Page 30 of Bizarre Bonds
Peri aims another smile at me, this one more hesitant. “I’m glad to be back in a regular bedroom instead of having to spend what might be my last night at the academy in the infirmary. I know no one can hurt me when you’re right here.”
A growl creeps up my throat automatically. “They wouldn’t get past the door. But I’m sure Rollick will think it’s okay for you to come back to the school once everything has… settled down.”
“I guess we’ll see.” Peri looks at her hands and then at me again. “I’m sorry that I’m having to drag you along with me to keep working on the rifts. You shouldn’t have to leave too. If it wasn’t for the marks…”
I frown at the distress in her voice. “I’d rather go wherever you’re going than stay here wondering what’s happening to you. I’m not sure I was learning all that much from the classes I could take anyway.”
To tell the truth, being around Peri gave me more confidence that I could eventually mingle with humans again than anything else has in the several months I’ve been stuck at the academy.
Peri’s hands clasp on her lap, her fingers twisting together. A faint glow wavers through her hair, a paler blue than its natural turquoise. “I’ve just seen—you don’t want to get very close to me anymore. I can understand why you’d be worried that some other strange power might jump out of me. I don’t want you tohaveto worry about that.”
What crazy ideas is she talking about? They’re not even the good kind of crazy.
I knit my brow. “What do you mean? I never thought that might happen.”
Peri blinks at me. “Then why— When we’ve talked before, you’ve kept your distance. Even right now, you’ve avoided touching me or getting close.”
Maybe I’m the crazy one. Did I really think she wasn’t going to notice?
I grapple with my words. “It’s not about you. It’s never about you. You know what kinds of impulses I have… How my powers can come out reflexively… This connection that’s between us now—I don’t want any of the poison in me to leak into you. It seems like the feelings that pass through the mark are stronger when we’re physically closer. I thought it was safer this way.”
When Peri brightens, it’s so obvious that her natural light had dimmed before. A peachy glint shimmers over her hair, melting away the blue with a warmer sheen.
A pang shoots through my heart.
She is a rainbow, like Mirage always says. My Glowbug. She’smeantto be glowing, and all the confusion of the past couple of weeks has dwindled her light.
Peri gets up and walks over to me, her hair still shining. My stance tenses, but I force myself to stay still and in bodily form rather than shying away.
If I start running from the only being who’s ever mademefeel remotely safe, then I might as well throw in the towel.
She stops right in front of me and reaches to touch my chest over the mark, which with our different heights is level with the top of her head. The warmth of her hand courses through my shirt and sets off a flare of a deeper heat that streams down to my groin.
I love everything about Peri, but this strange connection heightens certain sensations to torturous intensity. Her affection and desire for me waft into my chest and set off a sizzle through my nerves.
And I know she can taste my reaction even more clearly than I can sense hers.
“I’m always safer when I’m close to you than when I’m not,” she says, her voice so tender it sends the giddiest of shivers over my skin. “You’ve never hurt me. The impulses you have, they’re just part of how you’re made. You still decide whether to act on them.”
When she talks like that, it’s hard not to doubt all my good intentions. “It’s never been exactly like this before. We don’t even know everything the bond might mean.”
“Then we’ll figure it out together.” She lifts her hand to stroke her fingers along my jaw, and that’s all it takes for my dick to harden in my pants. “Do you still want me?”
Fuck, she must feel how much I do. My voice comes out hoarse. “Always.”
She bobs up on her toes to tuck her hands around my neck, gazing up at me with that brilliant grin I’ve been missing. “Then take me. Show me all that strength and how good it can make me feel.”
A groan reverberates from my chest, and I scoop her right off the floor. As our mouths collide, her brightly sweet scent filling my lungs, I whisk her to my bed.
Peri loops her arms around my shoulders and kisses me back so eagerly I couldn’t possibly doubt that she wants me just as much as I want her. Her lips tease over mine, coaxing my mouth open and tempting my tongue to dart out to meet her.
My hand comes up to grasp her gorgeous hair. I drop onto the bed, and her legs slide around my waist.
She sinks into my lap, the pressure of her rounded ass and thighs setting off a pulse of need through my groin. My cock throbs, stiff as steel now.
She isn’t afraid. She’s never been afraid of me, so that shouldn’t come as a surprise.
I only wanted to protect her—I wanted to make sure I didn’t ruin her?—
