Chapter 85: The Pull Of The Matebond
Sometimes the first thing that crumbles isn’t the enemy’s wall. It’s your own certainty."
~ Rebel Beast
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The question lingered between them, and Maverick’s expression became unreadable.
"You don’t understand."
"Then help me understand!" Aria snapped, tension crackling between the two of them.
"You say you don’t like people touching you, and then I touch you, yet you don’t freeze me with your ice the way you do everyone else. Why are you confusing me? Do you like me or something?" Aria finally confronted him.
Maverick’s chest was heaving now, his eyes clouded with emotions Aria couldn’t quite grasp.
"Talk to me," she whispered, suddenly conscious of her friends sleeping in the next room. She had no idea how she would explain this if they woke up, and selfishly, she wanted this moment to remain theirs alone.
Maverick closed his eyes briefly. When he opened them again, he said, "My wolf is dangerous."
"So?"
"It could hurt you, and I’m supposed to protect you."
"I don’t need protection from you. I’ve been doing a pretty good job of protecting myself," Aria retorted.
His jaw tightened.
"You say that now, until you’re standing face-to-face with Feral."
"Feral, is it?" Aria said. "That’s actually a cute name."
Maverick let out a frustrated growl.
"I mean it."
Aria did not say anything else but she could feel him trying to pull away without actually moving. More than anything else, she could sense there was something he wasn’t telling her.
Aria slowly pushed herself to her feet until she was standing in front of him.
"You apologized," she began, "but that doesn’t mean I accepted it. An eye for an eye."
Maverick looked at her in confusion.
"A kiss for a kiss."
Before the sudden courage abandoned her completely, Aria leaned forward and pressed a gentle kiss against his lips.
Maverick was so startled that he pulled back almost immediately.
"What?" Aria asked, her voice carrying both frustration and the painful awareness of what she’d done.
She just kissed her professor. She just kissed her professor!
Heat flooded her cheeks.
"I don’t know." She laughed nervously. "I really don’t know what’s gotten into me."
But Maverick did.
It was the pull of the Matebond, and his heart pounded beneath the severity of that realization. His instinct urged him to close the distance between them and surrender to the fire she’d just ignited within him. Yet every lesson he’d lived by demanded that he step away.
"This isn’t right." His voice sounded more like he was trying to convince himself than her. "I didn’t come here to take advantage of you."
He needed her to understand that. That had never been his intention.
Although, at that moment, he wasn’t entirely sure what his intention had been in coming there at all.
"I don’t care," Aria whispered before capturing his lips again. This time, he didn’t pull away.
Maverick leaned into the kiss, his body settling naturally against hers as though drawn there by an invisible force.
Aria was dressed in a sleeveless tank top and a pair of comfortable lounge bottoms, and she suddenly became acutely aware of how little distance separated them.
She moaned, rocking against him while Maverick answered with a guttural groan, pressing deeper into the kiss with lusty swipes of his tongue.
Thought became impossible. Aria slipped her arms around his neck, her fingers threading through his purple hair as she’d secretly wanted to ever since she’d first seen it.
Gods, it was impossibly soft.
She yanked lightly at his hair, and Maverick let out a low sound against her lips. Before she knew what was happening, her vision blurred, and Aria found herself back on the bed.
Maverick was completely in control now, his body caging her in so she had nowhere else to go. He kissed her with a hunger that seemed impossible to satisfy, as if every taste of her only made him want more. When his hand drifted lower, Aria instinctively arched toward him.
Fucking hell. He felt so good.
At that moment, none of it seemed to matter anymore. It didn’t matter that he was her professor, or that he was a beast, or that they had no business doing any of this. Aria simply couldn’t get enough of him.
Maverick seemed just as consumed by her. It felt like a battle neither of them wanted to win, his mouth moving fervently against hers, carrying the familiar dark, smoky scent of coffee that always seemed to cling to him.
Neither of them was in control anymore.
Aria gasped against his lips, acutely aware of his hard erection pressed so close to her. Every instinct warned her they were venturing into dangerous territory, yet she couldn’t bring herself to stop.
Maybe Brittney had been right after all. Maybe she could allow herself to live a little. One night with her impossibly handsome professor and then life would simply go on.
What was the worst that could happen?
At that exact moment, Maverick’s phone rang and he froze. The shrill vibration of his phone cut through the silence like a blade, shattering whatever had possessed them both.
He stared at the screen for a heartbeat before dragging an shaky breath into his lungs.
It was Dimitri.
"Damn it," he muttered under his breath.
The fog clouding his thoughts lifted all at once, replaced by the horrifying awareness of where he was and what had almost happened.
He immediately put space between himself and Aria, running a trembling hand through his hair before pulling the device out. The phone continued vibrating in his hand, but he couldn’t bring himself to answer it just yet.
Aria remained where she was, equally speechless. She didn’t know whether to speak, or pretend the last few minutes had never happened.
Neither of them knew what to say.
Maverick looked at her, guilt written plainly across his face.
"We’ll... we’ll talk later," he said instead.
Without waiting for a response, Maverick turned, crossed the room, and disappeared through the balcony doors.
Aria remained seated on the bed long after he’d gone, listening to the sound of the door closing behind him. Only then did the full weight of everything crash over her.
She slowly lifted a hand to her swollen lips.
What in the world has she done?