I inhaled deep and released it. Every part of me awakened and throbbing and desperate. “That’s it,” he crooned roughly, his thumb rubbing my cheekbone. “Now kiss me.”

I squashed his lips with mine, and my breasts to his chest. He caressed my back and held the base of my neck while his other arm tightened around my waist. A nip at my upper lip, then he ordered, “Now fuck me.”

I moved, relief sweeping through me in a dizzying rush when I crested the wave of pleasure he’d had me ignore. A relief so torrential that it hurt in the best possible way.

I cried out against his mouth.

His chuckle was wicked, his satisfaction a pleased rumble while his fingers petted my hair and back.

Before I could fully recover, I was taken to the floor again.

In silence that was only broken by the grunting beast of a male atop me and the sounds of pleasure he wrung from me, I was thoroughly studied and fucked until he gave me a reprieve and found his own release.

A reprieve I wasn’t sure I wanted as I gazed up at him in breathless wonder.

Later, the moon so high in the sky it was beyond view of the window behind the bed, I tried to understand what this overwhelming attachment was.

Scythe’s head laid in my lap for my fingers to better roam through his thick hair—and for him to pause each chapter to kiss and inhale my stomach.

He read with a quiet but sturdy confidence. The cadence of his deep voice hypnotized me. So much so, I lost track of the story due to losing myself to the sound of it, and to the way his lips shaped around each word.

He was nothing I would have ever imagined wanting, yet I found myself comfortably fascinated with every piece of him.

This wasn’t merely lust, and I could no longer call it a distraction. As I traced a small scar along his hairline, I knew it was no longer revenge, either.

It was obsession.

FIVE

Aster

Scythe had to tend to his legion for much of the next day, leaving me to my thoughts in the warmth of his cottage once more.

This time, there was no fighting off attacks of panic, but there was still a desire to ignore the onslaught of fear I found in his absence. I tried to read and failed, deciding I’d rather wait for him to read that particular book with me. Then I decided to clean the bathing room.

I almost jumped out of my skin when I returned the cleaning supplies to the cupboard beneath the kitchen sink.

“You’re a terrible fucking singer.”

Flushing from my cheeks to my toes, I slowly rose with a laugh. “I know.”

Scythe peeled away from the door he’d been leaning against to watch me for stars only knew how long and advanced.