Chapter 20 #3
Familiar features caused her steps to still. The stranger who had arrested her gaze cocked his head to the side and squared his shoulders, welcoming her eyes on him. Unbidden, Aela’s feet carried her to the male.
“How—” her hand floated up as if to touch him, yet the impossibility hung thick in the air. She shook her head, taking a step back. “I’m sorry… You just look like someone I know. Someone who can’t be here.”
“You sound concerned,” the stranger said in a deep voice. He grasped her hand and placed a light kiss on her knuckles.
“I apologize. I have to go—”
The stranger didn’t wait for her acceptance as he swept her into the throng of dancing couples. Aela clamped her lips shut while her eyes skipped around the room. Tarek was nowhere to be seen.
What would he do if he found me with another male?
“Are you alright?” the stranger asked.
“I’m not used to anyone being this close,” she said, physically feeling his eyes on her. The scorching path his gaze trailed along her skin burned everything from her mind except the feeling of being in his arms as they swayed around the ballroom.
“Meaning the Bull keeps you to himself.”
Aela needed to clear her head. She didn’t know her role in this situation.
Surely one dance with a member of Tarek’s court would be fine.
Wouldn’t it? Though she had sworn she had met everyone in his Asterism, the male before her didn’t spark a memory other than the crystal miner who lived in her not-so-distant past filled with heated moments in tangled sheets and salt far away on a desert planet.
Even though she and Jaelin had their on-and-off flings, Aela’s heart had fluttered at the sight of a familiar face.
She stole another glance at the male who, for once, wasn’t looking at her.
The shape of his brow, his black windswept hair, and his deep copper skin were where his and Jaelin’s similar features ended.
The male whose arms held her was ruinously handsome and lacked the bluffness of a harsh life in the desert.
Yet the sharp edge of his stubbled jaw and piercing golden eyes spoke to a lethal power within.
It can’t be him.
Chastising herself for thinking they could be the same being, Aela let the music lure her away from her reflections.
Without conscious thought, her hand, which rested on his arm, slid up his shoulder.
Her stranger pulled her closer, cradling their clasped hands against his chest and dragged his hand from her waist to rest on the small of her back.
The ball wore on, and Aela lost count of the songs the musicians played as she and the stranger stepped in time together. Couples peeled off from the fanfare, and images of Jaelin and the way their bodies had fit together came rushing back. Before the stranger slipped away, she had to know.
“Who are you?” Aela asked. “You are not in the Asterism.”
The stranger’s fingers flexed on her back, compelling her to look at him.
“No, I’m not. Just passing through,” he said.
Aela tilted her head to the side.
“See something you like?”
Warmth stained her cheeks. She glanced around the ballroom again, still no Tarek.
“Maybe I do.”
The last notes of the melody chased the charged moment between them, and the stranger bowed over her hand, his eyes holding a light to them that had seen far too much.
“Until we meet again,” he said, then vanished into the dissipating crowd.
Aela resisted bolting from the ball. Once the celestials headed to their private afterparties, she rushed straight to her quarters.
Arriving to the safety of her rooms behind the quartz door, she snatched her selenite shard from within her closet.
Just before sending the message, she remembered.
This had been the part of the plan she hated the most: no contact after the heist.
It was so that they’d all receive communications at the same time once the Asterism discovered the missing crystals. Aela sighed.
They have been in Avarice much longer than you and know what they’re doing.
After reassuring herself, she compartmentalized every thought swirling in her mind.
She’d deal with it all later. With a clarifying breath, Aela changed out of her dress and into a pair of dark blue wide-legged pants.
After smoothing the matching bandeau over her breasts, she left her closet to find something to eat.
Tarek’s body crushed her into the doorframe.
“You were perfect tonight, Aela. Absolutely perfect.” His breath smelled of the strong drink he preferred.
“Tarek…”
“No, let me say this.”
One of his hands released its hold on the doorframe and settled lightly upon her chest. “You have everything I need, Aela. Everything I need to do what I must. Can’t you see?
” His glassy reddish-brown eyes looked through her, and he pressed into her harder.
“Everything I need,” he said, and it was like his head was too heavy for him to hold upright as his lips came for her.
Aela jerked her head to the side, his kiss landing on her neck.
“Tarek, it’s been a long day.”
“All in due time,” he half-groaned.
Aela didn’t move. Tarek was somehow able to extract himself from her apartment. She was running out of time.