Page 116 of Beautiful Prey

“Later.”

Then Asher takes my face in both hands and crashes his mouth into mine, hard enough to steal the breath from my lungs. His tongue drives past my lips with the same ruthless certainty he brings to everything else, and my spine ignites. A raw, helpless moan escapes me before I can stop it. No. My hands go to his chest to push, but I clench my fist in the black cloth as I haul him closer.

He walks me backward until glass hits my shoulder blades and stops us both, and he crowds in against me until there’s nothing left between us, and I feel his erection against my hip. “Mine now,” he groans into my mouth.

I’ve completely lost my mind.

He nips my bottom lip. Sucks it. Bites again, harder, then soothes the sting with his tongue.

“You monster,” I grumble, but my arms have wrapped around his neck. When did they do that? My fingers are tangled in his hair, dragging, holding him where I want him.

His hand leaves my face. It slides down my throat, my chest, and settles low on my back, spread wide, pulling, and I go up onto my toes with a moan I cannot swallow. Dragging his mouth off mine, he presses it under my jaw. Then his teeth find the mark he left on me in that bar, and he sucks.

My hips move on their own, forward into him, in front of five people, and I clap my hand over my mouth too late.

His chuckle against my throat vibrates through my chest. “I love the sounds you make for me.” He licks along its length, all the way to my ear. “Good boy. So good for me, in front of everyone.”

Light. Light, help me.

He licks over the mark once more, gentle, like he’s sealing it. Then his hand comes up, closes on my throat, his thumb high under my jaw, and lifts my head until I’m looking at him and nothing else. His mouth is red, his pupils have swallowed the gold from his eyes. “Jade Clement,” he hums. “What a beautiful name.”

Then, without looking away from me or moving his hand off my throat, he turns to the room. “Thank you for your presence. My husband and I are leaving.”

20

ASH

The registration lands on my slate before we’re even off the grounds.

Clement, A. C. III / Mercer, J. — recorded, sealed, non-dissoluble under Article Nine.

I read it twice before I can finally breathe.

Fuck you, Dad. I beat you.

Then I close my slate and turn off the sound before ushering my husband toward the car. The registration is sealed now. Dad can’t undo it, but that doesn’t mean he won’t try to get his hands on us the second he hears. The Vultures have ears everywhere. We have hours at best.

My fucking husband. I watch Jade hesitate at the open door, his hands already checking the oxygen line at Onyx’s shoulder, straightening tubing that doesn’t need straightening, finding one last thing to fix before he lets himself leave.

“JaJa.” Onyx catches his wrist before he can start over. He’s smiling now, color high in his cheeks, with Ryven’s arm draped possessively over his shoulders as if it belongs there. Yep. That’s my cousin. Apparently, it runs in the blood.

“Just go.”

Jade looks at him for another heartbeat.

“Congratulations,” Onyx says softly. “Really.”

“Make sure he has his treatment at four,” Jade tells the nurses beside the chair. “Make sure he⁠—”

“Get your ass inside the car. Now.” My patience is gone. Dad’s goons could be here any fucking minute.

“Fine.” He drops into the seat as far from me as possible, folding his arms. “Asshole.”

“Say it louder.”

“I’ll say it as often as I like,” he spits, but there’s something there under the blush on his cheeks. Something I can’t quite place, yet I can’t wait to discover inch by fucking inch. Another part of this complicated, fierce creature I’ve married.

He turns away with a scoff when he catches me staring, and he doesn’t speak as the doors seal and the lift takes us up. Instead, he watches the ground for a while, arms still crossed, before leaning toward the glass without seeming to notice. “Where are we going?”