Page 25

Cassian recognised what was happening. He’d watched Diwa do this to Colin thousands of times in Ledbury Road, but Ruari wasn’t closing the gap.

His thumbs stroked along Cassian’s jaw, and his fingers slid down to Cassian’s neck.

Cassian tipped his chin up and kissed him.

Ruari’s mouth was soft. That threw him, because the rest of Ruari was so solid and unyielding that Cassian had expected kissing him to feel like pressing his lips against a warm brick wall. Instead Ruari’s mouth opened under his, and when Cassian slid his tongue in to taste him, the groan that came out of Ruari vibrated through Cassian.

He tasted like chocolate and butter and the burnt-sugar edge of the cupcake batter he’d licked off the spatula. Cassian’s hands found the front of Ruari’s flour-dusted T-shirt. He gripped tight and hauled himself up onto his toes; Ruari had a foot of height on him.

Ruari kissed him back like he’d been starving for it. Both hands dropped to Cassian’s waist, lifted him clean off the floor, and sat him on the counter beside the mixing bowls. Cassian’s legs opened on instinct to let Ruari step between them.

Cassian pulled back to take a breath or he might die, and he couldn’t do that since he was desperate to do more of this kissing. The alpha’s chest was heaving, and a trace of cocoa and sugar sat at the edge of his mouth, where Cassian’s face had been.

Cassian leaned in and licked it off, the flat stripe of his tongue tracking along Ruari’s jaw and collecting the sweetness. Ruari’s hands froze on Cassian’s back.

“I like the way you taste, Ruari.” Cassian dipped back in before Ruari could answer, this time finding sugar crystals clinging to Ruari’s lower lip and chasing them with the tip of his tongue.

Ruari’s scent thickened around him as Cassian’s thighs gripped Ruari’s hips. He felt himself get wet. His hips shifted forward on the counter.

Cassian’s mobile rang then.

It was muffled and tinny, and Cassian wanted to ignore it. The feel of Ruari left everything else stupidly unimportant. But he hadn’t answered all day. He’d felt it buzzing in his pocket and ignored it every time rather than miss a word of Ruari talking.

Cassian’s stomach dropped. He’d left the house that morning telling Colin he’d be at the markets for a few hours. He dug his mobile out and the screen was a wall of notifications. Seventeen missed calls. Twenty-three WhatsApp messages. The most recent was from Colin, sent four minutes ago: Cassian if you don’t pick up this call I’m calling the police.

“Oh no,” Cassian whispered. “Oh no, oh no, oh no.”

He scrambled off the counter, his legs unsteady beneath him, slick cooling against his thighs in a way that would have been mortifying if he’d had any attention left to spare for it. He jabbed at the screen and Colin answered before the first ring had finished.

“I’m alive!” Cassian said. “Colin, I’m alive, I’m so sorry, I’m at the bakery with Ruari, we went to the markets and then he taught me how to make cupcakes and I lost track of time.”

Colin’s voice came through the speaker. “Get home. Now.”

Ruari walked him home. He didn’t ask Cassian if he wanted him to. He just locked up Proving Ground, pulled the door shut, and fell into step beside him on the pavement.

Then he put his hand on the back of Cassian’s neck. It covered the whole of it, thumb and little finger on the tendons on either side, and Cassian’s shoulders came down.

Every light in the Ledbury Road house was on, blazing out through the windows. Ruari steered him up the front steps, his hand still on Cassian’s nape, and followed him inside.

Colin and Diwa stood in the hallway, waiting for him. Colin’s arms were folded across his chest. Diwa was a step behind him, Tala resting on his shoulder.

“Here he is!” Ruari announced, releasing Cassian’s neck and spreading both hands wide, as though he were presenting a prize on a game show. “All in one piece. No harm done!”

Colin’s expression didn’t shift from its grim mask.

“We lost track of time, that’s all.” Ruari’s grin was enormous. “We spent most of the day at the markets. You should’ve seen him at the olive stall, Colin. He ate about fifteen samples before the bloke stepped in. Then we swung back to the shop and I showed him how to make chocolate cupcakes, which he’s a natural at, by the way. I know I should’ve had him ring you but the truth is we were having such a brilliant day that I didn’t even think about—”

“It’s half ten, Ruari. He left this house at nine o’clock this morning,” Colin pointed out. “He told me he was going to the markets for a couple of hours, and I’ve been calling him since six. Lysander rang me from Scotland, all frantic because I’d had to text him to ask if he’d heard from Cass.”

Ruari’s grin dropped. “Colin, I’m sorry, I genuinely didn’t—”

“You didn’t think, and he didn’t answer his mobile. I had no way of knowing where he was or whether he was safe!”

“You’re right,” Ruari said. “That’s on me. I should have made sure he called.”

Colin looked at Cassian. “Go upstairs.”

Cassian planted himself between Colin and Ruari in the narrow hallway. He’d just had a good day, and he refused to be made to feel that he’d done something wrong.