Caged in Bone (The Ascension Series) Read Online Free

long to realize that he could see every one of Rylie’s curves through it. The slope of her waist, the small swells of her breasts, the gap between her thighs. He was pretty sure he had never seen her wear that robe before. He would have remembered it.
    Rylie was trying to seduce him. She was actually trying to seduce him.
    Being with her was usually like their runs in the forest on the full moons—like she was always just out of reach, no more than a tantalizing flash of gold through the trees, sometimes physically there but seldom emotionally present. Always a hunt. She had never come to him like this before, reaching out to him, actually trying to be sexy. She was always sexy, whether or not she knew it, but it was the kind of unthinking, subtle sensuality that came to a woman naturally, in her movement and scent and the way she bit her lip, and this was deliberate, even though Rylie always had sex with the lights off and didn’t own a scrap of lingerie, and his brain was overloading with the newness and shock of it all.
    It filled him with a strange, confused feeling that he didn’t know how to identify. It was somewhere between possessive heat and panic, all tangled up in fear and regret and self-loathing at what he knew would have to come afterward.
    Say something good , he thought. For the love of God, say the right thing .
    “That,” he said, “is a bath, not a shower. You promised me a shower.”
    Her whole body seemed to cringe at the criticism. Her white-knuckled grip on the robe tie trembled. “Sorry. It’s dumb. I’ll put out the candles.”
    Fuck. That was not good .
    He couldn’t say or do anything right. Still never as good as Seth. Not with their kids, not with the pack, not with Rylie.
    “No, I didn’t mean—fuck it, Rylie, shut your mouth,” Abel said, and then he was kissing her, trying to show her what he meant with his tongue and fingers instead of the goddamn words that always failed him.
    She was so soft and warm. She tasted like the forest, and like Rylie , the woman that he had always wanted to own yet never could reach.
    And tonight, she had come to him.
    He thought back to the note: “I’m grateful for you.” And he wanted to tell her the same thing. He was so fucking grateful that she ever wanted him at all, even when he was wrong and messed up in every way. But it seemed impossible and pointless to try to speak when he was pulling off the robe, shoving her into the bathroom, pushing her up against the wall.
    Rylie didn’t need words, either. She repeated the message from her note with the way she touched him. She showed him that she didn’t see any of the scars—not the twisted flesh crawling down his jaw and not the ones on the inside that made him such an awful Alpha. Her touch was pure love. He didn’t deserve it, but he took it, just like he always had. Even when it had belonged to his brother instead.
    Not thinking about Seth. Not thinking about tomorrow. Do the right thing for once.
    He devoured her gasps, pushed himself between her legs. He held her so tightly that his hands left imprints on her skin. The candles were so close that he could feel the searing heat on his shoulder.
    Rylie pulled herself against him hard, her need as urgent as his.
    Don’t think about tomorrow.
    Abel surrendered to instinct and didn’t think at all.

    Abel had no idea how long he rested beside Rylie and watched the pattern of moonlight on her skin, the shape of branches and pine needles darkening her flat stomach. He knew that the shadow of the curtain had moved from her collarbone down to her elbow, and then vanished. The moon was moving. Hiding behind the clouds. Time was passing, no matter how much he wanted it to stop and give him the rest of eternity in bed beside his mate.
    She was sleeping deep. Her chest rose and fell with even breaths. He brushed his fingers over the fine blond hairs on her stomach as it moved, tracing the lines of shadows on the hollows of her ribs.
    He could