Professor Darius sighs and runs a hand through his bronze colored hair. “I don’t know if I could do that, Jade,” he murmurs.
My heart leaps into my throat. I feel so pathetic for it, but after watching two of my sorcerers run off with the Bellas, hearing that someone might actually like me means way too much to me.
“Could you try?” I ask in a small voice.
He’s quiet a long minute. Finally, he nods. “I know how much you want to go to the ball like the other students.”
“I really do,” I say. But it’s so much more than that. I want him. I want him to be the one.
We walk in silence for a minute before he speaks. “We’ll need some boundaries,” he says. “Starting with, no sex.”
“What?” I ask, balking. “I thought that’s how…”
“You can release your magic without intercourse,” he says. “As you’ve done before.”
Before I know it, we’ve arrived back at my dorm, where Darius tells me to come by after my last class on Friday so he can help release my magic before the party.
I muse on that for the next few days. If I have an orgasm, it releases magic, which makes my magic weaker afterward. Which means the morning after Rocco gave me oral, I was at an all-time low. That was the morning Ryker said he wanted me. It wasn’t because my magic was ridiculously high. It wasn’t my magic at all. Ryker wants me. But how can I trust him if he’d go fuck someone else instead of waiting for me?
I can’t. And if I can’t trust him not to run off with Bella, then I can’t trust him with my body. Right now, the only one I trust is Professor Darius. Every time I think of what he offered my heart speeds and my core clenches with excitement.
Finally, the evening before the ball, I work up my nerve and head to see him. I tap on the open door of his classroom, and he looks up and smiles.
“I need some help,” I say, feeling suddenly flushed. “The Winter Ball is tomorrow.”
“Ah,” Professor Darius says, nodding. His gaze settles on my guard for the day. “You’re dismissed. Enjoy your evening.”
Thorn frowns, glancing between me and Darius. “I have another six hours of duty.”
“I’ll make sure Jade is safe,” Darius says. “Take the night off.”
Thorn turns to me, still looking troubled. “Call me if you need… Anything.”
“I will,” I say, a lump in my throat for some reason.
After one more long look, Thorn turns and slips off down the hall.
“Come in,” Darius says.
I take a deep breath, step through the door, and close it behind me.
Chapter 20
For a minute, Professor Darius and I stand staring at each other as if measuring the other for a fight.
“I think you know why I’m here,” I say at last, my voice coming out less sure than I intended.
Darius clears his throat. “I think I do,” he says, stepping around the end of his desk.
“Can you show me how?” I ask. “I need to get rid of some of this magic, and…”
“You don’t know how to pleasure yourself?” he asks.
The words send a spiral of lust through me. I’d rather him pleasure me, but I can’t say it. I just shake my head, feeling the heat rise to my cheeks.
Professor Darius pauses, eyeing the door behind me.
“Show me?” I ask, stepping forward, closing the distance between us.
“I want to make an excuse,” Darius says, gazing down at me. “I should say no.”
“But you’re not?” I ask, toying with the buttons on his dress shirt as I peek up at him from under my lashes.
He swallows, his dark eyes smoldering down at me. “The truth is, I don’t think I can resist you one more day,” he admits, his hands falling to my hips. “But are you sure this is what you want?”
“I’ve barely thought of anything else since you offered,” I whisper.
Darius reaches behind me and locks the door, hitting the light next to it. The room is plunged into dimness, with only the afternoon light coming in around the edges of the curtains.
“I think about you every moment of every day, Jade,” he says, tucking a strand of my hair behind my ear. “But we can’t be together in the way you think.”
“Because of your job?”
“I would give up more than that,” he says. “I would give up my life to be inside you and feel you cum with my name on your lips.”
A lightning bolt of heat strikes my blood at his words, sending a current of electricity through my body. My thighs clench as slickness coats my sex, and I grip his arms to keep my knees from giving way.
“I want you,” I whisper, my words so inadequate after what he said, but he’s done what he said with other women, has experience. I’m a naïve virgin.
“The one thing I can’t risk is hurting you,” he murmurs. “And I can’t trust myself not to lose control and do that. Not with you.”
“Then what?” I ask.
“My job is to teach you,” he says. “I’ll show you the easiest way to release your magic on your own, so you won’t need me every time. I can’t in good conscience do more than that.”
I nod, feeling the tension coiled in his muscles, like a spring that might unleash and wash me away, drown me in his desire. Suddenly, I understand the guys having to be with other girls. I’m glad they are. I’m glad they have something to release this unbearable ache inside that feels like I’m going to die if I can’t satisfy it. I only wish I could release Professor Darius’s the way he’s helping me.
“So, how do we start?” I ask, eyeing his neat charcoal slacks and blue button-up. All I want to do is tear them off, to see him and touch him and…
He clears his throat and gestures to his desk. “Why don’t we start with a little visualization,” he says.
So not how I imagined this going. But I do as he says because he’s the instructor here.
I hop up on the edge of his desk and clasp my hands around my knee. “Okay. What should I visualize?”
Professor Darius stops in front of me and smiles slightly as he looks down at me. “What turns you on, Jade?”
“What?” I ask, hating how stupid and young I sound. I want to be brazen like the Bellas, to be experienced in the way he wants, so he wouldn’t tell me he couldn’t be with me. But I’m not. I’m not any of those things. All I feel right now is vulnerable.
“Do you trust me?” Darius murmurs, his eyes searching mine.
“Yes,” I answer without hesitation. He’s the one person here besides Asher who I fully trust, who has never done anything to make me suspect he’d do anything but protect me. He’d protect me even if it means giving up his own happiness—and mine.
“Close your eyes,” he says.
I obey.
His hands land on my bare knees, setting fire to my skin. I gasp. Darius spreads my knees with one swift, firm movement. He steps between my knees, and I lean back on my palms on his desk, my lips falling open as a current of desire ripples through me.
“Imagine I’m the man you want,” he says. “What am I going to do next?”
“Kiss me,” I whisper.
“Where?”
“My lips,” I say. “My mouth. Then… My neck.”
“Good,” he murmurs, his breath skimming along my throat. “Where next?”
Half of me is so embarrassed I want to die, but the other part of me is coming alive, loving this. This is my fantasy. Everything happens exactly how I want. I don’t have to pretend he’s someone else. He’s the man I want, and he’s listening to me tell him exactly what makes me hot.
“And then you push my skirt up,” I breathe.
Professor Darius’s hands slide up my thighs, his touch sending hot shivers of want straight to my core. I can feel the heat of his body as he steps between them, leaning over me.
“Are you wet?” he whispers into my ear.
Chills rush over my skin, and I lift my hands to him, sliding them around his neck. “Yes.”
He takes one of my hands and slides it down my belly, dipping it between my legs. “How wet? Touch yourself.”
I’m glad my eyes are closed, because there’s no way I could look at him as my fingers caress the wet fabric between my legs.
“Does it feel good?” He asks.
“Yes.”
“What should your lover do now?”
“Fuck me,” I gasp. I don’t know if I’m confessing or instructing, but the words spill out. “Spin me around, bend me over the desk, and fuck me hard.”
His stubble rasps against my cheek as his skin caresses mine. “Jade,” he whispers.
“Yeah?”
“Pull your panties aside and sink your finger into that wet pussy.”
A throb of pleasure runs through me when he pulls back, and I crack my eyes to watch him, his eyes riveted as I draw aside my cotton panties and spread my lips. His breath comes fast as I flick my finger across my swollen clit, then sink lower, finding my opening. Darius’s fingers tighten painfully on my knees as he spreads them wider, watching me touch myself.
But it’s not enough. I need him, need more.
“Help me,” I whisper.
Professor Darius doesn’t protest or hesitate. His finger glides in next to mine, pushing mine in deeper. Nothing has touched me here before, not this deep, and a pinch of pain accompanies his deep thrust. I cry out, but pleasure overruns the pain, and the next cry is one of pure bliss. His finger touches places in me I didn’t know existed, places that are pure magic. I fall back on my palms, lifting my hips so he can push in further. My hair spills down behind me, and my hips rise and fall shamelessly with each thrust of his finger. I don’t care what he thinks, I don’t care that I have no experience, or that wordless cries of pleasure escape my lips.
I only care about him, and my body, and this magic he’s bringing to life inside me when his thumb caresses my clit and he works a second finger into my tightness. When the orgasm comes, it blocks out everything. Only my body exists, my toes curled and my head dropped back, his name echoing in my ears as I cry the words over and over.
*
A knock sounds at my door, and for a second, my heart stops, and I’m sure that I’ll open it to find Elowen. But Thorn stands on the other side. Of course it’s not Elowen. I accused her of stealing, and now she won’t speak to me. She’s just on my mind because last time I went to one of these parties, we all got ready together. A pang of regret goes through me, but I try to distract myself by admiring the drop-dead gorgeous man standing in my door wearing a pink shirt unbuttoned at the collar and black dress pants that hug his muscular thighs so well I can’t stop staring. His black hair is slicked back, his emerald green eyes are even more piercing than usual, and his chiseled jawline is freshly shaven.
“A man who isn’t afraid to wear pink,” Asher comments, coming up behind me. “Brave. I like it.”
I realize I probably should have said something instead of standing there staring like I’ve gone mute, but damn. The man takes my breath away.
“Hey,” Thorn says, checking me out. My gold dress compliments the golden waves of my hair, which I’ve given a lot more attention than usual. I’m even wearing heels.
“Hey, yourself,” I say, recovering at last.
“I don’t mean to rush you, but are you ready?”
“Yeah,” I say. “Yeah, sure.”
“Did you find your weapon?” he asks.
“No,” I say with a sigh. “Unfortunately. Why?”
“No reason,” he says. “Your magic just seems a lot more… Manageable.”
An inferno of heat rises to my face, and I pray that he somehow doesn’t know what that means.
“Well, hopefully that means none of us will do anything stupid tonight,” Asher says lightly. “Now, shall we?”
He holds out an elbow, and I slip my hand into it, giving him a grateful smile. For a minute, I pretend I’m the queen of this place, being escorted to a ball by two gorgeous men. And then we reach the bottom of the stairs, where Blonde Bella is standing in the common room in a pink dress that perfectly matches Thorn. I skid to a stop and grab his arm, my eyes wide.
“You must be fucking kidding. Bella is your date?”
He shrugs, avoiding my eyes.
I lower my voice. “You hate Bella.”
“I don’t hate her,” he says slowly, looking back and forth between us.
“Since when?”
“Maybe I… Underestimated her,” he says. “And why do you care? I thought you liked Rocco.”
“I…” Now it’s my turn to avert my eyes. I don’t know what to say. I did like Rocco. Maybe I still do. But he hurt me. And now Thorn’s taking Bella to the ball. He didn’t even ask me. I don’t know what I expected. None of the guys asked me. They don’t like me. I don’t know why I can’t get it through my head that my attraction to them is not mutual.
“Bella asked me out,” he says. “Is there some reason I shouldn’t go out with her?”
His gaze is fixed on me so intently that I start squirming. I can wield a knife, but admitting my feelings is a whole other ballgame.
“I thought she was going out with Rocco,” I say, grasping at straws. “And it wasn’t going to work to make you jealous.”
“Well, it worked, didn’t it?” Bella says, sliding up beside Thorn and hooking her hand through his elbow. She gives me a smug smile. “Don’t worry, I let your other boy-toy down easy. In fact, we’re both happier now that we’re with the one we truly belong with.”
Before I can ask what that means, she turns, steering Thorn away from me.
“Don’t stress,” Asher says, taking my hand. “You’re my date tonight, remember? We’re just going to have fun, not hook up.”
“I know,” I say, shaking my blonde waves back. “Besides, I have someone, just like they do.”
“Yeah, you do,” Asher says with a grin.
We head out, making our way along the paved pathway through campus to the Great Hall, where the big events like the Unleashing are held. That day, it was full of seats and a platform, but tonight, anything utilitarian has been replaced with glitz and glamour. A red carpet rolls up to the door, with running lights leading us in. Inside, a photo booth overflows with friends taking selfies and photographing each other and their dates.
Bella drags Thorn over to where her other friends are standing—Black-Haired Bella with Ryker, and Brunette Bella with Rocco.
“Oh my God, are you really going to the ball as Asher’s beard?” Brunette Bella asks, choking back a laugh.
“She thinks she’s a sex goddess, but she’s really a fag hag,” Black-Haired Bella shrieks.
“How’s it feel to be stabbed in the back by your best friend?” Blonde Bella sneers. “With a spork!”
They all start howling with laughter. The guys stand there looking uncomfortable. Thorn shoves his hands in his pockets and studies the silver streamers hanging from the ceiling like a thousand glittering icicles. Rocco clears his throat and scratches his cheek. “Let’s not worry about anyone else,” he says to his date, circling her waist with his muscular arm.
“Leave Jade out of this,” Ryker says, steering Bella away from me.
“I’m not even going to think about them tonight,” I say, grabbing Asher’s hand and dragging him to the dance floor. A slow song is playing, and I wrap my arms around his neck and sway to the music. I never had prom or any of the high school dances, so I’m happy to be here with my friend. Besides, he’s as cute as any other guy here. And so what if he’s just a friend? I can go to Professor Darius if I need more relief any time I want.
And so, we dance. We dance under the swirling lights and the streamers, to the slow songs and the fast ones. I’m having such a good time I forget all about the guys. That is, until I look over and see two of the Bellas grinding on Rocco, riding his thighs while Ryker and Thorn grind on their asses. Last time I came to one of these, I was the one getting attention. Now, I might as well be invisible. I want
to look away, to pretend they’re not there, but I can’t seem to stop myself. My heart is ripping in two, and I should walk out of here, but I can’t stop looking.
The third Bella appears, leaping up onto Rocco. He laughs and catches her, and she wraps her legs around his waist, throws her head back, and starts riding up and down on him.
Suddenly, a scream cuts through the crowd. I yank my eyes away from the orgy spectacle happening and see other students stumbling back. In the center of the floor is a tiny, ugly creature with twisted horns and blazing red eyes.
Well, shit.
Another demonling.
I reach for my knife, only to realize I’m wearing sandals, so I don’t have it. The movement catches the creature’s eye, though, and it leaps at me. It slams into me, knocking me flat.
“Jade,” Asher yells, spinning his nunchucks and knocking the creature off me.
I roll over and grab the creature by the throat and pin it to the floor. “Who’s sending you fuckers after me?” I demand.
The demonling begins to squirm, then freezes, its eyes wide. I turn to see Ryker standing over it, his palm extended toward the creature.
“Asher,” he says, his gaze never wavering from the monster. “Get Professor Darius. He’s in the office.”
A minute later, Darius appears, Asher close behind. “Bring the demonling,” Darius says to Ryker. “We need to find out how it’s getting onto campus.”
“Is the party over?” one of the Bellas asks.
“No,” Darius says. “Go back to having fun. I’ll let you know if anything changes.”
Rocco hauls the sturdy little thing up like it weighs nothing, and together we head to the office where they took me after the Unleashing.
“Are you hurt?” Professor Darius asks me, his chocolate eyes searching mine. A throb of excitement flares in my belly as I remember his long fingers stroking my pleasure to unbearable heights.
“I’m fine,” I answer, hoping he can’t see the blush climbing to my cheeks.
“What the fuck is this thing doing on campus?” Ryker asks, hooking a thumb toward the demonling and glaring daggers. “It’s the second one of its kind. Someone is summoning demons to our school.”
Academy of Sorcery: Term 1: Unleashing Trials Page 16
