dip your toes in

At least it wasn’t London this time. He’d been bricking it when he’d buckled in on Hector’s private jet the last time. Going back to the place where he’d been held captive for years had been terrifying, even though, objectively, he knew he was safe now. Wesley was dead, Magnus had saved him. Maybe he’d been deluding himself about that a little, a virus had turned him into a murderous dick, after all, but he’d had that reminder that his dad, and Cassie, would always be fighting to save him when things went wrong.

Holding tight to Cassie’s hand, Linc had walked the gangplank (were they even called that now or was Hector clinging on to 17th century pirate lingo on his boat?) onto the ship, mentally pushing away his trepidation about being stuck on a boat in open water for days. When the engine kicked in and they pulled away from the dock he’d expected to embarrass himself and be the first vampire in history to come down with sea sickness, but the minute he’d realised him and Cassie could get time alone on that floating monolith those nerves had vanished.

There wasn’t time or the mental space to worry about what he’d done when he hadn’t been himself. With the sun on his shoulders as they floated around in the pool, as he tasted sunblock on Cassie’s skin when they made the most of Hector and Magnus’ handling the actual sailing in their cabin, the virus, that nasty voice that’d been in his head and even the prison world seemed a million miles away.

Nobody wanted to work on holiday, but the Blue Lagoons he’d made had been worth the work as he kissed the taste of them from Cassie’s lips. Linc traced his tongue over his lower lip, chasing the mingled taste of liquor and her until he saw Cassie slipping into the water in what was definitely his favourite bikini so far. The cool pool water should’ve taken the edge off as he slipped in too, but it was the opposite as Cassie nudged him back into the side of the pool.

Slipping his arms around Cassie’s waist, Linc pulled her in tight. His gaze dropped to her smile. He loved seeing her all lit up like the sun, excitement spilling out of her. He draw it in, sweet as the cocktails, his own grin growing. ”Nah, it’s not stupid. I haven’t either. They’ll probably have buckets and spades to buy.” And Lawrence and Remzi would probably mock him mercilessly for it, but fuck it, this was to make Cassie happy. Sliding his hand up her back, he toyed with the dangling strings of her bikini top, snickering lightly. ”Maybe Kit’ll finally crack a smile.” Considering they were on a super expensive boat, going to a tropical paradise, it was the least he should do.

Lawrence. Ugh. Things were still awkward enough after their run in during the virus days that his grin dimmed for a moment. Aruba felt like the sort of place for an apology, but they weren’t there yet. Squinting against the sun, Linc forced his smile to brighten again. ”It’s definitely the place for it. We’ll make a list: sandcastles, clubbing and coconut drinks.” Another room to themselves, if Magnus was as distracted about it as he’d been when they’d come on board the boat. Maybe that was Hector still watching out for him, keeping Magnus out of the way.

Continued silence wasn’t guaranteed, but God, he wanted it. The phone call they’d had while he’d been sick had played on his mind the whole time he’d been gone. The remembered sound of Cassie’s voice as she’d … heat rushed in two directions as it came back to him now. As if she could read his mind, Cassie’s gaze dropped to his lips – or maybe she could feel the effect the memory still had on him, it was pressed right there between them, growing as she got even closer and kissed him. Linc let the heat out through that kiss, dipping his tongue between her parted lips, chasing the sweetness that was all Cassie this time.

They’d been here before on his birthday, sat on his bed, focused on each other a thousand times more than the film, sprawled on it afterwards as he’d kissed his way down her throat. Linc’s mind leapt ahead down that path, taking this feverish kiss and turning it into a deeper taste of Cassie before Magnus had found them.

As though he’d actually heard Magnus approaching, his dad-dar pinging at the first hint of sordidness, Linc stiffened in the non-sexy way as Cassie inched back. It wasn’t because someone had come to break them up, it was just what he’d spent those months with Hector imagining. ”Yes … yeah … definitely,” he managed, his grin pressed against her lips as Cassie kissed him again. He’d wondered if this trip would be when they’d really do it, but even hoping it felt like it’d leave his intentions written all over his face for someone to see and shut down.

Getting out of the water was awkward when he didn’t want Cassie to stop clutching at him like that … and when, well … The towel he knotted around his waist mostly hid that, but the hand holding tight to Cassie’s felt as damp from nerves as from the pool water. Linc swallowed hard as they finally made it to the room and the door closed behind them. He gripped the top of his towel. If his followed hers she would definitely see what the kissing in the pool had done to him. It wasn’t anything she hadn’t seen before. If the heat had disappeared at all during their walk, it came rushing back the second Cassie’s hands were on him. He dropped his head like he could launch back into their kiss, but she was already drawing back and settling on the bed.

Taking a deep breath, he peeled his towel off, adding it to Cassie’s. His trunks were still wet, but if they … well they might not be on for long. He swank down beside her on the bed, close enough that he could feel the damp, bare skin of her thigh against his as he shook his head, then stopped and shrugged. ”Not really … not like this, I mean, with someone I care about.” Bringing Wesley and the torture he’d inflicted felt like it would bring all of this to a screaming halt, but he didn’t want to hide it from her.

”I told you about Wesley usin’ me to tempt girls into the club, didn’t I?” Linc’s gaze twitched to hers for a moment, then away as nerves got the better of him again. ”Sometimes it was just flirtin’, or kissin’, sometimes it was more and he’d force me to … to do it with them. None of it felt right. Not the way it always does with you. What we did on my birthday, on the phone, that all felt like the first time.” Turning towards her, Linc let his gaze meet hers finally. ”Have you?” he asked quietly. He inched a little closer, setting his hand lightly on her knee – such an innocent spot, but it still felt like Cassie’s skin was searing his.

Tagged: CASSIE LUANNA * Word Count: 1224

Like a brush of her fingers, Linc was sure he could feel the touch of Cassie’s gaze skimming over his face. Heat had already rushed there, the faint stain of embarrassment – over his reaction out in the pool, over a past he’d had no control over – still there high on his cheekbones. It wasn’t the first time he’d told her little bits of how his childhood had gone, but this was one of the hardest to talk about. The things Wesley had forced him to do if he wanted to stay alive. He’d always wondered if his parents had done the same, or if it had been the dr*gs they’d been desperate for or if they’d been forced into all of that to stay alive. It sure as hell had never felt like they were doing any of that for him.

Things were different now, that world left thousands of miles behind him as Magnus had shown him another. It’d been like going through some curtain that made everything look different from the other side. He was on a boat in the middle of the ocean with his dad and his girlfriend, heading on a holiday he couldn’t have imagined then. It was a little easier to talk about it, the distance from those years only feeling greater when he was about to rewrite some of what had happened then with Cassie.

It wasn’t disgust on her face when he finally looked up at her. Cassie’s smile could always draw one out of him, no matter what sort of a spiral his thoughts had slipped into. His lips curled into a shy smile as he glanced away again. She made it feel like whatever had happened was alright, like whoever he’d been then he didn’t have to be now, and he knew wouldn’t be with her. This time was gonna be different, special in a way it had never been before – although if this wasn’t her first time, that might not end up feeling like it was the best ever time for her.

Raking her teeth over his lower lip, clamping them there as Cassie said yeah, Linc felt his nerves twang again. So, maybe he was gonna be at the bottom of her list of how well it had gone, while she was a million miles away from all the others at the top of his. Swallowing hard, he let his lip slip free, his fingers twitching lightly on her knee before Cassie was pushing back. ”But you have done it …” he said softly. Somehow that didn’t make it feel any easier. Remzi and Lawrence probably would’ve scoffed like Tweedledee and Tweedledum if he admitted to any sort of performance anxiety, but he was feeling it and, God, he didn’t want to let that stop him.

He turned on the bed, angling closer towards Cassie, all the better to go with her as she reached out for his hand. Linc’s lips curled again. It was easy to go with her, squeezing her hand as he felt the tremors run through it. Was she as nervous as he was? She never seemed to let it show, always being the one to make the first move, to … His throat went dry as Cassie settled his fingers on her hip, right on top of the string that’d looked like it would come lose with just a little tug of his fingers.

Twisting to get a knee up on the bed properly, Linc followed her. His hand still there on the string, fingers tightening on the string, tugging lightly, the other planted on the mattress to brace him as he leaned down to meet her lips as she moved it to kiss him. ”I can’t believe we’re getting to do this,” he breathed against her lips. He was gonna have to thank Hector later, because this definitely wouldn’t have happened without him. He made a small sound in the back of his throat, dipping deeper into the kiss as Cassie’s had slid up to grip his forearm – pushing him on? Slowing him down? He wasn’t sure he could do the latter when he already had his thumb slipping beneath the string, ready to tug the loosened knot apart.

Each move Cassie made up the bed, Linc followed her, caught in her sway, in her big blue eyes as they met his. Linc smiled into the kiss, his hips slowly sinking down onto the mattress beside hers, his upper body still craned over hers. As much as parts of him were straining to take this further than they had ever done, some part of him would’ve been happy to stay right here like this with her forever.

Linc’s head dipped as Cassie broke free of the kiss, as though he could chase it. His lips pursed slightly, his brows rapidly drawing together as Cassie’s expression shifted. ”Hey,” he breathed softly, he propped himself on his elbow and hip, his hand coming up from the string of Cassie’s bikini to settle at her cheek. ”What wasn’t?” The pieces fell into place as she apologised and admitted she was nervous. She hadn’t done it before, the nerves that had riddled him were so much worse for her.

Shaking his head, Linc offered her a small smile. ”You could never do anything stupid or wrong right now. You didn’t before and this is no different. I promise.” His thumb brushed lightly over the point of her chin as he kissed her forehead, then her lips softly again. ”We’re gonna go slow and if you want to stop at any point, you just have to say, alright? We’ll do it all at your speed, as far as you wanna go. I really want to, I really want you Cassie … I’m nervous too.” Because it was with her, someone he’d come to care about so much since she’d talked her way into the club. Linc’s lips brushed hers again softly, his hand slowly drifting down her body again, grazing her shoulder, the curve of her chest, her belly, back to her hip. ”Is this alright?” he asked softly, pulling back just far enough to meet her eyes as he tugged at the tie again, slowly sending that knot unravelling.

Tagged: CASSIE LUANNA * Word Count: 1043

The truth could’ve been a tidal wave, sweeping through the cabin, washing away the need that still hummed beneath everything else. Maybe that had been what Cassie was expecting. Like a complete arsehole who was only interested in girls who were experienced enough to know tricks he couldn’t even imagine, he’d push her away, turned off by her inexperience. That couldn’t have been further from the truth. From the minute she’d tried to talk her way into the club she’d been so different from everything and everyone he’d known before. The club back in London had been all darkness and threatened violence, the people who walked through the doors started to drain of life the second they stepped through the doors. Cassie was the opposite, she brought life to him, sparkling with it like a firework. Colour and sound that fizzed and popped against his skin. So pretty and tempting that he’d wanted to touch her, even if Magnus ended up being right and she was somehow dangerous.

There wasn’t a damn thing that felt that way about her now. Just a softness, a light, a truth that Cassie had shared with him. He wanted to cradle it and her in his hands, protecting it somehow from the darkness he might end up bringing into it all. The life he’d had with Wesley had been the furthest thing from normal, everything he’d learned to do there shed as fast as possible, but he was never sure how much of it had continued clinging to him. Last thing he wanted to do was have it infecting her life too.

Linc’s smile was bashful as he drew back, Cassie’s giggle shivering over his skin. Plenty. He could’ve told her that he was terrified he was gonna do something to her that he thought was expected of him when really it was some other twisted up lie Wesley had convinced him was some sort of universal truth. ”Cause this is gonna be my first time too,” he whispered. A line drawn between what had been and what he had now with Cassie. His heart stuttered in his chest as Cassie admitting she wanted to do everything. Linc puffed out a little breath, wanting to dive straight into the pool of what the night could be like. ”Me too,” Linc promised, meeting her eyes for a moment. There was still a chance they’d stop at some point before the end, but he didn’t think they would – unless he did something wrong.

Right. This was so right. The running commentary started in the back of his mind, reassurances layered on as Cassie’s mouth fell open, as her breathing sped up, dragging his along with it. She was shifting subtly as the tie slithered through his fingers, the fabric going loose, leaving him space to shift over. Forcing himself to stay slow, Linc eased himself over her hips, Cassie’s hand in the waistband of his shorts driving him. A shiver ran through him as that part of him that had been ready for this from the moment Cassie had pushed him back into the side of the pool brushed against her damp skin. Linc settled there, feeling her belly, so cool to start with but warming rapidly, against his own

He sank into the kiss, making a small, needy sound as Cassie’s. Each little look she gave him as they parted for her to breathe worked its way deep. The heat that grew between them spread up into his chest, wrapping around his heart. Linc dropped his other hand to the still tied side of her bikini bottoms, one tug and the fabric could slither out between them. One shove at his wet trunks and there would be nothing between them. The words that had been about to slip hotly from his lips faded there as Cassie found her voice first. ”Y-you…” Linc stuttered. He swallowed hard, his hand squeezing her hip instead of pulling the knot free. ”When I went into the stone, I thought I might never get to tell you that I loved you. I do. Cassie, I love you too.” The words had been trapped in his throat on the day he’d been brought back and she’d been right there waiting for him, now they flew free.

Linc whispered them again against her lips, hoping she’d drink them in and they’d permanently etch themselves into her heart. Slowly he eased down the bed, just a couple of inches at a time. Each time his lips touched her skin he whispered the words again until he was incapable of even that much. The tie of her bikini bottoms gave way a moment before his hand slipped beneath her back to tug her bikini top free too. His mouth covered her skin, his hand lifting her to him eventually, the glide of his tongue and lips paving the way for what was to come. Then his shorts were gone and he was rising back up, his mouth taking hers as he slid home and those fireworks fizzed under his skin, the count down to their joint explosion starting.

Tagged: CASSIE LUANNA (wrap with yours?) * Word Count: 876