Chapter 7
seven
Kaiden
The next couple of weeks passed without incident.
A tentative routine emerged, where I balanced my busy human schedule with my remote heir duties and hunting with Ez.
Searching for the djinn and their traps carried on until late each night, and I was glad I didn’t have to take classes this semester to keep up the charade.
It wouldn’t leave much time for interrogation.
The djinn were still here, but as of late, none were smart or bold enough to do more than lay a trap or two.
Thank the gods. Traps were easy enough for Ez and me to dismantle—we were pros at it by now, as well as at finding the source caster and eliminating them.
I had more blood on my hands than ever before, but I couldn’t find it in me to be bothered by it.
It was worth it. All of it. Every mark against my soul, I’d gladly bear to protect the innocent girl across from me.
Her head, full of dark curls, was unbound and spilling across the desk as she leaned over the worksheet.
I didn’t have to see her face to know her brow was pinched in concentration and her bottom lip was pinned between her top and bottom incisors. She was a hard worker—a fact I was already aware of—and our weekly sessions were fruitful because of the effort she put into them. It made me proud.
I watched her flip the page and start on the next set of problems, and wondered how long we could keep going like this. It wasn’t sustainable, hunting the djinn while she continued, unknowing about the dangers after her, and the bond who was right here, protecting her from them all.
“This equation isn’t balanced.” I couldn’t resist reaching across the desk and brushing my hand over hers as I pointed at the paper.
That spark that was always there when we touched had grown stronger.
We were in the beginning stages of our bond, and only more contact—more intimate contact—would solidify it.
“You need to revise the amount of reactants and products to get the same number of atoms of the given element on each side. Try again.”
She scanned the problem but didn’t move her pen.
I pointed at the unbalanced element, my fingertip grazing her again.
A sharp intake of breath, and she looked up.
My smile was innocent, and she shook her head before returning her focus to the problem at hand.
The plan was working. I wanted my little bond to be comfortable with me.
It was an infuriatingly slow process, one I found difficult to hold on to.
Take now, for example, those two small touches made Eryn restless in her seat, her thighs shifting in need and confusion as her mind tried to figure out what her body already knew.
What my own body screamed out for. Connection.
To drag her over this desk and ravage her until she left here with my mark permanently etched upon her skin.
Each day, the bond pulled harder, but not yet.
Physically, I knew she wanted me. I could practically taste her need, but mentally, she still resisted.
And the exchanges that came from that resistance… Gods. It was the best kind of foreplay.
“Are you sure you don’t mind dropping me off at my dorm?” she asked, packing her bag.
It was an effort not to roll my eyes. “Seeing as how it was my idea in the first place, I’m sure.”
I locked my office door behind her, and we wound our way through the labyrinth of halls to the parking lot stairwell. She walked beside me with an ease that wasn’t there last month when fate continuously threw us together. Now, all our interactions were intentional—at least on my part.
“I was just checking,” she mumbled, but dutifully followed me to the truck, which was already warm and running thanks to the remote start.
“Were the past two weeks of me escorting you not enough proof?” I pulled out of the lot but kept the speed below ten. It still only took five minutes to reach her dorm. “I don’t know how else to prove to you that I enjoy your company. Maybe I should ask Ezra for a few pointers.”
Her laugh was unrestrained and quick, and I smiled, having accomplished my goal.
“Please don’t,” she said, still giggling. “He’s not who I’d recommend you take advice from.”
My poor cousin was completely enamored with my bond’s roommate.
It was almost to the point of obsession, but I didn’t think Rani was even aware.
She wouldn’t give him the time of day, a reaction Ez wasn’t used to.
Their interactions were a never-ending source of amusement, and my impression of the girl went up every time she sent my cousin packing.
I parked along the curb, directly in front of the entrance to the dorms.
“I’ll wait here until you get inside,” I told her, even though I didn’t have to. It was routine at this point.
Snowflakes littered the windshield, growing heavier as we watched.
Eryn stared at them with a wonder I never got tired of seeing; it lit her up from the inside.
She cracked the door and shivered, my hoodie doing literally nothing to protect her.
Neither one of us commented on my lost article of clothing anymore, it was basically hers now, and as much as I loved her in it, it drove me crazy when it was the only thing she wore besides those ass-hugging leggings.
“You know, you could probably enjoy the snow if you wore something thicker than that.”
She sighed and pulled back inside the cab to look at me. Her arms crossed as she settled in the passenger seat once more.
“It’s not that bad.”
“Your constant shivering says otherwise,” I argued, jaw clenched.
“I spend like a total of two seconds outside.” She threw her hands up in exasperation. “I go from inside, to the shuttle, to back inside, to your truck, to back inside. Why would I change the hoodie for that?”
I felt a smirk curl across my lips. “I can give you something else of mine if you’ll wear it instead.”
“T-that’s not why I wear the damn hoodie,” she sputtered, obviously flustered. “It’s comfortable.”
“Right. Whatever you need to tell yourself, princess.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
Laughing would do nothing but piss her off more, but her denial was cute as hell. I pushed back from the steering wheel to lean against the center console and made sure she knew she had my full attention. “I’m not going to spell it out for you.”
“Spell what out?”
Now I did laugh. “When you’re ready to admit it, I’ll be here.”
“Admit what?” she shouted.
My smile dropped as I stared at her, ensnaring her with a look.
I noticed every little reaction; her delicate throat bobbing; the color blooming across her cheeks.
She squirmed in her seat as I leaned closer but didn’t pull away.
Slowly, I reached out to tuck a strand of hair behind her ear, and she shivered again.
This one had nothing to do with the weather.
She could deny it all she wanted, but I knew she was affected by me.
It wasn’t a one-way street. The front of my jeans grew tight as her arousal echoed down the bond to flirt with mine.
This was a dangerous game, seeing who would break first. I wanted nothing more than to close the slight distance between us and kiss her until she couldn’t form enough thoughts to deny me any longer.
Instead, I cupped the side of her face, my fingers spanning her jaw, with my thumb resting lightly on her lower lip. My dick jumped as I watched her pupils dilate. She held her breath when I brushed my thumb over the plump skin, and her tongue darted out, nearly touching my finger.
I groaned, “That. You know exactly what I’m talking about.” I pulled away in one motion and smirked at how she swayed after me, not ready to give up my touch. “I’ll see you Thursday for our next appointment.”
I sped out of there the second she was safe inside the dorm.
Any longer, and I would have chased her up those stairs and taken that kiss she so willingly offered.
My alluring bond consumed my thoughts all the way back to the apartment, the entire time I cooked and ate my dinner, and haunted me as I tried to grade the most recent batch of papers.
So much had changed in a month, and all because of her.
I lived my life between one moment and the next until I got to see her again.
Two days. Hopefully, some djinn were feeling brave this week, and I could distract myself with hunting them.
The gentle knock against my mirror broke me from my plans of informative torture, and I reached over to remove the cloth covering the glass.
My mother sat prim and proper in the center, her image taking up the whole frame.
“Hi, Mom.”
“Darling,” she replied. “How is it going? Have you consummated the bond?”
I rolled my eyes, but not where she could see. My mother hated it. “I already told you, I’m taking it slow. She still doesn’t know who I really am.”
I felt her annoyance through time and space. It wasn’t the answer she wanted to hear. Short of, “I’m on my way home with my obedient bond in tow,” nothing would satisfy her.
“The longer you stay there, the more danger you both will be in. The djinn will grow bolder, son.”
I was counting on it. The childish illusions they planted were hardly a challenge. And truthfully, there was no way around it anyway. I couldn’t think of a way to break the news to Eryn that wouldn’t make her hate me or run.
“We’re handling the djinn,” I told my mother. Did she think we were sitting on our asses all day?
“There’s also a growing list of neglected duties that are festering in your absence.”
I held in my growl of frustration. She wouldn’t move me on her timeline. This was my life. My responsibility.
“My duty right now is to my bond. She’s more important than anything else.” I met my mother’s cool gaze and refused to back down. “Sage can handle whatever needs to be done while I’m gone.”
She scoffed, “Your sister is far too irresponsible to handle these matters.”