Page 51 of Walking in Darkness

“Aria, it’s okay. It’s okay.” Pax rushed up behind her and dragged her into his arms as he sank back to sitting on the grass.

“The answer is already written inside of you,” the voice wisped before it fully drifted away.

Legs spread out in front of him, Pax tucked her onto his lap. Rocked her as he kissed her temple.

“Did you hear her?” she asked in desperation, wondering if she was hallucinating.

He curled his arms tighter around her, and he seemed to hesitate before he exhaled the admission near her ear.

“Only the last, when I was touching you.”

Chapter Sixteen

Aria

“I think this was the best idea you’ve ever had,” I told Pax before I took a sip from my hot caffé mocha, then a bite from the gooey doughnut piled high with strawberry icing and sprinkles.

Pax let go of a rough chuckle from where he sat across from me in the small booth at the local doughnut shop. We were tucked in the corner, mostly out of sight of the rest of the lobby, though Pax had a direct view of the door so he could keep tabs on who came in and out.

It was midmorning, so it was fairly quiet, just a few patrons dotted about, and we’d felt somewhat at ease when we stepped inside.

People’s voices were there, hovering at the fringes of my mind, but they were subdued. No true distress in the handful of people inside the shop.

“You’re awful easy to please for a princess,” he teased. “Besides, I think I picked up early on you preferring dessert for breakfast.”

Pax tilted his head as he blatantly stared at me. Flames licked in the depths of his icy gray eyes as he made a slow pass over my face and down my neck.

Redness rushed in its wake. I wondered if I’d ever get used to it. Him looking at me that way. With unfettered desire. I’d longed for it forever and thought I’d never feel the full severity of it.

I’d thought what beat between us would be forever locked away by the laws that had kept us fractured.

My chest squeezed with the accusation that had been thrown out two nights ago by Emilia in Tearsith. One I’d understood she’d made in her distress. But after I’d seen that suggestion of Valeen’s in the stream, I couldn’t accept the assertion Emilia had made.

Valeen’s words had weaved through me like a thread that healed.

Together. Wholly.

I didn’t understand it, but at least I was sure that Pax was supposed to be right here with me.

This man a dream. The only good dream I’d ever had.

“Why are you looking at me like that?” I whispered with the hint of a smile tugging at the edge of my mouth.

It was my turn for my eyes to caress. Tracing the sharp angles of his face. The scars that marred him. The tattoos that rolled up his neck to touch the base of his fierce jaw. His hewn, lean body that pulsated with rugged, rough brutality.

So terrifying, and still my greatest comfort.

“Because you’re the only thing in this world I really want to see, Aria. Because you’re every picture in my mind. The imprint marked on my soul.” His raspy, low voice filled the area between us. Then he sat back with a smirk. “Well, and on my skin, too.”

No doubt, he was making reference to the tattoo I’d finally noticed hidden on his abdomen.

We’d lain low in Indianapolis for the last two days, allowing me to take yesterday to recuperate. Allowing me time to regain my strength and for the blisters that had risen on my palms to subside.

In it had been a small respite of bliss.

Pax and I locked behind closed doors.

It was both frustrating and a relief that no one had come for us during that time. Ambrose remained elusive, but it wasn’t like we had been out and about trying to draw attention to ourselves.