Page 24 of Song of Night

So maybe it’s because we’re far from home and likely going to die here that I let the words pour out of my mouth.

“But don’t you share Ellielle’s wishes? To be rid of me? I thought you hated me. I thought you never wanted to see me again.”

Asher stops his pacing, my words hitting him as he’s walking away from me. He turns abruptly, the look on his face so furious that I take a step backward.

It’s several long moments before he speaks.

“You betrayed me.” His words are low and deadly, shaking my bones. “You lied about everything. And I do hate what you did.”

He stalks toward me, a rolling storm front. He stops an inch from my chest, his eyes burning into mine with such intensity it feels like staring into the sun.

“But my feelings for you were not manufactured, as yours were, so I can’t just be rid of them. Though I wish with every ounce of my being that I could.” His jaw rolls and his eyes flash. “I wish I could forget everything about you, Zara.”

“How dare you,” I growl. I place my hands on his chest and try to shove him away from me, which is akin to trying to shove a mountain. He barely moves. “Do not attempt to define my feelings or the truth behind them. I told you what happened, the lies I was told by Kieran. How could I have known the truth before I met you? Before I realized the connection to Night that we share?”

“And how could we ever have a future when Kieran had you first?” Asher snarls.

“Kieran never had me, not in the way you imply,” I snap. “Kieran never even saw me in a night shirt like this, let alone wearing nothing at all. He was my mentor because I had no one else. He manipulated me, used me as a pawn, yes. But he wasn’t strong enough to be with me in the way that you were. My magic would have destroyed him.”

Asher steps even closer, anger roiling off of him. “You are a liar, a spy, a thief, and an assassin. How could I ever trust you?”

I glare back at him. “And you are a murderer, the most dreaded and hated man in all of Night. You consume blood and souls, and you unleashed the wild magic that demolished our city. It is beyond hypocrisy for you to judge my actions.”

“No one has ever spoken to me that way in my entire life,” Asher growls, his inner demon roiling just below the surface.

“Well then, it’s clearly long overdue.”

Asher doesn’t respond verbally, he just growls again and picks me up, lifting me by my ass cheeks and carrying me the three strides to the bed behind us. When he reaches it, he doesn’t toss me down as I’d expected. Instead, he pins me against one of the tall, wooden posts at the foot of the bed. He locks gazes with me for a long moment, a look so ablaze with emotion that my breath leaves my body.

Then, slowly, he slides one hand up my thigh.

His eyes don’t leave mine as the tip of one finger grazes my opening. His fingers on my skin feel like comets, and another sigh rushes out of me. The post of the bed presses into my back, and Asher’s thighs are crushed against mine.

He teases at the entrance to my sweet core, his voice low and gravelly. “I am a villain and a monster…”

A moan works its way up my throat. My heart is racing so fast it hurts.

Asher leans in, lips at my earlobe, breath hot against my neck. “But I think you want this anyways.”

I nod slowly, but he shakes his head.

“Say it. If you want me, you have to say it this time.”

The desire for him to enter me is making my vision spotty. Need and longing throb through my core. Before, when we’d been together, I’d thought it was just the wild magic drawing us together, a fight I couldn’t win, Night being so much stronger than the two of us.

But our magic is gone now, and this craving is burning me up just the same.

Asher swirls his fingertip inside me and I cry out. “Yes! I want this.”

He plunges his finger deep inside of me and the room spins with stars. His free hand weaves into the hair at the base of my neck as he presses even closer into me. “Want what, Zara?”

His finger slides back out and I shudder. “I want you,” I whisper.

I can feel the hard length of him pressed against my body, and at my words he grows even harder. He thrusts his finger back into me, curling it inside and swirling it in a way that makes my knees buckle. But he holds me upright as he gyrates his finger in and out of me.

“Only me?” he asks, breath warm against my earlobe, his teeth grazing against it.

His thumb is rolling over my clit as he continues to drive his long finger in and out of me, and the world is spinning away into an ocean of pleasure. I can hear the waves outside beyond the balcony, and it feels like I’m being carried away into them.

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