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Still holding onto Oscar's hand, I lead him to my dorm and he doesn’t protest, simply trailing behind me. He doesn’t hesitate until I open my door and try to lead him inside. When he pauses in the doorway, I turn to him in question. His silver eyes search mine and after a few seconds he lets me lead him inside my dorm.
Although he no longer seems to be mad at me for not explaining what happened at the club, he’s still wound up from the fight. His body is tense, yet exhaustion seems to radiate from his pores. He eyes my dorm, gaze landing on me before bouncing away again.
Now that we’re completely alone I can tell he’s nervous, so I give him some space and duck into my cupboard to grab two towels, a wash cloth, then a set of clothes for me and a baggy set of sweats for him, before returning to the lounge room. “Come on,” I murmur. Walking to my bathroom, I leave the door open behind me in a silent request, and strip off my clothing and shove them out of the way for now. They reek of the club and strangers. I lean over the edge of the large bathtub—courtesy of Corin’s magic—and turn on the rain shower head, fiddling with the temperature. When it’s perfect, I get in, the room silent other than the water and Oscar’s heavy breaths from the doorway. My eyes flick up to examine his expression and I find his silver gaze already locked onto my face. His pupils are dilated, lips parted as he watches me, but that tension in his shoulders and the furrow to his brow remains. Exhaustion lines his features and it’s like his brain is going in circles. I blink at him, giving him a tiny smile.
He clears his throat, letting out a shaky breath. “You’re beautiful. So fucking beautiful, sweetheart,” he says in a low voice, his eyes not wavering from mine. It has my smile widening, even as a slight flush touches my cheeks.
I don’t speak and neither does he as I watch him slowly peel off his grimy pants. I bite my cheek when I see the extent of his bruising and shallow cuts in the harsh bathroom light, my smile fading. He joins me under the showerhead and I shuffle back to make a little room as he closes the glass door. It’s quite large, but so is Oscar so our chests still almost brush as we stand facing each other.
Swallowing hard, I tip my head back to examine his expression and find him looking off to the side, lost in his head. My brows draw down.We can’t have that. I don’t like the look in his eye. It’s worrying. Sucking in a deep breath, I reach up and grab the clean washcloth I hung over the top of the shower and put a small drop of soap on it. I don’t want to aggravate his cuts by using too much, but the dirt needs to come out. I hover my palms over his chest in question and his gaze jumps from my hands to my face. His breathing stutters, eyes darting between mine before he dips his head in a nod.
I let out a shaky breath of my own then press my hands to his firm chest, his heartbeat thudding a quick beat under my palm. I rub the cloth over his skin, starting at his broad shoulders, and working my way down over his toned stomach and waist—gentle on his bruises. The bruises are fairly easy to spot on his pink skin, the spots where the bruises are forming, deepening to a purple-ish colour. Washing out any cuts I find with water, I take care and clean around them. My eyes drop to his body, but I canfeel his gaze burning into my face. I work my way down each leg, admiring his toned thighs and calves as I move down them. A tiny smile touches his lips when I get him to lift them up in turn to wash his feet. I rise again and twirl my index finger for him to turn around. While I work my way down his back, he washes his privates. There is nothing sexual about this. He’s in an odd headspace—one that I’ve been in before—and I want to offer him the comfort I craved when it happened to me.
Still behind him, I tap on his shoulder and guessing what I want him to do, he tips his head back under the shower stream, wetting it thoroughly before returning to his place in front of me. I can’t help but notice as he wets his hair that if the showerhead was much lower, he’d have to duck down to fit underneath it. Next I pump out a coin sized dollop of shampoo, and work it into a lather on my hand before massaging it into his shaggy hair. The strands are a darker pink than usual because of the water that’s clinging to them. As I massage his scalp, the tension in Oscar’s shoulders visibly falls away, his silver eyes fixed on my face. His expression is hard to read as we watch each other, so if it weren’t for his relaxing body language, I would probably think he wasn’t enjoying this. When I’m done, he rinses off then grabs the other washcloth and holds it up to my body, head cocked in question.
My eyes widen and goosebumps prick my arms. I nod, but duck my chin slightly so my eyes aren’t quite meeting his. As he soaps up the cloth and begins to wash me, the intimacy is almost overwhelming. I’ve never washed or been washed by anyone like this before. I swallow the lump in my throat at the goey warmth that’s pulsing in my chest. That other side of me, the one that’s becoming more and more present is practically purring at our treatment and my eyes grow half-lidded as he finishes. He washes my hair as well, his fingers drawing a hum of pleasure from me when he lightly scratches my scalp.
After we’ve rinsed and dried off, I tug on my clothes, Oscar doing the same. The sweats fit him and I mentally give myself a high five for enjoying mens sweats. They’re so comfy, and I must have at least three or four pairs. By now Oscar’s dragging his feet and my eyes are gritty with exhaustion. I double check his bare chest and face to find that his cuts are all almost healed so he doesn’t need to be bandaged, then stretch my arms above my head.
My eyes land on my bed and my gut clenches. I really don’t want to sleep alone tonight. “Will you stay with me?” I ask, eyes flitting over his face. A range of emotions cross his face but it eventually settles on exhaustion and he nods, following me and climbing in beside me.
I snuggle up under the cool sheets and roll over to face Oscar, searching his face. “I’m not going to demand any information about tonight, but I do need to ask you one thing.” He tenses, only to relax at my words after a moment. “Are you okay?”
That tiny, crooked smile returns to his lips. “I am right now. Thank yo—”
I cut him off with a hard look, which he chuckles at. “Don’t thank me, I’m sure you would have done the same for me.” He nods, expression sobering slightly.
“Good, now roll over,” I demand, and he does as I ask, though he seems a little confused.
As soon as he’s settled on his side, his back to me, I curl around him, being the big spoon. His chest shakes with a soft laugh, but other than that he doesn’t say anything and I drift off with his comforting dark chocolate and peppermint scent filling my lungs.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Nessa
Unicornswoopsdowninfront of me, landing on Oscar’s shoulder and I bite back a smile at his disgruntled huff. Their love hate relationship is as funny as it is endearing. Just the other day we were studying in my dorm and Oscar had her curled up his lap, giving her chin rubs while quizzing me on the runes test at the end of term, so I know it’s all an act on his end.
Corin, Oscar, Dylan and I are following the lead Lexi got on Ethan’s location. The path we’re following is completely overgrown, like most of them through the forest seem to be. My eyes slide to Corin and I grimace, just a little. It’s been pretty awkward between us today. No, okay, let me rephrase, I’ve been pretty awkward around him today and that shit is probably obvious to everyone. I don’t know where I’m supposed to look—is eye contact even a thing anymore? Goddess. I’ve never actually stuck around properly after I’ve hooked up with someone and I certainly haven’t slept with anyone that I have an emotional connection to—other than Corin. I mean, I’ve done some other stuff with Oscar and Dylan, but it’s just not the same as me sleeping with him the way I did. I cringe, I really need to figure out how to act normal around him again.
My attention is drawn back to the present when Oscar yelps and throws his arms up. He stumbles down the path a few steps as Unicorn flaps away chittering, a couple of pink strands hanging from her maw.The little shit tore out some of his hair.My eyes widen, a shocked bark of laughter escaping me. Corin and Dylan burst into laughter, the former darting out of the way, when Oscar goes to shove him in mock anger. “Are you okay?” I ask, unable to keep the amusement out of my voice. Some of that bubbliness in my chest is also relief as most of the tension between Corin and I today abruptly vanishes with the laughter.
I roll my lips in, chest rumbling with my contained laughter and Poppy throws me a look over his shoulder. “Really, you too?” he says, pouting.
Grinning, I close the distance between us and knock my shoulder into his. “Sorry.”
“Liar,” he whispers, but the amusement is clear in his voice and he drops his arm around my shoulders. His dark chocolate and peppermint scent washes over me and makes my heart speed up. Ignoring the effect he has on me, I tip my head back and meet his eyes, the corner of my mouth quirking.
“You see straight through me.”
Poppy simply shakes his head and I laugh at his nonchalance before ducking out from under his arm. Grabbing his hand, I drag him after me in the direction of the location Lexi gave me. “Holy shit, is that real or am I hallucinating?” I ask, eyes widening.
When Lexi got a lead on a potential sighting of Ethan, I was sceptical, but we agreed that it needed to be checked out so I rounded up the guys so I wouldn’t be doing this on my own, and they agreed easily. If it comes to nothing, then it’s at least a break from the stress of classes. But the anonymous tip didn’t mention anything about a graveyard on the Academy grounds.
Corin shakes his head, eyes scanning the graves. “You’re not hallucinating.”
Dylan adjusts his glasses before walking up to the closest headstone. He places his hand on the top of the grave then after a few seconds cocks his head. “From what I could get from the headstone, it seems this place is for students who die at the Academy. I won’t use magic on the actual body though, because that is very disrespectful and bordering on death magic.”
I nod, already knowing that. It’s one of the few things that is deeply frowned upon in the magic community including the monster community. Death Magic. Unless you are born with necromancy then it is considered disrespectful and sometimes illegal to practise it in some places.
