Page 4 of Great Falls Rogue
The male is so large that I feel like a miniature toy beside him, his penetrating gray eyes always seeing entirely too much while revealing nothing of their thoughts. Power and responsibility cling to River’s woodsy scent, his broad shoulders and dark hair blocking the wind and sky. Making my thighs tingle in spite of myself.
Silence hangs between us, my smarting hands a reminder of the display he just witnessed—and of the more damning truth about my education that I’ve managed to keep concealed.
Reaching forward slowly, River taps a single finger against the back of my hand. “When I was a boy, my tutor preferred to rap the knuckles,” he says with a hint of smile. “I swear it hurt more than the palms, though a few of my friends disagreed.”
Yes, River had tutors.Royaltutors. I had a pitchfork and piles of manure.When you were a colt, River, you knew more by age ten than I do at twenty.
“Why did you bait Master Daniel back there?” he continues, his voice quiet. Serious. As if he really wants to know the truth. “Is there a quarrel between you?”
My gaze sweeps up River’s arm. Neatly trimmed nails, palms calloused from weapons training, muscle-corded forearms that give form to his silk shirt of deep red. Golden cufflinks with the Academy crest. Close as we are, I can feel the heat of his body warming the air between us, see the delicate flaring of his nostrils as his heightened sense of smell takes me in.
“No.” I bite my lip, wondering if I should have claimed otherwise, tried to throw River off scent. Too late now. “I…I felt cornered.”
River’s brow rises. “By being asked to repeat the very arguments you’d put down in your own paper?”
By being asked to display how little I understand of anything in the texts, including the ones I copy from Arisha. “I…I don’t know.”
All of a sudden, River’s presence in my space is too much to contend with. With the male’s beautiful face now but a few hand widths away and his fresh scent surrounding me, my mouth longs for his taste so fiercely that I can’t think. But if the magic-bonded River would have taken me in a heartbeat, the real one—a born and raised king—might not. Especially once he sees me for the ignorant peasant I am.
I step back, moving so quickly that—exhausted as I am—my balance teeters. Tips. The muddy ground rises toward me in tauntingly slow motion.
Strong hands close on my elbows, River’s steady arms absorbing my weight as if it were nothing. Steadying me on my feet, he studies my face with an intensity that sends an unwelcome ripple of want all through my core. It is bloody unjust for the warrior to be smart and beautiful and so damn sure of himself that I feel like a drowned rat in comparison.
River’s dark brows draw together. “What happened here?” he asks, touching a finger to my temple.
Trickles of heat spider over my skin, accompanied by a light sting and a hard, fast hammering of my heart. I don’t actually know what happened—the cut is one of many I’ve been collecting on my nightly outings. The very nightly outings River would likely whip me for if discovered. Because I’m just a cadet. Nothing more. Not to him.
“I missed one of Lieutenant Coal’s high attacks. It won’t happen again.” I draw air into my lungs, letting the chilly wind cool the turmoil inside me. “May I go, sir?”
“Of course.” River steps back quickly, the loss of his presence beside me somehow both a relief and disappointment. Hugging my books securely to my chest, I rush away, my back tingling with the sense of River’s eyes watching my every step.
3
River
River splashed cold water on his face, then curled his hands on the edge of the windowsill. From his study in the keep tower, he could see the expanse of the Academy, now strung up with ribbons and flowers for the Ostera ball that had the whole school quivering with anticipation.
The Great Hall itself had been shut down for the past week as Academy staff transformed it into a lantern-lit, silk-strung extravaganza to welcome spring and fertility. River winced, making a mental note to speak to Shade about tonics—in a walled-off fortress filled with young nobles from ten kingdoms, thefertilitypart could lead to disaster.
Drawing a deep breath, River tried to ward off the personal melancholy the date brought. Ostera was about light and life and dancing. Every seamstress from Great Falls to Grayson was busy sewing elaborate Ostera gowns in the colors of a daylit sky, bright yellows, deep golds, and pale blues.
Surveying the courtyard again, River marked the excited chatter, the way everyone seemed to be smiling at the colored silks.
And, as much as he tried to avoid it, River also marked the now-empty spot at the courtyard’s edge where he’d nearly pawed a student a quarter hour ago. Leralynn’s phantom lilac scent was still making his head spin, and the hint of arousal River had scented when he brushed her cheeks—stars. For a moment, the thought of parting Lera’s creamy thighs to expose the wetness between them tightened River’s cock.
Taking the rest of the water pitcher, he emptied it over his head.
Leralynn was mouthy and impertinent and heady in a way a cadet could not be allowed to be. But she was also brave and selfless and hurting on a level River was struggling to understand, though it roused every protective instinct inside him. The palm swats Daniel had delivered were more humiliating than truly painful, and yet River had nearly taken a swing at the history master for it. River’s control of himself had been so tenuous, he’d not even remained to have his intended conversation with the instructor.
Or maybe River was lying even to himself. Maybe be hadn’t been getting away from Daniel as much as going after Leralynn. River hadneededto look into her eyes, to make sure there wasn’t terror lurking behind that chocolate gaze like that day in his study.
River glared at his now empty pitcher, the trickles of water soaking his tunic failing to pull down the stirring between his legs. He was being ridiculous. It was the time of year—the coming anniversary of Diana’s death on Ostera eve—that was rousing his senses. Making him stupid. River tossed the pitcher aside. There was a better way to deal with stupid than ogling a cadet.
River’s musclesstrained against the force of Coal’s blade, the sweat streaking down his back soaking his shirt. The light from the setting sun behind their high grassy knoll reflected off the sharp live steel as River circled his sword away from the clash and sprang off his back leg into a new offensive.
High attack left. Slice up off the parry. Twist in a full circle to gain momentum and strike hard enough to take off a man’s head.River’s assault lacked finesse but brimmed with enough power that he’d not have dared try it against anyone but Coal.
Coal’s blazing blue eyes and familiar face, set in deadly concentration, were as grounding as the movement itself.
