Zodiac Academy Fated Throne - Caroline Peckham Page 0,168

barrier blocking the way in and heading into the dimly lit parking lot where there was no sign of her.

"Roxy?" I called and she laughed somewhere off ahead of me to my right.

I hurried past the rows of expensive cars, looking for her between all of them until I finally found her in a dark corner, crouched down beside a bright red Ducati Panigale V2.

"What are you doing?" I asked as she failed to look up at me from her position on the floor by the motorcycle.

"You promised me a ride, dude," she said, cursing beneath her breath as she kept fiddling with the engine. I couldn't really see what she was up to, but it looked like she'd made some tools using earth magic to assist her.

"What are you doing?" a voice yelled and I turned to find a guy dressed in a grey and black guard uniform pointing a gun at us. There was a radio at his hip but it was impossible to say if he'd been in contact with anyone else.

"Nothing. Leave us alone," I Coerced him and he turned away instantly, lowering his weapon and walking off.

I looked back to Roxy with a smug grin but she pointed up at a camera by the roof which was angled right at us.

"Ah, shit," she cursed a second before a blaring alarm sounded all around the parking lot and I raised an eyebrow at her just as she got the bike started up.

"Is this what you like to do for fun then?" I teased as she hopped up and swung her leg over the bike, revving the engine at me enticingly.

"Jump on and I'll show you what I like to do for fun," she offered, patting the seat behind her.

"How about you shift your ass back and I'll drive?" I countered because there was no fucking way I was going to be her passenger.

"Oh, you can steal a bike for yourself then?" she taunted, her eyes twinkling with amusement.

"Just start one up for me," I growled, refusing to dignify that with a response.

"No," she replied with that stubborn set to her jaw which always riled me up so damn much. "Now or never, Darius, jump on the bitch seat or stay here to get caught by the cops."

"Why do I get the feeling you seriously would just ride off and leave my ass here?" I asked irritably.

"Because I would," she replied simply, shrugging one shoulder like there wasn't an alarm blaring overhead and she was in no rush at all. "Now hop on and let me show you how a real Fae rides."

I cursed as I swung my leg over the back of the bike and Roxy barely gave me time to wrap my arms around her waist before she dropped the clutch and tugged the throttle back.

My grip tightened on her before I could fall off the back and she laughed wildly as we shot away.

Roxy rode like a pro, weaving around parked cars and squeezing through a pedestrian entrance to the underground parking lot before racing out onto the street.

Her hair whipped back in the wind, catching against the stubble on my jaw as I placed my head beside hers to watch the road. The sweet scent of her skin rose up around me reminding me of the few times I'd held her close like this and my irritation over her making me be the passenger melted away as I just enjoyed it.

The heat of her body against mine had my mind filling up with ideas of all the things I'd fantasised about doing with her more times than I could even count. I'd imagined having her in each and every way conceivable and had dreamed about her every night for so long that I couldn't even remember when it had begun. And yet all of that paled into nothing when compared to the reality of actually holding her.

Rain poured from the sky in a sudden torrent and I tipped my head back, catching sight of the Leo and Gemini star signs illuminated in the sky above us before the clouds swept over to conceal them again.

We weren't free of our curse. Not even here. But Roxy didn't seem inclined to stop and move away from me either.

The flash of red and blue lights caught my eye before I even heard the sirens and Roxy laughed wildly as she put on another burst of speed.

She ducked and weaved around traffic and pedestrians, narrowly avoiding a