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My knees buckled, and I might have fallen if Asher’s hands hadn’t been on my ass, steadying me. Really, he was quitehandy. Get it? Handy?

Not the time to make jokes, Addie.

He chuckled against my clit, and that vibration sent me over the edge. I gripped his shoulders helplessly as I tumbled over, Asher’s name a cry on my lips in the silent store.

Asher lapped me up, devouring me, until I finally re-emerged on solid ground.

“Oh my god,” I whispered reverently, curling my fingers into his blond hair. I pulled him up and kissed him fervently, tasting myself on him.

But I wasn’t selfish. I wanted to return the favor and then some.

Pulling away, I met his dazed eyes and dropped to my knees.

“What are you-?”

Before he could finish his question, I unzipped his pants and freed his rock-hard erection. Pre-cum glistened on his mushroom tip, and my mouth watered. Eating me had made him so incredibly hard, so ready.

“You don’t have to,” he whispered, but his hands were tangling in my brown hair. Pulling me towards him. Needing me.

And I didn’t want our relationship to be one-sided. I loved him, and I wanted him to know that.

“I know I don’t have to,” I whispered, licking the tip. It tasted salty. Decadent - the forbidden fruit in the Garden of Eden. “But I want to. I love you, Asher.”

“God, I love you. So, so much.”

His words cut off on a groan as I took him completely in my mouth. I had never given a blowjob before, never trusted someone enough to give him that piece of myself, but I had watched enough videos and had heard enough stories to realize how it was done. Asher wasn’t that thick, but he was long. The longest I had ever seen before.

For a moment, I worried I wouldn’t be able to take him all. Cupping his balls, I ran my tongue over his veiny underside, and he made a strange sound in the back of his throat. I wanted to take him even deeper.

I swallowed him whole, hollowing my cheeks. He began to whisper my name, the heady scent of his arousal permeating the air.

“Addie…” he groaned, moving his hips to fuck my mouth. There was one technique I wanted to try, something one of the maids had gossiped about with her friends.

I began to hum around him.

His explosion was sudden, his cock jerking in my mouth before his seed spilled. He continued to move his hips erratically as he released himself, and I swallowed everything up eagerly. It didn’t taste the best, but it wasAsher’s. A part of him.

I wanted to do that for him.

“Shit, Addie,” he groused, pulling himself out of my mouth. My tongue snaked out to lick away the remaining cum dousing his cock, and his eyes fixated on that. He noticeably gulped. “That was so sexy.”

“It was?” I whispered, suddenly feeling insecure. Did he like it? Did I do it good? Obviously he likedsomethingif the load he expelled was any indication. Still, self-consciousness ribbed me.

“That was perfect, Addie. You’re perfect.” He reached out a hand, legs shaking, and pulled me into his arms. Both of our pants were still around our feet and cum still dribbled down our legs, but the embrace was as perfect as Asher claimed I was. Him and me against the world, in a cocoon of our own making. I felt safe and loved and protected. All of my previous fears and worries...well…they didn’t quite abate, but they no longer consumed me. The hurt was there, but so was this feeling of completeness and elation.

“I love you,” he whispered against my hair, and I felt my lips curve up in an answering smile.

“I love you too.”

A few minutes later, we found ourselves cleaned up and loading up the vehicle. Asher wore a dopey grin on his face, and I knew my own expression mirrored his. We were two people in love and had somehow found each other in the chaos of this new world.

We deserved to be happy, to smile, despite the shit we had faced. I refused to allow myself to feel guilty for loving Asher. For sharing a part of myself with him.

He was right. The others wouldn’t want me to stop loving, stop living, because they were no longer with us. I could practically see Calax’s glower as he called me out on my shit. Fallon would merely stare at me, his narrowed eyes saying more than a thousand words.

At the thought of our missing leader, my eyes flickered to the store across the street. It was one of many stores we had painted symbols and coded words on in order for them to find us.

A crown - a symbol the guys associated with me - and numbers.