Chapter 3 Evira #2
And then he took an aggressive step closer and growled down at me, “You are mine and I will pursue you as mine. I gave you space to get your head on straight. But you never came to me. Likely a result of Torvek whispering in your ear. But you’re finally away from him now, so we have our second chance. ”
“Our situation has nothing to do with him. It’s you. What you tried to do to me, and your attitude in general toward women—especially those who are more powerful than you.”
He sneered. “More powerful? You really think that?”
“I know it.”
“You need a guiding hand, Evira. You’re set to take command after these four years are done. You’ll need somebody like me to deal with such things. You’ve already got the looking pretty thing going and I’ll take care of the rest.”
I clenched my fist, seconds away from calling my power and smashing it into his face, which would fucking well break it upon impact.
But then slithering shadows caught my attention, wrapping around my feet, swirling higher, faster and faster, until I was caught up in a funnel cloud.
I heard Keuric yelling in worry and surprise.
A spark of white power in front of him sent him careening through the open doors of Combat Conclave.
Before I could see anything else, the funnel took me, my surroundings slipping away.
I blinked and pushed at the shadows.
They began fading away, and then I found myself on a balcony of one of the dorms.
When they fully dissipated, I sucked in a breath as I saw Winter standing there smiling kindly at me.
“I’m sorry.”
Those were his first words to me?
He was apologizing? If anything, it should be the other way around.
How was he so… gentle? So incredibly sweet? No matter what?
I swallowed hard, the emotion of it threatening to get the best of me. And, yeah, I guess I was a little shaken from the Keuric thing—a little. I wasn’t a weakling.
“Sorry?” I managed to get out.
“Wrapping my shadows around you like that without your agreement. I didn’t see another way to avoid a public spectacle that would have drawn everyone’s attention, likely that of the administration too.
If you’d thrown that punch, you would have shattered bone and the architectural elements in the immediate vicinity as well.
While they can bounce back almost immediately with the protection spells running through this place, it would have definitely put you in the spotlight, which I know you hate. ”
I smiled. “No apologies needed. Thanks for doing that, lovely.”
He flinched. I wasn’t surprised considering the last time he’d heard that endearment out of my mouth had been while we were… together that night.
Fuck. I cleared my throat. “Winter, I mean.”
“It’s all okay.” He winked at me. “Little dragon.”
I chuckled. “Well, that’s one way to diffuse the awkwardness.”
“That was definitely my intent.” He shifted his weight and folded his arms across his chest, that mirth slipping away all too quickly. “Speaking of intent, Keuric being here is concerning. As was his conversation with you.”
“You heard all that?” He didn’t have supernatural hearing.
“Christalyn did.”
“She was also the one who blasted him into Combat Conclave, right?”
“Yes. I asked her to. Not that she really needed me to after she heard what he was saying to you—and threatening you with.”
“I appreciate it. When I see her again, I’ll thank her.”
“Evira, you know that’s not what I’m getting at.”
“I do know. But it’s okay. I’ll see to that bastard. Don’t worry.”
He worked his jaw, clearly not reassured enough.
But then he gave a nod. “Understood.”
I shifted my weight. “It’s nice seeing you again, Winter. I was on my way to say hello when that fool stepped into my path.”
“It’s nice seeing you, too.”
We stared at one another for a moment.
“Are we… good?” I asked.
“Would I have intervened back there if we weren’t?”
I gave him a look. “Um, yes. You definitely would have. Because that’s what you do, who you are. You care about everyone and if you see something wrong, you sort it.”
“Yep. That’s my overinflated sense of justice interfering in everyone’s lives.”
“No. It’s not like that. You’re… perfect.”
Our gazes collided.
I heard his heart rate pick up.
He unfolded his arms and shoved them into the pockets of his hoodie, clearly using the movement to try to hide it, knowing my dragon senses would have felt it.
His gaze raked over me, lingering on my long white-silver hair, his lips lifting at the streaks of frost-blue running through it.
I remembered how he’d commented on it before, finding it striking and “full of bubbly personality”.
His gaze dipped to my fitted black corset encasing my large breasts, before bouncing right off almost immediately.
He smiled at my fur-lined leather boots with the chunky heels that my charcoal pants were tucked into, before he settled on my long, deep gray coat with the cozy fur collar that brushed the backs of my calves as I walked.
The right sleeve of my coat was pushed up a little from the kerfuffle earlier with all the swirling shadows and I saw his eyes glinting at the sight of my ice dragon markings—snowy white swirling and shimmering designs that I remembered him being very taken with that night.
He blinked, then focused very intently on just my duffel bags that I still had slung over either shoulder. “Best you get settled in. I’ll take you through my room, so you don’t have to worry about going through the crowded ground floor again.”
“Sounds good. Thanks.”
I turned as he did and headed for the sleek frosted glass door that obviously led into his room.
He opened it then went to pass through, but I did the same thing, and we collided in the doorway.
My bags dropped from my shoulders at the impact—aggravating seeing as though I’d managed to keep them on me during the shadow funnel thing.
I bent down to reach for them, only for my hand to smack into Winter’s when he tried the same thing.
His cool-to-the-touch skin fused with the same in mine.
A groan escaped him.
A raw, sexy fucking groan.
Son of a bitch.
As he went to pull away, I snagged his hand.
His eyes shot to mine.
And then I was shoving him up against the black marble-paneled wall inside the dorm room beside the balcony door, a grunt escaping him as my strength had him jarring hard.
He fisted my hair, cupping my face in the process.
And then our mouths clashed.
It was like the last time, a fucking ravishing. Lips, tongues, and teeth dueling.
My hands were under his T-shirt in the next second, gliding up and down his pecs, his abs, feeling all that rock-hard muscle, a thrill running through me as he undulated against my touch.
His hand in my hair tugged and stroked, his other sliding down to tease my nape.
The way he touched me… sure and raw. Carefully-controlled dominance. No treating me like I was fragile—it was mutual all the way with him.
I breathed in all the sandalwood, tasting him all over again, and fucking losing myself to it.
Another sexy groan escaped him as I pushed my breasts against him.
Then he was breaking the kiss and licking across the tops of them, making me cry out and throw my head back, wherein he licked and nipped at my exposed throat.
“Lovely,” I gasped, hooking my fingers in his belt.
Something shifted the moment I did.
He stilled.
And then he was pulling away entirely and moving further into his room near the bed with the steel-gray sheets and rectangular dark wood headboard. Panting, he shoved his hand through his thick hair and started shaking his head, absolutely distressed.
“Winter?”
“I can’t.”
I walked to him, but he held up his hand, discouraging my approach.
“I can’t… not again. First Zayn… now you again… I can’t.”
“Zayn? You’re still seeing him?”
His gaze shot to mine. “Not seeing him.”
“Fine, you’re still fuck buddies, then? The night you and I hooked up when I came to this plane for Torvek’s birthday so he could spend it with Vorzyr as well, you told me he was causing you pain.
That was two years ago, and you’re still fucking around with him?
Well… he’s the one fucking around with you from what you told me. And hurting you.”
“That’s over now.”
“As of when?”
“Well… very recently. But it’s done. It has to be.” He took another step back from me. “So, you see why I can’t involve myself in another situation similar to that?”
“I do see it, but I’m not him. It’s different.”
“You could acknowledge our connection beyond the walls of this dorm room, then?”
I hesitated.
“Precisely. You can’t. It’s far too similar.” He gestured at the door to the room. “I checked and your suite is at the far end of the hall and around the corner to the right. Have a good first night settling in.”
He strode back to the balcony, past one of the several glowing blue orbs softly lighting the space, then picked my duffel bags off the onyx polished stone tiles. He sucked in an unsteady breath and then turned and handed them out to me.
“Okay,” I said, taking them from him. “I get it.”
“Yeah?”
I nodded. “And I’m sorry, Winter. I really am.”
“Don’t be. I thoroughly enjoyed it.”
“Me too.”
His striking amethyst eyes glinted, then he walked me to the door.
As he turned and went to open it, his back to me, he stilled. “Was it… was that night more than just the physicality of—”
“Of course it was.”
“Yeah?”
“It stayed with me, too. It always will, lovely.”
He hung his head for a moment, then he opened the door and turned to me with a plastered-on smile. “I’ll see you around and in classes.”
I walked to the threshold and looked up at him. “I…”
Intensity rolled off him as he waited for what I was about to say.
But… I couldn’t. I couldn’t go there. He was already hurting.
I swallowed. “I mean… yeah, I’ll see you around campus.”
The light in his eyes dimmed. “Perfect.”
I stepped out into the corridor and gave him a chin lift.
He did the same.
And then he shut the door.