Chapter 129

Chapter 129

I, of course, understood why Cassis felt the need to say that. So while caressing his face, I gave him an answer to reaffirm my conviction as well.

“Yes, I know. After all, he isn’t really Achille.” It was neither a lie nor something I was saying simply to put his mind at ease. “You don’t have to worry. I’m fine.”

Once was more than enough as far as misplaced sympathy went. I would not err like that again. More than anything else, Cassis seemed worried that I might get hurt emotionally. He knew all too well what Achille had meant to me when he was still alive.

While living at the Black mansion, I had to hide the feelings still residing in my heart for my brother, but I also didn’t want to reveal that I still possessed that sort of sentiment. The difference in Pedelian was that I felt no need to hide things from him or anyone else, which made me quite happy.

“Cassis...” In the past I had been reluctant to appear vulnerable, even to him, but not anymore. “Do you have any idea how happy you made me by coming to my rescue?”

It finally occurred to me that it wasn’t that I had become weak, but that I no longer had to shoulder the burden of every hardship or sadness on my own anymore.

“Thank you so much.”

Then I gently brought my lips to his for our breaths to mingle sweetly in the encounter. I inhaled deeply as if it was the best way to collect his innermost fragrance. He then pulled me toward him with his hand clutching the nape of my neck. His tongue searched deep into my mouth.

As our kiss deepened, a fleeting thought that I had forgotten something played at my thoughts. However, the intensity of our passion soon overshadowed everything else. Before long, I was on top of his lap. Whether he pulled me onto him or I had climbed up is hard to say, but in the grand scheme of things, it really didn’t matter. His hand began to trace the curves of my body while I inched even further up his lap to close the minute distance between us.

“Ahhh...”

A soft moan escaped my lips the moment our chests collided, which caused Cassis to go completely still. I imagine he sensed something different in my tone, so he withdrew his lips in order to stare into my eyes.

“Don’t worry. That wasn’t due to my injuries.”

Despite my explanation, he continued to frown. “Are you sure?”

His gaze was so full of doubt. I mean, I really was fine, but obviously, he was worried the sound was the result of a wound I had sustained during my exchange with Nix at the Gold manor. I stroked his eyebrows in an attempt to straighten the tension and his frown.

Once that seemed to thaw him slightly, I offered him a small smile. “But if you’re really that worried, why not see for yourself?”

His breath seemed to falter for a moment as I pulled him even closer. I had thrown a light garment over my shoulders after stepping out of the bath but was now pulling his hand toward the knot holding my makeshift gown together loosely.

He squinted for a moment as if he was unsure whether following through was the best idea. I glanced down and noticed the bones and veins on the back of his hand were more prominent than they had been only seconds prior. He stared at me as if at war with the fire growing behind his gaze. The tension only seemed to thicken the air between us.

I guided our hands to move as one, which resulted in the knot slowly loosening until it was untied completely and one side of the gown slid off to reveal my shoulder. I continued to hold his hand and guide it toward the front of the garment in order to expose my bare skin once again.

However, right at that moment he stopped his hand from moving any further. He maintained a hold of the fabric, but I noticed his breath had become abnormally shallow. The way he eyed me suggested that he had located something peculiar. After a quick glance downward, I realized what I had failed to explain to him.

“It’s a gem imbued with sorcery. I thought it best to put it there since I couldn’t think of a better place to hide it.”

He continued to stare at the pinky-sized ruby piercing. I had fooled Nix into believing that my power was innate, but the truth was the tiny gem had enabled me to deflect his spells. It was a simple amulet that caused the caster of any minor spell to suffer its effects instead of their target.

Grizelda had sent me the charmed earring to wear as a decoy while I hid the gem with the true power as a body piercing. But it was no longer any good to me since I was safely back at the Blue castle. Plus, all of its power had been almost entirely used up. I had actually been meaning to take it off.

Cassis continued to peer at the glittering ruby against my supple flesh, then placed his hand over it. I squirmed slightly, which seemed to pique his curiosity further. “So it doesn’t hurt when I touch it?”

“Not at all.”

It was true. There was a sensation, but it wasn’t in any way painful. Perhaps since my recovery speed had been elevated, my entire body felt perfectly fine. But alas! While I had thought he was simply curious about if the gem was causing me pain, he had begun to trace circles around it with his finger. He was ensuring to stimulate the most sensitive areas at that, so I almost immediately forgot anything else I might have thought important to say.

His strokes were featherlight and so soft that I felt the urge to giggle. All of his attention seemed concentrated on the movement of his finger, but before long he replaced his hand with his face! Before I could register what was happening, he was brushing his face from top to bottom against my pierced skin. When he finally did look up at me again, there was an unmistakable intense, raw, passion-filled gaze staring back at me.

“I wasn’t planning to today, but...” His voice had become husky to the point of a low growl and grazed my eardrums. It was a clear signal of what he wanted most at that moment.

“Well...” I smiled coquettishly as I spoke. “The truth is I did.”

I proceeded to bite his lower lip, which had the intended effect of causing him to groan in a most satisfying way. No longer able to hold himself back, he pounced on me and practically devoured my lips. His tongue snaked its way deep into my mouth where it began to twirl itself around mine. As it did so, we made hollow, yet wet-sounding echoes into one another.

Then my body was suddenly in mid-air as Cassis swept me into his arms. We had been on my sofa all that time, but I suspected he was spiriting me away toward the bed. But I was wrong. He instead placed me down right there on the large table that was two steps away and where we had just had our meal. With my legs dangling over the edge of the table, he folded his body into mine with ease.

In truth, I was a bit surprised by his choice of location for our lovemaking, but I was clearly the only one. He swept up the part of my gown covering my thighs as if he couldn’t afford to waste time on superfluous thoughts like the unorthodox surface we were on.

I sighed deeply as my tongue was finally set free for a moment. He nibbled on both my upper and lower lips, before proceeding to my chin, then sent his lips on an expedition even further down. All the while, his hands had succeeded in completely removing the last half of the flimsy fabric concealing my bare flesh.

In that moment, it would have been wholly impossible to identify who each hot breath belonged to as they rose up into the air. As he stroked the inside of my thighs, his lips seemed to be searching out the ruby piercing.

“Oh! Cassis... Oh my...!”

Obviously, I couldn’t help but moan once he finally found it and began to slowly lick around the crimson stone. Then, if that wasn’t enough, he sucked the entire jewel into his mouth with all the surrounding flesh. My back reflexively arched so much that I could feel my long hair brush the tabletop, but apart from that I still couldn’t move. His tight grip around my waist was inescapable.

“It would seem that accessory... excites you quite a bit.”

I had managed to make the observation between gasps and while my fingers were tangled in his silver locks. It was a statement, but it was also a question in a sense since I had been slightly taken aback and amused by his attention to it. He finally pulled his mouth away from my breast before lying me down more properly.

“I simply find you irresistible, thus I am excited.” He tossed my gown to the floor as if the very sight of it reminded him of the urgency with which he felt the need to ravage me. “There is no other reason apart from the fact that you are you.”

His brilliant, golden gaze locked onto mine, which caused a sudden rush of heat to rise up inside me and warm my cheeks.

I wouldn’t doubt that Cassis Pedelian was a musician given the way he handled me that evening. I had become his instrument as he continued to touch every inch of my being with expert precision. By the time he had finally made his way into me, I found myself digging my nails deep into his back.

Pleasure crashed over me with such intensity from above that I had entirely forgotten about the cold, hard surface beneath me. Luckily, Cassis had more sense than most and ferried us toward my bed before long. There we spent what felt like a blissful eternity together.