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“What are you doing here?” I asked, starting the walk home.
It was after two in the morning, the sky a deep navy blue except for the small patches of stars peeking out from behind the clouds. Caspian came up beside me and slid his hand into mine, swinging them gently back and forth as we walked. I needed to pull away, but I couldn’t.
I’d missed him more than I had any right to.
“I want to walk you home.”
“I can walk by myself.”
“You’re in danger, though. I’d prefer if you had some company.”
If the company was anyone other than him, I would have told them to fuck right off. Shan included. But in Caspian’s case, I knew there were no ulterior motives. He was being sweet and fulfilling his own need for touch. Things had been tense between him and Shan in the VIP lounge today and I had a feeling the strained relationship with me had something to do with it.
We walked in silence through the alleys and onto the side streets until a few minutes later, when we were outside the front door of my building. Reluctantly, he dropped my hand and stepped back. His eyes were wide, and he looked like a lost puppy, desperate for attention. Sighing, I grabbed him by the arm and pulled him through the lobby door.
“Freya?”
“You’re staying with me tonight.”
He stuttered a few words that made little sense but stopped when we got into the elevator. His fingers rubbed against my upper thigh in a slow, calm motion. I doubted he knew he was doing it. He was simply satisfying his urge to touch.
We entered my apartment, and I glanced around for Ozzy, but he wasn’t anywhere nearby. He’d vanished when Shan had. Likely following him to see if he met with Jude again. I would find out in the morning if that was the case. Could he be trusted or not? If I couldn’t trust Shan, trusting Cas would be a mistake.
Unfortunately, I already did. More than I’d ever trusted anyone else who wasn’t a blood relative or Ozzy, anyway.
“I’m surprised Shan didn’t turn this place upside down when he was here,” Cas said, tapping on an empty patch of counter top beside my kitchen sink. There wasn’t much space. The kitchen island was much tidier.
“What do you mean?”
“He hates big messes like this. Kitchen messes especially.”
I stiffened, glancing at the piles of dirty dishes. My dishwasher sat, closed and empty, in the island. “It’s not that messy,” I said defensively.
Caspian laughed. “I agree. I lived in an absolute hovel of a home at one point, which was much worse. Some dishes at the bottom of the pile had mould growing on them. Shan went green. Nearly threw up. I think that was when he decided he had to take care of me because I clearly wasn’t doing well at it myself.”
Had my dishes gotten that bad at one point or another? Yes. Was I going to mention that? Absolutely not.
“And he takes care of you now? Isn’t he too overbearing?”
Stepping from my kitchen to my living room, Cas laid on the couch, stretching out on one side. He pulled a pillow from the corner and laid his head down on it. “Oh, he’s incredibly overbearing. He didn’t let me see you for the past few days until I insisted. I bet he thought you would yell at him and he didn’t want to watch me get all the positive attention.”
He was smirking into the pillow, huffing deep breaths of it like the scent attached to it was a drug. “I basically did yell at him. What are you doing on the couch, by the way?”
Sitting up, he flushed but kept the pillow against his chest. “Um, sorry… I just thought that since you said I was staying with you, I would be, you know, sleeping here?”
Angels, he was cute. Pulling the bookcase door open to reveal the open door to my nest, I gestured inside. “Yes, you’re sleeping here. With me. In here.”
Caspian shot up, discarding the pillow on the couch. He was past me in mere seconds, looking around in wonder. There was a bulge in his pants from the high concentration of my intense heat perfume, but neither of us was in that mindset right now. “This is your nest?” he asked, voice light.
“It is.”
“And you’re going to let me sleep with you in your nest?”
“You’re a little slow on the uptake today, Cas. The nest is a no-clothes zone, so take your outside clothes off. You can leave your boxers on.”
“I don’t wear boxers,” he said sheepishly, sliding his shirt over his head.
It was the first time I’d seen his bare chest, and I drooled over it a little. He was slimmer than Shan, skin unmarked by tattoos or scars. A light dusting of hair ran down his chest, leading to the trail down into his pants. “Then I guess we’re both sleeping naked,” I murmured.
