by D. D. Chance
“Nina,” Tyler pulled away, eyes wide, heat rolling off us both, the air crackling with anticipation and possibility—
He reached for me.
24
Surging upward and swinging me around like I weighed nothing at all, Tyler threw me on the bed, sending the pillows flying. He pulled off his shirt, and my eyes nearly fell out of my head. I knew he was ripped, but this went way beyond fit and well into model category. His arms bulged with muscles, his skin stretched tight, and he seemed—bigger, almost. Not like he was turning into the Hulk or anything but—
“Tyler?” I asked. He lifted his eyes to me, and they glowed with a ferocity I’d never seen in him before. It didn’t frighten me—though it probably should have. But alongside the deep-seated want vibrating off him was a flood of protectiveness so strong that I knew deep in my soul this man would do nothing to harm me. He simply wouldn’t.
“Nina,” he groaned, or I think he groaned, because at that moment, he sprang at me.
What happened next was a flurry of panicked movement. Ripping off clothes, tumbling and twisting in the sheets and pillows, most of which ended up on the floor, until we both were naked and I lay stretched out beneath him. His lungs heaving, his entire body shaking, he pinned my hands to the bed and stared down at me, his eyes slowly regaining their focus.
“Nina,” he said again. “Are you okay? I didn’t hurt you?”
I shook my head, my own eyes going wide at the genuine worry in his words. “No, you didn’t hurt me. You can’t hurt me, Tyler.”
As they had before, the words had an instant effect on him. He shuddered, coming back to himself even more, then looked down the length of my body. I both felt and saw the surge of heat roll through him, and with seemingly great effort, he pried his fingers off my wrists. “Man,” he muttered. “I don’t know what comes over me when I’m with you, but…it makes me insane. In a good way, but I can’t help but want to—”
I didn’t hesitate. I reached for his face, pulling him toward me, and kissed him hard. Another violent shudder made Tyler convulse, but I didn’t stop. Tyler was mine—totally mine—and in this moment, I was seeing him in the full burst of his power. He didn’t know his own magic, but I did. He was stronger than he could possibly imagine, and he was magical too.
Power whipped and eddied around us as Tyler pulled his head away, staring at the sparklers zinging through the room. “What is that?” he whispered, but I turned him back to me, glorying in the intensity of his eyes. They glowed an almost incandescent blue, completely unlike his normal shade, and when I stretched up toward him again, he met me more than halfway. Our lips touched, and something shattered across the room. I no longer cared. My attention was focused solely on Tyler.
Though we’d technically already explored each other’s bodies with our clothes still mostly on, this was different. This was more. He brushed his lips over mine with an almost heartbreaking tenderness, drawing in a shuddering breath. I leaned up for him, and he shook his head, his hair falling over his brow. “No,” he said, almost pleading as his gaze raked over me. “Let me…let me learn everything about you.”
At his words, I flushed. “I—um, sorry about the scars,” I muttered, my cheeks heating as his gaze swept over me again. “I don’t remember where they all came from. I wish I did.”
Tyler ignored my embarrassment, taking in every inch of me. Then he huffed a low, wondering sigh. “You are a warrior,” he said. “Your scars make you more beautiful than you can possibly imagine.”
I sank back into the bed as he kissed me again, deeply, then let my eyes drift closed as he dragged his lips across my cheek. He murmured words I didn’t understand into my ear, something that sounded Latin and arcane, which created another hiss of noise in the general direction of the fireplace. Neither of us turned toward it, Tyler because he was now drifting butterfly kisses down my neck, and me, because I was losing myself to the sensation of him exploring me.
Whether it was the result of his murmured incantation or simply the whisper-soft hush of his breath against my skin, my toes curled, my heart rate kicked into high gear, and heat pooled in my belly. I held my own breath as he dropped farther down, tracing the curve of my collarbone with his mouth, and screwed my eyes more tightly closed as he sighed against my left breast. He drew the nipple into his mouth, sucking and teasing as I groaned beneath him.
The heat in my core was now spreading fast. I reached for Tyler again, only to stop at his murmured plea. Instead, I twisted my hands in the sheets as he drew his mouth along my right breast, then over the curve of my belly, lifting as he reached the vee between my legs. My eyes fluttered open to meet his strange and terrible gaze, and though his mouth worked, no sound came out.
I took a guess at what he was trying to say—what I hoped he was trying to say, anyway, and nodded quickly. “Yes,” I blurted. “Yes. Whatever you’re thinking of doing, if it involves touching me, yes.” I felt my cheeks flush crimson at the urgency of my words, but he braced himself through another jolt of magic, then leaned down toward me.
The moment his mouth touched the completely over-sensitized bundle of nerves at my clit, his tongue sliding down, tasting, exploring, I nearly burst out of my skin. I knew better than to reach for him, but it was all I could do not to cry out as he lingered, then edged away, somehow knowing exactly how to touch me, exactly what I needed, wanted, craved. My breath came faster, my hands clenching into fists, and still he played, bringing me to the brink of climax and then slipping off again, each spiral growing tighter, tighter—
When I shattered, I lost all sense of time and space. I wasn’t in a bedroom—I was in total darkness, then a lighting storm, then billowing clouds, then back to darkness, stars shooting around me in a fury of movement. I couldn’t breathe, I couldn’t think, and then Tyler’s mouth was back on mine, his breath was my breath, and I coughed, spluttering, then sucked in an enormous lungful of air.
“Breathe,” he ordered. His voice filled the room, compelling me, though I was happy to comply.
I dragged in another lungful of air and issued my own command. “Please, Tyler. Now.”
He knew what I wanted, but he still hesitated, levering his body over mine. He pressed his thick shaft up against me, and I practically whimpered, then groaned with unadulterated relief as he slid into me. I arched beneath him, gasping, somehow still short of breath, and realized I’d shut my eyes again. When I opened them, Tyler’s eyes were no longer an incandescent blue, but the warm, happy whiskey brown I knew so much better. But he was staring at me with such wonder, it was almost as if he was still in whatever trance or haze he’d been transported into.
“Hey,” I managed, and a smile flashed across his face. We were moving together in perfect sync.
“Hey,” he echoed. “As far as cleaning crews go, you’re totally hired. Especially since you’re really good at making messes, too”
I laughed, then my eyes flared as he leaned farther up into me, stoking me toward a newer, higher climax—when I was barely recovered from the first one. I gave myself over to the sensation, gripping his arms and pulling myself up to get closer to him, as if I was trying to merge our bodies together. The lights started spinning again and our eyes locked, and as darkness descended once more and everything started swirling, the blue cast returned to his eyes.
We shouted, our bodies surging at the same time, and something else crashed in the distance, a whirlwind shooting through the room. Then we were kissing and laughing and clinging together, enjoying the shared emotional high of climax. I screwed my eyes tight again, willing the world to slow down, but not too soon, reveling in the moment.
A second later, Tyler collapsed over me, pinning me to the sheets. “Totally hired,” he said again, and I snorted, then moved to push him off me. I succeeded only a little, but it was enough for me to shove a pillow out of the way and peer around his room.
Or…what was left of it.
“Oh my God,” I blurted, and there apparently was
enough urgency in my surprise to break through Tyler’s boneless haze, because he instantly rolled off me, lifting himself to his knees—and saw what I had.
The room was completely destroyed. The logs in the fireplace were now piles of ash, every picture had crashed to the floor or now hung askew on its nails, the chairs were all on their sides. The sound of water finally pierced our awareness at the same time. Tyler yelped, leaping from the bed to dash over to a door I hadn’t noticed before. I heard him sliding across the floor and cursing as he shut off all the spigots, wincing as I heard the splash of his feet in water that had apparently overflowed the bathtub.
The sheets around us weren’t merely disheveled—they were shredded, and I held one up in stunned surprise as he came back into the room, a towel slung low around his hips. “What the hell happened here?” he asked. “Did we do that?”
“You did that,” I said. “I’m not magical.”
“Neither am I, not like that,” he protested, looking adorably confused as he rubbed his hands through his hair. “I mean, I’m a Perkins, but Perkinses are magicians, not inherently magical. That’s more Graham’s family’s claim to fame. Those in my line who do have some ability channel it into spell casting and monster hunting. That’s why Wellington Academy was founded, honestly. To capitalize on the discreet magic of prominent families, because we knew we could serve—wanted to serve.”
“Well, I’m not so sure your magic is all that discreet,” I said. “Because you were muttering to yourself, and every time you said something different, something else broke. I wasn’t the one doing that.”
“But…” He shook his head, still staring around. “Not to put too fine a point on it, but this isn’t the first time I’ve ever had sex. I would’ve noticed if this was a side effect. And you and I have kissed and stuff before. That was intense, but…”
I thought about the time we’d kissed in my apartment, and then the interlude in the trees next to the outer wall to Wellington Academy. The trees had whipped around as if there’d been a terrible storm brewing, but Tyler was right. It was nothing like this. “I don’t know,” I said. “Unless…”
He came to the same understanding I did, at the same time. “The collective?” His eyes shot wide. “Because you’re like—bonded to me now? Frost didn’t say anything about, ah…this kind of side effect, though. Don’t you think he would’ve?”
I grimaced. “Well, I don’t know exactly how close you guys are, but I can see how that might be kind of an awkward conversation to have with somebody. And maybe he didn’t know. Maybe those weren’t the kinds of records he was able to uncover about previous collectives. Or, you know. Maybe we’re just lucky.”
He snorted. “Or something, but still I think he had to have known. Maybe he didn’t think it would be an issue, but this is an academy that prides itself on getting its research right. There should be some mention of it somewhere.”
“I don’t know what to tell you.” I held up the shreds of his sheets. “But you’re gonna need some new linens.”
A sharp knocking came at the door, then Paul’s aristocratic call. “Master Tyler? Master Tyler. Are you all right?”
I clapped my hand over my mouth as Tyler’s eyes popped wide, his gaze shooting around the wrecked room. Pictures hung at crazy angles or had dropped to the floor altogether, a few of them shattering. The linens were shredded into strips, and the pillows had lost their stuffing. Dozens of tiny down feathers still floated in the sunlight, twirling their way to the floor.
When Tyler spoke, however, it was with absolute authority. “I’m good, Paul. It—it got a little rough in here. With the Perkins ghosts.”
The door handle jiggled, and my heart spasmed with panic until I remembered that Tyler had locked the door. “Can I assist you?” Paul asked. “After attending your father, I waited until the worst of the clattering was finished but—”
“What about dad,” Tyler cut him off. “He’s okay?”
“He’s…out again, I’m afraid, but resting comfortably,” Paul said. “He was quite overwhelmed. I suspect a short nap will restore him, though.”
Tyler nodded, though Paul was on the other side of the door and unable to see him. Thank God. “Excellent. I need to explore the room to make sure there are no additional messages from the family spirits.”
Once again, Tyler spoke with total assurance, but I stared at him like he was a madman. What? I mouthed, and he flapped his hands at me, his lips pressing together as he fought to keep the grin off his face.
“Very well, then,” Paul replied without hesitation. “I’ll be downstairs should you need my help.”
“I’ll call you if I do. This, I think I need to handle myself.” After that pronouncement, Tyler looked like he was going to burst into maniacal laughter, but we both managed to hold it together as Paul’s footsteps retreated. Then I let out the tiniest squeak of relief.
“Oh my God,” I whispered, the words a frantic bleat. “We need to clean this up.”
Tyler, however, merely looked at me and grinned. “Well, you know. Since the room’s already destroyed, maybe we should take advantage…”
I gaped at him. “Are you serious?”
He arched a superior brow. “I mean, it makes sense. The only thing worse than having to clean up a room is to have to clean it twice.”
I bit my lip. “True,” I allowed.
He came toward me, and I found myself bracing, waiting for his eyes to turn blue again. They didn’t, not exactly, but as he drew close, there was no doubt that something had changed. It took me a second to figure out exactly what. “Ah… Tyler? Did you take a look at yourself when you were in the bathroom?”
He shrugged, but didn’t stop his approach. “My eyes looked a little off to me, but everything looked off to me. It’s like I’ve been jacked up on steroids. I wondered if you’d changed too.” He swept his gaze over me. “Nope, still beautiful.”
“Yeah, right.” I shook my head. But as he crawled up on the bed, making his way through the remains of exploded pillows and shredded sheets, I had to admit he was right. “You’re bigger,” I said.
His mouth lifted in one corner. “That’s what all the girls say.”
“No, I mean your body. You’re right, it does look like you’ve been jacked on steroids. Here. Let me try something.”
I moved closer to him, and leaning forward, I kissed him firmly on the lips. When I pulled back, he was grinning.
“I think you should try that more often,” he said. But his eyes remained the same whiskey brown, without shifting into the deep incandescent blue.
“Huh,” I said. “Before when you kissed me, your eyes completely changed—everything changed. Now, it’s like, I don’t know. Like you’ve got it under control, maybe?”
“Maybe. But I think this is going to take an awful lot of research.”
He reached for me again.
25
We’d barely finished putting the room back to rights, as well as we could, anyway, and piling the destroyed sheets in the corner when Tyler’s phone pinged. He checked it. “It’s Frost,” he said. “That’s odd.”
I snorted. “After what just happened here, I’m re-examining the meaning of that word.” I closed the last drawer, having assured myself that nothing that’d been hidden away had been damaged. It was only the visible items that had been torn to shreds. And the second time we’d made love, our environment had calmed down a little bit. Things had shifted but not blown apart. Progress.
“Frost is asking us all to come to the library, but he knows, or he should know, that Grim and Zach are in the middle of their battle finals. Normally, he wouldn’t interrupt that for anything. So I don’t know what this is about.”
“Well, if they’re in the middle of their finals, they probably won’t hear him anyway, right? So they’ll be fine.” My brain caught up to his words. “Battle finals? What does that involve?”
“You’re back in the arena, suited up in holosuits, going to war against i
maginary monsters,” Tyler explained. “I planned on taking you over there. Technically, we’re not supposed to watch anybody else’s finals, but you know. There are ways around every rule.”
“I’m beginning to see that.”
We stopped by the Perkins house’s enormous kitchen—clearly built for a family ten times larger than Tyler and his dad—to give Paul the update that we’d survived the, ah, ghost attack, and that we’d update his father as soon as the elder Perkins woke up again. Then we headed back to campus. We were almost to Lowell Library when Liam emerged from a building I was pretty sure was another research lab, catching sight of us immediately.
“Hey!” he said “How’s it…whoa.” He stopped short and eyed Tyler with curiosity. “Dude, why are you looking so jacked? Did you take something?”
Tyler grimaced. “I… I don’t know what happened,” he said. More or less true. “I didn’t take anything, but…”
“Oh shit, are you kidding me?” Liam looked at me, aghast. I was pretty sure I was supposed to be embarrassed when his gaze met mine, but all I could register was a flare of undeniable attraction. Liam’s hazel eyes pricked something deep inside me, a love of learning, of discovery, of the sheer joy of the unknown. His mouth seemed softer than I remembered it, while his face was more angular. His sandy-brown hair tumbled over his ears, practically begging me to run my fingers through it.
Unexpectedly, I wondered what Liam’s hands would feel like brushing through my hair, drifting along my skin, those river-stone eyes trying to pry out my most careful secrets as he bent toward me—
Stop it. I whipped my head back around, staring forward and I breathed out a sharp, gusting breath. What the hell was that about? Was I seriously jonesing for Tyler’s best friend, practically thirty seconds after I’d…no. No, this couldn’t be happening. I forced myself not to flinch, but it was a near thing.
