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“Ash,” I whispered, chest swelling.

He groaned, gnashing his teeth together. “And that. The way you say my name. When you’re lost to passion, and all you can do is whisper my name.” He tipped his hips, pressing against me. “When you’re angry with me and yell it.”

I laughed. “Even then?”

“Especially then.” He slid down my body and dipped his tongue into my navel, causing my entire body to jerk as sharp, pulsing sensations darted through me. “But how you say it when you’re feeling sweet? When you’ve stripped off all the beautiful shields you encase yourself in?” Laces of eather streaked under the skin of his cheeks. His tongue and lips danced lower as his thigh shifted away from me. “When you say my name as you tell me you love me?”

I might’ve stopped breathing for a few moments as the seconds stretched out.

“There’s not a godsdamn sound better than that, Sera. That, I swear.” Eather pulsed in the veins of his jaw and throat. “Because it silences all the terrible shit I’ve had to do and see and lets me feel hope.”

His words were so powerful. They soothed my soul’s rough, brittle edges. “Ash.” I sat up, bringing my face close to his. “I love you.”

His large hand wrapped around my neck, the roughness of his fingertips scraping against my skin. A spark of energy surged from him and then through me. His kiss was a combination of dominance and vulnerability, a pull so powerful I forgot who I was for a moment. I felt it shattering barriers and undoing something deep within me.

“Ash. Gods,” I whispered, tugging my mouth from his. I stared up at him. “I will always love you.”

The Primal stilled against me. His body. The eather in his eyes.

Then he took me like lightning, his mouth claiming mine as he pressed me to the ground again. Everything that came next was all about us, right here and now.

When Ash’s mouth left mine, he moved down, spreading my thighs with his broad shoulders.

There was no hesitation or teasing, just his cool breath, and then his mouth closing around the tight bundle of nerves.

My back arched at the intensity of the raw, pounding sensations. It was too much. I started to sit again, but his hand landed on my stomach, holding me down and in place as he feasted.

Ash devoured me.

“This?” he breathed, dragging his tongue up the very center of me before delving deep. “The way you taste? It comes in right behind my list of favorite sounds, but it is my favorite taste in all the realms.”

“It is?” That was all I could manage as the tension built quickly.

“Even better than your blood,” he murmured. “Sweet sunshine.”

I couldn’t even concentrate enough to ask what sweet sunshine tasted like to him because he was tasting me. Licking. Sucking. It felt like he was everywhere. His tongue. Lips. His fingers dug into the flesh of my ass, and he lifted me. All the tight, curling sensations stole my breath as my movements became almost frantic, and I rode his face as I’d done his thigh. His growl of approval burned my skin, igniting the fire.

I tried to slow the building release. I wanted to savor this, but I could feel myself rushing toward completion, and I thought that might be what killed me. I couldn’t catch my breath—

Ash suddenly rose from between my legs, his mouth returning to mine before I could vocalize even a single word. The taste of him and me on his tongue was a heady mix, leaving me feeling out of control and dazed as I felt his skin harden and cool further under my palm. The way he shook nearly undid me as he gripped my thigh, hooking my leg around his waist. His mouth never left mine as he rolled his hips, pressing into where I needed him. I tilted mine, and he answered with a muffled, ragged groan.

A fine shiver rolled through me as he pushed in, my body tensing at the initial bite of discomfort from his width. He halted, but I wanted more. I needed more. Because this was it. This was what I would remember.

With my leg hooked around his hip, and my arms wrapping his shoulders, I lifted myself and pulled him down, seating him fully inside me.

“Fuck,” Ash rasped, his groan half laugh. Then he said something in the Primal language, but it was too fast and low for me to pick up. He kissed me again, and these were sweet and tender. He kissed me like…like he had his kardia and not only loved me but was in love with me. Now and forever. And he kept kissing me as he began to move.

My body clenched around his as he pulled back until he was almost free of me and then drove back in, as far as he could go. Hot, tight shudders flooded me as he nipped my lips, my chin. The pace he set was slow and torturous, driving me insane.

“More.” I grabbed a fistful of hair, and he groaned.

“Faster?” he taunted against my lips.

“Yes.”

“Harder?”

I shook, lightning rushing through my veins. “Yes.”