Page 105 of Dark Embers

“Oh, do you, er, have protection?” he asked, stopping before opening the door.

My cheeks heated. “Yeah, I’m on something. We’re good.”

Just not in the way he expected. After what had happened with Julian, so suddenly and without warning, I’d taken precautionsin case something like that happened again. One of the only spells Gram had been eager to teach me as soon as I entered puberty was a contraceptive spell. I’d never used it because, well, I wasn’t that kinda girl. At least not until now, apparently.

As Caesar led me by the hand down a narrow winding stairwell to the teachers’ quarters, I was for once eager to be his dirty little secret. There was something darkly thrilling about sneaking around, especially in this mystical place. The fear of getting spotted by anyone we might pass by only made it more decadent.

He stopped at the first door in the hallway, fumbling with a key card to unlock the door. I bounced on my heels beside him, peering anxiously down the hall and up the stairs for any sign of oncoming passersby. Finally, he swiped the card correctly, shoving the door open and dragging me inside.

I didn’t have time to take in any of the details of his room as our lips clashed together. We tore at each other’s clothes, yanking them off with claws and teeth like rabid beasts in between sloppy, frenzied kisses.

When I was down to only my panties, he scooped me off the floor and tossed me down onto the bed. I bounced slightly off the plush comforter, giggling as he climbed on top of me. He nestled himself between my spread thighs, his weight crushing me in the most delicious way. I wanted him so powerfully that my lust for him was all I could feel, hear or see.

He jerked my panties down at the same time that I tugged at the hem of his boxers, and we flailed wildly as we kicked the last remaining barriers off our feet. Without ceremony, he plunged his cock inside me, and I moaned loudly, gripping his ass to pull him in deeper.

His thrusts were fast and hard, his breath falling hot and heavy on my neck with each groan of pleasure. I scraped my fingers across the broad expanse of his back, down his waist, loving the firmness of his muscles and the smoothness of his flesh under my fingertips. And that ass! It was chiseled perfection that I couldn’t resist squeezing as he fucked me.

Some part of me wanted to savor this, to slow it down and let it last forever. But the deeper, more overriding part of me wanted all of him immediately. After all the teasing and waiting and resisting due to what the rest of the world might think, I was done with holding back.

And apparently, so was he. He was pure carnal lust as he assaulted my body. I’d never seen a side of him that wasn’t restrained by duty or propriety, and it thrilled me to no end to see him give in to me so primally, so greedily, taking what he craved from me and giving me so much more.

“Cum, Shea,” he pleaded through a tight throat. “I—I can’t hold back much longer.”

Holy shit, why is that so hot!

Need flared in my core, pulsating through my torso and limbs and driving my pleasure ever closer to its pinnacle.

I raked my fingers up his spine and neck to pull his head down so his ear was next to my mouth and demanded, “Then don’t hold back. Give it all to me.”

“Oh God, Shea!” he grunted, gripping my ass with one hand to fuck me even more mercilessly.

With one final slam of his hips, his cock sank into my deepest spot, colliding with my center and pushing my pleasure over the edge. Bliss exploded within me, my inner muscles convulsingaround his cock as he spilled into me. We moaned against each other’s ears, our sounds a song of satisfaction we chorused in harmony.

And when the waves of ecstasy subsided, he collapsed on top of me, panting as he placed kisses along my neck and jaw. I didn’t care that his weight was making it hard for me to catch my breath, or that our sweat was a thick film between our hot, spent bodies. I was exactly where I wanted to be, and no matter what happened after this, I knew he was mine.

Caesar, the powerful gryphon and leader of the shifter school, was mine.

“Do you think we should—” I began to ask but got interrupted by the loud shriek of Caesar’s phone ringing on the floor.

We both groaned at the sound that meant the end of our time together.

“Every time,” I complained, pressing my forehead against his in bittersweet resignation.

“Hold that thought,” he said, pecking my lips one last time before climbing off me and searching through his discarded garments for his phone.

He picked it up, frowning at the screen before accepting the call and pressing the phone to his ear. “Hello?”

I propped myself on my elbows to look at him, waiting as he listened in hopes that it was unimportant. But the fear that widened his eyes said the opposite.

“Omigod,” he gasped. “I’ll be right there.”

He hung up the phone and began tossing my clothes at me before hurriedly pulling on his own. “Arya and her friends were attacked by vampires.”

“What?!” I shrieked, now just as rushed to get dressed as he was.

“They didn’t make it back before curfew and got ambushed in an alley near the subway entrance,” he said, rifling with his belt buckle at his waist.

“Holy shit, is she okay?” I asked, panic and dread flooding through my veins like liquid fire.

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