Page 52 of When the Universe Sings

“Fuck,” he moaned.

Heat pooled between my thighs. I’d never felt this before, thiswanting, not like this. I let out a needy whimper, flipping mywrist to grab his, arm flying out to wrap around his neck. Closer, I needed to be closer. I needed to crawl inside of his skin. Needed to be filled, needed him to relieve…

“Mahsi,mymahsi.” The word was a prayer on his lips as I crashed against him.

He turned us, hiking my leg up his hip with his free hand. My shoulders pressed against the wall, skin so hot the crystal was icy in contrast. I tangled my fingers in his hair, hips churning against him, desperate for friction.

“Please, please, please,” I sobbed, releasing his wrist to pull myself closer, using my hand at his neck as leverage to lift my other leg until I could wrap them around his waist.

He pressed his cock against my center and stars burst behind my eyes. The world was suddenly in color after cycles and cycles of endless gray.

A small voice at the back of my mind slithered in, awareness pricking the back of my neck. Thelagneia…

But the thought was wiped away as Asher rocked against me, his face just inches from my own. I keened, sounds I’d never even known I was capable of making dripped from my lips. I needed more, needed to feel him. I’d never wanted so much.

“Shhh,” Asher murmured, holding me back while I leaned forward to try to lick the column of his throat. “We can’t do this, June.”

I understood the words and yet my hips continued to move against him. “I know, I know.”

Another groan, another rock. The heat of his body slid into my pores and it was not enough. And though I knew it was the wine and that deep down my body was telling me something I was too afraid to acknowledge, I couldn’t find it in myself to stop. Not when it felt likethis, not when each time he thrust, his hard fabric-covered length slid against my clit. My desire dripped between us until his pants were slick with it.

One of his hands gripped my thigh and moved higher.

“Fuck,” he groaned as he realized I wore nothing beneath the dress. “You’re going to kill me,j’ska mahsi.”

His fingers curled around my backside, pressing tight to the rounded flesh. I moaned, head tipping back. His eyes burned bright, lips parting as he gave another rock. “We need to stop.”

I nodded but he thrust again and we moaned in tandem. The fabric of his trousers maddened me; every so often he almost slid home, just to be stopped before the ache could be relieved. Tears sprang in the corners of my eyes, desperate little moans slipped through my lips. “Need—I need…”

A hand wrapped around my throat, hips pinning me to the wall. “I know what you need, sweetheart. You’re dripping onto the floor.”

Thelagneiathrummed through my veins until I was too far gone to care. I struggled to remember why we should stop. Why he couldn’t free himself and thrust so deep he would be branded into my skin. There was nothing but him, nothing but this moment, nothing but each breath and the ache erasing every blemish on my soul. Asher leaned forward, breath ghosting across my cheeks. I tipped my chin up, ready for him to take this, to take me.

And then a throat cleared behind us. “Captain.”

Rhiaon stood only a few feet away, staring resolutely at the ceiling. I was ready to throw my shame to the wind and reach between us, Maker be damned if anyone was there. But Asher stiffened, slowly lowering my feet to the floor, steadying me for a moment while he stepped away.

The moment his skin left mine ice crackled in his wake. I blanched, a different kind of heat bleeding through my cheeks. My skin itched and my fingers spread wide before fisting, knuckles bleached white. Asher watched each subtle change, his hair mussed, clothes askew.

In the next breath a mask slid over his face, the one I knew so well because I wore it on my own. He turned to Rhiaon as if we’d merely been in the middle of a pointless conversation. As if what had just happened was nothing. Another reminder, another mask, another thread in his tangled web.

“Is everything done?”

They nodded at the ceiling. “Transport is ready when you are. Hudzon and Greabes are with Crux, about to take an industrial jumper we commandeered up to the ship.”

Asher smoothed back his hair. “Juniper and I will return to the party, enough to speak with Lesephous and create our alibi?—”

“No,” I rasped. His jaw shut with asnap, attention shooting back to me. I turned my face away, toward Rhiaon. “I’ll return to theKuxatanawith Crux and the others.”

They looked between us and my blood boiled when Asher gave a subtle nod. Rhiaon reached for me and I went willingly, skirting past Asher before he could grab me. I’d seen his hand tense, that telltale movement I now knew so well.

“June—”

“Don’t,” I hissed, whirling toward him.

In that moment, I was sure I’d mastered it—sure hate now curled through my heart to eat away at the shame. Because I’d wanted him and he knew it. I couldn’t take back the way my body had moved against him, the way I’d begged him.

But I would never beg again.