“Maybe we should start up our training again.”
Jack paused in her drying, eyes narrowing. “I’m not a child.”
Daring to take a step towards her, I kept my hands in my pockets so I wouldn’t reach out and see if her skin was just as soft as it was the first time we were together. “Perhaps if you didn’t act like one, I wouldn’t have to treat you like one.”
Jack closed the two steps between us, her nose crinkling up in such a cute way that made me want to bite it.
“If I’m a child,” she murmured, “then what does that make you for fucking me?”
I grabbed her hips, pressing her to my front, letting her feel how hard I was just from being in her presence. “My fucking you,” I said quietly, “had nothing to do with your age and everything to do with that smart mouth of yours.”
Her eyes fluttered closed before she forced them open again, defiant. “Oh, so now you’re admitting it happened. Look who’s making progress.”
“I never said it didn’t happen.” I let my eyes drift down to her lips and then back up to her eyes, seeing the desire there. “I’m saying it shouldn’t have.”
“But it did.” Jack pressed herself tighter against me, hands grabbing at my shirt. “I thought we were on the same page and then you pretended I didn’t exist. I was just another one of your soldiers.” Her face crumbled slightly, her voice low. “Why am I not enough?”
That single line made it click.
This wasn’t about me. It was about Kyren.
I could pretend otherwise. I could pretend that the way she was looking at me was because she wanted me and not that she was trying to forgetthem.
Fuck, but part of me wanted to.
Desperately.
Except I just... couldn’t. I wanted her. But not like this. Not because of them.
I cupped her wrists, pulling her hands away from me as I stepped back from her, breathing out a calming breath. “You can borrow some clothes,” I said roughly, “and then you need to leave.”
Jack watched me confusion and hurt crinkling her brows. “You’re rejecting me... again?” She huffed a laugh. “Of course you are. God forbid you ignore protocol.”
She tried to shove past me. I caught her arm, careful not to touch where she was injured.
“This isn’t about protocol, Jack,” I growled, leaning my face close to hers. “I won’t be your substitute for them.”
Jack jerked her arm from me grasp. “I never asked you to be.”
She stalked down the hallway and into my bedroom, slamming the door behind her.
I leaned my head back against the stone wall and closed my eyes. I didn’t know how much longer I could survive being so close to her.
Chapter 9
Tate
The quiet whispers of pages being turned brushed my ears. Students murmured to each other. While that was perfectly polite in a library, it was pointless among supernatural beings. They may as well have been shouting for all the good their whispers did.
The library doors opened. My eyes dipped from the book — I was only pretending to study — to the library doors. A random female student walked in. She caught my gaze, smiling shyly as she tucked her hair behind her ears.
I dropped my gaze without offering a smile in return.
A month ago, I would have winked and grinned at her. Flirted a bit. Maybe even taken her out for a drink or back to my room. Then I’d tell Kyren all about it the next day.
Now, I only had eyes for one female.
After my encounter with Jack outside of Supernatural Law and Enforcement, I didn’t see her at lunch or around the hallways. I tried to find out where her new bedroom was, but apparently the students cared more about what the Durands thought of them than staying on my good side.
