“Andyouwere wearing a tight pink-and-white hoodie that made you look like a giant cupcake. All I wanted to do was pin you down and lick off all the frosting.”
I sat up, the sheet falling down to my waist. “Wait…that’swhy you call me Cupcake?”
Asher grazed his palm over my exposed breast, threatening to stir my body into a new frenzy.
“It suits you.” He leaned forward and captured my nipple between his lips, his tongue sliding out to tease me. “Mmm. Very lickable.”
“You are such a beast. You know that right?” I laughed. “For your information, that sweatshirt was Sophie’s. I don’t own anything pink.”
“As someone who just spent half the day hanging out between your thighs, I beg to differ. You’ve got plenty of pink—”
“Asher!” I smacked him again. Did this man ever stop?
He pointed at me, his grin stretching even further. “And now your cheeks are pink, too. Perfect.”
“Now you’re just trying to embarrass me.”
“It’s a skill. Seriously. Don’t play a game of wits with me, Gray. You will lose.”
“Say whatever you want, Mr. Big Bad Incubus. I know your secret.”
“You think so, huh?” He kissed my jaw, my earlobe, his soft lips buzzing over my skin and making me shiver. Somehow he’d gotten me horizontal again, the sheet around my waist mysteriously vanishing. He rolled onto his hip, propping his head up on his hand, watching me intently. “Which one?”
I trailed my fingers down his chest, down over the ridges of his abs, lower still until I reached his velvet-smooth cock. He was already hard again, but stiffened further at my touch, the beat of his heart pulsing just beneath his hot skin. “The one where your heart is almost as big as your—”
“Almost,” he said between kisses, groaning softly into my ear as I began to stroke him. “But not quite.”
“Hmm. Lucky me.”
“Lucky?” Asher rolled on top of me and grabbed my wrists, pinning them over my head as his solid weight settled over me. His cock teased my entrance, unleashing another moan from my lips despite my best efforts not to let him win.
“You don’t even know the meaning of the word,” he said. “But before the sun comes up? You damn well will.”
I lost the ability to speak, my retort melting into a puddle of sighs as he rocked his hips and plunged inside me again. I felt his incubus hunger tugging lightly at my magic, and a rightness pulsed through my veins, warm and delightful and perfect. I loved the way we filled each other up, loved knowing that my magic could make him strong, could take care of him, just like he’d taken care of me.
I opened myself up to him fully, slowly sending out a warm pulse of magic, and Asher deepened our kiss, his body seeming to hum with it. He was close to the edge, thrusting in deep and perfect, faster and faster until I was certain he’d explode. But then, without warning, he stilled inside of me, pulling back to see my face.
In one big, impossibly strong hand, he cupped my chin, searching my gaze with an intensity that made me gasp. For a brief moment, I fell right into his ocean-blue eyes.
I saw his soul there. All the pain and regret and love and hope.
And he saw mine. I felt it, knew it. And for the first time in our relationship, I dropped every last wall, leaving myself completely open. I let him see it all—the brave, the scared, the shameful, the beautiful, all of the parts of me that made up the whole.
“I’ve never wanted anyone like I want you,” Asher whispered. He dipped his head and stole another kiss, stole my breath, stole my heartbeat. And I let him take it all, because in that moment, as he slid back inside me and finally brought us both over the edge of that cliff, as I fisted his hair and shuddered beneath him and sighed his name into the darkness, I knew without a doubt that I was his.
To protect.
To love.
Just as he was mine.
After a quick shower, we crept back into bed, sliding between the sheets and wrapping up in each other’s arms once again. I felt him growing hard again, and I was certain we’d spend the rest of the night just as we’d begun it. But instead of slipping inside me, he turned me onto my side, snuggling against me from behind and wrapping me up in his embrace. With a fluttering of kisses on the back of my neck, he whispered, “You need to rest, Gray. It might be your last chance for a while.”
I opened my mouth to argue, but a yawn escaped instead, and before I could even find the strength to rally for another round, I was fast asleep.
I didn’t know how much time passed, but eventually, the soft, pleasant rumble of low voices woke me. I opened my eyes to find Ronan and Asher by the window on the other side of the bedroom, their heads close together, deep in conversation. Darkness had fallen, the moonlight illuminating their silhouettes. Ash was bare-chested, a pair of sweats hanging low on his hips. He had one hand on Ronan’s shoulder, his other hand gesturing emphatically. Ronan’s head was bent low, nodding at whatever Asher was saying.
My heart swelled. I loved them both so much. I opened my mouth to tell them just that, but before I could get a word out, Ronan’s smile glinted in the darkness.
