MORE THAN A FEELING

Chapter 10: The Glass Shatters II

The silence in the car was different now. It wasn't the heavy, suffocating silence of the Rosemont dinner table or the frantic, jagged silence of the gallery coat room. It was thick, electric, and terrifyingly honest.

Aria’s hand was still resting against his jaw, her thumb brushing over the stubble there. She looked at him as if she were seeing him for the first time—not as the boy who shared her sandbox, but as the man who had just defied the social elite to carry her out of a burning building made of expectations.

"You mean that," she whispered, her voice trembling. "You’ve been waiting for me."

Cassian didn't trust his voice. Instead, he took her hand from his face and pressed a slow, lingering kiss to her palm. The heat of his breath against her skin made her shiver, but she didn’t pull away.

"I'd wait another lifetime, Aria. But I don't want to wait anymore. I don't want to watch you walk into rooms with guys who don't know that you tilt your head when you're lying, or that you hate the sound of sirens because they make you feel lonely."

Aria let out a shaky breath, a single tear escaping and landing on their joined hands. "I’m so scared, Cassian. I feel like if I let myself love you, and then something happens... I won't just be broken. I’ll be gone. There will be nothing left of me."

Cassian leaned in, his lips just inches from hers. The scent of rain and her rose perfume was intoxicating. "Then let me be the one who holds the pieces. I’m a Thorne, remember? We’re built to endure."

He reached out and gently pulled the silk ribbon from her hair, letting the dark waves fall around her shoulders. She looked raw, beautiful, and finally real.

Just as he began to close the gap between them, his phone on the dashboard exploded with light.

SILAS ROSEMONT (Incoming Call)

The name glared at them like a warning sign. The "real world" was crashing back in. Aria jumped slightly, the moment shattering like thin glass.

"Don't answer it," she whispered.

"I have to," Cassian said, his voice raspy. "If I don't, he'll have the police out looking for your 'kidnapper' within the hour. He saw the headlines, Aria."

He swiped the screen and put it on speaker. Silas’s voice boomed through the car, cold enough to frost the windows.

"Thorne. Tell me she’s with you."

"She’s with me, Silas. She’s safe," Cassian said, his eyes never leaving Aria’s.

"The gala is a mess. Marcus is claiming you assaulted him, and there’s a video of you carrying her out like a caveman. Bring her home. Now. My father is livid."

"She’s not going home yet," Cassian said, a new found boldness in his chest. "She’s exhausted. I’m taking her to the vineyard. She needs air, Silas. Not a lecture."

There was a long, dangerous pause on the other end of the line. Silas wasn't used to being told 'no.'

"You have one hour, Cassian," Silas hissed. "If she isn't at our gates by midnight, friendship be damned I’m coming to get her myself."

The line went dead.

Aria looked at the phone, then back at Cassian. A small, mischievous spark a glimpse of the old Aria flickered in her eyes. "The vineyard? My brothers will lose their minds if they think we’re alone there."

"Let them lose them," Cassian said, restarting the engine. The car roared to life, a low growl of power. "I’m tired of playing by their rules. Tonight, we play by ours."

He drove her up the winding path to the Thorne hills, away from the paparazzi and the expectations. For the first time in a year, Aria didn't look back at the city lights. She only looked at him.