Page 131 of Plug and Drain

Her head bobbed in relief. Arken tried not to read too much into that, and he tried to suppress his longing to go over to her. He could sense her vulnerability. She’d just watched him very publicly execute one of her classmates.

How does she feel about that? Is that why she’s regarding me with anxious eyes?

It made him want to go to her even more. He wanted to comfort her, and he tried very hard not to think about how appealing she looked.

Or the many different ways he could comfort her that might end up with her blonde hair loose and tousled…

A lot like it was now.

Effortlessly sexy.

With her sharp wolf ears lifted up into sharp points. She caught him looking and flattened them.

Don’t.

“Has someone been here?” he asked.

Susie startled, and pink tinged her cheeks. “No. They haven’t, sir.”

Sir. Distancing herself. Hurt flashed in her eyes, and Arken was ashamed to have asked. He worried that she might have inferred something deeper from the question, but it was too late to take it back, so he dug himself deeper by simply answering, “Good.”

He held her gaze, basking in her face, trying not to drift lower.

The golden glow of the mage lights leant a radiance to her pale skin, and her blush had deepened to a rosy pink under his stare, which he found incredibly attractive.

Meanwhile, her fluffy wolf tail was swinging around in a lazy, graceful motion—it gave him hope. Surely, if she’d been uncomfortable in his presence, it would be tucked low out of sight?

Her face was conflicted, but she was biting her lip in a way that was doing things to him.

And her breasts…

He drew a deep breath and tilted his head up at the ceiling. He hadn’t meant to look. Hoped she hadn’t noticed. But…

Goodness gracious…her breasts…

Her shirt was wet. He was too much of a gentleman to ask why, and he tried, but failed, to focus on her face now that he knew her generous nipples were erect and stretching the fabric taut. The swell of them perfectly captured by transparent cotton sticking to her skin. How he longed to push the shirt up her body, cupping her breasts in the same motion.

No. Staring at the ceiling was the safer option. It didn’t stop the heat flowing to his core, or the way he was already hardening in his trousers.

Damn it.

She made him feel like an adolescent school-boy.

“I also wish to apologise for not warning you about what was going to happen this morning,” he said. “It was not a side of me I ever wanted you to see.”

Susie was watching him calculatingly, gauging his reaction, his tone, his words. He could practically hear her thoughts as she weighed his sins, trying to decide whether what he’d done, and the manner in which he’d done it, was excusable; whether he was redeemable; whether she was safe with him now in this very room.

She was safe. She would always be safe with him. As for the rest, he was doubtful.

Her lips pursed, assessing, and reassessing him. What did she see? How far from her graces had he fallen after this morning’s display?

He was sure she saw him as lesser now than a week ago.

Even so, he’d come to see her.

If she needed him, he would always come. He’d sensed her distress at the assembly, and he’d sensed her nausea as he’d stopped outside her room, debating whether to knock.

It was imperative that he spoke to her, not only to provide an explanation, but to warn her.