Aria's POV
The days that followed felt different — lighter, somehow, every ordinary moment carrying a quiet undercurrent of anticipation neither of us bothered hiding anymore.
Damien found reasons to touch me constantly now, small and unhurried — a hand at the small of my back as we crossed the courtyard, fingers laced with mine during Council sessions, his mouth finding my temple whenever he passed close enough to reach it.
"You're insatiable," I teased one evening, as he drew me against him for the third time that hour, his lips trailing slow along my throat.
"I'm making up for seventeen years of careful distance," he murmured against my skin, "one indulgence at a time."
His hands slid beneath the hem of my dress, unhurried, deliberate, mapping the curve of my hip like he intended t
