Rafe hadn't transferred me to bullshit, cakewalk classes. Quite the opposite, everything he'd lined up in my new schedule was going to require some hard work and focus. More importantly, lots of the assignments had to be delivered in person as oral presentations... meaning there was no viable way for me to skate through on my friends doing the work for me.
"Violet!" Jordan called out from down the corridor. I'd stopped halfway to the Dean's office and sat against the wall as I read through my new course load, so I hadn't seen him coming. "You can't just do that," he scolded as he drew closer, his brow creased in a frown. "Now more than ever, you can't just run off alone. What if Uriel has guys here? What if they took you and we had no idea? He could have you halfway around the world before we even noticed you hadn't reappeared."
He was ranting, but there was some very real panic shining through his eyes. Instantly, I felt like a total shithead. It had been a selfish move, taking off like that. My friends—and my lovers—weren't trying to smother me for the fucking fun of it. They were trying to keep me safe. Because they cared.
Yeah, it was a foreign concept for me. But I needed to start getting used to it because they weren't going anywhere soon. Or I certainly hoped not.
Pushing myself back to my feet, I looped my arms around Jordan's neck and pulled him close, standing on tiptoes to touch my forehead to his.
"I'm sorry," I told him with total sincerity. "I let my temper get the best of me and didn't think shit through. I never meant to worry you, I promise."
His brow was still drawn tight, and his coffee-colored eyes swimming with concern, but I suspect he'd been preparing for me to argue with him, not admit fault and apologize. What could I say? I was turning over a new, more considerate leaf.
"Jordy," I coaxed, "I'm sorry. It'll just take a while to remember other people give a damn what happens to me." I touched my lips to his in a gentle kiss, praying no one was around to see us. But the corridor had been empty the whole time I'd sat there, so it'd be pretty shitty luck if that changed now.
Tension still radiated through his body, and I pressed myself closer, trying to kiss the worry away. I’d taken off and scared him too damn soon after he'd spent a month being tortured, trying to keep me safe in his own way. He must have gone into automatic panic mode, and it was taking a whole lot of effort to let it go.
Eventually, he pushed me away just a fraction of an inch and released a heavy sigh. Some tension melted from his shoulders as he did so.
"I'm sorry, too," he murmured. "I totally overreacted. I just—"
"Shh." I cut him off with another kiss. I knew why he’d reacted like that; he didn't need to explain. I used to think Rafe and I got each other on an emotional level, in the sense that he and I both punched first and asked questions later. We were both driven by hot tempers and a total disregard for consequences. But more and more, Jordy and I were clicking. Despite what Nolan had teased, Jordan really was the yang to my yin. He brought out a softer, more caring and considerate side of me that I hadn't even known existed. I'd thought everything good in me had been crushed to dust years ago... but every minute with Jordy showed me it wasn't crushed, just dented.
His hand cupped the back of my head, his fingers threading into my loose curls, and our kiss turned heated. Scorching-level heated. Before I fully realized what we were doing, he'd relocated us into an empty classroom and kicked the door shut without taking his lips from mine for even a second.
"Have I told you how beautiful you are, Violet Spencer?" Jordan asked in a husky voice as his hands found my waist and he lifted me onto the teacher’s desk.
I grinned, bubbles of affection and lust tickling through me. "You tell me that pretty often, actually," I replied between kisses, "but I love it."
He kissed me harder, his tongue meeting mine in a desperate tangle and his hands parting my knees to make space for him to press closer. "Well," he said after some time, shifting his lips to my jaw, then my neck, "have I told you how great you make this uniform look?"
I couldn't formulate any kind of response except for a breathy moan as he sucked at my neck, probably leaving a mark. That kind of thing used to seem so trashy, but god damn, it felt good. Like he was sucking somewhere else at the same time... somewhere much lower.
Jordan's hands slid up my outer thighs, pushing my skirt up as he went and letting it bunch around my waist to expose the navy-blue satin panties I was wearing. Not even the dark color could have hidden how turned on I suddenly was, though.
I groaned when his fingers brushed over the satin, teasing me through the thin fabric.
"Jordy, you'd better stop before we get caught." But I didn't want him to. There was something so incredibly sexy about a quick make-out on a teacher's desk while in our academy uniforms. But... he was the crown prince of New America. He didn't need the drama if our unconventional relationship went public.
He nipped my neck with his teeth and brought another gasp of arousal from my throat. Damn him. He was really learning my cues fast, and he knew perfectly well that I didn't want him to stop.
"We should be quick then," he whispered in my ear, his breath sending shudders through me, "and we should be quiet." He pulled away long enough to give me a teasing look with his finger across his lips, then he was on his knees.
"Oh fuck," I exclaimed on a heavy exhale as he looped his fingers under the sides of my panties and wiggled them down my legs. That left me bare-assed on the polished wooden desktop with the crown prince of New America on his knees between my legs. How was this actually my life?
"Shh," Jordan teased, giving me a pointed look even as he gripped my thighs and flicked his tongue over my aching cunt. "Let's see if I can make you come before anyone finds us." With that challenge, he shot me a wink and went to work.
It only took a few moments of his mouth on my pussy before I decided to hell with anyone walking in and catching us. It'd be worth it. We could just say that Jordan had, uh, dropped something? I mean, something other than my panties.
My hips surged forward to meet his mouth as he latched onto my clit and sucked, making me groan way louder than I should have—given our location. But what was a girl to do? Seriously. When he pushed his fingers into me, fucking me with his hand while his mouth worked over my clit, I was done for. I came hard, just barely managing to clap my own hand over my mouth to stifle the scream that wanted to ring out.
Jordan laughed as he kissed my inner thigh, then stood back up to peel my hand off my face. He kissed the center of my palm, then my wrist, then draped my arm around his neck.
"You're so fucking gorgeous, Violet," he told me in a rough voice drenched in sex and... something more. Something deeper and more meaningful that I was almost too scared to put voice to. Almost.
But my risk-taking shouldn't only extend to my fighting life. Didn't my personal life deserve the same?
"I think I love you, Jordan." The words left my lips before I could second-guess them.
His brows shot up, and his tongue dragged over his lower lip like he was still tasting me. "You think? Or you do?"
I blinked a couple of times, processing what I'd actually said, then frowned. "No, I do. I definitely do. I know I love you, Jordan. You bring out the light in me, and you make me want to be a better person just to see you smile at me the way you do..." I bit my lip, shaking my head as the heat of a blush hit my cheeks. I was so shitty at expressing my feelings, but it was something that needed to be said and not just implied. "I know this thing with us... and Rafe... I know it might not be forever. You might decide you need a queen who will be a beacon for your people and then—"
"Violet," he cut me off. "Stop it. I love you too, and I do think it's forever. I believe in soulmates and you're mine."
My heart stopped and dread built. He believed in soulmates? But...
He sighed, stroking my cheek with the backs of his fingers and staring so deeply into my eyes I swore he could read my fucking shadows. "You're mine, just like you're his. Love is infinite, Violet, and there's more than enough capacity within you for two soulmates."
Holy shit. It was like he’d just lifted a thousand pounds of stress and anxiety from my mind and suddenly I was floating.
Jordan cupped my face, bringing our foreheads together and staring intently into my eyes. "Maybe I haven't been clear enough with you, but I'm laying it out here now. And I'll happily tell Rafe the same thing. I'm in this with you one hundred percent. If it means abdicating my future throne, then so be it. A crown and a title would mean nothing if I didn't have you."
My heart skipped a beat, then started again in what I imagined to be a slightly different rhythm. Jordan had imprinted on my very being, and now we both knew it. This wasn't a casual fling, this was true love.
Except...
"What if Rafe doesn't feel the same way?" I murmured, giving voice to my deeper fears. "What if he's still waiting for me to choose? What if he chooses his kingdom and his future over us? I couldn't blame him if he did... It's such a huge thing, and the expectations and—"
Jordan cut my downward spiral short with a lingering kiss. I could taste myself on his lips, and arousal flooded back through me, diluting all those anxious fears.