“I make Honor Guard next month,” she said, “and then I won’t be able to train with you. I’ll have to train with whatever squad you give me?—”
“Who says you aren’t in our squad?” David said.
She paused. “Am I?”
“Apprentices will not be sorted into squads until they raise rank,” Bowenn said.
“Just don’t put me with a bunch of devas,” she said, to which he chuckled.
Sean threw her a wink. “I’ll keep it in mind.”
“Alright,” she said, standing. “I can see I’m distracting you. Let me know if you want an afternoon session.”
David caught her hand before she left. “I’m interested in an afternoon session.”
Anna rolled her eyes but allowed him to pull her closer until she finally relented and pressed a quick kiss to the corner of his mouth. “Later,” she whispered.
She slipped from the tent, rosy-cheeked, refusing to look at them again. At her departure, every pair of eyes landed on David, who shrugged.
“What?” he asked.
“You are so down bad,” Sean said.
Bowenn groaned. “That charming woman went for akeila?”
David said nothing, though the self-satisfaction blooming through their connection was hard to ignore.
“You should be ashamed,Djiante, seducing a pixie out of the network,” Bowenn said.
He returned to his papers. “And yet I can’t find it in me to care.”
The tense edge at Bowenn’s mouth spoke of a smile suppressed. “You are a menace.”
David looked up, his green eyes sharp on the pixie. “Better than a plague.”
CHAPTER 35
DAVID
It would surprise exactly no one to learn that David Berkeley was not a romantic. The only idealized version of reality he could imagine was one without himself in it, morbid as that might be. Anna Ainslan, on the other hand, was a classic idealist. She could not have been more his opposite. She was a blue-eyed tempest of promises he wasn’t sure the universe would fulfill.
Which was probably why he couldn’t keep his hands off her. Nothing good lasted long, and this was so much better than good. He’d chain this woman to his bedpost if she’d let him.
As he trailed open-mouthed kisses down her bare stomach, her skin scented of the honeysuckle soap she favored, David was certain she’d be taken from him at some point. Nothing this fine belonged in hands so dirty, but he only clasped on tighter, ready to fight the cosmos for the rights to her.
Selfish, really.
This idyllic creature deserved so much better than him, but he wasn’t too proud to use any means necessary to make her forget that. Including his tongue.
One thing he’d learned young—probably too young—was that awoman would tell him exactly what she wanted if he just listened closely enough to that core inside her chest. Anna’s emotions were like a treasure map. He could follow the dotted line straight to her moans of pleasure.
And fuck if he didn’t crave that sound more than anything.
His name on her wanton lips—was there anything better?
David didn’t know what his future held, but he wanted it to hold Anna. He wanted it to cocoon her. He wantedher. All to himself.
Mine.
