This isn’t just going to help her against Willow, it may be helpful in The Institute Games too. Not that I’m going to tell her that. She’ll either tell me I’m wrong or that she’s already aware, and since she’s mad at me, I don’t need to make it any worse. Instead, I do just that by stating the obvious.
“You think I left with her.”
Another flicker of eye contact. “I saw you leave with her.”
I nod. I’m sure she did. “Her mother wanted to see me.”
She scoffs, the sound even more hollow than the last time. “Do you keep it in the family?” she smarts, her defenses raised both physically and mentally, and I shake my head.
“Not funny,” I grumble, recalling the number of times Anya has placed her hand a little too high up my thigh, or squeezed my arm as she pressed her chest against my body. I fight the shudder, but the grimace that distorts my face is unavoidable.
There’s no shock at all when Elodie simply shrugs, but I feel the need to explain myself because she’s mad at me for the wrong shit. “At least be angry at me for my actual actions, not assumptions. She escorted me to The Sanctum, and the next time I saw her was when you were siphoning the fuck out of her,” I grunt, earning another eye roll.
“If you say so.”
“I do,” I insist, and she shakes her head.
“It doesn’t matter.”
“It doesn’t?” I cock a brow at her, failing to see how it doesn’t matter based on how she’s acting right now.
“No,” she confirms, and I want to call bullshit,but I opt not to be so blunt before the words leave my mouth.
“Because you don’t believe me.” Another shrug. Fuck me. I thought I had indifference down to aT, but it seems I’m not the only one. “The Sanctum demanded to see me because they wanted me to provide information on you and yourlatentmagic.”
She pauses, hands still poised in front of her, but her gaze makes its way to me again. “And what did you say?”
“That there was nothing to report.”
“Did they buy it?” she continues, and I scoff, shaking my head.
“No. They gave me seventy-two hours to have something to say on the matter.”
She instinctively takes a step back, her eyebrows pinching.
“I didn’t see you all weekend.”
“I know,” I grumble, waving the pads, and she takes the silent order, swinging two punches before she stops again.
“So what did you tell them after that?”
“I didn’t. I believe they sent Willow to try and goad you into using it instead.”
Her arms drop to her sides as her chin dips to her chest, defeat vibrating from her. “And I fell right into their trap.”
It’s my turn to shrug this time. But there’s something I haven’t managed to figure out yet. “What did she say to get under your skin?”
“That definitely doesn’t matter,” she blurts, taking a backward step as she uncuffs the gloves, letting them fall to the floor with a thud as she turns for the exit.
Before she can make it off the mat and across to the door, I lose my pads and grab her arms, coming up from behind. Her back stiffens, but I inch closer, feeling her muscles slowly unclench as I press against her back, and when I do, I feel the ripples of her exhaling a shuddering breath.
“This was a bad idea,” she whispers, her gulp audible as my thumbs stroke small circles against her skin.
She’s not wrong. The scent of her sweetness has had me desperate to feast on her in more ways than one. My vampire is attuned to the thundering of her pulse, and the sweet desire to taste between her thighs is enough to bring me to my knees. Instead, I’ve spent the entire time with my cock solid beneath my shorts.
“You can’t keep running,” I rasp, trailing my nose over the shell of her ear.
“There’s nothing to run from.”
