Page 11 of Aria's Desire

Keeping her steps slow, she waited until the large group of approaching people got nearer, then she and Sin slipped in with them. Sure, they each had a stolen credit chip that worked much like a credit card, but they were coded to the people Spar had stolen them from. Very dead people who may or may not be known to this arena. Better to sneak in, if at all possible, rather than risk using them.

Overhearing the bubbly female next to her comment on how excited she was to visit after the upgrades, Aria took the opportunity to cut in.

“I thought they were supposed to be closed for upgrading already?”

“I thought so, too! But then we saw theadveron theholo! They’re having one more tournament before they close.” The long-necked female leaned in close and whispered conspiratorially, “Apparently, they got an unexpected shipment of new gladiators! FromZenar-9!”

Mirroring her bubbly voice and mannerisms to keep her engaged, Aria gave her wide eyes and gasped, “From Zenar-9?”

She had no idea where that was or what its people looked like, but she’d be finding out soon enough when they seized this fucking pit of depravity and freed all its prisoners. At least this meant Killir hadn’t deliberately deceived them. There was no way the mercenary could’ve anticipated an unplanned shipment of slaves.

“I know!” The female sighed almost dreamily. “Think of all the blood. This is going to be stellar!”

Barely keeping the scowl off her face at how excited this female was to watch people die, Aria forced an anticipatory expression and bounced her shoulders like she couldn’t wait.

Once they successfully made it inside without being prompted to use their credit chips, they left the group and slowly made their way to a nearby elevator.

First order of business was seeing how many levels the public had access to and what kind of defences were in place to try and stop them from reaching the restricted ones.

After checking out all the publicly accessible floors, taking note of security, and seeing the hotel rooms were empty, they returned to the lobby.

Spotting a side hallway that looked like it might lead to service elevator, Aria subtly tipped her chin that way.

“I’m going to be the drunk wife. Play the harassed husband looking for a cleansing room,” she whispered.

Feeling him stiffen, she flicked a questioning look up at him but couldn’t quite decipher his expression. Did he object to the plan… or the part where he pretended to be her mate?

Choosing to believe it was the former, she explained, “It’s a classic ploy and works nine times out of ten.”

He made a low sound in his throat and nodded then very hesitantly wrapped an arm around her waist. He was stiff as a damn board.

Oddly hurt at his reluctance, she muttered lowly, “I’m not going to fucking bite you, Sin. Relax.”

In answer, he grumbled something under his breath, too low for her to hear, but did as she wanted and relaxed. Except, as soon as he tightened his arm around her waist, tugging her closer so their bodies were flush, his big hand resting low on her hip, it was her turn to stiffen.

Huffing, he bent until his mouth was against her ear, and whispered tauntingly, his voice a low growl, “Relax,a roínseah. I will not bite you.”

Her breath caught and her nipples instantly tightened to hard points. An image of him moving above her, inside her, his sharp teeth sunk in her shoulder popped into her head, making her steps stumble. The sound of his soft groan, telling her he’d seen the unmistakable evidence of her desire through the very tight bodysuit, had her thighs slick.

Ok. Ok. Jesus fucking Christ, new rule. No growling.

Sucking in a breath when he straightened, Aria leaned heavily on him, pretending to be intoxicated. Not hard, considering her knees felt weak as hell.

As they made their way down the side hallway, she dragged her feet and babbled drunk nonsense up at him about how excited she was to watch the tournaments while he made appropriate noises of placation and muttered about finding the damn cleansing room.

She’d been right. There was an elevator at the end of the hall. And, lucky them, there were no guards posted in front of it. Walking along the wall so they didn’t look quite so intent on the elevator as their destination, Aria kept up her drunk act.

Ten more feet and she’d be able to hack the screen, a valuable skill she’d made Vi’kail, one of Vee’s mates, teach her.

They were so damn close… and then the door to their left opened.

Fuck.

Reacting quickly, Aria spun, putting her back to the wall, and pulled Sin down to her. Wrapping her arms around his neck, she kissed him.

Worried the drunk wife ploy might fail, she went for the couple looking for a secluded place to hook up tactic instead. Or that was what she told herself, anyway.

She’d expected Sin to try and pull away from her or at least hesitate. What she got instead was instant, breathtaking passion and hunger.

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