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Light teased my eyelids as I snuggled deeper within the covers. I didn’t want to wake up even though I knew my alarm would wake me soon. I wanted to spend one more minute in bed, one more minute with the hard body curled around my back and keeping me warm. A heavy arm was wrapped around my waist, and my own hand rested on top, our fingers lightly interlaced.
I fluttered my eyes open as the first tendrils of confusion drifted through my brain. Where was I? I wasn’t in my bed in the academy. I slept there alone. I wasn’t in Torq’s bed, because I had never stayed late in his quarters for fear I’d be caught. Then I blinked a few times as the cave and waterfall came into focus, and it all came rushing back to me.
Memories of the night before flooded my brain and sent heat to scorch my cheeks. What had I been thinking? What had gotten into me? I was not the type of girl to throw myself at a guy, and I was not the type to try every sexual position I’d heard of in one go.
It was the darkness, I told myself. It was dark and we had been alone and cold. That’s right. I’d been cold, and Torq had certainly warmed me up.
I glanced at my hand holding his and bit back a groan. There was no way I could coyote my way out of this, even if I did have the teeth to chew my own arm off to avoid waking him. My clothes were spread out on the rocks nearby, and they looked dry. At least drier than they had been the night before. That meant we could get dressed, walk back to the academy and pretend none of this had ever happened.
I untwined my hand from his and started to carefully lift his arm so I could slip from under it. Torq stirred behind me, and I went still. Then he pulled me tighter to him and nuzzled his head in my neck.
“Good morning,” he mumbled.
“Morning,” I said, sounding impossibly bright.
He made sleepy, waking sounds as he started to move his body, but he made no moves to release me. He didn’t nervously jerk his arm away or apologize for grabbing me in the middle of the night. He seemed to be completely unaffected by waking up spooning me. How was he so relaxed and cool about this?
Because he’s a guy, I reminded myself. Sex is sex, and there is no way he has a single regret about what we did.
As if to reinforce this, he kissed my neck. “Last night was fun.”
“Mmhmm.” I made a noncommittal noise, wondering how he could be so chill when I was freaking out. Hooking up with him after I’d been working so hard to get over him had been a colossal mistake, but here he was humming like it was any other morning and we always woke up in bed together. “We should probably get dressed and head back to the academy. Our schools might be missing us.”
Torq cleared his throat. “Right. I had almost forgotten about the battle of the schools and the fact that our fellow cadets are probably swarming the mountains searching for the stones.”
This was my cue to wiggle from his grasp. “I don’t think either of us want to be found like this.”
I stood and shed the fur that had been draped over me, leaving Torq still lying on the pile of pelts. I padded over to my pants and picked them up, squeezing the fabric to find it almost entirely dry. Then I realized I was only wearing panties. Where was my bra?
“I would not mind if you stayed like you are for a little while longer.”
I swiveled my head to find him watching me intently. I crossed my hands over my bare breasts as I scanned the cave for the bra that Torq had taken off me the night before. When I spotted it, I hurried over and picked it up and slipped it on quickly. This was more evidence that I had lost my mind in the dark.
“You are sure we have to leave?” Torq sat up and swung his head lazily from side to side. “This cave is very private.”
I let out a clipped laugh. “I don’t think it would take too long for others to find us.” Even as I tugged on my pants, I worried that other cadets would stumble upon us. The entrance to the cave might be behind the waterfall, but part of the cave’s mouth was visible from the pool. That was how I’d seen it. If Assassins were looking for me, they wouldn’t miss it.
“Too bad.” Torq sighed and stood, stretching his arms overhead so that his hands brushed the ceiling.
I fumbled getting one leg into my pants because the sight of his muscles rippling as he stretched was a serious distraction. Even the academy tattoo on his arm sent a thrill through me. Then I huffed and snatched my uniform shirt from the floor, irritated that he could be so unconcerned about all of it. Just as I was about to tell him off for being such a cocky, infuriating ass, my gaze snagged on something tucked in the back of the cave where it narrowed.
My heart tripped in my chest as I squinted to see it better. It was black like the rest of the stone in the cave, but it wasn’t rough and dull. It was polished and glossy. And were there markings on it?
Dropping to my hands and knees, I crawled to the low nook and reached for the stone. As soon as my fingers closed around it, I knew. I pulled it out and crawled out, straightening and peering at the stone with the Assassins emblem carved into the ebony surface.
“Is that what I think it is?”
I swung to see Torq grinning at me. He didn’t appear to be angry or jealous that I’d found my school’s stone. If it was possible, he seemed pleased.
I couldn’t stop myself from grinning and holding it up. “I found the Assassin stone.”
“You didn’t happen to see one with two blades on it back there, did you?”
I laughed, but this time it was genuine. “Sorry.”
He waved it away. “It would not be here. Our stone is somewhere cold, and do not tell me that isn’t further punishment for our school.”
I was reminded about the accident at the forbidden tower and the death of the first-year Blade. “I never did get to tell you how sorry I am that one of your friends died.”
