Page 53 of Mortal Blood
Cole hummed in agreement behind me, his fingers finding my clit again and circling gently.
“More books,” I added, feeling the tip of his finger pressing against my sensitive flesh. My heart pounded in anticipation as he teased me, knowing what was coming next.
“Books,” Thaden echoed, dropping to his knees in front of me and tugging my pants and panties down to reveal the full extent of my arousal as my hips chased Cole’s merciless hand.
Cole withdrew his hand and I whimpered at the loss, even as it travelled up my body to slip inside my bra and tease my nipple with pebbled at his touch. Thaden’s tongue darted out, slipping between my legs. I gasped at the sensation and arched into him instinctively, wanting more, and he gave it to me, teasing and nibbling until desire was the only thing holding me together.
“Let go for me, sweetness,” he urged between licks.
“Come for us,” Cole murmured in my ear, and leaned his head round to claim my lips just as Thaden’s tongue flickedinside me. My orgasm crashed over me and I screamed my ecstasy into Cole’s mouth. My legs gave way beneath me but something—someone—held me up, and I clung to them both, lost in a storm of utter bliss.
Chapter Seventeen
The morning airwas crisp and cold, and my breath hung around me in little white clouds as I walked through the academy grounds, following the curve of the wall as much through habit as anything else. The artificial sun—an enchanted, vampire-safe mirror of the real one—was creeping above the horizon, and I knew my first class had already started. I walked on steadily.
It wasn’t that I was avoiding Thaden after yesterday. What had happened between us in the library was… I mean, it wasn’t like any of us hadplannedthat, things had just gotten…het up. We got caught up in the moment, all of us. I didn’t expect him to like me all of a sudden. It wasn’t like this changed things between us. It wasn’t going to hurt any more than it had before next time he sneered at me like I was nothing.
…Okay, so Iwasavoiding Thaden. Sue me.
I blew out a huff of air. At least Cole didn’t seem bothered by what had happened. What did it matter what Thaden thought of me? He’d spent the whole year making his feelings perfectly clear. Whatever we’d shared last year, that was over. Yesterday was just…a blip. It didn’t mean anything.
So why couldn’t I get it out of my head?
I let out a frustrated groan and stopped walking, slumping back against the wall. What a mess. How thehellwas my life more chaotic than this time last year? Because I thought being a human in an academy of monsters—one of them my mate—had been bad enough. Not that I’d ever been a human. Not my whole life. Everything I’d thought I’d known about myself…nothing had ever been real. Who even was I?
I wrapped my arms around myself and squeezed my eyesshut. I wasnotgoing to cry. Self-pity was not my thing. So what that my entire fucking life had been a lie? No point crying over spilt milk, right? Except that was whathumanparents told theirhumanchildren. That wasn’t me.
“Fuck!” I slammed my fist behind me against the wall, relishing the jolt that traveled up my arm. Anything was better than the confusion eating at me from the inside.
“What did that wall ever do to you, sweetness?”
My head whipped round and I sucked in a sharp breath as my eyes fell on Thaden, and then I forced a scowl.
“What are you doing, sneaking around out here? Shouldn’t you be in class?”
“Right back at you.”
I rolled my eyes, staring out across the grounds, pointedly not looking at him. “I’m ditching. But don’t go thinking it’s because of you, because it’s not.”
He leaned against the wall next to me. “I’m ditching, too. But that’s where our commonalities end.”
Despite myself, I jerked my head round to look at him, and his eyes snared me.
“Because you are precisely the reason.”
I searched his face. “But…”
“Did you think I wouldn’t come looking for you after yesterday? Do you truly think so little of me?”
I wrenched my eyes away and found myself staring at his feet. “You hate me,” I whispered.
“No.”
I shook my head in frustration. “What I am, then.”
“No.”
“Don’t play games with me, Thaden. Not today, please.”
