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Gideon steps up to my back. “You want someone to attack you?”
A little humorless laugh escapes me. “I guess? It doesn’t make any sense, I know.”
Hardin hums in his throat and tips my chin up with a ringed thumb. “Maybe you need a different type of release, love?”
There is no mistaking what he means, especially when he bends forward and licks into my mouth in a way that conveys just how much he wants me, craves me, is hungry for me. I moan into his mouth, and Gideon chuckles against my neck. His lips brush my ear as he murmurs, “while I’m all for helping Ro release this tension that’s riding her, maybe we shouldn’t do that here in the middle of the quad? I don’t want any other asshole seeing her when she comes. That’s for only us.”
Hardin grins against my lips before pulling back, his thumb brushing along my lower lip, catching the saliva from our kiss. “Sorry, love.” He;’s not sorry at all.
I shake my head as he steps back. “I told you that you can kiss me whenever you want to, Hardin.” His grin grows and Gideon makes a discontented noise. I turn and place a hand on the big guy’s chest, pushing up to my toes to brush a kiss against his lips. His hands move to my hips, holding me up, steadying me. “You can kiss me anytime you want, too, Brightwater.”
I feel his returning smile and his palms slip from my hips to my lower back, pulling me against him. “Really?”
I nod, solemnly. “Really.”
“Okay, that’s enough of that,” Hardin declares. “We have studying to do and I don’t want to do that with a raging hard-on, yeah?”
I laugh, my forehead dropping to Gideon’s chest for a moment before we pull away from each other and drop onto the blanket. I pull my bag off my shoulder and rifle through it, pulling out the books I need for this study session.
Hardin drops down in front of me, immediately rolling onto his back with his eyes closed, hands clasped behind his head. He looks the very picture of an indolent school boy. Man, I never thought that would work for me, but damn, it does.
“How was chemistry?” Gideon asks, scooting behind me so I can lean against his chest. Hardin watches us for a moment before sitting fully up and pulling one of my feet onto his lap.
“I hate not having you as a lab partner. I might need some help,” I admit. Hardin slips off my shoe, then rolls down my thigh high slowly, skimming along my skin, sending ripples of heat up my leg straight to my pussy. I may let out a little groan of pleasure as his fingers dig into the arch of my foot.
“You know I’m always available as a study buddy,” Gideon murmurs in my ear, before giving the shell a quick lick.
I definitely moan. Hardin moves to my other foot as Fielder and Ezra join us, dropping onto the blanket on either side of me and Gideon. Gideon tenses, but Hardin keeps his attention on my feet.
“News?” he asks, pulling a bottle of black fingernail polish out of his bag and beginning to paint my toes.
“You know that’s going to be ruined the second I stand up, right?” I say, watching as his chestnut hair flops over his forehead. Hardin doesn’t answer, just gives me his sexy smirk and keeps painting.
“We have an idea,” Ezra says slowly. “For how to remove the threat of the coven for Ro.”
At that, Hardin’s head snaps up, before he goes back to his painting.
“What’s that?” Gideon asks. His voice is relaxed, but I can feel the tension in his body where it’s pressed against me.
Ezra motions to Fielder, who runs a hand down his face wearily. “I’ve put her name forward as an inductee.”
“You did what?” Gideon’s voice is so deadly quiet that I’m pretty sure if I wasn’t sitting on his lap, leaning against him, he would have already tackled Fielder to the ground. I kind of want him to, because being a part of the coven is not even remotely something I’m interested in.
Fielder holds up a hand and keeps his eyes focused on me. “Hear me out before you yell at me, please.” I give a sharp nod. “As a member of the coven, you’ll have a certain amount of protection. Other members cannot target you. If they do, they’ll face the law upheld by the coven. Even the elders are beholden to those laws, Rosalind.”
“When I dropped out-” I start not really knowing where I’m going with that. Because what can I say? I dropped out so I should have been safe? That’s not true.
“You dropped out, left Septem Stellae and it wasn’t enough to keep you safe,” Ezra says, picking up my hand to toy with my fingers, running his lightly from my palm to their tips, pulling a shiver from me. “Someone sent that guy to hurt, maybe even kill, you in London.”
Gideon presses his lips to my temple, arms tightening around me. “So, no matter what we do, I don’t really have any other options. Even if I keep my head down, leave you guys, go to Yale next year, they won’t stop.”
Fielder nods grimly.
I sigh. “And we still don’t know why I’m in danger.”
Another grim nod.
“She’ll need seven nominations,” Hardin says, still painting my toes. “I’ll call Sam and see if she’ll be one.”
