They drove the rest of the way like that—Cass drifting in and out of lucidity, each cramp hitting harder than the last. Riot talked him through it, stroked his hair, rubbed his back, all while his cock throbbed and leaked and ached with denied release.
Mine,he thought, during every quiet moment between cramps.Mine. Mine. Mine.
And underneath that:I’m going to burn Elysian Dynamics to the fucking ground for what they did to him.
Chapter seventeen
Sweat Lodge Under the Skin
Cass
Thedreamwasfragments.Flashes. Whispers.
Riot’s hands on him. The pressure building toward something terrifying and inevitable. That climbing sensation from the stairwell—winding tighter and tighter, his body clenching around Riot’s finger, chasing something just out of reach…
In the dream, Riot’s voice was honey and gravel, and Cass was arching into touches that felt like revelation. His body was doing things and for once it didn’t feel like failure. It felt like a tickleand an ache and itch being scratched and he wanted to scratch it just a little harder…
He woke gasping.
But the dream didn’t stop.
For a terrible, wonderful, confusing moment, Cass couldn’t separate what was real from what he’d been dreaming. There was heat everywhere—his skin burning, his core aching, slick pooling beneath him—and there was Riot, surrounding him completely.
“Riot?”
“Shh.” There was a hot gust against Cass’s neck, followed by the wet drag of a tongue over his pulse point. “You were making sounds in your sleep. I wanted to help.”
He was in Riot’s lap still, but everything had shifted while he slept. His robes had been pushed aside, and Riot was touching him, rubbing his palm between Cass’s legs, touching the hardness that didn’t seem to want to go away. Riot’s hand slipped further beneath him, his rough hands gentling around the bandages on Cass’s thighs. Cass drew in a sharp breath, wrapped his arms around Riot’s shoulders and glanced down between them while he tried to find words his mouth wanted to say.
Oh.
Riot had undone his own pants too. There was less fabric between them now—just the thin material of underwear and the hard, hot length of Riot pressing against him.
“Feel that?” Riot’s voice had dropped into something dark and promising. His teeth scraped along Cass’s neck. “Feel how hard you make me? Been like this for hours, princess. Since the stairwell. Since I had my finger inside you and you clenched so sweet and tight—”
His fingertip pressed against Cass’s entrance—just the barest pressure, just enough to make Cass’s whole body seize up.
“I could slip inside right now,” Riot whispered. “You’re so wet I wouldn’t even need to work for it. I could slide two fingers in and you’d justtakethem, wouldn’t you?”
“I—” Cass didn’t know what he was going to say. His hips were moving without his permission, grinding forward against Riot’s hardness, and then back against those teasing fingers.
“That’s it.” Riot’s other hand had found Cass’s hip, guiding his movements into a rhythm that made the hollow ache pulse. “You’re so good for me, Cass. So fucking good.”
The words should have been shameful. Theywereshameful and unenlightened. But Cass’s body didn’t seem to care about enlightenment at the moment. “Please,” he heard himself beg. “Please, I need—”
“I know what you need.” Riot’s finger pressed harder, and Cass felt himself start to give way, felt his body opening—
“RIOT.” Lilac slammed on the breaks, jolting them both forward. Everything stopped. “Let me see both hands.Now.”
Slowly, Riot withdrew his hand.
The loss was devastating.
“Fuck,” Riot breathed. When Cass finally looked at him, his eyes were glowing brighter than they had been the whole car ride. He blinked a few times, the gold flickering. “Fuck, I’m sorry, I didn’t—”
“Save it.” Lilac’s eyes met his in the rearview mirror, and her expression was complicated—angry, yes, but also something like understanding underneath. “Get him situated and get your head on straight.”
“Princess.” Riot bit his lip as he adjusted Cass’s robes with shaking hands, his eyes dimming and his cheeks flushed. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have—while you were sleeping, I shouldn’t have—”
