“Why aren’t you in water magic?” I asked, not complaining, but surprised to see him.
Asher grinned. “Finished teaching that class already.” I quirked an eyebrow at him, waiting for the rest. His smile just about melted my underwear right the fuck off. Sexy asshole. “And I might have forgotten to mention another class this morning, in the hope of surprising you. See, this year's Race Morphology class is so small they’re combining third and fourth years.”
I didn’t even have to wonder what that meant. Happiness ripped through me. “We have a class together?”
His laughter was warm and husky. Spinning, I hugged him tightly and let out another cry at the sight of Axl, Jesse, Calen, and Rone over his shoulder. “All of you?” I choked out.
Fuck. I was a right old emotional mess these days. Damn hormones.
Jesse nodded, and for the first time in ages he met my watery gaze. “All of us, sweetheart.”
Chapter 5
My old Race Morphology teacher had been replaced with someone new. A demi-fey.
I was sitting in the center row, Asher on one side, Jesse on the other. Calen and Rone were behind me, and Axl was in front. All of us watched as the centaur made his way into the room, ducking down to fit through the classroom door.
“Good morning, class,” he said, his voice a rumble—I had to focus hard to understand him. “I’m Lennie, your new Race Morphology teacher. I generally step in for third and fourth year classes, because we focus a lot more on the demi-fey. As you can probably tell, I have some experience with demi-fey in general.”
He threw his head back to laugh at his own joke, strong, bare chest shining in the lights that were above, and I couldn’t help but laugh too. It was almost infectious. The centaur was a mix between a horse and human, the bottom half of him—the horse half—was huge and light brown in color. I knew nothing about horses and couldn’t compare to a breed, but he looked strong and powerful, his dark tail swishing almost to the ground behind him.
In truth, the tail was the part that was weirding me out the most, but he was quite spectacular.
The top half of him was handsome—in a horsey-human way. His skin was a similar shade of brown to his body, just lighter.
The rest of the class was still laughing with the centaur, except for my guys, but they all wore smiles. It was weird though, because he hadn’t really said anything that funny. And yet it was like it was comedy hour, and the teacher was the funniest creature alive.
“Centaurs can induce emotions in others,” Asher murmured to me, his eyes warm. He didn’t look upset, so clearly the teacher wasn’t doing anything on purpose.
He brushed a thumb across my cheek, still broadly grinning. “This is a good look on you,” he added as he twirled a long strand of aqua hair around his finger. “Pure joy. I’d like to see more of that.”
“Why haven’t we had classes together before?” I murmured.
“Because you would have failed,” Axl piped up, shaking his head. “Books before boys, Maddison. Books before boys.”
It was solid advice.
The centaur resumed his position in front of the white board. “Sorry about that. I promise that I don’t deliberately push my power; it’s an innate part of being a centaur. Something you will learn this year.”
For the rest of the lesson, Asher played with strands of my hair, paying no attention to the teacher. Calen dozed in his chair and he wasn’t even subtle about it—at one point, his head was back, mouth open. His favorite way to sleep, apparently. Rone stared out the window, and Jesse was drawing something in his notebook. I tried to catch a glimpse, but in his usual style lately, he hid it from me.
Axl and I were the only ones to take notes. When we finished class—the teacher had gone into details about gargoyles—everyone packed up. I shook my head at the guys. “You all took his class solely to be with me, didn’t you?”
I should have guessed it. There was a reason there had been so few students they could combine a class—most supernaturals grew up in this world and already knew about the races. Sure, they could probably learn more specific details, but for the most part, this was all old information. Axl took notes because he was Axl, but the rest of them were here for me.
“I love you guys,” I said, my expression sober. “I don’t say it enough, and I know we’ve had our issues lately, but that doesn’t change the way I feel.”
Asher’s right arm slid around me as he hauled me into his side. “Me the most though, right?”
When I didn’t answer straight away, he jiggled me, and I burst out laughing. His chest rumbled and I took pity on him. “Yes, you slightly more. But that could change so easily if you don’t stop using your caveman skills on me.”
His laughter was low, stripping away my ability to resist him. “Technically, supernaturals never had cavemen, but I understand what you’re saying.” He leaned in closer. “And I personally think you love the side of me that wants to completely possess you.”
Fuck. Where was the lie?
He gently placed me on my feet, pressing a kiss to the top of my head. As Asher pulled away I caught a dark look on Jesse’s face. Our eyes locked and I raised my eyebrows in the universal silent question of “What the fuck is up with you?” but he just shrugged and turned away.
Heat and energy swirled around Asher. This was going to become an issue very soon if we didn’t deal with it.
