Page 76 of Nova Academy

‘The whole situation is becoming a nuisance to my investigation. I have even less freedom than I’d originally planned for because we’re stuck up here under constant watch. I need to get rid of the problem.’

I frowned. ‘What does that mean?’

‘It means I’m going to find the fucker so we can all move on from this mess. I need to focus my whole attention on getting back to Libby, and I can’t do that with him still on the loose. But I’ll need your help.’

I wassodown for this. ‘A secret manhunt? Fuck, yeah! Count me in, Arty.’

She grinned at that, her fist bumping against my shoulder. ‘The things you’re into are so weird.’

‘Oh, I know,’ I giggled. ‘But this is gonna beawesome. We’re so bonding over this.’

She shook her head at me, then left me standing alone in thekitchen cackling to myself as I thought of all the fun things I’ve always wanted to do and how I could implement them into this new directive.

She opened the door to allow the men back inside, and their heads bounced between the two of us as they tried to figure out what had gone down. Instead, I let them stew in their ignorance, taking a surprising amount of pleasure from knowing something they didn’t. I still wanted to tell Xander everything because I never liked to keep things from him, but I even got a sick sense of satisfaction from keeping him in the dark.

He’d done it enough to me over the years, I considered this my payback.

‘Did you break her?’ he asked Artemis, though it was amusement and befuddlement coating his tone rather than an accusation.

Arty simply lifted a shoulder, her own mirth shining through. ‘Isn’t she always like this?’

Xander snorted a laugh. ‘You’re not wrong.’

‘Guess we were worried about nothing, huh?’ asked Reece, and Henrik grunted his agreement as he made his way towards the second bedroom, doing his best to ignore the rest of us.

‘I should head back to the other suite,’ Artemis said, and I ran over to give her a quick hug goodnight. Xander, seeing my giddiness after our conversation, shocked me by patting Arty on the back in his own, ‘manly’ version of a goodnight. It felt like a momentous moment, like he’d finally accepted him and given him his seal of approval.

Or, rather,smackof approval. The sound echoed throughout the room. The hit was harder than I considered polite. It must have been one of those ridiculous masculine social tests, liketake my physical abuse without complaint and I’ll consider you worthy, or something to that extent. But Artemis didn’t even budge, let alone flinch. She simply walked away leaving the rest of us gaping at theclosed door she’d just exited.

‘What…?’

‘Punching bag,’ Reece said, and while his meaning went right over my head, Xander seemed to comprehend the connection.

‘I need to examine that damn punching bag,’ he said, then stalked to the main bedroom while shaking his head in disbelief. I remembered him telling me about Arty destroying one the other day, but there was something here that wasn’t making any sense to me.

‘I’m missing something,’ I stated, waiting for Reece, the only one left in the room, to elaborate.

He didn’t. Instead, he waved goodnight and escaped into his room for the night. And I was left alone.

I followed Xander into the bedroom and stripped down. We had seen each other’s naked bodies enough times over the years, even more so in recent weeks, that it didn’t faze either one of us. What did seem to faze him, however, was when I wore one of his oversized shirts to bed. That did something to his teeny male brain that I couldn’t begin to understand, but I kept wearing them because they were comfortable and smelled like him. He would just have to deal.

When we climbed into bed, I immediately drifted to his side as he pulled me close and we wrapped our arms around one another. He was hard, and when I brushed against his length with my leg as I threw it over his body he jerked his hips away with a hiss.

‘Sorry, did I hurt you?’ I asked, concerned with his reaction. I usually ignored his erections because I knew he couldn’t control it, but I did try to avoid touching it. More so for his sake than mine. I was indifferent, but that didn’t mean he had to be, too.

‘No, but my balls will definitely be blue tonight,’ he tried to tease through a strained voice.

I sighed. ‘I don’t know how many times I have to tell you that you can go out and find someone to fuck. I really don’t mind. Youneed the release and I… I can’t give you that.’

He kissed the top of my head, burying his nose in my hair and inhaling deeply. ‘Don’t worry about me, my love. My hand does the trick just fine.’

‘If you say so…’

He chuckled. ‘If I really need to find a warm body, I’ll let you know. I promise I’m not torturing myself. I just enjoy having you in my bed.’

I smiled against his chest. ‘Okay.’

He snuggled me in closer and I rubbed my cheek against his bare chest, loving the feel of the hair there tickling the sensitive skin on my face. ‘Goodnight, baby. I love you.’

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