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“Of course they bother me.”
I had to call on every ounce of strength I had not to recoil from him. “I see.”
I resumed walking, not knowing what else to do. Did they sicken him? If they did, he would really have a hard time with the ones he couldn’t see.
Warm fingers wrapped around my upper arm and spun me around smoothly, more like a dance move than an act of aggression. His hands settled on my hips while mine instinctively went to his chest.
“They bother me because I know how they got there and how much pain you endured. My concern is not because they make you any less desirable.”
My face heated at the adamance in his voice. His hips tilted, the bulge behind his zipper pressing into my belly.
“If you can’t hear the truth in my words, you can feel the evidence for yourself. Do you have any idea how hard … how difficult it is to walk around in this state? I fear nothing I do or think of will make it go away.”
My arousal spiked and I cleared my throat nervously. “Well. It sounds like you might have a medical condition. Maybe you should see a healer.”
His fingers flexed. “I think there’s only one cure for this.”
“Cas—”
“Don’t. I’m not pushing for everything, not yet. I can be patient if you need me to be.”
I didn’t know how to respond. I feared if I opened my mouth I would demand he take me upstairs and strip me down. The image of him seeing my naked body lessened some of my need.
“Come on, I want to show you something.”
Casimir took my hand and a shock of electricity sizzled up my arm. I didn’t say anything, but Cas squeezed my fingers with his and I knew he’d felt it, too.
“Where are we going?”
“Just around the corner.”
I knew what was around the corner.
“I’ve seen your trellises and your trees,” I informed him in a monotone voice. “Lyric took me here earlier.”
“That’s not what we’re looking at.”
Oh, thank goodness. I didn’t want to have to force him to choke on those lemons—but I would.
Casimir took us to the edge of the rows of trellises, closest to the protective wall. Lyric and I hadn’t walked to the back side of the garden so I didn’t know what to expect to be shown.
When we reached the stone wall and turned to look down the path running between the wall and the garden, I gasped. Growing up the side and overtop the path, creating a lush, leafy tunnel, was a tangle offlore nocti, otherwise known as nightblooms.
The bluish-green stems were thick and curvy and reminded me of a nest of snakes. At the tips of the clusters of greenery were very large white flower blooms, some as big as a foot across. Nightblooms only opened for a few hours, and never when the sun was up. They hung loosely overtop the path, the openings parallel to the ground.
Few flowers could survive facing down, much less without sunlight. It was one of the reasons I loved this species.
“Lyric said she didn’t bring you to this part. The nightblooms freak her out. She thinks they look like alien plants that might attack, though these evolved directly from an Earth Realm species and are completely harmless. For some reason, they grow much larger here.”
“They’re magnificent,” I complimented. “How did you know they were my favorite?”
“I didn’t. I mean, I do know some factions of witches use them medicinally, but I brought you here because I wanted you to see them. They weren’t due to bloom for a few more weeks.”
“They came in early?”
“The power that surged through you when Kree pushed her magic into your life force did more than explode across the OR. Some of it escaped the infirmary, despite the containment spells we had in place. Diluted, but still powerful enough for this.”
“Like a ripple effect?”
