The invitation arrived in a black velvet envelope, sealed with the Lennox crest.
Annual Founder's Gala Formal Attire Required.
Attendance: Mandatory.
Aria smirked as she folded the note and slipped it into her purse. The game was moving faster than she'd planned.
Perfect.
She'd been watching Kai unravel all week, the flickers in his eyes when he saw her, the way his voice dipped low when she was near, how his fingers twitched as if they were fighting the urge to reach for her. He was close to the edge.
Tonight, she'd push him off it.
The gala was hosted at the Hartley estate of course it was.
Glass, marble, fountains that ran with champagne. Every corner glittered with the illusion of perfection, like something out of a dream so expensive you couldn't afford to wake up.
Aria arrived fashionably late, dressed in obsidian silk that shimmered like oil under the lights. The gown clung to her skin with every step, slit up to the thigh, backless and devastating. Around her neck a single diamond. It used to be his. She wore it like a weapon.
The moment she entered the ballroom, silence rippled around her. Eyes turned and then his did.
Across the crowd, Kai froze mid conversation, mid-breath. His eyes dragged down her body and back up, slow and full of something raw. Possession. Hunger. Fury. Wonder.
She didn't look away.
Didn't blink.
She smiled like the night was hers and then turned toward the champagne tray like he didn't exist. Kai didn't remember walking toward her. One second, he was beside Brielle, pretending to be interested in her father's stock portfolio; the next, he was across the room, watching Aria sip from her glass like she hadn't just detonated the air between them.
"Was this planned?" he asked behind her, voice a rough whisper.
She didn't turn. "You'll have to be more specific."
"That dress."
"I've been planning this since I was seventeen."
His jaw clenched. "You're trying to make me lose control."
She turned, finally, and her eyes locked onto his. "No, Kai. I'm reminding you what it feels like when you don't have any."
He swore under his breath, stepping closer. Too close.
The music pulsed low and decadent behind them, strings and synth weaving through the tension. They were just two people on a dance floor.
But to Aria, it felt like war.
"Dance with me," she said suddenly.
Kai blinked. "What?"
"Unless you're scared."
She held out her hand.
He took it.
He shouldn't have. His palm slid to her waist, warm and possessive. Her hand rested on his shoulder, light as silk, and still it made his whole body tense.
They moved slowly, the crowd disappearing around them, time compressing into this one silent orbit.
"You look like someone I dreamed about once," he said low.
She met his eyes. "What did she do in the dream?"
"She kissed me like she wanted to burn everything down."
Her heart squeezed.
"And then she left," he finished.
Her smile didn't waver. "Maybe you deserved it."
He spun her, caught her again, harder this time.
"I deserve a lot of things."
Her fingers tightened. "Do you remember me yet?"
His breath caught.
She felt it.
A glitch in his rhythm. A stutter in his pulse.
"No," he said finally but he didn't let go.
By the time the dance ended, their bodies were flush. Too close. His hand had drifted from her waist to her lower back, then to the bare curve of her hip beneath the open slit of her gown.
He hadn't noticed until now and now, he couldn't stop touching her.
"Come with me," he murmured. Her eyes flared, dark and glittering. "To do what?" His voice was rough. "I don't know. That's what scares me."
She stepped back and smiled like a dare.
"Then follow me."
He did.
Through the hallway. Past the kitchen. Up the private staircase he used to sneak her down three years ago though now he didn't remember. They stopped in a dimly lit study.
Books. Shadows. Silence.
He closed the door behind them. She turned, letting the moonlight from the window catch on the curve of her back, exposed and perfect.
His voice dropped. "Who are you?"
She didn't answer.
Just stepped into him and when her hand slid up his chest and curled around his tie, his control shattered.
He backed her against the bookshelf and kissed her like he was drowning.
The kiss was heat and hunger and a thousand half-memories crashing into one moment.
His hands gripped her waist. Her leg wrapped around his hip. He groaned when her teeth caught his bottom lip. She gasped when his thigh slid between hers and still he didn't know who she was.
Didn't remember the first time they kissed in a stairwell, or the night he carried her up five flights because her heels broke, or the way she said his name like a vow but something inside him still knew her.
His lips moved to her neck.
"You taste like a memory," he murmured.
Aria's eyes burned and then she did the only thing she could to keep from falling:
She pushed him away hard.
He stared at her, breathless, aroused, furious.
"What the hell is this?" he asked.
She smoothed her hair. Straightened her dress. "This is what it feels like to forget someone you promised to love forever."
Kai flinched. "What?"
She stepped past him. "Goodnight, Mr. Lennox."
He didn't move.
Didn't follow.
And Aria didn't let herself cry until the door shut behind her.