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“Oh, thank the gods.” I started to roll him to me and gasped. His face was bloody and bruised, his T-shirt torn, his jeans around his thighs… and holy fuck. His cock swung toward me like a bat as he rotated to me. “Holy. Shit.” I gaped.

I had hooked up with guys; I wasn’t a total prude, but he made my cheeks heat. Struggling to swallow, I tried to not stare, but the man was exceptionally huge and thick.Stop looking.I forced my eyes away, noting white dust on him.

“What is covering you?” A chalky film coated his cock. My nose wrinkled, smelling another man’s cum, alcohol, and some kind of magically enhanced substance.

A sick feeling splashed around in my stomach, recalling the brothel sign out front. My throat tightened at the understanding of exactly what he had been doing.

Fae were more open to sex and sexuality, but maybe that’s why he looked at me like a nuisance. I was clearly not his type, and I didn’t want to be.

Though I know I spotted blue-haired women, with him at the last whorehouse.

“This whole time, you’ve been getting high and laid?” Irrational anger spat down on him, my hands shaking him harder. “Wake up.”

Another groan came from him, his lids struggling to open, his half-lidded, mossy green eyes finding mine. I couldn’t stop the sharp inhale he produced from me. When Ash looked at you, really looked, he made you feel like you were the only thing in the world.

“Heyyyy…” he slurred. A happy smile pulled his mouth, splitting open his cut lip, blood leaking down his chin. His hand reached up for my face. “It’s youuuu.” He went serious, his gaze rolling over my bare face, his thumb sweeping over my cheek, forcing me to suck in. “Freckles.”

He dropped his hand, his lids closing, going back to sleep.

“No.” I shook him. “Wake up.”

His lids pried open, a grin showing back up. “Hey, it’s you again.”

“Yeah. It’s me,” I snipped. “You are a mess.” I stood, turning my back on him, not wanting to see his enormous cock flopping about, covered in someone else. “Get up.”

He groaned and huffed behind me.

“I should’ve known you’d be at a brothel.” I folded my arms, trying to block out the memory of watching him through a window in Vienna. I hadn’t seen it all, the curtains blocking some, but I had seen there were more than five of them with him, loud cries seeping through the glass to me across the alley. “Seems to be your go-to.”

I don’t give a shit who he is with or what he does. I reminded myself, trying to shake off the foul mood I was in.You don’t even like him that way. You can’t even get over your ex.

Fierce pain surged up, and I shook off the image of the boy I had been in love with all of my life, focusing back on Ash. It was the fact that Ash left me waiting alone in our room. He was supposed to get us clothes and come back hours ago. It was rude.

The rustle of him trying to stand had my eyes drifting back subtly over my shoulder. Not able to look away, he stumbled and weaved, trying to tuck himself back into his pants, his deep V-line keeping me locked on him even after he zipped himself up.

Of course Ash was perfect ineverycategory.

“Szar,” he mumbled, falling against the wall, his hand rubbing at his ribs, his head dipping back into the brick wall.

“Why are you beat up?” I turned back, my arms still crossed.

He squeezed his eyes shut as if his head was going to explode off his body.

“Did you not pay or something?”

His head jerked up, his hand fumbling to his back pocket, then to all his jean pockets. “Fuck!” He continued to search, though I could tell they were all empty.

“Wait.” I put up one hand. “Are you telling me you lost all the money you had?”

“I think it’s a lot worse than that.” He peered at the back door, suddenly more lucid. “Come on.” He gestured me away, his hand going to my lower back, pointing us out of the alley. “We have to get out of here.”

“We need clothes before we go back to the room.” I motioned down to myself.

“No, I mean we need to get the hell out of this town.” He limped down the street, glancing over his shoulder.

“What? Why?” I tried to keep up with his pace.

“Because.”