Chapter 137: Fairytale Kiss
At his words, I paled almost as much as Cassian. I could almost imagine the nightmarish scenario playing in my head. Me, wearing nothing but my birthday suit, lying on top of an equally naked and unconscious Cassian in a bid to help him recover.
Goddess help me. A shudder enveloped me, and goosebumps formed on my skin.
"Think about it," Samuel continued, completely uncaring of the way my face turned into a white sheet. "If you hug him, it could take minutes, maybe even hours. Goddess forbid, days. If you kiss him, it could be just one peck, and it might do more than a simple hug."
He shrugged.
"If it’s between the two, personally, there’s a lower chance that Alpha Rowan will find you locking lips with Cassian, compared to hugging Alpha Cassian naked for days straight. But then again, who am I to decide? I am merely a humble healer―"
"Okay! You don’t have to say anything more," I interrupted him, holding a hand up to stop him from explaining further. "I’ll kiss him," I said, spitting out the words as though it physically hurt me to do so.
My head was so utterly delirious that I hadn’t even noticed Samuel’s lips twitching in amusement, nor the fact that he had spurted so many words from his mouth at one go this time, with much more emotion and fervor than he usually did.
I sucked in a breath and tried to calm down as I stepped closer to Cassian’s prone body. Slowly, I knelt down so that our faces were barely a hair’s breadth apart. My breath came out in a little sigh, and his eyelashes fluttered in response.
He was clearly in dire straits. If he had any strength left, Cassian would have immediately flinched and shoved me away. He would never have agreed to let me kiss him, even with his dying breath.
Well. Now he was actually dying. This kiss was simply a life-saving measure, I rationalized to myself. What I was doing was essentially the same as when I had donated blood to save Willow. This time, I was merely donating my lips.
It wasn’t as though I had never kissed this specific face before. I had no reason to be squeamish or reluctant. I stared down at Cassian’s pale face and wiped the traces of blood on his lip with the pad of my finger.
"You owe me so much for this," I said, steeling myself.
I closed my eyes and took in another deep breath, as though I was diving into the ocean, and leaned forward, pressing my lips on his.
A few seconds passed, and I dared not move. My eyes remained shut. When I didn’t hear a reaction, I opened my eyes warily to see that Cassian’s face had not changed. It was still as pale and unmoving as before.
I didn’t know what I expected to happen, but it certainly wasn’t nothing. I frowned.
"He’s not moving," I said plainly, turning to look at Samuel.
Samuel raised an eyebrow.
"What?" he asked. "Did you expect this to be like a fairytale? Last I checked, Little Red Riding Hood didn’t give the Big Bad Wolf a romantic kiss to wake him from his slumber."
I gritted my teeth. "Samuel..."
"Relax," Samuel said. "Maybe your Snow White is just a little harder to wake up than others. He is more stubborn than most." He shrugged. "Try again. And stop planting your lips so rigidly against his. It is your bond that’s supposed to cure him. You are his fated mate, a living, breathing woman, not a mannequin. You could try embracing him, and using your tongue. It’s almost painful to watch―"
"No one said you had to watch!" I all but shrieked. The apples of my cheeks turned red with embarrassment, and I wanted nothing more than to bury my head into the sand and die. I had to stick my tongue in Cassian’s mouth?! Just the very thought made me scream into my hands. This wasn’t what I was promised.
Maybe death was the preferable option.
Samuel simply ignored my hysterics, merely made a shooing motion with his hands before turning around, leaving me the space and privacy to do a second try. "I won’t look, so please, put your best foot forward. Or in this case, your lips."
I flushed, turning back to stare at Cassian. He still had a bit of dried blood by the corner of his lip, but otherwise, he looked peaceful. After that spurt of blood, Cassian had gone still, almost as though he had died.
However, if I looked hard enough, he did seem to have a little more color in his cheeks than he did just moments ago. Maybe I was merely comforting myself, but the kiss seemed to have worked, no matter how little.
"It’s okay," I whispered a tiny pep talk to myself. "At least I’m not hugging him naked. This is just a lot of kisses!"
I inhaled deeply to gather some courage for myself. Then, I leaned in again. This time, my lips slowly grazed across his.
Cassian’s lips were warm, unlike the cold feeling a dead body might have. And surprisingly, it was supple as well. Previously, I had simply pressed my lips against him as though I was a child who was pressing two dolls’ faces together in a kiss. But now, I slowed down my movement and tried my best to calm down my racing heart.
I puckered my lips a little more, lingering for a second before deciding to pull away. However, before I could completely pull back, a hand suddenly cupped the back of my head. Originally, my eyes were half-hooded over, but they instantly widened with surprise.
The force at the back of my head kept me pressed against Cassian’s lips. It took me a split second to realize that Cassian himself was the one holding me in place. He was alive! His lips moved eagerly against mine as though he was a starved beast, hungry for more.
My hands instinctively pressed against his chest, trying to push away, but Cassian’s kisses merely got fiercer. His tongue ran across my lips, coaxing them open before slipping in. The moment it did, I felt my entire body turn limp. Whatever strength I had to push him away quickly disappeared, and I all but melted into his hold.
His hand slid down from the back of my head to cup the back of my neck instead, gently but firmly holding me in place. His kisses were almost frantic, and each movement sent a tremor darting through me. I could even faintly feel my core coiling with want, and the mark on my neck began to tingle and heat up when Cassian’s finger accidentally brushed across it.
The burning sensation spiked all of a sudden, and I bit down in shock. Cassian hissed, and just like that, the kiss finally ended, and we both jolted back. The corner of Cassian’s lip now had fresh blood from when I bit his lip, while I could taste the metallic tang on my tongue.
His tongue darted out to lick the wound, but his eyes were entirely trained on mine. The gold of his irises was slightly glowing, almost pulsing with energy.
On the other hand, I breathed heavily, swallowing mouthful after mouthful of air as I tried to calm my erratically racing heart.
"Ah, good to see you’re back in the land of the living, Alpha," Samuel said. He lazily leaned against the wall as he watched us, his arms folded across his chest. "Miss Briar certainly went above and beyond to save your life. I’m very pleased to see my hypothesis was correct."
I clenched my jaw, quickly stepping further back from Cassian as I frantically wiped my mouth on the sleeve of my shirt. I needed to wipe away the memory of that kiss, of how good it felt to press my lips on his and mean it. It was so good that I completely forgot that Cassian and I weren’t the only two people in the room - Samuel was there, and judging from his words, he had been watching us for quite a while.
Who knew from which point Samuel turned over? How much did he see? Did he see everything?
Nonetheless, Samuel got one thing right. Previously, Cassian was one step away from turning into a corpse. Now, he had a lot more life in him. My eyes traveled downward a little, and instantly, I felt my cheeks burn when I noticed a certain part of him.
The gray sweatpants that he had on emphasized a lot more than they needed to. My throat went dry instantly, and I couldn’t seem to look away, partly in surprise and partly in horror that he had such a strong reaction to a kiss.
Maybe he was now too alive. I wouldn’t mind if that part of him died.
Cassian’s gaze followed after mine, and when he realized what I was looking at, he quickly shifted his position and frowned.
"What are you looking at?!"