Chapter Sixteen

"What do you mean?" Lucianne asked him.


"You're checking me out, aren't you?" Jonas said. "You can't get your eyes off my body."

Lucianne scoffed.

"If you're feeling thirsty, why don't you meet me behind the school? We can have some fun. I'll take my camcorder and we'll make a video."

God, he was disgusting.

"I think I'd rather swallow a blue whale, Jonas," she said.

"Huh. Playing hard to get?"

"More like, impossible," she said with a thin smile.

He bristled at her words. "Whatever. I have a long line of girls waiting for me. I'm not gonna stick around until you finally come to your senses and realise you do want me."

"Really? You seem like the type to take whatever you think it's yours, regardless of what the girl wants."

"It may not seem like it, but I have moral standards too."

She rolled her eyes. "Imagine that."

"You - " Jonas started but was silenced by the bell for next period. "Later," he said, getting up and disappearing out of the food hall.

"Don't mind him," Harper said. "He acts like a jerk all the time, but he's actually soft-hearted. He just doesn't know how to express it."

"Yeah," Abbie said. "He always tells me to return to the dorm early so I won't annoy others with my gloom, but really he wants me to get back earlier so it's safe for me."

"Fine," Lucianne said before they parted for their respective classes. Her own classes passed in a blur, until the time for the night class Gabriel had arranged neared. She pushed the door open to the classroom, and was pleasantly surprised when she found herself alone with him.

"Didn't you get the message?" Gabriel asked her.

"What message?"

"I rescheduled the class because of the murders earlier. It wasn't safe for the students. But I came anyway because I knew some would miss the message, and it looks like you did."

"Oh, I didn't check the school website," she said. "I'm sorry."

"It's alright," he said.

"I suppose I'll leave."

"No, stay."

She smiled. That was what she wanted to hear. She approached his leaning figure on the table and stopped before him. She could feel the warmth of his body in the air between them and a lightness settled onto her.

"Are you scared?" he asked.

"Of the Hex Beast? No."

"Of me."

"Why would I be scared of you?"

He laughed. "You're truly one of a kind."

"Because I don't fear you?"

"Because you have no fear."

"Well," she said. "Maybe you should tell me what to be afraid of." Then she raised a hand up to his face and ran her thumb across his cheek. "You have specks of chalk on your face."

"Really? I can't see. Help me get them off," he said, his hot breath fanning across her cheeks.

She caught the hard line of his jaw between two fingers and pinched it, his stubble pricking her skin. "There's so much. What did you do to get all these on your face?"

"I don't know."

She ran her finger down his nose bridge. "It's even on your nose."

"Funny that it's there," he said. "I haven't touched chalk the whole day."

"They must've gotten onto your face somehow."

"I suppose," he said, his jaw clenching. Her finger traced the path down his nose bridge to his lips and she brushed her fingers across his lips, which parted. Heat from his mouth enveloped her finger. Her breath hitched in her throat as he bared his teeth and closed it around her finger, biting into it.

"Do professors normally bite their students?"

"I hear it's not the most common occurrence."

"If they do bite their fingers, then where else do they bite?"

"Would you like to find out?"

"Show me," she ordered.

He palmed her nape, the strands of her hair caught between his calloused fingers. Dragging her head towards him, he tilted her neck to the side and bit softly into the tender skin there. Grazing his teeth across the thin surface, he licked her arousal up as shivers coursed through her body.

"More," Lucianne said.

His mouth left her neck to find her earlobe. Biting into it, he coaxed a soft moan from her lips and her body shook in desire in his arms. She clutched onto the mass of hair on his head, drawing the back of his head into his kiss on her.

"Lucianne," he said, yanking her back. His eyes were aflame with passion, and she licked her lips.

Growling, he inserted his thigh into the gap between her legs and pushed her left thigh away from her other thigh. Dragging her waist closer to his body, he bit into her jaw before his mouth reached up to trap her bottom lips between his teeth. He pulled on it, and she exhaled hot air into his mouth.

Pressing his lips onto hers fully, he kissed her lightly, his hand caressing the back of her head. He tasted of menthol and his lips were so soft that it felt as if she had kissed a bed of feathers. She kissed him back, her need for him growing in the pit of her stomach.

His palm left the back of her head and found itself on her collarbone. He inserted his hand between the folds of her shirt, his hand touching the swell of her breasts.

"I want your teeth on me, Gabriel," she said.

"Your wish is my command," he said, the back of his hand shoving her shirt away. His mouth neared her breasts.

The classroom door flew open in a wham behind them. "I'm here for class!"