25. Lorraine
Chapter Twenty-Five
Lorraine
I was in the kitchen, baking another pie, when someone knocked on my door. When I opened it, there was Ash.
“Why did you knock?” I asked. He usually just let himself in.
Ash scratched the back of his neck. He looked bewildered. His eyes had dark circles underneath them, like he hadn’t slept.
“Are you okay?” I asked. “Come in.”
Ash stepped into the house. He really looked out of it. His eyes darted around the room before they settled on the small open-plan kitchen.
“What are you doing?” he asked.
“I’m baking a pie,” I said. “I’ve been trying to keep myself busy. There isn’t much to do around here except bake and walk around in the forest.”
“You’ve been in the forest?” he asked, his tone alarmed.
“Just at the stream and the orchard beyond it,” I said. “I haven’t been outside of the barrier.”
Ash relaxed visibly.
“What’s going on?” I asked.
“Nothing,” Ash said. He rubbed his eyes. “I’ve just been… it’s been a rough couple of days.”
I sighed. “Tell me about it. Things are weird around here. Does that affect you, too?”
“What?” He looked like he had no idea what I was talking about.
“The magic. Now that I know about it, I feel it all the time and it feels… different. Weird. Like it’s unstable.”
“It’s getting closer to All Hallows’ Eve,” Ash said.
“Does that change things?”
He nodded.
I got the feeling that something was wrong. Something that had nothing to do with Halloween and the strange magic that seemed to come with it.
“Tell me what’s wrong,” I said.
“I don’t know who I can trust anymore,” Ash blurted out. He marched to the couch and dropped himself onto it as if he was tired of holding himself up.
I frowned. “What do you mean?”
I walked to join him and sat down next to him. Ash scrubbed his face and looked at me with a weary expression.
“Rowan and I have been friends for centuries, but lately, I don’t think he gets it. Dolus wants to help me, but he’s dangerous.”
“Dolus?” I asked, confused. I’d never heard the name before.
Ash studied me as if trying to decide how to put it into words. Finally, he shook his head.
“It’s a long story. I just… I needed someone to confide in, and the small circle I thought I once had seems to be even smaller now. I’m alone.”
I took Ash’s hand and squeezed it. “I know what that’s like.”
“Yeah?” He turned his bright eyes to me, his brows knitted together. “How?”
“I had people in my life I could lean on, too. My parents passed away a couple of years ago. I was always able to turn to my mom, and when she was ripped away… I guess the pain you go through when big things happen starts to set you apart. The people who used to be there for me just didn’t understand what it was like anymore. I have Cat now. And?—”
I cut myself short. I’d nearly said I had Oscar, but that wasn’t true. Oscar had never been there for me.
I just hadn’t known it until it was far too late.
I took a deep breath.
“You’re right,” Ash said. “When big things happen, fewer people understand, until no one does.”
I nodded. “That’s how it goes sometimes. You just have to find the people who do know, you know?”
“Like you.”
I wasn’t sure what to make of that. I didn’t know anything about Ash, about the pain he was going through. All I knew was the few things Philippa had told me, and I knew she’d just scratched the surface.
“I thought I could trust her,” Ash said.
“Your ex?”
He nodded.
“I thought we were on the same page. I was willing to give it all up for her, and when I did, she changed her mind. I don’t know what she had that she thought she lost when I gave everything up for her, but she walked away, and I was left with nothing.”
“She didn’t deserve you,” I said.
Ash scoffed and shook his head, looking at his hands. “I don’t know if that’s true. Maybe I deserve all this shit that’s coming my way.”
“No one deserves to get hurt.”
Ash looked at me. “How did this happen?”
“What?” I asked in a small voice.
He reached for me and put his hand on the back of my neck. His fingers tangled in my hair there, and he stroked my jaw with his thumb.
“How did it happen that a person who isn’t from my world gets it when no one else here does?”
I didn’t know how to respond. “Maybe we were meant to find each other.”
Ash snorted at that. “I don’t believe in fate.”
“I do,” I said. “I don’t think you saved me by accident.”
His blue eyes bored into my soul.
“I don’t know what I believe anymore,” he said.
I stayed quiet. Ash looked at me, his eyes deep and filled with questions I knew I couldn’t answer. His eyes slid to my lips, and he leaned forward and kissed me.
The kiss was gentle, soft and sensual. He pulled me closer, and I leaned against him. He wrapped an arm around me and held onto me, tasting me as if this was the first time he’d kissed me.
“Where did you come from?” he asked, but I knew it was a rhetorical question. He kissed me again. He cupped my cheeks with both hands, holding me as if I were delicate, and planted kisses all over my face before he kissed me on the mouth again.
The air around us grew thick and clouding. I moaned into Ash’s mouth as he kissed me. Ash broke the kiss again, and his eyes slid over my face. He moved his hand to my mouth and brushed his thumb along my lower lip. My stomach clenched, and my skin burned hot. I wanted him. I always wanted him. I didn’t know what it was about him. Sex seemed to be our love language.
It’s not love , I told myself.
Ash pulled me tightly against him again, and this time, his kiss was more urgent. He slid his tongue into my mouth, kissing me hard. He slid his hands down my neck and onto my shoulders. He drew one thumb along my collarbone, and I melted against him.
I ran my hands up Ash’s arms and rested them on his thick biceps. His skin was burning hot through the thin material of his shirt.
Ash pushed me backward until I was lying on the couch, his large, muscular body covering me. He held himself up so he didn’t crush me, but I was pinned between his thighs. The thick ridge in his pants pressed against my crotch, and I moaned when he ground his cock against me.
“Tell me to stop,” Ash murmured against my lips.
“What?”
“If you tell me to stop, I’ll stop,” Ash said. “Otherwise, I’ll keep going. I’ll fuck you until you’re raw. Until your voice is hoarse from screaming my name.”
I shivered at his words. He’d never asked me this before.
“I don’t want you to stop.”
“I’m taking out my struggles on you,” he said.
“I don’t mind.”
“I’m giving you a chance to back out,” Ash said, and his voice was almost pleading.
I frowned. “Are you giving me the chance? Or are you trying to give yourself the chance?”
Ash’s face changed. His eyes grew darker.
“It’s okay, Ash,” I said. “It’s okay to break sometimes. It’s okay to need someone sometimes. I know shit gets hard. You don’t always have to deal with everything alone. I’m here.”
His face crumpled for a second before he kissed me again.
When he broke the kiss, his poker face was back in place, but he pulled away my tunic until he found bare skin. He drew circles on my skin with his fingers, drawing me in. The motion was hypnotizing. Everything about him was addictive.
“Don’t stop, Ash,” I whispered.
That was all he needed. Ash kissed me the moment my words left my mouth. He mashed his lips against mine and gyrated his cock against me. His motion moved the tunic so that it was out of the way, and only a small tug had me completely bare.
Ash cupped my naked breast, and I moaned. I worked his shirt up his body as he massaged my breast. He let go of me just long enough to help me get rid of his clothes.
With me naked and his shirt off, Ash kissed a line of fire down my neck and onto my chest. He sucked a nipple into his mouth. I arched my back, pushing my breast into his mouth, and Ash hungrily licked and sucked me. His eyes were closed, and I did the same, losing myself in the way he worshipped my breath. His tongue was like magic, and I got wetter and wetter. His desperate urgency to take me made me want him that much more. I wanted to help him erase whatever pain he felt, and if this was what he needed, I was here for the ride.
Ash ground himself against me while he kissed and licked his way between my nipples. I cried out and moaned, his attention only making me that much more aroused.
Slowly, Ash moved away from my breasts. He kissed his way down my stomach, and I shivered. When he planted kisses on my pubic bone, he growled.
“I can smell your scent,” he said in a deep voice. “Everything about you is so fucking hot.”
Heat washed through me with those words.
Ash pulled down the pants he still wore, and he was naked, too. I stared at his thick cock, hungrily. I wanted him inside me.
Ash crawled over my body again, and I opened my legs for him. Instead of pushing into me, he lay next to me on the small couch. There was barely enough space for the both of us, but pressed this tightly together, we didn’t take up that much space at all.
When he pushed his hand between my legs, his fingers found my slit and I gasped.
“You’re so wet,” he whispered.
I nodded and gasped again when he ran his fingers over my clit. I squirmed on the couch, moaning. Ash gave himself over to the moment. He spread me open with his fingers and explored me. He slid his fingers into my entrance, slowly working them in and out. Usually, he pumped his fingers in and out of me hard, but now he took his time, teasing me.
I moaned in complaint and bucked my hips, trying to rock myself against his hand, but Ash held back. His face had changed, amusement dancing in his eyes. He enjoyed teasing me. Despite how slowly he moved, I was getting closer and closer to orgasm.
Ash didn’t let me, though. Before I toppled over the edge, he pulled his hand away and put it on my hip. He kissed me again and chuckled into my mouth when I moaned in complaint.
Ash lifted himself and positioned his body between my legs. His hand was still on my hip, holding me in place, and I tilted my hips up when his cock landed against my entrance. When he pushed into me, his large cock felt incredible, and I moaned. Ash grunted as he slid into me, a look of pure pleasure washing over his face. My body tightened around his cock.
When he was buried inside me, Ash paused. We stared at each other, trembling with the anticipation of what was to come. I reached up and cupped his cheek, and he kissed me. I kissed his mouth before moving to his neck. I lifted my head, and he stayed close. I licked a line up his neck to his ear, and Ash growled in my ear. He bucked his hips, sliding in and out of me.
Ash pulled out and rammed into me, making me cry out. I stopped trying to kiss and lick him. He fucked me harder and faster, and I gave myself over to him, letting him have his way with me. My breath came in ragged gasps, and I moaned in rhythm with our fucking. I gripped his thick shoulders, and the muscles rippled under the skin as he held himself up. He picked up the pace, bucking his hips faster and faster. I closed my eyes, savoring our connection as we grew closer and closer with every thrust.
An orgasm grew inside me, starting at my core and spreading outward. My toes curled, and my body warmed, glowing with the pleasure that crashed into me again and again like waves on the sand.
My body tightened around Ash’s cock as he continued to pound into me. Ash grunted, but he didn’t slow his pace.
The ecstasy took over, taking my breath away. Ash paused only to kiss me.
When my orgasm faded, I breathed hard. “Sit back,” I gasped.
Ash frowned for a second before he understood what I was saying. He pulled out of me, sitting back on the couch. My hips were stiff as I clambered onto him, straddling his lap. He put his hands on my hips and sucked his breath through his teeth when I wrapped my fingers around his shaft. His cock was slick with our sex when I guided him to my entrance and sat down on him.
We moaned in unison, and I rocked my hips back and forth. I put my hands on his shoulders and looked Ash in the eyes while I bucked my hips, riding him faster and faster.
“You feel so fucking good,” I gasped.
He growled in response and wrapped his arms around me. He bucked his hips upward, fucking me from beneath as I rode him, and the sensation was incredible.
Ash clenched his jaw, his lips curled away from his teeth, and his cock grew harder and thicker inside me. He was getting closer, and I wanted to ride him to his release. I bucked my hips, faster still. My breasts jiggled and bounced, and the cabin filled with the sounds of sex, a harmony of our moans and our bodies slapping together.
I was getting close to yet another orgasm. The pleasure rocked through my body, growing so strong that I was sure it would consume me completely.
Ash let out a sharp cry when he released, and a moment later, I orgasmed, too. We cried out in unison as we rode out the wave of pleasure together. Ash wrapped his arms around my body, pulling me onto him, pushing into me as deep as he could. My breasts mashed against his chest, and I leaned my head against his shoulder as the orgasm nearly blinded me with its intensity.
Again, the magic Ash possessed flowed from him, oozing out of every pore. It filled the room. It pushed into every corner, wrapped around me until I was cocooned in power, and I felt like it flowed through me as his cock throbbed and pulsed with his release. We were tied together, and nothing mattered except the bubble we existed in together.
When the orgasms finally faded, I collapsed against Ash’s body. We held onto each other. My heart hammered against his chest.
Eventually, he let go of me, and I climbed off him. I lay back on the couch, breathing hard. The cool air in the cabin brushed against my naked body. The pleasure still came in waves, although the orgasm had long subsided. I basked in the aftermath of our sex.
Ash shifted and tried to lie down on the couch with me. The couch was too small for us to be side by side, so Ash pulled me on top of him. He was so strong and his body so large, it didn’t seem like an effort at all to have me on top of him. I lay on him with my head on his chest, listening to his heart beating against my ear.
He stroked his hand up and down my back. His fingers were gentle, his touch soothing rather than ticklish.
I could lie here forever. Right now, in this minute, I didn’t care about any of it—not this world, the magic, my own world, what Oscar had done to me… none of it mattered. All that mattered was me and Ash, together.
I wasn’t sure what it meant. I didn’t know where we stood, what we felt for each other. But right now, that didn’t matter.
I was where I was supposed to be. Somehow, I was home.