Playing Their Parts

“Uh, I…” Cassie swallowed hard. “Of course not—I was being sarcastic, you big idiot!” she finally got out, giving him a playful elbow to the ribs, to let him know she was just joking.

What had gotten into her cool, logical partner tonight? She would have sworn that Stone didn’t even have sexual fantasies and here he was offering to share them with her like they were lovers instead of partners!

“All right. I’ll keep my desires to myself, then. But I find myself wondering…” He had nodded at the screen. “Did you ever allow your ex-mate to restrain you like that?”

Cassie shook her head.

“No, I…I never really trusted him that much, I guess. I didn’t like the idea of not being able to get up and leave if I wanted to.”

Her ex, Keith, had had a mean streak, and though Cassie hadn’t really been afraid of him, she had been wary of letting herself be vulnerable with him. Although to be honest, he would have been more likely to tie her down and say cruel things to make her feel horrible about herself than to actually hurt her physically.

Either way, Cassie had never wanted to let herself be helpless with her ex—not even when she thought she loved him.

“So you didn’t trust enough to let him tie you, or respect him enough to let him dominate you,” Stone had rumbled thoughtfully, breaking into her thoughts. “If you don’t mind me asking, why did you Join with him in the first place?”

“You might as well ask—you’ve asked me everything else,” Cassie pointed out. Then she sighed. “I don’t know why I married him. I was young and stupid and I thought I was in love.” She shook her head. “Then I spent the next six years trying to convince myself I hadn’t made a huge mistake. Which of course, I had.”

“If you were Joined to a Kindred, you would have no such doubts,” Stone had murmured, catching her eyes. “Once you form a soul-bond with a warrior, you can hear each other’s thoughts and feel each other’s feelings. There is no room left for doubts.”

“I…didn’t know that.” Cassie’s heart had been thumping again for some reason at that point. “Really? You can hear each other’s thoughts? Like…all the time?”

Stone shook his head.

“No, it’s more like you can communicate mentally.” He sighed. “I long for such a connection with the female the Goddess has chosen for me. Such closeness. Such openness. Being an unmated male is…very lonely at times.”

Cassie patted his arm awkwardly.

“Geez, Stone, I didn’t know you felt that way.” And here she had been selfishly hoping that her best friend never found the “one” he was looking for, just so she could keep the big Kindred all to herself. It made her feel like a real jerk.

“I don’t feel it so much when I am with you,” Stone told her, putting his big hand over her own. “When I am with you, Cassandra, I don’t feel lonely at all.”

“I…I don’t feel lonely with you, either,” Cassie had breathed. What was happening between herself and her partner?

They were looking into each other’s eyes and Stone’s lips were slightly parted. She could see the long, sharp tips of his fangs and she couldn’t help wondering if he could kiss her mouth as gently as he had kissed her hand and arm, so that she barely even felt them…

At that point, the girl on the laptop started screaming so loudly that Cassie’s attention was jerked away from her partner. The scene had changed from the girl tied up on the bed to something completely different.

There was a new girl now—a tiny petite one with long brown hair and wide hazel eyes. She looked terribly young, but maybe that was only because of her size.

Cassie hoped so, anyway.

It was this new girl who had screamed and Cassie didn’t blame her. Because what was happening to her looked like some kind of awful rape fantasy. The Beast was holding the girl down while she fought and struggled and screamed for help that never came…

The worst part is, we don’t know if this is scripted or real, Cassie thought, feeling abruptly ill. He might really be raping her and they’re filming it for profit. Assholes!

Stone made a low sound of fury in his throat and stood abruptly. He began to pace, running his hands through his hair.

“Stop it,” he said in a low, choked voice. “Turn it off. I cannot bear to watch such cruelty!”

So the mood—whatever it had been—had most definitely been broken.

And now, as she sat in Captain Perkin’s office and tried to attend to the early morning meeting, Cassie wondered if she might have imagined it all. Because this morning Stone was as cool and collected as ever and he hadn’t said a thing to her about all the kinky things they’d seen and talked about the night before.