Chapter 3 : Common Ground

Aria POV

"Are you interested in something?" I asked Noah teasingly, subtle revenge for how he had treated me back at the alleyway.

Despite my revealing dress to blend in with the nightlife of the red light district, promiscuity was not in my nature. But some part of me was tempted to hike the hem of my dress up a little bit for the man next to me.

Get a hold of yourself! I thought to myself.

"No," Noah replied, his eyes darting back to the road ahead.

"Didn't seem that way back at the bar," I muttered. "You were very quick to jump to my rescue."

"Only because the fight would have been unfair, and man shouldn't fight a woman unless he has good reason," Noah replied coolly.

"And you had good reason in the alleyway?" I said with equal calmness.

"You were interfering with my business," he retorted.

"And what business would that be?" I asked.

"None of your concern," he whispered.

We drove in silence for a while. The atmosphere between us was filled with tension and unease, neither of us willing to relax in front of the other.

"How do you know Atlas?" Noah said finally, most likely feeling the weight of the silence.

"That's none of your concern," I said, echoing his retort from earlier, "but if you must know, Atlas and I work together sometimes."

No matter the situation, I could not reveal my actual vocation to Noah. Whatever dealings he was involved in the outer city, he was still of the upper class.

His brow furrowed at my answer, seemingly unhappy with it.

"How about you?" I asked, thinking that perhaps we had some sort of common ground.

"Probably the same way that everyone knows that scoundrel," Noah said with a slight smirk. "He and I have been friends for years, not that it means much when it comes to business with him."

I snorted at his answer.

"That I agree with all too well," I said with a small smile. "There are certain times when that man is a friend and other times when he's just a nuisance."

Noah nodded in agreement.

"I have to ask," he said after another few moments of silence, "you seem like a decent person, so why do you do that sort of work?"

I scowled slightly, remembering that he still thought of me as a sex worker.

"I could ask the same of you: a decent looking man dressed all fancy and driving an expensive car," I said somewhat defensively. "What purpose could you have there on face value aside from wetting your wick or getting a high you can't find in the inner city?"

"Like I said before, family business," was his reply. "Would you mind telling me where I'm going? I'm not too familiar with this part of town."

I figured as much. The rich boy had probably never been this far out in the boonies before. No matter his status on the social ladder, he probably would have gotten carjacked showing up in my neck of the woods in a car like this.

"Turn left up this road here, then carry straight on through until Morweth's Pass," I directed him.

The car shuddered and hopped as the tires hit the uneven road, worn out by years of municipal neglect.

We were about halfway there when the car hit something hard on the road and the hood began to smoke.

"F*ck!" Noah hissed as the SUV came to a halt.

***

Noah POV

My first instinct was a flat tire due to the sorry state of the road. However, the smoke that rose from the hood suggested a different issue.

I got out of the car and tried to open the hood, but it seemed to be stuck. The damn car manufacturers began making their products' mechanisms more resilient due the strength of the average citizen, never mind an Alpha. The hood would need at least two people to open it.

"Need a hand?" the gorgeous Aria asked as she too stepped out of the vehicle.

Reluctant as I was to accept her help, male pride would not help us out of this situation. I nodded and allowed her some space next to me so that we both could get a good grip on the hood.

We managed to heave it open, causing a massive cloud of steam and smoke to erupt from the engine.

Raising her arms had caused Aria's dress to ride up, revealing the lower half of her perfectly shaped a*s. This woman was absolutely breathtaking, and indeed, I found my lungs begin to lose air. Desire rose within me and I looked at her not as a hooker, but as the sexy woman that had captured my eyes earlier in the night. She had luscious lips, alabaster legs, perfectly proportioned breasts—and eyes that beamed sexuality and confidence.

Not to mention how she had stood up to those thugs in the pub, prepared to fight her way out despite being outnumbered. And later how she was prepared to fight me despite me being an Alpha of superior strength.

I shook my head and focused on the overheated engine before she caught my eyes lusting over her beautiful form.

"Looks like the wiring short-circuited and caused the cooling system to overheat," I observed.

"Did your butler forget to take your car in to be serviced?" Aria asked teasingly.

I smiled slightly as she was not wrong. As busy as I was, I no longer had the time to see to my own vehicles as I would have preferred, which left me to rely on our family's aging and forgetful butler to do it for me.

"He's getting on in his years, so it's not entirely his fault," I said, taking the tool box from the back seat.

I got to work, which garnered a look of surprise from Aria.

"What," I inquired, "do you think a spoiled rich kid like me doesn't know how to do some things for himself?"

Aria looked down and brushed a lock of her black hair behind her ear. "Honestly I am impressed," she admitted.

She knelt next to me to lend me some assistance. Her proximity allowed me to almost taste her well-fragranced skin.

A bead of sweat formed on my brow, which had little to do with the heat of the engine.

"My dad taught me about cars and engines when I was a kid," I said, wondering why I was revealing that to this stranger all of a sudden. "Before he…before he began running the family like a business when my mother died."

"My dad taught me about cars too," Aria said softly. I could almost feel her sweet breath.

"He was a mechanic and needed help when he lost his arms in an accident. Unfortunately for him I wasn't very good at it, but we managed to get by with him directing me closely."

Her tone was softer and gentler than it had been during our last thirty minutes together. Less on guard, and more relaxed.

"Do you still help him?" I asked, trying to…no, wanting to keep the conversation going.

"He died when I was fourteen," she answered calmly. "Since then I…"

She caught herself mid-sentence, but I assumed that she was about to say since she began selling her body in the red light district. I knew that many started young, but fourteen seemed very young.

My heart ached slightly for the ordeals that the pristine woman before me had gone through, while I had grown up in the lap of luxury.

"I wasn't going to fight you back in the alleyway," I admitted to her. "I thought you'd just be scared off by me, but…you weren't. You stood your ground."

She looked down at me thoughtfully as I tinkered beneath the engine. I pretended to focus slowly on the task in front of me, but her eyes were too alluring to ignore.

"That should get us back on the road for a bit," I said after another few minutes, which we spent in silence. "Let's get you home so we can both get some rest."

***

"You never did tell me why you're acting as a chauffeur for Atlas," Aria said once the car had begun to move again.

I had no reason to tell her anything, but I had already revealed more about myself to this stranger than I had in the last few years to anyone else I had known all my life. My father had drilled it into me that information was a currency in this city, so you had to treat everything like a secret worth a mountain of gold.

However, talking to her, even if it was not much, felt so liberating. I wanted to…no…I needed to reveal more to her. Besides, it was likely that I would never see her again after this night.

"It was payment for his services," I said finally. "The man you were with tonight, he's an enemy of my pack and I asked Atlas to put feelers out for his whereabouts. Giving you a ride was his fee. He must think highly of you."

"Or he probably just wanted to mess with you," Aria said as she let out a small but cute yawn. "A high society guy like you giving a lift to a low-born like me? He must have thought the idea to be hilarious."

I had to agree with her there; Atlas had a twisted sense of humor.

The car finally pulled up in a rundown slum. The houses, if you could call them houses, were constructed so closely together that in the darkness of night they resembled a giant, misshapen building. The gravel streets were littered with trash: used needles and condoms, broken car parts and discarded furniture.

Along the edges of the road were small gatherings of people around drums used as makeshift fireplaces. It was probably warmer to be outside than inside.

"Looks like we're here," I muttered.

But the gorgeous woman beside me did not answer. I looked to my right and saw that she had fallen asleep.

Thinking that I should probably wake her and bring this night to an end as quickly as possible, I reached over to touch her arm but paused.

The clouds had shifted and allowed the silver moonlight to bathe her skin in its glow. Not for the first time this evening, I found myself once again staring in awe at her beauty, only this time I did not have to fear her catching my gaze.

A few minutes flew by—I couldn't tell how many—and now I did not want this night to end. I could spend all of eternity gazing at what could aptly be described as a goddess incarnate.

Aria suddenly stirred and I snapped my head back to the front.

"Sorry," she muttered groggily, "must've dozed off."

She looked outside and appeared to recognize her home.

"Looks like this is it," she said.

Aria tried to undo her seatbelt, but the button was jammed.

"Sorry," I said, reaching over to help her shimmy it loose. "Expensive car, but it still has problems."

Perhaps I had subconsciously willed it to happen, or maybe it was a pure accident, but as I reached over my lips brushed gently against her cheek.

Aria instinctively turned her head, and our lips hovered with barely a wisp of air between them.

My breath turned heavy as we drew closer together.