Ash coated my legs beneath my skirt that held a few burn marks of its own.Damnit. Not this outfit.This was why I usually existed in yoga pants and tees. Those, at least, were easy and cheap to replace.
“Do you need to get out?” Amber eyes, lit with some remarkable glow from within, stared down at me.
I nibbled at my lip. “No?”
“Good.” Dolion’s arms stayed exactly where they were, though this skin warmed as his stone dissipated back to wherever it originated.
The same place where I drew my flame from, I supposed.
A nudge on the top of my head brought my attention back to him. Dolion’s eyes locked onto my mouth, and his own quirked as if to say,Do you wanna try that again?
Only, of course, he wouldn't use the vernacular, but what the hell. It was fun to imagine the words on him. Then his mouth settled on mine again, and words were the last thing I thought of as his lips pressed against mine, a little more intently this time, and his tongue swept across the seam to push inward.
A soft breath left me in a startled sound. Heat that had little to do with my internal flame and everything to do with the man wrapped around me kindled low in my belly. I mewled against his mouth, parting my lips as his tongue surged inward. Firm fingers resumed their massage against my nape, and the dualsensation overrode every nuance that drove my instinct to self-combust back—well, only in a different way.
The tip of my tongue stroked along his as he showed me what he wanted, gathering me closer. His heartbeat resumed slow and strong in his chest. I rested my palms over it, needing that rhythm to ground me as his kisses took me to a place I couldn’t describe, lost in the headiness that left me floating.
When he finally drew back, my eyes refused to open, the lids too heavy to lift. “Too much, Steorra?”
I shook my head, dizzy with the sensation and leaned into his chest. “No. I’ve just never—” My brain jammed on the confession, shutting down.
But Dolion didn't call me out on the omission, folding his arms tight around me, blocking out the world for as long as I needed.
And coward that I was, I took the option he offered, resting with my cheek against his chest, reveling in the simple beat of his heart, the warmth of him without fear of incinerating a lover for the first time.
CHAPTER EIGHT
DOLION
I didn’t let Ash go home alone. The taste of her incandescence etched deep inside me as I walked beside her, a gift of her trust that, once given, I couldn’t release. She didn’t utter another word after I kissed her, only led me to the place she seemed to keep most secret from the rest of the world.
Her second gift was letting me walk alongside her in silence as she showed me the way to the secret I guessed she kept away from everyone else. I climbed the twisted staircase behind her that led between an alleyway I discovered that could only be reached from above. Townhouses arched together like so many cards, all ready to topple at a moment’s notice. Each wall was painted a different color, the roofs bright, and stained glass patterns decorated nearly every glass surface.
Music played from some of the open windows and more than one person waved as we weaved our way between the colorful abodes. If I had thought that discovering Ash’s graveyard hideout or her showing me the convent were signs of her letting me into her life, this blew my mind in all the most incredible ways. I stood at the arched door to her hidden townhouse as she pressed her key to the lock and waited.
Ash spared me a quick glance over her shoulder, a smile softening her features. “Are you coming inside? I didn’t bring you all this way to gawk at my neighbors.”
I grasped the deep turquoise door that bore plenty of battle scars and that looked like either she or someone else had added a few roses at some point that had faded over time, and waited for her to cross the threshold. “There is so much of you in this place.” I gestured to the risen street that glided above everything, and stepped inside her home.
Ash closed the door behind me, not bothering to lock it. I took note of that fact, and slipped my shoes off at the door. She nodded her approval, kicking her own sandals off. “More than you know,” she said softly.
A look of hesitation crossed her face before she held out her hand and turned away from me.
I ignored the outstretched hand, and stepped up behind her, sliding my hands around her waist. “I know this is new to you, Steorra. There is no rush.”
She laughed, a hollow sound so different from her joy of a moment before. “Isn’t there? Don’t you think I worry about destroying the people here? Everything that I– that they’ve built?”
I leaned down, sweeping her hair to one side and trailed my lips across her cheek, over the shell of her ear until she sighed and softened in my arms, though her spine remained taut. “I do, and what you have built here is beautiful. Is this fear of destroying what you have created why you have hidden yourself away for so long? These people love you, Steorra.”
She wriggled in my arms. “I like that you call me that way too much.”
“There is no such thing, and no need to run anymore.” I wrapped my arms around her, testing once to see if she wouldbaulk at the restraint. When she didn’t, I tightened my hold, drawing her back against me. “Let me love you, Steorra.”
“Dolion,” she breathed, heat flooding my arms the moment her panic hit in full. “I– I don’t know how?—”
I spun her in my embrace and crushed our mouths together, taking the full brunt of her attack. My tongue slid between her lips without begging permission this time as I cupped the back of her head, lacing my fingers through her silky locks. She moaned in my arms, pressing her breasts to my chest, arching to ease herself closer.
When her tongue traced alongside mine as I thrust into her mouth, tasting the brightness of her from within, the sweet tenderness of her tested every inch of my restraint. Molding my hands to her sensuous body, letting my palms seek out her generous curves and pull her into me, I walked us into the hall she’d been facing when she first held her hand out to me in offering.
