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“It’s the first time I’ve seen you eat as if you enjoy food instead of treating it like a duty.” He popped agogo?iinto his mouth, engrossing me in the way his mouth moved.

I huffed, putting my focus back on the chimney cake. “I enjoy food.”

“Do you?” He tugged a piece ofkürtöskalácsfrom the one I was holding in my hand, regaining my attention. “Usually when someone is ravenous, they consume everything, not caring about the mess.”

I held the air in my lungs, not sure if he meant the double meaning, but I felt it slide down between my thighs. Everything this man said or did this morning seemed to invoke dirty thoughts and images of last night.

And I hated it.

My one act of defiance changed everything. A desire I could ignore before blossomed under my skin, itching my muscles and making me restless and irritated. I was aware of him before, but now I couldn’t seem to shake the sensation of him swathing me, not letting me breathe or think clearly. Thus the reason for blurting my next words.

“You should see how ravenous and messy I get when I’m hung—”Shut up!My teeth slammed together, realizing what I was about to say.

“What?” His brow furrowed.

I shook my head. “Just when I’mreallyhungry.” I shoved another piece of fried dough into my mouth, shutting me up.

I knew Ash didn’t buy it, like he could feel the untruth coming off me.

Feeling his gaze burn into me, my eyes lifted to his mossy green stare. His hand reached out to me, a thumb sliding over the corner of my mouth, forcing air to hitch in my lungs.

“Crumbs.” His voice came out gravelly. His eyes tracked mine with a reserve, as if he was also being dragged into this force field against his will. His throat bobbed as he slowly trailed the pad of his thumb over my bottom lip, his touch sparking energy through my veins, clipping my breath.

What the hell were we doing?

But I didn’t stop him. In fact, I did the exact opposite.

My tongue pushed against his thumb, tasting the cinnamon still coating it. A noise rumbled in his throat, only enticing me to do it again. Air funneled through his nose when my tongue licked purposely around his finger, getting every speck of sugar.

A nerve in his jaw jumped, and he barely rumbled out my name. “Scarlet—”

“Raven!”

The name pierced the quiet morning like a bullet, automatically jerking my head toward the voice.

Ice filled my veins, terror screaming through my bones as my entire world tipped over, spilling out my worst fears. They found me.

But my body froze seeing the familiar face call for me, disbelief at seeing her alive. About to sob in relief, rising to run to her, I noticed the men walking with her.

Dread stopped her name on my tongue. Relief and joy soured and turned to fear and dread.

And then utter betrayal.

Chapter 15

Ash

Hearing her moan, her eyes fluttering closed when she bit down on the fried donut, everything in my body went taut like the strings of a violin. Thoughts of the night before flooded back, though I had spent all night trying to exorcise them from my mind. Normally, I would have gone downstairs and drank until I passed out, but my limbs were very restless. A need I would not identify had me running out of the brothel, getting as far from her as I could.

I had walked almost all night, wanting so badly to enter the next whorehouse I found and find release from my edginess. But I didn’t. Something kept stopping me from going in and kept pulling me back to the one she was in.

Now, watching her devour the pastries in front of me, a moment of seeing the untamed side of her had my hand reaching out like she was someone I could touch freely and intimately. My brain jarred to a stop, spinning in reverse, while my body did the exact opposite. Leaning into her, addicted to the feel of her skin, the curve of her mouth, the way the sugar sprinkled over her full bottom lip, slightly chapped from the cold.

My gaze locked on her lips, last night fucking with my head.

Seeing her in that room, inmyelement, changed something I didn’t want altered. Now all I could see was her standing there in her underwear, her cheeks flushed as his fingers pumped into her pussy, getting off while she watchedme.

She didn’t belong there. Yet to my complete dismay, my cock turned painfully hard the instant I saw her. Making it even more clear, even with the woman on her knees sucking my balls into her mouth, my body hadn’t responded as it should have. It responded to the person it shouldn’t have. Like it was now.