Page 55 of Great Falls Rogue
Beneath his hand, Lera’s hips were undulating slightly despite her clear attempt to focus her gaze on the chaste ceiling, Lera’s desire slamming a very untimely avalanche of need into Shade. He drew a quiet but very full breath, begging the stars not to let him lose control into his too tight britches.
Beyond the door, the voice grew louder. “But it will only take a bit of your time, sir. I won’t keep you long at all. Here, let me just show you.”
The sound of the turning handle sent a shiver through Shade before he could even see the door start to creep open. He never locked it. Why would he?Stars.
Leaping over the exam table and a very naked Lera, Shade managed to wedge his foot against the door before it could open more than a hand’s width. “What’s the emergency, Vivian?” he asked, corralling his heavy breaths. Behind him, he could hear Lera quietly slipping off the table to collect her clothes, his heart pounding with disappointment.
“I think I pulled a muscle in training today, Master Shade. Won’t you please have a look?” Vivian pushed against the door, her green eyes widened in concern. “Can I come in?”
Hearing the door to his small attached study open and close, Shade sighed and motioned Vivian inside, reminding himself that any visions of ripping the girl’s throat out with his teeth were firmly misplaced.
9
Lera
By the time classes end for the day, I’m so exhausted, I decide to skip dinner and the Protector’s Guild meeting and go straight to bed. Coal will just seethe silently anyway, and I’ve not the stamina to argue. More to the point, I’m in no shape to tie my shoelaces much less patrol tonight.
I’m already crossing the courtyard toward the dorms when the problem with my plan strikes me like an anvil. Tutoring with River.
He’s expecting me, and knowing River, if I don’t go, he’ll let Coal know with concern that I skipped one of our “clerk” sessions because I wasn’t feeling well. Back to square one.
Shade’s balm has diminished the worst of my muscle aches, and a tight shin wrap now keeps my leg from feeling like someone is jamming a hot rod between my muscles—but that’s a long way from actual comfort. The first step up to River’s tower office makes me flinch, and by the first landing, sweat has broken out on my temples. I grip the railing, using so much arm strength to get up that my biceps start to ache.
By the second landing, I want to throw River and his tutoring off the tallest parapet on the keep.
No. Tutoring is good,I chant to myself.Climbing stairs is good.Even without the extra nuisance my failing the exams would create, the tutoring is the one touch point of trust between River and me. I’d never realized the intimacy sharing knowledge could have, River’s genuine pride twines with mine each time we conquer a new equation or text. Strange as it sounds, failing the exams feels like failing River.
“Leralynn.” The door to River’s study opens as I’m still climbing the last set of stairs, and the male’s impossibly broad shoulders and beautiful face fill the entryway. In his tucked-in white shirt with a golden sash and matching cuff links, he looks his usual controlled self, so handsome and polished that I feel like a sweaty rag doll next to him. Only the intensity in his gray eyes as he watches my approach gives away his inner tension.
I swallow. With the male’s busy schedule and my own avoidance tactics, this is the first time I’ve returned to his study since the night he made me whip him. I didn’t have time to worry about that while I was dragging myself up the stairs, and it hits me now. The memories of that encounter still rake my chest, not even drowned out by the leg-trembling kiss that followed it. My cheeks flame. Unable to help myself, I glance at River’s forearm, his shirt’s snow-white linen concealing whatever bruises may still linger.
“I’m a bit sore.” River answers the unspoken question, his voice too understanding. Too perceptive. A tiny corner of his mouth twitches up. “I hear you might be as well. Do I want to know what it was you did to antagonize Coal?”
Stars,has anyone not yet heard of my morning? I brush down my dress’s crinkly fabric, grateful that it will conceal any new wrinkles from being dumped onto the floor of Shade’s clinic. “Coal and I are in the midst of a discussion. A difference in opinions on a philosophical matter.”
“How very…civilized of you.” Reaching around me with a brush of warm, woodsy-scented air, River shuts the door, his face shifting to soul-piercing worry when I flinch at the sound of the clicking latch.
After spending the night in the dungeon, I’m not sure I’ll ever get used to the sound.
Stepping in front of me, River touches my shoulder for a heartbeat before thinking better and drawing his hand away. “Lera, look at me,” River says with commanding confidence, as if he can pour his strength into my soul if he tries hard enough. “You are all right. You are safe. The door is unlocked. And if you would rather not be alone in a room with me—”
“I’m happy to be in a room alone with you,” I say firmly. At least I think I am. My notion of who River truly is has shifted so many times in the past weeks that my head and heart are both still spinning. Drawing a breath, I grip his muscled arm, my small hand barely able to cup his sculpted triceps. This close to him, his dominating height and breadth consume me, making me feel more delicate than I know I am—or want to be.
A wary look crosses River’s gaze, and he makes no move to touch me in return—but he doesn’t pull away either.
I bite my lip, unprepared for the sudden need to share my thoughts and worries with the brilliant male beside me. “Can we speak as friends for a few minutes? Before we start?” The words tumble from me, futile or not. “I want—I need—to say something, and if you tell me off for it, I will likely kick you. Which would not end well.”
The male glances at the door, then out the window of his study, as if a key to his decision might stride across the courtyard. In the ensuing silence, my heart strikes my ribs in a steady, too-loud beat. Then River finally sighs and, stepping away from me, leans his muscled backside against his desk. “I’m afraid to ask, but what’s on your mind, Leralynn?”
Everything.I draw a deep breath, forcing my shoulders to settle. Despite River’s agreement to hear me out, he is still the Academy’s commander, whose instinct—for better or worse—is to keep me safe. And that very well may include telling me to mind my place as a cadet and leave the worrying to the administration. Only one way to find out. “Having the Prowess Trials at the Academy is a mistake.”
River’s fingers drum a slow rhythm against the oak desk. “I don’t disagree.”
“Can you just—” I cut off, his words registering. “Wait. What did you say?”
“I dislike the notion of gathering the continent’s leaders at Great Falls when I can’t confirm that the magic blight that mauled several people earlier this year won’t rear its head again. That said, I don’t believe there is anything to be done for the decision except to fortify the Academy. That last, you will be pleased to know, I am actively doing.”
Exactly as Coal said River felt.
