Page 37 of The Silent Mate

She traced the ridge that started at my eyebrow and followed it over my blind eye. I shuddered and surprised myself by pressing my cheek into her palm, as if I’d deprived myself of human contact for too long, and now I couldn’t get enough of it.

“Malik?”

I opened my eyes to find her smiling up at me, a single tear trailing down her rounded cheek, disappearing at the corner of her lips.

“Should we...” Splotches of color tainted her skin, and her confidence wavered, just for a moment. “Would you like to take me to the bedroom?”

My eyes widened, and I very nearly fell to my knees for love of this woman.

Still, she’d shown me that she valued communication, and there was one thing I needed Aria to know before we started down this path. I pulled away from her doting hands and found the notepad on the kitchen counter.

My handwriting appeared even messier than usual, the black ink smearing and bleeding through the paper as my fingers trembled. More than once, I had to cross out my writing and start again. Heat crept up my neck. Somehow, it felt more humiliating to write the words than it would to speak them out loud.

I don’t want to disappoint

I’m not experienced with

I’ve never done this before.

I handed the notepad to Aria and watched while she read the simple sentence like my life depended on it.

Her eyebrows rose, as if she was surprised by my admission. Then, a small smile pulled on her lips. Without hesitating, she took the pen and scrawled a reply.

I haven’t either. How about we start slow and learn together?

I looked up from the notepad, and our eyes locked. Palpable emotion passed between us, and I felt something I’d never experienced before.Safe.

I felt safe with Aria. Safe from judgment. Safe from hurt. Safe from myself.

I allowed the sensation to wash over me. I drank it in. Memorized it and ingrained it in my mind so asnever to forget. So that the next time the darkness threatened to creep in, I’d remember it—rememberher—and know that I would be okay.

ARIA

Without further hesitation, Malik set the notebook aside and took my hand.

My breaths came fast, never pulling enough air into my lungs, which only made my heartbeat escalate. He could undoubtedly hear it above our footsteps on the wooden floor, carrying us to the bedroom. But I wasn’t alone in my nerves. We werebothnovices when it came to this.

I’d been shocked when I first read Malik’s words, explaining that he’d never slept with another. But as soon as my initial surprise faded, joy took its place. Knowing that I’d be the only one to be with him in such an intimate way…

It meant more to me than he would ever know.

When we arrived, I kept our hands connected, robbing him of the opportunity to pull away. I perched on the edge of the mattress and urged him to sit down beside me. The bed dipped beneath his substantial weight.

Once again, we were left staring at one another with a strange mixture of hesitation and excitement sizzling between us. This wasn’t like the movies or the romance novels that I’d devoured throughout my adolescence. We weren’t clawing at each other’s clothes with a sweeping soundtrack orchestrating every choreographed move.

This wasreal.It was new and thrilling and awkward, and I wouldn’t change it for the world.

Sensing that he might need a little prompting, I cleared mythroat and rotated my shoulders, giving Malik my back. “Help me unzip?”

I stared at a spot on the floor, though every fiber in my body honed in on the sound of Malik shifting behind me. Slowly, his fingers found the zipper at the back of my dress. With more gentleness than a man of his size seemed capable of, he tugged the zipper down.

The fabric loosened, one strap falling away from my shoulder. The other followed a second later, leaving the bodice in a puddle of fabric at my waist. My nipples hardened at the sudden exposure, and goosebumps peppered my skin.

Swallowing, I turned to face Malik once again. His eyes were wide. His pupil dilated as he stared at my bare breasts.

I knew he’d seen countless naked women before, just as I’d seen naked men. Nudity was commonplace in a pack of shifters. But this was different. My body sang under his scrutiny. Pure, unadulterated lust clouded Malik’s gaze, and it made me bold.

“You can touch me,” I whispered, rolling my shoulders back to accentuate the modest globes on my chest.

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