by Eva Ashwood
I could feel Lachlan react as the two men approached us, his body tensing as he shifted a little closer to me.
Ah, fuck.
They’d agreed not to fight over me, but old habits would be a bit hard to shake, it seemed.
I half-expected him to step in front of me like a lion protecting his mate, but as Trace and Merrick reached us, Lach surprised the fuck out of me by stepping to the side, allowing Merrick to pull me into his arms.
We were in full view of all the students in the hallway, but he didn’t seem to give a shit. His arms banded around me, and I could feel his breath against the skin of my neck as he let out a low noise, half sigh and half moan.
My stomach clenched with a sudden onslaught of emotions, and just like Lachlan had, I fought against my knee-jerk instinct. His had been to fight, and so was mine—to fight the feelings that stirred inside me as I held Merrick, as I inhaled his bergamot and honey scent. But although my instincts had kept me alive and safe for years on the dangerous streets of Boston, I was finally starting to realize that some of them didn’t serve me well.
“Missed you,” Merrick murmured in a low voice, and then he let go of me, yielding me into Trace’s waiting hold.
The ex-rock star grabbed me and pulled me into a hug. “There she fuckin’ is. Glad you made it back in one piece, Snow White.”
Our bodies pressed tightly together, and the memories of what’d felt like to be this close to him with nothing between us made fire lick through my veins.
I hugged him back, letting myself indulge in the feel and scent of him. He was right. In a way, it was amazing that any of us had made it back there at all. Given what we’d learned last semester, it wouldn’t have surprised me if somebody had tried to take us out before we got back to the academy. But here we were, all back together, preparing to face a new semester.
“Glad you did too.”
“Good to see ye, ye fuckin’ eejits!” Lachlan accentuated his Irish accent, and Trace released me as he burst into laughter.
The men greeted each other with slaps on the back, and despite Lachlan’s moment of tension when the other two had touched me, I could tell they were happy to see each other. They’d been close friends before all four of us had ended up competing in the godly realm, and I was glad they hadn’t let this thing between all of us drive them apart. Anymore.
A second later, Eden bobbed over, waving at the guys. “You guys ready to get this over with? I think we have to check in before we head up to our rooms.”
“Right.” I nodded.
As the four of us turned and headed down the hallway, which was still packed with students, a surge of anticipation and nerves filled me.
Ready or not, here we go.
Chapter Five
All five of us went through the tedious process of checking in and getting our class schedules for the coming semester. It felt strange to be doing something so normal, to be going through the motions of getting settled in for the semester when the men and I had plans far beyond simple classwork.
We were going to infiltrate the godly realm.
We were going to find answers.
But to do that, we had to pretend everything was fine. We had to make sure Dean Frost and the other admins didn’t suspect us of having ulterior motives for wanting to compete in the Gods’ Challenge again this semester.
I had never been great at hiding my emotions, but I was going to have to become a good actress if we wanted to pull this off.
After checking in, we split up to go to our respective dorm rooms. Eden followed me to mine, keeping up a lively patter of conversation the whole way. It was good to see her. I had missed Trace and Merrick over the break, but I was surprised to realize I’d missed her too. We were complete opposites in so many ways, but I’d come to genuinely like the perky blonde girl. She had a good heart, something I had come to realize a long time ago was a rarity in this world.
“I’m glad you’re back. I’m glad we’re all back,” she said excitedly as I opened the door to my dorm room. “I can’t wait to see what this semester brings!”
I wanted to caution her not to be too excited and warn her not to trust the school staff, but I kept my mouth shut. I didn’t want to put her in danger by keeping her in the dark, but I also didn’t want to risk her getting dragged under with me and the guys if the admins found out what we were doing.
“Yeah.” I smiled a little stiffly. “Me… too.”
Once she had traipsed down the hall to her own room, I surveyed my small dorm. Then I plopped my bag onto the bed and began unpacking. I had stuffed the medal I’d received for winning the Gods’ Challenge into a drawer, not wanting to look at it, and it glinted at me as I shoved some clothes inside the drawer.
It didn’t take me long to unpack—I hadn’t brought that much back to Boston with me, just the basic necessities.
Once I was done, I stood with my hands on my hips, chewing on my lip. I could already feel tension building inside me, an eagerness to act, to do something. I’d never really been known for my patience; it was something Vin had lectured me about plenty of times. I needed to do something to blow off this steam before it started pouring out of my ears.
Turning, I slipped back out of my room. Without even consciously thinking about it, my feet carried me down the winding hallways until I reached Trace’s room. As I raised my hand to knock, memories of the last time I had come to his room made my skin flush.
That had been the night I’d finally admitted to myself—and to the men too—that I needed them. That I wanted them. That I wanted this thing between us to be more than a partnership of survival.
To someone else, that may have seemed like a pretty obvious admission, but it had taken me several weeks of wrestling with myself to finally reach that conclusion. I had spent my life as a lone wolf, unattached to anyone else and wary of emotional connections.
So the fact that I’d been falling for three men at the same time?
Three dominant, powerful men who actually stood a chance of matching me, of being my equals.
And that had scared the shit out of me.
It still did sometimes, but honestly, that hardly mattered anymore. I had leapt off the cliff, and I was free falling now.
My knuckles rapped against the door three times, and a moment later, Trace opened it. His curious expression morphed into a wide smile as he caught sight of me, and he caught me around the waist, pulling me into the room.
I was vaguely aware of the door shutting behind me, but everything else faded away as Trace’s lips crashed into mine.
Our greeting downstairs had been incredibly restrained, I realized now. I hadn’t known how fiercely my body and soul had missed him until I was free to express that fully. We stumbled across the room, hands groping and tongues colliding as our lips stayed locked in a deep kiss. When the backs of his legs hit the mattress, Trace sank down onto it, pulling me with him.
“Damn, I’ve been going crazy without you, Snow,” he murmured, tracing the line of my jaw with his lips. “I never knew I could miss someone so much.”
“Same,” I admitted on a whisper, butterflies flapping in my stomach at the admission. I had faced down men twice my size in the ring without an ounce of fear, but this was something else entirely.
I pulled back just enough to tug his shirt over his head, smiling at the sight of his familiar tattoos. Some of them were only half-formed, since the skin that’d regrown from the healing potion Merrick had given him hadn’t replaced the ink that had once been imprinted on it. But it made the tattoos more beautifully striking, as far as I was concerned.
Too beautiful to just look at.
Shifting my hips, I rolled us over on the bed, straddling Trace and leaning down to run my tongue over the rough edges of ink that decorated his skin. The burns had been worst on his back, but there were patches of ink missing on his arms and pecs too.
He groaned, his chest vibrating beneath my lips as his fingers threaded through my hair. I c
ould feel his cock pressing against my core, and I rocked against him.
How the hell had I ever thought I could resist this?
Trace’s hands move to the hem of my shirt, tugging it up. “Let me look at you, gorgeous. Let me see you.”
I sat up just enough to let him rid me of the garment, and he unhooked my bra and tossed it aside too. He cupped my breasts, the bright blue of his irises darkening with desire as he licked his lips.
Then he sat up, surprising me as he latched his lips around one of my nipples and sucked hard. I threw my head back on a loud moan and felt him chuckle.
A second later, we were off the bed as he surged to his feet, his hands cupping my ass and thighs to hold me up. I wrapped my arms around his neck as he carried me across the room, his lips devouring the skin of my neck and shoulder.
Trace wasn’t as broad-shouldered as Lachlan, but he was solidly built. Pure, lean muscle. Holding me up with one hand, he used the other to open the door to the small, attached bathroom each dorm was equipped with.
He set me down once we were inside, his fingers finding their way to the button of my jeans.
Anticipation made my pussy clench, and I returned the favor, helping Trace out of his clothes until we both stood naked before each other.
He stepped back and opened the shower stall door, turning the water on. The hiss of the shower spray filled the small room, and he turned back to face me, a sinful grin tugging at one corner of his mouth as his heated gaze traveled up and down my body. “Fuck, Ari. I feel bad for every man in the world who doesn’t get to see this. Not that I’d ever fucking let them.”
I cocked an eyebrow, running my hands provocatively down my sides, over the swell of my hips, before bringing them toward my bare pussy. I slid one finger between my folds, and Trace’s cocky grin disappeared, replaced by a look of hunger.
“Except Merrick and Lach, right?” I teased, sliding my finger inside myself, teasing my entrance.
Trace dragged his gaze up from the spot where I played with myself, his voice thick and raspy.
“Except them.” Then he shook his head, his chest rising and falling with deep breaths. “But right now, Snow, I want you all to myself.”
Without another word, he strode toward me, hauling me into his arms. His cock was hard as steel and hot as a brand against my stomach as he kissed me hard and deep. I wrapped my legs around him again as he lifted me and carried me into the shower, stepping under the spray in the small, enclosed space.
The water only made my heated skin feel hotter, and steam was already beginning to float through the air around us. It caught Trace’s scent and brought it to my nostrils, and I inhaled greedily as if I were trying to take in his entire essence.
When Trace set me down again, my legs felt a little wobbly, and I reached out to brace myself against the shower walls. It was a good fucking thing I did, because the second my feet hit the floor, Trace dropped to his knees in front of me, burying his face in the apex of my thighs and lapping at my wet pussy like he’d been dying for a taste.
My fingers splayed against the wall as I threw my head back, my hips jerking as his hot, supple tongue played across my clit. I could feel my own wetness mixing with the water from the shower, and when he found my entrance with his fingers and pushed two thick digits inside, I let out a loud cry.
“So responsive.” His words were muttered against my pussy, so low I almost couldn’t hear them over the sound of the shower. “So fucking beautiful.”
My fingers slid through his dark, wet hair, holding his head just where I needed it as I writhed against his face. I wasn’t sure how the poor man was even breathing anymore, but he didn’t seem to have a single complaint as he fucked me with his fingers and sucked at my clit, making electric shocks of pleasure shoot through me.
“Trace,” I panted. “I’m gonna… oh, fuck, I’m gonna…”
“Yeah. Come for me, Snow. Come on my fucking face.”
The ravenous hunger in his words pushed me over the edge, and I did exactly what he’d commanded. I came like a freight train all over his face.
He pulled his fingers out of me and grabbed onto my hips with both hands, holding me steady and helping me stay upright as he drank from me, his tongue and lips and teeth devouring me as my body quaked with the force of my orgasm. He lapped up every bit of my cream, dragging his tongue through my folds and dipping it inside my channel, feasting on me until my body sagged against him.
Still holding me firmly to keep me from sliding to the ground, he tilted his head. Water droplets made his dark lashes cling together, and his lips glistened with my arousal. His chin was wet with it.
“Sorry, Snow.” He chuckled. “I got a little distracted. What did you come to my room for?”
“That,” I murmured breathlessly, grinning back at him. “Exactly that.”
“Well, in that case…”
I caught the wicked gleam in his eye a second before he buried his face between my legs again, making my already sensitive clit throb as he lashed it with his tongue.
He made me come like that again before he finally surged to his feet and lifted me into his arms, pinning my back against the cool tiles of the shower wall as he drove into me with his cock, stretching and filling me.
We fucked until the water started to run cold and the steam faded around us, but I didn’t feel anything but heat as Trace buried his face in my neck, licking and sucking at my skin as he came inside me.
My muscles felt like jelly as we cleaned each other quickly, teasing and groping each other and ignoring the chill that was creeping into the water. Then Trace toweled me off—which I was pretty sure was just a thinly veiled excuse to grope me some more—and we returned to the bedroom, crawling beneath the covers on his bed and tangling our legs together as I rested my head on his chest.
“That was really what you came to my room for?” he asked, a smile in his voice as he stroked my wet hair.
“Well, that… and this.” I grinned tiredly, tracing the lines of his tattoos with one finger as I listened to his heartbeat. My tension had evaporated, and now I felt like I was floating in a hazy, sated daze.
“I’m glad you came,” he admitted.
“How was your break?”
“Eh.” I could feel him shrug beneath me. “My old manager tried to get me to do some promo for the band. They’re trying to spin this whole story about how an ex-member of the band has magic now, use it to generate some press for the tour that’s coming up. I told him to go fuck himself. He told me I was a liability when he first found out; now he wants to use me to sell tickets? Fuck that shit.”
I lifted my head, resting my palms on his chest as I looked up at him. “That sucks. I’m sorry. People can be assholes. I never particularly trusted magic users, but that was also because I didn’t know them. Vincent, my old trainer? He’s known me for over seven years, and he looks at me like I’m a stranger now. Nothing’s different about me, except for the fact that I’ve got powers I didn’t even ask for.”
“Yeah.” Trace sighed, running his knuckles over the curve of my cheekbone. “Guess things’ll never really go back to how they were, will they?”
“I don’t think so.”
“Y’know,” he said thoughtfully, cocking his head to the side a little. “Part of me hates that. And I hate that even though we’re part of the magic community now, we still don’t fit in. The gods themselves are working with the school admins to orchestrate the deaths of students, for fuck’s sake.”
His blue eyes warmed, and he caught my chin, pulling me up for a kiss. With our faces just inches apart, his eyes bounced between mine, and his breath ghosted over my lips when he spoke again. “But then again, all this bullshit led me to you. And no matter what else happens, I’ll never be sorry about that.”
I rubbed against him like a cat, feeling him begin to harden beneath me as I did, and I kissed him again, our bodies moving together underneath the blankets.
I wasn’t sorry about it eit
her.
And as I faced the deadly threats in the godly realm and the hidden threats inside the walls of the school, at least I wouldn’t be alone.
I would have my three men with me every step of the way.
Chapter Six
“That’s exactly right, Aria,” Professor Wist said. “You want to lift and then push.”
I nodded, focusing on the magic that was flowing from my hands.
There was a large stone wall, magical of course, in the center of the floor. The challenge was to lift it with our magic and then put it in the correct position.
My arms shook as I fought to control my magic. I was still getting used to the fact that I didn’t have the same level of power that I’d had in the god’s realm. I felt half as strong in my magic here on earth, and it was more than a bit frustrating.
But I was determined to do well in all my classes, to absorb all the knowledge and training I could before the preliminary competition next month. Every new skill I could learn would help me in the Gods’ Challenge, and on top of that, whoever competed in the challenge missed a hell of a lot of school. Last semester, I’d struggled to catch up by the end of it, especially with all of the unanswered questions roiling in my mind.
Come on, Ari. Focus. You can do this.
I sent two large streams of magic outward, wrapping them around the stone wall horizontally. With a tug and a low groan, I lifted the wall up and continued upward until it hovered a foot above the floor. From there, I pushed forward, moving it backward and then carefully setting it down. I was the only one who hadn’t dragged it across the floor, making a terrible sound and crumbling the foundation of the wall.
“Very good!” Professor Wist nodded approvingly, and several other students shot me disgruntled looks. I caught Wesley glaring at me, and I was tempted to pick the wall up again and crush his foot with it.