Fuck.
My heart.
Her voice.
It calmed me.
Lowering my hands, I curled an arm around her back, soaking in her warmth and softness. “I missed you.”
She wiggled in closer, sliding a leg between mine. “Did you talk with your father?”
“Long enough to tell him that whatever he felt he needed to say, it had to wait.” I tangled my fingers in her hair. “He wasn’t happy to hear that, but he backed off.”
“So, you didn’t really talk to him at all.”
“I don’t want whatever he has to say in my head right now,” I admitted. Nothing he could say at the moment would make me understand why he and my mother had kept the Blood Queen’s identity from us. “Not when there’s everything else—finding Malec. Meeting with Isbeth. Ending the war.”
Her hand slid over my chest. “I can understand that.” She yawned softly. “It’s why I didn’t ask Malik any more questions about that night in Lockswood or about Coralena and Leo.”
I glanced down at the top of her head. She wasn’t ready for whatever Malik had to share. Just as I wasn’t when it came to my brother and our father. “You should go back to sleep.”
“I will.” But that hand of hers drifted down my stomach.
“That doesn’t feel like you’re going back to sleep.”
Poppy didn’t say anything for a few moments. “Are you okay?”
Had my nightmare reached her? Or had she woken and simply sensed the lingering mess of emotions? Closing my eyes, I took a deep breath. When I didn’t answer, when I couldn’t, she turned her head, pressing a kiss to my chest.
“You will be,” she whispered.
“Yeah, I will be.”
“I know.” Her hand slid under the blanket.
My entire body jerked as her fingers grazed the tip of my already hardening cock and she rose halfway.
She didn’t give me a chance to say another word. Not that I was complaining. Her lips found mine, and her kiss was a sweet sweep. My arm around her tightened as she parted my lips with her tongue. The kiss went on until I throbbed for her.
Gods, I always ached for her.
“Cas,” she whispered, closing her fingers around my dick. “I need you.”
I shuddered at her words—at the truth. It was I who needed her, and she knew that—knew that her touch, her closeness, was grounding. A reminder that I was here.
“Now,” she demanded.
Her bold order brought forth a chuckle as I cupped her cheek. “What is it you want?”
“You know,” she whispered against my lips.
“Maybe.” I slid my hand down her throat, past those sensitive, healing bite marks, and over her breast where her nipple pebbled beneath the cotton of the robe. I kept going, over the soft swell of her belly and then between her legs. “But you should tell me.” I brushed the backs of my fingers over her damp heat, smiling when she moaned. “Just in case.”
Her grip on my dick tightened. “I want you to touch me.” She rested her forehead against mine. “Please.”
“You never have to say please.” I drew my finger along the very center of her. “But it does sound so pretty on your lips.”
Poppy’s breath caught as I slipped a finger inside her. She nipped at my chin, causing my entire body to jerk once more. I thrust my finger deeper. “Like this?”
“Yes.”
I kissed her, easing my finger in and out. “And like this?” My voice was rough, heavy.
Her back arched as her hand began moving in time with my shallow thrusts. Her hips began to move. “Mm-hmm.”
Smoothing my thumb over her clit, I marveled at the way her entire body tensed—how her hand stopped moving. I grinned. “And what about that?”
She moaned, and it was a sound I could listen to for an eternity. “I really like that,” she said, but her hand left my cock and folded around my wrist, pulling my touch from her. “But I want more.”
Poppy moved then, letting go of my hand and easing onto her elbows. The robe, half-untied, slipped down her arms. Never in my life had I been more grateful for the enhanced eyesight she was so envious of.
Rosy breasts thrust up, their tips puckered. Her cheeks were flushed, legs spread wide, open and inviting. My godsdamn mouth watered at the sight of her. I rose halfway. “You’re beautiful.” I took in every inch of exposed flesh. “You know what I don’t understand?”
“What?”
“How you don’t spend all day with those pretty fingers between those pretty thighs.” I slid a hand under the robe, gripping her hip. “That’s what I would do if I were you.”