97. Summer
Chapter Ninety-Seven
Summer
W hen I arrive at the canteen at lunchtime, I’m surprised to see Max sitting at our usual table talking to Leo. I grab my lunch and then join them.
“Hey,” Max says, glancing at me as I take the seat next to him.
“Hey. You have lunch with us now?”
“That good with you?”
I nod. “I just assumed that if you left your natural habitat, you’d break out in hives or something.”
Max rolls his eyes. “I’m also trying to convince Leo to deal with his shifter itch,” Max says, looking at Leo again.
The shifter itch happens before shifters shift for the first time, and the symptoms increase in severity until the first shift happens. There have been thousands of cases where shifters have been driven mad by it. There are ways to manage the itch, and one of them is working out.
“I’m fine,” Leo grumbles into his pasta.
“I’ve been trying too,” I say. Every time I see Leo, I can see the lion prowling beneath the surface of his skin, desperate to be freed. “Max is the best in the biz, Leo. You can trust him.”
“Listen, I’m not shifting. So there is no need for any of this.”
“Uh, right. Like you have a say,” I say, taking a bite of my lunch.
Leo’s fork warps in his grip, and his eyes flash golden when they meet mine. “I heard you have a demon living with you now, Summer.”
Both Max and I tense, but while all my words get lost in my anxiety, Max is able to speak for me.
“How do you know about that?” The news of Rafe being on campus isn’t a secret, but until we’ve straightened things out with Rafe attending classes, I’d rather he not be openly talked about.
That will just add to the pressure on him.
Demons are always educated in their own realm, and so they are a hot commodity around here because they are rare.
Seeing one with a muzzle will be alarming to some and probably a turn-on to others.
“Heard a rumor that a demon was on campus and was heading to Morningstar House,” Leo says with a shrug, some of his tension dripping off him now that the attention is elsewhere.
“Could have been an angel dressed up like a demon. Probably Zach or Zane,” Max says.
I look down at the table, thankful for Max in this moment.
“If there were a demon, he would be fiercely protected by his sisters.” Max grabs my hand under the table, lacing his fingers with mine.
I glance at him and give his palm a little squeeze, and when I look back up, Leo is looking between us.
“So, where is Alice?” Leo asks, changing the subject, but I don’t miss the way his voice changes.
“She has a botany lab after lunch, so she’s preparing,” I say, noting his disappointment.
We are all quiet as we finish lunch and go our separate ways. I’m walking to class when my phone pings.
Unknown
How was your lunch, princess?
Summer
Fine. Yours?
Unknown
I was missing someone sitting on my lap during it. All Souls certainly spoiled me.
My stomach flutters, and I read his message over and over.
Summer
Can you meet me somewhere?
The dots bob up and down, and my skin tingles in anticipation.
Unknown
Around the back of the building?
I don’t even send a confirmation text before I’ve turned around and am walking in the opposite direction of my class.
The stranger is waiting for me, leaning against the dark brick wall.
When he sees me, he prowls toward me. The motion is slow, and by the time his hand cups my cheek, my body is practically thrumming.
I just stare up at him, allowing myself to feel how much I’ve missed him, and while the moment is charged with need and desire, it is also intimate and vulnerable.
“This is one of those times it feels impossible not to kiss you,” he says, dropping his head closer to mine.
I reach up and brush my fingertips along his bottom lip, stepping closer to him when I draw a groan from him. His hand slides from my cheek to my waist, and I moan softly when he pulls me even closer.
“Those sounds you make. So unfair,” he says, his voice thick with desire.
There is a flash of movement from one of the windows, and I glance up, but the stranger has also noticed. Before I register him moving, he has me pinned against the wall where we are out of sight, and he is pressing kisses along my jaw. I moan, but I place my hands against his chest and push.
“What is it?” he asks, his body still pressed to mine.
“I’m celibate,” I manage to pull from my last shred of self-restraint.
“I know,” he says, chuckling darkly. “And?”
“I’m desperate,” I moan, the word conveying my deep need.
He answers my moan with a deep guttural groan.
“And because of that?.?.?.” My eyes roll as he drags his nose along my jaw. “For now, we need to be friends only.”
He tenses before pulling back enough to look down at me.
“So no mentioning me sitting on your lap or touching me.”
He hesitates for a long moment before pulling back and rubbing his hand down his face. “So platonic in every way?”
“Yes.”
He paces back and forth a few times before he glances at me, my back still against the wall. “I’m sorry, princess. I am also struggling.”
“You are?”
He turns to face me, his power roiling. “You think you are desperate?” he asks. “You have only the barest knowledge of desperation.” He prowls closer but stays out of arm’s reach. “You know nothing of desperation, little fae. Nothing.”
My breathing is shallow as I watch him. As I feel his desire, his need, the danger radiating from him.
He moves in closer, still not touching me but looming over me. “You may feel desperate, but it has not sunk into your bones. Into your soul. Until it is twisted into a mass of throbbing need for something?.?.?. for someone?.?.?.”
I stare at him, caught in his pull. “And what is it you need , Stranger?” I ask barely above a whisper.
“You. Always you.” He chuckles darkly, and a shiver tingles down my spine.
More . . .
“More?” he growls, and my breath hitches. Did I say that out loud? “More of the lines I’d cross for you? The person I’d be? The monster I am? The villain you crave?”
“All of it.”
He places his hand against the stone of the building above my head and leans in closer. He’s still not touching me. Why the fuck isn’t he touching me?
“You said platonic. Strictly.”
“But . . .” My cheeks heat.
“Tell me to go, princess.”
I stare up at him, my chest heaving with shallow breaths.
“Now,” he growls.
“Stranger—”
“If you don’t tell me to go. I will take you away from this place, and I will have my way with you. Screw the consequences. You have to tell me to go because I don’t have the strength to walk away from you.”
His voice is dark and dangerous, and I want to let him. I’m desperate to just walk into his arms, but I owe myself the time to get to know myself, to heal fully. When I do fall into the stranger, I know I will get so lost in him that I will never be found again.
“Go,” I say, and it’s barely a whisper, but it’s enough for him, and after a long, intense look of longing, he leaves.