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His lips left my breast, and he straightened, pulling my top off as he did so.

My face heated with embarrassment as my upper torso was exposed to him. I shouldn’t have been, the moment his eyes fixated on my chest, all I saw was wanton need.

As he drank me in, I got a good look at him. My blush deepened. Only one bit of clothing remained on him, one that covered the area between his hips and thighs.

He stalked forward, forcing me to back up until my shins hit the bed. We went down together, our bodies a tangle of limbs.

Splaying a hand of his on my chest, he dragged his eyes down, down.

I couldn’t pull air in fast enough, especially when I felt those deft fingers of his peeling back my pants, exposing the rest of me.

This was all so foreign, so foreign and arousing. I’m sure Infernari did things like this, I’m sure sex wasn’t so very different between our kind, but this seemed very human.

My breasts rose and fell, rose and fell, as I pushed myself up to my forearms and peered down my body at Asher. His touch slid down my thighs, over my knees and calves, burning, branding. My pants slipped off, and with them, the last of my clothing.

From the foot of the bed, Asher met my gaze, the dim lights of the room reflecting in his own, and he looked like some strange, dangerous specter.

He bent over, removing the last bit of his own clothing. And when he straightened...

I barely had time to swallow back my anxieties before he draped himself over me.

I sucked in a breath at the exquisite feel of all that cool skin meeting mine.

He didn’t stop lowering himself until his chest touched mine and his head hovered near my face. I reached up and cupped his cheeks, my thumbs rubbing over his beautiful, unforgiving features. This close to him, I could see the flecks of gold in his eyes.

I could feel him hard and thick against my thigh. He shifted, and then I felt him settle right at my entrance.

I still had time to save myself, to save my heart and soul from what I was about to do. But the longer we held each other’s gazes, the more right this felt.

He hooked a hand around the back of one of my knees, spreading me. It seemed so inappropriate, to be splayed wide open like this—inappropriate and absolutely natural. And the way he looked at me! Nothing seemed wrong or inappropriate about that.

I didn’t know whether Asher moved or whether I did, but—oh gods oh gods oh gods—he began sinking into me.

I made a small noise.

The size of him!

“Asher,” I gasped. I hadn’t planned onthis, on our anatomy being at odds.

He stopped moving altogether. Above me, I could feel him shaking as he held back, his body quickly slickening with sweat. “Give it... a moment.”

I nodded, biting my lower lip, trying to hold back the franticness I felt.

His hand slid between us, touching me right between—

“Asher.” This time I said his name with shock as his fingers rubbed against me.

Mother above.I was going up in flames, my body bending, opening,yieldingto him.

He took my lower lip into his mouth and bit it softly, only further drawing out my growing ecstasy.

It took more than a moment, but I felt myself accommodate him.

His hips began to stir as he sensed my response. “Better?” he asked.

I nodded again.

He was inside me!