I sighed, knowing this was going to come up again. “Yes. Don’t make a big deal of it, but we used to date. Before…” I waved a hand in the air. “All this.”
Kyren made a sound so fierce that my brows rose.
“If you’re jealous for Tate’s sake, you shouldn’t worry,” I tried to reassure him. “We haven’t been together in over a year, and he has made it clear that we aren’t anything.”
“But you do.”
I paused, stopping before the cafeteria door. “Just because someone else says our feelings don’t matter doesn’t mean they don’t exist. Things with Jul — Professor Fawley are complicated. But I can assure you, there’s nothing going on between us. I’m with Tate.” I nodded my head toward him. “Just like you.”
Kyren didn’t say anything else. I went to open the cafeteria door, but he beat me too it, a whiff of clovers and smoke hitting my nose. Then I remembered. I grabbed his arm, jerking him away from the door before I poked him in the chest.
“Hey, why did you sneak into my bed?”
He let me back him up against a wall, his eyes dipping to my finger with a small smile. “You had nightmares.”
“So you think that since I let you bite me, it means you can just sneak into my bed like a creeper?” I tipped my head to the side, surveying his expression. “I’m not yours to prote—”
Our positions were suddenly reversed, and his mouth was pressed to mine, a hand on the back of my neck. My eyes wide, I lifted my hands to push him away. Kyren kissed like he wastrying to suck my soul out of my mouth, leaving my knees weak and my hands clutching his shirt.
When he finally pulled back, I was breathless. Kyren brushed a curl away from my face.
“Not yet.”
He leaned forward again, and I tensed, except he didn’t kiss me again. Instead, his lips brushing my ears. “And the next time I taste your blood, I’ll be inside you.”
He said the words as if he were so certain and, for a moment, I almost believed him.
I swallowed and watched as he walked away, my heart racing at just his kiss and words. He spoke so few words to me, and yet, they made a bigger impact than all the words in the world.
I could see how Tate fell for the quiet and intense vampire. I certainly was having a hard time not falling myself.
Chapter twenty-four
Kyren
ThetasteofJacklingered on my tongue. I’d made a calculated risk kissing her just now. Not too high, though.
When she initiated contact while complaining about my nightly action, that was my chance to finally get a taste of her. It had been a pleasant surprise that she didn’t shove me off right away. Her scent shifted to interest within moments.
Unfortunately, I couldn’t linger on my progress with my mysterious obsession.
My steps were light, barely audible on the hallway stone floor, each step purposeful in my intended destination.
I hadn’t meant to spy on Jack earlier. Tate had asked me to meet him for breakfast, but I had caught her scent on the way and, like a hound pursuing his prey, I followed.
Until I found her standing before that damn professor’s office again.
Why? If he was an ex, why would she keep coming back to see him?
From the very beginning, in typical hunter fashion, he looked down on the students, seeing all us supernaturals as less than. It was clear he wasn’t happy with being assigned to teach the class on hunters, and yet here he was.
Then there was his blatant bias. Of course, he tried to hide it, but it was clear he hated supernaturals, hatedus.
But she kept going back to him? Something sharp twisted in my chest.
When she had stepped into his office, I couldn’t rely on my own sight to see what was going on. I leaned against the wall and closed my eyes, pulling on the bits of shadows that I’d hidden in Jack’s shadow.
They clearly knew each other well based on their interaction. She certainly didn’t treat him with the respect a student would their professor. I almost burst into the room when he put his hands on her, touching her so familiarly in such a suggestive way. The urge to rip his head off his body just from touching her sent my blood racing.
