The Crown of Gilded Bones (Blood and..

Chapter 9
Casteel shuddered as he whispered, “Poppy.”
“Is this real?” I asked.
The golden flecks in his eyes churned fiercely. “There’s
nothing more real than right now.”
I don’t know who moved first. Me. Him. Both of us at the
same time? It didn’t matter. Our mouths met, and there was
nothing gentle about the way we came together. He
grasped the back of my head, his hand fisting in my hair. I
held onto him, my fingers digging into the skin of his
shoulders. It was a wrecking sort of kiss, demanding and
raw. We claimed each other. Our lips mashed together. Our
teeth clashed. Our arms wrapped fiercely around one
another, and the kiss, the way we held each other, became
something else entirely. His hands slid down my sides to my
hips as he pulled me against him, where I felt him hardening
against me once more.
“I need you,” he groaned against my lips. “I need you,
Poppy.”
“You have me,” I told him, echoing the words I’d said to
him once before. Now, they felt like an unbreakable vow.
“Always.”
“Always,” he repeated.
Lifting me from his lap, he stood and then turned,
placing me on the center of what I realized was a fairly
narrow bed. I got a brief glimpse of the dark walls and
fractured sunlight seeping through the cracked boards of a
door in the room, but then all I saw was him.
Casteel.