Chapter Twenty-Six - Hotel
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
Hotel
STEPS SOUNDED FROM across the suite. I stood in the kitchen, watching her walk out of my room and into the living room.
I frowned. She stared at me while in my shirt, after leaving my shower. She could have asked me anything at this moment that I was completely caught off guard. The dark room with only the glow of a lamp cast shadows on bare legs under the hem of my shirt, forgoing the sleep pants. It was bad judgment to think they would have fit.
My mind clearly wasn’t done being addled for the night.
One slip of my control with our proximity, I knew she would find out about the mate bond. Even as a first-year, the magic she showed tonight was enough to tell me she could figure it out. Tonight wasn’t the night, she had just revealed something I was sure she never spoke about before. We were both pretty mixed up after what we saw. She had been the key to tying them to that night in the way I needed.
She toweled her wet hair. “You showered too?“
I cleared my throat, pulling out a case of healing items and placing them on my kitchen counter. “Yes, there’s a matching suite on the other side of the foyer.”
My eyes tracked every step, not moving as she walked over to me.
“Ms. Solace.” I gestured to the counter.
She stopped walking and leveled me with a glare. Her eyes still held the same look of not wanting to put up with my bullshit, even more after everything we went through. That spark in her didn’t stop.
“Harper,” I said. She must have thought I’d not give in so easily. The softening of her lips, parting just a fraction, told me I was affecting her as much as she was affecting me. I wasn’t even convinced it was the mate bond. I had been carefully holding it locked down as hard as I could because that was still the last thing we needed.
She stepped toward the counter. I lifted her up, rolling up the sleeve, trying to ignore the way I could feel her stare on me as I pulled out supplies.
For the past few years since graduating, my hotel had been well stocked with cases of potions. “This cut of light magic might be difficult to heal. It likely won’t leave a scar with how quickly we’re getting to it and with the potions I have.”
I washed it with water magic, noting it had started bleeding again. Pressing gauze to the wound, I reached down for a potion made into a thick salve, made specifically for Realm army members and Magical Combat.
My eye caught onto the bare skin showing on her thigh. Her shirt rode up as she sat on the counter. Intense scarring appeared rough, it was clearly healed over for some time. It started faintly down her thigh and quickly widened as it trailed into the shirt. My blood raced, boiling with the thought that something hurt her this badly.
The look of pain on her face, the wince she tried to hide when she looked away from me, had my knuckles tightening on the counter edge until turning white.
“This is from that night?” The night both of our parents were taken along with so many others. Did it also scar my mate in her escape? I remembered her academy file, where her uncle’s information was crossed out as confidential. So much was swept under the rug, swept away and hidden in only her memory. They scarred the mind of a child, and she grew up in fear because of it. Did they also cause these?
My thumb brushed the very edge of her healed scarring as I waited for the answer I already knew. This was no small mark, this matched the severity of her story.
She turned to hold my gaze.
I opened my mouth, wanting to tell her more than anything that what happened to her didn’t take an ounce away from her beauty. That she had no reason to ever flinch under the stare of anyone—especially not me.
Tears welled in her eyes, waiting for something I couldn’t give her. I couldn’t open myself up. She already got hurt from doing this with me .
The look on her face as she looked away in disappointment snapped something in me.
Fuck.
Just fuck.
I caught her chin and before she could form a question on those full lips full of anger, my mouth crashed down on hers. It wasn’t soft, not gentle, or reassuring. It was telling.
It laid bare how gorgeous she was, and how much I could no longer hold back. It was telling of what every lingering stare had meant. It was not blind lust driving this. It was a slip of control that I had barely been able to hold onto since first laying eyes on her, hearing her voice in my mind, and watching those determined looks.
She stilled, frozen a second before she let go. The tears held in her eyes finally fell down her cheek, running past my hand holding her face. I didn’t stop. Her lips were soft and demanding from me as much as I was taking from her. She was angry, hurt, confused, and I completely deserved that.
Her hands lifted over my shoulders, pulling my neck down to her. That tongue pressed into my mouth, her lips were hot and her cheeks damp with tears. My hand held the counter hard as I forced myself back.
“Wait.” I reached for the salve, adding it to the gauze along with another potion to help the healing, securing it to her arm. “I won’t let this night leave another scar on you.”
Her hand brushed my chin. Her grip moved to my shirt, pulling me closer. Those blue eyes bounced between mine, and I held myself back.
“You’re hurt. Tonight—” I started.
She interrupted, “I don’t care, make me forget it all for tonight.”
Her head tipped up. She leaned forward to meet my lips. A glare in her eyes remained on me that I met with all the anger of our situation. Our mouths crashed, and she frowned when she bit my lip hard, getting me back for the sting I knew I left last time.
I could feel that glare through my entire body, making me harder than I might have ever been in my life. Lifting her from the counter, I’d take all of this anger.
Her legs wrapped around me, hands ran down my body frantically. If she wanted me, if she wanted an escape, whatever it was, I couldn’t deny her. I walked us into the bedroom, fumbling as her nails raked through my hair. My back hit the wall. Her mouth trailed down my neck. She would be the death of me.
Our heavy breaths were all that I focused on, not bothering with any lights, letting the light pour in from the living room into my dark bedroom. I laid her down in the center of my bed, crawling over her. She reached for my pants, already unbuttoning what I threw on after the shower, an unquenchable look in her eyes. My hand went to hers, where it lingered on my very obvious bulge, and I groaned, reluctantly stopping her hands.
You had to be open to a mate bond for it to keep affecting you. I knew she wanted this, but I had to be sure the twisted universe didn’t have a hand in this at all.
Blocking the bond from my side, I needed to be sure she didn’t feel it because I needed to know it was more than just the universe choosing my mate for me. That we had a choice in this and it wasn’t up to fate. I never liked the idea of a mate bond. I had to know she really looked at me without an ounce of the bond influencing it. It was tamped down enough for me to know I still wanted her, but did she still want me?
I searched her eyes for the truth that this could have been real. It didn’t feel like I deserved to know, but I had to, or this couldn’t happen.
I asked, “You want to do this?”
She raised her eyebrows like it was a ridiculous question. “Do you have a condom?”
Right, the Unenchanted. Condoms were foreign here. “I take a potion,” I told her, waiting for the fact that I stayed prepared to scare her off.
“Good.”
My hand grazed her leg, dancing across her skin until getting to the shirt. “Take this off.” But it was more of a question.
She thought for a moment, biting that full lip before removing it.
My eyes traced down her body. Goosebumps rose over her breasts from the chill of the air, her rosy nipples peaked.
The scarring trailed over her round hips, but all I could think about was how this gorgeous woman looked at me with demand in her eyes, with so much raw lust.
I tugged off my shirt while watching her eyes trail hungrily down my body, much like I had just done to her. She drank me up like someone dying of thirst. It was more than an ego boost. Every part of me was being called to what she wanted, what I wanted. There she was underneath me, as frantic and eager as I was. I felt out of my mind. I didn’t care, not for a moment, not when she pulled me back to her lips and her hands roamed over me the way her eyes just did.
Her legs wrapped around my waist tightly, pulling me close.
“How bad do you want it?” I whispered, still needing to be sure it wasn’t the bond.
Her eyes narrowed, and my cock twitched from that look.
“Tell me.” Shadows dance over her center, swirling over her before running down her body. My lips press to hers, consuming her like she could end all my suffering, like I only needed to breathe her from here on. I pulled back, her neck tipped up to me, not wanting it to end so soon.
“Tell me who you want to feel right now,” I demanded.
“Nick,” she moaned in irritation.
My hand gripped her thigh, lowering closer as I waited.
“Nickolas Ares,” she said, that glare in her eye never leaving.
“Good girl.”
“Stop making me wait.” Her voice told me the way she needed me. It matched every part of me.
I pulled up, only to fall into those blue eyes. “Eager?” My hand met her center, thumb tracing over her in a way that had her hips shifting, needing more.
I leaned down, whispering in her ear. “I am. I need to feel you clench around me, hear you scream out, and know it’s only because I made you.” She gripped around my length, and I might have lost it right there .
I let out a slow breath and took that hand that could so easily bring me to ruin, as she so clearly demonstrated without even touching me in my classroom. Shadows wrapped around her wrists, pulling her arms above her head, pressing her breasts forward.
Leaning down to kiss along her chest, I took a hardened nipple in my mouth, flicking it and listening to a sharp breath pull into her lungs.
“Nick,” she whimpered as I moved to her other nipple, my hand parting her thighs, fingers sinking in to feel how wet she already was.
My name on her lips was like a drug she kept giving me. It was like feeling her nails in my hair but over my entire body. I twitched, eager to press inside her. She pulled against the shadows, testing how much they wouldn’t let go. Her eyes lit up and she squirmed impatiently underneath me.
My mouth captured those lips that held so much power and instantly she claimed me with her tongue. I kissed her like she might have been the air I needed to breathe. I gripped myself, pressing between her thighs.
I pushed into her, sinking further with each thrust, listening to her cry out. She pulled on her binds and I released them.
A laugh left me when she grabbed me and moved to climb on top, wanting to take control. I laid back, watching that spark within her that I recognized within myself, understanding that need. She straddled over my hips, sinking onto my erection. My head tipped back and I groaned. My hips lifted off the bed in time with her grinding over me, taking me in such slow movements, it was maddening .
A smile curved on those dangerous lips. She placed her hands on my chest as she moved. Gripping her hips, I pulled her down onto me, filling her completely with each thrust. Her long nails clawed into my shoulders.
“Fuck, Harper.”
“Don’t stop,” she said. Her hand pressed me hard into the bed, and I watched her like she was a goddess claiming me, taking what she wanted.
When I felt her tighten around me, hearing my name call out in my room, her nails biting into me so hard it might have drawn blood, I pressed upward in a single thrust. She cried out again. Buried deep within her, I lost it. Every throb, every pulse, I was completely lost. It was like the stars above were held within her eyes. At this moment, I wasn’t sure they ever belonged to the sky. She kept moving until she collapsed onto my chest.
My arms wrapped over her as she laid on top of me, panting for breath. Her black hair splayed over my chest.
I didn’t know how long we laid there.
A feeling rose within me. Something I’d never felt before. I would destroy this world for her, not just get revenge for me, but take down the council that left her so alone. An aloneness I knew. There was so much more to lose than I thought possible.
I ran my hand through my hair. How would I tell my mate I lost control around her, like I was always on the verge of? I couldn’t have her this close again. Tonight at the graveyard confirmed that.
She had to have followed me there like she followed me to my classroom, hiding our bond from me by practicing her blocking. The bond was already wrapping her into this so much more than I ever feared, but then she had already been involved. Even still, I knew what I wanted wasn’t the path I could have with anyone I cared about being close.
After meeting her and seeing what she was capable of, this one person who was made for me. I had to protect her. If they ever realized I was onto them, they couldn’t discover I had a mate—two survivors from powerful families would put a target on her back. No one could find out, it would only put her in more danger.
The only person I had in my life couldn’t be mine—but she could be here. She could still be here and safe. Unlike the last people I cared about. That was more important to me than anything else. The council wouldn’t take her away, too. My chest raced under her as the realization became clear. Nothing would stop me from protecting her, even if I had to from a distance.
My sudden silence didn’t go unnoticed. That anger crossed over her face again. We got up, and I watched her place my shirt back over her. Maybe she knew it was a mistake. Maybe she remembered how much I pushed her away.
“Stay here until the morning?” I asked her.
She shook her head. “I’m going to head back to the academy.”
I took a gray jacket from my closet and wrapped her in it. She stared up at me like she saw through me. “Why are you so interested in Caleb and Trevor? Are they involved?”
“I don’t think they were involved in anything to do with tonight. Their parents are another story. ”
“You went there tonight, alone. How long have you been doing this?” She didn’t wait for an answer that she knew I wouldn’t give. “You’ll kill them?”
I didn’t say anything. Her face fell, that protective look she wore rose.
After creating a portal to take us to the front of the academy, I used shadows, but it was more luck that no one was around to walk her all the way up to her dorm room. The sun was just rising. We were quick, and I stepped inside her small room.
Her eyes widened in surprise before narrowing. Good. It was better she was suspicious of my intentions, meaning she understood I couldn’t let her close. I did need to walk her back completely to make sure she was okay after what we saw, what we found out. I also had to be sure there was no magic or anything that indicated someone was watching her. Her dorm room was clear of any stray magic.
With her ties to the event thirteen years ago, it put her in more danger than I could have imagined if anyone were to find out she was there. This new information she brought to light moved my plan forward. I will take them down. First, it was vital to see how they would react to being caught during their ritual, to learn their next step. Those aren’t loose ends they want. Now, more than anything, I needed to make sure nothing tied Harper to the graveyard tonight.
She stood only inches away, staring up at me with questions in her eyes .
Everything in me wanted to lean down and kiss her goodnight, but even more after tonight, I wanted her to be safe. Leading her on wasn’t something I wanted at all. I soaked in one last look of her in my jacket. There was no way she could have been thinking the same as me, not while she hugged it close.
My thumb brushed her chin, her lips parted. “Please let me know the moment anything out of the ordinary happens, or if you recognize anyone. At any time.”
She nodded.
“Goodnight, Harper.”