Chapter 37: The Heat Between Lies
365 Words
Chapter 37: The Heat Between Lies
(Desire doesn't wait for the truth)
Cade’s breath was ragged as he stepped even closer, his fingers brushing Aria’s jaw. His touch was soft, but the fire in his eyes said otherwise.
“You say Damon knows the truth,” he said, voice low. “But what do you want, Aria?”
Her answer caught in her throat.
Because what she wanted was impossible.
She wanted both the danger and the safety. The chaos and the control. Damon’s brutal need and Cade’s broken devotion.
Her silence was its own kind of confession.
Cade’s jaw tightened. “He’ll ruin you.”
She looked up at him slowly, eyes shining—not with tears, but with something hotter. Wilder. “Maybe I’m already ruined.”
A beat of silence pulsed between them, thick and sharp.
Then Cade surged forward.
His lips crashed into hers like a dam breaking, fierce and desperate and unapologetic. His hands cupped her face like she was the only thing anchoring him to the world. And for a moment, Aria let go—of reason, of guilt, of Damon.
She clung to Cade like a lifeline, kissing him back with months of pent-up hunger and heartache. His tongue swept into her mouth, coaxing, claiming, demanding. She gasped against him, her body igniting under his touch.
He groaned as his hands slipped down to her waist, pulling her flush against his chest. “I should stop,” he whispered against her lips, but he didn’t. “Tell me to stop.”
She didn’t.
Because for the first time in days, she felt something that wasn’t confusion or fear.
She felt wanted. Chosen.
His hands slid under her shirt, fingertips tracing the bare skin of her back. She arched into him, heart thudding out of control.
But then—
Her eyes fluttered open.
And all she saw was Damon.
The other side of the coin. The other edge of the knife.
She broke the kiss, panting, her fingers fisting in Cade’s shirt. “I… I can’t.”
Cade’s expression crumbled.
“You still love him,” he said, voice hollow.
Aria didn’t answer.
Because silence speaks when words can’t.
- Writer
