Her looking up at me with those intelligent eyes, dancing with lust and mirth.
Of her slowly unbuttoning my pants and freeing my hard cock.
Of her wrapping her long fingers around my length, guiding it to her open, wet mouth.
Great. And now I’m hard.
I felt my erection grow rapidly beneath the confines of my pants, and was grateful they were relatively loose. It still wasn’t something I wanted her to see, though. She was alreadyuncomfortable in the Academy, and I didn’t need my lust and desire making the situation any worse for her.
I quickly stepped away, turning my back for a moment so I could subtly adjust myself before sinking into the other armchair that framed the fireplace. They were nice chairs—large enough for Faylinn to curl into, like she was already doing, and made of extremely soft black leather. I’d never had armchairs in my office before, but this side of the room seemed empty. And I wanted Faylinn to feel comfortable while she was here using the library.
Deep inside, I was hoping she would use my office as her home base again as she researched. Maybe we could recapture some semblance of what we were before everything—before the Life Bonds and Ben, before I pushed her away and insulted her. We’d both apologized, but I couldn’t help but feel there was a little hesitancy on her part.
Or maybe that was me projecting my own feelings onto her.
“You’re acting . . . strange,” Faylinn observed as I turned to face her. I tried to lounge, tried to relax in the chair, but I was on edge. My body was constantly tense, muscles ready to spring into action at a moment’s notice. An aftereffect of my time in Hestin, I was sure, though it was only exacerbated by my workaholic nature.
So I tried to release the tension in my muscles. Attempted to assume a posture that resembled cool, unaffectedness. But the result was some weird in between where my back slumped against the chair while my legs spread obscenely wide. I still held my head high and alert, and the weirdness of the position caused a zing of pain to shoot down my spine.
Faylinn’s eyes only grew comically wide the more I wiggled uncomfortably in my seat, and I thought for sure I heard a suppressed giggle. When I looked, her face was as blank as ever, though her gaze danced with mirth.
“Never sat in a chair before?” she chided, humor lacing her question.
I grumbled something unintelligible before sitting rigidly straight, my ass perched at the end of the cushion. I’d definitely sat in armchairs before, even in Faylinn’s presence, but there was always someone else there with us. When we worked in my office together, I took residence behind my desk, head often bent to read whatever was placed in front of me.
This was not normal.
“How are you feeling?” I asked, my tone as stiff as my body. Faylinn sighed as she stretched, the thick blanket falling away from her shoulders to land on her lap. The black tunic she took to wearing popped from the waistband of her pants to expose a sliver of brown skin and a hint of the curves she kept hidden beneath her clothes.
My hands flexed at her movements before I curled them into fists lest I do somethingreallyabnormal and reach out to touch her. I was certain her skin would feel creamy and soft, the muscles beneath hard and taught.
I squeezed until my knuckles turned white, desperately thinking ofanythingelse.
“Better,” she admitted with a yawn.
I stared unblinkingly, and Faylinn shook her head slightly, brown curls bouncing around her face.
“You are strange today. I think it’s this place. It made me black out or whatever that was when I crossed the threshold, and now you’re”—she gestured to my inevitably awkward posture—“doing whatever this is. So strange.”
She rose from the chair before bending to fold the blanket and set it on the cushion. Faylinn propped her hands on her hips before twirling to face me, all previous softness and reticent fear wiped from her expression. There’s no way she was able to recover that quickly, so I knew she was hiding it for my sake.
Probably because I was acting like a complete idiot.
“So, where is the library? Where am I working?” Her voice carried a hint of excitement, and I knew that part was at least natural.
She wanted normal, I could give her normal.
I think.
I nodded once before rising from my chair and walking swiftly to my desk. I picked up a heavy tome that sat on top and gestured for her to grab it.
Faylinn practically skipped to my side, her long fingers delicately sweeping across the cover before she cracked it open. Her eyes lit with excitement without even knowing what was written inside.
“This monstrosity of a book contains an alphabetical list of all the books, scrolls, and other papers found in the library in the Academy,” I explained, and was inordinately pleased when Faylinn’s gaze ripped from the book in her hands to meet my own. Her mouth dropped open in a perfect “o,” and I had to will my thoughts away from the path they’d already taken once this morning.
“How did you get one of these? How do they even catalog the books down there? What happens when they acquire new ones?” She rapid-fired questions at me, and I couldn’t help the quirk of my lips. This was so like her—a zest for information and knowledge.
And to know I put that look there? Simply by giving her a book about . . . books?
