A Crown of Ashes
He was close enough she could smell him—rain, leather, a faint edge of sweat—and it dragged her back, unbidden, to another night, another man.
Tomas. Her last real thing—two years back, maybe three, a painter like her, all lean muscle and quick hands. They’d been holed up in his loft, paint streaked on their skin, the air thick with turpentine and want. He’d pinned her against the canvas, his mouth hot on her neck, fingers digging into her hips, slow and sure, unraveling her till she’d gasped his name into the dark. It’d been messy, good—too good—until he’d bailed, chasing some gallery deal in Paris, leaving her with a half-finished portrait and a hollow she’d buried deep.
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