.

But it was not enough.

I put my hands to his cheeks again and pulled him away, tipping his face up to me as I did.

I then bent to him and pressed my lips to his.

They opened.

I slid my tongue inside.

When I did, Cassius fell back, taking me with him, then rolling so he was atop me.

My part, I found just then, was done.

He took over.

And what he did was what I would assume he intended to do the first time we joined.

It was slow.

Very.

It was reverent.

Startlingly.

And it was life-altering.

Completely.

And much time after it began, as his finger rolled my clit while his now midnight eyes stared into mine, and he slowly moved in and out of me, the room around us taken over by night and blanketed with stars, my head arched back, and I climaxed magnificently on a silent moan.

Not long after, when the strength and velocity of his thrusts increased, he did the same, but I heard his deep sigh in my ear when he did.

As usual, when he was done, he nearly instantly rearranged us, so I was on top.

This, I figured he did so I did not have to bear his weight.

This, I knew he did so his hands could roam my bare skin.

What they were doing now.

“Apparently, we can make love silently,” I muttered.

I felt his lips move where they were caressing my neck and I hoped it was in a smile.

“We’re going to be all right, Cass,” I promised.

His lips stopped moving altogether.

“The girls are going to be all right. It’s all going to be all right.”

He let his head fall to the mattress.

“We’ll all be all right,” I finished when I caught his eyes.

“I have never been all right, my lamb.”

Goddess, I hated that.

Hated it.

I gave him a soft smile while tugging on his beard and saying, “Well then, that time is nigh, don’t you think?”

He did not look convinced.

But he still said, “Yes.”

And in that moment, with that single word, I knew precisely why he said this.

Precisely why he did anything he did.

Because in that moment, I knew him.

He read bedtime stories.

And he knew Aelia loved chocolate pots.

He also knew, if Dora told him she was too old for stories, he should not press that.

Further, even if his woman was a warrior, if he thought she was in danger, he took hold of her and carried her from a battle in order get her as far away from that danger as he could manage.

Because Cassius Laird, Prince Regent of Airen, had lived for one thing before, it was just that that one thing was now plural.

He lived to take care of his girls.

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