Page 41 of Flame and Starlight

He grabbed my jaw, his hand encompassing the entire thing, and forced me to look back at him. The alcohol made my eyes lazy. They traveled slowly up the length of his neck, over his sharp jaw covered in the smallest amount of stubble, and up further still over his full lips until they finally landed on his eyes. His thumb traced idle circles just below my ear where it sat. I licked my lips and his eyes found them instantly. We stayed like that for a while, the only two Fae standing in the middle of a dance floor not dancing. He held me perfectly still.

“You’re doing a very good job of convincing everyone I’m actually your plaything.”

Word vomit. Absolute word vomit just poured out of my mouth. I cursed the alcohol. He sighed and dropped his hand. He pulled me over to the bar, my drunken feet struggling to keep up in the heels I had worn. He picked me up, sat me on the barstool, and leaned over me with his hands on the bar. I flushed red again and not because of the alcohol.

“Can you stay out of trouble for two minutes while I go speak to Zemira?” I nodded and drunkenly leaned towards him without realizing it. His hand grazed the dagger at my thigh, and I bit my lip. “Alys,” he said as he leaned closer, his voice rough. “You have this for a reason. Use it if you have to.” I nodded again and wobbled on the stool when he disappeared into the crowd.

I turned around and got the attention of the bartender.

“Shots!” I said when he finally came over to me. “Let’s see how many I can do before the ball and chain gets back.”

He eyed me with one eyebrow lifted but sat some shot glasses down in front of me. “What’s your poison?”

“Whiskey,” I said, wiggling my eyebrows. He laughed and poured three of them full to the brim.

Turns out I was able to drink a total of six shots before Asher snuck up behind me. I was well and truly sloshed by the time he showed up, and I was laughing loudly at whatever it was the bartender had just said. Asher spun me around, and I watched as the world tried to catch up with my body. I giggled and hiccoughed.

The next thing I knew, I was thrown over his shoulder, and the whiskey was not liking the sudden movement.

“Everyone is upside down.” He swung me back into his arms. “Well, this feels familiar,” I said, waiting for my head to stop spinning. “At least I haven’t been beat to shit this time.”

He laughed and pushed us through the door into the snow. I let my head loll back, keeping a grip only my tiara, and tried to catch some flakes on my tongue.

“You’re drunk.”

I looked back to his face. “Thanks, Captain Obvious,” I slurred and laughed at my own joke. “Your face is so pretty,” I said, stroking a finger down his cheek. His jaw ticked, and his wings unfurled on either side of him. “So are they.” Before I could stop myself, I reached over his shoulder and ran my fingers across the slick feathers. They felt like the softest silk.

“Alys,” he growled. But I ignored him and pushed my entire open palm against the flat underside of his wing. He shot into the air, and while my left hand gripped onto his neck, my right hand that had been touching his wing grabbed onto the hard spine of it instinctively. “Shit, Alys,” he groaned into my ear. I let go and held on to his neck with both hands, suddenly much more sober.

“I’m sorry, I wasn’t ready!” He breathed heavily through his nose as the air whooshed around us. “What does it feel like?” I asked as my fingers drifted back to where they came out of his back. A very long minute passed in painful silence as my fingertips grazed their softness again.

He groaned again and shifted me so that I was straddling his waist, my dress riding up to my thighs and his hands gripping me against him in dangerous places. If it weren’t for the layer of fabric under his hands, I knew he’d be able to feel how much I wanted him. My arms were around his neck, trying to keep me from falling, and I buried my face in his neck.

“Some warning would be nice!” I hissed.

“You asked what it felt like,” he whispered into my ear. The deep tenor of his voice had me shamelessly pulling myself closer to his body.

“Yes,” I whispered back.

“Kind of like this,” he said as he trailed light kisses from just below my ear all the way down my neck. He went painfully slow, his breath warm in between each kiss. When he reached my shoulder, he nudged my head to the side, and I relaxed, giving his mouth more access to my skin. My breath was coming short and fast now as my magick hummed through my veins, begging for a release. Was I imagining what was happening? Was the alcohol turning this into more than it actually was?

“Mm, there’s that power again,” he said, and then with the tip of his tongue, he left a trail of flame back up to my jaw where he nipped me with a fang. “Am I the catalyst to that raw magick, Alys?” A whimper escaped my lips, and his throaty laughter that followed lit my blood on fire. I had to actively try to not move against him as my sensible side fought against my drunken side. He pulled his mouth away, and I opened my eyes to find his as we landed in front of our cabin.

I wiggled, and with another groan, he let me slide down. I quickly pushed through the door and into the warm living room of our cabin as I saw him adjust himself out of the corner of my eye. I smirked and headed straight for the bar in the corner and poured us a couple of drinks. His shadows, even though we were across the room from each other, still reached out from him and clung to me. I had a feeling I was going to need that drink.

CHAPTER NINETEEN

“What did Zemira have to say?” I asked as I turned around and offered him a glass. He stalked over to me, and I watched the thick column of his throat move as he downed the entire glass.

“I don’t want to talk about Zemira right now,” he said, sitting the glass down on the bar behind me.

“Oh?” I looked anywhere but his face as I tried to finish my glass as well, but my stomach wasn’t going to let that happen. He took the glass from my hand.

“If you drink any more, you’re going to really regret it tomorrow.” If I had been in this situation with Tom, I would’ve jumped at the chance to take him to bed. But he had never looked at me the way Asher had been these past couple of days. I hadn’t ever felt this strong of a connection with Tom either. What I was feeling for Asher went much deeper than what I had felt with anyone else. It was like the magick and dark power that was inside me ever since I changed called to the darkness within him.

“Where’d you go, Alys?” he asked as he gently took my face in his hands. I looked up at him and met his gaze.

“Do you still see Theron when you look at me?” Liquid courage was the only reason I was able to get that out. He stroked my cheeks with his thumbs, and a sad smile crossed his beautiful mouth.

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