Aria's POV
She shouldn’t have looked.
But something—some pull she didn’t want to name—had drawn her gaze like a thread, taut and trembling, right to where he stood.
Cole.
Her breath hitched. His eyes were already on her. Watching her like he had never stopped. Like he knew what she had been doing. Who she'd been with. The shame came first. Then the heat. It bloomed under her skin and settled low in her belly.
He didn’t move. Just stared.
God, she hated that he had this effect on her.
Elias had just left her with one last lingering kiss, his soft words still ringing in her ear, but it was Cole she felt. The weight of his presence. The sharpness of his attention. It was like walking into a flame she couldn’t see but could feel, licking at her skin with every step she took.
Her finger
