A Shadow in the Ember (Flesh and Fire 1)

Nothing seemed real right now. Not from the moment I’d healed the kiyou wolf to this very second. It was as if I’d entered a different world, one where I didn’t have to become someone else. One where I was wanted instead of scorned, desired instead of disliked. A world where I was just me and not the failed Maiden or would-be Consort.

I knew I shouldn’t. Just like I probably shouldn’t have worked up the nerve to enter The Jade and experience physical pleasure on my terms and just for me. I had no idea what the Primal would think if he ever came for me and realized that I was truly no longer the Maiden—if he would even know. I also knew there was a higher risk involved with Ash because he wasn’t a god from another Court.

But I wanted to feel. I wanted to be someone. I wanted to be kissed again. By him.

And I wouldn’t let who I was supposed to be, who I ended up becoming, or any thought of the Primal of Death stop me from allowing myself to want.

My pulse pounded dizzyingly fast. “Then kiss me.”

Chapter 13

The smile that spread across Ash’s face wasn’t slight or faint. It was wide and full of heated sensuality. I caught a brief glimpse of his teeth, two slightly elongated, sharp…fangs.

Now that I could really see them, I knew they weren’t the size of a finger like Tavius had once claimed, but I knew they could tear into my skin with shocking ease, nonetheless. The sight of them was yet another reminder of what Ash was. They brought forth a shivery mixture of fear and shameful excitement.

He moved then, erasing the distance between us. Every cell of my body tensed in a breathless sort of anticipation as that woodsy, citrus scent surrounded me.

“I don’t think I ever wanted to hear the word yes more than I do now,” he said, the bridge of his nose brushing mine. The shiver coursing through me had nothing to do with the cool touch of his skin. “Ever.”

Then his lips met mine, and the first touch was just that. A touch. But it was still a shock to my entire system, just like the moment I first entered the water. His lips were cool against mine, and the press of them was soft like satin over steel. He tilted his head slightly, and then I wasn’t thinking about his lips.

I wasn’t thinking at all.

The pressure of the kiss increased, and he tugged at my bottom lip with those sharp fangs. I gasped, my entire body shuddering.

His breathy laugh touched my lips. “I like that sound. A lot.”

“I liked that,” I whispered. “A lot.”

“But that, liessa, was barely a kiss.”

My blood thrummed as his hand settled around the nape of my neck. Liessa. Something beautiful and powerful… I felt like that now.

His mouth touched mine once more, and this kiss…it was nothing like the gentle touch of before. It was harder, and the feel of the tip of his tongue against the seam of my lips sent my heart racing. I opened for him, and the kiss wasn’t only deep. The flick of his tongue against mine was an exploration that tasted of honey and ice, and he kissed as if the same, almost frenzied curiosity that drove me also rode him. To know what it was like to feel wanted, desired, cherished. To just feel. I knew that was ridiculous. I didn’t think gods had that same curiosity, but the rawness of his kiss went beyond that need to know, as his hand threaded through my hair and his other flattened against my cheek. The kiss became all those things. I’d had no idea that a kiss could be like this.

Needing to feel more, I moved my hands to his shoulders. He shuddered at my touch. His skin was cool, and I didn’t know how he could feel that way when I was a sparking fire. I tugged on him, wanting him closer, only slightly concerned that I wasn’t apprehensive about that desire. A distant, still-operating part of my mind knew I should be more worried because I was feeling wonderfully impulsive and gloriously reckless.

But he was closer, and that was all I wanted to be concerned with. His large body urged mine down, and there wasn’t even a flicker of hesitation before my back met the grass. The weight of his upper body and the coolness of his bare skin bleeding through the thin slip as his chest pressed against mine was a heady, decadent shock to my senses.

The rumbling sound that came from him danced over my skin, my breasts, and then lower still. He seemed to be as affected, and that left me reeling in a dizzying way, knowing that he—a god—could react so strongly.