“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.”