Chapter 16
Ezra
Our breaths mingled together, a cloud of humid air pushing back and forth between us. Her lips were just out of reach; a tiny dip forward and I could taste her again. I couldn’t hold back my groan at the thought. What would it be like to kiss her without fear and adrenaline fueling her actions?
Would she be shy or just as wild and untamed as before?
I caught her by surprise last time, but she recovered quickly and gave as good as she got.
The guilt caught up to me later, after the djinn were taken care of and my fury at her putting herself in danger faded.
I’d instigated the bond that night, taunted it and woke it from its slumber without her consent.
That wasn’t my intention, just a consequence of my actions in the heat of the moment.
But ever since then, we’d been a ticking time bomb whenever we made contact.
Touching her without her knowing the truth was a double-edged sword.
I was so thankful for the honor but felt guilty as fuck afterward because she wasn’t aware of what it did to our connection.
Thanks to all our skin contact lately, I could easily sense her emotions.
It was how I knew she was about to unleash a wave of magick on Cova earlier.
Which, that was the sexiest damn thing I had ever seen in my life.
I’d been half hard ever since. Well, until now.
Now, I was at full mast and ready to fucking go.
Rubbing the head of my dick against her belly was pure torture, but not one I could stop.
Gods, I could come just like this if she’d let me.
Both her fists landed a solid punch to my lower stomach, and I curled in on myself with a grunt.
“Fuck, babe. What was that for?”
The warmth in her cheeks looked less like arousal and more like anger now.
There was a spark in the depths of those gray eyes, a warning flare that maybe I’d gone too far.
The new ache in my abs definitely confirmed that theory.
What set her off? Only a second ago, she was putty in my arms, and there was no way I misunderstood the damp heat I felt from the front of her shorts.
She wanted me.
“Why the hell didn’t you tell me?” she snarled, winding her elbow back for another strike. “I looked. Like. An. Idiot. Let go of me, I’m not done hitting you!”
She was a feral wildcat, spitting and trying her best to claw her way out of my hold.
Her punches were millimeters away from a very sensitive and important part of my anatomy; there was no way I was setting her free to try again.
Her wrists were locked in my hold, trapped between us as she struggled, and failed, to make me to let go.
“In case you haven’t been paying attention, I’ve been a little preoccupied with saving your life,” I replied, then hissed when her nails managed to claw the tender skin just beneath the waistband of my pants.
“That’s no excuse!” She wriggled and dug those nails in further. Seeing that her efforts were getting her nowhere, Rani ceased trying to claw her way into my intestines and leaned back against the counters, panting. “You should have told me from the very beginning.”
She was right. And she was wrong. She deserved to know the truth, and it was unfair of me not to tell her, but I also knew she wasn’t in the right mental space to handle that information.
Or the burden that came with it. I opened my mouth to tell her so, but felt the sharp point of her knee graze my thigh.
I had the span of a heartbeat to react and barely kept her from jamming my balls up into my stomach. Oh, she was a vicious thing. Using my grip on her wrists and her loss of balance from her strike, I spun her all the way around until she faced the counter.
Releasing her wrists so she wouldn’t faceplant into the granite, I moved in and made sure there wasn’t enough room between us for an attempt like that again.
Her entire back molded to my chest. Each of my heavy breaths pushed against her until her only option was to lean all the way forward to escape the contact.
But that pressed her ass—her deliciously full ass—right against my dick in the absolute best way.
“You haven’t completed nearly enough training to pull off that move, babe,” I murmured into her ear. “But I greatly appreciate the attempt.” I rolled my hips and chuckled at the squeal she emitted in response.
“Get off me,” she demanded.
“Not until you promise to stop trying to break my dick,” I bargained. “Now that you know about the bond, there are rules we have to go over, and I can’t have you maiming me every time one of them pisses you off.”
I wrapped one arm around her so she could see the pinky finger I held up.
“Fucking hell, Ezra.”
My little finger wiggled again. “You have to mean it. You remember what happened the last time you broke a pinky promise.”
There was heat in that warning. I desperately wanted her to misbehave.
Spanking her was the highlight of my summer so far and, dammit, I was just waiting for her to give me a reason to do it again.
The catch in her breathing told me she remembered, too, and maybe was just as excited as I was to see if I’d follow through.
Her delicate finger wrapped around mine. It might as well have been her whole hand around my cock, that’s how good it felt. I backed away several steps to give us both breathing room. This conversation was going to get more volatile before it was over.
Rani slowly turned around, her hands braced on the counter behind her in a fierce grip. Her face was flushed, and her eyes rippled like a molten pool, but her fury was in check. She wasn’t going to break her promise. Bummer.
“Things are different now that you know,” I started. “Our laws state that you’re my responsibility above all others; that includes your parents, your faction leaders, and even the tribunal.”
“How completely archaic.”
She had no idea.
“It’s my responsibility to protect you and teach you all that you need to navigate our world.
Our laws, our government… the dangers that you now face.
” She rolled her eyes, but I set my expression into a firm scowl.
“There’s nothing I take more seriously than your safety, Rani.
Nothing . So, some things are going to have to change. ”
Those eyes narrowed, each becoming an arrow she’d like nothing more than to fire at my face. “What kind of things?”
This is where it was going to get complicated.
I knew her trauma, respected what she’d been through, but we were running out of time.
The tribunal was coming, and she needed to be trained, or at the very least ready to flee, as soon as possible.
That meant we had months at best—weeks at worst—to somehow get her ass into that ocean.
Escaping that way would be the last possible resort, but the one place the tribunal’s hunters couldn’t follow her.
“For one, I’m going to oversee your training from now on. All of it. Cova will leave me some notes to reference, but it's clear that working with him is a waste of time. You react better to me.”
I smirked, she didn’t. It was another benefit of the bond, that inherent trust.
“We’re going to resume physical training in the mornings, followed by magick practice in the afternoon. Bathtub therapy every evening, and we will eventually graduate to more difficult steps.”
Her body began to tremble as it registered what I meant by more difficult steps . I felt her racing heart as if it were my own, that bond between us tattling on the emotions she was trying hard to control. Head swiveling back and forth, denial was on the tip of her tongue.
“No,” she swore. “I’ll reject the bond before you can make me. Eryn said I could, that it's not permanent. I can say no.”
I nodded. “That’s all true, but you already tried, which makes me think that you don’t really want to, do you, babe?
” She was still shaking her head, but I pushed on.
“You want to see where that pull in your chest leads you?” I stepped closer, not caring if she broke her pinky promise and lashed out. “Right here. To me.”
The bond thrummed between us, stretched thin despite how close we were.
I was once again within striking range of her fury, and that was fury building in her eyes.
Poor savage siren, so used to getting her way.
I checked in on the bond once more to try and get an idea of how bad this was going to turn.
Rani had gone completely still; in anticipation of finally breaking her pinky promise or to contain her rage, I wasn’t sure. I picked up on mixed waves of arousal and disbelief before they were swept away under outrage and determination.
She relaxed her shoulders and her grip on the counter, letting her arms fall loosely at her sides. Her chin dipped, losing that stubborn firmness. Even her eyes softened, like she’d given in. Given up.
I didn’t buy it for a second. She was too wily to not be up to something.
“Why do you even care?” she asked quietly. “The bond is forcing you into this responsibility. It’s making you attracted to me, but maybe if you deny it first—”
“Oh, don’t even try it,” I interrupted. “I’ve been obsessed with you long before you got those cute scales on your ass.”
“I do not have scales on my ass!”
I gave a dark chuckle. “Should we check?”
Her scream was a release of frustration that manifested in a roar down the bond.
A burst of magick simultaneously shook the foundation of the pool outside and set the waterspout on the refrigerator to leaking.
Such a temper. And gods, was it was attractive as fuck.
I felt that scheming energy build within her once more, and widened my stance, ready for battle.
“Come on, give it to me,” I dared her. “What’s your next excuse?”
“What?”