Page 74 of Crown of Ashes and Desire

My cock throbbed painfully, so I positioned myself between her thighs, her heat pressed to me. Then I entered her in one powerful, claiming thrust that drew a sharp cry from her lips—a sound of pleasure and surrender that I swallowed hungrily. Our magics erupted at the intimate contact, light and shadow surging together in explosive waves that sent crackling energy across our skin. The room blazed with alternating patterns of molten goldand midnight black, our combined power painting the walls in an otherworldly display of passion made manifest.

Her nails dug into my shoulders as she arched beneath me, her light magic sparking against my shadow in ways that left us both gasping with the intensity of our connection.

“Fuck,” I growled close to her mouth, fighting for control when her body clenched around mine.

She was wet, slick, and perfect, exactly as I remembered.

“Don’t talk,” she interrupted, and wrapped her legs around my waist. “Just fuck me.”

I obeyed, setting a punishing rhythm that had her gasping with each thrust. I moved inside her hard and fast; savage heat slipped through my veins like lava. Her nails dug crescents into my shoulders, her body arching to meet mine with equal force. This wasn’t lovemaking—it was a battle for dominance.

I flipped her onto her stomach without warning, entering her again from behind. I fist my hand in her hair, pulling her head back to expose her throat to my teeth.

“Is this what you want?” I demanded, my lips pressed to her ear. “So my cock can fill your tight cunt?”

“Yes,” she admitted. I pushed back against myself. “Gods, yes.”

The confession broke something open inside me. I turned her in my arms, needing suddenly to see her face, to watch her come apart beneath me.

“I’ve missed you,” I confessed, the words escaping before I could stop them. “Every fucking day, Ada.”

Tears spilled from her eyes. “Hakan,” she pleaded, voice breaking. “Just fuck me like you used to, please me like you have in the past.”

I took her mouth again, pouring five years of longing into the kiss while our bodies moved together with increasing urgency. I kept sliding my cock in and out, fucking her until she begged meto stop, and reminding her that my old self had never left her. The pain in my chest eased for the first time since our binding.

“Hakan, please,” she moaned.

I drove into her harder, knowing she was close and I was almost there with her. I focused on fucking her, pounding as deep as I could reach at this angle. My breath ceased in my lungs. My release approached. Her breasts bounced and swayed, her eyes widening when each of my thrusts hit just right, her hair spread out around the pillow. My heart pounded to a different beat as her dark eyes fixed on me.

Her release took us both by surprise—her light magic exploded around us, triggering my climax, shadows erupting from my skin to mingle with her light in a dazzling display that shattered the windows. Ada’s moans and cries become whimpers and gasps.

“So fucking beautiful,” I panted, and pressed down again, and forcing a subtle shift in an angle allowed me to prolong her release for a few more moments, before I collapsed on top of her.

For long moments afterward, we lay tangled together in the darkness, her heartbeat a frantic rhythm against my chest.

Finally, she touched my face with unexpected gentleness.

“This changes nothing,” she whispered, though the tremor in her voice suggested otherwise. “I still can’t trust you.”

I caught her hand, pressing a kiss to her palm. “I know,” I replied simply. “But it’s a start.”

When I held her in the darkness, one thought blazed through me, fierce and undeniable:

I could not let my father have her. The decision crystallized in my mind, absolute and unshakeable. No matter the cost, Ada would survive the ritual. Even if I did not. The irony wasn’t lost on me—that after everything, after choosing power over love five years ago, I now found myself willing to sacrifice that power to save her.

Ada

Sunlight filtered through the shattered windows of Hakan’s chambers, casting fragmented patterns across the rumpled sheets. I’d been awake for hours, watching him sleep beside me—a dangerous indulgence I couldn’t seem to resist. Insleep, his face relaxed, the harsh lines of cruelty softening into something closer to the boy I’d loved. The man I’d lost.

I traced the air above his features, not quite touching him. The shadows that usually clung to his skin had retreated in slumber, revealing scars I didn’t recognize—a jagged line across his collarbone, a burn mark on his shoulder. Five years had changed him, hardened him. Yet last night…

Last night, he’d stare at me like I was still his world.

My mind kept returning to his words, tormenting me with possibilities. “I left to protect you. I staged that scene, broke your heart, made you hate me so you would stay away.” Our encounter had stirred emotions I’d spent years burying—desire mingling with mistrust, hope with fear. The ease with which my body had responded to his touch frightened me more than his anger ever could.

Could it be true? The thought both thrilled and terrified me. If Hakan had truly left to protect me from his father, from the ritual, then everything I’d believed for five years was wrong. And if he had been protecting me all along, what else might be different from what I’d believed? What would that mean for my life now, for my plans, for those who depended on me?

His eyes opened suddenly, startling me. Green as spring leaves, sharp with awareness despite him having just awakened.

---