Page 179 of Visions of Darkness

“Nah, baby, you’re my forever princess.”

That blush deepened, though it was affected, and affection dragged a pretty flush over the surface of her milky skin. “I’ll take that.”

I sobered, too. “I’ll give you everything I can, Aria.”

I pulled into a hotel about ten minutes away from where we’d dropped her mother off at her grandmother’s. It wasn’t quite a five star,but it was a place where we could get cozy and rest. I parked, grabbed our things, and for once, I didn’t ask Aria to wait for me to get us a room. We strolled in together like it was what we were meant to do.

The guy working registration didn’t blink when I pulled out a wad of cash.

We rode the elevator to the fifth floor, and I slung my arm over Aria’s shoulders, and she leaned into my side as we walked down the long hall with doors on each side. I touched the card to the sensor and let us into the room.

Aria moved in ahead of me, and she spun in the middle of the living area, where there was a couch against the wall and a round table beneath the window. Something seductive played over the edges of her features. “Oh, you really are trying to spoil me.”

“That’s the plan, though it doesn’t have a thing to do with this room.”

Her teeth scraped that lush bottom lip, and she moved to the door that led to the bedroom at the back. She peeked back at me. “Are you sure about that? Because I was hoping it might involve this big, comfy bed.”

A smirk climbed to my mouth as I let the door swing shut behind us, and I clicked the lock and stalked across the room toward my girl, who was shifting anxiously on her feet.

And I wanted to play, to keep it light when we’d been through so much bullshit, but the second my hands slanted across her cheeks to frame her face, I couldn’t speak.

I didn’t think there were really any words forthis.

This connection that blazed.

The flames that warmed and the embers that licked.

She exhaled a soft sound, too, like she was just as moved.

“You amaze me, Aria. Fucking knock the wind out of me with who you are. And I know I’m the luckiest man alive that I get to be here to witness it.”

Her eyes narrowed and creased at the edges. “I don’t think I’m the only special one here, Pax. There’s something ... between us. Something we can’t see.”

I gathered one of her hands between both of mine and pulled it tight to the thunder at my chest. “But we can feel it.”

She blinked with the slightest nod, a soft affirmation. “Yes. We can feel it.”

“I’ve always felt you.” I murmured it.

A confession.

An oath.

She hiked up on her toes and threaded her fingers through my hair, and she brushed a whisper-light kiss across my lips. “Always.”

And that was all it took for us to snap, and I dove in to take her mouth.

This kiss?

It was fevered but slow. Fierce yet languid.

Demanding brushes of lips and delirious nips of teeth. Her blunt nails scraped down the back of my neck when my tongue played against hers in a slow slide of need. Desire rolled up her throat, and she kissed me back so intensely that I was struck with a rush of lightheadedness.

Her lips enchanting.

So damned sweet.

I backed her into the room. We only broke apart long enough for me to peel her sweater over her head and for her to rid me of my shirt.

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