WARNING: THIS CHAPTER CONTAINS CONTENT OF A SEXUAL NATURE BETWEEN CONSENTING ADULTS. IF YOU ARE UNCOMFORTABLE WITH SMUT, DON'T READ. BUT HEY, YOU DO YOU.

Ignoring any of her protests, Caius insisted on her spending the night in his quarters instead of her own room.

She couldn't say she didn't understand, though. He was right, in that the trial she'd been injured in could've gone a lot worse than it had. If there was one thing she was learning about the true mate bond, it was that it wasn't keen on her being put in any form of danger.

When she'd gotten up to find herself some pyjamas from her own room, Caius was instantly standing in front of her with one of his shirts.

Eliana looked to the white button up and then back at him with a slightly teasing smile. "You really don't want me leaving this room, do you?"

"You have no need to for the time being," he argued. "Get dressed and get some sleep, carina. You need the rest."

He held the door to his bathroom open for her until she was inside and closed it behind her. Once he heard the click of the lock, which he knew wouldn't actually do anything to stop him from breaking in if he needed to but that was irrelevant, he walked over to his desk and slowly began to tidy his workspace.

Honestly, he'd let the state of that area get away from him, which was why he tended to prefer working in his office instead, but as far as he was concerned, if it distracted him from the sound of his mate undressing, it was a suitable activity.

Contrary to his frequent teasing, Caius was as reluctant to push her into frankly anything she wasn't ready for as either of his brothers. It wasn't very frequently he met humans this innocent, this naive, this purely unknowing. There was so much for her to learn, but that didn't mean she couldn't learn at her own pace instead.

As he began moving files into his desk drawers, the bathroom door opened, but since he'd turned so slowly, Eliana was already in his bed by the time he saw her. Just as he'd expected, his shirt was far too big on her, one side exposing her completely bare shoulder. The sheets pulled over her bust, which was likely a good thing considering the thin material the shirt was made of, she instantly turned over and closed her eyes.

Caius approached her at a human pace and crouched at the side she was sleeping at. Her lip was still quite swollen, possibly slightly more so than before, and judging by her expression she could feel it too. His knuckles brushed against her smooth cheek.

"Do you need some pain medication?" he asked her quietly.

Eliana shook her head. "I just want to sleep . . ."

Caius couldn't help but smile. "Of course. I'll be here if you need anything. Sogni d'oro," he murmured as he kissed her forehead.

To Caius' surprise, Eliana had managed to sleep for a solid 11 hours. So that he could be closer to her without disturbing her, he opted to work in an armchair near the bed with his laptop, which wasn't exactly ideal but at least meant that he wouldn't have to leave her side to go to his office.

Throughout the night, he'd been more than relieved to see the swelling around her mouth completely disappear, just as expected. There was still a cut on her lip which would almost certainly cause her discomfort for the next few days, but it was progress regardless.

Caius still didn't know how he'd let himself lose sight of her like that. It had been him who had persuaded his brothers to allow her to attend in the first place. She was one small responsibility.

If memory serves, Marcus had only gotten injured by running over to her as she fell, and even then the head of the nomad that had injured him had been removed that same millisecond.

However, before he could ponder that thought any further, there was a stirring in the bed. Eliana's heartbeat began to speed up gradually as she yawned and stretched her legs. The covers fell to her stomach, which left her chest barely concealed by the fabric of his shirt. Just the sight of the shape of her breasts was enough to force him to close his eyes and internally beat down his growing arousal.

"Hm?" Her eyes fluttered open as she slowly sat up. She immediately pulled the duvet higher over herself, which prompted Caius to open his eyes again. "Hey."

Caius closed his laptop and placed it on his bedside table. ""Hey," to you too. How did you sleep?"

"Um . . . okay, I think," she replied, still a little sleepy. "How long was I out for?"

"11 hours, approximately," he informed her. "You were extremely tired, and your mild concussion certainly didn't help."

Eliana hummed in agreement and leaned back against the pillows. On the plus side, as weird as she felt for sleeping for so long, she felt plenty better. Her mouth no longer felt like a balloon, and she could focus her vision for a prolonged period of time without her eyes crossing over. Her wrist still ached, but she wasn't at all surprised about that.

She held her arms out for Caius to join her, ignoring the fact that she knew she looked like nothing but a needy child. However, to his credit, he immediately joined her, his cool body feeling more than comfortable on the bruises that were beginning to form on her left side from her fall. He lifted her onto his lap carefully, with her front fortunately concealed by his chest while she kept her arms around him.

"Do you feel any better?" he asked her.

She nodded. "A lot. Thanks, Caius."

He raised an eyebrow. "What for?"

To that, she simply shrugged. "A lot of things."

Caius couldn't help but chuckle at that. She was so endearing with so little effort. "Oh how I love you, carina."

He grasped her chin and tilted it up so that he could kiss her lips how he'd wanted to the previous day but stopped himself due to how uncomfortable it was for her. This time, as she slowly kissed him back, their mouths moving against each other, there was no physical pain stopping her from taking things any further.

She adjusted herself so that she was straddling his lap, making the kiss at a much easier angle. By the time she'd reminded herself that she was only in a shirt and underwear, Caius already had one hand around her waist to pin her to him while the other remained further down, slowly sliding over her exposed skin.

The way her hips moved against his, this time intentionally, it was getting more than difficult to control himself. With a deep groan, he rolled her underneath him and his hands quickly reached for the buttons. She did nothing to stop him, if anything removing her wrist brace and tossing it aside so that she had more freedom to move. It was still aching a fair bit, but it wasn't too bothersome.

He had a hand at either collar of the shirt and pulled away from her lips. "If you want me to stop, you need only say," he reminded her.

Eliana nodded. "I'll keep that in mind," she whispered.

The moment their kiss resumed, the upper half of her body suddenly felt bare. She hadn't exactly counted on him simply tearing the shirt open in impatience.

They paused for a few seconds. Due to how out of breath she was, her chest moved up and down quickly with each small lungful of air she inhaled. Her breasts were certainly not large, by any means, but they still held a rounded shape, still enough for him to forever remember the sight for millennia to come.

"Fuck, you're so beautiful," he whispered as his left hand cupped her breast.

Eliana almost let herself forget how cold his hands were, so the contact, especially against her nipple, made her gasp and hold in her breath. Meanwhile, his lips meeting with her jaw and neck, his right hand began to slide further down her body and stop between her legs.

Evidently, there was still some hesitancy. Although she'd widened her legs to allow him more space, he wasn't oblivious to the spike in her heart rate.

"Like I said," he murmured against her ear, carefully putting a small amount of pressure against her sex from over her underwear, "if you want me to stop, you only need to say so. Okay?"

She nodded silently, only half-listening. Most of her attention was going towards stopping herself from rubbing herself against his hand. It was almost embarrassing, how needy and desperate she felt.

Just as he moved her underwear to the side and the tips of his fingers gradually began to work against her small bundle of nerves, manipulating it so perfectly and with such perfect precision that she arched her back and settled further into the pillows, a restrained moan left her parted lips.

At this point, Caius' attention was solely on her face and her clitoris. Her eyebrows were drawn together at the pleasure she was receiving, but she was clearly feeling awkward about showing it.

His thumb continued as before while his fingers skimmed towards her entrance. She was already wet, the faintest touch of him enough to arouse her.

Caius rested his forehead against hers and slowed his ministrations to murmur teasingly, "The walls are soundproof, carina. You can relax."

At that moment, he slid a finger inside her, soon joined by a second, and she let herself moan slightly louder than she had before. The way he so easily managed to get this kind of response from her — she never seemed to be able to make herself feel this way.

While Caius wanted to indulge himself in the thought of that same warm, tight heat around his cock, he kept his thoughts in line and continued to thrust his fingers into her. Each movement he made was calculated, seeing how he could incite more of a reaction from her.

Eliana knew for a fact that she was coming very close now. She couldn't help but move her hips with the careful thrusts of his fingers. Her fingers fisted the sheets beside her as her face tightened.

"C-Caius, uh . . ." She trailed off her mumbled sentence with a sigh.

He could listen to her say his name like that all day. "Ssh, Eliana, I told you to relax."

With those words, he began to increase his pace. Her soft moans and whimpers only became more frequent as he adjusted the rate he was moving at to make her inevitably climax in 3 . . . 2 . . . 1 . . .

She came hard against his fingers with a breathy garbled version of his name leaving her lips. He only withdrew once he saw her begin to jerk slightly from overstimulation.

Her hands had only just begun to loosen from the sheets. She slowly opened her eyes, not realising she'd even closed them in the first place, feeling completely and utterly spent. She couldn't remember a feeling even close to that in her life.

Eliana was aware of him moving to settle beside her. He gathered her up in his arms and kissed her tenderly. Damn it, she was so perfect without even trying.

"Are you okay?" he asked her after giving her a minute to calm down again. "You're being very quiet."

"Shocking, right?" she quipped. Her voice was still a little breathless. "I'm okay."

He stroked her hair back. "Are you sure?"

She nodded. "I've just never cum that hard in my life," she said frankly.

A laugh rumbled through Caius' chest. "Bless you, carina. That was nothing, I promise."

"Shit," she whispered, her eyes wide.

Still humoured by her reactions, he planted a kiss on her brow. "But that's for another time," he assured her. His fingertips traced her bare skin gently. "You're such a perfect mate."

"Wow, Caius dishing out compliments. Let me fetch my video camera," she teased.

Caius grumbled something under his breath that she knew was likely some kind of small insult, but she merely laughed that off.

She then glanced down between them and then back at him, and he had a feeling he knew exactly what she was about to say.

"What about-"

"No," he interjected quickly. He held her head to his chest, her ear pressed up to where a heartbeat should be heard. "Not today."

"A-Are you sure?"

"As tempting as you are, I assure you," He ran his thumb down her lip suggestively and she shivered, "that is certainly something to save for another time. For now, I can take care of that myself."

She nodded in understanding. "I love you," she sighed.

"Ti amo, piccola." He rubbed her back soothingly.

"If the other two heard," she began quietly, "um . . ."

"They'll get over it," Caius assured her. "In fact . . ."

She propped herself up to see him better and gave him a sceptical look. "What?"

"I don't think you want to know," he answered dismissively. "Forget I brought it up."

"What?" Eliana crawled up so that Caius had to roll onto his back to ensure she wouldn't hurt her wrist further. Her legs were straddling his hips as she leaned on his chest. "Tell me. Tell me, just tell me-"

"Okay, alright," he interjected. "Marcus was standing in the doorway for half of the time."

Just as her jaw dropped in surprise and her eyebrows rose, he continued.

"He left once you climaxed," Caius explained. Eliana was too surprised to even react to his wording. "I think the man was hoping you wouldn't find out."

"So you sold him down the river," she concluded.

Caius shrugged nonchalantly. "In a manner of speaking. Would you have rathered it if he didn't see?"

"No, I just . . . I would have rathered to know," she replied. "That's all. I mean, if Aro can see from both of our perspectives, it's only fair, but it's just one of those things I wish I'd known. Next time there's someone standing around watching, I'd like a heads-up."

He raised an eyebrow at her. "So you're . . . not upset?"

After a few seconds, she shook her head. "I'm as comfortable with you as I am with either of them."

He hummed in thought. "Maybe next time, we could show you what it means to have three mates-"

"Please," she cut in, half-desperately, "three dicks could probably fucking kill me."

Caius abruptly began to laugh, and she could've sworn she heard deep laughter from somewhere nearby as well.

⊱ ────── {.⋅ ✯ ⋅.} ────── ⊰

Author's note: I've been lowkey excited to write this, so it's nice to finally get this chapter out. I'm a little rusty when it comes to writing this kind of thing, I'll admit, but I think this could've gone worse, honestly. I also feel a little weird about how I wrote Caius in this, but you know what? Fuck it, Soft!Caius is what we're doing today.

Anyway, thank you so much for reading, stay safe, and ily lots!