Good answer.
He moved me toward the fire, grabbing a blanket in the process. Though I wasn’t cold, I knew it was about chivalry, nothing else, he was covering me, though he stayed beautifully shirtless as he sat on the floor opposite me.
“Jealous,” Cassius answered. “I won’t go into details, but the issue now stands. Dark Ones have duty first, the curse of being both human and Angel second, and then lastly, they have… one of the worst of human emotions I should think.”
“Sadness?”
“Loss. As if placed in a giant maze but never told the way out. We serve, we do our duty, we serve some more, and are never promised mates, never promised a life outside of the duty we are given. While our human counterparts live and are able to die, and the immortals we watch over, have mates, children. We watch. Always.” Cassius cursed. “We watch.”
“A Dark One has never mated? Never had a family?”
“No,” he snapped. “To mate with a Dark One is choosing to take upon yourself thousands of years worth of pain… to know a Dark One is to know darkness. Why would I—or anyone else—want to wish that upon someone I care about? Besides, two Dark Ones could very well destroy one another and then where would we be?”
“War?” I guessed.
“Most likely with each other, yes.” He stood, his body moving with a fluidity that I didn’t realize I’d missed. “That’s enough for this evening. I…” His cheeks flushed red. “I apologize for taking liberties. At first it was to get you to control the fire.”
“So what happened?” I hid my smile behind my hand.
Cassius looked heavenward. “My humanity took complete control and decided it would be in both of our best interests to get naked.”
I burst out laughing while Cassius smiled blindingly in my direction.
“You know…” I held out my hand as he helped me to my feet. “You aren’t so bad at this human thing.”
“Oh really?” His eyebrows shot up. “I’m cranky, constantly starving, nearly tried to kill your pet bird, and can hardly think of anything except your breasts when you bend over. And I’m doing good? I’d hate to see what I was like if I was doing horrible.”
He thought about my breasts? Little tingles of excitement darted over me, creating an exquisite ache in those breasts.
I cupped his chin. “I like you like this.”
“Like how?” He covered my hand with his, his mouth was so close again, just a few more inches and we’d be touching.
“This,” I said again. “Just like this.”
“I’m holding you.”
“I know.”
The flames near the fireplace went higher as I kissed him softly on the mouth. “If I told you I loved you, would you believe me?”
His eyes closed. “If I told you it was forbidden, would you stop?”
A frigid cold spread throughout my body slamming me into my chest as darkness descended between us like a thick blanket.
“To love a Dark One, is to invite certain death,” a voice whispered just as I jolted awake in my bedroom.
Cassius
HER BODY WAS SPREAD across mine, chilling me to the bone, though I would never admit it out loud lest she move. And the last thing I wanted was for her to move her leg even a fraction to the left or right.
There.
Nearly on top of me, that’s where I needed her, where I wanted her. Dark Ones didn’t typically sleep, so I knew she must be simply relaxing while she let me sleep.
Though it didn’t explain the way she was laying across me.
“Safe,” she muttered. “It’s ridiculous right? That I feel safer in your arms than any other, yet you wouldn’t stand a chance against a man with a gun, let alone a Demon.” Stephanie raised her head, her eyes swirling with specks of white as she reached for my hand.
I held it, my warmth and her ice meeting against our palms.
“How long did I sleep?” I changed the subject.
“Twelve hours,” she whispered. “I got tired of waiting for you so I went downstairs to watch movies with Genesis since she hasn’t been feeling very well…” She frowned. “If… if I see a future of someone, do I tell them?”
“Whose future are we talking about?”
Stephanie swallowed, her eyes darting away from mine. “Genesis. Her labor won’t be easy, Cassius.”
“For centuries, women have survived it all the same. Have a little faith.”
Her head whipped back. “Faith?”
“Yes.” I licked my lips. “Belief in something that has not yet come to pass, belief that regardless of the circumstances, we can still expect the best possible outcome in life.”
“Is that the human side speaking? The one who never loses hope?”
I smiled as a comforting warmth spread through my chest. “Yes, I think it is.”