Page 46 of Phoenix Academy: Madness

His mouth issmooth and warm, the kiss a gentle and delicate thing. I feel like I'm dangling at the edge of a precipice.

If we lean forward a little more, slide our hands against each other's legs and arms, let our mouths part, if I coax him to press his thumb against the pulse in my neck, somethingmorejust might happen.

I don't know what will follow a move like that.

Even this feels too big to risk, yet too important to stop in its tracks.

I could pull back. End this now. Not risk a rift between any of the four of us, in the middle of this thing built out of friendship and necessity, magic and a desire not to make all the shifters on campus feral.

But I don't.

Instead I lean forward, part my lips, and grab onto his shoulder as if for dear life.

He leans forward too, sliding towards me until he's perched at the edge of his chair, one of his legs between mine. Warmth pools inside me as his knee parts my thighs, my skirt pooling around me wantonly. With a gentle thumb, he coaxes me to turn my head, and deepens the kiss until it feels like more than just our mouths touching each other.

It feels like a promise of other things to come. Especially when his other hand slides cautiously towards my knee, his thumb stroking the inside of my leg. A little thrill goes through me at what his touch suggests. Not wanting it to end, or for him to think I don't like it, I circle my fingers around his wrist and pull his hand towards me.

Up, up, beneath my skirt, towards the warmth of my thigh, and the wetness gathering further in.

Xavier makes a noise inside my mouth that'sdefinitelya turned-on groan.

Then I hear the clearing of a throat. Jerking back, I press my knees together and look over with heat in my cheeks, expecting to see Beatrice Trout, the head librarian, looking at us disapprovingly.

Instead it's David staring at us both, a scowl on his face, arms crossed over his chest. In a low, library-pitched voice, he demands, "What are you two doing? Especially you, X—you've got a hard-on in the fucking library."

Before I can stop myself my eyes glance towards his lap, and my blush only deepens at the sight of the unmistakable erection on the inside of Xavier's thigh, its clear outline visible beneath his slacks. Grabbing the fabric near his crotch, he pulls it uncomfortably away, which only barely lessens the visibility of his dick—it's big enough, and hard enough, that it'd probably take a whole stack of books to hide it.

I force my eyes back to David, who's scowling at me noticeably. Giving up on his pants, Xavier scoots his chair further beneath the table so he's hidden from view, like a school boy with his first stiff one.

I did that. With my mouth. And I didn't even have to take off his pants or get down on my knees to do it. It's hard not to feel proud—or turned on myself, which I can thankfully hide, even though my blush is pretty impossible to get rid of.

"What are you doing here?" I ask David, because I can't talk about that kiss, or Xavier's hard-on, without making things worse. "You never come to the library with us. Not since that first time."

"I camehere," he says, voice a wolf-like growl, "becauseyourbrother," directed at Xavier, "wanted me to ask Ari to come down to dinner for him. Because he's too much of a chickenshit to ask her himself. Because he's afraid that if he does, she'll figure out he likes her, and not just in a makes-sex-jokes-around-her kinda way. So instead he sent me. And now." He waves his hand in the air dramatically. "I findthis."

"It's not like I planned it," Xavier says defensively, pushing his glasses up on his nose and looking very pointedly anywhere but in my direction. "It just happened."

"Itjust happenedthat you kissed your brother's crush?" David scoffs, his scowl deepening. "Dude, you're my best friend and he's not, but even I'm not on your side in this one. Reggienevergets feelings."

"They're not feelings." Xavier's voice rises, and I find myself wishing I were anywhere but here—even though I'd love to have another taste of that kiss. "Reggie gets a crush on anything that moves. He'd flirt with a paper bag if someone drew a face on it. He'll get over it."

David snorts and shakes his head, his eyes trawling over to me. He's staring at my lips, an odd expression twisting his mouth down at the corners. Self-conscious, I reach up to blot at my lips, and his eyes follow the motion. Then he leans forward, licking his own lips, and I'm suddenly thinking about what it would be like if he... I have to shake the thought away, along with the fact that I've seen him naked. Now isdefinitelynot the time.

"I hope it was worth it," David says to Xavier, finally breaking his stare away from me. "Also, I'm not telling him. That's going to be your job. Don't expect me to be the bearer of the bad news that now he never gets to kiss her."

The thought of that—of never getting to shut Reggie's big, ridiculous mouth with a surprise kiss, or find out if he's got skills to go with that swagger—suddenly makes me feel depressed and disappointed.

So for some reason I open my own big mouth.

And I can't seem to stop the thought that comes out of it, even though I'm horrified as I say the words.

"Reggie can still kiss me. It's not like I'd stop him. Or you."

Alarmed, I throw my hand over my mouth, eyes wide.

The first part of that thought was bad enough.

I can't believe I told David the last part.

---