Free Web NovelChapter 48: Chapter 48 - Wedding night
"Lilith, you should be careful," Cassian said, catching her hand before it could wander any further.
"It is our wedding night, Cassian. The marriage is not truly sealed until we come together. If you are shy, I will try not to tease you too terribly," Lilith said, drawing closer to him.
Cassian drew her forward by her right hand and slipped his left arm around her waist, pulling her body flat against his. "What are you plotting, Lilith? I know your eagerness has nothing to do with wanting me to bed you."
Lilith smiled, pleased that he had seen through her so quickly.
"We mustn’t leave any room for anyone to question whether the marriage has been consummated," Lilith whispered, rising onto her toes. She leaned in until her breath was warm against his face. "Tell me. Are you afraid? Is it possible that, for all your confidence, you have never truly been with a woman?"
Cassian’s jaw tightened. Lilith was playing with something that was going to burn her.
"I am experienced," Cassian replied, his gaze dropping to her mouth.
"Then prove it," Lilith said softly, her left hand sliding slowly up the side of his body.
She had teased him about his body and pretended to be entirely unmoved by him. But that had only ever been teasing.
Standing this close, with the candlelight warm across his face, Lilith found herself a little more than curious about the man in front of her.
That was beside the point, of course. She had his secrets to extract, and she intended to use the night to do it.
Cassian released his hold on her right hand and brought his fingers gently under her chin, tilting her face up to meet his eyes. "You won’t hate me in the morning? You won’t tell me I moved too soon?"
Lilith smiled, genuinely caught off guard by the question. "It is our wedding night. It is rather expected that we make love."
Before she could say another word, Cassian lifted her in one smooth movement, hoisting her over his shoulder and carrying her to the bed as the decision had already been made. Behind him, Lilith’s eyes gleamed with mischief he could not see.
Cassian set Lilith down on the bed with a gentleness that did not quite match the rest of him, and hovered over her.
Lilith reached up and touched his face. "What are you waiting for? I am ready," she said, impatient.
"What are you doing, Lilith?" Cassian said, trying to read her moves. "There is a plan behind all of this. Tell me what you want, and I will answer honestly. You won’t need to seduce it out of me."
Lilith studied his face for any trace of doubt. "Then tell me what happened to you on that battlefield. Why are your own soldiers so convinced you are a changed man? That you have somehow been replaced?"
"I left the battlefield to chase what I wanted. A chance to go after the woman I had kept my feelings for in secret far longer than I should have. I am simply more honest about it now," Cassian said, taking a moment to look at her.
Her hair spread across the pillows like waves, and she was giving him her complete attention for the first time. Cassian very nearly forgot there was a scheme at work.
Memories came to him without warning, of Lilith waiting at the door of their home after a long absence, arms folded, ready to scold him for being away too long. She always feared that everyone she loved would eventually go, taken by death or driven away by the weight of who she was.
He was pulled back to the present by the press of her hand against his cheek.
"For a man who claims to be so taken with me, you are remarkably distracted right now. Has the chase simply stopped now that you have me?" Lilith asked, watching closely as he turned his face into her palm.
She left her hand where it was. She wanted him completely unguarded tonight.
"You may have become my husband, but there is still some distance left between us. You should not stop trying to court me," Lilith said.
"Whatever you are doing is not going to work," said Cassian.
Lilith smiled because he still had not noticed how completely she held him. "Are you quite certain? The man everyone in this kingdom fears is lying here looking like someone who has never seen a woman. I would say it is working rather well." frёewebnoѵēl.com
"This conversation has been enjoyable, but this night must move forward," Lilith said, placing her hands on his chest to push him sideways.
She shifted their positions in one movement, pressing him back against the bed so she could look down at him.
Lilith bit her lip. Handsome men were, on occasion, her weakness, but she could not lose her focus now.
She leaned forward, her fingers beginning to work at the buttons of his coat. "You are reacting like a man who has never shared a bed with a woman before. Did you lie to me, Cassian? Did you think it would somehow make you more interesting?" she asked, sliding her hands beneath the open coat and feeling the warmth of him underneath.
She felt him tense at the touch of her hands, then relax.
Even in the little light, the colour that rose along his cheeks was visible.
She genuinely wondered where the man who had walked into her father’s throne room had gone. How could someone who had done what he had done look as though he might come apart simply from her hands on him?
"I didn’t lie. Those women were never you, Lilith," Cassian said, his arms finding their way to her waist.
"How very charming. I am certain that particular line served you well with others," Lilith said, pausing as she covered his hands with her own.
She took his hands from her waist and pressed them back against the bed, holding them lightly above his head.
Lilith leaned down, closing what little space remained between them. "I am not like those women," she whispered. "You should have come in here more prepared."
