She turned to me, a severe look in her eyes. “What makes you think they were illusory?”
I took her hand in mine. “Flames went all the way to the hilt. Your hand isn’t burnt.”
She lifted an eyebrow. “You are most observant, Mister Thistlewood.”
I took her other hand. “May I remind you that we are not in public?”
She bit her lip. “On that matter, you are correct.Theo.”
I stepped closer, head tipped back to gaze into her eyes. “May I also remind you that thanks to our little excursion, you missed dance practice.”
She bit the fingertips of her glove and tugged it off, baring her teeth in a most unladylike fashion. “I have a partner who will make it up to me.”
“Will he?” I removed my own gloves with far less flair than she had shown and glided my palms around the swell of her hips.
She wasso hotin leather pants.
She kneaded the back of my neck and snuck her fingertips under my collar, teasing for many long seconds before pulling me into a firm embrace.
With us both in armor, it may not have been as physically intimate as with scant house clothes, but… the way she moved, the things she said,the wayshe said them… I’d never been this close to anyone before.
I stood on tiptoes and nuzzled my cheek against hers.
As she glided her cheek along mine, I felt her head turn to brush her lips against me. Hot breaths caressed my skin. She kneaded the small of my back with a firm hand.
And pressed her lips to mine, lips as soft and warm as I had dreamed.
Many, manydreams.
The kiss was subtle, gentle, yet the parting of those thick, plush lips made her intentions fully clear. Like the depths lurking behind her subtle banter, a burning passion hid behind this gentle kiss. She tapped mytongue with the tip of hers, holding the kiss a second or two before pulling her head back to speak, hips still nestled tight against mine. “We have much to sort out yet.”
“We most certainly do.” I tipped my head a little.
She lifted an eyebrow.
“We never asked the instructor if we would be able to redo today’s assignment,” I said.
“Agreed. It was quite silly of us to have neglected that most basic query.”
“If we are allowed.” I cupped both hands around her waist, savoring that delightful curve as it transitioned to her hips. “I would like to request a certain lab partner.”
“You, Mister Thistlewood, may request whatever you wish. It will not change the fact that youwillride with me.”
It had been an eventful day. Balloon explosion. Nearly drowning. Evading a lindworm. Confronting Aldyr and his colleagues. Seeing Sephi send them fleeing in terror. And as preludes to a first kiss go…
A smile spread across my face as I gazed into her green eyes.
As preludes to a first kiss, I couldn’t have asked for more.
Chapter Sixteen
“Lord Raloren will see you now.”
Sephi and I stepped through a set of double doors to a seventh-story office with a grand view over the campus.
“Greetings,” said a silver-haired elven gentleman with bright blue eyes.
We bowed.
