Page 71 of Shattered Crown
"Aria."
She looked up at me. Moonlight on her cheekbones. A question in her eyes.
I cupped her face in my hands and kissed her.
Not like before. Not angry, not desperate, not trying to prove anything. This was slow. This was soft. This was something I didn't have a name for.
Her lips parted beneath mine. Her hands came up to rest on my chest. I kissed her like the world had stopped spinning, like nothing existed beyond this moment, like I was trying to memorize the feel of her.
When we finally pulled apart, she didn't step back. Her forehead rested against my chest. My arms wrapped around her.
"What are we doing?" she murmured.
I pressed my lips to her hair. "I don't know. But I don't want to stop."
"Me neither."
We stood there in the shadows, wrapped around each other, while the palm trees rustled overhead and the waves crashed somewhere in the distance.
Everything had changed.
I didn’t know if that was a good thing or a disaster.
15ARIA
Four days leftof the evaluation period. Four days left in Maui. Four days left of this suspended reality where the normal rules didn't seem to apply.
I'd stopped fighting it.
There was no point anymore. Sebastian had somehow wiggled his way through every wall I'd built, slipped past every defense, and replaced years of resentment with something I didn't want to name. I was tired. Tired of pretending I didn't want him. Tired of running. Tired of lying to myself about what was happening between us.
We weren't hiding it anymore. Not exactly.
We sat together at meals, our chairs close enough that our arms brushed when we reached for the bread. We walked the grounds together, falling into step without discussing it, our fingers finding each other when we thought no one was looking. We stood too close. Touched too often. Let Mr. Kahale see what he was going to see.
The old man watched us with shrewd eyes. I caught him studying us over dinner, his weathered face unreadable. I couldn't tell if he approved or not.
I'd stopped caring.
I cared about Sebastian. That was all that mattered right now.
Something was building between us. I could feel it every time he looked at me, every time his hand found the small of my back, every time he leaned close to murmur something only I could hear. The tension had shifted from hostile to something else entirely. Something that made my skin feel too tight and my blood run too hot.
I wanted to take it slow. I wanted to be smart about this.
I wasn't sure how much longer I could hold myself back.
Tonight, we were having dinner alone.
Leilani had arranged it. A private table on the beach, away from the restaurant, away from the other guests, away from Mr. Kahale's watchful gaze. When I'd arrived, I'd found candles flickering in glass holders, a bottle of wine already breathing, white linen napkins folded into precise triangles. The ocean murmured behind us, waves catching the last of the sunset.
Romantic. The kind of setting I would have mocked a month ago.
I didn't mock it now.
Sebastian was already seated when I arrived. He stood as I approached, pulling out my chair, and I caught the way his eyes traveled down my body. I wore a white dress tonight. Simple. Thin straps. The kind of thing that showed off my tan and moved when the breeze caught it.
His jaw tightened almost imperceptibly. Good.
