“Well, I got the good part. Although, maybe taking it easy for the next couple days might be in order.”
His eyes took on a liquid heat, arousal flooding through the link. He almost started back to me, every muscle on his sizable frame taut, but he held firm. Shaking his head that little bit, he grinned. “Note taken. I bet I can make it even better with a longer build-up.”
“Hmm, yes please.”
Committing his smiling face to memory for my spank bank, I headed for the shower.
After I had finished getting ready, I glanced around for Charles. Usually, he was in annoying me by now, unable to keep from talking for longer than a few hours at a time. On the way out the door, I finally found him, huddled naked behind a plant in the corner by the door, the thin green leaves shaking, doing a poor job of hiding his whole body.
I stopped, staring down at him. “Hey. What-ah…whatchya doin’?”
“Oh nothing much. Just crouching here behind this plant in a puddle of urine. I’m naked though, so I dried quick. Spot of luck on that score.”
I struggled to keep a smile from my face. “How long have you been there?”
“Oh, just since the Boss came barreling through in a battle rage. Thought he’d kill me. Then thought he’d kill whoever was with you. Then thought he might kill you accidentally because you tried to save someone, all while I hid in the bush like a bitch. Not my finest moment, Sasha, but it’s been a while since I saw that crazy male in a rage. Took me by surprise.”
I stepped behind the plant and hauled him up. “You didn’t really piss yourself, did you?”
“Yeah. Please don’t tell anyone. There’s a reason that man has been the leader so long. He’s got great logic, sure, great leadership, great loyalty to his people—but if all that fails, he freaks the fuck out. He scares the shit outta me. Yuck, and you still smell like him.”
“I do?” I smelled myself. I’d taken a shower, so I had no idea how that was possible, but these guys had subatomic noses, so who knew. “Anyway, we’re gonna be late. Hurry up.”
“How are you so chipper this morning? I expected screams of terror when he beat your door down, not a blast of magic and a loud orgasm.”
My body zinged with remembrance. My knees went wobbly and I stumbled into Charles’ door. I hadn’t been scared for one minute. I felt him coming, his rage as a means to hide a deep fear. I didn’t know what he had been afraid of, but when he stood, silhouetted in my door, my heart stopped.
In his battle rage, as Charles called it, he’d been magnificent. Like a raging Viking of old, his powerful body flexed from head to toe, his thick slabs of muscle on display in the best of ways. His eyes had been on fire, hair wild, his purpose honed and sharpened.
Seeing him like that triggered the thrill I’d always had; the side of me that needed fast cars and rose to meet danger with a knife and a snarl. I couldn’t help but hold my arms wide, waiting for him to rush in and take me, dragging me in and under, losing the world as we raged toward each other until climax.
And we’d done just that. I’d willingly taken blood, somehow not grossed out in the least. I’d also given it, engaging in feelings that I couldn’t even understand, let alone explain. The sensations had been so deep, reaching the center of me, and then tickling.
And the magic…
I sighed as Charles quickly hopped in the shower. Usually, I half-raged trying to stop the flow of magic into my body, then had to organize and spread it out so I didn’t feel weirdly lopsided. It always felt great, joyous, and exhilarating, but it took work. Stefan’s added power presence had smoothed all that out. Balanced it. Made drawing easy and storing effortless.
“Quit daydreaming, we gotta go,” Charles said as he passed by with a towel wrapped around his middle.
“What’s up with the coverage?” I asked as I followed him to his room. “I’m not used to seeing you glistening without a naked show of some sort—“
The door closed in my face.
Taken aback, I tried the handle, only to find it locked.
“Are you mad at me?” I called through the wood.
The door swung open a moment later, Charles grim and clothed, his eyes downcast. “No, but I never want to see you naked again, I never want to think that you saw me naked, and I do not want any sort of arousal passing through my brain where it concerns you.”
Still without meeting my eyes, he squeezed past as if I had a contagious virus.
“What the hell did I do to you?” I asked in outrage, following him. “Because I left with Jessiah? Did you get in trouble or something? And what does that have to do with your love of nudity?”