Page 57 of Castor

His expression smoothed, as if he’d been worrying about it. “You don’t think it’s freaky?”

“Nope.” I smoothed the pad of my thumb across his bottom lip.

“Good. My people take a lot of honor in this form. It’s a balance of both worlds, the combination of human and dragon. Warriors fight like this. And when we mate, we take this form too.”

“Damn, I’d love to fuck you like this.” I ghosted my lips over his and lifted a hand to trace the soft curve of his horn. “I want to grip these as I pound you into the mattress. And I want you to claw the fuck out of my back with those sharp nails.”

“You want a lot of things.”

“Duh. I’m not the avatar of modesty. Greed all the way, baby.”

Kyo rolled his eyes. “You’re so annoying.” But then he nuzzled my cheek. He was quiet for several heartbeats before whispering, “I wish things were different.”

“Yeah.” My mood grew somber at the reminder. I rested my head on his. “Me too.”

“We probably shouldn’t do this anymore.” Even as he said the words, he held on to me tighter. “It’s already going to be hard saying goodbye to you, Red.”

Fuck. Just when I thought my heart couldn’t break any more, new fractures formed. How much more before there was nothing left?

“Your wedding to Ice Loser is in December, right?”

He snorted at the nickname for his future douchey husband and nodded.

“Well, it’s beginning of September now.” I leaned back to look at him. The sad look in his eyes mirrored the same sadness twisting through my chest. “That gives us three months.”

“And then what?” he asked. “We’ll part ways and never see each other again?”

“Either that or part ways now. Those are our only options here.”

“Well, those options fucking suck.” Kyo lightly traced the line of my collarbone with his nail. “Why can’t we just stay here in this cove? We could spend our days fucking, swimming, and fucking some more. Just us in our own little paradise.”

“Paradise is for the dead.” I cupped the side of his neck. “For the next three months, I say we live.”

Kyo snorted. “God, you’re so corny.”

“You like it.”

“Maybe.”

He joined our lips then, and I tried not to think about the future. Tried not to think about anything but how he felt against me, heart to heart, our breaths shared.

There were so many things to focus on: Asa and his army, the possible end of the world if we failed to stop him. But the only thing that mattered to me in that cove was the softness of Kyo’s lips and how I dreaded that fateful day in December when he left me.

I wished it would never come.

***

“And after I killed it, another shade came at me from behind,” Gray said over the phone, talking so fast I was having trouble keeping up. “I flipped it to the ground karate-style and jabbed it in the throat! But then a sleepy spell hit. Galen had to carry me home ’cause I couldn’t stay awake to fly. Then, I got to cuddle with Simon. He’s so soft. How’s Greece? I’m sad I’m not with you guys. I wanna go to the beach and burrow in the warm sand and take a nap. Maybe find a crab and take him home with me. Raiden would probably eat him though.”

I laughed. “Yeah, no doubt about it.” I stared over the island from my balcony view. “Things are good here. Don’t worry about us.”

After Kyo and I left the cove, we’d returned to the villa for lunch, and then Gray had called when I’d gone up to the room to wash up. I couldn’t wait until we got our luggage and I could put on fresh clothes.

“Oh,” Gray said. “Galen wants to talk to you.”

“Hey, Cas,” a deeper voice said into the phone. “Do you think this Baxter guy can be trusted?”

Leave it to Galen to be suspicious. But he had reason to be. We learned long ago that we could only trust each other. Lazarus had drilled that into our heads.