Chapter 20 #3
Rowan blinks. “You cannot be serious.”
“I’m trying to understand what happened.”
“After watching every woman in the room throw herself at you and your cousins, you’re asking me if there was another guy?”
A grin spreads across my face. “Little mouse, are you jealous?”
The tips of Rowan’s ears turn pink. “I’m questioning your taste, is all.”
Suppressing a completely justified urge to fist-pump the air, I drag myself back to the actual problem. Rowan blushing is adorable, but it doesn’t explain why I found him half-dead on a stone floor.
My grin fades. “Seriously, Rowan. When I found you up there, you looked terrified.”
He looks away, staring down into the coffee. “The room. The guests. The guards. Everyone watching everyone.” His fingers tighten around the mug. “Your world feels like a place where everyone already knows the rules except me.”
“Then why keep digging?” I study him, the way he looks small and yet defiant pinned beneath me.
Silence stretches between us beneath the rain and the slow sound of Rowan’s breathing.
Then I lean down, my mouth hovering just above the sticky glint on his throat before I lick the juice from his skin.
Rowan’s head falls back, the mug nearly slipping from his hand. I catch his throat and force his gaze back to mine, pressing against him just enough to drag a broken breath from his mouth. For a second, I keep him exactly where I want him.
Fuck, I love the way he pants, the way his body shudders each time our bodies connect.
“Don’t take me for a fool, little mouse,” I murmur, then drive my hips against his again, forcing his focus to stay on the heat between us.
“You disappear in the middle of the night, sneak through restricted parts of the academy, nearly kill yourself chasing whatever this is, and then expect me to believe you just got lost?”
He twists beneath me like he’s actually considering making a run for it, one hand pushing weakly against my chest.
“Uh-uh. Whatever you’re thinking is not gonna happen.” I pinch his jaw between my fingers and jerk his head back up. “Playtime’s over, mouse. Tell me what you’re looking for.”
Rowan glares at me a second longer, chest rising sharply beneath me like he’s still debating whether to fight or run.
Then something in him gives. His eyes flick away, and I find myself staring at his lips, eager to find out what he’s going to say next. If he lies again, I swear I’ll punish him here and now, concussion or not.
His cock jerks when I press him deeper into the mattress, encouraging him to take his time but hurry the fuck up.
Then his gaze drops, and he murmurs, “It started back home.”
“What, in Düren?” The words leave me flatter than I intended. Honestly, I don’t know what the fuck I was expecting, but it definitely wasn’t that.
“Yeah. People disappear there all the time.” He swallows hard before adding, “I lost something. I thought maybe I could find answers here.”
I lean in closer, my breath hot against his ear. “And you think you can find it here on Sero?”
He shrugs, then pants when my fingers around his throat tighten.
“Come on, Rowan. Just tell me the fucking truth. What are you hiding?”
Keep an eye on him.
I think of Dad. Of specifically telling him whoever he’s looking for ain’t Rowan. And now my little mouse is talking about Düren and something he lost while trembling beneath me like he doesn’t realize those are exactly the sort of secrets people kill themselves protecting.
“Hmm?” Clenching his throat shut, I tip up his head with my teeth. “Answer me.”
“I don’t know! I—”
The rest of the words are smothered when he slams his lips to mine.
We clash together in a frenzy of teeth and tongue and swallowed moans as I lick deeper into his mouth.
Rowan’s hips roll up, and his hand lifts to mine, still wrapped around his throat, and he fucking squeezes it like he wants more pressure.
“Zoryan—”
The word slips out broken and breathless against my mouth, unfamiliar enough that I actually pause. It lands somewhere dangerous inside me, feeding every possessive instinct I’ve been trying not to name before Rowan drags me back into the kiss.
Fuck… did I hear that correctly?
The thought barely lands before his breathing shudders against my palm. I kiss him deeper, rougher now, my mouth ravaging his while his fingers stay tangled with mine against his throat. He tastes of sin and unexpected danger.
What if I’m wrong and Rowan Ashford isn’t just a mystery? What if he’s guilty of something too?
I like that thought way too much.
“Well, little mouse. I guess we’ll just have to find whatever you lost.”
Before he can answer, I grab his waist and roll us over in one smooth movement until I’m flat on my back with Rowan straddling me instead, wide-eyed and breathless above me.
“Looks like you’re stuck with me now, little mouse.” I hook my fingers into the waistband of his sweatpants and grin. “Because if somebody buried something of yours, I’m very interested in digging.”
“That sounds illegal.”
I smirk. “Crime is one of my better qualities.”