by Woods, Erica
They were still there, but muted. Silent and waiting.
Because Ash’s gentle reminder had hit home. Ruarc and Jason had told me a relationship with the others was up to me. My choice.
My stomach flipped.
But I . . . I’d never really thought the others would want me; could barely believe the two that did. That didn’t mean, though, that I didn’t owe it to Jason and—
“Does it hurt,” Ash asked. Leaning on his elbows, he loomed above me; watched me with a sharp interest that sent my stomach hurtling through several more flips.
“W-what?” I whispered back.
He lowered his upper body, his nose nearly touching mine. “How hard you are thinking.” The corners of his lips tipped up—not a smile, not really, but it made my breath catch all the same. “You have nothing to worry about, banajaanh. Your other males will not be upset.”
It was scary how much Ash saw. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to ruin the mood.”
A smile that would have been gentle if not for the predator’s hunger leaking through. “You could not ruin it if you tried.” A beat of silence, of Ash’s head tilting to the side, of me staring up at a face that was both familiar and . . . not. Then he rose, fluent, as though he moved through water rather than air, and when he stood next to the bed, he removed his shirt.
Moisture fled my mouth, leaving it strangely dry, and pooled as a tingling heat in my belly.
Ash let me look, allowed my gaze to caress those broad shoulders, that strong chest, all that smooth, hairless skin the color of burnished copper—warm and inviting and making my palms tingle with the urge to touch. Then he was above me once more, taking my hand, placing it over his heart.
“You may touch,” he said.
I blinked, stared at my hand, so pale and lifeless compared to him.
He dipped his head and nipped at my chin, a slow smile pulling at his wide lips when I squeaked. “It is only fair, banajaanh, because when I start, I expect you to stay still.”
“But—”
“Feel.” He moved my hand, his palm rough, the rest of his skin like silk. And below, solid muscle, firm and powerful.
Intoxicating.
He brought my hand up to his lips, pressed a kiss to its center, and then let go.
With my heart tripping over itself with every beat, I continued the exploration. I felt his face first, stroked along his high cheekbones, down the broad bridge of his nose, the softness of those wide lips.
My breath hitched.
Ash only gazed down at me, his patience a living breathing thing; tenderness woven into its core.
Hesitantly, I lifted my other hand, let them glide down both sides of his neck, across broad shoulders and down to biceps too thick for me to get a good grip.
I marveled at his strength, his size, at the velvet, burnished skin that hid such hard-packed power.
I moved my exploration to his chest—hairless, wide, with flat dusky nipples and defined pectorals—down to his stomach. My fingers brushed over one hard ridge, two, three, four, and then my face flashed with heat and my hands dropped to my side.
I couldn’t continue, not when he was wearing jeans and I could see the hard bulge straining against the fabric.
“You’re . . . you’re beautiful,” I whispered, unable to meet that sharply perceptive gaze, unwilling to let it strip me bare, reveal all my ugly insecurities and doubts.
What was he doing with me? What were any of them?
“And you, my sweet little human, are incandescent.”
My eyes shot to his, forgetting to be wary.
“Your smile is the first bloom of spring,” he said, cupping my cheek and capturing my gaze with a quiet intensity. “Your eyes are the luminous shine of the sun. Your laugh is nature’s melody. And you, banajaanh . . . You are incandescent.”
A lump lodged in my throat, something hot pressing behind my eyes.
“I—”
“Close your eyes.”
I had to swallow twice before I could push out a reedy, “Why?”
Brilliant blue eyes occupied my entire field of vision, the endless depths glowing with man and predator, tenderness and hunger. His chest pressed against mine, his warm breath blowing over my lips. “Close your eyes,” he repeated, now a command.
Immediately, my eyes shut, and I was rewarded by a shot of pure pleasure. It ripped through my body and forced my back in a taut arch.
Ash had pulled my nipple deep into his mouth and was lavishing it with attention from both tongue and lips.
A strangled cry tore from my throat then Ash’s mouth was there, stealing the sound with the fuse of his lips. When my back lowered down to the bed, he moved to my jaw, kissing his way behind my ear, encircling my throat with one of his hands. “You need only tell me, and I will stop.”
I squirmed, wanting his lips back on my skin, his mouth on my breast.
“Do you understand?”
Eyes still squeezed shut, I nodded.
“I need the words, banajaanh.”
“I understand,” I breathed.
“Good girl.”
Ash moved down my body, so slow and so silent that each beat of my heart was thunder in my ears. Thunder that boomed across the sky in my head, too fast to be healthy, too loud to be ignored. And then long fingers spread me open and the rough pad of Ash’s thumb grazed the bundle of nerves at my core.
Air rushed from lungs that suddenly felt starved.
“So soft,” Ash whispered, swirling his thumb only once, studying my heated face, the rapid rise and fall of my chest. He dipped his head down to my other breast, but instead of pulling my nipple into his mouth, he licked a circle around it, teasing me with the absence of touch while his fingers stroked me in a barely-there caress that had my hips jerk off the bed in an attempt to force his touch to deepen.
“No,” he said with a small bite to the tender flesh of my breast. The slight sting of pain blended seamlessly with the mind-numbing pleasure. “You lie still and relax while I tend to you. If you move”—he bit down again, a small smile playing about his mouth when my eyes shot open to stare at him—”you will suffer the consequences. Now close your eyes.”
I did as he asked and gasped when I was rewarded by a single, firm stroke at my core. Battling the urge to move, I forced my body to lie still while Ash continued his sweet torment.
My womb contracted, a strange heat filling my belly.
Ash persisted in his gentle teasing, a finger barely grazing me while two others held me open. Exposed. A warm flick of his tongue over my nipple and a strangled cry escaped me, quickly swallowed when he fused our mouths together.
While his tongue stroked mine with a mastery I found acutely brutal to my senses, the touch between my legs firmed. Long, slow strokes followed while I whimpered. It was becoming harder and harder to keep still, the heat in my belly building toward a crescendo I’d come to know all too well.
His finger did a little twirl, and sparks of pleasure shot through my whole body. “Ash, please!”
“Not yet, banajaanh,” he murmured against my lips.
“But—”
A sharp pinch to my nipple and a flood of heat coated my core. “You will obey,” he said quietly and pinched my other nipple while pushing a finger inside. Said finger curled, rubbing against a spot that had my eyes shoot open.
“O-okay!” I agreed, desperate to feel more of these incredible sensations.
Ash bit my neck, a reminder not to move, and I settled my hips back on the bed, panting against the mouth that suddenly hovered so close each of his breaths teased my lips.
“Good. Be an obedient, little female so I can reward you.”
His words tugged at something inside me, something dark yet eager. “I . . . I will,” I gasped, squeezing my eyes tightly closed as the finger inside me began moving, in and out and always curling up against that same, sensitive spot. Then his thumb grazed the bundle of nerves at my entrance, and it was all I could do to keep still.
I forgot to breathe, forgot to think, forgot to do anything but feel as Ash slowly and methodically made me come apart at the seams. While his mouth alternatively feasted on my mouth and kissed, licked, sucked, and nibbled on my breasts, the finger inside me continued to torture me with its expertise, the thumb I was growing to hate and love with equal measures never ceased its leisurely testing of my limits.
But then the touch of his thumb firmed, the finger inside me curling harder, pushing harder, and I could no longer hope to stem my tormented cries.
“Oh, oh, oh,” I chanted. Meaningless pleas fell from my lips, and I promised him anything if he would just let me—
“Come,” he commanded and bit down on my nipple just hard enough that stars exploded behind my eyelids and the cramped heat in my belly detonated in such a powerful blast of pleasure that my whole body stiffened and a scream erupted from my throat.
It was a mad dash through the stars, a heated pulse between my legs, liquid fire traveling from my stomach to my bloodstream. Then I floated, bliss settled into limbs, relaxing muscle, quieting all doubts.
It wasn’t until I lay limp and panting that other sounds began penetrating the haze around my mind. Bad sounds. Sounds of fists pounding against a door, of claws tearing at wood, of a furious voice threatening Ash with bodily harm.
They hadn’t been present before we—
Wait, did this start when—
Oh god, had they . . . had they heard me?
“W-whats going on?” I whispered, a scalding heat blooming in my cheeks. When I tried to sit up, Ash cocked his head, and there was something in the way he looked at me that made me lie back down and wait for permission to move.
A satisfied smile entered his eyes. “Good.” His calm voice was infused with power. “Do not worry. Jason is experiencing some dissatisfaction—he is most likely regretting forgoing his time with you—and Lucien . . .” Ash shrugged as though his words about Jason hadn’t just shredded me and ruined the warm, pleasurable feeling he’d coaxed from my worn body. “It is hard to say, but I would guess he feels I am rewarding you for keeping secrets when I should be punishing you.” Something gleamed in eyes that suddenly seemed primitive in their ferocity. “Would you like to be punished, little female?”
For a few seconds, everything inside me stilled. And I knew, I just knew, that the ancient predator that lived in Ash was in full control.
The proof lay in the unnatural tilt of his head; the burning, coldly curious gaze; the sudden eruption of power crackling in the air around us, hungry and wanting and raising all the hairs on my body.
Torn between ragged fear and a blinding need to know this being, I could only stare deep into those predatory eyes and pray to survive the encounter.
But as quickly as it had taken over, the forbidding presence left, and warm affection took its place. “Would you like to sleep?”
Still struggling with my erratic heartbeat and shuddering breaths, I could only shake my head and stare up at him.
“Are the others disturbing you?”
I shrugged.
“Next time, I will try not to please you so much. It seems your orgasm stole your words.”
My eyes widened and I choked on half a laugh, half a shocked cry of denial. “Y-you can’t say that!”
“I think I just did.”
A laugh burst out, and the tension drained from my body. “Oh, god.”
“I think you mean, ‘oh, Ash.’”
He startled another laugh from me, and as I stared up into his smiling, blue eyes, I wondered who this man was and why I hadn’t met him before now. That wasn’t to say I didn’t love his serious side, but being teased by him and seeing the humor behind the quiet, responsible man just made me fall harder.
Outside, there was a momentary break in what I now assumed to be an attempt to break down the door. Maybe my laughter had startled them? It sure had startled me. I listened intently, but I couldn’t hear anything else.
When Ash lay back and dragged me next to him, kissing my neck in a very different way than he had earlier, I was overcome by affection for him. I kissed him back, his wide lips still a little foreign when they met my own—our first kiss had just happened, after all—and slowly edged my hand down his body.
Before I could reach my goal, he grabbed my wrist. “What are you doing, banajaanh?”
Heat stole into my cheeks. “I just . . . I want to make you feel good, too.”
His expression softened. “Not yet. Today was just for you.”
“But—”
He shook his head, brows pulling together. “You would regret going further, I think, before speaking with your other males.”
An unsettled feeling warned me he was right. But we had already done quite a lot. Should I feel guilty? The more I thought about it, the more guilt I felt. It didn’t matter what they had said in the past, I should have checked in again before doing anything at all. Especially now that Jason was upset.
“I . . . you’re right. I should go check on Jason.”
When I tried to get up, Ash kept me from leaving. “He is upset about your secrets. Give him some time.”
“I still think I should—”
“Go to sleep.”
Despite wanting to get upset at the way he commanded me, I struggled to find any anger. Especially when I knew he was only doing what he thought was best for me. My lack of outrage had nothing to do with the way his words reheated my body, or the mental images I saw in my head of how easily he’d controlled my pleasure.
“Okay,” I finally whispered.
Ash tucked me into his side, his naked chest warm enough that I felt toasty, even without a blanket. “Everything will be alright, banajaanh.” His voice went from soft and soothing to low and lethal. “I will make sure of it.”
28
Hope
The exquisite warmth of sunlight heating my skin pulled me from a dreamless sleep. Before I opened my eyes, I stretched, luxuriating in the languid way my limbs moved, and the sated feeling in my belly.
My whole body felt relaxed and soft. The guys all seemed to have magic powers. Before I met them, I had never felt anything similar to this pleasant heat, and definitely not anything that came close to the explosive pleasure they were capable of gifting me. Who’d have thought Ash would—
I jerked up in bed, eyes wide open as everything pleasant fled.
How could I have fallen asleep?
Judging by the stream of light sneaking in through the thick, reinforced-glass window, it was already morning and I had yet to speak to Jason or find Ruarc. Who knew if he’d even gotten home last night? What if he’d gotten hurt?
In my rush to find my guys and explain my deceitful behavior, I almost forgot to get dressed. It was only when I was halfway to the door that the slight chill in the air reminded me I was naked.
It took me several minutes of searching before I realized that my clothes were nowhere to be found. I was about to wrap the blanket around me and try my best to become invisible while sprinting to the room I was supposed to share with Ruarc and Jason when the door opened.
I shrieked and dove into the bed. When my head was the only part of me uncovered by the blanket, I glanced at the door.
“Good morning, banajaanh.” Ash’s upper lip twitched with amusement. Luckily, the rest of his expression remained blank and saved me from dying of embarrassment. “I brought you some clothes.”
Of course he had. In my haste, I had forgotten a very important thing: Ash was nothing if not a gentleman.
Tell that to the man who commanded your body with such ease last night, I thought and couldn’t quite suppress a blush as an image popped into my head—Ash, watching me with unfathomable hunger, one of my nipples in his mouth.
“T-thank you,” I stuttered.
“Are you going to come and get them?”
I looked down at my blanket-clad body. “No!”
This time, a small smile pulled his lips apart and showed me a glimpse o
f white teeth. For some reason, the sight made my belly clench. “There is no need to be shy. You have a beautiful body.”
The sudden heat that filled my face was uncomfortably close to burning. “I . . . uhm . . .”
Ash took pity on me. “Here you go,” he said and placed the neatly folded clothes on the edge of the bed. “Breakfast is ready. We will eat after you get dressed.” He turned to leave.
“Ash, wait!”
He stopped.
“Is Ruarc . . . is he here? Is he okay?”
“I am afraid he has not come back yet. But do not worry, banajaanh,” he added. “Ruarc will be fine. He is simply hunting.”
I shuddered, suddenly chilled to the bone despite the rays of sunshine bathing the bed in a warm glow. “Hunting? Did he join the lycan hunt, the one for the full moon?”
A brow rose. “No. Why would you think that?”
“But . . . he is hunting alone?”
“Ruarc is more efficient that way.”
“But . . . why?”
Ash shrugged. “I believe it has something to do with stealth. For such a big male, he can be surprisingly quiet when he moves.”
“No, I mean why is he hunting?”
Although Ash’s eyes had gone back to normal after the moon disappeared, a flash of steel gave lie to his easy expression. “You are keeping secrets, banajaanh. Everyone is entitled to their privacy, but when the secret involves another male, you cannot expect us to sit back and do nothing.”
Everything inside me froze. “You mean . . . he is hunting M-males? A male,” I corrected, terror at almost revealing Matthew’s name making my voice breathless and small. “The male I saw yesterday?”
Ash nodded and opened the door. “All will be well. Get dressed so we can eat.”
With those completely reassuring words—or that’s what I told myself—he left.
* * *
After I’d gotten dressed, I carefully opened the door and peeked down the hall. No one waited outside to castigate me on my terrible behavior. There was no coldly furious Lucien demanding an explanation for my abhorrent behavior and no wounded Jason wondering how I could have been intimate with Ash without talking to them first.