Chapter 35
Chapter Thirty-Five
When our mouths first collide, shock holds me captive, molding me into a frozen doll. With a single lick of his tongue along the seam of my lips, he brings me back to life.
Heat. Desire. Need. All three course through my veins and ignite my blood like dragonfire. I part my lips, moaning as his tongue strokes mine in a kiss equal parts seductive and dominant.
Closer. I need him closer.
Pushing up on my toes, I wind my arms around his neck. He grabs my loosened braid, tugging my head back for just the right angle to ravish my mouth. I love the taste of him. His scent. The way he takes command. How every plunge of his tongue shoots another bolt of lust between my thighs.
Returning his kiss eagerly, I suck his tongue into my mouth, thrilled by his needy groan. His lips brush against my jaw before they trail down the side of my throat. He presses a feather-light kiss to the juncture between my neck and shoulder before biting down. The sharp pain pulls a whine from me. He soothes the sting with his tongue, and I moan, the unexpected show of possessiveness turning my body molten.
Thorne continues his sensual exploration, nipping and sucking his way to the sensitive spot just above my collarbone. Liquid heat pools in my core as he grips my hips and pulls me toward him so that there’s no space between us. It’s still not close enough.
Like a damn mind reader, he palms my ass and rocks his hips. The hard length of his arousal presses against the spot where I need him most, triggering an intense burst of pleasure with every strike.
Oh gods. “I need…” I squeeze my eyes shut.
“Tell me, Duchess. Tell me what you need.” He punctuates each word with a kiss at the corner of my mouth.
“You.” I gasp when he nips at my lip. “I need…you.”
Thorne cups the nape of my neck, and my eyes flutter open. “Are you certain?”
I’ve never been more sure of anything in my life. “Yes.”
His answering groan is guttural. Primal. “Then let me take care of you.”
My desire for this man far outweighs the niggling sense of doubt at the edges of my mind. If we get caught, the consequences will be disastrous.
Damn the consequences.
For these stolen moments, he’s mine .
Our mouths collide once more as he slides a hand between us. He snags the front of my pants, undoing the top button with deft fingers and kissing me like we’ll only ever have this brief time together.
And maybe that’s true.
But I can’t think about that right now. About what will happen tomorrow or next week or next month. About…anything. Right now, I only want to feel.
“I tried to do the right thing.” He flicks another button open. “Tried to stay away.” A third button. “Tried not to get sucked in by those beautiful eyes and that fierce spirit. I did my best to push you away, but you kept coming back and tearing down my defenses like they were made of parchment.”
The final button bursts open, and anticipation coils low in my belly as his hand eases beneath the top edge of my undergarment and slides south. Dips lower and lower, until I stop breathing. Stop moving. Until every nerve in my body feels as taut as a guitar string dying to be plucked.
I’m wound so tight that when his fingers brush that bundle of nerves, I jerk as if struck by lightning.
His hand stills. “Is this okay?”
I nod. More than okay. Perfect. But my brain’s too hazy to communicate any of those thoughts.
Thorne presses a soft kiss to my forehead. “Going to need to hear you say the words, Duchess.”
He leans his head back, and in a haze, I stare into his eyes. “I…” What was the question?
Concern clouds his gaze. His hand starts to ease away.
I clasp his wrist. “Don’t stop…please.”
The concerned expression morphs into a wicked one. “Since you asked so nicely…”
His hand slides back down. Grinding his palm against my clit, he plunges a finger inside me.
White-hot-pleasure courses through me, making me pant. I arch my back, and through our clothing, the sensitive peaks of my breasts brush against his hard, warm body.
“Fuck.” The word is a low growl. “You’re so wet.”
His words—hells, his actions —should embarrass me, but the rightness of this moment crowds out all room for shame. A connection too strong to resist.
Another finger slips inside me. My body is on fire as he teases me with light touches. My hands slide to his shoulders, curling into the soft material of his shirt as my hips rock on his fingers.
His strokes grow frenzied as his mouth finds mine again. There’s nothing practiced or controlled about our kisses. They’re hungry, raw, full of need.
He circles my clit with his thumb and draws my lower lip between his teeth. Every fiber of my body responds. The tension in my lower belly builds.
If something doesn’t happen soon, I’m going to combust.
“I,” my voice is breathy and foreign, “don’t think?—”
“Don’t think.” He kisses the sensitive spot just below my ear. “Just let go.”
His thumb moves in small circles, winding me tighter and tighter until I teeter at the breaking point. His teeth skim my throat. With a final, firm press of his thumb and a sharp nip at my flesh, I hurtle over the cliff, the tension exploding as pleasure pulses through me in waves. I cry out his name. I’m falling, floating, and I don’t ever want to be pulled back in.
“So fucking perfect.” Thorne’s fingers slow, then ease out of me. “Keeping my hands off you has been killing me.”
It takes a few moments for the pleasure-induced fog to clear before my brain can form words. “Then maybe stop trying.”
He half laughs, half groans. “You make it sound so simple.”
After buttoning up my pants, he wraps his arms around my waist and pulls me closer, brushing his lips across mine. His erection pokes my belly. I reach for him, wrapping a hand around the hard ridge tenting his pants. He groans and rocks into my palm once before gently tugging my hand away. “Not now. I need to go back to make a report or else someone will come looking.”
It takes me a second to make the connection. Elijah and Mark. The fire. “Oh, right.”
Everything comes rushing back. To my utter horror, my nose starts to burn, and my lip quivers. My eyes mist with tears. I try to blink them away, but they spill over, dripping down my cheeks as a sob climbs up my throat. “I’m s…sorry. I don’t…it’s just…I was so sc…scared.”
With more tenderness than I knew he possessed, Thorne wraps me in his arms and presses his lips to the top of my head. “Shh. I know you were, but it’s okay. You’re okay now. You did great.”
I cry into his shirt, clutching the fabric like it’s the only thing holding me together. “I c…could have k…killed someone.”
He strokes a soothing palm down my back. “But you didn’t. If anything, you saved someone. Multiple someones. Left to my own devices, I would have happily frozen Durand and Levine solid and then watched with a smile on my face as I shattered them into thousands of tiny pieces.”
That brutal visual disturbs me enough to stop my crying. He doesn’t sound like he’s joking, either. He must be, though, because what he just described isn’t even possible. Is it?
Sniffling, I decide not to ask. It’s the thought that counts, and the violence of Thorne’s reaction tells me he cares.
I frown. This is the second time he’s come to my defense like this. While I appreciate his protectiveness, the fact that he had to step in makes me feel weak. “I can’t keep relying on you to save me from them. I need to be able to defend myself.”
He pulls away, using his hand to lift my chin. “Your brain must still be foggy from all that moaning you did a few minutes ago, so let me give your memory a little nudge. From what I saw, you were doing fine all on your own defending yourself from those two guttersnipes. You learned from that first experience and let your power out to play this time around.”
Blinking, I realize he’s right. I did defend myself against Elijah and Mark. “Okay. But now I need to learn how to control my power.”
He nods. “So you work on control. I don’t see that being an issue for you when you managed to control it so quickly with only minor prompting from me.”
“Let’s be real, Thorne. You helped by using your own magic to subdue mine.”
He shakes his head. “I merely bought you some time to rein yours in, which you did. And when we’re alone, you can call me Sterling.” With his thumbs, he gently swipes the dampness from beneath my eyes before cupping my cheeks. “Do you have any idea how magnificent you are?”
His husky, reverential rasp loosens the knot in my chest and fills me with a warm glow. The praise heats my cheeks, and I can only imagine the lovely shade of pink my skin’s become.
Thorne’s—no, Sterling’s — eyes bounce between mine, as if waiting for me to respond, but I have no idea what to say. What’s the correct reply to a question like that? Yes, of course I know how magnificent I am. Talk about arrogant. No, I have no idea, but feel free to tell me what magnificence level you rate me at on a scale of one to ten. Fishing for compliments, anyone? And maybe sounds unbearably coy.
So I say nothing, keeping my mouth shut and watching his grin grow. “Who knew that complimenting you was the secret to shutting you up all along?”
I give his chest a playful shove. “Please, Sterling . I’m only shutting up because I’m drained.”
That makes him sober up. “Right. We should head back. When we report in, follow my lead. I think it’s best if we try to keep the scope of your power under wraps for now. Give yourself time to work with it more and have better control before advertising it.”
“But Elijah and the others?—”
“Will be easy enough to discredit since people will believe they exaggerated your abilities in order to make themselves look less weak.”
“Okay, but what about Olive and?—”
“I already had a quick word with your flight unit. They’re part of your team and seemed happy enough to keep quiet.” His expression turns stony. “As for that little creep who dared to kiss you, he’d best keep his mouth shut.”
I open my mouth to protest his claim that Theo’s a creep. Close it when I notice his body stiffen. As much as his show of jealousy inspires a tiny thrill within me, I’d rather not push him, and I’m pretty sure Theo would agree. “I’m sure he will.”
“Good.” His demeanor softens. “You really should be proud of yourself. You’ve come a long way since day one. I’ll be the first to admit that I had my doubts about your ability to succeed here, but you proved me wrong. A rare event for me.”
I pat his chest. “You know, you really need to get that modesty issue checked out. As in, I think somebody stole yours.”
He traps my hand beneath his. “Deflecting another compliment, I see. I guess that just means I’ll need to give you more until you get used to them. For example, you make the sweetest, sexiest little moans when I touch your?—”
With a yelp, I clap my free hand over his mouth. “Okay, okay, I get the picture. Didn’t you say it was time to go?”
He nips my finger to get me to remove my hand. “So I did.”
Thorne leaves the playful, passionate, and sweet lover persona in the cave. With every step toward campus, I can feel him detaching himself from me more and more. By the time we meet with Torno and Resnick to relay the incident, his aloof, grumpy instructor mask has returned in full force.
His act is so convincing, even I’m tempted to believe I’m nothing to him but an annoying student.
Doubts surface, but I push them away. I don’t like leaving things this way, but with faculty observing, I have no choice other than to smile and bear it. At least Helene’s presence in our dorm room keeps Olive from pestering me with questions. Later in my bed, Thorne’s words replay in my head. I’m startled to realize that I’ve shown huge improvements beyond flying, strength, weapons, and magic. With the lowered doses of magic suppressant, my dizzy and weak spells have declined too. That alone bolsters my confidence.
In fact, now that I think about it, my dizzy and weak spells seem to disappear and weaken in direct proportion to my dosage. Is it possible the remedy caused them in the first place? And if so, did my mother know?
Betrayal rises in my throat, flooding my mouth with bitterness. No. I can’t believe Mother would do something so awful. And for what purpose? What could she possibly get from making me believe I was too fragile to leave home?