A Kiss of Ashen Twilight (Ashen Twilight Series #1) (40 page)

“Jace—” Ariya said softly.

Ariya approached him slowly. She regretted bringing it up as she felt Jace’s dark thoughts and the rush of adrenaline within him. Once again she was used to thinking that Jace was immune and accustomed to such desires over the years. She thought he was like her, used to the world around him and where he fit in. This was a different world from the Aziza realm. One that held more darkness and blood upon its grounds than the light.

“Jace,” Ariya said again. She reached down and pulled him up to face her. His blue eyes were reddened and worn. He reached out to her, placing his hand upon her cheek. She couldn’t help wondering what would happen as a consequence of asking the question in her head, but she didn’t care anymore. They needed each other now more than ever.

“Ariya,” Jace said, caressing her cheek. “Don’t—”

“I can’t stay here wondering anymore. If you want me, please tell me now. I’m not asking for marriage or anything like that. I just wish for you to tell me how you feel because I can’t keep living this way. In my heart I want you, but I can’t wait around wondering if you feel the same.”

Jace closed his eyes at the soft sounds of her words.

“If you want me to stay just say the word. I won’t go anywhere if you don’t want me to. But I can’t be alone in this anymore.”

He shook his head, heading back into the kitchen for another drink as he ignored the tiny bits of glass shattered around the room. “What if you were turned, Ariya? What if during a feed, I turned you into a Nightwalker, or God forbid you die? You couldn’t carry a child for certain after that. Besides, what about your family? Your people?”

“Like you, my life is my own. Whom I choose to spend it with is my decision. It is my choice and who I want for a lifemate as Queen. But it has nothing to do with anyone else but us. Remember? And plus you just said that you consider those you turn your children.”

Jace winced as he lowered his glass. “And the last thing I want to do is consider you my child, Ariya.”

“That’s not what I meant.” She walked over to the marble counter top bar, careful to miss the broken glass on the ground. She stared at Jace, focusing all her attention on him.

Jace looked down at the cup in his hand. His reddened eyes were filled with disinterest as he gently set it down on the counter. “I’m sorry, I can’t do this.” Wiping his eyes, he turned and headed toward the bedroom, slipping into the darkness without another word.

Ariya wondered if she should’ve kept that thought to herself. Jace always seemed so calm and content with his lifestyle to her. He had to be to continue on living through 600 years of war, loss and turmoil. Maybe she brought up feelings in him that he buried long ago. Maybe her mere presence here confused him and now, with this question, she may have shaken him up even more.

She looked down at the ground, noting the tiny shards all along the floor.

“Use your emotions, Ariya,” she whispered. She raised her hand, twirled her finger and with a command from her mind combined the tiny elements to form a full glass on the counter once again.

She pushed down the decision whether to turn and leave until the dark bedroom lit up with the flicker of all the candles spread around the room.

“I should be going back home soon. I trust you and the house will find the Elemental’s leader. I—” She stopped short and gently bit down on her lip to stop the oncoming tears welling up. The silence was the only answer she needed to move on. As she turned toward the front door, she saw it out of the corner of her eye. The painting still stood in the middle of the living room with her visage elegantly depicted on the smoothed out canvas. She sighed. A remembrance for him of her.

Ariya headed for the front door and opened it, feeling her heart weighting heavily down within her chest. She didn’t notice Jace step out of the room with only his suit pants on. She only felt the soft brush of air as he moved past her. The rapid pumping of the blood he fed on raced through his veins. In the blink of an eye, he was standing right in front of her, slamming his fist on the door before shutting it close. He looked upon her with an intensity that was nearly tangible between them. A force wrapped itself around her heart and she nearly lost her breath as he moved in toward her. Before she could step back, Ariya felt the caress of Jace’s lips upon hers. The intensity as he made the kiss passionate while his hands roamed over the curve of her body.

“You want me, Ariya?” he asked with a deep husk in his voice. “My life, my soul, my heart?”

“Yes,” she breathed. “I want you, Jace.”

Shots of electricity pulsed through her veins as his hands continued moving over her. Gently he reached down to untie the corset top that confined her. He moved it down the arc of her body, allowing it to slip to the floor. Ariya’s breath caught in her throat in a short gasp as he descended to his knees.

He leaned in and clenched the bottom of her skirt between his teeth, pulling it down with the help of his fingers. When she changed earlier that evening, she made sure to match the dark purple satin and black lace top with the matching panties she wore.

A deep groan from Jace verbalized his approval of the choice.

“You like them?” she asked, near breathless.

“No.” He looked up at her and smiled. “I love them.”

Jace’s head dipped out of her vision as he gently kissed the inner lace linings near her most sensitive spot. Ariya’s fingers dived into the silky strands of his shoulder length wavy dark hair as she felt his cold hands wrapping around the tops of her panties. She gasped, feeling the strength of his hands forcing them down her legs and to the ground. He kissed a pathway up her body to the small concave amid her full breasts.

Ariya found herself pulled up into Jace’s arms and carried to the bedroom. He immediately laid her down on the bed, careful of her folded wings below. His body closed in over her with slow careful moves as he kept his eyes on her.

“Do you know what you’re asking me to do, Ariya?” Jace whispered softly. His bright blue eyes awaited her answer as he gently caressed her cheek with the knuckles of his fingers.

“I’ve never been more sure of anything in my life,” she said with a smile. She was on the edge of leaving one life behind while looking down into the deep well of another life. And she couldn’t wait to dive in head first. She needed to belong somewhere and the members of the Ashen Twilight House already felt like family to her.

Jace took over, slipping his pants off and maneuvered to allow them fall to the floor in a soft shuffle. Her eyes were drawn down his toned, pale body and she saw the engorged bulge pushing to be free from under the front of his briefs. He was right. His body still functioned. She remembered his words that he couldn’t sustain the life of his seed long enough to produce a child in her womb.
It didn’t matter
, she thought. Maybe her Aziza blood would make things different. They would possibly produce another way and all in good time.

Jace smiled as she came to the conclusion and leaned in to kiss her as he entangled his fingers with hers. His body pushed down onto hers as he moved in to deepen the kiss.

Ariya broke away to slide her hands down the hard lines of his torso. She gripped the elastic of his briefs and pulled them down to reveal his naked body to her. He moved to let it slide down his narrow hips and onto the soft rug below. Right away she saw the enlarged erection between his legs. Her hands were drawn to it like a magnet. She was amazed by the length and how warm it felt in her hand. So, this is what had enraptured Shelly, Ariya thought as she ran her hand over the length. The touch of it was soft yet hard to her, like soft velvet wrapped around a long piece of steel. She gripped him and slowly began moving her hand over the length of him, watching Jace at the same time as the pleasure over took his body.

He leaned in to take a hardened nipple in his mouth and he hungrily laved it with his tongue before gently sucking. Ariya couldn’t believe the rush of many emotions coming at her all at once. Her hand gripped tighter, feeling a surge of wetness falling from the tip of his sensitive head. As her hand pumped slightly faster, Jace’s hand covered hers, stopping her. She opened her eyes and looked at him with a question floating in her mind.

“If you continue doing that I’m afraid we’ll be finished before we get started.” He chuckled deeply and leaned in to give her a soft kiss. “Are you ready?” His voice was deep and husky, breathless with need for her.

Ariya nodded. She felt his hand cover hers again as he lead his hard, eager shaft toward her warm, wet center. She gasped sharply as she felt him enter her with a slow, aching thrust, allowing himself to be consumed by her inch by inch. Right away, her body tried to conform to fit his large size.

She gripped his muscled shoulders as a soft moan escaped her lips. Never had her body felt this entrance before and the discomfort of his hardness inside her made her freeze in place.

She felt him sense her discomfort and gently stroked her cheek to calm her down. He kissed the area of her cheek, jaw and neck as his hand covered her swollen left breast.

“Just relax, Ariya,” he whispered. He leaned in to kiss her deeply while his thumb lingered in a circular motion over her hardened nipple. Bolts of pleasure shot through her body and she slowly relaxed. His tongue caressed hers as he teased her with the idea of what he wanted to do with her using his hardened sex.

She melted within is arms and he felt her relax in the kiss. Slowly, Jace moved his hips against hers allowing the friction of their bodies to create a pleasure that pulsated through their veins.

His body ached with the fire to feed upon her, but not just yet. He would take this nice and slow. Ariya meant the world to him, not like any other woman had before in his life, and he wanted this feeling to last for eternity.

Ariya draped her legs around Jace’s body, using the soft planes of her heels to push him deeper inside of her. She could feel their bodies connecting with each passing second and she couldn’t get enough of him as her sex constricted around his, massaging him and urging him toward the edge of a fiery explosion. His chest heaved with each breath he took, caressing the hard buds of her nipples as he leaned down.

“Ariya.” Her name struggled in his ragged breath. His handsome face contorted with the pleasure that raced through his body. A deep moan escaped his lips.

Ariya reveled in his strong arms wrapped around her. Her legs gripped him tighter as she felt his hips thrust faster, pounding her harder against the soft mattress. She wanted to bottle this experience up and make it last forever. For this was a pleasure she had never felt before, but would soon want more of.

“Jace.” His name was like a breath on her lips, an exhale. Her fingernails pushed into the skin of his back as he hit a spot that nearly shot her to the edge. She let out a moan, part cry and part soft expression of the pleasure she shared with him. She felt him move within her, growing even harder by the minute. “Yes.”

Ariya arched her back, pushing her hips up to meet his as her back pressed against the soft bed. Soft shadows and the light of the candles lit Jace’s handsome face and Ariya’s heart swelled as she watched him bear the force of bliss upon his face. Her fingernails dug deeper, eliciting an animalistic grunt from within him. His hips pumped faster, sharper in her and he bared his sharp fangs. She couldn’t hold on much longer. The force of her unbridled abandon ripped its way through her body, fighting to get to the surface.

Jace let out an unrestrained cry and dipped his head down to her neck. Pain gave way to pleasure as his teeth penetrated her skin, invading her body. Ariya let out a tearful moan as she held onto Jace, feeling the blood within her rush to his inviting lips.

She held onto him, enclosing her arms and legs around him, urging him not to stop pumping her at the same time. Slowly she felt her life slipping away. At the same time a pleasure was rising inside her body that forced her to the edge at the point of no return.

It started in the tip of her toes as a tingle, soon growing into a force all its own as it raced through her entire body. Jace’s hips slammed against hers for one last time and he succumbed to his own release, pressing into her.

Ariya’s body was on fire with electricity as she slipped her hands over the back of his head, pressing him to her in the feed as he sucked and sucked. With a soft cry, her body jolted as her warm sex continued to throb and constrict around his luscious erection. She couldn’t form a coherent thought as darkness overcame her body. The last feeling she comprehended was Jace clutching her head in place, gripping her hair as he continued feeding from her. The weight of his body pressed down on hers as she lost all feeling and consciousness.