Page 117 of Born of Blood and Ash

“I’m not pretending.”

“Do you think I don’t know what you felt when you heard thatKolis had summoned you?” Ash demanded. “Do you really think I don’t know whatcaused you to scream in the middle of the night? Do you?”

My body flashed cold and then hot as eatherrose. I stepped back. “I am afraid of him. I’m fucking terrified of him and howhe makes me feel like I have no control over anything. Okay? Does it make youhappy to hear me say that?”

Ash flinched, the shadows stilling.

Shame scalded the back of my throat. I shouldn’t have saidthat, but fuck. Now was not the time for this. “But I’m more terrifiedof losing you, and you know that is possible.” I closed my eyes for a moment,then reopened them. “It hadn’t occurred to me until Aydun spoke. Kolis’s returnas the true Primal of Death made you vulnerable. But I’m sure you were fullyaware of that little fact.”

Jaw working, he looked away.

“Yeah, you knew, and we’re going to talk about that when Iget back,” I warned him. “Because I will be coming back, and I will probably bein a bad mood. So, be ready.”

His head turned toward me. A moment passed, and then thesmoky eather gathering around him collapsed intonothingness once more. “This isn’t right.”

“I know.”

Ash held my stare, and then his mouth was on mine. His headtilted, and he parted my lips with a fierce stroke of his tongue. A desperatewildness claimed him. Us. We’d been here before. Too many times. So Irecognized the madness in this kind of kiss. How it was a prayer and a curse. Apromise and a release in a clash of teeth and tongues and searching lips.Desire flooded my senses. His. Mine. Pure, red-hot lust overwhelmed everythingas his arm tightened around my waist. He lifted me onto the tips of my toes,and I could feel his hardness pressing against my belly. Desire pulsed throughme, pooling between my thighs. I moaned into his kiss as I struggled toremember exactly what we were supposed to be doing at the moment. This wasn’tit.

But damn, it felt so wrong to stop.

I wrenched my head away, panting. “We don’t have time forthis.”

His pupils were visible now, but his eyes were no lessbright. However, need fueled them now. “Fuck if we don’t.”

I gasped as Ash’s hands went to the band of my leggings. Heshoved them down, lacy undergarments and all. Somehow, he got one leg of thetight material over one boot.

“That was impressive,” I murmured.

Rising, his lips curled into a shadowy, silky smile as hedrew his hand up my leg, along my inner thigh. His mouth returned to mine,muffling my cry as his fingers delved between my thighs, parting the slick heatthere. The contrast between my warmth and his coldness was startling.

Ash groaned into my mouth, and between his touch and thatsound, I was undone. “Fuck it,” I moaned. “We’ll make time.”

Gripping my hips, he lifted me. I wrapped my legs around hiswaist. His tongue danced with mine as he moved. My back hit the wall near thedoors, as cold and hard as his body. I reached between us, grabbing the frontof his breeches. Our hands fumbled until he grew frustrated and ripped the flapopen. He shoved his pants down, and then he was filling me, inch by inch, hislength and girth stretching me. The bite of pain was delicious, and we bothshuddered.

There was nothing but an excess of pleasure and ecstasy,intensified by the deep, rumbling sounds he made as he thrust into me. Sinkingmy fingers into the soft strands of his hair, I reached up and clasped theshelf above me. Our mouths moved together, our tongues mirroring the pace ofhis hips. I thought I heard Nektas’s deep voice, andthen there was a sharp rap against the door.

“Five minutes are up,” Aydun called out.

Holding me against the wall, Ash broke the kiss, his hipsgrinding against mine. “We’re going to need—” His head fell back as I tightenedon his cock. The tendons of his neck stood out starkly. “We need anotherminute.”

“For fuck’s sake, if they’re—” His words cut off abruptly.

The inappropriateness of this. The ridiculousness. I bitdown on my lip, but a short, high-pitched giggle snuck free.

Ash’s head snapped forward, his veins pulsing with eather. “I love that sound.” His hand curled around my chinas the fingers at my hip dug in. “I love your smiles. I love your throatymoans.” His lips brushed mine. “I love how wet you are right now. And Iespecially love the way your pussy clamps down on my dick.”

Another giggle parted my lips, and Ash captured the soundwith his. Passion engulfed us, one not too different from what I’d felt when wewere on the bank of my lake right before he took me into the water. I couldfeel my fangs throbbing. The desire for his blood rose, but that would requireme to stop kissing him, and I couldn’t even bear the thought.

This truly was madness.

And maybe how close we came to losing one another and whateach of us was willing to do to keep the other safe was what drove us when Nektas and the Ancient waited only feet away. There was noway they didn’t know what was happening, but in that minute, I didn’t care. Iwas a fire in the flesh then, hungry for each thrust of his cock. Starving forhim. He was greedy for each sweep of my tongue, each breath he tasted. Hethrust hard and fast, and I met him just as fiercely.

And as the tension built and built until I didn’t think Icould exist for another second, and caught on that exquisite precipice, I knewthat despite how treacherous our future would be, how uncertain everything was,one thing would remain constant. The tempest within us peaked, taking us bothin the same heartbeat, and I knew there would always be us. Together. Always.

Ash’s breathing was ragged as aftershocks of pleasureskittered through us. “Liessa,” he rasped,pressing into me.

Several seconds passed—definitely more than a minute—but nosounds came from the hallway.

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