Page 37 of Asher
Our lips met, the kiss tentative at first, a question more than a statement.
His mouth was cool, but his touch was anything but. Heat flared, spreading through me, searing away doubt and hesitation.
I reached up, my fingers tangling in his hair, pulling him closer.
He responded with a quiet sound, something almost vulnerable, and the kiss deepened.
His body pressed against mine, the weight of him grounding me.
For a few heartbeats, there was nothing but us. No hunters, no betrayals.
Just the quiet desperation of two people who had nothing left to lose.
When we finally pulled apart, the world around us seemed to snap back into focus, the silence of the room suddenly deafening.
My chest heaved with every breath, and my pulse pounded in my ears like a war drum.
I should really stop kissing him. Or wanting to kiss him.
It wasn’t logical. It wasn’t smart.
Gael was a vampire, for crying out loud. He wasn’t just dangerous. He was the kind of dangerous I’d been trained to eliminate on sight.
The kind I used to swear I’d never trust, let alone let get close.
And yet, here I was, breaking every rule, every vow, with every stolen moment like this.
My gaze dropped to his mouth, and I immediately hated myself for it.
My skin still tingled where his hands had gripped me, and the taste of him lingered on my lips, a dark and addictive pull that made me want more.
That made me forget, however briefly, who I was supposed to be and what I was supposed to stand for.
“This is insane,” I muttered, mostly to myself. My voice came out low and hoarse, like I’d just run a marathon.
Gael’s brow arched, his lips curving into the faintest smirk. “I didn’t hear you complaining a second ago.”
My face flushed, and I scowled at him, though it lacked any real heat. “That’s not the point.”
“Then what is the point, Asher?” His tone wasn’t mocking, but there was an edge to it, like he was challenging me to come up with an answer.
To explain something I didn’t even fully understand myself.
I opened my mouth, then closed it again, because honestly? I didn’t have a good answer. The point was that this was wrong.
Or at least, it should have been.
The point was that I shouldn’t be kissing the vampire who turned me into something I still didn’t fully understand.
The point was that this thing between us, whatever it was, felt like walking a tightrope over a pit of knives, and yet I couldn’t seem to stop balancing on the edge.
“I just... we should stop doing this,” I said.
Gael studied me for a moment, his expression unreadable. Then, to my surprise, he took a small step back, giving me space.
The absence of his warmth made the room feel colder somehow, emptier. “If that’s what you want.”
I hated the way my chest tightened at those words, like he was walking away from more than just a kiss.
