School of Broken Hearts: Academy of Souls Book 2

by C. R. Jane

  His hand combs through my hair. “I couldn’t bare it if anything happened to you.”

  “It almost seems like you like me,” I tease, trying to lighten the mood, and not enjoying being reprimanded when I have no clue what I’m meant to be wary of in the woods. Surely there aren’t monstrous wolves everywhere. I would have heard about that at some point in my life.

  “You couldn’t begin to understand what effect you have on me.” His eyes seem to glaze over, almost glowing in the dark.

  I feel something between us… an energy that rises and pushes against me like an invisible gale. His fingers around me tighten, press into my skin.

  “Professor…”

  He cuts me off. “Braxton. Call me Braxton.”

  “Braxton, you look different tonight.” I tilt my head left and right. “It’s your eyes, they’re brighter, just like Mr. Dusk’s were.” My mouth drops open. “I remember something,” I blurt out. “He was in the woods with me, towered over me, and pushed himself on me.” I tremble as the snippet of memory fades in and out of my mind like me trying to hold jelly in my hand as it slips through my fingers.

  “He won’t touch you again,” Braxton snarls. “None of them will if I have my way.”

  I stare at him, trying to decipher his words, figuring he has to be talking about Alexander as well.

  “But none of that matters now. I need to take you back.” His hand falls into mine and we’re strolling again.

  “Why do you hate Alexander?” I ask, tired of tip toeing around everyone and needing to finally get some answers.

  “I don’t hate him, I disapprove of his choices, his behavior, his arrogance. He’s a child,” he snarls, and I roll my eyes. Sure, he doesn’t hate the guy.

  Pulling my hand from Braxton’s grip, I halt. “I’m the same age as him. Does that make me a child too?”

  He sighs, standing with his back to me. “That’s not what I mean, and you know it.”

  “Alexander knows what he wants, and he takes it. All you do is reprimand me. Remind me of what’s wrong, what’s right, then push me away.”

  He turns around, his posture curling forward, anger clear on his face. “What do you want from me?” That gorgeous mouth twists into a snarl.

  Sucking down a breath, I don’t back down. I chew on my lower lip. His gaze is on my mouth, falling… falling deeper into his own thoughts.

  “I want you to show me what you really want.” I hold onto the bravery that seems to have come out of nowhere.

  His gaze crawls over me, but in this darkness, I can’t see if his eyes trail over my face or my boobs or lower. And there’s something dangerously sexy about the unknown, leaving me utterly breathless.

  A little voice in my head reminds me he’s a teacher… my teacher, but since we first met, I’ve fallen head over heels for him. Maybe it’s being at a camp, maybe it’s him dressed in casual clothes, maybe it’s the fogginess in my head, but I can’t seem to shut my mouth.

  “Did our kiss mean anything to you?”

  He exhales loudly, and his posture changes, shaking off the stiff teacher guise, and who stands before me is a man with a different kind of confidence, with darkness in his sight. “Is this what you want?” He closes the distance between us in two easy strides, and he grips my arms roughly. “For me to force you? To tell you I can’t stop thinking about you when I jerk off?” He walks me backward so subtly; my legs move in perfect rhythm to his until my back hits a tree.

  Without ceremony, his hands wrap around my waist and he lifts me off the ground, and I wrap my legs around his hips. “Is this what you want?” the Professor snarls.

  I’m trembling in his arms, body on fire from being so close, so intimate, and finding my words seem an impossibility.

  His mouth brushes over mine at once. I coil myself around him, embracing his neck, kissing him back harder. He drags his tongue over the seam of my lips as his hands cup my ass, and a moan escapes my throat. When he plunges his tongue into my mouth, I take him in, tasting him, and losing all control. My mind floats on clouds, and I whimper with need.

  He presses the erection in his jeans against the core between my thighs, rubbing himself, and I groan in his mouth, completely lost. My hips rock back and forth, the friction swooping me dangerously fast to the edge of the precipice.

  “Braxton,” I exhale in his mouth, the heat inside me building with urgency.

  He kisses me harder, grinding into me, and I can barely breathe. But I don’t care, not when I’m about to explode from the most ridiculously best kiss in the world. Desire slams into me so fast, I shudder in Braxton’s arms, and groan louder against his mouth.

  Everything moves too fast, my body pulsing, the world around me seemingly fades. When the edges of my eyes darken, the night swallows me, I let myself fall under Braxton’s spell until the fog in my head takes me completely.

  I wake with a start in my bed in the cabin, a loud moan in my throat, my body buzzing. I try to remember what happened last night. I was supposed to meet up with Alexander and then somehow, I had been with someone else, and then Braxton. I remember kissing him...My face flushes even though there’s no one here to see me... but I don’t remember what happened after that.

  A pillow is thrown in my face, and reality slaps me back to reality. I shove the pillow aside as exhaustion threads through me like I’ve been running a marathon.

  Mercy’s head pops down from the top bunk. “I swear if you keep moaning in your sleep, you’re sleeping outside. What the hell were you dreaming about? Having sex all night long?”

  A sudden fire clings to my cheeks. “What are you talking about?”

  She rolls her eyes and pulls back into her bed above me. “Yep, you were so getting bonked in your sleep.”

  My head is spinning with the last thing I remember is Braxton in the woods and… His kiss bringing me to orgasm. Just thinking about him again fills me with desire, awaking the heat from last night. But did I pass out afterward?

  I glance around the room, and everyone’s sleeping, their light snores and heavy breaths filling the room. Pushing the curtain aside, the sun is peeking out over the horizon, throwing a rainbow of reds over the darkened woodland.

  “Mercy, you awake?”

  “Am now,” she grumbles.

  “I’m coming up there.” I draw the blankets off to find myself still in my clothes I had worn to sneak out in.

  “What for?”

  I scramble up the tiny ladder at the end of the bed to find her staring at me with curiosity.

  “Move over.”

  She eyes me up and down. “You didn’t even get changed last night?”

  “Just move over.”

  She pulls back her blanket, and I slide in next to her, both of us facing each other so neither falls out of bed.

  “What’s going on that you have to squish me?” She breaks into a yawn.

  I take a deep inhale and lower my voice. “Can someone pass out from having an orgasm?”

  Mercy’s eyes grow into enormous orbs, her mouth falling open. “Sweet Jesus. Who was it?”

  “Keep your voice down,” I mumble. “It’s just a hypothetical question.” Though I can’t think of any other reason I can’t remember a single thing after rubbing myself against Braxton like a dog in heat. I can never face him again.

  “Alexander?”

  I shake my head. “I never actually met up with him.”

  “Was it Liam?”

  “Eww. How can you even think that?”

  She nods. “Okay, didn’t think so, but had to check. So, it had to be one of your four lovers, or Connor. Though I didn’t see him around last night. But your sex-exepade definitely took place somewhere in the woods since you ended up here with your clothes intact.”

  “Focus on my question,” I remind her.

  “Right, right.” She’s propped up on an elbow, poking her chin in thought. “Let’s ask Google.”

  “You sure?”

  “She pulls a phone out fr
om under her pillow and starts typing. Can you die from an orgasm?

  “That’s not what I asked.”

  She deletes and types again. Can you pass out from an orgasm? “Okay. Was he buttering the muffin? Fanning the fur? Dialing the rotary phone?”

  I squint, completely lost. “What?”

  “What was he doing to you? Did he use his hand, his mouth, his toe, his dick?”

  “Our clothes stayed on. Wait, his toe?”

  She shrugs. “Some people like that weird shit. Foot fetish and all.”

  “Definitely no toe action,” I murmur.

  “Okay, clothes stayed on. Means he must have been good, or you’re just easy to get off.”

  I ignore her as her thumbs fly over the tiny keyboard on the phone. Can you have an orgasm without touching involved.

  “There was touching. We mainly kissed… and stuff.”

  She huffs. “Girl, if you’re going to hold out on me, I can’t help you. What stuff.”

  “I don’t see what this has to do with finding an answer.” I eye her suspiciously.

  “It matters. What if you were in doggie style and he was shoving your head into a tree, girl you’d have a concussion.”

  “Shh,” I shove my hand over mouth and glance around to see now one was woken up yet. “If that happened, I would have known why I passed out.”

  “Well?”

  I bury my face in the pillow. “We rubbed each other with our clothes still on.”

  “You’re muffling, I can’t hear you.”

  Gah. I turn my head. “Fine. We dry humped, you happy now?”

  Her mouth spreads into a smile, nodding. “And you came from just that?”

  I grab the pillow and whack it into her head. “You’re not even trying to help; you’re just trying to find out the gossip.”

  Mercy is giggling, half leaning against the window to escape my amazing pillow hitting abilities. “So, you going to tell me who it was?”

  “Nope.” I start crawling out of her bed.

  “You know I’m going to make it my mission to find out who this amazing lover is.”

  I laugh. “Good luck.” She won’t guess it’s Braxton in a million years. I crawl back into my bed as exhaustion wracks through me, and pull the blanket over me, closing my eyes. A couple more hours of sleep might help me remember the night better.

  Chapter 13

  I wake up late. As soon as I do, I know that I’ve missed the wakeup call for the hike and the cabin is empty. I scramble out of bed and check the top bunk. Mercy’s gone too, which is surprising because she loves her sleep and if I was allowed to miss the hike, I’m sure she would have tried to get out of it as well.

  Maybe the lure of nature was too much for her to pass up.

  When I try to think of last night, I remember being with Braxton, but everything else is a shadow of a memory that flickers briefly, then it’s gone just as soon as I start to look closer.

  Since the cabin is empty, I go ahead and get dressed without walking to the bathrooms, slipping on a bathing suit so that I don’t have to return to the cabin right away. I’m a little disappointed that I missed the hike as I had never been on one in the mountains before, but I guess that it serves me right staying out so late.

  I stumble to the bathroom to wash my face. Looking in the mirror, I almost scream when I see how pale and sickly I look. Evidently, I really need to work on my beauty sleep. No more sneaking out at night. I wash my face and pinch my cheeks afterwards, trying to bring some color to them. It seems like I should probably take advantage of the sun while my classmates are gone.

  When I finally feel like I look less like a character from the Walking Dead, and more like a teenage girl, I step out of the bathroom, jumping when I see Alexander leaning against a tree right outside.

  “Easy there,” he says with a smirk, the glimmer in his eyes showing how much he likes the fact that he is always catching me off guard.

  “I didn’t expect to see you here,” I say, starting to walk down to the lake.

  “I guess you wouldn’t after you ditched me last night,” he replies, a thread of anger creeping into his voice.

  I cringe, remembering whose arms I ended up in last night. I turn to him, hoping that my face isn’t as easy to see through as it feels. “I went to the wrong dock,” I admit to him, even as my brain tries to work through again how I ended up with Braxton.

  Alexander doesn’t look like he believes me. “What do you mean you went to the wrong dock, there’s only one dock right by your cabin?” he says gesturing to the dock we’re heading towards right now.

  I flush. “I may or may not have thought that you wanted me to meet you by the docks by your cabin.”

  His eyes widen. “Fuck Adeline. You walked through the woods last night alone? Why didn’t you stop by our cabin to tell one of the guys when I wasn’t there?”

  “I never made it to the docks,” I tell him, beginning to speed walk to the dock so I can lay out and maybe stop this conversation.

  He grabs my arm. “What does that mean?” he barks.

  I stop and sigh. “Look, I’m not exactly sure what happened last night. At some point I ended up with Professor London, but before that...I have no idea what I did.”

  Alexander looks furious. “You ended up with Professor London...and you don’t remember anything?” he responds coldly.

  “Look, I’m exhausted. As much as I would love to hash this out with you, I really want to go take advantage of the dock before everyone comes back. I have a splitting headache and I feel like I have a really bad hangover despite the fact that I know I didn’t drink anything last night. Is it too much to ask that we just hang out without all the drama...just for one day?” I plead with him.

  Alexander’s silent for a moment. His face still looks like he’s about to have a coronary, but at least he’s not yelling at me or lecturing me. He takes a deep breath and then brushes his hair out of his face. He holds out his hand to me. “Let’s go lay out and get you feeling better,” he says to me gently, and for some reason, the way he says it makes me want to cry.

  We walk to the dock hand in hand and Alexander spreads out some towels for us that are in a towel bin on the dock. The day passes slowly...and perfectly with us laying out, dipping in the water when we’re too hot, and eating snacks that Alexander got the camp cooks to bring us. It’s one of those days that I know I will remember for the rest of my life. I just want it to last forever. There’s the occasional kiss between us but most of the day is spent with us lazily holding hands. There’s no pressure for anything else to happen even if there’s no one else around. And honestly, it’s just what I need.

  The hike must have been pretty long because it’s not until late afternoon that the rest of the students come trudging back into camp. Mercy sees us and comes to the dock, collapsing dramatically at our feet when she reaches us. “I can’t believe I was just tortured for eight hours. I never would have come if I had known that they were going to have us hike five miles up a mountain and then five miles down the mountain. I can’t feel parts of my body. I think I’m dying,” she moans dramatically.

  I pat her head sympathetically while Alexander and I exchange grins. I’m feeling much better about the fact that I missed the hike. I’m all for exploring nature but ten miles...that doesn’t sound fun.

  “I don’t know how I’m going to recover in time for Nyx’s party tonight,” she continues while she flops around on the dock.

  I remembered at that moment what Nyx had said about throwing a huge party at the campout every year. We only had two nights left so I guess it made sense that it would be tonight.

  Alexander sits up and stretches, drawing my attention to his way too perfect abs. He smirks when he sees me looking at him. “Actually Mercy, we aren’t having the party this year,” he says casually. I watch as Mercy dons a devastated expression.

  “What! I’ve been told this is the party of the year. Why in the hell would you cancel it when I actually ge
t to go,” she says furiously.

  Nyx and Finn walk up at that moment, both of them not looking like they exercised at all. They could have been walking back from a day at the spa for how relaxed they look. “We decided it would be more fun to have a more personal party with Adi tonight,” says Nyx with a naughty grin.

  I flush fifty shades of red, my mind going to a lot of places it shouldn’t.

  “You’re not throwing the party so that you can have a personal sex party with Adi?” Mercy asks, a lecherous grin on her face at the idea.

  I throw a floatie at her. “There will be no sex parties happening tonight,” I tell her, even as my whole body flushes further.

  “I’m sure you’ll survive, Mercy. Night 2 is the night where all the guys and girls get together for their private parties anyway if Nyx doesn’t throw a party. I’m sure you and Dixon can find something to do,” teases Finn, waggling his eyebrows up and down.

  Mercy seems to perk up at that thought and she’s immediately on her feet, not looking tired at all anymore. “Where are you going?” I ask her.

  “I have to start getting ready,” she says anxiously as she begins to walk away. “I’ve got to look good tonight.”

  I watch her as she hustles back to our cabin, laughing at how ridiculous she is.

  Everyone is silent for a moment. I look at the three of them, trying to read what they’re thinking.

  “Are we really getting together tonight? Just the five of us?” I ask timidly.

  Finn comes up and sits next to me, seeming not to care about the fact that I’m still soaked from getting out of the lake right before they showed up. He gently strokes my arm, smiling when he sees goosebumps spring up in the wake of his touch.

  “What time should I come over?” I ask a little breathlessly thinking that maybe I should follow Mercy’s lead and go get into something more presentable.

  “I’ll pick you up thirty minutes after curfew,” Alexander says, and I give a little sigh of relief knowing there’s no way I was going to walk alone again to try and meet them.