Page 66 of To Crave Darkly
“I know.” I took one last look at him as I left the room. There was so much left unspoken between us, but he had promised to be around me a bit more. Perhaps we could work through this together and finally figure it all out? Then again, Hell was a great place to build snowmen…
Chapter 25
LORI
I looked up at the ice-blue eyes set into Cassian’s frowning face from my position on the floor. A condescending smirk twisted his arrogant features as he stared down at me. He’d knocked me flat on my back. Again. I’d lost count of how many times I had ended up down here. I stopped counting after twenty.
If I thought his training sessions were bad before, now that he wasn’t holding back, he was fucking brutal. He wouldn’t let me get to my feet or give me a chance to move out of the way. He just barrelled into me over and over again. There was no let up. Just a constant onslaught of unending ferocity from him and I’d had enough. I wassoready to call it a day.
I was never one to give up, but this was fucking impossible. All I had to do was escape him, which sounded easy enough, but all I’d achieved was a bruised back and a sore arse.
“Up.” His voice didn’t even conceal his boredom.
Nope. I was fine down here, thank you very much. Getting up was the last thing I wanted to do right now. I’d rather have my blood boiled and my teeth pulled out then get up for another round with Cassian.
“Fuck off.”
“Up,” he commanded sharply again. He held his hand in front of my face, but I wasn’t stupid enough to take it. Well, not stupid enough to take it again. I’d already learnt what would happen if I took his hand about eight tumbles ago. It ended up with me head over arse and back on the fucking mat.
I slapped his hand away and rolled onto my side. A groan escaped me. Everything hurt.
“Come on, Princess. You asked for this.” He was goading me. He kept calling me Princess because he knew it pissed me off. Yes, I’d asked for help protecting myself. What I didnotask for was to spend the day getting my arse handed to me. I guess Cassian just never did anything the easy way.
I pulled myself to my feet, my knees a little unsteady beneath me, but I squared my shoulders and faced Cassian head on. He widened his stance, preparing to attack again. All his muscles coiled tightly, poised and ready to take me down again. His clothes were stretched in all the right places. He was built like a powerhouse, all power and lethal precision poured into every inch of that toned physique. What I wouldn’t give to see what was hiding under that shirt. My eyes raked back up to his face and I found him staring at me with a knowing smirk trying to break the lines of his beautifully harsh mouth. How could someone so gorgeous be such a dick? Life was so unfair sometimes but if I wasn’t going to enjoy that body at least I could enjoy tormenting him.
“You need to get laid,” I taunted. “All this pent-up tension can’t be good for you.”
“Are you offering, Princess?” His voice dropped an octave, and he cocked his head to the side. “You do look good flat on your back. Judging by your lack of accomplishment today, perhaps that’s all you’re good at.”
So that’s how it is. We were venturing into playground territory and after all the years working in a bar, I was a fucking master at that. I just needed to find his weak spot.
Challenge accepted big guy.
“Come on, Cassie. You can do better than that.”
His eyes narrowed dangerously at my use of a nickname; he didn’t like that at all.
“Princess, you have no idea what I’m capable of. You’ve been trying to escape me all day, I’ve barely broken a sweat but you…” He wrinkled his nose in disgust. “Well, let’s just say I can smell you from all the way over here.” I got it. Yeah, I was sweaty, I stank, and he didn’t even have a hair out of place. He still looked as perfect as he did before we started this training session. If you could even call it that. Felt more like torture than training.
“Cassie, you have your entire life to be a jerk. Why don’t you take today off?”
He just huffed and started to move round the mat. Great. Now we were circling each other in a dance to the death. Bring it on, tough guy.
“You’ll never survive out there, Princess. You couldn’t even take down two possessed puppets. How are you supposed to fight something worse? You can’t even move out the way fast enough. Must be all that ass you’re lugging around. At least it’s a soft cushion for you to land on.”
My jaw dropped. Did he just call my ass fat? Motherfucker. “Well,Cassie, your ass must be pretty jealous with all the shit that comes out of your mouth.”
His cocky expression turned sour. “Don’t call me that.”
“Why not, Cassie? Does it piss you off? Come on, Cassie. Can’t you take – Fuck!”
I dove to the left to avoid a body slam, but I was about an inch to slow. Cassian caught my shoulder with the full force of his body. If I had thought he was strong before, it was nothing compared to this. My whole body jarred with the impact as I fell to the floor. Pain radiated up my shoulder as I landed but I wasn’t given a chance to escape. Cassian was on me in an instant, straddling me and pinning me to the ground. My hands pushed at the solid wall of his chest, but he was a tank. My attempts to get him off me were pathetic, and he captured my hands easily. In a flash they were pinned beneath his powerful thighs and I had the first real taste of his strength.
His weight settled on my chest and my legs kicked out uselessly behind him. Panic wrapped its icy claws around my heart and breathing became near impossible. He’d completely restrained me between his thighs. He wasn’t even using his hands. His elegantly long fingers rested casually on his legs as he stared down at me with something akin to pure hatred in his eyes.
I guess he really didn’t like being called Cassie after all.
I bucked beneath him, but it was futile. He was an immovable monolith and I wasn’t going anywhere.
