Page 5 of Aria's Desire

“A closet quickie?” she asked, heart already beating faster and heat pooling between her thighs.

She could just barely make out the rapid swirling of his golden eyes and his sharp, white grin in the darkness.

“I know, I have the best ideas,” he growled smugly.

Laughing with delight, she pulled him down to her. Kissing hungrily, they tore at one another’s clothes. Tirox pushed her shirt and bra up high enough to free her breasts and yanked her pants down. Unhooking one leg just long enough to kick free of her jeans, she reached between them, pushing the leather pants he’d taken to wearing down far enough to let his hard cocks spring free.

With a low groan, he hiked her up so she could aim him at her wet center, then lowered her slowly, impaling her on his thickness. Sucking in a shuddering breath, she let her head thunk back against the door, her fingers curling into claws on his shoulders. Even after being together for months, he still had to go slow to let her adjust to the stretch of him entering her.

Once she’d taken all of him, his length filling her completely, he dipped down and lightly sank his sharp teeth into the tender skin of her throat and slid a big hand between their bodies. Knowing what was coming, her breath caught, only to explode out of her on a cry when he affixed his second cock, smaller and situated above the one buried inside her, to her clit. The impossibly soft head opened then sealed itself around that bundle of nerves, pulling on it in gentle sucks that sent pleasure shooting through her.

Tirox’s hands spasmed on her ass and a strangled sound escaped his throat when her walls tightened around him, fluttering warningly.

There was no slow build-up, no teasing progression. Growling, he pulled his hips back then slammed them forward, making her cry out. Again and again, faster and faster, he drove inside her, propelling them both to a hard, shattering release.

It hit them at the same time. Aria threw her head back, teeth gritted to hold in a scream of pleasure. Tirox stiffened sharply then slammed his hips forward, grunting and jerking with every hard pulse of his cock inside her.

Shaking and breathless, he slumped against her. “Gods around us, I adore you, you ravenous female.”

Snorting, she looped her arms around his neck and rested her head on his shoulder, lightly rubbing her cheek and temple against him. “One of us is ravenous, all right.”

He chuckled lowly and turned to nip at her throat before laving the spot with his tongue. “Mmm, yes,you. But you are much more relaxed, now, so appeasing your unending appetite is a burden I gladly endure.”

Jerking her head up, she gave him an incredulous look, even as a laugh bubbled up. “Burden!”

He straightened and shook his head, adopting a falsely modest expression. “No no, you need not say it. I know. I did good, you love and adore me and would be utterly lost without me. You are welcome.”

Still grinning widely, she pulled him down and kissed him then murmured against his lips, “I do love you, so damn much.”

She felt his return smile and, for just a moment, held against him half-naked in a dark closet, mussed and sticky from sex, nothing else existed.

* * *

Dressed again,Aria started to tap the screen to open the door, but Tirox tugged her back against him before she could. Frowning at the sudden tension in his big body, she turned.

“What’s wrong?”

Even in the dark, she could see the grimace that twisted his harsh, red features. “Our glow worm. His struggles worsen.”

“What? He seemed like he was doing a little better yesterday.”

“He has been hiding in his lab all day, not even coming out for meals.” Tipping her face up with a finger, Tirox brushed his thumb across her lips, his expression becoming apologetic. “I tried to speak with him, but he does not hear me. I worry, my heart.”

Sighing, she rubbed her forehead. “Me, too.”

Kix’s empathic abilities should’ve been mild, even with the natural boost that came from their mate bond solidifying. It would have been, if not for Zhrovni’s tinkering. The turtle-faced bastard had messed with Kix’s ability, enhancing it, changing it. Kix was only meant to feel what she, his mate, felt, with any real intensity. The emotions of others were only supposed to be a whisper, easily blocked out.

But it hadn’t stopped growing, and it was developing too fast for him to learn how to control it. What was supposed to be a gift, something treasured, had become detrimental.

Instead of bringing them closer, it was pulling them apart.

Now, he could barely stand to be around anyone other than her or Tirox. Hell, sometimes he even struggled around them.

Catching the look on Tirox’s face, she realized Kix wasn’t the only one struggling.

Her demon had been trying to fulfill not just his own duties but Kix’s, as well, since her firefly began to pull away from them. And not just as a leader of the complex, but as her mate. She knew that, had both felt and seen it, but whether because he’d been concealing it from her or she just hadn’t noticed before that moment, for the first time she saw the toll it was taking on him.

Tirox and Kix had become a team. They complemented each other, both when it came to running the complex and when it came to her. Where Kix was prone to deliberating over a problem, Tirox jumped in feet first. Where Tirox was prone to see things in black and white, Kix brought in shades of grey.

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