Cass emerged from the bathroom, tucking a black towel in around her breasts, and stopped. Her pale blue eyes lifted to meet his across the room, a small smile curling her lips, drawing him to her. He crossed the room and feathered his fingers down her jaw, eased her head back and dropped a kiss on her lips.
She made a small noise of appreciation. “I could definitely get used to this.”
When he went to kiss her again, she pressed her palms to his bare chest, her touch light but commanding. He looked down into her eyes and sighed as he caught the question in them.
“Ares offered to send a rescue team. He thought maybe you were holding me against my will.” He meant it to sound teasing, but her beautiful face blackened and sparks lit her eyes.
“All of your brothers think so ill of me.” She twisted away from him and her shoulders lifted in a soft sigh.
“Not true.” He shook his head when she cast him a glance that said it was. “They’re just being protective. It’s what brothers do.”
The light faded from her eyes and she looked down at her feet. “I wouldn’t know.”
“You don’t have any siblings?” When she hesitated to answer that question, a crinkle forming between her fine black eyebrows, he added, “Do you have any family?”
A tiny shake of her head.
She tried to smile, but it faltered, and gods, it broke his heart to see it and feel the shift in her mood. He hadn’t meant to hurt her with that question, with talking about his brothers so casually. If he had known it was a sore subject for her, he would have kept his big mouth shut.
“Eric felt like family,” she whispered, attempting another smile.
Her eyes glittered with emotions as she finally looked at him, with tears that tore at him, had him closing the gap between them again and wrapping his arms around her. He had been jealous of Eric before, too wrapped up in his own feelings to notice how badly hers had been hurt by his death.
“Sorry,” he muttered and stroked his fingers down her damp hair.
He pressed a kiss to it and cursed when he left frost blooming on the wet strands. He tried to pull back, but she wrapped her arms around his waist, pinning him to her.
“Don’t,” she murmured, clutching him so tightly that the ache in his heart worsened. “The spell will kick in. Don’t let me go.”
He didn’t intend to. Not now. Not ever.
He stroked her hair, caressed her shoulders, felt strangely vulnerable as he held her like this, as if he was the one who was hurting. Maybe it was seeing Cass, his indomitable sorceress, brought so low and desperate for someone to hold her together, for him to hold her together, that made him feel that way. He couldn’t remember ever being needed like this.
Daimon stood there, holding her, giving her the moment she needed and wishing there was something more he could do for her.
He pressed another kiss to her hair and murmured against it, “I don’t know anything about your situation, but you have family, Cass.”
She dipped her head, released him and brought her right hand up to her face, her actions hidden by her fall of black hair. When she straightened, her eyes were red, but she had erased all trace of her tears.
Almost all of them anyway.
He lifted his hand and caught one glistening teardrop on his index finger, stared at it as it froze into a perfectly clear crystal of ice that glittered like a diamond.
“The coven—” she started.
He shook his head. “I meant Marinda. Marinda is your family. I didn’t get to choose my family, but if I had been able to choose it, like you were able to choose Eric and Marinda, I probably would have chosen my brothers. Or maybe subbed a few out. They can drive me crazy at times. I’m not saying this well. I just wanted to say that you got to pick your family and I think you chose pretty damn good. I can see Marinda means a lot to you.”
Cass nodded. Smiled. “She’s like a sister, and a daughter. I’ve known her from before she was born and I watched her grow up. I learned so much about what it was like to be a real family from her, or at least I thought I did. Coming here… meeting you and your brothers… it’s made me realise I didn’t really know what a family was.”
“Your coven isn’t like a family?”
She shook her head, frowned and then nodded. “It is. It is my family, and it’s dear to me, but it’s just… different.”
Warmth shone in her eyes, backing up her words, making him see that she meant them and that her coven was dear to her, important and necessary. He wanted to probe more so he could understand what was different about her coven that made her feel she had never really known what a family was like, but she drew down a breath, sighed it out and tilted her head up.
“I had an idea when I was in the shower.”
He smiled. “Did it involve me being in the shower too?”
A pretty blush stained her cheeks and she pushed his chest with her right hand. “No. Yes… but this idea came after that.”
He slipped his arm around her waist and tugged
