Page 48 of Aria's Ascension

If he’d moved even an inch after that, she wouldn’t have been able to stop herself. She would've lashed out. Aggression would’ve taken over. But, as though he knew that, he stayed perfectly still, not even breathing, almost as though he was as stunned by his actions as she was.

That stillness was the only reason she answered Kix’s mental probe with a wave of calm reassurance.

When she didn’t attack him or struggle to get free, he loosened his grip on her wrists and slid his hands up until they were flattened over hers, completely concealing her much smaller ones beneath his.

She felt him bend slightly and rub what had to be his cheek over her hair before a deep inhale expanded his chest, pushing her breasts and shoulders into the stone. He released it in a shuddering gust, sending strands fluttering into her face.

Aria stayed tense, alert, but, oddly, once the adrenaline waned, she felt… safe. Comforted.

Breathless.

A deep, tortured groan vibrated her back as he sniffed his way from her hair down to her throat, burying his face in the crook of her neck. A grinding sound and the fall of grit on her arms had her flicking her eyes upward. His fingers were flexed so hard his claws scored the stone and sent crumbles raining down on her.

The intensity of his reaction to her scent had her breath hitching and a flutter of excitement tightening her stomach.

Something hot and wet trailed over her shoulder, raising goosebumps on her arms and sending a shiver down her spine.

He’d tasted her.

Oh, god…

She tried to choke back the moan rising in her throat, but he heard it and answered with a low growl.

“Miinnee. Mate,” he groaned.

Aria gasped, her lashes fluttering. Those two words sent a bolt of lust arrowing between her legs. His voice was impossibly deep, more of a bestial growl than speech, and hoarse, as if that was the first thing he’d said in a long time.

He slid his hands down her arms, his touch hesitant, rough, as though his control was fraying and he expected her to shove him away any second.

He shouldn’t have worried. She didn’t have any desire for him to stop.

His hands felt hot, unusually so, as he skimmed over her shoulders, down her sides, until he was gripping her hips. As though a knob had been cranked to full power, all of her senses kicked into high gear.

Everything felt heightened—his breath on her skin, the feel of his body pressed against hers, his hands gripping her hips—until she was panting, trying to breathe through the lust flooding her.

He paused there, his muscles trembling with effort as he held himself still, waiting…

“Mate… ”

There was such need, such profound longing and hope in that guttural whisper, the kind of hope that was both fiercely demanding and bitterly fragile.

Somehow, she understood what he couldn’t say. It was a plea for her to be real, for her body against his to be genuine instead of a figment of his imagination.

A lump formed in her throat, sorrow mixing with lust until she wasn’t sure which was stronger. Something within her responded to his pain. Sheneededto ease that hurt, needed to answer his demand.

She needed him to know she was there.

Aria knew she was playing with fire. She should turn around, put space between them so she could think past the overwhelming desire clouding her mind. She knew this feeling, had felt it with Tirox and Kix, knew how easy it was to embrace it, to let the hunger and the heady sense of finding home drown out everything else until only she and the piece of her heart she hadn’t known was missing were the only things that felt real.

Sheshouldpush him away, and, yet, she didn’t. She relaxed back against him.

A second, deeper growl thrummed against her. Whatever restraint he had snapped.

All at once, his hands were everywhere—cupping her breast, tugging on her nipple, pulling her hips back so she could feel the hard length of his cock against her ass, fisting her hair to tilt her head to the side so he could lick and nip at her neck. Aria almost came when he dipped a hand between her legs and slid his fingers over her pussy but, before she could do more than moan, they were gone.

Opening her eyes, she followed his hand with her gaze, turning her head in time see him raise that same hand to his mouth.

She watched, wide-eyed and breathless, as he licked her wetness off his fingers then shuddered and groaned. There was something intensely animalistic and, yet, almost unbearably erotic about watching him taste her.

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