“How did today go?”Asher asks, his palm finding my thigh as soon as I plop into the passenger seat.
“Fine, actually, all things considered.”
He raises an eyebrow and I shrug.
“They announced a press conference for tomorrow,” I say.
Asher hums a noncommittal reply and I glance at him ashe starts the car, then look again at his carefully neutral expression.
“Do you know anything about that?” I ask him, suspicion lacing my tone.
“They’ve been doing their best to keep me updated,” he says.
It’s not truly an answer, but it’s the most I’m going to get for now.
Asher’s gaze flicks to my lips, alerting me that I’ve been chewing on them again. He leans forward and brushes his lips to mine, stopping the anxious movement and effectively distracting me. I lean into the kiss, practically melting across the center console, and he growls at the distance still between us.
“I’ve hated being apart from you,” he says, and I huff in agreement. “Dinner at my place?”
“Your dinner or mine?” I say, my suggestive reply causing Asher’s chest to hitch on a surprised inhale.
“Both.” He nips at my bottom lip. “You mouthy little minx,” he mutters, then he pulls away and shifts the car into drive. We’re pulling up to his house before I know it.
He scoops his arm around my waist and hauls me against him as we stumble to the front door, kissing me until I’m senseless and my hands are tugging at his shirt. He fumbles the keys and huffs an irritated breath when he has to break our kiss to pick them up. Finally, we’re tripping inside, our lips locked together again. Asher kicks the door closed and then we’re shocked out of the moment by a high pitched shriek.
“You guys are the worst!” Reverie says, hands covering her eyes as she hovers in the hallway.
“Stars, sorry Rev,” I say, having forgotten—again—that she was here.
“It’s fine. I don’t blame you,” shesays, then waves one hand in our direction, possibly shooing us away, with the other still covering her eyes. “Carry on!”
With that, she turns and swoops away, disappearing into a leafy fern in the corner.
I turn back to Asher and grin. He takes one look and scoops me up again, then blurs us up the stairs to his bedroom. We waste no time shedding our clothes. I don’t even pause when I hear a seam rip in my desperation for skin-to-skin contact.
Our movements become frantic, uncoordinated as our hands roam and grasp, but I don’t care. My body is already reacting to his proximity, and my senses are heightened to the need we’re both caving to. I sense a tingle as ears pop into being on my head, disrupting my loose braid, but it’s a distant awareness, and it doesn’t matter enough to pay attention to.
All that matters ishim.
His strong hands sliding up my ribs, cupping my breasts, skimming over my nipples. His chest pressing into mine, forcing me to step back until my knees hit the mattress. I tip onto it with his hands cushioning my fall.
His body cages mine as he follows me down, and my fingers twist through his silky hair, dragging him closer. Asher’s cedar-smoke scent surrounds me as his solid weight presses me into the mattress, his hard length heavy against my thigh.
I shudder beneath him, and he steals my breath as his lips take mine in a greedy kiss. Asher doesn’t hesitate this time as he overwhelms my senses, making me dizzy with desire until there are no thoughts for anything except me, and him, and my flaming need.
The noises he’s making in the back of his throat while he kisses me are turning me on even more, and it’s only when he pulls back for a moment to trail his tongue and lips along my jaw to my ear that I realize he’s been speaking this whole time.
Soft, possessive words that he doesn’t seem to realize are coming out of his mouth, words that weren’t intelligible moments ago, and only are now because my lips aren’t covering his and devouring them.
“Mine,” he growls, not pausing his ministrations and continuing to lick and suck his way down my neck. His hands are ravenous, tweaking my nipples and then digging into my hips to hold me in place.
“Such a pretty little shifter,” he murmurs into my collarbone.
“Perfect, so perfect,” he says as his lips relinquish one nipple to the swirl around the other. I’m ready to beg for more when his fangs scrape the side of my breast, and I arch into him with a throaty moan.
“Asher,” I say, unable to form anything more coherent with the way he’s set me on edge. I’m desperate for the euphoria of his bite, for the stretch of his cock, to feel him surrounding and owning me in every way.
“Yes, sunshine,” he says. “Yes.”
