The Summer King and His Winter Bride-Chapter 56: Jealousy

The door slammed shut behind Casimir with a force that rattled the lanterns on the walls, as soon as Cyrus walked out.

Caroline flinched. "You could have knocked."

"I shouldn’t have to," Casimir growled, voice like thunder. "Especially not, when you’re entertaining a Spring Court viper in my war chambers."

She turned to face him, spine straight and chin high. "He came in uninvited."

"But you still listened to him," he snapped, stepping closer. "You heard him out, as if his silver tongue hadn’t already stolen enough from the realm. As if he didn’t keep you prisoner in his little glade like a trophy on a shelf."

Caroline’s eyes flashed. "Don’t pretend this is about me. You’re angry because he offered something you didn’t."

He stopped in front of her, breath hot with fury. "Don’t twist this."

"Am I?" she shot back. "You’re furious because I didn’t slam the door in his face and let him speak."

"Because you let him stand that close to you," Casimir hissed. "Because I walk in, to see the two of you conspiring in shadows while I’m out hunting down a rebellion out to destroy both our thrones."

"He offered support!" she shouted. "He offered something tangible while you...."

He grabbed her arms. "While I what?"

The words were lost on her tongue.

His voice lowered with something deeper than rage. "While I bleed for you? While I burn for you, every damn day? While I hold this fragile court together with the last shreds of my will, only to walk in here and see him standing by your side?"

Her eyes widened.

He stepped closer, hands still on her arms. "Say it, Caroline. Say you trust him more than me."

She swallowed, her heart hammering. "I don’t trust him. But I don’t know if I trust you either."

That cracked something in him.

His hands loosened but his eyes never left hers, he was furious, wounded, burning with heat he couldn’t name.

"Then what are we?" he asked, voice hoarse. "Because I look at you and I can’t think. I can’t breathe and it kills me to imagine anyone else close to you."

Then she surged forward with a fist pounding against his chest, "you don’t get to make me feel like I betrayed you. I stood alone while this realm crumbled and now you want to be angry because I heard Cyrus out?"

He caught her wrist firmly, yet gently, and with a rough exhale, pulled her towards him.

Then he kissed her.

Furious. Desperate. Burning with want and need.

She gasped but her body betrayed her as she leaned into him, lips crashing back with equal fire. Her hands tangled in his tunic as she dragged him down, answering the dull ache that had lived beneath her ribs for weeks.

The kiss wasn’t gentle. It was passionate.

When they broke apart, breathing raggedly with their foreheads pressed together, neither of them spoke for a long moment.

"I hate that I want you," she whispered. 𝚏𝕣𝕖𝚎𝚠𝚎𝚋𝚗𝐨𝐯𝕖𝕝.𝕔𝐨𝕞

He smiled bitterly. "Then we’re even."

Caroline’s breath shuddered as his forehead rested against hers with their noses brushing, the world suspended in that fragile moment.

"Why do I want you so?" she asked breathlessly.

Casimir’s eyes searched hers, some of the storm fading from his expression.

"Because deep down you love me, stop fighting it," he said, his voice low, rough with restraint.

"Just for one moment... stop."

Her fingers were still tangled in the front of his tunic. His hands moved up, slowly, cradling her face like he was afraid she might vanish.

"No thrones. No courts. No Cyrus," he murmured.

"No wars," she added.

He leaned in again, this time slower, gentler. Their lips met and the anger melted. This kiss was no longer about fury or jealousy. It was need. It was longing, as his mouth moved over hers like he was trying to remember something he’d only known in dreams.

She pressed closer, her hands sliding up to his shoulders and then into his hair. His arms wrapped around her waist, holding her like he hadn’t realized just how much he’d missed her.

When he pulled away, just a fraction, she kissed his mouth before he whispered against her lips, "I thought I lost you."

"You did and I nearly lost you too."

Casimir’s thumb traced the corner of her mouth. "Caroline..."

She didn’t let him finish. She kissed him again just deeper this time, achingly sweet, like she was finally letting herself want him completely and he kissed her back like it was all he’d been waiting for.

They stayed there wrapped in each others arms beneath the candlelight, allowing their hearts to remember what it was like to be at home in each other’s arms.

His breath was warm on her skin as she pulled him down into another kiss, this one unhurried, aching with a longing that had been buried for too long.

He followed her instinctively, pressing her back until she felt the silk of the settee beneath her. She gasped softly as his hands slid down her sides, over the fabric of her gown, reverent and firm like he was trying to memorize her shape.

"Tell me to stop," he said hoarsely, his mouth trailing kisses down her throat.

She arched her back giving him more access while whispering, "don’t you dare."

Their lips met again more frantic now, as Casimir groaned softly when her fingers slid under his tunic, grazing the warm skin of his back.

He tugged her bodice open with trembling urgency, but there was nothing hurried in the way he touched her once the fabric loosened, his fingers lovingly brushing over her bare shoulders with devotion like they were made of starlight.

She arched into him, feeling the tremble in his restraint as he kissed her collarbone, her throat, then lower, sliding his tongue in between her breasts.

"I want to remember you like this," he whispered.

She let out a soft moan as her fingers laced through his hair.

Clothes fell away between kisses. Silk rustled to the floor, her crown lay forgotten on a nearby table. They weren’t royalty now just bare flesh, ice and fire. His weight settled over her, warm and solid, and her body responded with a sigh so deep it felt like she was unraveling.

When he finally sank into her, they both gasped. Her fingers digging into his back, his mouth at her shoulder. It wasn’t just the physical connection that undid them it was everything behind it. The love. The yearning. The unbearable hope.

They moved together in a slow, desperate rhythm. Not the rough claiming of passion but the worship of something delicate. She whispered his name like a plea and he kissed her like he was fulfilling a promise.

"I never stopped loving you," he said between breaths.

Tears welled in her eyes as she cupped his face. "Then don’t let me go this time."

He kissed her again deeply and shaking with pleasure as she broke under him, breath catching as the waves swept her under. He followed soon after, with a groan against her throat, his whole body shuddering with release.

They stayed tangled in each other’s arms through the night with skin damp and their hearts still racing long after.

They were no longer king and queen trying to settle a disagreement, they were now husband and wife relishing each other into the dawn of a new day.