CHAPTER TWENTY #4
The bond thundered with a want so vast it felt like it might level the tower.
He leaned in close, his hands bracing on either side of my head, his biceps taut, his lips just inches from mine.
He shifted forward—just enough to let me feel every bit of his heat and the agonizing pressure of his length against me.
Still, he held back. He watched me, waiting for the break.
I shattered first.
Magic exploded out of me, white-hot, feral, and uncontrollable.
I screamed his name through the bond as my entire body convulsed in a violent, soaring peak.
Fire licked across my skin, meeting his shadows as they curled tighter around me, as if they couldn't bear to let me go. I combusted in the way only he could make me.
As the aftershocks rolled through me, a fresh rush of need surged through me.
I wasn't done.
I reached out, my strength returning in a flood of heat, ready to flip him beneath me—ready to take everything he had been teasing me with.
But he caught my wrists, pinning them back to the lounge with a sharp look. He leaned in, his lips brushing the shell of my ear.
"You still haven't cut off your little Earth prince, Ava."
The reminder hit like ice water. Rage flared, hot and bright. The audacity of this possessive, smug bastard.
"Oh, fuck you," I growled.
I broke his grip and wrapped my hand around him—slick, hard, and pulsing. His entire body jerked as if I'd struck him with lightning.
"Fuck," he groaned, his head snapping back, his eyes rolling into his head as I worked him.
I was fast, dragging every ragged moan and twitch from his body, determined to break his control. I felt his control finally give.
He came undone in my hand.
His release spilled hot over my stomach and across my fingers, and I didn't hesitate for a single second.
I looked him straight in those blown-out silver eyes as I licked him from my hand, my gaze slow, wicked, and triumphant.
Asher slid off me, breathless, his skin slick with sweat.
He moved toward the adjacent door— his back bare, muscles taut, shadows curling lazily around his spine.
All I could do was stare. Sculpted. Untouchable.
Mine.
He disappeared into what I assumed was the bathroom, and when he reappeared with a towel in hand, he didn't say a word.
He simply knelt beside me on the velvet lounge, his earlier intensity replaced by impossible gentleness as he cleaned me up. Then he lifted me again.
My legs wrapped instinctively around his waist as he carried me toward the bathroom.
The bathroom was a temple of black marble, a place made for a creature of darkness.
With a flick of his hand, his shadows curled toward the rainfall shower and turned the handle.
A hiss of steam erupted, curling around us like a living thing. Beyond the misted glass, the East Mountains loomed, a sliver of ocean gleaming silver beneath the moonlight.
He stepped straight into the spray with me still anchored in his arms. The hot water cascaded over his inked chest and down his length—glistening, heavy, and perfect—before trailing over my body.
"My burning weakness," he rasped, his voice thick with something primal that vibrated against my collarbone.
"You've cursed me, Ava. Every time I breathe, it's you. Every time I close my eyes, it's your face. Your laugh. Your gods-damned fire."
My back hit the cold marble wall with a sharp gasp, his grip on my thighs keeping me pinned firmly against him.
His shadows coiled around us like silken chains, holding me still while his mouth traced a slow, claiming path along my neck, my jaw, and my cheekbone. He was engraving me into his memory.
"I want all of you," he whispered against my ear, his teeth grazing the sensitive shell.
"Your light, your fury, your tears. I want to mark every fucking inch of you until there's no doubt in anyone's mind who you belong to."
His hands cradled my face now, his wet palms framing my jaw as his forehead pressed to mine.
His eyes held mine like a silent vow.
"You're mine, Ava," he growled, low and lethal. "Say it. Say you're mine."
Gods, I wanted to. I wanted to hand him every shattered piece of my soul and let him hold them. But the reality of the sun rising tomorrow crashed back into me.
"But Asher…" My voice broke, hot tears spilling even through the pounding water. "I'm betrothed. There are contracts. There are laws."
For a heartbeat, the world stopped.
The steam pressed in, heavy and suffocating. His grip didn't ease, but the shadows wrapped tighter around my waist, as if they could physically hold me together.
His jaw flexed, the muscle jumping.
His gaze sharpened with sudden resolve.
"Then marry me," he said, his voice like smoke and sin.
I froze. My breath caught in my throat, the water running in rivulets over my parted lips.
He wasn't smirking. He wasn't teasing.
He looked ready to declare war on the heavens themselves.
He leaned in, his mouth brushing mine as the steam curled around us.
“Be mine, darling,” he murmured, the nickname curling around me like a binding spell I never wanted to break. “I’ll drown the fucking world in darkness before I let him have you.”