Trials

by Sadie Moss

  Trials

  Academy of Unpredictable Magic #2

  Sadie Moss

  Copyright © 2019 by Sadie Moss

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, organizations, places, events, and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or had, or actual events is purely coincidental.

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  Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Epilogue

  Also by Sadie Moss

  Chapter 1

  A trickle of sweat works its way slowly down the back of my leg.

  There’s a rhythmic, high-pitched squeaking noise coming from somewhere, and I can’t tell if it’s originating from the bed frame or me.

  God, I hope it’s not me.

  Roman adjusts his grip under my knees, lifting me higher as he slams into me, and suddenly I don’t give a single shit about what kind of noises I’m making. A breathy moan falls from my lips, and I massage my aching breasts, tugging on my nipples as I look down my body at the place where we’re connected.

  My breasts are flushed from the rough scrape of Roman’s stubble, from his lips and teeth and tongue as he feasted on them earlier, and my whole body is covered in a light sheen of sweat. My ass hovers a few inches above the soft sheets, giving the breathtaking man above me the perfect angle as he thrusts hard and deep.

  I can’t stop staring at his body as he moves inside me. The thickness of his cock, the flex of his muscled abs, his broad chest and shoulders, the tension visible in his neck as he works us both toward our climax. He’s gleaming with sweat too, and it makes him look even more stunningly gorgeous, more dangerous and wild than usual.

  “Look at me, Reckless. Watch me while I fuck you.”

  His words, spoken in a rough baritone, make my pussy clench around him, and he groans as I comply.

  I mean, I have been watching him. It’s all I’ve been doing. I can’t take my damn eyes off him.

  But I know what he wants.

  Dragging my attention up the hard planes of his body, I breathe harder as his cobalt gaze burns into me. I’m completely naked—aside from my magic dampening cuff—and have been for the past several hours, through two rounds of toe-curling sex before this, but something about the look he gives me now makes me feel like I’m laid completely bare in a way that has nothing to do with clothes.

  I squirm uncomfortably, incredibly turned on by his stare but terrified of it too. His firm hold under my knees makes it impossible to escape though. And if I’m honest with myself, I don’t want to go anywhere. My legs are shaking, my chest rising and falling sharply as another orgasm gathers deep in my core.

  And I want that orgasm.

  I want it so fucking bad, and I’m not going anywhere until I get it.

  Squeezing my breasts, I pinch my nipples so hard I gasp, and for a second, I lose Roman’s dark blues as his gaze flicks down. His nostrils flare, and I swear I feel his cock swell inside me, and when he looks back up at my face, there’s an expression of such raw hunger on his features that it makes me impossibly wetter.

  “Fuck, Roman. Oh God.” I clamp my lower lip between my teeth, keeping my gaze locked on his.

  “You’re close, aren’t you?” he grunts, the force of his thrusts making my whole body shake and the bed squeak even louder. “Does my girl want to come?”

  Fuck.

  He’s pushing my buttons, and he knows it.

  I’ve been so adamant about not being ready for a real relationship, about keeping this thing between us sex only… but hearing him call me my girl does funny things to my body. It’s like my clit and my heart both spasm at once, and the resulting tremors crash through me like waves on a stormy sea, spreading pleasure so intense it’s almost painful.

  “Yes,” I gasp, releasing my aching nipples to rake my fingernails up and down his forearms. Goddamn, they’re so fucking strong, the muscles taut and lean as he holds me up and pumps into me. “Please!”

  “Touch yourself again. Play with your clit. Make yourself come.”

  I love and hate that my hand is already moving before he finishes speaking, as if my body has already decided he owns me, that it’ll do whatever he commands. My fingertips strum my clit, making heat build warm and steady in my core. I can feel him sliding in and out of me, my fingers so close to where his cock penetrates me, and my hand moves faster, my body barreling toward release.

  Roman’s gaze moves down again, fixing on my frantically circling fingers, and a new expression crosses his face.

  Possessiveness.

  Before I can even register what’s happening, he’s pulling out of me, and I find myself flipped over onto my stomach quickly. He hauls me up onto all fours and plunges back into me from behind, filling me to the hilt from this delicious new angle. Then he wraps his arms tight around my stomach and chest, lifting me so we’re both on our knees on the soft mattress, our bodies plastered together. The angle changes again, and with the thick bands of his arms pinning me to him, I can’t do much but hold on and gasp for air.

  I was so close… so damn close, and I’m still hanging on that precipice, needing nothing more than the slightest nudge to send me careening over the edge of my release.

  “I changed my mind,” he growls softly in my ear, in the tone that first made me wet for him when he came into The Den last summer. The tone that featured in more than one of my fantasies over the winter break. “I want to do it. I want you to come on my cock and on my fingers, and I want you to scream my name when you do.”

  Oh, Jesus fucking Christ.

  He better get busy with those damn fingers before his words alone give me the most intense orgasm of my life.

  I moan something unintelligible that has the word “yes” in it somewhere, and Roman finally decides to put me out of my sweet misery. One arm stays locked around my waist, holding me upright, while the other slips down to work my clit. His thrusts are slower and deeper in this position, and I can tell he’s close too, holding off until he makes me come.

  His lips drop to my ear, biting my earlobe and making me shudder. I turn my head and attack his lips with mine as the pleasure finally peaks, making white spots dance in my vision.

  My body locks up, and I tear my mouth away from his to cry out, “Oh fuck! Roman!”

  He grunts, slamming into me hard and grinding his hips against my ass as his cock pulses inside me and he follows me over the edge. “God, yes, Elliot.”

  When the aftershocks finally stop quaking through my body, I realize I’m covered in more than a ladylike sheen of sweat by now. My whole body is sated, wrung out, and sore, like I just finished a marathon.

  And I guess I did.

  A sex marathon, which is the best kind, as far
as I’m concerned.

  Roman slowly pulls out of me, securing the condom with one hand, before we both collapse on the bed. He lands on his back and pulls me roughly into his body, draping me partway over him so our sweaty skin sticks together. He pushes my wild hair out of my face and dips his head to kiss me thoroughly, stroking his tongue against mine so skillfully that my body perks up, convinced that maybe she could handle one more round.

  “Down girl,” I mutter as I break the kiss, nestling into the crook of Roman’s arm contentedly.

  “I’m not a girl.” He chuckles softly, the sound rumbling against my ear. “If you haven’t figured that out by now, I’ve been doing something very wrong for the past few hours.”

  I slap his chest lightly, still catching my breath. “I wasn’t talking to you. I was talking to me. I can barely walk, and my body’s already thinking about the next round.”

  He groans, a pained sound that I think is partly because he can’t even think about going again right now and partly because he really wants to.

  Good. At least I’m not the only one who turns into some kind of sex-crazed maniac around the other person. It makes me feel slightly better to know that he suffers from the same insane craving I seem to have.

  He gives my ass a little slap, and I roll over so he can get up. He crosses to the bathroom and disposes of the condom before returning, and I watch him stride across the room in all his naked, muscled, Tall, Dark, and Handsome glory. I feel a sudden rush of possessiveness myself and work hard to keep the emotion off my face as he crawls back into bed with me.

  I curl back up against his body, breathing in the leather and whiskey scent of him.

  Man, I was so damn right. Alleys and little darkened alcoves are great and all, but a guy like Roman? He needs a bed. He needs space and time to work his magic.

  Not that I mind a quick and dirty fuck every now and again, but sometimes great things should be savored.

  And even though I purposefully avoided cuddling the first two times we had sex, going so far as to nearly sprint the other way, I’ve decided to give up the struggle against it.

  After all, I should be capable of having casual, incredibly hot sex with a guy and cuddling with him afterward without falling in love with him, right?

  Right?

  I ignore the fact that my mind can’t seem to give a satisfactory answer to that question, wriggling closer to Roman as he wraps his arms around me. We lapse into a contented silence, both still catching our breath.

  Fuck, I missed this over winter break.

  Maddy and I spent the time off relaxing at her campus. There’s an option at Neptune Academy—where she’s a first-year water elemental student—for people to stay in the dorms over the holidays if they want to. I think Griffin Academy, known to almost everyone as the Academy of Unpredictable Magic, has a similar option, but I sure as hell wasn’t going to stay here for the three weeks we had off.

  My only friends all went somewhere else for the break. Roman had something going on off-campus that he wouldn’t tell me about, which didn’t surprise me all that much. For a guy who’s spent a lot of his time pushing to break down my walls, he’s got some nice, tall, steel-reinforced ones of his own, I’m discovering.

  Dmitri went home, and he recruited Cam to go with him so he wouldn’t have to deal with his disapproving parents alone. I don’t know the full story there, but from what little I’ve gleaned, Dmitri and his folks aren’t on the best of terms. And Asher traveled down to San Francisco to visit his family. Unlike Dmitri’s relatives, they’re all wonderful people as far as I can tell, which doesn’t surprise me, seeing as Asher’s a goddamn saint.

  With those four gone, there was really no reason to stay. The academy is small, only a few hundred students, but I haven’t really gotten close with anyone else. My ex-roommate Alyssa went out of her way to make my life hell, and the only other friend I made last semester turned out to be a murderer and a liar who tried to steal a weapon of mass destruction from a hidden vault under the school. So… yeah. It’s made me a little skittish about trusting new people.

  Besides, all I really wanted was to hang out with Mads anyway. I missed the hell out of her last semester.

  We holed up in her dorm room and binged Marvel movies, stayed up late talking, and checked out the area around her campus. I didn’t have any more weird blips of magic—or whatever the hell that was—like I experienced the day Maddy came to visit me at the end of last semester.

  Thank God. I’ve barely got a handle on the two powers I already have, I’m not sure I can deal with more.

  It was fun to see my little sister in her element. A bunch of her friends were gone for the break, but I got to meet a few of them, and they all seem really great. It’s amazing to watch her blossom after being shy and alone for so many years when we were younger.

  Our mom’s death really took the life out of Mads for a while. But now she’s getting it back. And while my relationship with magic might be… complicated, to say the least, I’m grateful to it if it means she gets to have this wonderful experience.

  But I did miss the guys, and I definitely missed sex, and ever since I came back to the Academy of Unpredictable Magic campus, I’ve somehow ended up in Roman’s bedroom every night.

  The man knows how to use his tongue. And his fingers. And… other things.

  Maddy started classes already, but mine won’t start for another two days. None of my roommates are here yet, but I was pleasantly surprised to find my handsome professor wandering the corridors of Wellwood Hall on my first day back. We managed to avoid having sex in a public place for once—woohoo, go us—but it’s a good goddamn thing his room is warded with a sound dampening charm, or the whole school would probably know about us by now.

  “I’m glad I came back a few days early. Talk about a welcome home,” I joke, brushing a few strands of messy brown hair out of my face. I lost track of how many times I orgasmed tonight. I’m definitely going to need a shower in a second.

  Once I can feel my legs again.

  Roman rolls onto his side, propping himself on an elbow to look at me. Our legs are still twined together, the shared heat of our bodies mingling between us. “Careful, Reckless. I might start to think you’re getting attached.”

  My heart does that weird squeezing thing in my chest again as a combination of happiness and panic floods my body.

  He wants me to get attached. He’s made it pretty damn clear he’d like more from me, but I just don’t know if I can do that. If I’m ready for it.

  “And I think the endorphins are mushing up your brain,” I shoot back, grinning.

  Roman huffs a laugh and leans forward to kiss me again. Then he looks over at the clock on the nightstand. “Pretty late.”

  “Yeah.” I wrinkle my nose regretfully. “I better get going.”

  All my stuff is unpacked in the guys’ dormitory room. What started off as a temporary solution when I was forcibly booted from my old dorm has turned into something a little more permanent, though it’s still definitely against the rules. According to the records in the admissions office, I still live with Alyssa, Megan, and Kendal, but I much prefer living with people who like me and don’t spread rumors about me for shits and giggles.

  “Elliot.” Roman’s chiseled features soften as he cocks his head at me. “If you want to spend the night here, it’s not going to be the end of the world.”

  I sit up. “Thanks, but I think I’m good.”

  “You sure about that?” he asks, a bit of a teasing growl coming into his voice.

  I shiver. Damn it. I hate how drawn I am to him, and how much I enjoy being around him. It could so easily become something more, and I’m starting to think maybe I’m a giant idiot for fighting this so hard.

  But my reasons aren’t all stupid. For one thing, there’s the fact that I really don’t know a lot about certain parts of his life—for example, most of his history before he came to this school. I asked him about it once, and his answer w
as vague and short. I don’t even know if he has brothers and sisters, although I don’t think he does.

  And for another thing, there are three other men I’m undeniably drawn to as well, and I’m still trying to navigate that whole situation.

  “Yeah, I’m pretty sure,” I reply, trying to keep my voice light and casual. Roman’s an amazing guy, and he’s put up with my emotional distance a lot better than most people would. I don’t want to be a jerk, as much as it often feels like being a jerk is all I’m good at.

  His brows draw together. “It’s all right. I won’t push you, Elliot. I won’t ask for more than you can give. But you can trust me with the pieces you do give—you know that, right?”

  Goddamn it. Unable to resist the pull of his cobalt gaze, I crawl back on top of him, straddling his hips as I rest my hands on his chest. His heartbeat is a steady thrum beneath my palms.

  “Maybe it would help me open up more if you opened up more,” I murmur, raking my fingernails gently down his chest.

  Yup. There it is. The shutters falling over his eyes, the wall going up. Takes one emotionally closed off loner to know one, mister.

  But he surprises me by dipping his chin once. His jaw muscle jumps, but he holds my gaze steadily. “Okay. What do you want to know?”

  Oh shit. I didn’t think he’d actually take me up on that. My mind races, trying to figure out the perfect question to ask. There’s so much I want to know, but I’m afraid if I poke too deep, he’ll rescind his offer. So I start with something that’s been on my mind more than I’d like to admit—a challenging question that still seems to fall into safer territory than family history or deepest, darkest secrets.