AllFreeNovel
Share Us
A plate of French toast and bacon slides in front of me. I stare down at it in surprise and then flick my gaze up to Fielder when his hand slips onto my thigh. How did they know this is what I was going to order this morning? I shove the thought away and look back at Merritt. “I haven’t really had time to think about it. You know?”
She nods slowly, brushing my hair over my shoulder. “I know. I’ve already told the guys whatever you need, I’ll do.”
My brows lower. “You were at the meeting last night? I thought it was heirs only.”
She stills. My gaze narrows on her face. “What didn’t they tell me last night, Mer?”
Her eyes flick from me to Fielder and then back and I can practically feel him warning her away from whatever they talked about last night. “Mer.” My voice holds a warning. “You’remyfreaking best friend.”
Her mouth opens, but only a squeak comes out when Ben drops onto the chair next to her. She gives me an apologetic look, motioning to her very human boyfriend likewhat can I do? I narrow my eyes at her and mouth, ‘I’m watching you’at her. She ducks her head and leans into Ben, avoiding my gaze.
“Eat your breakfast, Sweeney,” Fielder all but growls in my ear. “You’re going to need the energy.”
I sigh, but don’t fight him on it. He’s not wrong. I slice into my French toast and look at Fielder. “What aren’t you telling me, Fielder? What else happened?”
His green eyes sweep over my face, scanning my features in a way that reminds me of the way he’d looked at me just before he played his hand and told me to leave Seven Stars. Like he’s memorizing my face, like he thinks he won’t see me again. No, notthinks. He’s worried that he won’t see me again, that someone is going to snatch me away from him.
He shakes his head, like he’s shaking off a thought or something, and leans forward to press his lips to mine. I’m aware of the hush that falls over the dining hall, aware of the eyes watching us. But all of that fades away the longer he keeps his mouth on mine, gently, so gently parting my lips to run his tongue delicately along mine.
My hands slide up his shoulders into the hair at the base of his neck, loving the feel of his soft hair against them. His arms pull me against him, one against my lower back, the other against my shoulder blades.
“Are you making a statement, mate?” Hardin asks from somewhere nearby, cutting through the haze that’s descended on me. Fielder’s lips curl against mine in a smile as he pulls back just slightly. His forehead pressing into mine, his nose brushing mine, our breaths mingling.
“Fuck yeah, I’m making a statement,” he rumbles, but it’s so low I’m not sure Hardin can hear it.
“And what statement is that, Harris?” I ask, fingers flexing against his skin.
“That you’re mine, Sweeney.” It’s such a simple statement, just three words and my name. But man, those three words pack a punch. My face goes red, and the sounds around us pick up again as people realize that Fielder and I are done with our PDA.
He chuckles and the tension that has been riding him all morning releases somewhat. He pulls back and picks up his coffee cup, and it’s only then that I realize he has no food in front of him. Just the jolt of caffeine.
“Where’s your breakfast, Harris?”
He drops a kiss onto my shoulder and shakes his head. “I’m not hungry for food this morning.” The low grumble tells me that what he’s hungry for is much more decadent than French toast. And all of those hot achy feelings I had the night before when he cupped me and ground against me, come rushing back.
I shift and pointedly look back at my breakfast. I will not get turned on in the middle of the dining hall while surrounded by students and assholes that want to kill me. Nope. Not happening.
His chuckle reaches me, but he doesn’t say anything else. Across the table from me, Hardin gives me a heated look, like he knows exactly what is happening between my thighs and he’s turned on by just the thought of that.
“Eat, Sweeney,” Fielder urges again.
I shake my head, pick up my fork, and do as he says.
I keep waiting for something to happen. For someone to attack me in the halls or in the quad or library, but nothing happens. No one tries to hex me, or physically assault me.
It’s been a week since the meeting of the heirs and it’s been quiet as a mouse around here. It’s making my anxiety ratchet up, because I know it’s only a matter of time before someone strikes.
“Just because we haven’t seen anything,” Hardin says to me, fingers laced with mine as he and Gideon guide me through Putnam and out into the spring sunshine. We’ve been having an unseasonably warm spring, and not a lot of rain, which I both love and hate. But that means that the grass is dry as we walk over it. “Doesn’t mean that they haven’t tried.”
I tug him to a stop and Gideon lets out a surprised grunt behind me as I suddenly halt in front of him. “What does that mean?”
“It means that with the number of protections you have on you, someone might have tried to hex you and it slid right off, Ro.” Gideon takes advantage of our positions and presses a kiss first to the back of my head and then to my shoulder. “You likely wouldn’t notice it.”
I hum in my throat and let Hardin tug me forward, while Gideon’s hand goes to the small of my back. We’ve been renewing the protection spells almost daily. So I suppose that makes sense.
We stop midway in the grass and Gideon produces a blanket from somewhere and spreads it out. Hardin taps a finger on the tip of my nose to draw my attention to him. “What’s going on in that beautiful brain of yours, love?”
Sighing, I shake my head. “I don’t know. I guess I kind of thought it was going to be warding off attacks all day, every day, and my body has been in this state of anticipation and anxiety for a week. Even if they are happening and I’m just not aware of if it, my body is like…” I struggle to find the right word, my brows dropping as Hardin moves closer to me. “I think I need a release or something. Like I just want something to happen so all this tension in me can ease, even if it’s just for a little while.”
