Page 82 of Walking in Darkness

Pax stuffed his hands into his jeans pockets as he ambled my way. The breeze rustled through the white locks of his hair, and the slightest smirk played at the edge of his mouth, something knowing and tender written in the harsh angles of his face.

I didn’t know if he’d ever looked so beautiful to me. So perfect and right.

It felt as if we’d just received confirmation of a theory we’d held on to for years. A loss that had throbbed. A vacancy that had gaped.

Wondering if others in our Laven family had felt the same way we did about each other. If we’d been marked on each other in greater ways than we’d been told, or if Pax and I were just an anomaly.

It seemed like an affirmation.

A promise that Pax and I had made the right choice in stepping out. Going against a rule that felt faulty. A blight carved in the middle of our souls.

“He didn’t even try to resist her the way I did you,” he muttered when he got to within a foot of me, low enough that it wouldn’t disturb Dani or Timothy. The smile still fluttering across his plush red lips thatseemed so at odds with the rest of him sent a crash of wings fluttering through my stomach.

“Dude couldn’t keep his hands off her for one second.” His voice was raw with adoration.

I couldn’t stop my own smile as I swiveled so that we were hidden, to give Timothy and Dani a moment to themselves.

I let my hand slide beneath Pax’s jacket, which was open in the front, my palm smoothing up the thin fabric of his tee and over the sinewy strength of his abdomen and chest. Warmth saturated me at the contact, the rush of his aura, which I swore weaved with mine.

I leaned back against the wall as I stared up at him, feeling light and airy within this sanctuary we’d found.

“Maybe he just wanted her more than you wanted me, and he couldn’t help himself.” I let a tease wind into the words. A taunt and a play. A moment’s reprieve from the torment that haunted us.

For a few seconds, I wanted to get lost in the happiness I felt at seeing Dani and Timothy together. It spouted like a spring from within. A soothing balm, like something that had been set to wrong had been dialed to right.

An injustice rectified.

Mischief danced in the deep, fathomless depths of Pax’s gaze, and he eased closer, boxing me in with all his heat. His nose brushed mine as he murmured, “You think that’s even possible, Princess? Someone wanting another more than I want you?”

“Mmm?” I pretended as if I weren’t quite sure as I toyed with the neckline of his tee. “He seemed awful happy to see her.”

Pax’s hand cinched down on my hip as he let his lips whisper down the angle of my jaw.

Shivers raced.

The perfect kind, that tingled through my senses on a streak of bliss.

“Think this thing I’ve got for you is far greater than any simplewant. I thought I was going to die, not getting to touch you. Trying to endure the hunger that raged inside me. Feeling like I couldn’t get afull breath of oxygen into my lungs whenever you were near. Fighting something that felt intrinsic. Like something I couldn’t survive without.”

The playfulness had shifted, and a stark severity wound into the breeze that wisped through the air.

Pax eased back, and he ran his thumb over the scar on my jaw. “Turns out, you were the blood in my veins. Because looking at you, Aria Rialta? I came alive for the very first time. It’s when I understood the meaning of this life. Years spent denying it ... forcing myself into accepting that you were only meant for me in Tearsith and Faydor. It was torment, Aria. Being without you was nothin’ but torment, resisting you the most painful thing I’ve ever done.”

Overcome by emotion, I raked my teeth over my trembling bottom lip as I reached out and brushed my fingertips down the long scar cut into the right side of his face.

His menacing, magnificent face that made my insides quake.

“And because of your bravery ... because you were willing to sacrifice anything to get to me, you opened the gates for the rest of them. Because there is no question that remains in my mind that Dani and Timothy feel the same way as you and me, and I have to believe that’s true for the rest of our family.”

He took my fingers that were tracing over the lines slashed deep into his expression and pressed kisses to my knuckles. “No, Aria. All of that is because of you. Because of extraordinary, amazing you.”

Then he grinned and edged in closer, the tease back in full force. “But for the record, there’s no chance Timothy needs Dani quite as much as I need you. That’s just not fucking possible.”

“Sorry to break it to you, Pax, but I’m going to have to interrupt this little lovefest to respectfully disagree.”

A surprised laugh choked out of me when I looked up and found Timothy grinning, him and Dani standing beside us.

Pax shifted enough to throw him a smirk, along with a wry quirk of his brow. “‘This little lovefest’? That was quite the display going down right around the corner. Don’t think you should be talking.”