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Mrs. Varga puts both hands over her mouth. Onyx buries his face in Ryven’s shoulder, and then someone starts clapping and suddenly the whole museum is.
Ash steps closer and takes my face in both hands, all of it happening around us. “I love you,” he says again, just to me. “I think I’ve been carrying it since long before I knew what to call it.”
“Say it again.”
“I love you.”
His thumbs sweep beneath my eyes, black-gold eyes holding mine. “Stormbird, I spent my whole life thinking love was something people used to own you. Then you came along and made it the first thing I ever wanted to give away.”
“Jade Clement.”
He kisses me as the whole room erupts around us. “I love you.”
EPILOGUE
ASH
Three hours. That’s how long we’ve been at this, and I’m still not finished with him. He’s face down in the middle of our bed with his wrists strung up in my belt and the collar buckled at his throat, whimpering into the sheets, low and broken, the sound going straight through my hips.
There’s oil everywhere, his back shining with it.
“Ash?”
“Mm.”
“Please.”
“Please what, puppy?”
I straddle the backs of his thighs and settle my weight on them, my cock sitting slick against the crease of his ass, right where he wants it and nowhere near enough. I feel his whole body try to push back onto it. “Stay still.”
“I can’t. Light, Ash, I can’t. I’ve been lying here for hours and you keep touching me everywhere except where I need you to. Please.”
“You can.”
Pouring more oil into my palms, I work the tension out of his shoulders with both thumbs, slow and thorough and completely uninterested in his opinion. He shudders under my hands, getting a fraction of friction every time I move before I take it away again.
“You’re being cruel.” He pouts into the sheets.
“What? I’m giving you a massage.”
“You’re not giving me a massage.”
“I’m being extremely attentive.” I press down his spine, making him shudder beneath my hands. “That’s what you married.”
Three hours of this and I could go three more. He’s fucking beautiful like this, all pale skin and lean muscle stretched out beneath me, narrow through the waist before the curve of his ass. Oil catches the light along his back, every mark I’ve put on him standing out against all that fair skin. A year ago he would have swallowed half the sounds he’s making now. These days he gives them to me.
Leaning down over him, I put my mouth at his ear. “Now, tell me again what you said this morning.”
He huffs into the sheet. “No. I’m not telling you anything when you tease me like this.”
I smack his ass. “Come on. What did you say, puppy?”
“I said you should go to Seren’s. That I didn’t mind you going without me and having fun for a month.”
“You didn’t mind.”
“I was trying to be nice.”
