Page 28 of Ashen Souls

“Mm.” He circled the bed, his attention lingering on the curve of my neck before dropping lower. “Is that what you want it to be? A glitch in your mind?”

“What else could it be?”

He leaned down until the air between us turned stifling.

“Answer me, mortal. Do you want this to be a dream?”

“Yes.”

The gold in his eyes flared bright.

“Then forget your pathetic waking world and its restrictions.” His voice dropped into a filthy growl. “If none of this is real, you don’t need your fucking boundaries. Spread your legs, shut your mind, and just drown in the convulsive orgasms I’m about to drag out of you.”

I hated how desperately I wanted to obey him. “Don’t pretend you understand me. You know nothing.”

“I know enough.”

He sat. The mattress dipped, sliding me an inch closer to him. The shift was an encroachment, a tightening of the atmosphere that made inhaling a trespass.

“I know you crave passion, Aveline. And adventure. Maybe a little danger. I see the version of you that doesn’t fit into the light,” he continued. “The curated truths you feed your mother. The jokes you use as a barricade. You’re hollowed out by a hunger you’re too afraid to name.”

“Impressive. Do you do birthday parties, too?”

His smile widened. “If you ask nicely.”

I should have pushed him away. I should have mocked him until the shadows dissolved. Instead, my traitorous mouth shaped his name.

“Daeren.”

His palm spanned my waist, his thumb digging ruthlessly into the soft dip of my side. He didn't pull me in. He just held me there, his mouth hovering a hair’s breadth from mine, forcing me to breathe his ash and smoke until the silence suffocated the room.

“Tell me,” he commanded.

“What?”

“Exactly what you want me to do to you, Aveline.” His lips brushed mine, gutting my remaining sanity. “Say the words. Tell me to rip this fucking silk off and ruin you.”

“You want me to beg?”

“I don't need you to beg.” His eyes pinned me. “I want you to look me in the eye and admit how fucking badly you need my cock to split you apart.”

I lifted my gaze to meet his. “I want. I want you.”

The moment the words left my mouth, pure satisfaction bled into his expression. It was the look of a monster who had waited centuries for this exact second, for my willing surrender.

In one fluid motion, he tore the red silk gown from my body.

The sound of ripping fabric cracked through the chamber like a whip. The violence of it jerked my entire frame forward, leaving me completely exposed to the sweltering air—and to him.

Crippling fear washed over me. Even though I was trying to convince myself this was only a dream, the reality of his presence was too palpable. The unhinged, uninhibited way he carried himself, like a predator that had just caught the scent of blood, triggered a primal alarm. I wanted to run, to scream, to do anything. But I didn't move.

Daeren was right. The dark fraction of myself, that hunger and the emptiness I had carried for years, had finally found its answer. My body refused to obey any instinct for self-preservation. Instead of fleeing, I lay there, paralyzed, waiting for his verdict.

He dragged me closer, his palms raking over my ribs and stomach. His eyes were ravenous, devouring my nakedness with absolute starvation.

Daeren took my right breast into his mouth, sucking and working the peak with his tongue until my eyes rolled back. His large hand claimed the other, kneading the flesh so savagely I nearly bucked off the mattress. When his teeth sank into my skin, it horrified me how much the sting turned me on.

“When I'm done with you, there won't be a single inch of your beautiful body left uncorrupted by me, Aveline.”