Page 116 of Bitten & Burned

Not pressing, not assuming, or pushing. Just curling behind me, his chest to my back. One hand still in mine as he tucked his face into my neck. “May I hold you?” he asked softly.

I nodded, tears falling hot on my cheeks. “Please.”

He gathered me in without crowding, without squeezing. Just his presence. Just warmth. His fingers found my ribs, light and steady. The kind of touch that saidI’m not going anywhere.

We lay like that for a long time.

My heartbeat eventually slowed. I felt… calmer.

When I finally exhaled—reallyexhaled—his lips brushed my temple in the whisper of a kiss. Not hungry. Not leading anywhere. Just… there.

But I felt the shift. The shift between comfort and want. Between aching… andaching.

I turned in his arms, curling to face him. The mark on my thigh throbbed as I moved, a sharp reminder that pain was always waiting. But Cassian’s steadiness dulled it, if only for a moment.

Cassian didn’t ask. Didn’t assume. Just lifted his hand to tuck a strand of hair behind my ear, eyes meeting mine, memorizing the way the color shifted in them from one breath to the next.

I touched his jaw, my fingers lingering.

“I’m tired of always needing,” I whispered. “I want to give, too.”

“I know.”

“But I still do. Need.”

He nodded once. “So let me be what you need. Give me that.”

I didn’t speak. I didn’t have to.

I leaned in and kissed him—slow and uncertain at first, a question more than anything else.

Cassian answered it with a sigh against my mouth, tilting his head, deepening the kiss just enough to say yes.Yes, I’m here. Yes, I want this too.

His hand cupped my jaw, thumb brushing the corner of my mouth like he couldn’t quite believe he was allowed to touch me like this.

The bond stirred, humming warm and steady, echoing his restraint and reverence.

My fingers slid down the side of his neck, finding the warm hollow of his collarbone. His body was so solid, so real, and still he moved with the careful grace of a man who didn’t want to scare the moment away.

When our mouths parted, he rested his forehead against mine.

“You don’t have to do anything,” he said quietly.

“I know.”

“You can fall apart. I’ll hold all the pieces.”

“I know that too.” My hands found the edge of his shirt. “But right now, I don’t want to fall apart. I want to feel… something else.”

Cassian exhaled hard, like he’d been holding his breath. Maybe he had.

He let me lift his shirt.

He let me explore.

Warm skin. A dusting of hair across his chest. The slow and steady thrum of his pulse just beneath the surface.

When he kissed me again, it wasn’t quite so patient. His mouth lingered, then pressed deeper, and he drew back just enough to murmur, “I’ve been holding this back for weeks. Waiting for you to be ready. But now…” His lips brushed mine again, rougher this time, his breath hot against my cheek. “Now I don’t think I can keep pretending I don’t want you.”