My eyes fluttered open as he pressed a kiss to my throbbing pulse, then lifted his head.

Lashes swept up, and molten silver eyes locked with mine. I saw an urgency in his eyes, a firestorm of need and so much want. But he hesitated. Stark need etched deep lines into his striking features, but he…he waited.

For me.

“We don’t have to do this,” he said, his voice thick and rough. “Having you here and in my arms, kissing you? It’s enough.”

Oh, gods, he was going to make me cry.

Even without him speaking more, I knew why he’d said that. Why he held himself back despite what I’d told him. But Ash…gods, he knew it hadn’t been nothing. It was why he’d told me I was safe when we were in the cavern. He knew I hadn’t gotten free of Kolis without gaining a few fresh scars that couldn’t be seen but were embedded deep, nonetheless. He knew enough to make sure I was safe with him. And I was.

Gods, I couldn’t love him more.

And I couldn’t hate the realms more for taking me away from him than I did now. It wasn’t fair. But if I focused on that? On any of that bad stuff? I would be sacrificing what little time we had left that hadn’t already been stolen from us.

Swallowing the knot of emotion threatening to leave me a sobbing mess on the forest floor, I slid my hands down and grasped the front of his tunic. I tugged, and Ash obeyed, raising his arms. He bent, making it easier for me to tug the shirt free.

“Liessa,” he murmured as I dropped the clothing to the ground.

Holding his stare, I lifted my hands and hooked my fingers under the borrowed shirt I wore, drawing it up. The soft, well-worn material skimmed my stomach and then my breasts. He didn’t look away, not for one moment, as I pulled the shirt off, letting it fall beside his.

Ash’s chest rose sharply as his icy-hot gaze traveled, inch by inch, over the flesh I’d exposed for him. My nipples pebbled against the strands of my hair as I stood still, letting him look his fill—wanting him to. I waited, my heart pounding faster than it had in days.

Slowly, he lifted his fingers, catching the sides of my hair. His stare tracked his movements along the curls as he lifted them and brushed them back and over my shoulders.

My breathing picked up as I curled my fingers around his wrist. “Touch me.” I brought his hand to my breast.

Ash growled low in his throat at the contact, and my back arched, pressing me into his palm. “Like I said before, I’ll do whatever you ask of me,” he swore, wisps of eather spinning wildly in his eyes. He dragged his thumb over the tip of my breast. “Anything.”

I knew he spoke the truth.

He would do anything for me.

My stomach fluttered as he cupped my other breast. His eyes remained fixed on mine as I moved my other hand down the cool, hard skin of his chest, inching lower. His stomach muscles tightened under my palm. Reaching the band of his breeches, I found the clasp there and undid it with slightly shaking fingers. Ash worked his feet free of his boots, and then it was he who stood still as I drew his pants down.

Kneeling, I looked up, taking in the dusting of dark hair on his thick, muscular thighs. I found faint nicks in his skin—scars I’d never learn the story behind. I’d never know if he’d gained them before he Ascended, while he learned to wield a sword, or if something terrible had created them, but I cherished them nonetheless.

I leaned in, pressing my lips to the one on his knee and then the other just above it. Drawing my hands up the outsides of his legs, I paid homage to the inch-long scar on his inner thigh.

Hearing the sharp breath he took, I smiled as I pulled back and looked up. Muscles curled low in my stomach, and I knew he had to hear the breath I took as my gaze landed on his thick, rigid cock. I bit down on my lip, remembering how he tasted, how he felt when he came against my tongue. I stretched up, started to lean in…

Ash’s hand returned to my hair, stopping me.

I looked up at him. His cheeks were flushed, his lips parted. “You said anything.”

“I did.” His hand fisted in my hair, tugging at my scalp in a way that caused a rush of pounding heat.

“And I want you in my mouth.” I clasped his thighs. “I want to taste you.”

“Sera,” Ash groaned. “Anything but that.”

My eyes narrowed. “I didn’t realize there were restrictions.”

He chuckled. “I didn’t either. But if you do that, I’ll…”

I scraped my nails against his skin, far too pleased by the brief flash of his fangs. “You’ll what?”

“I’ll lose control.”

My blood turned to liquid fire at the thought of him with no control. “That is what I want.”

“It’s what I want, too.” The faint glow of eather appeared in the veins of his cheeks and throat, causing an unsteady breath to escape me. “But I want to lose control with my cock deep inside you, not when I’m fucking your mouth.”

My legs trembled as a pulse of lust went straight to my core.

His head tilted to the side, causing his hair to fall across one side of his face. A glowing eye pierced mine. “You’d like that.”

Nothing about him saying, “fucking your mouth” should turn me on, but I nodded. Because when he said it? I wanted him to fuck my mouth. Hard.

Ash’s nostrils flared.

Had I said that out loud?

“You can have that all you want,” he bit out. “After.”

After.

Just a single word often taken for granted. We didn’t have an after. “But—”

“After,” he insisted, the grip on my hair firm enough to guide me to my feet.

Holding his gaze, I nodded. There was no reason to correct him. We could pretend. We had every right to. “Are there other things not included in anything?”

A hint of a teasing smile played across his mouth. I loved that kind of smile. It was rare. Would I remember it where…wherever I went?

“Sera,” he said, softly this time.

I blinked, lifting my gaze to his.

“We’re here.” Both of his hands cupped my cheeks. “We’re together. Right now. That is all that matters. Just us. Just right now.”

Exhaling roughly, I nodded. “Just us.”

Ash dipped his head, capturing my lips with a sweet, lingering touch. I trembled as the kiss deepened, as he tasted and owned me, drinking me in.

His mouth left mine once more, but he skipped my throat. I didn’t know if that was on purpose—if he’d sensed that seedling of unease in me before—but his lips blazed another hot trail across my collarbone. His fingers followed his mouth, grazing over my shoulders, my breasts. They coasted over the curve of my stomach, finding the band of my pants.

Ash’s tongue flicked against the crest of my breast, and then he drew the flesh into his mouth, wringing a gasp from me as he tugged the pants over my hips and then down. I stepped out of them, shivering at the soft whisper of air against my skin.

Then there was nothing between us. He moved into me, folding an arm around my waist. The feel of his flesh against mine, cool and hard against my belly, seared my skin. Holding me tightly, he carefully brought me to the ground, one hand bracing the back of my head as he laid me out on my lake’s damp, grassy bank. The tenderness in how he cared for me nearly had me coming undone, and it would have if not for the sight of him.

The image of him above me, his dark hair falling against the sharp angles of his cheeks, his lips parted to reveal the tips of his fangs, and his features stark with need were the embodiment of pure lust.

His eyes glowed a luminous silver, catching mine as the soft edges of his hair teased my skin. He nipped at my collarbone. “Keep those beautiful eyes on me,” he ordered in that smoky, shadowy voice of his. “I want you to see how much I enjoy the taste of your skin.”

My stomach dipped and curled. “I…I won’t look away.”

His grin was icy-hot, and his lips maddening as he kissed his way down the center of my chest and then up the swell of one breast. His head tilted, eyes full of wisps of whirling eather as he dragged the edge of one fang over the sensitive skin. He hesitated at the tip of my breast, his cool, teasing breath heightening my anticipation.