The Beginning of Everything Read online Kristen Ashley (The Rising #1)

Categories Genre: Fantasy/Sci-fi, Paranormal, Romance Tags Authors: Series: The Rising Series by Kristen Ashley
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Total pages in book: 138
Estimated words: 137958 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 690(@200wpm)___ 552(@250wpm)___ 460(@300wpm)
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I didn’t finish that query.

His other arm came about me, and he burst with laughter.

And…

Really.

Did he have to look so handsome finding something amusing?

“It seems she received an instruction,” he stated through chuckles.

“And thus, she walked through Catrame Palace in garments that surely had her skin burning?”

“I would say, as that was some time ago, about now her skin is definitely burning in one way or another, my warrior.”

My skin started burning, that being my cheeks.

I stared at his throat.

Not a good selection.

I decided on his ear.

“Elena,” he murmured.

I forced myself to look in his eyes.

“I’ll be joining you for dinner.”

Why did that make my heart feel light?

“I’ll alert the heralds,” I quipped.

His eyes danced.

This they did right before his mouth took mine (it was definitely his taking mine that time, not the other way around).

He thrust his tongue inside in a claiming manner that should have outraged me.

It did not.

Instead, I lifted my arms to wrap them around his neck and I tilted my head so he might have more of me.

Cassius took it.

His arms tightened, drawing me up to my toes and deeper into his body, and I drifted a hand over his short hair that brushed toward his forehead, taking that path with my hand, then down, where I did what I wished to do dearly.

I caught hold of his beard at his jaw and tugged.

He nipped my bottom lip with his teeth in response.

I whimpered at the pleasant sting of the bite, my eyes fluttering just enough to take in the heat of his and my mouth was captured again as he ground the hardness of his hips into my belly.

Making him thus, feeling it evident and proud against me, feeling a corresponding flood between my legs, I broke our kiss and whispered, “Cassius.”

His beard scraped my skin as he put his lips to my ear.

“After dinner, you attend me in my room,” he rumbled.

Oh, by the goddess.

“I can’t. I have to look after—”

He fit me more snugly into his hips.

“You found relief this morning, my warrior. I did not,” he reminded me.

Oh heavens.

He didn’t.

I pulled my head back, he lifted his, and I caught his eyes.

“I’m so sorry,” I whispered. “I didn’t think. That was selfish of me.”

He stared at me, desire retreating, contemplation seeping in.

Finally, he spoke. “It is far from the end of the world, Elena. And when you join me tonight, we will first talk, and after, you must know that we will not do anything you don’t wish.”

“You seem to be able to make me do a variety of things I don’t wish,” I mumbled.

“This is because you wish them, my princess,” he replied. “You might not wish to wish them, but you do.”

I couldn’t argue that.

I wished I could.

But I could not.

“We will be wed in less than three months,” he reminded me. “We must find our times to learn of each other.”

“What I find is that you’re annoying,” I blurted.

He raised his brows. “This is because I’m right most the time.”

“‘Most’ is not the correct word. We’ve known each other but days. It’s impossible at this juncture to know if that word has relevancy.”

He grinned at me.

And then he did what he was known to do very well on a battlefield. Something that caused my sister no end of complaint.

In our banter, with my lips swollen from his kisses and my body pressed close to his, he perpetrated a sneak attack.

“What vials was that Go’Doan talking about, Elena?”

“Please don’t ask me that,” I said softly.

He studied me.

“You are right,” I relented. “We must share. We must do it openly. But don’t ask too much of me too quickly, Cassius. You’ve been a husband. You’ve…dallied.”

The reflection left his gaze as humor sifted back in.

“I have indeed dallied, my warrior,” he murmured.

“I have not.”

He grew serious.

I continued to speak.

“My mentor, Melisse, taught me that if you find a raging river you need to cross, you might make it if you take a great bound. However, you are more likely to find yourself falling into the waters, lost to them. But if you took your time and studied the riverbank, eventually, you would find safe passage.”

“Your mentor sounds wise.”

“This is why she’s a mentor.”

He gave me a squeeze with his arms, stating, “You’ll have what you wish, my princess. I’ll give you today, and tomorrow, and the next day as well.”

I didn’t want to smile at him. I fought it.

But I was almost certain part of it leaked.

Cassius released me with one arm and tucked my hair behind my ear before he fully released me.

He walked to the door but didn’t open it.

He turned back to me.

“I will share in my rooms tonight when we have privacy guaranteed. But much is happening that if you don’t know of it, you need to. To that end, it would be cataclysmic now much more than it normally would if Serena assumed reign of the Nadirii.”


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