Page 3 of Aria's Desire

What used to be a painful process was now effortless, his body rippling like water as it shrank and reformed, changing from that of a black-scaled dragon to an equally black-skinned male, naked and proud.

Desire, longing, and want bloomed inside her, like a flower facing the sun for the first time in weeks. If she lived a thousand years, she would never tire of watching him change, of watching that wildness and ferocity condense itself into the form of a man. He wasn’t any less wild on two legs, his eyes still shining with an intensity and power that never failed to make her feel things she wasn’t supposed to feel.

He walked closer, making her heart beat a little faster with every step, his eyes glued to her and only her, as if nothing else existed. He stopped with less than a foot between them until she had to tip her head back to maintain their stare.

“A roínseah,” he whispered, his voice a low, rough growl, his white eyes falling to her lips briefly before returning to meet hers.

“Sin,” she breathed, curling her hands into fists so she didn’t accidentally reach out and touch him.

Unable to help herself, she just stared for a moment, reacquainting herself with his fiercely regal features: the dual slit pupils bisecting his white eyes; his strong, hairless brow; his squared jawline; full lips; and the sharp flare of his nostrils, a trait carried over from his dragon form.

He was beautiful, but not in the way most people classified it. His was a harsh, untamed kind of beauty. He was a predator, dangerous and deadly. Yet, to Aria, he was all the more appealing for his lethality. That he balanced that wildness with a caring soul, something he’d had to bury but hadn’t lost, despite the horrors he’d seen and endured, despite the countless experiments, tweaks, and splices Zhrovni had inflicted on him, was something she still found astonishing.

As they stared at one another, the feelings she tried so hard to ignore came rushing up. She shouldn’t feel anything for him. She was married to two men she loved more than anything in the world and, yet, neither could she deny that part of her belonged to this male.

She kept that part locked in a box, ruthlessly shoving it down, but sometimes it tore free and tried to overwhelm her. Only the thought of losing what she had with Kix and Tirox was enough to keep it leashed. As drawn to Sin as she was, as much as her soul ached for him, losing her mates would break her.

He blinked, lessening some of the intensity in his gaze, and straightened from where he’d been leaning toward her.

“You need me?”

“I was, uh, just making sure you’re set for tonight. You’ve talked with Eseh? Let him know you’ll be gone for a day?”

They’d be leaving for a scouting mission as soon as night fell to scope out the last remaining arena in the city not under their control. The plan was to do a flyover with her riding Sin to get the layout and exterior guard movements. If needed, they’d use the disguise technology they’d found in Salesh’s rooms—the crazy woman who’d tried to sell Vee and her mates into slavery and take over the complex—to hide Aria’s very recognizable face and sneak inside.

They shouldn’t be gone more than a day, but Eseh, the first of the runaway slaves to show up at their doors, was still under watch. Sin had volunteered to take on that responsibility. Eseh had been through more than his share of trauma as a slave, so Sin’s job was not only to watch him and ensure he wasn’t a trojan horse—something none of them believed he was any longer—but also help him adjust to life as a free person.

“He no longer needs me.”

Cocking her head slightly, she frowned up at him. “Since when?”

“He has found his mate.”

“What? When? Who is it?”

Eseh had shown up at their doors claiming to have dreamed about his fated mate. In that dream or vision or whatever it was, he’d seen her here. But, either because he didn’t know or just refused to say, he hadn’t ever told them who it was.

“Bree.”

Aria couldn’t have been more shocked than if Sin said it was him.

“You’re kidding. Bree? Smartass, prickly-as-hell Bree?”

Sin’s lips quirked up in the smallest smile. “Mm.”

She tried to imagine soft-spoken Eseh paired up with snarky Bree and just couldn’t picture it. She’d hoped his mate would end up being someone with a… gentler touch, someone soft and caring to help him work through his hurts and help him heal.

“You do not believe them a good match.”

Focusing on him, she asked, “Do you?”

“Mm. Eseh is water. He needs fire for balance. Someone unafraid of being heard. More, Eseh is stronger, and I believe Bree softer than you see.”

“Opposites attract, huh?”

“Mm, for some.” His gaze became weighted. “Others need a complement.”

Her heart skipped a beat, but she pushed down the zing that tried to shoot through her, determined to keep herself and her mutinous emotions under control.

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