Crown of Ashes

by Addison Moore

  My entire body morphs into one giant heartbeat as that current he’s unleashed jumps from my fingers all the way down to my toes. Of course, if I wanted him to take no for an answer, he damn well would but, well, I have far more sexually sinister intentions to deal with.

  An arm pulls me off him abruptly, but my gaze remains locked over his. “My bed,” I shoot right back just as a girl with ratted pink hair attaches herself to him and begins gyrating away as if he were a vaginal itching post.

  Melody Winters. I’d recognize that sexual distress signal anywhere. But instead of pulling her off my man, my thumb curls around the ring on my finger as the stone lights up electric. She’s already tried to pry it off my hand once. There’s no way I’m about to give her another chance. This ring has power—straight from the throne of God, literally. I can’t surrender it to her now. At this point, who cares about the fact Chloe swiped it from some long-deceased cranky granny? As soon as Melody called me a time traveling thief, I bolted from the Gas Lab. I had far better things to do than listen to someone berate my past sins. Yes, what Logan and I did was wrong—hey, how did she know about that, anyway? And technically, I was a murderer. A thief is far too light a title for what Logan and I pulled off all those tumultuous years ago. A thought comes to me as I stare down at the glowing stone, the exact color of Gage Oliver’s eyes. I give a quick glance around and find the dicey Bishop herself laughing it up with her brother, and I speed on over.

  “Chloe?” I land the ring between us like the stumbling block it’s proving to be. “You said this ring was gifted to you. Who gave it to you?” I know whose rotten-toothed finger it once sat on, but I think it’s time I get the low down and dirty details.

  Her head immediately jerks to where Gage is currently trying to deflect Melody and her acrobatic endeavors, impressive as they might be—all moves my body wishes it could employ on him myself.

  “Melody thinks I stole this,” I hiss into Chloe’s face.

  Brody takes my hand and stares into it as the blue glow reflects off his eyes. “Melody Winters’ ring?”

  “It’s mine now.” I’m quick to retract my hand. “Speak up, Bishop. Why did that booty shaking skank accuse me of being a time traveling thief?” How would Melody know anything about that dive bar Chloe and I visited during our first nefarious light drive as a dynamic duo?

  Her mouth opens, and for once Chloe Bishop is short on lies.

  “Here you are.” Gage lands his arm over my chest, grazing my nipples in the process, and a deep, guttural groan evicts from me.

  Chloe’s cheeks pinch with color as if it were her own nipples getting a little Oliver action. “I’d love to carry on a conversation with you, Skyla, but it looks as if you’ll be busy for the rest of the night.” She bites the air with the innuendo. “We’ll solve the mystery of the stolen bling another time.” She flicks her middle finger in the air as she carts Brody off. “Have enough fun for the both of us, would you?” She gives a sly wink, and just like that, the ring goes dark as if Chloe’s ridiculous eyeball malfunction had the power to kill it like a light switch.

  Gage presses his crotch into my back, and I feel him there, that hardness, that thick line of wanting impressing into my flesh.

  “Now,” he whispers hot into my ear, and my eyes close. The room spins beneath me, and when I open my lids, I find we’re no longer in the loud, raucous bowling alley surrounded by big hair and leg warmers, but in the sanctity of our own bedroom.

  “Impressive.” I twist into him, and those daring eyes of his latch onto mine with this newfound bravado he’s pumped full of.

  The door slams and locks, and the dresser presses violently over the entrance as if on its own volition.

  “I see you’re going old school.” My heart thumps hard because Gage Oliver is a show of force tonight. I knew his Fem standing afforded him a few powers here and there, but God Almighty, things have changed since we’ve been apart.

  Music strums softly from some mysterious locale, the lights dim low, and the comforter whips violently from the bed.

  “Wow.” I bite down on the smile begging to break through. “That escalated quickly.”

  “Maybe so”—he caresses my cheek with the back of his hand, and my face begs to burrow against him—“but the rest of the events that unfold this evening will take place naturally, aggressively—over and over again.”

  A tiny whimper gets locked in my throat.

  Here he is. Gage Oliver is back in my life after an absence of my own making. Do I want this? Maybe. Do I need this? Hell yes. Okay, so I may want this, too.

  I pull his arms off my waist and take a full step back, our eyes still leashed together.

  “Gage.” I drop to my knees and bow my head ever so slightly. “Let me be the first to worship at your feet.” I look up and meet with that face I’ve idolized as far back as that fated summer I landed on this island. It’s true. I have always been his very first subject. Whether or not I want to accept it, Gage Oliver is royalty, my rival, my equal, my friend, and my lover. “You are the king.”

  And tonight, I am most definitely here to serve.

  Gage

  My adrenaline kicks in hard, and everything in me demands I tell her to get back on her feet, to help her up in the least, but the words, the actions necessary won’t seem to come.

  Skyla has just bowed down to me as if I were some deity, and normally I would question her sanity, want to laugh off the idea right along with her, but at the moment we’re both serious as shit.

  “You’re not allowed to worship me.” It’s true. There might be a storm of insanity brewing in my life, but having my wife lost in worship in my honor isn’t happening. I won’t let it.

  Her lips twitch with the idea of a smile. Her fingers quickly work my pants open, and I can’t seem to move, don’t want to.

  “Oh, Gage.” Her chest pumps with a silent laugh. “You of all people should realize how little control you have over anything.” She pulls me from my boxers and lands her mouth over me without hesitating. My eyes close, my head pulls back in ecstasy—in relief, as she rides her mouth up and down the length of my dick. “Skyla.” My fingers knit into her hair, and I clench it, pulling it as I move along to the rhythm that her mouth dictates. This is not how I envisioned this night would go. Actually, this is far better than anything I envisioned—although, in truth, it was me worshiping her, my mouth on that delicate part of her body, making her jump out of her skin with this same outrageous level of euphoria.

  Skyla dips her hands into my pants and drags her fingernails down my legs, hard, and painful. Just the simple fact Skyla is dispensing the pain makes it feel sublime.

  “Shit.” I groan because for whatever reason the pain works for me. Skyla pulls me into her mouth harder, suctioning me down with a ferocity that suggests she has the power to eviscerate me right through my dick. Her hand trails up, and she cups the boys with a little too much vigor and it’s game over. In one quick move, I scoop her up and pin her arms to the closet door.

  Skyla’s eyes round out as if trying to absorb how swiftly I’ve managed to land us clear across the room with her arms spread wide. She struggles a moment, but I’m unrelenting with my strength.

  “Are you trying to hurt me?” The words grit from me as I take in her beautiful features. Skyla is a goddess, an alien being all unto herself, and I live to worship her. My lips twitch because my thoughts are my own. Despite the fact we’re touching, flesh to beautiful flesh, I have rendered her powers inert around me. In all honesty, it’s not to protect myself so much as it is to protect her. If I knew she were listening, I’d pour out my confessions nonstop, beg for her forgiveness until she gave it, and at the rate things are going with that, it might just be never.

  “Yes. I want to hurt you.” Her eyes enliven with fire. Her lips give the curve of a maniacal smile.

  “Good.” I loosen my grip over her wrists. “Getting out a little physical aggression might be good for the both of us.” I teleport us t
o the butterfly room, Skyla beneath me, my legs pinning hers, my hands still holding her arms out like wings.

  The room glows as the creatures pinned to the wall stir to life, and one by one they explode into the air around us, fluttering their own wings in shades of electric blue.

  “Showoff.” She struggles to free herself, but I’m not letting go.

  “You are mine, Skyla.” I swallow down the rage building in me, the hardness of my heart, my crushed and broken ego, and force them to dissolve. In truth, Skyla’s rejection of me these past few months has been far more than devastating. I thought we could rise above anything. I knew that it would be difficult to hear what I had to say, but she closed off her ears right along with her heart. And yet here we are, our love splayed out, spilling between us like oil, messy and inescapable, too slippery to embrace properly. “You will always be mine.” My fingers relax before I pull my hands to myself. I roll off, landing next to her on my back, eyes to the ceiling, an arm over my forehead in regret, without any clue on how to progress with her—my hard-on spiking into the air like a reminder of what we started.

  Skyla draws herself up on her knees and pulls off her dress, waving it like a flag of surrender before tossing it across the room. “Come and get what’s yours, Gage Oliver.” She straddles me while raking my shirt open, sending buttons popping off with vigor. “Your wife has a craving that only you can satisfy.” Her chest pulsates in and out, her tits cresting the fabric of her bra, full and heavy, slowly heaving their way out. But I don’t have that kind of time on my hands. I reach up and unlatch the back, sending the girls bouncing into the air, happy to see me—and, dear God, am I ever happy to see them.

  I pull her down to me, kicking off my clothes, my mouth finding its way to her soft sweet tits and my tongue makes a home over them, sucking them down into my mouth where they belong. Sorry, boys, tonight they’re mine. This is my body, my beating heart in Skyla’s tender flesh. She has me in so many ways. It’s only fair I get to have her. I ravish her with my mouth, raking up and down her body like a luge, burying my tongue deep inside her, making her quake in record time before I plunge in, no condom. I can’t stand a damn thing between us right now.

  “Gage.” Skyla groans so loud, her panting pierces the air like a scream. “Are you insane?” A wild cry escapes her, and then in a moment of synchronicity, she presses me in deeper with her hands flattened against my back. “I love you.” She takes up my face in her hands, her watery eyes pouring into mine.

  “I know.” I land a searing kiss over her lips before pulling back. “I love you more than there are words, Skyla. You are the other side of me. For so long I thought it was Logan of all people.” I wash her face in a long tracking kiss. “But it’s always been you, Skyla. We are connected far deeper, far stronger than any earthly union, any heavenly covenant.” I smooth the hair off her forehead. “No more words.” My body thrusts inside her. Skyla’s body is tight as hell, so hot and wet all for me, and I’m close to losing it before pulling out and coming over her belly. I fall on top of her, my mouth fused to hers, her probing tongue sweeping softly inside of me, and it feels like I’m home, like Skyla and I are back on track—as if we had never skipped a beat to begin with. Our hearts slam over one another with rage as if we incited a riot in one another, and in a way we did. We may not have had that difficult conversation that’s been strangling me by the balls for the last three months, but we don’t have to do that tonight.

  She cleans up with a small burp rag from the boys before tossing it onto the floor.

  “Smooth, Oliver. Good call, though.”

  A dull laugh pumps through me as I dig my fingers into her hair. Skyla scoots in close, and my skin drinks down the feel of hers.

  “I missed this,” I say as I blink us back to the comfort of our bed, and she bubbles with a laugh as she takes in the messy room around us. For a brief second, my eyes flit to the bookcase and latch onto that smooth stone Candace gifted us with my destiny written out in a single number, and I’m quick to look away.

  “I missed this, too.” Her lips twitch like she might cry. “I vote we move forward.”

  “I concur. But before we do that, I do have to say that I abhor myself for ever bringing you an ounce of grief, and I repent in dust and ashes.”

  Her eyes fill with tears, and it feels as if a million years trek by slowly.

  “When do you think we should have it out?” She ticks her head toward the window as if the words we need to share can only be done so outside of this sacred space, and I second that motion.

  “Another time.” My finger moves to her lips, and I press into them a moment. “And I will speak, and you will listen.”

  Her eyes widen at the boldness of my words.

  “And you, Skyla”—I’m not done being bold by a long shot—“will tell me exactly what the hell you’re doing with Chloe.”

  Her pretty pink mouth falls open, and she’s quick to close it again. She gives a little shrug, and her nipples bounce in turn. “Fair enough.”

  “Really?” I’m amused and equally intoxicated by this beautiful woman in my bed. I pull her to me, chest to chest, her mouth inches from mine where it belongs. “Thank you.”

  “You’re welcome.” She dots my lips with a quick kiss. “But you won’t be so thankful when you find out.”

  I wince as if she struck me, partially because I know it’s true and partially because she agreed to do it in the first place.

  “I appreciate your honesty.”

  “You think you do—but you won’t.” Her cryptic words slice right to the bone.

  The faint cry of a child comes from down the hall, and Skyla flinches.

  “That’s Nathan.” Her arm crosses over my chest as she snuggles in close. “My mother has them for the night. I have enough milk pumped so they should be fine.” Nathan’s wail pierces through the wall like a knife.

  “I bet Tad loves that.”

  “Mom says he sleeps like a corpse until noon.”

  “Noon, huh? Must be nice.” Even though I haven’t been here losing sleep right along with Skyla, I haven’t enjoyed a wink on my own. “I vote we do just that.” I bury a kiss in her hair before moving to her lips and indulging in a lingering twisted lip-lock that makes me dizzy in the process. I’m always dizzy around Skyla. For as long as I’ve known her, that I’ve known her kisses, I don’t know which way is up when I’m around her.

  She moans as she pulls away just a notch, “Mom and Tad will be fumigating for termites soon. We’ll need to move out for a week at least.”

  “Move out?” My thoughts run wild with places to take her and the boys. “Our house is filled to the brim with bodies. How about my parents’?” A growl emits from her, and I buck with a silent laugh. “We’ll go to Whitehorse. Logan won’t mind.”

  “I’ll mind.” She lies back on the pillow, and the moonlight kisses her features with a tangerine glow. “Lexy is squatting on his couch. I can’t stand her arrogance.”

  “We’ll figure it out. Lexy doesn’t have anything on you, Skyla. Don’t entertain her level of crazy. Logan isn’t going anywhere.” It should probably feel strange to entertain the idea, but it doesn’t.

  Her gaze drops to my chest, and she takes in a heavy breath. “I’m not concerned about him. The only man I want, need, and demand to have in my life is right here in this bed with me.” Her gaze slowly meets with mine. “I didn’t know if we’d have this again. I didn’t expect tonight to end up this way. But I’m glad it did. I’m glad that we’re on the path to healing. I may not like the reality of what landed us in this mess to begin with, but I dislike the distance it invoked a whole lot more.” Her fingers twist into the hair at the base of my neck. “We are family, Gage. That means everything to me. We have two precious baby boys. I don’t want you to miss out on their lives. I want to share it all with you. I want everything that this beautiful union of ours has to offer.” She swallows hard as her fingers threaten to tear the hair right out of my skull. “No m
atter how difficult it will be to hear the words come from your lips, I have already made peace with them before they ever do. I need you to know that. This is deeper than forgiveness, Gage. I’ve wiped the slate clean on your deception, on your incessant need to protect me with your silence. You have my forgiveness before you ever ask for it. All I ask in return is the very same courtesy.”

  My blood runs cold. “You’re talking about Chloe?”

  She gives a faint nod as if even that was pushing it. “Our outward lives may never be the same, but there’s no difference where it counts.” Her hand touches over her heart. “Right here. You and I—we’re still Gage and Skyla. You’re my best friend. You’re not second place or some passing phase that I can’t wait to be rid of. You are my forever. And you’re right. We are the masters of our destinies. My mother gave me the green light to rebel, and you are my favorite rebellion.” Her hand slips down to my dick that’s already throbbing to take her once again. “I wondered if you’d pull out. I’m not sure I would have minded all that much if you didn’t.” She shakes her head, and a tiny laugh bubbles from her. “Those cute boys of yours cast one strong spell over me. Okay, so we should probably wait—but my point is, we’re not going anywhere. I’ve discovered something very poignant about myself, Gage.”

  “What’s that?” I pull her finger to me and kiss the tip.

  “I belong to you. My need to have you—to have us, transcends everything I thought I knew about love, about life, about death, regarding how I feel about the people around me.”

  My heart stops beating. Does she mean Logan? For sure she means Dudley, or at least my ego wants to believe it’s so, but Logan? A part of me refuses to believe it. Not because my ego desperately wants for it to be true, but because I don’t want to hurt for Logan in that way. In the back of my mind, even I believe that she and Logan belong together. If her mother has made anything clear to me, it’s the fact I’m the unholy stumbling block in their love story. I am the stone my father threw in their path, and Skyla has simply tripped and landed into my bed for a little while.