Playing Their Parts

“You had better let me hold the bed for you so that you don’t fall when you attempt to get in. It might not be stabilized adequately.”

“Stone?” Cassie turned to him at once. He had changed as well. He was still bare-chested but instead of his tight leather trousers, he was wearing long black pajama bottoms made of some thick, satiny material. She had to admit he looked mouthwatering in his sleepwear, but then, he always looked hot. She had just tried really hard not to notice it until now.

“Stone,” she said again. “Are you all right? You disappeared pretty fast, there.” She reached out to touch him but stopped right before her hand made contact with his broad, bare chest. She wasn’t sure if he wanted her to touch him or not.

To her relief, her partner took her hand and put it on his chest himself. He squeezed gently.

“I’m all right,” he assured her.

“It’s just…you left in kind of a hurry.” Cassie bit her lip. “I thought maybe…maybe you were upset over…over what we did.”

“Why would it upset me to finally get to touch your beautiful body?” Stone looked genuinely confused.

“Well, I mean…the way you ran off when I asked if you were going to bite me. I just thought—”

“Cassandra, you think too much sometimes,” he murmured. “Forgive me for making you worry. I just had to leave before I did something we would both regret—before I bit you.”

“But why?” Cassie shook her head, not understanding. “Why would we both regret it if you bit me, Stone?”

“Because…” He sighed and ran a hand through his thick hair. “Because biting is an act of possession among my kind. If I bit you and injected you with my essence, it would be extremely difficult for us to go back to being just friends after this mission is over.”

“I see…” Cassie nodded. “So you feel about biting the same way I feel about kissing—it’s too intimate. Is that right?”

Stone nodded thoughtfully.

“Yes, I think that is a good analogy. Although biting is more extreme. If I bit you, I would then have a biological need to Claim you as well—to bond you to me. And that would be wrong if we want to maintain our friendship.”

“Yes, I guess it would.” Cassie looked away.

She wished, in a way, that Stone wanted to Claim her and bond her—which was the ultimate step for a Kindred warrior. But she understood that her partner just wanted to remain friends.

“Well…” She cleared her throat and pulled her hand away from his broad, bare chest reluctantly. “I was about to go to bed. Are, uh, you coming?” She nodded to the floating gold beanbag, which was certainly big enough for the two of them.

Stone frowned.

“Do you want me to come to bed with you, Cassandra?”

“Well, I mean, not to, uh, practice anymore or anything like that…” Cassie could feel her cheeks heating. “But this is a strange place—hell, a strange planet— and I’ve never been off Earth before. So, it might be nice to have someone I trust close by.”

One side of Stone’s mouth rose in a rare smile.

“And that someone could be me, I take it?”

“Of course. But, I mean, only if you want to sleep together. Not that we’d be actually sleeping together,” Cassie said quickly. “I mean—”

“I know what you mean,” Stone interrupted—which was a good thing because she’d been starting to babble, Cassie thought. “I know what you mean,” he repeated, reaching out to sweep a strand of hair out of her face and tuck it behind her ear. “And I would love to sleep with you tonight, Cassandra.”

“Oh, well good.” She smiled up at him. God, he was so tall. Now that she had taken off the high heeled boots, she had to tilt her chin back just to look into his eyes. “Just as long as I get to be the big spoon,” she added, joking.

Stone frowned.

“The big spoon?”

“You know—when you sleep with someone else and you lay on your sides together—like spoons in a drawer?” Cassie asked. “The person in back is the big spoon and the person in front is the little spoon.”

“Ah.” Her partner nodded. “If you wish, you can be the big spoon.” He walked to the foot of the bed and held it steady. “Now you can get in.”

Cassie climbed the little 3-foot staircase again and crawled carefully into the floating beanbag. The gold material it was covered with was warm and soft and the bed itself was much firmer than a beanbag. In fact, it felt like a really expensive memory-foam mattress to Cassie, though it did sink down in the middle a bit when she laid down on it.

“Come on in,” she told Stone, once she was settled. “It’s really nice.”

Stone didn’t need the staircase. He was so tall he was able to easily get into the bed without it. When he settled beside Cassie, the bed sank in the middle some more, pushing the two of them together.