Darken Moon University

Hot: Aeira

His fingertips against my soft skin sent a shiver racing down my spine, overriding any lingering embarrassment.

The air between us shifted instantly. The playful amusement in his eyes darkened into something hungry, something that stole the breath right from my lungs.

Before I could make a smart comment, his hand moved.

He didn't hesitate.

He gripped my waist, pulling me right against him, and his other hand slid down to grab my ass, hauling me even closer until there was no space left between us.

“Kaiden,” I gasped, but the sound was swallowed by his mouth crashing down on mine.

This wasn’t the tentative exploration from last night. This was a claim.

The kiss was searing, demanding, and filled with a raw urgency that made my head spin. His fingers dug into the soft fabric of my shorts, molding me against him, holding me possessively as if he was afraid I might vanish. The playful banter from seconds ago had been incinerated, replaced by a heavy, suffocating need that throbbed in the air between us.

I melted against him, my hands tangling in his hair to pull him closer. The taste of him—mint and something wild, distinctly Kaiden—was intoxicating. I felt the hard lines of his chest pressing against mine, the heat radiating through the thin cotton of my t-shirt, making me wish I hadn't put it back on.

A low growl vibrated in his throat, spilling into my mouth and sending a shockwave straight to my core. He tilted his head, deepening the kiss, his tongue sweeping against mine in a way that made my knees weak. If not for the iron grip he had on me, I would have slid right to the floor.

He took advantage of my parted lips, exploring my mouth with a thoroughness that left me lightheaded and clinging to his shoulders for support. Every thought, every doubt, every sarcastic retort I might have had evaporated under the heat of his mouth. The world narrowed down to the sensation of his hands on my body and the way he groaned low in his throat when I arched against him.

The playfulness was gone, replaced by a gravitational pull that was impossible to resist. He kissed me like he was starving, like he had been waiting years for this exact moment.

The heat started as a low hum in my blood, a sudden, scorching wave that had nothing to do with the temperature of the room or the friction of his body against mine.

One moment I was lost in the taste of him, the scent of pine and rain, and the next, my body was seizing up, panic warring with an overwhelming, terrifying ache.

I tore my mouth away from his, gasping for air that suddenly felt too thin.

"Stop," I rasped, the word scraping against my throat.

Kaiden froze instantly, his hands releasing me as if I’d burned him. He held them up, palms open, his chest heaving. The hunger in his eyes was replaced instantly by sharp concern.

"Hey, what’s wrong? Did I hurt you?"

I shook my head frantically, backing away until my legs hit the edge of the couch. I couldn't breathe. The air in the room was suddenly suffocating, thick with a scent that was making my skin prickle and my body throb with a foreign, demanding need.

"No," I managed to choke out, wrapping my arms around myself. "It’s hot. It’s too hot."

I looked down at my hands, expecting to see flames, but my skin just looked flushed and feverish. The low hum in my blood had roared into a deafening scream. Every nerve ending felt exposed, raw, and desperate for something I didn't understand.

I tried to stand and get off him. My knees buckled, the intensity of the sensation nearly dropping me to the floor.

“Whoa, I got you.”

Before I could protest, Kaiden swept me up into his arms. The sudden shift in elevation made my head spin worse, and I clutched at his t-shirt, burying my face in his neck to block out the light. It felt too bright. Too sharp.

I felt the movement as he carried me, his stride long and purposeful. He wasn’t taking me to the door. He was carrying me deeper into the apartment.

“No,” I whimpered, the word barely a whisper. “I need to go. I need to leave.”

“You’re not going anywhere like this,” he said, his voice tight with that same forced calm. “I’m taking you to the bedroom. You need to lie down.”

The bedroom was darker, the curtains pulled tight against the morning sun in the midst of fall, but it did nothing to quell the fire raging beneath my skin.

Kaiden lowered me onto the mattress, the sheets feeling like sandpaper against my hypersensitive skin. He knelt beside the bed, his brow furrowed as he reached out to brush a damp strand of hair from my forehead.

“Talk to me,” he urged, his voice low. “Is it sickness? A fever?”

"I don't know," I cried, curling into a ball as the heat inside me spiked, turning into a sharp, twisting cramp. "It hurts. Everything feels... wrong."

The scent of him was overwhelming. Oak and coffee and something masculine that usually made me feel safe now made my skin crawl with a terrifying mixture of revulsion and a desperate, clawing need. My body was reacting to him in ways my mind couldn't comprehend, betraying me with a sudden, liquid throb that made me sick to my stomach.

Then the smell hit me stronger—that thick, heavy musk of an aroused Alpha male.

It dragged me under.

The scent of arousal didn't smell like safety anymore. It didn't smell like my room or Kaiden.

It smelled like *him*.