Page 110 of Stars in Aura

Neither of them spoke for a long while.

It wasn’t an awkward silence or an empty one. It was the kind that came after a seismic session of lovemaking, still riding the waves of bliss.

Ki’Remi was the first to break it.

‘Issa,’ he rasped, his utterance rough from post-coital pleasure.

She hummed, tilting her chin to glance up at him.

His eyes were darker than usual, a pensive storm brewing behind them.

‘Tell me something true.’

She studied him for a moment, her fingers stilling against his chest.

There were a thousand things she could say.

A myriad of deflections, teases, or half-truths.

However, honesty was all that was left after all she’d laid bare.

‘I don’t know how to stop running,’ she whispered.

Ki’Remi exhaled, his grip tightening over her hip. ‘Perhaps it’s time you let someone catch you.’

Her heart stuttered. ‘Who exactly?’

‘Me.’

She shifted, pressing her forehead to his chest, her voice muffled on his skin. ‘You make it sound so easy, Sable.’

He released a quiet, humorless chuckle.

‘Nothing about you is easy, Elaris.’

She huffed. ‘Neither are you, Commander.’

‘True,’ he admitted. ‘I’m a difficult bastard.’

She lifted her head, studying his face, the chiseled lines, the raw power he carried.

Which wrapped around her in an aftermath that devastated her.

‘Yet, here we are,’ she murmured.

Ki’Remi’s fingers drifted up her spine, resting at the nape of her neck.

‘Here we are,’ he echoed.

‘Catch me if you can,’ she breathed.

‘I intend to give it afokkin’ good try,’ he growled.

It was the last thing he said for a long time as their breaths hitched and desire ramped up again.

Ki’REMI

A neural node tap jolted the Rider from his deep sleep.

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