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Ash’s chest rose sharply as his icy-hot gaze traveled, inch by inch, over the flesh I’d exposed for him. My nipples pebbled against the strands of my hair as I stood still, letting him look his fill—wanting him to. I waited, my heart pounding faster than it had in days.

Slowly, he lifted his fingers, catching the sides of my hair. His stare tracked his movements along the curls as he lifted them and brushed them back and over my shoulders.

My breathing picked up as I curled my fingers around his wrist. “Touch me.” I brought his hand to my breast.

Ash growled low in his throat at the contact, and my back arched, pressing me into his palm. “Like I said before, I’ll do whatever you ask of me,” he swore, wisps of eather spinning wildly in his eyes. He dragged his thumb over the tip of my breast. “Anything.”

I knew he spoke the truth.

He would do anything for me.

My stomach fluttered as he cupped my other breast. His eyes remained fixed on mine as I moved my other hand down the cool, hard skin of his chest, inching lower. His stomach muscles tightened under my palm. Reaching the band of his breeches, I found the clasp there and undid it with slightly shaking fingers. Ash worked his feet free of his boots, and then it was he who stood still as I drew his pants down.

Kneeling, I looked up, taking in the dusting of dark hair on his thick, muscular thighs. I found faint nicks in his skin—scars I’d never learn the story behind. I’d never know if he’d gained them before he Ascended, while he learned to wield a sword, or if something terrible had created them, but I cherished them nonetheless.

I leaned in, pressing my lips to the one on his knee and then the other just above it. Drawing my hands up the outsides of his legs, I paid homage to the inch-long scar on his inner thigh.

Hearing the sharp breath he took, I smiled as I pulled back and looked up. Muscles curled low in my stomach, and I knew he had to hear the breath I took as my gaze landed on his thick, rigid cock. I bit down on my lip, remembering how he tasted, how he felt when he came against my tongue. I stretched up, started to lean in…

Ash’s hand returned to my hair, stopping me.

I looked up at him. His cheeks were flushed, his lips parted. “You said anything.”

“I did.” His hand fisted in my hair, tugging at my scalp in a way that caused a rush of pounding heat.

“And I want you in my mouth.” I clasped his thighs. “I want to taste you.”

“Sera,” Ash groaned. “Anything but that.”

My eyes narrowed. “I didn’t realize there were restrictions.”

He chuckled. “I didn’t either. But if you do that, I’ll…”

I scraped my nails against his skin, far too pleased by the brief flash of his fangs. “You’ll what?”

“I’ll lose control.”

My blood turned to liquid fire at the thought of him with no control. “That is what I want.”

“It’s what I want, too.” The faint glow of eather appeared in the veins of his cheeks and throat, causing an unsteady breath to escape me. “But I want to lose control with my cock deep inside you, not when I’m fucking your mouth.”

My legs trembled as a pulse of lust went straight to my core.

His head tilted to the side, causing his hair to fall across one side of his face. A glowing eye pierced mine. “You’d like that.”

Nothing about him saying, “fucking your mouth” should turn me on, but I nodded. Because when he said it? I wanted him to fuck my mouth. Hard.

Ash’s nostrils flared.

Had I said that out loud?

“You can have that all you want,” he bit out. “After.”

After.

Just a single word often taken for granted. We didn’t have an after. “But—”

“After,” he insisted, the grip on my hair firm enough to guide me to my feet.