Zodiac Academy Fated Throne - Caroline Peckham Page 0,236

could totally do this cool dude act. Though a drink or two might have helped.

“I guess you are.” She grinned.

The other girls started giggling, and I recognised Liselle as she stamped her foot in irritation, trying to catch my eye.

“Do you want a shot?” I asked Sofia, ignoring the others, my whole world consumed by this beauty before me.

She battered her lashes beneath her mask which were laced with pink glitter and nodded.

I grabbed a bottle of tequila and two wooden shot glasses from a stack at the back of the bar. It seemed like a help-yourself-deal so I was gonna help myself to as much alcohol as it took to stop my nerves giving me away.

I poured us one each and our eyes remained locked as we knocked them back. I had two more before I felt myself starting to relax and I soaked in the rock music from the band as I took a step closer to Sofia.

“Tyler’s not a part of the club?” I asked, resting my hand on her hip and she moved into the arc of my body immediately. Fuck yes.

“Yeah he is, but he went off with Hubert and Brutus earlier,” she said with a challenging smile.

I nodded slowly, fighting the urge to look around for him. If Tyler got pissed I was making a move on his girl again, he was going to have to fight me. Because my instincts were burning and I wasn’t going to ignore the way they drove me toward her. As a prospective Dom, she had to take my interest seriously; it was the way of the mares. But I technically hadn’t officially challenged Tyler yet. I’d wanted to settle into the herd first and make sure I wasn’t kidding myself. But I didn’t think there was any point waiting on it now. I’d do anything to claim her. And more than that, I wanted to lead the herd. It was in my blood.

“Dance with me,” I all but ordered, capturing her hand as she nodded and pulling her toward the dancefloor.

We moved through the crowd and she wound her arms around my neck as I tugged her close, our bodies pressing flush together. My dick liked that a lot and I smiled darkly as we started moving to the beat. I guessed grace had always been in my nature, plus years of attending boring ass balls with my family meant I knew how to dance. And Sofia seriously did too.

Her fingernails raked against the back of my neck in the most enticing way, my forehead falling to hers as her curves melted against my muscles. It felt so damn right, I wanted to shout it to everyone in this room and proclaim her as mine. But I knew I couldn’t do that without beating Tyler down first.

“You didn’t answer my question earlier, Phillip,” she teased, using the name Darius had given me when she’d texted me through all those months.

She’d been a total lifeline to me in my solitude. The one glimmer of hope in a sea of dark. I’d known nothing of my Order, been unable to shift unless I was alone somewhere long enough, but never able to fly. She told me everything about Pegasuses, she’d made me love being one, made me ache to cast my shackles off and come join her in the sky. My wish had finally come true. And it was better than I ever could have dreamed it would be.

“What question?” I asked, my mind blanking as I traced her features, from the curve of her lips to her big blue eyes. She was pixie sized and fucking perfect.

Her lashes lowered half way, framing her gaze in glitter as her mouth quirked up at the corner. She tiptoed to whisper in my ear and her breath against my skin sent a quiver right through me. “Were you disappointed I wasn’t naked when I texted you?”

My throat bobbed as I turned my head, brushing my lips against her candyfloss scented skin. “No,” I admitted. “Because I thought you might be with him.”

Her fingers pushed into the back of my hair, her body arching against me so her breasts pressed to my chest, getting me rock hard for her just like that. Oh shit.

“And what if I wanted to be naked with you?” she whispered.

I was a goner. My dick was making itself known and she leaned back with a little gasp of excitement, her eyes boring into mine.

“Do you wanna go