Page 5 of Secret Gifts
Oh good grief. I'm acting like I've never seen a pretty face before. I'm not sure if I'm melting or sweating.
“By all means,” I mumble out casually, shifting uneasily when his arm touches mine on his way to the ground.
“I’m Jase, and you are?” he muses softly.
I am... huh? Oh crap. What's my name? Fucking pathetic.
“Aria Ba-” I stop short, not willing to have his eyes light up at my last name. “Just Aria.”
He laughs again, and then he shakes his head, his soft, dark hair slipping through the fingers of the wind like strands of velvet.
Look away, Aria. Look. The fuck. Away.
I can’t look away though. I’m frigging lost in this man’s perfectly pale eyes, and that’s not good. That’s not good at all.
“So, Just Aria, I heard you made a little bit of a scene earlier,” he says too casually.
Great. He’s a jerk who came over just to poke fun at me. Asshole.
My attraction to him fades instantly, and then I roll my eyes while scooting over farther to avoid all contact from his cold, yet scorching touch. My body tingles as it suffers from what feels to be withdrawal symptoms the moment I do.
“Yeah, well, shit happens,” I murmur dismissively, and then I go back to drawing on the pad in my lap.
“I wasn’t making fun,” he says with a daring grin returning, stealing my heart’s beat once again.
“Sure you weren’t," I rattle out with oozing sarcasm. "You already knew my name, and yet you asked for it. I’m sure everyone here knows who I am, and they’re all loving the chance to see the late commander’s daughter getting sliced down to size. Please go away. I’ve got more interesting things to do than deal with taunting bullies."
“Wow, you’re incredibly defensive,” he says through a laugh.
I’m sick of his laughter. I’m sick of everyone here. Maybe Dad was right to keep me locked up in the compound with nothing but technology at my fingertips. People and I don’t work well together. I prefer machines.
“Laugh all you want to, pretty boy. I’ll leave you to laugh at my back instead of in my face though.” I huff while standing up, ignoring his fading chuckles.
I start to walk away when I feel cool fingers lacing with mine and tugging me back. The pulsing in my body quickens, and this time my heart stops beating all together, as if it has forgotten how to do such a mundane thing.
Damn he's tall. His towering stature is sexy... intimidating too. My head barely comes to his chest.
“I wasn’t laughing at you. It’s just… well… I’m sorry, Aria. I promise I’ll never laugh again for as long as I live,” he says with a salacious grin, and his eyes burn into mine expectantly.
He's too fucking cute to be real. Go away!
“Well, it’s your life. Do what you want. If abstaining from ridiculing laughter is what you want, then I hope you succeed. I’m going to go get some sleep,” I murmur while trying to draw back once more, finding it impossible to find the will to want to leave.
His grip tightens, and then he pulls me to his body. That sex and candy scent returns, and I’m almost drooling to see if he tastes as good as he smells. My eyes fall to his shoulder that is so toned and perfect beneath his tight tee-shirt, begging to be bitten.
“Something on my shoulder?” he teases when he sees my lost gaze.
“Yeah, a spider,” I say with a grin as I use what little bit of my gift I can summon in order to fling one from the ground onto it.
He looks down, and then he brushes off the eight-legged crawler while laughing.
“You already broke your promise,” I poke, and he laughs again.
“What can I say? I’m only full blood.”
I smirk while backing up a little, and then I tilt my head curiously.
“Why did you come over here if not to laugh at me?”
