Total pages in book: 53
Estimated words: 51358 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 257(@200wpm)___ 205(@250wpm)___ 171(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 51358 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 257(@200wpm)___ 205(@250wpm)___ 171(@300wpm)
“I don’t think Annika was having a panic attack in the tub,” Talon says. “But, I don’t know her that well. You’re the teacher. You spend the most amount of time with her.” He nudges me, and we start walking again because the girls have resumed their stroll up ahead. “You figure it out.”
“I’m trying,” I say, but now I’m the one who’s terrified.
I’ve been tiptoeing around what exactly she was feeling when she froze her bath over for the last week and every time I get close, the tension stretches so tight between us I could snap at any moment.
Anger is one of her triggers for sure, I’ve played with that enough. But there’s no control or sense in it.
If I want her to succeed and end these lessons, I’ve got to dig deeper.
But I’m afraid of what I’ll find.
Because the closer I get to her, the more I’m learning how much I like what I see.
This female is going to kill me.
Literally. I might die right here next to this waterfall. She looks that fucking good.
Annika has stripped out of her hiking clothes, and now nothing but a royal blue bikini covers her supple breasts and the perfect globes of her ass as she steps into the water.
Thank fuck I’m already in or she’d see right through my swim trunks and realize how much of an effect she has on me. I’m rock hard, my fangs threatening to punch out.
I close my eyes for a second, sinking deeper into the night-cool water to shock some fucking sense into me. She’s my student. My student—
Oh, fuck it. I’m attracted to her. So what? What living, breathing creature on this planet wouldn’t be? She’s impeccable—brilliant mind, fantastic body, and a spicy-sweet attitude that is apparently my weakness.
This isn’t a real classroom, so there are no lines to cross. Not that I’m thinking about crossing lines.
“Again,” I say after she’s tried and failed to raise the water between us. “Focus.”
“I am focusing,” she says, doing everything but smacking the water.
I bite back a laugh. “You’re doing fine—”
“Don’t you dare patronize me, Dagon,” she cuts me off.
Heat blazes down my spine at the way she says my name. Fuck, I like the way her tongue curls around it. I’d like that tongue in my mouth even more.
Apparently, admitting I’m attracted to her has opened the floodgates for fantasies now. Perfect.
“I’m not patronizing you, Annika,” I say her name with equal intensity. She trembles in the water, and I tilt my head. “Are you cold?”
She had ice all over her body last week and didn’t shiver as much.
“No,” she snaps. “I’m…”
I step closer. “You’re what?”
She huffs a breath. “I’m hopeless.” Her shoulders sink, eyes dropping. “Maybe I’m a lost cause. Maybe I really am wasting your time. Everyone’s time.”
“Maybe you don’t trust me.” I arch a brow.
Her eyes meet mine. “What?”
I shrug. “I get it,” I say. “If you don’t. I haven’t given you many reasons to.”
“What does trusting you have to do with anything?”
“It has to do with everything,” I say, stopping when I’m an arm’s length away from her. “Trust is crucial between us if you want total freedom to learn to control your powers. Not trusting me could be putting up a mental block without you even realizing it.” I shake my head. “All week I’ve been trying to get clear on the emotion behind your most explosive use of power, and every time you’ve shut me out about it. You’ve been vague, timid. Almost like you’re afraid to admit what you were feeling when it happened.”
She visibly swallows.
“And that’s understandable,” I say. “Especially if you don’t trust me with the information.”
“I trust you.”
I don’t know why, but her words hit me in the center of my chest, a burst of warmth and pride that makes me stand taller.
“You trust me?” I ask.
“Yes. You can be dick sometimes,” she says, a small smile on her lips. “But you’re…you. I’ve seen the way you protect the family. Seen the pain you feel when any one of them is hurting, like it’s your own. I see the way you agonize over Samuel, and the way you worry over Saint. I’ve seen your patience with the king and the priorities he decides are worth your time or not. You’re one of the most trustworthy vampires I’ve ever met.”
I can’t stop the smile spreading over my lips. Why does it feel like she just handed over a key to something precious? Something vital?
“But…”
That word turns that sensation to dust. “But what?”
“It’s…embarrassing.”
“What is?”
“What I was thinking about before I froze everything over.” A flush dusts her cheeks.
I think back to my conversation with Talon and Saint on the beach. Of what Talon alluded to what she’d been doing in the bathtub…
I clear my throat. “I promise you,” I say. “Nothing you tell me will be embarrassing.”