Carmen smoothed down her skirt and stepped toward the door. “Thanks, Pea.”
The woman lifted her chin and then pinned me to the spot with her eyes. “I hear everything. One misstep, and I’m coming for your ass. Do you hear me?”
I didn't think she was talking academically. She was warning me to tread carefully with Carmen. I’d been right, Miss Pea was fond of Carmen.
“Got it.”
With a nod, Pea picked up a pen and shooed us out of the room. “Go. I have shit to do.”
I didn’t need to be asked twice. Carmen grabbed my hand and pulled me out into the hall.
When we stepped out though, the big guy from the fight ring the other night was leaning against the wall. He had a big aura, filled with power. He looked from me, to Carmen, and then to our joined hands.
I tensed, ready to receive a fist in the face. Instead, he leaned forward and kissed Carmen. “I heard you had a run in with someone trying to protect my honor.” He looked at me. “I heard you had her back. I’m Bobby.”
“Flint.”
I’d normally have shaken his hand, but Carmen had a death grip on my fingers.
Carmen frowned, turning to walk down the hall, but she still hadn’t let go of my hand. I looked at it, trying to work out if it meant something. Was she claiming me? She said her and this guy were together now.
Women were confusing.
“You need to get rid of those jackasses, Bobby. I wouldn’t trust them to watch a Twinkie, let alone your back.”
He stepped up to her other side, wrapping his arms around her shoulders and pulling her into his side so he could kiss her temple. “Are you offering to take their place?”
She snorted. “I’d be as effective as all three of those dropkicks combined. But you know the Elders would have a fit.”
Bobby shrugged. “There's a precedent already. I handled your friends though. They are no longer considered as future Enforcers.” His face grew solemn. “You’re right. I can’t trust them with my back.” He looked over her head, his eyes appraising me quickly, but his face was neutral. Was I found wanting? “How are you finding Eden?”
“It’s been… interesting. Most of the people seem nice.”
Carmen snorted. “We had Ferrentes and then your blockheads. Flint hasn’t had time to appreciate the true joys of Eden.”
Bobby grinned, his eyes drifting to where Carmen seemed to be unconsciously holding my fingers now. “I think it's because he’s skipped to the best part, Mouse.”
I’d been at this Academy for three days, and I think that Bobby had been right. Carmen was the best part of this place. Don’t get me wrong, most of the rest of the students were nice enough. I still felt the gazes of those dicks from my first day staring daggers at my back, but I wasn’t letting it bother me. I was used to watching my back, even when the threat was invisible.
Carmen, or Mouse as apparently everyone called her, slotted me seamlessly into her social group. Which basically consisted of her siblings, the sweet Enit and the perpetually scowling Christopher. Christopher—it was always Christopher and never Chris apparently—wasn’t mad at me though, for which I was thankful. I had enough on my plate without going head to head with an Alpha whose sister I wanted to make love to.
No, his ire was directed toward a pretty girl who looked exactly like Sammie. Quite frankly, the sexual tension between those two would kill a horse. Whatever. Not my business.
What was my business was the fact that Bobby, and a group of his hangers-on, always sat with us at lunch. I liked Bobby, but I didn’t particularly trust any of his friends. I didn’t think he did either. It must be lonely to be the Alpha-Heir, always surrounded by people jockeying for position. Except Carmen.
She sat on his lap, or on mine if she was feeling particularly torturous that day. She’d give him shit, tease him, argue with him just as often as she’d kiss him. You just had to take one look at the guy to realize he was head over heels in love with the girl, and I got it. I truly did.
I’d stolen half a dozen more kisses, and my body grew rock hard every time I thought about them. My body wanted to be inside hers as soon as possible, but I was willing to take it slow. Plus, a part of me didn’t want to sully her with the evil that was my body attached to these bracelets.
Ever present in the back of my brain was Rook, trying to call me back to him. I’d learned to ignore it like a low level headache, but I’d still asked Carmen to ‘reborrow’ her dad’s handcuffs and secured myself to the headboard of my bed every night. Just in case.
15
Carmen
I discovered that Flint was very motivated to learn when rewarded with kisses. Enit had taught Flint the basic phonetic sounds and how to write the alphabet already. She had better patience. I just provided positive reinforcement in the form of French kissing.
Did we teach him to write using swear words? Fuck yeah.
A is for Asshole.
B is for Ballsack.
C is for... you get the idea.
But once Enit left for another class, the heat of Flint’s kisses were melting my brain so bad I was pretty sure I was actually losing brain cells. All conscious thought was shifting lower, to a place that only wanted one thing. But with everything with me and Bobby so new, I was sticking to kissing for now.
Who said I was impulsive and irresponsible?
I walked across the center courtyard, my hand wrapped in Flint’s, toward the other paramour of my errant vagina. We’d missed our last combat session because of the fight with Bobby’s former slut-shaming Enforcer-Dicks, but Miss Pea had come through with the private lessons for both Flint and I.
I pushed open the door to the empty gym. I could hear the dull thumping of fists against a bag, and as I headed further into the dimly lit room, my feet stuttered to a standstill. Sammie was in the back of the gym, his fists pounding into a punching bag. Shirtless.
Sweat slid along the intricate artwork down his spine, and his body moved like it was made of liquid. I must have moaned, because Flint stared down at me, an eyebrow raised.
“This one too? I mean, I get it. His form is good.” He grinned. “His fighting style, I mean, not his body.”
I flushed, but when I looked over at Flint, his eyes were watching Sammie hungrily.
Surely no. Surely, I hadn’t been that good in a past life that the Fates would grant me three bisexual boyfriends. Three hot bi boyfriends who also thought the other ones were hot.
No one was that lucky.
Sammie must have finally heard us talking, because he looked over his shoulder and smiled. “Fuck,” Flint whispered.
“Amen to that.” Because Sammie, sweaty and half-naked with that smile? It was like kryptonite to my ovaries and it made my stomach do flip-flops with an emotion I really didn’t want to examine.
Sammie wandered towards us, his body a slow swagger that was entirely human. I can’t explain it. Supernaturals walked with ease, like the restrictions of humanity meant little to us. Which, let’s face it, they don’t. But the way Sammie moved was raw, like he’d conquered those restrictions and made them his bitch.
I bet he was fucking amazing in bed.
He bit his full lower lip when he stopped in front of me. Leaning forward, he kissed my cheek in a way that was both chaste and completely perverted. “Hey, Mouse.” He slid his eyes to Flint, his eyebrows raised. “Flint. Good to see you again, not handcuffed in my basement.”
Flint grinned, and I marvelled that in all his years of fighting, he still had all his perfect teeth. “I’ve got time if you want to remedy that right now?”
I definitely forgot to breathe. Thank you Moon Goddess. Thank you horny Greek deities. Thank you Fates. I don’t think Jesus had much to do with this one. It definitely came from someone with a vagina.
How did I suggest that they both get naked and start making out, you know, without sounding desperate?
Sammie shook his head, and walked toward the bench seats that ran around the edges of
the room. He picked up his shirt and slipped it over his head, then gulped from his bottle of water. I wanted to pout, but I held it together.
All in good time, Carmen.
“I thought we’d catch up on some hand to hand combat techniques, and then do some sparring. Just pound out our aggression on each other until we all feel better.”
I choked on my saliva, and even Flint’s mouth fell open.
Sammie grinned, reaching out to press a finger beneath Flint’s chin and snapping his mouth closed. “In the ring. Don’t get any ideas.”
Too freaking late. I had all the ideas. Or were they fantasies?
Sammie made us warm up by running laps of the gym, and then talked through some of the general principles of Muay Thai. We practiced some moves on each other until we were all equally sweaty and my lady parts had hit five thousand degrees.
Sammie helped Flint from the ground after he’d demonstrated an arm bar. “You fight well. Untrained but ruthless.”
Flint shrugged, pulling off his shirt and wiping his face with it. I saw his scars, pink and raised, and I wondered what he’d been tortured with that could cause such damage on a nearly immortal being. I let my gaze skip over them, because I didn’t want him to think I pitied him. That was the last thing I felt for Flint right now, while he was all sweaty and shirtless.
“Let’s spar. Street fighting style, no extra abilities,” Sammie offered, and I resisted the urge to squeal and jump up and down like a kid on Christmas morning.
They climbed into the ring, and Sammie threw off his shirt too. Not going to lie, this was going in the spank bank already. They circled each other slowly, and both looked like predators.
Sammie lunged, giving a half-hearted jab at Flint’s gut, then dancing away. Oh, it was on.
One would think that, being human, Sammie would be at a disadvantage, but he moved like he was magic. His training came through, and hell he must have been training from a kid, because he saw each of Flint’s jabs coming, blocking most and dodging a few.
But Flint moved with unparalleled rage. He fought like his body was possessed, and for every hit he took, he gave back another.
It was fucking beautiful.
They traded blows until Sammie got him on the ground. I noted that the ground was Flint’s weakness, because they were more evenly matched there. They rolled for dominance, and I was simultaneously absorbed in the fight, and completely distracted by the eroticness that was happening before me. My brain filled in the blanks, and instead of violence, their movements became seductive. I groaned as my nipples hardened and my pussy throbbed. When Sammie got behind Flint, locking his legs around Flint’s and restraining his arms against the mat, the fight was over.
Flint tapped out, and Sammie let him go, rolling onto his back and panting on the mats. I stood, intending to go over there and rub myself on one of them until I came, but then Flint was crawling across the mats and over Sammie’s body.
He kissed him, and it was just as much of a punishing blow as his fists had been a moment ago. Sammie’s hand crept up until he could curl his fingers in the bright red strands of Flint’s hair, kissing him back, and the fight was on again. But their bodies were now the weapons and I was torn between watching and throwing myself in the ring.
In the end, I held back, needing to see everything in this moment. The way Flint climbed over Sammie, sliding one knee between his thighs, their sweat-soaked skin moving against each other. Flint ground against him, and I slid one of my own hands between my thighs, watching them like they were live action porn. I was swollen and wet, and just brushing my fingers across the seam of my workout shorts had me moaning.
Like a gunshot, the noise that burst from my throat had them whipping their heads toward me. Sammie gently rolled Flint from his body, and stood, adjusting his dick in his shorts.
He cleared his throat, his cheeks flushed red. “You guys should get to class.”
With that, he walked through the back into the locker rooms, the door slamming shut behind him.
Both Flint and I watched him go with equal looks of confusion. What the hell had just happened?
I looked over at Flint as he climbed to his feet, my gaze traveling from his frown to his dick tenting his pants, and then back to his eyes. “I guess we better go to class? Unless you need to do something with that?” I purred like I was a cat shifter and not a freaking wolf.
“You offering?”
I stepped close to him, and he bent down, kissing me softly. Nothing like the way he’d kissed Sammie moments earlier. It might have been my imagination, but I was sure I could taste Sammie on his lips, and it just made me wetter. I pulled away just enough that my lips brushed against his as I spoke. “I could be persuaded.”
He threw back his head and laughed. He pulled me tight to his body. “When I persuade you onto my cock, it won’t be in some sweaty ass gym.” He kissed me once more, and I was strongly considering protesting that gym mats were just fine, but he was stepping away and dragging me toward the exit.
“Come on, we have Supernatural Politics and I want to grill the teacher about the Djinn Council.”
He was pretending he was okay, but I knew he was worried about the Djinn Council official who was coming up to remove his slave cuffs. Alistair had said she would be here tomorrow, but that was about it. The whole thing made me anxious, and I hope everyone realized that there was no way Flint was going anywhere without me. If some Djinn bigwig decided he needed to go back to New York with them, then I was going too, kicking and screaming.
I knew it had only been a week, but I was kind of attached to the guy. Nico used to tell me a Chinese proverb that went something like if you save a life, then you’re responsible for that life. I wouldn’t go that far, but I did feel extra attached to Flint, like somehow our lives were inextricably entwined now.
Fate had handed me Flint, and I wasn’t letting him go.
16
Sammie
Fuck. Shit. Fuckshit!
After getting my proverbial ass kicked the other day by Alistair and Locke, I’d convinced myself that I was going to keep my head down, follow the rules. Did I think I could stay away from Carmen? No. But I had a feeling that the guys knew that Carmen was a force of nature and that most mere mortal men would be completely helpless to resist.
But Flint, now that was a whole other fucking problem. Because while they might overlook me falling ass over heels in love with Carmen, seducing a kid who had just come to the Academy after being rescued from a seriously traumatic life would be a whole other matter. Even when I thought about it like that, I wanted to punch myself in the dick.
But the way Carmen and Flint moved together was really something else. Watching them try the different moves, directing their bodies like they were mine to control, it was heady stuff.
And then I sparred with Flint and the way he was watching me, with those hooded bedroom eyes filled with fire…
I growled and punched the closest wall. I was in so much damn trouble. Bohdie rounded the corner, his eyebrows already raised. “You know, I heard that wall was talking shit about your mama. You beat its ass.”
I scowled at him and he laughed. His face looked kind of punchable right now. It was lucky I loved him like a brother.
“Do you want to talk about it?” he cooed like I was a baby, and then I did punch him in the arm.
“No.”
“Does it have anything to do with the Omega’s pretty sister? The one that eyefucks you like a cheap two dollar hooker every time she's in touching distance?”
I bared my teeth and he held up both hands. “Okay, okay. But if you want my advice, you should go for it. She obviously wants you, though the gossip is she's dating the Alpha-Heir of the local shapeshifter Pack. Hopefully he isn’t the territorial type.”
Alphas generally were. Bohdie was definitely the territorial type. I’d seen him sniffing around Carmen’s sister, and when she wasn’t looking, he beat the shit out of anyone who said so much as an
unkind word about her. Or ogled her in any way. I don’t know what his endgame was, but I could tell he was one hundred percent obsessed with Enit.
I walked into the kitchen of our little townhouse, and grabbed a frozen pizza from the freezer. I was enjoying the cafeteria, but today I just wanted to hide in my fortress of solitude. The kids both came and left, and their joy at being independent was cute as hell.
Cara strode into the house about four in the afternoon, looked between me and Bohdie sitting on the couch playing video games and eating pizza, and growled at us.
“Men fucking suck. Screw you all. I’m becoming a lesbian and stealing your girl,” she said, pointing at me. “You’ve been warned.”
With that, she stormed up the stairs to her bedroom, slamming the door so hard it reverberated around the house. Both Bohdie and I stared at the ceiling, where we could still hear her stomping around.
“Do you think I need to beat someone up?” he asked, and I shrugged.
I always thought Cara was a bird that I had to set free so she could fly, but as I got older, I realized that if she was a bird, it wasn’t a delicate little bluebird. No, she was a damn bird of prey, a falcon that would score out your eyes if you crossed her. She didn’t need me to fight her battles, but if she asked me to do it, I would tear down the world for her.
Of all the people in this world, I loved my sister the most. It was closely followed by Madoc and our parents, but I’d raised Cara since before I recognized the difference between dolls and living, breathing humans.
Bohdie kicked my ass in Madden for a bit, and then I began to feel restless. It was about five, so most of the day students should be gone for the day, including Carmen. I could quit being a coward, leave my hidey-hole and go for a run. Work off some of this pent up frustration. More so than I did in the showers this afternoon. As soon as I’d heard the doors to the gym close, I’d walked into the shower, set it to cold and pulled my dick until my release splattered the tiles.
Rebels and Runaways: Eden Academy Book One Page 10
