35. Lorraine
Chapter Thirty-Five
Lorraine
I waited for Ash to come back. I was excited to see him, to spend a bit of time together. It felt like ages since we’d last spent time together that meant something. So much had happened in the past while, it was difficult to keep track of time.
How long had I been here in the vale? It had to be weeks… no, months? I had no idea how long it had been. It felt like I’d been here a lifetime.
Ash returned after a while, carrying a basket.
“What did you get?” I asked.
He chuckled and walked to the rug in front of the fireplace. “You stoked a fire,” he said.
I nodded. “It wasn’t easy, but we all have to learn at some point, right?”
He grinned at me and unpacked the picnic basket. He laid out freshly baked bread, grapes, cheese, cold cuts of meat, and a bottle of wine out on the rug.
“Oh,” I breathed. “I haven’t eaten like this in months.”
Ash glanced at me. “What?”
I looked up at him. “You know… how long have I been here?”
“Two weeks,” Ash said. “Or just a little over.”
“What?” I blinked at him. “That can’t be right. I’ve been here for weeks. Months, even.”
Ash shook his head. “If you’re not used to magic, then time gets very strange out here. It’s different, even for us. Centuries don’t feel like centuries, and time goes by pretty fast.”
I shook my head. “That doesn’t make any sense.”
“Nothing here makes sense to the human world.”
I guessed that was true.
“How are you feeling?” he asked when I dug into the bread and cheese as if my life depended on it.
“Starving,” I said. “But good.”
He grinned. “That’s good. I was worried about you.”
“How am I alive?”
“It’s because you’re bound to me,” Ash said.
I nodded. “Philippa…” I glanced at him. “Philotes, I guess I should say, told me we were bound somehow.”
“Did she?” Ash asked, looking worried. “What did she say?”
“That we’re bound together and that’s why I can sense the magic. She told me a while ago, when I came to you about magic the first time. That’s when we talked.”
“She didn’t say anything else?”
I shook my head. “I was pissed off at you for misleading me, so I didn’t really talk about a lot of things with her that day.” I smiled, feeling silly about how angry I was then. “I guess I overreacted a little, but it’s all so crazy.”
Ash nodded slowly, chewing the bread with cheese he’d served up for himself after I’d dug into mine.
“So, I survived being shot because we’re bound together somehow,” I said. “What about the guys who came after me? Why did they have magic?”
Ash shook his head and frowned. He took a sip of wine and swirled it in his cup. He didn’t have fancy wine glasses, but that didn’t matter. It tasted better than any wine I’d had before.
“I don’t know how that happened. Something doesn’t make sense to me, and now that they’re all dead, I don’t have anyone I can torture the answers out of.”
I looked up at him, brows raised. He was joking, right?
He only shrugged at me.
“At least it’s all over,” I said. “They’re gone, and I’m home free.”
“Something like that,” Ash said, nodding. He took more sips of wine. “No one is going to come looking for you here, so you’re safe to stay here as long as you need to.”
“Thanks,” I said. “This place is amazing, but I just want to go home.”
He nodded again. He looked closed off, guarded. Something was bugging him.
“Will I be able to see you again?” I asked. “After I go back?”
Ash shook his head. “No, I don’t think you’ll remember me.”
“I’ll forget?” I asked, alarmed. “Why?”
“After you’re out of the vale for a while, everything here will fade in your memory until it doesn’t exist anymore. It’s how it works. It’s how our realms stay apart from each other.”
“I don’t want to forget you,” I said.
Ash nodded. “I know, but it just doesn’t work to have mortals and immortals mix.”
“What about you?” I asked. “Will you forget me?”
Ash shook his head. “No. We’re not afforded that luxury.”
I narrowed my eyes at him. It would be a luxury for him to forget me? Or did he mean something else? Before I could ask, Ash shifted so that he sat with his back against the couch next to me. Our shoulders touched, and his warmth seeped into my skin.
I leaned my head against his shoulder.
Ash leaned his head against mine and put his hand on my arm. He stroked my arm with his thumb, and the motion was soothing. Then, he turned his head, tilted my head up to his, and kissed me.
The kiss was electric, as it always was, and heat washed through my body. His tongue slid into my mouth, he cupped my cheek, and I moaned.
I would never stop wanting him.
The kiss became more urgent, and Ash laid me down on the rug in front of the fire, pushing the empty basket and plates aside. He kissed me, his large body covering mine, grinding his cock against me.
I gasped into his mouth, more warmth washing over me. I got wetter and wetter for him.
I wanted him.
“Roll over,” I commanded.
Ash hesitated for only a second before he gave me what I wanted.
I climbed onto him and straddled his waist while I kissed him. His hand slid onto my breast, and he massaged me.
I kissed my way to his neck, and he let go of me to allow me space to move. I pushed up his shirt and kissed his chest, his perfectly chiseled abs, and down to the line of his pants. I pulled the waistband down, setting the bulge of his erection free.
His cock was thick and smooth, reaching up to just below his navel, and he was so fucking delicious.
When I ran my fingers over his shaft, Ash sucked a breath in through his teeth.
I caressed him, pumping my hand up and down his cock a few times before I leaned forward and sucked the head into my mouth. I swirled my tongue around his head a few times, relishing how Ash moaned and groaned. His stomach muscles contracted, and I ran my free hand over them, feeling the ridges of the individual muscles.
When I sucked his cock deeper into my mouth, Ash cursed and pushed his hand into my hair. He encouraged me to suck him in deeper and deeper, and I took him in as deep as I could. I wrapped my fingers around the rest of his cock to close the distance, and I bobbed my head up and down, stroking him in and out of my mouth.
“Fuck, Lorraine,” Ash bit out. “I want to fuck you.”
He grabbed me and pulled me up. He hiked up my tunic and pulled me onto his lap. In no time, his cock was against my entrance. My breaths came in ragged gasps.
“Fuck, yes, Ash,” I gasped.
“We shouldn’t do this,” Ash said.
“I know. We can’t keep doing this if I’m leaving, but at least one more time.”
Ash grabbed my hips. I wanted to sit down on him, but he stopped me.
“I need to talk to you first,” he growled.
“What?” I asked. “Now?”
Ash nodded.
“Wait until after.” I ached to have him inside me. My body hummed with the need for him to fill me.
Ash gritted his teeth and cursed again before he lifted me off his lap.
“No, I have to tell you now, or I never will.”
“Tell me what?” I asked. I tugged my tunic down around my legs.
“You’re bound to me,” Ash said.
“Yeah, that’s why I’m still alive. That’s how you found me when I was taken.”
Ash nodded. “That’s also why you were getting so weak when you left the vale.”
I frowned. “What do you mean?”
“You got sick when the guys took you because you can’t leave the vale while you’re bound to me.”
I narrowed my eyes at Ash. “I don’t understand.”
Ash sighed and tugged his pants up, tucking away his cock. “It’s almost All Hallows’ Eve, right?”
I nodded.
“The month leading up to it, the magic here changes. It becomes a lot more powerful, and a lot of things become different. One of them is the bond I created with you. Now that you’re bound to me, you can’t leave the vale, or you’ll die.”
I gasped. “What? Ever?”
“No, not ever. Just until All Hallows’ Eve.”
I narrowed my eyes. “You’re telling me I can’t go home now?”
He nodded. “That’s exactly what I’m telling you. I should have told you sooner.”
I pressed my fingers against my temples. My head was starting to ache.
“I’m sorry, Lorraine,” Ash said.
I frowned at him. “What are you sorry for?”
He looked guilty. “For creating the bond.”
“It’s something you did?”
Ash nodded, pursing his lips.
“How?”
“By sleeping with you,” Ash said. “If we hadn’t slept together…”
“I would have been able to go home,” I said, finishing his sentence.
“You would have been dead,” he pointed out.
“I wouldn’t have gotten sick.”
“It’s only two more weeks.”
“You knew about this, and you didn’t tell me? You should have told me!” I was suddenly furious. “Time isn’t the same as at home, so it will feel like a couple more months.” My head started to spin.
“I won’t let anything happen to you,” Ash said. “You’re safe here.”
“I’m just a prisoner,” I said.
Ash shook his head. “Look, it’s not that big a deal, it’s just?—”
“You lied to me,” I said tightly. “After everything, you lied to me.”
“I told you, didn’t I?”
“After the fact? How fucking noble,” I spat, getting to my feet.
“Where are you going?” Ash asked.
“To bed.” I glared at him. “Alone.”
“Lorraine, come on?—”
“Don’t talk to me until All Hallows’ Eve,” I snapped.
Ash shook his head. “You don’t mean that.”
“I do mean it!” I cried out. “You used me all this time, and you knew what it would mean, and you still did it?”
Ash was suddenly angry. “You wanted it as much as I did. You instigated most of it! I didn’t use you. It takes two to fucking tango.”
“Yeah, but I can’t leave—only you can. You have a whole life worth living here, and I can’t go back to mine because I’m your prisoner.”
“You’re not a prisoner.”
“Then let me go!”
“You’ll die!”
I shook my head. “Fucking fantastic, Ash. Thanks for letting me know. I learn something new about this world every day. Like that magic is real, and I can die and come back, and that gods and goddesses can be friends. It’s funny how despite being in a different realm, where time is fucked up and everything changes, an asshole is still an asshole.”
Ash wanted to say something, but I didn’t want to hear it. I was done. I marched to my room and slammed the door.
I collapsed on the bed, and for the first time since all hell had broken loose here in the vale, I cried.
Not because I was stuck here. That wasn’t new.
Because Ash, the one person I’d trusted, had lied to me.
Why did I give a shit?
I’d thought he was different from the other men in my life, from those who just wanted to use me for personal gain.
I was wrong. I’m going to get through these next two weeks, without that asshole, and them I’m out of here. Back to my normal life with Cat.