[color=#b97703]“You might be later,”[/color] Cas winked at Iris flirtatiously when she said she wasn’t hungry. He was already craving food, since he hadn’t eaten in the last seven hours, but at the moment, he was hungry for a different kind of satisfaction. The dinner plates on the cart could wait until later. Their food wouldn’t be that bad served cold, after all, so he laced his fingers with hers and gave her hand a tug as they made their way to the staircase that carried them up to the bedroom on the upper level of the suite.

Though he was used to the luxury of high born life, he’d never actually stayed at the Sunset Veil before, and even he thought their room was beautiful. There was a certain sense of freedom in spending the night at a hotel too. For most of his life, he’d been expected to be at home between the hours of midnight and six in the morning because of his father’s paranoia that his life would be in danger if he was ever outside at night. His family hadn’t spent much time outside the mansion either. When his mother had been alive, she would occasionally persuade the king to indulge her with short, weekend-long vacations to one of the other resorts in the capital that she loved. However, ever since she had passed away, Atlas had lost all interest in traveling even a few blocks away.

As Iris pulled him over to the edge of the bed by the hand, a smile alighted on Caspian’s features. Her eagerness was encouraging to him, an assurance that she was looking forward to being with him just as much as he was with her. He placed his hands on her hips, tracing her smooth skin with his fingers as she pulled his trousers down from his waist. In the low, yellow light of the bedroom she looked even more stunning to him than she normally did. The glow reflected softly against her fair, almost naked body, and he took a slow breath, his eyes flicking up to her face just before he leaned in to kiss her again.

In the back of his mind, something halfway between insecurity and curiosity still festered. He couldn’t help but wonder what she thought now that his clothes had been torn away. He wasn’t necessarily ashamed of his physique, since he’d worked out often before and had musculature to boast of, but there was something raw and vulnerable about being so bare with another person. For one who had never been more than shirtless around a woman before, it was impossible not to notice the difference.

Tangling his tongue with hers, he snaked his hands around her back to find the clasp of her bra, his heart pounding fiercely with excitement. Though the nerves didn’t fully disappear, they were hardly noticeable in comparison with the overwhelming thrill of finally crossing the lines that he’d never reached before. However, when he located the fastening, he faltered slightly, inexperience finally making itself known. He pulled back from the kiss and grimaced sheepishly. [color=#b97703]“Sorry…”[/color] he breathed. [color=#b97703]“I haven’t… gotten this far, and I don’t…”[/color] Flushing scarlet, he quickly pressed a kiss to her cheek and then to her neck as an excuse to peer over her shoulder to try to see the troublesome clasp.