Savage Love (Ash and Innocence 2)

I crept closer to the door and listened for his footsteps but heard nothing. After a few minutes, I got curious enough to go downstairs and see why he wasn’t coming up to his room.

I found Cassian sprawled out on the couch with a swollen eye, a bloody lip, and a long, bleeding slash on his cheek.

“Cassian? Jesus. Are you okay?”

He groaned, then blinked a few times as he squinted toward me. “Fuck off, Scarface.”

I carefully touched the skin below his gash. “Looks like you’re going to have a nice scar of your own when this heals. What the hell happened?”

“Did you forget I was your knight in shit stained armor?”

“What is that supposed to mean?”

“It means I may be a dick, but I still had to kick Hugh’s ass for what he tried to pull with you. He thinks I’m into you, which means it made me look bad.”

I gestured to his swollen face. “And this makes you look better? Did he really beat you up this badly?”

Cassian shrugged. “You should see him.” He laughed, then coughed and winced. “Actually, I think I got a lot of blood on his shirt, and it looked expensive.”

I lifted Cassian’s shirt and saw a series of ugly bruises around his ribs. I sucked in a breath through my teeth. “This looks serious. We need to take you to the hospital.”

He laughed. “That’d be a bitch move. They’d ask who did it and sending the cops after Hugh isn’t exactly the revenge I had in mind.”

“It looks like Hugh is a brick wall and you tried to knock it down with your face. How exactly do you plan to take revenge yourself?”

“We were outnumbered.” Cassian gave a dismissive wave of his hand. “And if Tristan hadn’t been too scared to bring his girl to the party, the four of us still could’ve taken them.

“Wait, there were more of you? Is everyone else okay?”

He let out a long, suffering sigh. “They are fine. The crowd held Gage and Logan back. Swarmed them like a hungry mob. Then Hugh and his buddies went to town on me. Not before I got a few good shots in, though.” He held up his reddened and swollen knuckles as proof.

“You’re such an idiot.”

“I didn’t ask for your assessment. Now, if you don’t mind, my head is pounding, and I’d really like to sleep.”

“No. Isn’t it dangerous to sleep when you get hit in the head, or something?”

“No idea. Let’s find out.”

I slapped his cheek, then pulled my hand back when I remembered how much that probably hurt.

Cassian actually looked amused. “Was your medical opinion that I needed to be hit more? You’re not just shit at track. You’d be a horrible doctor.”

“Come on. You need to take an ice bath.”

“An ice bath?”

“Yeah. All the track kids do it after a really tough workout. It helps your muscles recover. And I’d say we could put some frozen peas on the spot where you got hit, but from the looks of it, we’d need like twenty bags of peas. Can you walk, or do I need to drag you?”

“I’d like to see you try to—hey!”

I grabbed his ankle and started tugging him toward the nearest bathroom. He shook me off, then stood, stumbling slightly. “I can walk.”

“Barely.” I made him put his arm around my neck and led him to the bathroom.

Once we were inside, I told him to take his clothes off and get in the tub.

He paused. “You going to watch?”

“Get over yourself. You’re covered in blood and bruises. I also saw more than enough when you…”

He grinned. “When I fucked you?”

“I was going to say when you failed to make me have an orgasm.”

Cassian looked like someone just used him for a punching bag, but he managed to laugh. “That’s actually funny.”

“It is. Considering everyone thinks you’re some kind of sex god and you couldn’t even get a virgin off.”

“So you were a virgin. Still wasn’t sure.”

“Get in the tub, asshole.”

He stripped off his shirt and pants but left his boxers on. It was probably for the best, because no matter how tough I talked, I didn’t need to see his cock again. The memories of pleasure and embarrassment were all still too fresh.

I went to the kitchen and got as much ice as I could. The Stones had three freezers in their huge house, two of which were in the garage. Between the three of them, I managed to gather a decent amount of ice. It wasn’t a proper ice bath, but with some cold water, I figured it would do the trick.

Cassian didn’t say anything as I dumped container after container of ice around him and then started to run the water. He didn’t even flinch or complain about the cold.

I pulled up a chair beside the tub and waited while it filled. Most of the blood from his face seemed to have already scabbed over, or else I imagined the water would’ve turned a gruesome shade of pink.