Aria's POV
His hands moved through my hair and over my skin and I gave myself permission to stop thinking about everything outside this room.
He kissed his way down my throat and I arched into him and thought that whatever was coming tonight we were going into it as a unit and nothing Aldric Blackwood said was going to change that.
When we finally moved together it was slow and deep and completely present, the kind that was less about desire and more about being anchored to something real.
I watched his face and he watched mine and there was nothing performed about any of it, no walls up, no armor, just two people choosing each other deliberately in a moment when everything else was unstable.
When it was over I lay against his chest and listened to his heart.
"Ready?" I said eventually.
"No," he said. "But we're going anyway."
"That's basically the definition of courage."
"I thought courage was doing something brave."
