Soulbound

35. Ashe

Kissing Dani was like coming up for air and learning how to breathe again after living for centuries without oxygen. It felt familiar and exotic all at once. It made my head spin and my heart palpitate to a rhythm of its own making. It was so much more than what I had imagined in the few times I allowed myself to fantasize about it.

It felt like home.

I close my eyes, losing myself in the moment as my hands travel up her arms to cup her face. She shudders under my touch and a small moan rumbles in her throat. My stomach clenches as a gnawing hunger stirs inside me, numbing my mind to everything except for my own pulsating needs. Have I been starved for so long?

She shifts her position on the bed, pressing her warm body into mine as she straddles me, and my arms slip to grab her thighs. I pull her impossibly closer, dragging her across my lap, and my skin tingles at the fire that was left in her wake. Her command may have willed my body to respond but my heart begged me not to stop. And so, even after I feel the threads of magic dissipate as Dani's wish is fulfilled, I choose temptation over reason and keep kissing her. Consequences be damned.

The pads of her thumbs trace my jawline and she pushes me back against the headboard in earnest, her mouth shaping to mine as she deepens the kiss. The sweet taste of desire dances on my tongue, teasing me with the promise to satiate my thirst, and I part her lips in pursuit of it. Her moans grow louder, more intense, and I can feel the heat of her passion radiate through our clothing. A frustrated growl rattles in my chest. Clothes were an obstacle. I needed to feel her skin. I needed to taste her!

Heated blood surges in my veins as my fingers slip under the hem of her blouse and snake slowly up her bare sides. Our touch is electric. Goosebumps prickle her flesh and a breathless gasp escapes her, sending another shockwave through my core as my heart rate spikes to dangerous levels. Her fingers thread roughly through my hair as she grinds her hips against me and my mind goes blank. I dig my nails into her back, trying to ground myself back to sanity, but as her lips find mine again I teeter on the edge of losing myself to the craving of her.

“You're so warm,” Dani whispers against my mouth and my teeth graze her bottom lip as I meet her gaze.

I can hear the lust infused in her voice, I can smell the desire saturating the air between us, but I cannot see it reflected in her eyes or taste it on her tongue. It bubbled in my own throat, fueling the fire under my skin, but I wanted to feel it from her. I wanted to taste it, to know that this feeling was not mine alone. I wanted to know the flavor of every precious emotion that she held within her heart.

“God, I want you.” Those words sound like an invitation to heaven from her lips. I pull her in for another heated kiss, eager to see just how close she could take me before we come crashing down.

An earthy aroma wafts around her, clinging to her hair and lingering on her breath. It smells raw, potent and familiar. Almost like . . .

Hashish?

Something clicks in my mind, yanking me from the fog, and I pull back abruptly. My head hits the wall behind me and a hiss leaves my lips as I wince in pain.

“Ashe?”

I snap my eyes up to meet her forest green once more. Her lips are swollen and her cheeks flushed as she stares at me, eyebrows knitted together with an expression that I cannot read. But I did not have to sense her emotions to recognize the slight glaze in her eyes.

“Are you high right now?”

Her blush deepens in the fading light. “Yes, b-but it's okay! I'm in my right mind! I know what I'm doing.”

You have no idea.

I drop my arms to the side, gripping the bedsheets to keep my hands from shaking. To keep them from reaching back out and touching her. This was a mistake, I never should have given in to the ring's temptations. I never should have let her in!