by Lina Jubilee
His irises flew upward and made another wild, quick movement when they rested on my bottom lip between my teeth.
Note to self: Biting lips drives Jayden wild.
He coughed and focused pointedly on the screen. “Tell me about this king, then.”
I did, giving him the name, explaining how he’d happened upon us—giving Alanna credit for saving me and adding my theory that maybe the elves really did try not to hurt anyone—and told him as much as I could think of. Alarik and Alanna alike being overly curious about my powers and whether or not I could still use them—which I’d only figured out later on had to have been because they’d thought I might have lost them. And how Alarik himself and perhaps half the battalion had lost their ability to produce those vines, I presumed because of proximity to Alanna.
I left out all hints of Alarik’s rather overt interest in me for reasons beyond my powers. At least, I thought I wasn’t imagining that. I did tell him Alarik had grabbed me by the arm with the seeming of intent of taking me somewhere—probably back to his home on the other side of those portals.
“Why?” asked Jayden, leaning back in his chair. He grabbed a pen off the desk and put the cap between his lips, spinning the writing utensil slowly between his upper and bottom teeth. Jayden did sometimes have an oral fixation like that.
I wondered if his oral fixation translated to oral talents in other spheres.
If he had a sexual partner anywhere, he was damn good at keeping that little secret. I knew for a fact he hadn’t slept with anyone in Veras, and he really was almost never elsewhere without a member of his team beside him.
I wondered how he kept his urges in check for that long—it’d been years. I’d have collapsed from desire onto my bed, my hands running up and down between my thighs as thoughts of Jayden’s tongue in their place overwhelmed me.
I’d done that more than a few times, even with regular doses of Nash inside me. And fucking Nash was no chore, believe me.
“Aurora?” called Jayden. I snapped back to the moment, clutching the corner of the table harder, and I realized I’d been standing on my toes and biting my lips again, thinking about pleasuring myself to the new memories I had of him changing this morning.
I blew out a breath. “I don’t know. To see if my powers were indeed gone? They seemed unsure whether or not this princess’ nullification power would work on a human. On a Natch.”
A flash of panic drove across Jayden’s face. “But they didn’t know what your particular powers were,” he said. “They just happened upon a Natch and would have taken whoever it was for their experimentation, correct?”
I nodded, though I couldn’t say for sure that the second part was true. Maybe their evil king was a huge flirt and would have touched any woman that way. Would have looked at any woman as if he wanted to possess her, as if he wholeheartedly desired her.
Shivering again, I moved around the table to get a better look at what Jayden had entered into his computer.
Coughing, Jayden moved his head slightly so my breasts wouldn’t flush up against his head. It hadn’t been my intention, but damn if I weren’t disappointed he’d noticed and made efforts to keep the contact from occurring.
“Is this accurate?” he asked, his eyes so focused on the screen, they didn’t even blink. “Anything else to add? Anything at all. Any detail could prove important.”
I opened my mouth, about to tell him about Alarik’s flirtations, but I didn’t want that hanging between us. There was already Nash and… He-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Thought-Of-By-Name between us. There was already his stubborn desire to remain my “mentor,” as if he’d raised me himself instead of meeting me at eighteen. Besides, the king couldn’t have meant much by it. He’d just been trying to catch me off-guard. I nodded. “Looks good.”
Jayden’s eyes rested a moment on my cleavage before he shoved his chair back from the desk and stood, closing the laptop screen with such speed, I practically had to jump back to get out of his way. “I’ll discuss this with Wade and he can add his theories to his algorithm. When the team arrives home, we’ll have a quick debriefing and update them. There’s still the matter of Zander and the Renegades’ activity today to go over, too.” He winced after he said that, his best-friend-turned-enemy probably messing with his mind at the sound of his name.
Did he really have nothing better to do than sit there and think about me and Jayden, hoping to catch one of us thinking a stray thought about him?
“You’d be surprised how often that works,” said Zander over the bond. “The both of you—you can’t get me out of your head. I’m flattered, but it can be exhausting.”
I sent daggers over the bond, hoping he’d take a hint.
Jayden was already brushing past me, nodding his excuses, the laptop tucked under his arm.
He stopped halfway to the door. “Aurora, when was your last period?”
That was like a splash of cold water to the face. “What?”
He spun on his heel and pushed the bridge of his glasses up his nose. “Your last period. Fertility increases at the midway point of the cycle—”
“I know. I’m not a prepubescent girl who’s yet to have a health class.” I wrapped my arms around myself, both intentionally and unintentionally causing my breasts to jut out more. “You know I can’t have a baby. Wade told me as much—it’s been proven time and time again.” Wincing, I bit my lip again, cursing myself for reminding him I’d had plenty of unprotected sex with Nash—neither of us slept with anyone else, despite the open relationship—and had never even had a close call. “Wade said the energy there—inside me, in my uterus or wherever it’s strongest—it can’t sustain a fertilized egg. That it just vaporizes whatever sperm are in there.” I felt a little sick, like I was talking about this kind of stuff with my dad.
Damn it, don’t think of him as your dad—that’s what he wants you to do. That’s why he won’t fuck you.
“I know, but…” He tapped the laptop under his other arm, his eyes flitting toward me and then quickly over my shoulder to the bird’s nest outside. “You didn’t have your powers when you had sex with Nash today.”
Oh, god, did this feel weird talking to him about it. It didn’t feel weird to talk to Wade or Roulette about it—he was a detached scientist and she was one of my best friends. But I did not want to talk to Jayden about fucking Nash, even if Jayden had walked in on us today, even if that was far from the first time.
My mouth opened and a strangled noise came out as my palm went instinctively to my abdomen. Impossible. “I, uh—I just finished it,” I said, clearing my throat. “So I should be the least fertile in the cycle.”
He nodded. “I recommend getting Plan B anyway,” he said. “Just to be sure. You and Roulette can have a few hours or…”
I nodded, chewing the inside of my cheek.
He fiddled with the bridge of his glasses again. “Unless you want to have a child right now… with Nash…” His voice went quiet.
I shook my head, but it was slow, detached, like I was observing someone else doing it. I’d long ago accepted I wasn’t having a child—it hadn’t even bothered me because I’d no interest in being a mother when I believed wholeheartedly in giving my all to the team. But I’d so long ago written it off as not happening, that it felt strange—scary—to think otherwise.
Though not only frightening. A little… a little wondrous, too.
“But my powers are back,” I said. “Wouldn’t they neutralize whatever’s potentially going on?” I gestured to my abdomen.
“Maybe,” said Jayden. “It’s something to run by Wade. But just to be sure.” He nodded. I nodded. Damn it, if things weren’t awkward. He left the office then, his footsteps echoing down the hallway.
After a moment, I went to follow him, but my hand lingered on the door, my gaze darting to the bookshelf where Zander had first dug his hands into my pants.
“Want to reenact that, darlin’?” Zane’s projected form appeared at my side and I startled,
then I laughed—only there wasn’t any humor in that laugh. Only weariness.
I shut Jayden’s office door closed in front of me. He’d be occupied with Wade for long enough for me to deal with this. I just hoped he didn’t run back because he forgot something before I had a chance to dismiss this ghostly vision.
“Better lock it this time,” he said. “That was our mistake the last time you and I were caught alone in here.” He visibly winced. “I may not agree with everything Jayden does and thinks, but I do agree it wasn’t exactly cool of me to attempt to fuck his crush among his most private possessions.”
I shoved a finger against the lock, not to take his advice, but to give me a warning if Jayden decided to pop back in before I had a chance to get a handle on the situation.
“I’m not his crush,” I said, folding my arms across my chest.
“Keep telling yourself that. You make a great pair. Always denying yourself when it comes to one another.” Zander’s spectral eyes darted to that very exposed cleavage I’d forgotten about and this time, the heat hit my face almost immediately and I grabbed hold of the zipper to drag it up.
Zander’s feather-light projected hand laid on top of mine halfway up. “Don’t,” he said. “I like it.” He grinned like a wolf about to devour his prey. “Always thought Wade’s suits could use a bit more flair.”
Since his spectral hand had probably a tenth of the weight of his real one, he couldn’t stop me from slowly, seductively slowly, zipping it all the way up. I grinned maliciously.
“Tease,” he said, his ghost hand going again to my cheek.
I took a step back quickly, putting some distance between us. Not that he couldn’t project right beside me again, but he kept a respectful distance. “You never project into Veras HQ,” I said, frowning. He couldn’t hurt me like this, but I had to know what tricks he had up his sleeve.
He shrugged. “Out of respect for a dear friend,” he said. “Besides, no need to spy on you all. You’re utterly predictable.”
I kept backing up, stopping when the back of my knees clunked up against Jayden’s bed. My gaze darted to it, the feeling of Zander’s hands up my shirt, under my bra, sending fire down to my groin.
Zander did appear beside me—though he’d probably just had the projection walk. I’d been that distracted. “It was shit of me to do to Jayden, but you had to admit, kind of wild.” He leaned closer to my ear, whispering, though there was no sense of his breath. “Naughty. I almost wanted us to get caught—but only after we’d been able to complete the deed.”
“What the fuck are you doing?” said Jayden then, when he’d walked in on us.
One of Zander’s hands was under my shirt, wrapped up around my back and around to cup the side of a breast. The other was clutching one of my ass cheeks, still at that moment sliding down into my wetness.
Jayden stormed into the room and grabbed Zander by both shoulders, tugging on him. “Get off her!”
Zander’s grip in both places went loose, sliding out from beneath the baggy sweater and yoga pants that had moments before been halfway down my legs. “All right, all right. Calm down!” He looked from me to Jayden again. Jayden was seething, his hands clutched into fists at his sides. I was in shock, my groin burning with hot, steamy desire, my brain screaming at me that I’d fucked up.
I’d really fucked up. Jayden was my crush, not Zander. Zander was fucking gorgeous and so confident and he knew what he wanted and didn’t hesitate to take it, which drove me wild…
Fucking damn it. Which one did I want? And was I throwing Nash out after all the times we’d fucked both for power boosts and for fun?
“She’s a child!” screamed Jayden.
That got me angry. I jumped to my feet. “What the hell are you talking about? I’m twenty-three!”
Jayden looked as if I’d slapped him. “I just—I mean, we’re your teachers. We’ve known you since you were a child.”
Zander laughed. “She was eighteen. And I’ve never thought of her that way.” His eyes traveled up and down Jayden as he put his hands on his hips to add to his cocky swagger. “A woman this fuckably hot—who fucking boosts your power when you make love to her—and you keep telling yourself she’s a kid? Grow up, Jayden.” He looked me over, his eyes roving from top to bottom. “I’ve settled for kisses for fucking years out of respect for your wishes, Jayden, but no more. Not if she’s willing.”
Damn, if I weren’t willing… I had to breathe deep to shove away the desire to jump him right then, even in front of Jayden.
He whirled on Jayden. “I’m going to see what her powers can do for me after I’ve been inside her. And you don’t have the right to stop us.”
Jayden’s face fell, his eyes darting up to Zander and to me. “You said you’d… You said you understood.”
“God damn it, Jayden, fuck her if she’ll have you”—he turned to me then and gave me a sly wink—“and she will certainly have you, or don’t. But don’t tell other people what to do. You don’t say anything about Flayme fucking her.”
Jayden’s lips trembled. “He’s her age. He joined us two years ago, he hasn’t known her since she was a—”
“If you say ‘kid’ one more time…” Zander threw a finger in Jayden’s face.
I felt sick then—nauseous. Embarrassed, surprised, and annoyingly ready to fuck them both in the middle of a heated argument. I excused myself and brushed past them to the hallway, holding back the hot tears.
Zander had left that night.
Projection-Zander sighed and ran a hand through his dark hair, moving beside me and sitting down atop the bed. I wondered if projections even needed to sit atop beds and if he was lying on one right now wherever he was, focusing on sending his false form to be with me.
“It wasn’t just because of you that I left,” he said, and he’d probably been reading my mind. “It was the last straw. I’d hoped you’d come with me, but I wanted to get set up first.” He gave me a onceover, and I sat beside him at the magnetic pull of his eyes. “But I should have known you wouldn’t leave him.” He stared off toward the window. The mamma bird had left now, the little babies struggling to be heard, but there was no reply.
“Nash, too,” I said, eager to reassert myself into this complicated mess. Nash and I made sense. What we had was special. Casual but passionate. It worked. Even if he… He was a little more into me than he ought to be if I had these thoughts about other men.
Zander chuckled. “You’re just not content to have one man, are you?” His ghostly finger ran across my cheek and under my chin, gently guiding my face to his. I didn’t have to obey—his projected fingers were so weak—but I did, the jelly between my legs doing more of the forcing than his finger’s movements. “But I understand that, darlin’. I do. With a power like yours, it would be selfish not to share it, to share you… And I don’t want you to give up anything your little heart desires. I don’t want to hurt you.”
Scoffing, I pulled my chin away. “You think starting a rebel group that works directly against Veras wouldn’t hurt me?”
He shook his head. “No politics right now, darlin’.” He looked back at the bed and patted it. “What do you say?”
I guffawed. Then my face fell. “You’re serious.”
“We never finished what we started,” he said. “And damn, you don’t know how long I fucking waited for that.”
“It won’t work on your projection,” I said. “The kisses don’t work. There’s no reason to think that sex would. Besides…”
A faltering smile quirked his lips. “You probably wouldn’t be satisfied with a ghost of my dick inside you?”
I giggled a little. I couldn’t help myself.
“Why don’t I watch?” he said. “Put on a show, darlin’, and let me help you.” His hand grabbed hold of the zipper at my throat.
“You honestly don’t care that you won’t get a boost?” I asked.
He shook his head and leaned in, his feathery spectral lips dotting lightly ac
ross my cheek, my neck. He tugged on the zipper and moved his lips down along the space between my breasts.
I stood, unzipping the suit the rest of the way and removing my arms from it, standing to pull one leg and then another out of it.
Fuck me, I thought.
“Thatta girl,” he said, grinning.
I brushed past him, his chilly form making my legs quake, and lay down on the bed. Closing my eyes, I inhaled the scent of Jayden, pictured him changing at the lockers, remembered his eyes darting at my breasts and my lips, his breath hot on my cleavage as I’d leaned over him.
“Whatever you’re doing, it’s working,” said Zander, his voice low. “Keep it up, darlin’.”
I realized my hands had already found their way to my groin. A feathery-light touch between my outer folds made me shake, stretching my foot out to tighten the muscles in my legs and catch hold of the sensation. My eyelids shot open and I saw the ghostly form of Zander going down on me, my brain overwhelmed with the thought of this hunk fucking me, too.
I squeezed my arms tighter on either side of my breasts as I rubbed up and down my sex.
The spectral Zander looked up, biting his lip. “Oh, fuck,” he said, gazing up at my chest. “I wish I could fucking taste you. Darlin’, I’m imagining how you taste and it’s driving me insane—”
“Keep going,” I breathed. He complied, his head going down again. “Keep going.” And for the next few minutes, I forgot about everything—Plan B, devilishly handsome kidnapping elves, Jayden and Zander’s fight, Nash’s zealousness—and just brought myself to ecstasy, my roguish enemy guiding me along the way.
Chapter Six
“Morning after” pills had their “best by” date right in the title. So after the day—and night—I’d had, the morning after would do. I’d made my way to my own room, flushed with shame of what I’d done in Jayden’s bed, and asked Zander not to follow.
I needed some time alone with my thoughts, even if those thoughts contained him far too often. For once, he’d agreed to go a night without making smarmy comments every time my mind drifted to him.