Page 114
Story: Princes of Ash
I don’t fight when she unzips my hoodie, slipping it off my arms. I pant down at my waterlogged shoes and give her access to my arms. My shirt comes next, and then she whispers, “Lay back, okay?” and what else am I going to do?
I flop back, struggling to breathe as she pops the button on my jeans, working them over my hips. It feels so much better once it’s all gone, without the weight of it dragging me down. I hear more than see them land on her floor, the heavyplopof the fabrics ringing significantly.
I wish she could take my skin, too.
That thought,skin, draws my eyes up, realizing that she’s used her own towel to dry me. She’s between my legs, worrying her lip as she watches me, her body completely bare. My gaze instantly snaps to the curve of her belly, so small a thing.
Just a tiny little bump.
Just…
Just an apple.
I’m drawn to it like a magnet, holding her hips as I press my forehead to the small swell of her belly. Father preaches a lot of bullshit, but I think I see it now. The power of creation. It sinks into me like a soothing balm, much like the flutter of Verity’s fingers in my hair, stilted but unwavering.
She whispers, “Why did you come here, Pace?”
“Because I’m a fuck up.” Her skin is soft. So fucking soft. Sometimes I touch her and wonder if it’s wrong—if I’m tarnishing the very thing that drew me to her to begin with. “Because I needed to know he was okay,” I answer, remembering Adeline’s confession from earlier.
Her baby was only ten weeks.
Strawberry.
I look up, brushing my lips against the bump of her belly as I meet her gaze. She looks scared, her brows knitted together, but she also looks beautiful. Fiery, like an avenging angel. I almost regret coming, dimming her brightness with all my darkness. Maybe that’s why, for the first time in my life, I decide to be brutally, painfully, terrifyingly honest.
“Because the only time anything feels right is when I’m inside you.”
Her hand is warm when she cups my cheek, her expression collapsing in despair. “Pace…”
I clutch her hips, willing to beg. “Don’t make me leave.”
She sighs, her thumb rubbing the tender, tired spot beneath my eye, and I’m pretty sure I see her make the decision in her mind, the crevice in her forehead smoothing. “Get under the covers. You’re freezing.”
I tug her with me as I go, curling around her body like a desperate, needy thing. She’s warm and soft against the cradle of my body, a contrast in all the ways that matter, and if it takes me a few minutes to get us both ready, then she doesn’t resist.
She nestles back into me as I get her wet, my cold lips skittering up the column of her neck.
When I finally push inside, pressing her close, it’s just like I knew it would be: hot and slick andright.
18
Verity
It’s the scent,I realize.
Ever since coming back to West End and reacquainting with the Dukes’ loft, I’ve been trying to find out why sleeping in this bed is so discomfiting. Not discomfiting in the way it used to be, either. It’s a discrete dissonance, like something’s been missing. Notbad, just not quite right.
It’s only now, with Pace’s scent on my pillow, that I think I know what it is.
My Princes, for all their flaws, always smell so good. Masculine but clean, spicy but fresh. I slept in those scents for a month. That shouldn’t be long enough to form associations, but apparently, it was, because I draw in Pace’s smell with a quiet gasp and almost forget where I am.
“Oh my god,” I whimper, digging my teeth into my bottom lip.
Between my thighs, Pace makes a rough, gritty sound, his fingers digging divots into my hips as he spears his tongue into me. Through the foggy haze of sleep, all I can think is,wow.
What a way to wake up.
I can’t even see him as my eyes flutter open, straining against the morning light. He’s beneath the sheets, the shape of him as unmistakable as the way he touches me, greedy and unyielding. I’d never admit it, but I’ve been achingly horny for the past two weeks, the pregnancy hormones working their dark magic against my libido.
Table of Contents
- Page 1
- Page 2
- Page 3
- Page 4
- Page 5
- Page 6
- Page 7
- Page 8
- Page 9
- Page 10
- Page 11
- Page 12
- Page 13
- Page 14
- Page 15
- Page 16
- Page 17
- Page 18
- Page 19
- Page 20
- Page 21
- Page 22
- Page 23
- Page 24
- Page 25
- Page 26
- Page 27
- Page 28
- Page 29
- Page 30
- Page 31
- Page 32
- Page 33
- Page 34
- Page 35
- Page 36
- Page 37
- Page 38
- Page 39
- Page 40
- Page 41
- Page 42
- Page 43
- Page 44
- Page 45
- Page 46
- Page 47
- Page 48
- Page 49
- Page 50
- Page 51
- Page 52
- Page 53
- Page 54
- Page 55
- Page 56
- Page 57
- Page 58
- Page 59
- Page 60
- Page 61
- Page 62
- Page 63
- Page 64
- Page 65
- Page 66
- Page 67
- Page 68
- Page 69
- Page 70
- Page 71
- Page 72
- Page 73
- Page 74
- Page 75
- Page 76
- Page 77
- Page 78
- Page 79
- Page 80
- Page 81
- Page 82
- Page 83
- Page 84
- Page 85
- Page 86
- Page 87
- Page 88
- Page 89
- Page 90
- Page 91
- Page 92
- Page 93
- Page 94
- Page 95
- Page 96
- Page 97
- Page 98
- Page 99
- Page 100
- Page 101
- Page 102
- Page 103
- Page 104
- Page 105
- Page 106
- Page 107
- Page 108
- Page 109
- Page 110
- Page 111
- Page 112
- Page 113
- Page 114
- Page 115
- Page 116
- Page 117
- Page 118
- Page 119
- Page 120
- Page 121
- Page 122
- Page 123
- Page 124
- Page 125
- Page 126
- Page 127
- Page 128
- Page 129
- Page 130
- Page 131
- Page 132
- Page 133
- Page 134
- Page 135
- Page 136
- Page 137
- Page 138
- Page 139
- Page 140
- Page 141
- Page 142
- Page 143
- Page 144
- Page 145
- Page 146
- Page 147
- Page 148
- Page 149
- Page 150
- Page 151
- Page 152
- Page 153
- Page 154
- Page 155
- Page 156
- Page 157
- Page 158
- Page 159
- Page 160
- Page 161
- Page 162
- Page 163
- Page 164
- Page 165
- Page 166
- Page 167
- Page 168
- Page 169
- Page 170
- Page 171
- Page 172
- Page 173
- Page 174
- Page 175
- Page 176
- Page 177
- Page 178
- Page 179
- Page 180
- Page 181
- Page 182
- Page 183
- Page 184
- Page 185
- Page 186
- Page 187
- Page 188
- Page 189
- Page 190
- Page 191
- Page 192