by Lexi C. Foss
“Aflora, you have three seconds before I remove you, and you’re not going to like how I do it,” he warned.
I yawned. “Do your worst, Teach.” Probably not the wisest move to goad my instructor, but he didn’t scare me. Maybe I’d adopted too carefree an attitude while attending the Academy. My life was still very much in danger, and I took that seriously—hence my endless study hours—yet I had to let go sometimes. And for whatever reason, those times seemed to occur when around Zeph.
And in my dreams with Kols and Shade.
These three men left me—
“Oof,” I breathed as my back hit the sparring mat and Zeph sprawled out on top of me, locking my wrists over my head.
I hadn’t even felt him move, just suddenly went airborne as he spun me around in a move that should not have been possible.
“Brat,” he muttered, his hips pinning mine to the floor.
“Maybe,” I managed to say, the word coming out on a winded exhale, thanks to the roughness of my landing. “But I got you”—I inhaled sharply to replenish my lungs—“on the floor.”
His irises swirled with dark green, reminding me of the lush forests back home. I nearly sighed, loving that smoldering look and longing to see a real tree again. The dark magic continued to grow while my access to my primary gift remained just out of reach, although lately I’d felt it flaring on occasion, as if begging me to connect to the source.
Kols told me last week that he’d met with Exos while on a break day and learned that Sol had taken up the mantle of managing the source for me in my absence.
I was both pleased and saddened by that news. Pleased because the male I loved like a brother needed to embrace his earth more, and I’d finally provided him with the push he required to do so. But the act saddened me as well because it meant the Elemental Earth Fae were seeking a way to survive without me.
It was the right thing to do. I couldn’t lead them as an abomination. Yet that didn’t stop me from wanting to try.
Kols believed I grew up with my Quandary Blood powers and that Shade’s bite had just provided me with an excuse to access them. Or perhaps my presence at the Academy was what had truly awakened them.
Except I’d used them before when I stopped Elana.
“What put that puzzling look in your eyes?” Zeph asked, reminding me of his presence on top of me. Not that I’d forgotten. His woodsy scent and hard, masculine body were difficult to ignore.
“Nothing.”
“Don’t lie to me.”
I gave him a look. “Because you never lie to me?”
He actually appeared affronted by the statement. “Actually, I haven’t. Everything I’ve told you from the beginning has been truthful. We both know you’re not going to survive here. It’s just a matter of time. It makes my efforts futile, but at least I tried.”
I laughed humorously. “You really have a way with words, Zeph.” However, he was right. He always spoke his mind around me, never avoiding the truth. That didn’t mean I could trust him, but I could at least rely on him to give it to me straight.
“You’re avoiding my question. What were you thinking about?”
“Why do you want to know?” I countered.
“Humor me.”
I suspected he meant that literally, as he often found entertainment in my comments. This would no doubt be the same. “I was thinking about Sol taking control of the earth source and how I’m happy for him but sad for me. As an abomination, I can’t properly lead my people, no matter how badly I may want to.”
Zeph considered me for a long moment and released my wrists to balance himself on his elbows on either side of my head. It effectively caged me beneath him in a decidedly intimate manner that he didn’t seem to notice. “Do you know why abominations are killed on sight?”
“Yes. They’re evil.”
He arched a brow. “Are they?” he asked softly, his gaze dropping to my lips. “Are you evil, Aflora? Or have our Councils trained us to fear what we don’t understand?”
I swallowed, the warmth from his body seeping into mine, bringing us closer with each breath. A forbidden desire to kiss him entered my thoughts even while I considered his words. “I don’t feel evil,” I whispered.
“I don’t think you’re evil either,” he agreed, his voice just as quiet, our conversation one we shouldn’t be having. “I believe abominations are destroyed because our Councils fear their power. They claim it will disturb the source balance, but I think what they really mean is that it will disturb their balance.”
“Why are you telling me this?” I asked as his eyes met mine once more.
“I don’t know.” He started playing with a loose strand of my dark hair, his long finger coiling it around the end. “Something about you makes me want to protect you. I keep fighting the instinct, yet you pull me right back in. It’s a puzzle I can’t solve, but I suspect it’s linked to your power. Quandary Bloods are considered the most lethal of our kind. Yet, again, I wonder if that label was created by the Council out of fear, not practicality.”
He pressed his forehead to mine, inhaling deep and sighing against my lips.
“You’re improving admirably,” he added, his words nearly silent. Then he fractured the moment by rolling off of me and landing deftly on his feet in one of his expert moves. “Class dismissed, Aflora. I’ll see you in a few days.”
My heart pounded in my chest as he walked away, my breathing ragged from both his words and his nearness.
If my power doesn’t kill me, these males will, I thought, unable to move. I felt hot and cold and so incredibly turned on.
And my dreams tonight would only make it worse.
Chapter Twenty-One
Zeph
Thank fuck for days off from class.
I had three days—technically, three and a half since I dismissed Aflora early—to work off this intense need throbbing inside me.
Every damn time I closed my eyes, I pictured Aflora beneath me, writhing on the sparring mat, or my bed, or against the damn wall, all the while moaning my name.
This mounting desire to fuck her was a problem. I nearly acted on it today, my dick rock hard as I pinned her to the floor. Talking had been the only way to remain focused and keep from doing something colossally stupid.
Glaring at my reflection in the mirror, I took in the dark hollows beneath my eyes and the stubble already growing against my jaw. It seemed that no matter how often I shaved, that perpetual shadow existed. One of these days, I’d just stop and let the beard come.
Maybe.
“Fuck,” I muttered.
What I really needed was blood. The supplements on campus were enough to keep a Midnight Fae going, but nothing compared to a fresh human vein. I’d spent the last month and a half living on the shitty substitute because I didn’t feel like fucking around.
Tonight, that would change.
A hot vein and a warm, slick cunt were on the menu.
Because I needed to fuck before I did something I’d regret—like go next door, strip Aflora, and take my fill of her.
The damn female had gotten under my skin in the worst way. All these one-on-one sessions only made it worse. I had my hands all over her daily, memorizing her curves and feeling her body quiver against mine.
She read like an open book. It’d be so easy to take her. She wore her interest in her eyes. Not to mention the floral perfume of her arousal, which seemed to be a constant aphrodisiac between us these days.
New plan, I decided, ripping off my shirt and removing the jeans I’d just put on.
If I went to the Human Realm in this shape, I’d last all of a few seconds inside a woman. Especially if I found one that resembled Aflora.
I turned the water on in the shower, gave it about two seconds to heat up, and stepped beneath the cool spray with my arm braced against the marble tile. No amount of jacking off was going to fix this growing obsession. But it would prepare me properly for tonight, then I’d fuck Aflora out of my system.
And think of her the entire time.
It was so wrong, which only made this indulgence more right.
“Fuck,” I cursed again, my head falling to my forearm as I gripped my shaft with my opposite hand.
I’d been hard since I set foot inside the gym. Aflora had pulled all that gorgeous hair up into a ponytail, just like she always did. It elicited all sorts of fantasies every time. I wanted to grab hold of all that hair and jerk her head to the side to trail my lips up the column of her neck and nibble her sweet flesh. Mmm, then I’d use my grip to guide her down to her knees and drive myself deep into—
“Hey, Aflora said you cut your session short. Did her magic...?” Kols trailed off as he entered the bathroom, my walk-in shower wide open in an unintended invitation because I hadn’t bothered to close any doors. His attention shifted to my hand and the angry hold I had on my cock, his eyes heating at the sight. “Oh.”
A single sentiment, filled with understanding.
I stroked myself while he watched, an entire history of intimacy sparking between us in the flash of a second. This intensity between us only grew over the years, blinding us to our actions and how they impacted others.
Now was no different.
I knew I shouldn’t.
I knew giving in to this impulse would be a mistake.
Yet I couldn’t deny the flaring of his pupils or the sharp intake of breath as his arousal quickly caught up to mine.
He wanted me like he always did.
And right now, I was too far gone to fight it.
I shoved away from the marble, took hold of his nape, and yanked him into the shower. He grunted as his back hit the wall, his gold irises on fire as he boldly met my gaze. I took his mouth in a punishing kiss meant to draw blood, and he gave it back in kind, his palm grasping the back of my neck and squeezing as he fought my dominance with his own.
He’d lose.
We both knew it.
But part of the allure between us was the battle each time we fucked.
I released his nape to grab his shirt, the buttons tearing beneath my hand as I wrenched the fabric away from his chest. He growled. I snarled. And his shirt fell in tatters to the floor of the shower.
He kicked off his shoes, the leather ruined from the water. His pants and boxers soon followed, leaving us naked and panting against each other. “Tell me about the dreams,” I demanded. “Because I know you’ve been in her head every night.”
Kols arched into my palm as I grabbed his dick, his breath shuddering over my lips. “Not every night,” he replied. “Just most of them.”
“What does she do? How have you fucked her? I want details. All of them.” I tightened my grip, giving him a firm, harsh stroke to underline my demand.
“Fuck, Zeph.”
“That’s the idea,” I replied, pressing my forehead to his. “Tell me what she likes.”
“She likes everything,” Kols panted, his back bowing off the wall. “I’ve had her so many different ways over the last month, and she loves all of it. Sometimes she even takes control, allowing me into her fantasies. Yet she has no idea that I know or that it’s all a mutual exchange. She thinks she’s using me against Shade to kick him out of her head to indulge in her own desires.”
“Mmm, if that were true, then I’d be there, too.” Because I knew she wanted me, had seen the glimmer of interest countless times in her beautiful blue eyes.
“I think she’s tried, but I’m always the one available,” he admitted. “She fucking keeps me up at all hours with my hand on my cock, stroking endlessly until she’s satisfied.”
“Do you come?” I asked him, our eyes locked together.
“Every time.”
“Do you imagine her coming over to lick you clean afterward?”
“Yes.”
“Which makes you come again.” It wasn’t a question but a statement. Because I knew Kols. We both were drinking blood supplements because we hadn’t fed properly in ages. And it was all Aflora’s fault. Her fucking enchantment, her allure, her sweet floral scent. “She’s driving me mad.”
“I know.”
“Tell me about the dreams,” I said again, wrapping my fist around both our cocks and stroking them together. “I want the details, Kols. Tell me how she tastes, how she screams, her favorite position. How does she like to be fucked?”
He swallowed roughly, his palm still on the back of my neck, his opposite hand on my arm as if he wanted to help me guide the pace below. I thrived on control, and so did he. Poor Aflora would be helpless between us, our needs dictating her every move.
And she’d fucking love it.
We’d make sure of it.
“She sucks cock like a queen,” Kols said, his head hitting the shower wall as I squeezed our shafts together on a violent upward twist of my wrist. “I haven’t taken her ass yet, but I want to. She looks amazing on all fours and cries out when I fuck her from behind. Shit, she’s insatiable, Zeph. I can take her for hours, at least in her mind. I made her come four times against my tongue the other night, and she orgasmed a fifth time around my dick only minutes later.”
I released a harsh breath, my hand moving faster. “She’d fit perfectly between us.”
“I know. Trust me, I know.” He bucked into my palm, his eyes falling closed. “But it’s never going to happen. She’s unattainable.”
My dick throbbed with his words, which was entirely the point.
He knew how to spur me on.
Just as I knew how to ramp him up.
“If she were here, I’d command her to kneel and watch us play,” I told him, my wrist twisting once more. “Then I’d make her lick us clean when we finished.”
Kols cursed, his exhale sharp and heated. “Would you let her come?”
“I’d make her come,” I replied. “But I’d tell her to do it herself. She hasn’t earned our mouths. Not yet.”
“Because she’s forbidden.”
“She’s a disobedient brat.”
“Who is also completely out of our reach,” he added, his taunt sending a hot jolt of lust down my spine. “She’s dangerous, Zeph. A toy we’re not meant to touch.”
“I know.”
“Walking down that path would be akin to flirting with death,” he continued, stoking my flame even higher. “She’s the most complicated challenge we’ve ever met.”
“I know,” I repeated, my forehead falling to his. “Fuck, I know.”
“We can’t have her, Zeph.”
I growled at his declaration, prepared to fight.
He grabbed my shoulders to shove me up against the other wall, reading my cues as he always did. And I took hold of him to push him back, my grip on us relentless. “You’re going to come all over my hand. Then you’re going to lick it off.”
“Fuck you.”
“Not today,” I replied with a sharp yank, eliciting a guttural sound from him. I’d let him take me once, after a long quarrel that equated to savage foreplay. But it was almost always the other way around.
“You’re killing me,” he groaned, shoving me backward once more.
I grunted as I hit the wall, then spun us around to place his back to the hard surface, keeping my chest pressed against his.
He growled. “You’re in a fucking mood.”
“I didn’t ask you to join me,” I said, my lips falling to the corded muscle along his neck to skim his pulse.
“No, you grabbed me and ripped off my clothes.”
“You knew I was in the shower,” I whispered darkly. “You could hear it.”
“I didn’t expect the door to be wide open.”
“I didn’t expect you to barge into my suite, but here we are.” I ran my tongue over his raging pulse, felt his dick respond with a throb against my palm. “This is what you wanted, right? To fuck around?” It was what we both needed. All because of her.
He grabbed my hip with one hand, his opposite palm still around my nape in an assertion of false control. We bo
th knew who was alpha between us. He just liked to fight it. And I loved that he did.
“She screams when she comes,” he whispered, arching into my touch. “It’s the most beautiful sound. I listen for it every night, knowing her fingers are buried deep in her pussy, and each time, I imagine my cock taking her deep while you drive into her ass.” He hissed out a breath as I squeezed in response to the vivid vision painting my mind from his words. “Fuck, Zeph, she’d make the most arousing noises just for us.”
I pictured it perfectly, us driving into her from two different angles and taking her to new heights of pleasure, all the while teasing and taunting and making her beg for more. More images flashed through my mind of her on her knees sucking Kols off, my hand in her hair to dictate the pace. Kols going down on her after I’ve fucked her, my cum on his tongue mingling with her fresh arousal. Aflora licking him clean after he blew his load all over my abdomen, like he was about to do now.
His forehead hit my shoulder, my lips still near his pulse. “Do it.”
“You haven’t fed recently,” I replied, my breath ragged from my hand and our discussion.
“I’m fine. Fucking do it.”
My incisors ached at the prospect, Kols’s bloodline an aphrodisiac to my senses. As his pledged Guardian for life, I could drink from him without worrying about the mating link snapping into place, because we were already bonded in a different way. I pledged my fealty to him nearly a decade ago, sealing our fates.
That was what marked this assignment as temporary.
No one could protect Kols like I could.
We were literally linked in an ancient ceremony very few knew about outside of his esteemed lineage.
“Now, Zeph,” he demanded, his voice hoarse with the strain of his impending climax.
I sent him over the edge by biting down hard on his neck and piercing his vein. His power flowed into my mouth on a wave of molten energy that revitalized my connection to the dark arts in an instant and shot me into oblivion with him.
Our groans reverberated around the marble walls of my shower, his seed mingling with mine against our abdomens and coating us in the forbidden lust that constantly brewed between us.