The Lunas Moonlit Fate

- a restless, gnawing hunger that I could almo

on me slowly, curling inside my blood, turning my sk

air itself seemed to thicken,

eavy sheets, heart hammering agai

ing to will it away. But heat licked along my

n't r

ready f

er ever

urt, the years of being not

nd I tensed instinctivel

solid,

sual - a rich, smoky scent tha

s dark with worry. "Ildikó," he sai

closed my eyes against the w

st dipped a cloth in cool water

thing in me more surely

t Asher only brushed a callused thumb along

, I beli

inside me howled fo

sharpened

breath came in shallow gasps. My body - traitorous,

h slow, deliberate motions as he brought me fo

-lidded eyes, hunger twist

gentle enough to heal - brushed agai

o him before

pulling at his wris

y fingers loose, his mouth t

said, low and fir

r itself. I shrank back into the b

dn't

't even

my sweaty forehead with infinite patie

now if I d

I could survive an

*

the day

lentless and cruel. My skin felt too tight, t

orn book, trying to distract me. His voice

h a damp lock of hair from my fo

s face between my hands,

or a heartbeat - but

y hair, my gown sliding off one shoulder. I moaned low in my throat when he pres

. His hand skimmed my thigh, pushed my nightgown higher, higher, u

d into his touch, h

clawing at his shoul

fro

led away, as if it physi

g hard, staring at each oth

roughly. "Not whe

s, but I nodded. I understood. Even t

chest, stroking my hair, murmuring no

him, dizzy with shame and

- from the fev

ai

ed him fasten a thin silv

ain as the metal

wore it

r

worse than the heat t

*

s differ

t. Mec

n the tightness of his mouth, the strain in his mov

me like I was

re

st

a

ate

was something fragile and precious, som

part of me w

h I knew he

as

the

en, who could barely endure he

when I caught him staring at me

e the desire warring wi

would never let

re

*

ot w

keep water down. I couldn't stop crying,

't hesitat

like a child, carr

n he stripped me, baring every ug

himself, revealing a body marred with

steaming water, pull

to

not from pain, but from

y, while he ran warm water over my aching limb

ch was

sex

pit

ng else

things - until my breathing slowed,

to him,

eal

ng enough to stand beside him.

hat ached for him, hungered for

ierce. That I could be his equal, n

closed my eyes, pretending not to feel

**

was finall

, trembling, but the w

gain. Feel more

felt was...

d from some battered book, his vo

pendant - though I could

g and offered a tir

smile back, even th

ieve he saw me

gnawed a

s see the scars befo

lways choose kin

es against the

ted his hunger, I wanted to b