Her Three Cursed Soulmates

chapter 15

Cassian POV

Lyra dresses quietly.

I really want to know what she’s thinking. Did she enjoy that as much as I did? Are we going to do it again, or was it a one-time thing?

But I don’t want to make her answer a bunch of questions right after s*x. We can talk about it later, when we’ve both had a little time to process what happened.

She adjusts her pants, then turns to face me. She isn’t looking at me, though. Her eyes are averted as she loosens her hair from the elastic holding it and shakes it out. I haven’t seen it loose before. It’s big and curly and dark brown with bits of red in it here and there, and I wish it had been loose when we were f*****g because I would have loved to bury my hands in it.

Next time, the wolf inside me suggests with a sort of primal growl, and I almost have to laugh. We’re not even finished getting our clothes back on, and already the wolf is thinking about next time.

I can’t really blame him. I’m thinking about next time too.

Lyra gathers her hair and secures it in a ponytail, then faces me.

“So,” she says. “The coven?”

I’m so thrown off by this that I almost laugh out loud. I manage to compose myself before the laugh breaks free, but it’s close.

“The coven?” I repeat.

“Yes, the coven,” she snaps. “The one you said you would take me to. The one that’s the only reason you’re walking around free instead of locked up in that cage. Where is it?”

“You’re really in some kind of hurry, aren’t you?”

“Are you going to take me there or not?”

“I said I would, didn’t I?” I say. “But what’s your rush? I don’t know about you, but I could use a little recuperation after that great f**k. How about something to eat?”

I gesture toward her backpack.

She jerks it away.

“You can’t keep doing this,” she says. “You can’t keep putting me off by telling me you need food, or—or trying to distract me with sex.”

I’m actually offended.

“That’s not what I was doing,” I say. “I wanted you. That was real.”

“Whatever,” she says. “Take me to the coven.”

I have to get her away from that whole subject, so I turn and start up the flight of stairs behind me.

“Where the hell are you going?” she demands, chasing after me.

“It’s still the middle of the night, in case you hadn’t noticed,” I tell her. “I’m not going out there under the light of the moon. That’s when Moon Casters are most powerful.”

She sighs. I know she knows I have a point.

“Why don’t you just tell me where the coven is?” she suggests.

“Right,” I say. “If I do that, you’re going to ditch me and go off on your own. You know as well as I do that the only reason you’re keeping me around is so I can lead you to the coven.”

“Why do you care if I keep you around or not?” she asks.

I leer at her.

“The s*x is good.”

She groans.

“You shouldn’t count on that happening again,” she says firmly.

“I think you had just as much fun as I did.”

“That doesn’t matter. I was having a fit of temporary insanity, that’s all it was.”

I notice what she didn’t deny.

“You did like it.”

“Can you just knock it off?” she says.

I hear the aggravation in her voice. It’s kind of satisfying to know I’m having such a strong effect on her. It’s almost as hot as watching her get riled up when I touch her.

I push open the door on the fifth floor, but Lyra starts up the stairs to the sixth.

Trying to take control again?

“Where are you going?” I ask her.

“Upstairs,” she says. “Obviously.”

“I think the fifth floor is high enough.”

“Well, I want to look around,” she says. “I’ll meet you back down here.”

“Whatever you say,” I tell her and head out of the stairwell.

This space probably used to be some kind of office. There are desks and chairs here, and even some pens and paper, which are pretty hard things to find nowadays. I pick up a handful of pens and stuff them in my pocket, even though I have no idea what I’m actually going to do with them. Better to have and not need, especially when it’s something so small and easy to carry.

Why don’t I just leave Lyra? Is it really just the s*x?

Now that I’m away from her and I can consider my feelings without worrying about her reading them on my face, I have to admit that it might be.

She said that I shouldn’t expect something like today to happen again. But that doesn’t mean I can’t hope for it. And she’s definitely the best I’ve had in a long time.

For a moment, I allow myself to imagine what it might be like to be with her again. I’d take my time next time. I’d really let myself learn her body, get to know what she likes best. I’d make it last hours so that neither of us would leave wanting more. We’d be too tired for more for days after I was finished.

I don’t regret giving it to her fast and hard today. I think we both needed that. But next time—

Yeah. I’m definitely sticking with this woman for as long as she’ll let me. Maybe there will be a next time or maybe there won’t, but if there’s even a chance of it, I have to try.

I finish rummaging through the desks. I find a lighter, but—predictably—it doesn’t work. I haven’t seen more than a half dozen working lighters in my life, but of course you’ve got to hoard them whenever you do find them. What must it have been like, before the Lunar Reversal, when people could start fires at the press of a button? That’s an unthinkable amount of luxury.

“Cassian?”

I turn. Lyra is behind me, standing in the stairwell and poking her head through the door. She looks concerned.

“I need you to come and look at something I found,” she says.