~Aria~
His weight presses into the mattress, sinking me deeper into the bed. My body stiffens beneath him, caged by his arms, trapped by the shadow of his body and the heat pouring off him.
I can’t breathe. Not because I’m afraid—though I should be—but because every inch of me feels stretched thin between dread and a hunger I can’t name.
Kael lowers his mouth to my throat. At first, it’s just the ghost of contact, a brush of warmth I almost convince myself I imagined. Then his lips press firmer, leaving heat branded against my skin. A sound slips out of me—a soft, helpless gasp.
He goes still. Then I feel it: the slow curl of his smile against my neck.
“You liked that,” he murmurs. His voice a velvet snarl, winding around my spine.
I want to deny it. To shove him away, to spit a lie
