She needed to know what his possession would be like. Asherah wanted to experience this, so when she was lonely, if he failed, she could pull the memory out to warm her. She would have it to sustain her. She wanted to experience passion, true passion, for once in her life. Heath could give that to her.
“When I’m done with you, Foraltae, you will have no doubt how much you belong to me,” he whispered and then kissed his way down her jawline. As soon as he met the resistance of her dress, he stopped kissing her skin long enough to rip it from her body.
She moaned as he moved back to her neck. He sucked at her pulse, and her toes curled with the sensation. His fangs danced over her skin, a sharp bite of power and danger to push her desire to the edge. Heath’s hands worked on her back, massaging in slow circles. He had deadly hands, hands which could and had killed men, but he touched her with awe-inspiring care.
Attacking with viciousness, he had shattered a giant before her eyes, the stain of his blood down his chin and over his neck, but he touched her like she was priceless. The control he had made her gasp.
Her muscles went liquid as his coarse fingers dug into her flesh and found the band of her undergarments easily.
Yes. Expose me. Make me yours.
Rising up slightly on his knees, Heath pulled the material away from her. His hot gaze raked down her flesh, and her nipples hardened in response. But as he looked his fill, so did she. If she had not known he was a warrior before, she could see it on his body now. He was hard planes, soft muscle, and smooth skin. Every part of him had been strengthened for battle, to use his blades with precision.
“Gods, you’re beautiful,” he said roughly as he held himself up on his arms above her.
Ash gripped his sides and pulled herself up against his body. She sucked in a breath as her nipples touched the plane of his stomach, and she pressed her mouth to his chest, right over his heart. Her world stopped. So many memories flashed through her. Slippered feet slapping against the white-and-silver marbled floor of the Palace. Little hands digging into bowls of food with a much younger Heath smiling, despite his bruised eye and split lips. Silva playing in her hair before a mirror when Asherah wore her first gown for a ball. Screaming men not stopping Heath’s laughter as he raced between stalls with crumbling bread in his hands.
Over and over they filtered through.
Memories.
The stories of their past. The time before things had gone to hell. The joy of family, the happiness of life. They had both known it, no matter how fleeting, and his heart sang to her about them.
Ash was crying by the time the memories faded away, and Heath clutched her to his chest. He shifted her, and then his mouth melded with hers. He tasted of desperation now. Every swipe of his tongue was to conquer, every glide of his lips to plunder. White-hot desire sparked through her, chasing away the sadness. His touch sent shocks of light through her. Somehow, the feel of him was different, deeper. She dug her nails into his shoulders, holding on for dear life as she rebuilt the memory of him with all she had.
Heath laid her back on the bed, pressing his body into her. His hands were rough when he pushed away everything between them. Asherah kept kissing him as she kicked away her clothes and ran her hands over his chest and down the rippled waves of his abdominal muscles. He tightened under her touch. She could feel the indents above his hip bones that led to his groin, where more muscles were defined. They were like horns curved over his hips.
She would trace them with her tongue later. For now, she wanted to get him out of his clothes. Nimble fingers found the tie of his pants until she could push at them as well. His shaft, long and thick, pressed against her. She could feel the heat of it through the fabric as if he were on fire. She pushed harder at his pants, and his cock hit her stomach.
A smear of liquid burned her as surely as an inferno. Heath groaned into her mouth, tilting his head until their teeth almost clicked together. But she didn’t mind. She needed this. They might have wanted a slow, easy burn just moments before, but something had happened. Their pasts and the present blended until Ash could feel emotions pouring from her heart. She could feel her urgency to have him inside her mirrored in his kiss and in the grip of his fingers.
Heath wrapped his arms around her, one palm cradling her head while he kissed her, and she pushed his pants over his hips. Ash helped him as best she could to get his pants down as he kicked them off his body, and then he was free. She ran her hands over the broad expanse of his back, memorizing the dips and curves of his muscles, loving how they flexed and tightened as he moved. She found the slope of his buttocks and gripped the globes, pulling him harder into the cradle of her thighs. She gasped into his mouth. His cock slid against her clit as if it had always belonged there.
Heath growled against her mouth, rolling his hips. Ash clung to him, matching his motions. She knew the pleasure he could give her, knew the reckless abandon he could incite. She wanted more, much more—deeper, harder, and stronger—from him.
“No, not again, I need you. I need …” He trailed off as he broke their movements. Heath held her hips with rough hands and pushed away from her. “Let me taste you.” He palmed her wrists, dragged them above her head, and held them in place on the bed. He kissed his way down her throat, over her collarbone, and then to the curve of one breast.
“Priceless. Mine.” He sucked her nipple into his mouth.
Ash arched beneath him and wrapped her legs around him as he laved the tip. His other hand held her hips firmly to the bed, away from him, and she felt the loss. She was in agony. Her body was throbbing with need. The air was filled with the scent of them, of their essence, and she wanted to wallow in it. This dream had become a place of raw emotion and passion. Everything dimmed until she thought they were surrounded in darkness, and only the two of them remained. Even the scratch of the sheets against her back was sensual.
She shifted as he switched his attentions to the opposite breast. Heath nibbled around her nipple softly before drawing it back into his mouth. He bit down on it gently, and her back left the bed. Ash was drawn tight as a bowstring, her only grounding points his hands at her hip and wrists. Her head thrashed. She had never felt pleasure like this. Nothing had ever felt so right. It was as if her body was made for him.
“I need just a bit more. Are you wet for me, Ash? Do you crave me as much as I crave you?”
“Yes!” she shouted, wanting him inside her.
“Let me be sure,” he whispered and kissed a path to her navel.
His tongue dipped in slowly before twirling around. She had never thought her navel to be an erogenous zone, but Heath proved her wrong. A nerve ran in a straight line from her belly button to her core. He chuckled as she moaned louder, and then he continued farther down.
He bit at the soft curve of her stomach, murmuring something like, “Thank the gods,” but then he moved beyond her belly, and she didn’t think to consider what he said anymore. He released her wrists, and she sank her fingers into his hair as he positioned his shoulders between her thighs. Heath spread her lips apart with soft fingers and took one slow lick from the base of her core to her pulsing nub.
“You taste so fucking good,” he growled.
Raw. Crude. Sexy.
And then covered her with his mouth. Ash screamed as he tongued her clit, flicking and sucking the nub in intervals. She felt him shift. A thick digit pushed against her sensitive walls. He pumped once, twice, and added a second finger. She rode his fingers, her hips rising and falling on the bed as he licked her. She lost all sense of time as pleasure washed over her. Heath eased his touch when she felt ready to explode.
