Magic Academy (A Fantasy New Adult Romance) (36 page)

“I got a bit distracted though
and kind of stopped taking notes. Do you mind going over yours with
me? I know of a place we could go,” she added on, her voice
taking on a seductive lilt.

His almond-shaped eyes dipped down over
her, and very shamelessly he checked her out. It was the kind of
moment she felt her preparations that morning had all been for. There
was no way he couldn’t be impressed with what he saw, but when
he smiled back at her and spoke again, it was with a curious shift in
topic. “You are the human girl’s friend, no?”

Ala’nase tried not to sound
offended. “Who, Firia? Yes. We met before, though, don’t
you remember? In the cafeteria on your first day. We went up to the
line and bumped into one another.” Anger started to boil
beneath her skin, but she kept it under tight control.

She popped her hip, her slender hand
grasping it and drawing attention back to her body, “Ala’nase.”

He repeated her name, the syllables
rolling off his tongue so seductively. She never knew it could sound
so good, though her own not-so-subtle motions didn’t fail to
draw his attention, she noted successfully. “My apologies,
madam Ala’nase. Of course I remember such a lovely elven
maiden.” He reached out, took her free hand in his smooth grasp
and bent forward. He put other elves to shame with his graceful
motions as he kissed the back of her hand. “Varuj, at your
service.”

Her hand tingled underneath his touch
and she smiled brightly at his affection. He was gorgeous! And so
gentlemanly. “Well that’s more like it!” she
teased.

With a low rumble of a chuckle he
rubbed his thumb over the backs of her knuckles. “I am on my
way somewhere right now, however. Perhaps…” he looked
aside, then back to her with a pleasant smile. “Would you care
to meet with me later that we might compare notes, hm?” A
singular brow arched at her quizzically.

“How do they say ‘hell yes’
where you’re from?” Ala’nase’s chest puffed
up and her cheeks went a bit round with her proud grin. “Maybe
after supper, before curfew?”

Meeting at night was always a good
idea, she thought. It made everything so much more romantic and
passionate.

“Sounds lovely,” he said
with his deliciously masculine husk, and he brushed back some of his
long, glossy back hair. “Shall I come meet you outside your
dormitory?” he asked, and she noticed he hung a free hand off
his curious silk belt, thumb tucked inside it as he studied her.

“I think that sounds great,”
she agreed, quickly telling him precisely where to wait for her. She
couldn’t resist letting her gaze trail along his body, drinking
in that delicious form before smiling once more. “I can’t
wait to see you again, Varuj,” she purred.

Later that day…

The rest of the afternoon had been an
utter slog, and that excitement in her stomach didn’t dwindle.
She could barely sit through her classes, and she completely skipped
dinner. Her nerves simply wouldn’t allow her stomach to settle
enough to eat!

Instead, she washed her hair with a dab
of the rare oil she’d managed to secret away from home, and put
a bit of berry stain onto her lips. it made them darker against her
fair skin, and she thought it was quite fetching.

Pulling on her elaborate top and pants,
she checked herself in the mirror once more before leaving her room
and walking down to the main entrance. She wanted to be seen on that
handsome stud’s arm and could only hope there was a crowd
coming in from dinner to gawk at her prize.

Surprisingly, she found the dashing
young sorcerer waiting for her, a furrow on his flawless brow as he
looked about, as if something troubled him deeply. The scowl only
added to that impression, which was odd, as she’d never seen
him do anything but smile so handsomely about the academy.

When he caught sight of her, though, it
all but vanished. “Ah, madam Ala’nase,” he said so
enticingly, and she caught a whiff of his aroma, like fragrant
foreign spices. “So good to see you,” he remarked in the
dim evening.

“What, did you think I wasn’t
going to show up?” She grinned as she leaned in, her hand
resting atop his forearm.

He gave a curious smile, then extended
his arm for her to hoop hers through. “Women can be enigmatic
like that,” he remarked as they began to stroll along, “at
least where I come from.” She got her wish, as he didn’t
shy from the main thoroughfare as they passed through the academy,
the tall, dark man leading her along so confidently. “I trust
your afternoon was as annoyingly dull as mine, hm?”

“No more see-through robes or
handsome classmates,” Ala’nase agreed. She was just so
thrilled to be next to him, to feel his touch on hers, but still her
wit didn’t dim. Thankfully.

He smiled beside her, then let his gaze
trail along her, up over her form so suggestively before returning to
the path before them. “Unfortunately,” he concurred
brazenly.

She noted that he was leading her
towards the private, hidden grove. Something she barely knew of, and
was amazed to find he had already discovered it on his own.

Her heart pitter-pattered in her chest.
This was going even better than she hoped! Her hand wound around his
forearm a bit tighter, feeling out the muscles beneath that exquisite
robe. “I save those robes for the second date, I’ll have
you know. I’m not some slattern!”

It was a bit slow to appear, but the
smile and low laugh came as he guided her into the moonlit hideaway.
She couldn’t possibly fault him for being anything but
gentlemanly as he helped her through the bushes.

“Tell me,” he asked,
guiding her over towards a worn, fallen log, a lovely little
makeshift bench of sorts. “What is going on between that friend
of yours and the gangly fellow?”

Ala’nase’s eyebrow knit and
she looked at him curiously. Why did he want to talk about Firia
again? Her free hand balled into a fist, the nails forming little
half-moons in her palm before she forced the tendons to relax.
“They’re dating.”

There. That’d be the end of that.
Firia was unavailable, it was as simple as pie.

“So why don’t you tell me a
bit more about yourself?”

There was something a bit off about
him. He didn’t seem his usual self, or at least what she could
judge to be his usual self. She’d only encountered him briefly
on a couple occasions, after all, but she’d gotten the
impression of him being focussed, and always collected. Cool.

He sat her down then did the same for
himself right beside her. “A young fellow with aspirations to
greatness,” he said plainly, giving her a smug smile that was
only partially kidding. “I’m here to climb my way to the
top, crush my competitors, and then claim the world for my own. What
else is there to say?”

“Well, when you boil it down to
the basics, I suppose not much!” She crossed her legs, her arm
pressed into the log and arching her torso towards him rather
blatantly. “And I like an elf with drive and ambition.”

Something seemed to be bothering him,
yet he showed no reluctance when he put his arm about her, touched
her lower back and held her close. “I stumbled upon your two
friends fucking here in the grass like rabbits earlier today,”
though there was no humour in the way he said it. It sounded rather
mean, instead.

Ala’nase’s nose crinkled.
“Ew, poor you, I guess,” she responded lightly. She
didn’t know how to take his strange, sour mood, but she loved
the warm hardness of his body. “I guess we don’t get a
lot of privacy around here…”

She thought on it a moment longer
before giving a brief laugh. “She never even told me they’d
done it! I was wondering why she wasn’t in our last class.”

He took his time, mulling something
over before he spoke to her again. Even then it was only after eying
her over a few more times, holding her in the cool night air, “You
and her are – safe to say – the two finest female
specimens this academy’s novice classes have to offer.”

“Well… thanks?” She
smiled a bit, but he was being so strange. Why did he have to keep
bringing Firia up? Why did he bring her to the place he’d
caught her friend having sex with her boyfriend? It was rather
unsettling, and she shifted a bit from her brazen pose. “Did
you bring your notes, then?”

“No,” he said simply, just
before moving his hand over and resting it upon her thigh. “Why
bother? The real appeal is in you and I being here alone, is it not?”
he remarked a bit crassly, stroking her inner thigh then squeezing
it. He was leaned in so close it was hard to ignore the obviousness
of his intent.

It was hard to ignore that fact no
matter how good he looked, how good his hand felt, how much she
wanted more.

But it was harder to ignore how wrong
this felt.

It wasn’t at all what she’d
expected and she couldn’t even really put her finger on why.
Maybe it was just his strange behaviour, his obsession with her best
friend. Whatever it was, she felt uncomfortable, and swatted his hand
away. “Hey now. I don’t do that on the first date
either.”

He looked down over her again, that
expression of desire intense, but without the pretense of charm from
before. It was a hard gaze, and he refused to budge his hand from her
thigh.

Instead he leaned in, so close to her
ear as he spoke lowly. “Why?” He inhaled through his
nose, his nostrils flaring, “You’re ovulating. You’re
quite primed and ready, in every respect,” he remarked so
obscenely.

“Ew!” she groaned, pulling
away and trying to push his hand off of her thigh. “Why would
you even say something like that?” she almost shouted, all of
her cool, seductive confidence stripped away. Alarm rose within her
as she realized just how isolated and alone they were and she began
to panic, her breath coming out as shallow gasps.

He let her thigh go and she was able to
get up and away from him. “Where are you going?” he
asked. “We haven’t even had an opportunity to get to know
one another quite yet.” He inhaled the air around her, “I
know you and that elf she was fucking had something at one time…
some feelings perhaps?” He asked, dredging up memory of an old
rebuffing that had hurt her ego.

It so flustered her she didn’t
notice his fingers moving subtly in a spell. Though it was too late,
and instead of reacting to him with fear or anxiety, she instead
could only physically feel deep attraction to him. As if her every
action was now divorced from her inner thoughts. “We still need
to get to know one another deeper, don’t we?” he asked,
and his words were delectable to the ears, no matter how much she
felt otherwise.

She stepped closer to him, even as she
tried to pull away. It was the strangest sensation she’d ever
felt, and true fear began to knot her stomach. She didn’t tell
anyone about Mae’lin, and surely… surely he couldn’t
have been gossiping about her like that. He didn’t seem the
type… she didn’t figure.

But then, she would have run from Varuj
as well. Chalked it up to some weird, foreign custom and blown it
off.

So why did she keep moving closer to
him?

It dawned on her that it had to be the
spell she caught him casting. But spells of seduction and
manipulation of this sort were well beyond any first year magic
student. It was the sort of stuff masters at the academy would’ve
struggled with! It was near impossible to imagine this foreigner
having such control.

“That’s a good girl,”
he husked to her, his darkly delicious voice so ominous. “You
were turned down, it’s hard to believe, hm?” He curled
his fingers in the air, ushering her closer. “Turned down by a
simpering, gangly fool like him, when you’re clearly both a
luscious and powerful sorceress with more on the horizon than he
could ever hope for.”

He was right, of course, but now that
he said it she wanted to disagree. If this was a seduction spell…
Her stomach turned at the thought, but she couldn’t move away
from him. Not with that masculine, husky voice saying such delicious
things.

She moved closer but she willed herself
to run, to flee. To regain control of her body.

Instead she walked right into his arms.
Those warm, welcoming arms coming up in under hers as he smiled
toothily. She swore she saw fangs, but wasn’t sure what senses
she could trust anymore. “You need a strong mate,” he
mused to her, brushing some of her luscious hair away from her
forehead. “A powerful one, who can see your value. And ride to
the top with you, yes?” and the words were so overwhelmingly
enticing. Not even in just a spell-tinged sense.

“Mate?” What an odd choice
of words…

Yet isn’t that what she wanted?
Someone strong, someone that would appreciate her… someone who
would stand by her?

She tried to shake her head, to free
herself of the disturbing thoughts, but it was no use. Whatever he
had done to her was strong, and panic made her heart race.

“That’s right,” he
said as he tilted his head, leaning in close, their lips about to
meet. “And there is no stronger here at this academy than me, I
assure you, Ala’nase.” Each word rolled off his tongue as
such a husky growl of lust and desire.

She was helpless to his charms.
Powerless against what magic he wielded, and regrettably, with his
former charm somewhat returned, she felt much of the attraction was
genuine. Not forced.

She both yearned for and dreaded the
touch of his lips, and just as their mouths were about to meet…

The gong. It was her saviour. It
carried even to the secret grove, and the powers of the academy
whisked her away, back to her own room. The safety of her own private
room.

Ala’nase gasped, spinning around
and feeling regret strike at her very core. How could fate be so
cruel as to yank her away from him? Her pulse was racing and her
entire body seemed tensed and primed for him. For his mouth on hers.