Page 7 of Aria's Desire

More and more these days, it felt like sex with her mates was reduced to stolen moments—quick, frantic, and ravenous—before they were pulled apart to attend one thing or another. Hell, they didn’t even manage to go to bed at the same time most nights.

Keeping his hips pressed tightly to her, the thin tentacles surrounding the base of his cock still undulating lazily against her, Kix bowed his back so he could rub his cheek against hers.

“I have missed you, myaessa.”

“I missed you, too, Firefly.”

He made a pleased sound at the pet name, and pulled back to gaze down at her. This close, he couldn’t hide the tiredness in his eyes and the strain on his handsome face.

Reaching up, she lightly ran her fingertips over his ridged forehead and down the bridge of his nose. “It’s getting worse, isn’t it?”

He tried to hold back at first, but she cut off his denial with a look. Caving, he nodded with a deep sigh. “I can feel them, hear them, all the time. Distance helps… usually. Yet, sometimes they are deafening.”

Her chest squeezed with worry for him. “Any progress on the suppression chip?”

A muscle in his jaw twitched, telling her the answer even before he spoke. “No. I am close, though.”

Every other time she’d asked, he’d stopped there, giving her that same vague, placatory answer. Unwilling to let him continue evading, she pushed for more. “Tell me about the problem. Explain it to me. Sometimes, it helps to talk things out.”

He hesitated, but when he saw she wasn’t going to accept another non-answer, he blew out a short breath and rolled them over so she was straddling him.

“I cannot figure out how to make it fluctuate the strength of its suppression to interrupt the varying severities and frequencies of wavelengths. Designing it off of Rellik’s anti-Veil chip provided me a foundation on which to build. It is modifying it to harmonize with the fluidity of my needs, where I fail.”

Frowning, she tried to consider the problem without worry and anxiety clouding her thoughts. Not easy, but something about what he’d said stood out to her.

“What about approaching the fluctuation problem from a different angle? Instead of trying to program it to do that itself, could you make it so you can adjust it as needed?”

Kix went perfectly still under her, his eyes going wide. A garbled sound escaped him before he exclaimed, “I- that is- brilliant! Why did I not consider that?”

Why didn’t he think of that while being constantly bombarded by hundreds of peoples thoughts and feelings every minute of every day? That he could concentrate enough to do anything at all, let alone construct a chip smaller than a damn eyelash to do something no one else had ever done, amazed the hell out of her.

Aria was positive she’d be a blithering mess, rocking herself in the corner if she had to deal with what he was going through.

“I need to call Rellik. See if he can help me modify the… ”

The rest of what he said was lost on her, a mix of mumbled words too low for her to make out and tech speak she didn’t understand. Seeing that she was about to lose him to his work, she leaned down and cupped his cheeks, making him focus on her.

“Hey. You’ll be okay while I’m gone?” He blinked and frowned. Shoving down the illogical sting that he’d forgotten, she smiled. “I’m leaving to do a flyover of the last arena with Sin. We should be back in a day, two at most.” Pausing, she searched his face. “I can stay, send someone else, if you need me to—”

“Sin?” Something slid through his eyes, an emotion or thought that was there and hidden before she could decipher it. “Go. I will be well,aessa. Don’t worry for me.”

Suspicious of that look, but deciding to let it go, she snorted. “Impossible. And I wouldn’t worry if I didn’t love the hell out of you.”

For a moment, his eyes were clear and focused on her. For a moment, he was back, her Kix.

“As I love you, my beautiful treasure,” he murmured, a genuine smile curling his lips as his chest flashed blue.

Swallowing past the sudden knot in her throat, she bent and kissed him slowly, lovingly, then straightened and gave him a stern look. “Eat something.”

Kix adopted an incredulous expression but under it his smile was wicked. “Stars above, you are insatiable!”

Caught off guard, she sputtered, “That’s not—”

But he’d already rolled her back over and was settling between her legs. Breath hitching at the first swipe of tongue over her sensitive clit, Aria decided arguing at that point would just be rude.

And foolish.

Chapter 5

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