Page 62 of Ash and Roses

I let him lead me out on a balcony I hadn’t noticed before. The stone parapet is adorned with carved roses that snake up the pillars before opening into a stunning bloom. The night sky is clear, and the stars seem to sparkle more tonight than I’ve ever seen them do before.

Quinn sighs beside me, leaning on the barrier as he stares up at the sky. “It’s been a long time since I’ve seen the moon like this. Even before the curse, I don’t think I ever took the time to look up.”

I follow his gaze and take in the waning moon, the truth behind his words weighing on my heart. I can’t imagine what that must have been like. To only see the full moon when you looked up to the sky, not being human for the other phases. I wouldn’t blame him if he grew to hate the moon itself.

I move closer to him. Our arms don’t touch, but I’m close enough to feel his warmth against the bare skin of my arms. “I feel like all I did was look up.” I guess I have my own reasons to dislike the moon, too.

He looks at me, his eyes studying my features as if searching for something. “What was it like? Was it all bad?”

I shrug. “It’s hard to know what’s bad when it’s normal for you. I don’t think life is easy there for anyone, but I’m not sure I really understood what it was like for them at all.”

“What do you mean?”

I think back to my last night there and the brief time I spent slinking through the city with Jade and Teagan. They had food. The Guardians didn’t seem to be brutalizing anyone—at least until the Commander showed up. Merrick said they did what they could to keep the people fed with forbidden hunting. It wouldn’t have been a pleasant life, but they were surviving. Without the unjust whippings, they might have even thrived.

“The only time I was allowed to leave the palace was during the Lunar Hunt and for public executions.”

“I refuse to believe that you never snuck out.”

I laugh, but it’s weighted. “No, I did. Even then, I was still on the palace grounds. The only time I really ventured into the city was the night I fled.”

He turns to me and places soft hands against my arms. The frosty chill dissipates and his warmth encompasses me. “You never have to be a prisoner again.”

My heart explodes at those words, as if I’d been waiting my entire life to hear them. There’s nothing I want more than the freedom to choose my own destiny, my own life. I can stay here, if that’s what I truly want.

But is that what I want?

I stare into his molten amber eyes, and find the only thing I want right now is him. Be it this bond between us or something else, I don’t care. Right now, in this moment, he’s all I need.

I reach for him, desperate to feel his lips against mine. His arms wrap tight around me, and then I’m weightless for a moment as he lifts me so that I’m sitting on the low stone wall and at eye-level with him. His mouth presses against mine, the same hunger and need coursing through me is radiating out of him. My hands are in his hair, and it’s everything I imagined it would be.

But it’s not enough. It’s not nearly enough.

I don’t want to break the connection between us, so I force whatever remains of my focus into a single thought and hope he hears it.

‘Bedroom. Now.’

He chuckles softly into me, and then I’m weightless again. I wrap my legs around him this time, and let him carry me. To where? I don’t care. If it weren’t for some level of modesty, I might have let him take me right there on the balcony.

He lowers me down onto the bed—our bed—and I have no idea how we got here so fast. He breaks our connection only seconds before climbing atop me, his lips trailing kisses down my neck and lower still. I hear the tear of fabric and scattering of beads as a wicked grin spreads across his lips before they move down to my now exposed breasts. His teeth pinch them between kisses, each time coaxing a gasp from me.

Not enough.

A thought pops into my mind, and I have to ask it between breaths. “If you… bit me… would I turn?”

The stubble on his chin tickles when he laughs into me, only just barely lifting his mouth to answer. “Let’s not find out.”

He’s moving now, the trail of kisses getting ever lower, as far as the fabric will allow. And then he’s gone. My eyes spring open and I sit up, searching for him in the darkened room. I feel him before I see him, his hand slipping under the skirt of my dress and finding its target with ease.

Wait. That’s not a hand.

“I want to see you,” I say, and immediately he reaches up to flatten the bunching fabric around my legs.

He lifts his head from me, lips glistening with my wetness. “I’m going to worship every last inch of you. Don’t move.”

His mouth returns to that place, and the feeling that comes with it is indescribable. This isn’t something I’ve done before, butfuck—I never want him to stop. His tongue finds me in all the right places, making my breath catch in my throat. The only relief from the intense need building within me are the fistfuls of satin I desperately cling to. My neck arches and—

He stops.

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