held a hand out, and I took it, letting him pull me up to standing. His jaw tightened as he watched Lucian navigate the new ramp down into the garage.
His focus was on his uncle, but his hand was still wrapped around mine. We’d come so far from the days when he couldn’t even stand to be in the same room as me, but every step forward with Alec felt like a step up an impossibly steep incline, and the path was along a cliff with no railings. Shit could turn catastrophic at any moment.
But the blowjob I’d given him at the party had made my point. We hadn’t talked about it, but I knew Alec needed to process things in his own silent way. Sometimes that took him a long time. Meanwhile, every time I laid eyes on him, I wanted to jump him and tear his clothes off. Part of that was the Light pushing me to even the connection to my Bondmates, but part of it was me.
I just hoped I’d proven I could control that aspect of our connection. He was more affectionate, slowly thawing out. He was getting there. But would he get there before my ovaries exploded?
I gave his hand a squeeze. “He’ll be fine. He’s a strong man. He raised your stubborn ass, didn’t he?”
Alec looked down at me and blinked in surprise, but his beautiful lips pulled up into a smirk. Rather than acknowledge my assumption about what he was thinking, he pressed those smirking lips against mine, pushing his tongue into my mouth.
I couldn’t even remember what I was teasing him about.
“Upstairs . . .” I whispered against his lips. I couldn’t even fully form the thought; I just wanted to get him into a locked room. He groaned and ran his teeth over the curve in my neck before placing a gentle kiss in the same spot.
“Duty calls,” he growled. He gave my ass one last squeeze and stepped away.
“And we’ll be late to class if we don’t get going.” Josh sounded amused as Ethan grabbed my bag off the bottom step, flashing me a wink and a dimple. When did they even come into the room?
Alec kissed my forehead and disappeared into the garage. I took several deep breaths and made myself think about the chemistry lab I had that afternoon.
Two silent agents drove us to campus in a blacked-out, bulletproof vehicle, another car following close behind. The bald man in the passenger seat was my security detail for the day. Since I often had Alec or Tyler with me, I didn’t have a regular guard, so when they were both busy, it was always someone different.
I stared out the window at the trees swaying in the light wind and soft sunlight. All the snow had melted weeks ago, and despite the lingering chill, it would’ve been a nice day to walk. But our days of walking to campus were over. Being exposed outside of a safe zone—like the Institute, the mansion, or Charlie and Dot’s place—had been deemed too much of a security risk.
Thinking about chemistry, the weather, and the constant threat on my life helped to distract me from Alec’s lips and body, and by the time we were pulling through the security checkpoint at the gates, the throbbing between my legs had almost completely stopped.
My bald companion stayed glued to my side the entire morning, opting to sit next to me in the lecture instead of standing in the back of the room with the other agents. Despite his closeness, he refused to engage in conversation, replying with short monotone answers while his eyes constantly scanned our surroundings. I eventually just started to ignore him.
He stayed one step behind me as I walked between classes, got myself a coffee, and picked up a book from the library. He was still half a step behind me as I headed to a café in a quieter part of campus to meet Dot and Charlie for lunch.
It was the same café where Dot had interrogated me about Alec while Charlie watched with careful interest. It seemed fitting it would be the place I would meet yet another new friend. Charlie’s boyfriend, Eduardo, had landed late the previous night.
The three of them were already seated at one of the outside tables, coffees steaming in front of them, outdoor heaters keeping the chill at bay. I picked up my pace, my shadow sticking to my side.