Page 2

ARIA

The soft lips of my fiancé travel up my arm, paying special attention to the inside bend of my elbow. I grin as his lips move closer to my neck, and I feel his smile when it starts to mimic mine.

“Morning,” Jase says softly, letting those delicious lips touch my cheek.

“Morning,” I say in a just-woken-up rasp. I turn to meet his lips, but he backs up, grinning even bigger.

“If you do that, we’ll be inside all day.”

I giggle without dignity as I snuggle in closer, wrapping my bare leg around his naked waist.

The only thing I’m wearing is a sheet. It’d be really easy to seduce him into—

“Stop thinking like that,” he lightly scolds, his playful eyes not matching his forced seriousness. “We’ve spent two weeks cooped up in a room or a vehicle. I’ve got to do some work at some point.”

My grin doesn’t waver. It only grows as scandalous images cross through my mind, giving him a show that has him groaning in frustration seconds before his lips crush mine. I pull him to me, not feeling the least bit guilty about using my body—or my dirty mind—against him, and he flips me to be on my back.

When his lips leave mine, I start to protest, but he speaks before I can.

“You’ve gotten too good at using my mind reading gift against me,” he grumbles, chastising me with his insincere glare.

“Apparently I need to work harder if you’re still talking instead of kissing me.”

He snickers softly before bending to offer me a chaste kiss that leaves me feeling very dissatisfied. “The suspense is killing me. Look at your hand.”

I start to ask questions, when he raises my left hand up, and the violet crystal in front of me silences whatever I was going to say. There, on my ring finger, rests the most perfect stone attached to a titanium ring. Inside has the etching of the gifted sparrow, and it reminds me so much of the ring my father once gave my mother.

Tears gather in my eyes, and his smile returns as the tension I didn’t notice earlier leaves him.

“You like it,” he observes with relief.

“I love it,” I almost whisper, my voice breaking twice on those three words. “When did you get this?”

I look up from the dazzling stone, and he bends to press another soft kiss to my lips.

“I had it designed. Sorry it took two weeks, but it’s hard to get jewelry picked up during the middle of peace negotiations. We keep having to change compounds as a means of security—in case this is a trick.”

I touch his face affectionately, brushing the tips of my fingers against his cheekbones as his pale blue eyes shift and his true, mismatched blues shine. His emotions travel through me, raw and unguarded, letting me feel the love only meant for me, and the warm tingles of excitement start to surge through my veins.

“I love you,” he says softly, smiling when he sees how completely lost in him I am.

“I love you, and I think we should celebrate my new ring,” I say before shoving him to his back, and coming to rest on top of him.

“What’s one more day gonna hurt?” he says, amused.

I smile against his lips, and he jerks the sheet out from between us. When his jean-clad lower half scrapes against me, I push my hands between us to remove the hindering fabric. But the damn buzzer from hell rings, and I almost growl at the front door.

Jase laughs as though this is funny, and he leans up to kiss the tip of my nose.

“We’ll resume this in a minute. It could be important.”

“You’re reading their mind. Is it important?” I ask, refusing to move off of him until I decide if it is worth it.

“There are too many overactive minds out there to read without a visual focus. Something is apparently important, though.”

I huff while dropping to my side, and he jumps up from the bed, not bothering to put a shirt on as he makes his way to the door that is diagonal from the bedroom. He looks back to make sure I’m wrapped up in the sheet before he opens the door for the army of suits.

Hell. I think I need clothes for this.

“Probably a good idea,” Jase mumbles, apparently not liking what he now hears in their minds.

He comes to shut the door to the bedroom, and I scramble to pull on some clothes as one of the men in the other room starts talking.

“At least fifteen prisoners have escaped from an underground holding facility. We’ve been taking care of them for the past couple of weeks, but two have already been killed,” the guy says, not really making much sense to me.

“And you think it’s linked to the men who held them captive,” Jase replies, either reading their minds or drawing the conclusion for himself.

“Yes. And we want to bring them here. Yorkaine has the most officers right now. These prisoners could help us figure out who took them. There’s another threat becoming more apparent now that the Unaligned have pulled back their war efforts.”

Shit. They’re catching scent of the Scorpions.

“Or the Unaligned could be tracking them and killing them because they were the ones who took them, and they don’t want us knowing what all was done because it could hinder the upcoming peace treaty signing,” Jase counters, sounding incredibly believable.

After smoothing down my hair and making sure I have on enough clothes, I open the door and walk into the room full of important people. Something like this used to intimidate me, but seeing everyone looking to Jase for guidance reminds me who is in charge, and the intimidation factor slinks away quickly.

Jase smirks, not looking at me, but I know that means he’s reading my mind. I really need to work on blocking him out more.

He shakes his head, finally meeting my eyes, and a challenging glint glazes over his pale blues he’s put back into place. I wish he’d keep his true eyes visible. I love feeling him inside and out, and that’s the only way I can.

“Commander,” one man prompts, ending the staring competition we have in place.

Jase breaks the eye contact, and he looks back toward the men.

“Bring the refugees here. I’ll see what I can learn about them and who had them,” he says with that sexy authoritative tone of his.

“They’re on their way now. They should be here within the hour,” a captain says.

Damn. That means our day of celebrating my shiny new ring will have to wait.

Jase stifles a grin, and then he rolls his eyes at me. Drama is happening everyday, but this is my first day of having that small ring of promise that Jase is finally mine. Now I just need one more ring to make it official.

“I’ll grab a shirt and meet you gentlemen downstairs.” Jase’s voice still carries that commanding presence. It’s completely different from the way he talks to me.

They start filtering back through the door without delay, and I start pouting like a child who is watching her candy get locked away.

“You’re adorable when you’re frustrated,” my full blood hybrid teases as he comes to wrap his arms around me.

I thread my fingers through his hair and draw him down for a kiss that makes my toes try to curl. He kisses me harder, his tongue expertly navigating my mouth, arousing me with just that divine touch.

He sighs as he pulls back reluctantly, but he holds me to him while I sulk.

“I’m always frustrated when they make you leave me. I guess you’re going to read the survivors’ minds and find out if it was Scorpion affiliated?”

He nods, not looking any happier about leaving than I am.

“If it is, we need to prepare for this getting out. Right now, your mother is doing good about staying in her place with the children, but if she finds this out—”

“Then she’ll definitely come out of retirement, and she’ll get herself killed by going against that monster,” I interrupt, finishing the sentence the way he would have.

The kids have played an important part in holding back my mother. She knows the threat is out there, but she doesn’t know how much we know about it.

He nods regretfully, and I run a hand through my hair while thinking over the limited options I have. I’ll be glad when this is over.

“So will I,” he grumbles while releasing me. “I’d rather be planning our wedding right now.”

Despite the heaviness in the air, that makes me smile. We’re getting married.

His lips on mine snap me back to reality, and I giggle lightly behind the sweet kiss.

“I need to go deal with this, but I’ll be back later. I love you,” he murmurs softly, kissing me quickly once more, and then he leaves a small breeze in his wake when he blurs out of the room.

Looking down at the ring on my finger, I can’t help but smile.