The Crown of Gilded Bones (Blood and..

or…reach for her. She was in control of her actions as Kieran
retreated to rest on his elbows, a confidence in her as her
head moved, a hand following the movements.
I really should have kept my senses locked down when I
focused on Lyra, but I felt that control I had assumed was
there, mixed with warm smokiness. The warmth in my
cheeks increased, flowing down my neck as I shifted,
stretching out my leg. My breath caught as Casteel’s fingers
moved a scant couple of inches from my hip to the left, still
moving in those maddening, tiny circles.
And I really, really shouldn’t have left my senses open
when my gaze flicked to Kieran. The spiciness gathered in
the back of my throat and low in my body, the place
Casteel’s fingers were so dangerously close to. I closed
down my senses before I pried any further, but I…
“Poppy?”
“Yes,” I whispered as Lyra seemed to tilt her head,
pressing in impossibly close to Kieran’s body.
“Are you watching them?” Casteel asked, his voice full
of smoke.
A denial rose to the tip of my tongue.
“If so, you wouldn’t be the only one, nor are they the
only ones being watched,” he said, one of his fingers
stretching over the thin material of my gown. “They find no
shame in any act of affection, whether they are involved in
it, casual observers…or more active watchers.”
Active watchers?
My gaze wandered across the rippling canopies and the
shadowy depths inside, to where a slender arm beckoned to
another who had been seated in the sand outside. The man
put the bottle of what he’d been drinking down and rose,
bending down as he entered the space under the canopy,
where the shadowy outlines of bodies moved in unison. He
joined them as Casteel shifted behind me again, leaning
forward to slip his hand under where the hem of my gown
was gathered at my knees. My heart might have stuttered