All it would take was a plan.
His gaze settled on one of the soldiers. A tall but otherwise average looking youth of about twenty. Besides the fact that his gift barely pinged on Christos’s radar, the way the youth hesitated before performing any given task said he was unsure of himself too, yet too self-conscious to ask for further direction. A quiet loner with no backbone. Oh yes, he’d be perfect for Christos’s needs.
Christos smiled and stepped over to the edge of the roof. Day was breaking, and it was time to acquire some good help.
Chapter 13
“That’s right, keep it steady,” Gabby said, pushing lightly on the new recruit’s shield to test its strength. Not bad, but far from perfect, and therefore not good enough.
“Easy for you to say,” the woman grumbled, her brow beading with sweat. “I don’t see how anyone could do this while in a fight.”
“It’s all about control. And stamina, of course.” And okay, she shouldn’t use those two words so closely together when one elicited thoughts of her lack thereof and the other thoughts of him.
Damn Valin, he just had to go and ruin everything. It had been bad enough when she’d gotten herself off thinking about him and all his fineness, but now? Masturbation was never going to be the same—and seeing how that was the only way she was going to orgasm again, that just plain sucked.
“Like this?” a voice rose from the other side of the gym.
She turned and walked across the scuffed floor, passing her ten other students to reach the other end of the line. Towering over her at a crane-her-neck six-five, Ryan had the type of lean musculature that made him always seem a bit…awkward, to put it kindly. The impression was made even worse today by the stark contrast of the tight-fitting black microfiber mock turtleneck he wore. Fashion plate he was not, nor was the young soldier particularly outgoing, both of which probably festered his inherent tendency to stay in the background. It was because of this that Gabby didn’t know him that well, other than he was actually one of Jacob’s first recruits. Normally he wouldn’t even be in this sort of primer class, but the soldier didn’t have a lot of power. Which meant he tended to throw all he had into a given task and peter out quickly; i.e., no stamina—Ugh! Now, however, Ryan’s shields were pulsing softly with power, the protective mesh over his mind flexible but unbreakable. It was an excellent strategy, one that required more control than energy and would be effective against all but the most skilled of enemies.
“Very good.” She gave him a sharp nod. “Those are the best shields I’ve ever seen you form.”
“Thanks,” he replied with a grin, his face pale against his sweat-drenched shirt.
Forcing her mouth into some semblance of a return smile, she moved on to the next recruit, correcting where needed and praising when correction wasn’t necessary. Okay, maybe she didn’t praise all that much. Today her students were going to have to be content with not being singled out. She was in a pisser of a mood and tired. Neither of which got better when a moment later she felt the tickle at the back of her mind announcing that Valin was waking.
She tried to ignore him, but her supposed proficiency at shielding aside, she couldn’t fully block the emotions that fed across the blood bond she’d forged so thoroughly last night, which, ironically, was another thing she could blame on a certain unnamed individual. Goddamn egotistical, pushy bastard. He was such a male, not content until he had everything he wanted. And holy crap, did she have to be exposed to this now, too? Like every other typical male out there, the jerk had awoken with an overenthusiastic hard-on and, dog that he was, was indulging in a bit of morning pleasure.
<<Will you knock that off?>> she cried, trying desperately to block the erotic little tingles that lapped at her through the blood bond. The fact that she’d rather be there, watching, was not relevant, because there was no way she could allow anything like last night to happen again.
<<There’s my woman,>> he purred, eliciting an unwelcome shiver of delight at the touch of his mind on hers. She straightened, stiffening her spine—Lucifer knew she needed a steel one to deal with this man.
<<Do you have to do that?>>
<<Yeah, kinda do, considering you’re not here.>> He paused, the sexual contentedness shifting easily over to annoyance. <<Speaking of which, where are you, cookie?>>
<<Don’t call me that,>> she snapped back.
<<In the building still,>> he stated, probably basing the assumption on the bell-tone quality of her last projection. Still, she didn’t need to respond. No way was she going to give him any help hunting her down, which is what he seemed determined to do. She sensed that he was up by the glimpses she caught of his thoughts as he rifled around the room looking for his jeans. And then his gaze must have fallen on the bed because the next thought had her gasping.
<<Would you not do that?>> she shrieked, viciously trying to scrub away the image of herself lying in bed, her legs wantonly parted while she vigorously stimulated her clit as he looked on.
<<Why? You’re so fucking sexy. And you have no idea how hungry I am for you. I crave your taste, your body… your screams. I can’t wait to make you come again.>>
She made a noise—half-growl, half-scream—even as she clenched her thighs together; her body was one duplicitous bitch.
“Uh, Gabriella?”
Heat flooded her cheeks as she spun around to meet the head-on gaze of a dozen astonished faces. Crap, she must look like an idiot, squirming and gasping like a sexed-up nymphomaniac. Which, sadly, is exactly what she was.
“You’ve all perfected your shields then?” she snapped at them. Eleven sets of eyes diverted their focus, all but one student. She frowned as Ryan continued to stare at her. For a painfully shy young man, he’d been making eye contact with her a lot today.
She started to take a step toward him when the gym’s double doors banged open, slamming hard into the cement wall. She sucked in a breath, a delicious shiver running across her skin as a bare-chested Valin stopped just inside the entry, quickly scanning the room until his gaze honed in and locked on hers. The memory of how he’d looked at her just like that as he’d rocked her to orgasm had her body clenching—and her fangs throbbing—with need. A need she had no right ever feeding again. Goddamn Valin.
She was so busy drooling she forgot about her admirer until Valin’s gaze flicked over her shoulder. She turned, her confidence in the young soldier’s self-preservation instinct reassured when he had the good sense to look away this time.
She turned back to Valin. “Can I help you?”
“Why yes, you can. But do you want to help me here, or…” he smiled, his thumb hooking deceptively casually in his jeans, “somewhere else?”
“We’re in the middle of a class.” She was proud of how even and businesslike that came out, considering that she was panting like a bitch in heat. Damn her mother. If she could dig her up and wring her skeletal corpse for cursing her with these crappy genes, she would.
“Class just ended,” he informed her, making a beeline for her.
She started to take a step back, then stopped herself, firmly planting her feet on the wooden floor. “I’m only going to ask you once to leave.”