Chapter 25
Chapter Twenty-Five
Shit. I need to shut this down. Fast.
Before I can voice my protest, Olive claps her hands. “She does! She does have a crush. I can tell.” She points at me. “Admit it. You like him. You like our hot, cranky flight instructor.”
My face heats. “What are we, five? And please. Just because I pointed out that Thorne takes good care of the alicorns…which is literally part of his job, by the way…that doesn’t mean I have a crush on him. He’s my instructor.”
My former best friend at Flighthaven scoffs. “Oh, please. As if half the class wouldn’t climb that man like a tree if the opportunity presented itself.”
Abel raises his hand. “Sign me up.”
His comment catches me off guard. “Really? You’re into…” At the last second, I realize the incredible rudeness of my question and switch gears. “Uh, him?”
Mortified, I duck my head. Great. Abel probably thinks I’m one of those people who cares if men are attracted to other men or women love other women when nothing could be further from the truth. To me, finding someone you adore to share your life with, someone who adores you right back, sounds like the most wonderful thing there is. Man. Woman. Neither. Both. I don’t care. All I know for sure is that loneliness sucks.
I breathe a relieved sigh when Abel responds without taking offense. “Him, definitely. The grumpy bit actually kind of does it for me. And other men…or women. Depends on the person.”
I nod. “That’s cool.”
Nick groans. “Ugh. Stop. The guy sucks. Though you might be onto something. Maybe if he spent less time sleeping in the stable with the alicorns and more time getting laid, he’d remember how to smile.”
Olive winks. “Oh, please. Have you seen the way Instructor x salivates over him? I’m sure that man’s getting plenty of action.”
I hate how her statement prompts me to suck in a pained breath. I loathe the idea of Thorne and her rolling around naked in bed together even more.
Digging my nails into my palm, I force myself to focus. Thorne’s nighttime activities are none of my concern. I have more important things to worry about than who my hot flight instructor likes to play hide the sausage with. “So you think he keeps the tokens in that room?”
“Probably.” Nick frowns. “These are kind of weird questions for truth or dare. Usually it’s stuff like, ‘what’s your most embarrassing moment ever,’ or ‘who on campus do you want to bang.’”
Nope. No way in hells will I be answering that last one. I figure, until I verbally admit my attraction to Thorne, I can retain plausible deniability. “My bad. I told you I’ve never played before.”
Based on Abel’s narrowed eyes, I’m not sure my innocent expression has fooled anyone. Luckily, Nick jumps in before I squirm too much. “Olive, truth or dare?”
I wait another round before whispering in Olive’s ear. Then wait an additional two rounds for Olive to point at me. “This time, I’ll take dare.”
Nick whoops. Olive claps. Abel sips his whiskey, far too sober for comfort.
Oh, well. Too late to worry about that now. Facing Olive, I pray she remembers what I told her a few rounds ago.
At first, she hems and haws, and my shoulders sink. In the next breath, she brightens and cackles. “Oh, I’ve got a good one! Lark, your dare is to sneak into Sterling Hottie-Pants Thorne’s room and steal one of those off-campus tokens.”
With an animated gasp, I do my best to feign shock. “ What ? Are you nuts?”
A swaying Nick grins. “What’s the matter, Axton? Are you chicken?” He tucks his hands into his armpits and flaps his elbows, clucking and scratching at the ground with his boot.
After dissolving into a fit of giggles, Olive throws back her head and yodels. “Cock-a-doodle-do!”
Aclaris’s finest right here, ladies and gentlemen. If this is all that’s standing between our kingdom and the Tirenese, we might be screwed.
Abel shakes his head. “This is just plain sad.”
“Agreed.” I huff out a laugh. “But fine, I’ll do it.”
While far from foolproof, using our little game of truth and dare as a cover story if Thorne catches me in the act is better than nothing.
“Go on then.” Nick shoos me away. “You don’t have all night.”
“Okay. Here I go.”
Olive gives me a drunken wave. “Don’t get caught.”
When I glance at Abel, he winks. “And if you do, just tell him you came for a good dicking down.”
I splutter while Olive busts out laughing. Abel and Nick both shush her. “You guys are the worst,” I hiss.
With Abel’s comment ringing in my head and a mild but pleasant whiskey buzz injecting me with liquid courage, I leave the building and head toward the alicorn stable. My trek across the grounds proves uneventful, the few recruits I pass paying me no attention.
Once there, I peek inside the door, my eyes taking a moment to adjust to the dim lights. A shiny black alicorn in a stall near the entrance lifts its head, ears swiveling toward me and nostrils flaring.
Swallowing hard, I creep into the building. With no sign of Thorne, I head to the far end of the stable, searching for the room Nick and Abel described.
Just like they said, I find the place past a row of stalls. Despite my daily training sessions and flight lessons, I’ve never paid much attention to the plain, unassuming door that I figured led to some sort of storage space or supply area.
With a deep breath, I perform another quick scan. What if Thorne’s inside?
Only one way to find out.
Steeling my courage, I give a soft knock and wait. No answer. I tap on the door again and press my ear to the wood.
No response.
Fingers trembling, I reach for the handle. It turns with no resistance, and the door opens with only the tiniest creak. A weak light illuminates the small space. Head buzzing, I tiptoe inside, hardly daring to breathe.
Thorne’s lingering scent draws me into the sparse, functional room. Pushed against the right wall is a small, neatly made cot. A bedside table with a lantern on top occupies a spot near the pillow. On the opposite side of the room stands a small desk and chair, with a single shelf laden with books above the desk. A worn wooden armoire is tucked away in the rear left corner.
Thanks to Thorne’s orderliness, the search progresses with ease. I make quick work of the desk, bedside table, and cot but find nothing. I move to the armoire next.
Through the cracked right door, a silver glimmer catches my eye.
Heart pounding, I push the door open wider. A small metal box sits on an interior shelf, the contents spilling out from the open lid. Silver, gold, and bronze coins…thin silver chains. Cream-colored papers sealed with wax bearing some kind of crest.
Peering closer, I discover the silver chains aren’t chains at all, but ribbons threaded through tiny holes in the bronze coins. Some appear long enough to wrap around an alicorn’s neck. Sure enough, when I pick one up, I spot the word Flighthaven stamped into the metal. Score.
Quickly pocketing two, my attention snags on the papers. What could those be? Curious, I stroke the thick parchment with my fingertips.
A hand clamps down on my shoulder. “What do you think you’re doing in my room?”
Air punches from my lungs. This is bad. Very, very bad. I’m going to be in so much trouble.
Nerves mix with the heady feeling from the alcohol as I whirl to face Instructor Thorne. “I…” The words die on my lips.
He’s shirtless, a pair of loose black pants slung low over his hips.
Holy hells.
Heat engulfs me, torching my throat and blazing a trail down to my lower belly. This time, I don’t think I can blame the burn on the whiskey.
Underneath his bronzed skin, honed muscles ripple, displaying every hard plane and line of his body. The faded scars painting his chest and stomach add to his appeal. Two lines near his hips form cut in to form a V shape and dip below his waistband. I follow the trajectory of those lines, swallowing hard. He’s…absolutely magnificent.
“Axton. I asked you a question.”
My head jerks up. “I…um…you did?”
A hint of amusement flits across his face. “I’ll ask you again. What are you doing in the room at this time of night?”
Oh. Right. That question.
Instead of a suitable response, Abel’s voice echoes in my mind. I try to snuff it out and end up pleading with myself.
Oh, gods, no. Do not say dicking down. Repeat, do no say dicking down.
Perspiration dots my scalp as I fumble for an excuse. What’s my cover story again? The answer evades me thanks to Thorne’s half-dressed state scrambling my brain. Since my thoughts refuse to cooperate, I blurt out the next thing that pops in my head. “I was going for a walk…and I thought I’d visit the alicorns.”
Immediately, I want to go back in time and shove a gag in my mouth.
You? Visit the alicorns, in the middle of the night no less? I suppress a groan at my pitiful explanation.
“Right.” Thorne’s mouth tips up in a smirk. “Because you’re so fond of them.”
I cast a longing glance at the door. “I never said I wasn’t fond of them.”
“Pretty certain that was exactly what you meant when you fainted and later bailed from Zephyr’s back. And that still doesn’t explain why you’re in my room.”
“Um.” My attention drifts back to his sculpted abdominals, and I lose my train of thought. “Well, I?—”
“Have you been drinking?” Thorne inches closer, dipping his face toward mine and sniffing. “You have.”
I must have ingested more alcohol than I realized, because something is messing with my head. It’s definitely not the so-sexy-it-should-be-illegal instructor’s nearness.
Say yes. Tell him you’re drunk and then run away.
Instead, I tilt my chin up, standing on my toes to whisper in his ear. “There’s only one way for you to know for sure.”
He jolts when my lips brush the shell of his ear, and my breath catches in my throat.
Did I really just say that?
Thorne rears back like I’ve burned him, his dark gaze full of shadows and desire.
I lick my lips, and he groans. My stomach dips at the hungry noise.
For a small eternity, we stand there staring at each other, neither of us moving or saying a word.
Thorne breaks the silence first. “We can’t do this.”
“I know.”
“This is a terrible idea.”
“The worst.”
I wet my lips again, and he releases a ragged breath. “ Fuck it .”
Before I comprehend what’s happening, he winds my braid around his fist and tugs, yanking my head back.
And then his mouth slams into mine.
There are a thousand reasons why this is a bad idea, but the moment our lips touch, I don’t care about a single one.
Thorne cups my chin, angling my head to deepen the kiss. I savor the taste of him. The sensation of his hard body pushing against mine. The delicious heat radiating from his skin.
I gasp as he presses closer against me, my lips parting as he cradles my neck. With expert strokes, he explores my mouth with his tongue, devouring me like he’s starving and I’m his only sustenance.
He tastes like danger and whiskey, and I can’t tell if he’s been drinking too. Reaching up, I run my fingers through hair every bit as soft and silky as it looks.
This is utter insanity. And I never want it to end.
Something raw and primitive rises inside me. I skim my tongue over his bottom lip, then draw it into my mouth and gently bite down. He groans again, cupping my ass and tugging me so close that there’s no space between us.
Pleasure coils low in my belly. I grind my pelvis against him, and his hips rock into me as he kisses me harder. A moan escapes me. I lower my hands to his shoulders, my fingers tracing the curves and dips of his back.
Thorne stills under my touch. In the next heartbeat, he jerks away, retreating until he’s no longer within reach. I instantly miss the warmth of him. The demanding press of his lips on mine.
Cursing, he rakes a hand through his hair.
I know I should regret what we did, but no part of me does. Not in the slightest. Kissing him was reckless and forbidden, and I could get in all kinds of trouble for doing so. We both could.
And I’d still do it again in a second.
“This was a mistake.” He clenches his jaw, and a hardness creeps into his features. “It will never happen again.”
The words pummel me. I do everything in my power not to flinch.
His hot one minute, cold the next act gives me whiplash.
I struggle to keep the hurt from my voice. “It didn’t feel like a mistake to me.”
“Well, that’s exactly what it was. You just caught me in a moment of…weakness.”
Anger replaces the hurt, and my temperature begins to rise. “You were the one who came in here like…like this .” I gesture to his bare torso.
He raises an eyebrow. “Like what?”
“Half-naked.” Despite the heat creeping up my neck, I meet his gaze.
“It’s my room. And you were the last person I expected to find in here. So you’re going to tell me, Duchess ,” he levels me with a steely glare, “what you were doing in my room in the middle of the night.”
Right. I did sort of barge into his private space. Uninvited. But how can I tell him why I was sneaking around in his room?
Once again, Abel’s advice taunts me, and once again, I push the thought away. Maybe pretending like I snuck in hoping to get lucky is the smart move, but my pride refuses to go there. Not after he just finished saying that kissing me was a terrible mistake.
Exhaling, I settle on telling him a partial truth. “We were playing a drinking game, and I was dared to come in here. That’s all.” When he says nothing, I ramble on. “I never would have come in here otherwise. I swear.”
“I see.”
Having no idea what else to say, I start to head for the door. Two steps away from freedom, I spin to face him. “Do you think the king would send his men to assassinate someone for defecting?”
His forehead creases in surprise but really, he can’t be more surprised than me. I have no idea where that came from.
Thorne doesn’t speak for several moments, his expression unreadable. “You would be shocked at the awful things a king orders his people to do.”
“Why, though? Why would he do anything like that?” I shake my head. “He’s always been good to my family.”
Thorne’s face darkens with anger, and he narrows his eyes. “Thank you for that reminder.”
“Wait, what?”
Grabbing my arm, he half drags me toward the door. “And should you get the notion to hook up with someone, I suggest you go find a fellow recruit.” He opens the door. “Because I’m not on the menu.”
Fury burns inside me. I want to punch the condescending look off of his beautiful face. “Don’t flatter yourself. You’re the last person I want to hook up with.”
“Could’ve fooled me five minutes ago.” Lip curling into a sneer, he gives me a shove and closes the door.
Seething, I take off for the dorm without glancing back. Good riddance. No one in their right mind would want to kiss such an obnoxious, egotistical bonehead.
My stinging eyes, though, tell a different story.