Supernatural Academy: Year One (Supernatural Academy #1)(67)

Jesse nudged me. “Come on, swim with us. You know you want to.”

My lips twitched. “You made that sound dirtier than it should have, but yes, I would love to stay and swim with you. Can someone get a message to Ilia and Larissa, let them know I’m here?”

“I’ll let them know,” Axl said. “I’ve got to head into the Academy and speak with my professor. I’ll talk to your friends and order us breakfast while I’m there.”

I looked down at my borrowed shirt and shorts. “Can you ask Ilia to pack a bag for me. She has access to my room.”

I should have just gone with Axl, but I didn’t really feel like doing the walk of shame in Asher’s clothes across the Academy. I had enough problems with the Clovers as it was. Imagine if they caught wind of that.

“I’ll take care of you,” he said, shooting me a sweet smile.

Asher just shook his head. “If you all could stop hitting on Maddi, that’d be great. She’s here as our friend. Okay? She’s one of us. An Atlantean. That’s a bond deeper than you all trying to plant your dick in her.”

Laughter rang out, and there was good-natured ribbing going around while I raised an eyebrow in Asher’s direction. That hadn’t been his story last night. And sure, it wasn’t his dick, but...

He leaned in closer. “Different rules for me,” he murmured, and my blood boiled again, my body aching.

Whatever Asher and I were doing, be it just exploring the chemistry in a short-term thing or otherwise, I was so fucking into him. I just had to hope that I didn’t lose my heart somewhere along the way. Something told me if that happened, I’d never get it back.

Axl left, and the others drifted off to their rooms for showers and to change. I decided to wait until I had new clothes before showering, but I still needed to pee, so I hurried into the same bathroom I’d used last night. When I was done, I washed my hands.

I scrounged around for some toothpaste, resorting to the old “finger brush.” It was like being a teenager again and sneaking around with a boyfriend. Or in my case, sneaking around so my mother’s boyfriend didn’t “accidentally” climb into bed with me. I’d taken to carrying toiletries with me on a daily basis, because I had to escape so frequently.

Until the Academy, the best day of my life was when I got my first job and crappy apartment.

I shook off the darker emotions that were creeping through my mind … the sorrow that pressed down on my chest. It was so easy to allow it to suck my happiness away and take me back to the tired, scared, emotionally broken girl I was before. I’d come a long way since my mother’s death, and I refused to go back.

A polite sort of knock sounded on the door and I walked across to open it. Axl was framed in the doorway. “You can’t be back already?” I said, astonished.

He shrugged. “I’m fast, and I might have cheated a few times. Technically magic shouldn’t be used outside of classes, but if you don’t get caught…”

I laughed and pulled the door open wider. “Did Ilia have anything to say?”

A pained expression pulled at his face, creasing the corners of his eyes. “She was pretty adamant that she wanted to see you. I’m afraid she wasn’t happy about the ‘no outsiders’ rule for our house, but in the end she relented and gave me your bag.” He held it out to me. “She also said that if you didn’t have—” He cleared his throat. “—a six-way with all of us, then she was greatly disappointed in you.”

It looked like it physically pained him to repeat her message. I threw my head back and laughed out loud. “You’ll learn to ignore Ilia and her big ideas.”

He nodded. “Yes, I can see that she likes to push the boundaries. My brain also pushes me toward new discoveries, but I’m afraid I’m not quite as adventurous as Ilia.”

I patted his arm, taking the heavy bag. “No one is, don’t feel bad.”

He backed out then, and I shut the door firmly before I rifled through the bag. She’d packed a lot of clothing, including five sets of skimpy underwear and two bikinis. Of course she wouldn’t throw in my one-piece swimsuit; nope, she went for the sexiest things she could find.

I held up a red lace bikini, which literally just had a small square over the nipple. Hello, side boob. The rest was a web of lace that covered nothing. Narrowing my eyes, I shook my head. I definitely did not buy this. Considering it was red, which was Ilia’s signature color, I was going to guess this was hers. She had a hell of a lot less boob than me; I’d be almost naked in this.

Throwing it back in the bag, I pulled out the other suit. The black top had lots of crisscrossing straps, and while it wasn’t one I’d purchased either, it looked a little more solid than the red one. It would have to work.

I showered quickly and jumped out to slip on my bikini. It took me five minutes to figure out where all the straps went, and another five minutes to curse Ilia, because there was so much ass and side-boob in this getup.

After I pulled on a short white summer dress, I stashed the rest of my stuff on a shelf near the sink. My hair was long, the curls crazy, but I didn’t care. I was going to get it wet soon anyway.

When I emerged, the guys were all standing in the living room. All dressed in board shorts.

I faltered. Atlantean muscle. This was … I mean … all that…