Page 10 of The Silent Mate

What had I done to deserve such pure, unadulterated beauty? Or, more likely, what hadshedone to be condemned to a creature like me?

I swallowed my awe but didn’t dare to look away. I half believed she would disappear if I took my eyes off of her for one second.

I could’ve stayed there all night, but Aria suddenly shifted in her sleep. A soft mewl escaped her lips as she readjusted her head on the pillow, and the gray quilt slipped off of her bare shoulder.

Bare shoulder.

Every muscle in my body tightened at the realization.

She’d taken off her blouse. A single nude strap graced her shoulder, and my eyes dipped to the small cleavage now on display. Modest breasts pushed against the confines of her plain bra. Perfect mounds that would be dwarfed by my hands, yet fit like puzzle pieces in my palms. Some shameful part of me wondered if her nipples held the same rosy hue as her lips…

Hells.Had she taken off her jeans, too?

My cock unwittingly twitched, and I ripped my eyes away from Aria before the crackling embers in my blood transformed into a wildfire.

Running a hand through my long, unkempt hair, I paced away from the bed and internally cursed.

I’d never invited a woman into my bed before. Had never wanted to welcome that sort of trust and intimacy into my life. But my little dove had invited herself, stripped down into near nothingness and fallen asleep. She placed a startling amount of trust in me. In my self-control.

I didn’t like it.

It was easier when others feared me. Fear was expected.Known.It allowed me to control and maintain a proper distance between myself and others in my life, even those that I considered myself closest with. I’d grown accustomed to being alone and preferred it that way.

But blind trust and acceptance… Those were foreign concepts in my life. And they promised a loss of control.

I rubbed at my forehead, fingers massaging the ruined scar tissue above my eyebrow, and cast one last look at my stunning mate. I’d be damned if I lost her, but I also felt the need to keep her an arms length away. For her sake and my own.

Aria Knox might’ve been my fated mate, but I wouldn’t be responsible for ruining her. I was a blight to her beauty.

And yet, after I headed into the en suite bathroom and took ashower, I climbed into bed beside her for the first time. She was turned away from me, and, damn it to hell, I hated the distance between our bodies.

With painstakingly slow movements, I scooted an inch closer to the center of the bed. Then another, the mattress shifting beneath my immense weight. Finally, I dared to extend my arm and wrap it around her waist, and heat flared where my forearm secured purchase against the soft swell of her lower belly.

Although I’d never done this with anyone before, I followed my body’s base instincts. I wanted to hold her close.Neededto hold her close.

So, I tugged her backwards and only stopped when her back pressed flush against my chest, her hips aligned with the curve of my pelvis. My cock, which I’d managed to tame during my time in the shower, pulsed with renewed desire as it nestled between the two globes of her ass.

Resisting the urge to grind against her, I ground my teeth instead and buried my head in the crook of her neck, inhaling her scent deep into my lungs. I draped one leg over hers, fully entangling our forms, and finally felt close enough.

At long last, I closed my eyes.

5

ARIA

Heat.Enticing, all-consumingheatcocooned my body, and I never wanted to leave.

A small sigh of contentment escaped my lips, and I shifted to snuggle closer to the big furnace wrapped around me. Its hold around my body tightened, like a boa constricting around my waist, and I tensed.

My eyes popped open, and momentary fear clamped down on my throat as, through the darkness, I saw a tan, brawny arm secured tight around my middle. My spine went straight, and I sucked in a sharp breath.

There was a man in my bed. There was amanin my bed!

No,I thought.Notmybed.

The events of the previous day crashed over me at the same moment that sweet tobacco leaf and mint infiltrated my lungs. My racing heart calmed in the slightest as I realized that Malik must’ve slipped into bed beside me while I slept, but every muscle in my body remained stiff.

I tried to remember his return. The night before, I onlyintended to rest my eyes while I waited for Malik and hadn’t wanted to dirty the sheets by wearing my jeans and blouse to bed. I must’ve severely underestimated my exhaustion. At the moment, I could only recall dreams of warmth.

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