The Viper's Nest (Kit Davenport #4)(45)

“Princess,” he chuckled, dropping the materials onto his bed and advancing toward me with a predatory look in his eye. “It’s very funny. They were going to find out anyway. Cal and I are on extreme probation with Alpha, so I would have needed to fess up sooner or later. That is, if they hadn’t already heard us this afternoon.”

His muscular body pinned me to the door, his hand cupping my chin tightly and his hard length pressing against my belly. In his eyes I found raw hunger, desire, and passion. From our magical link I was flooded with love, and my body tightened with excitement.

“Besides, better they know now. I intend to make you scream tonight.” My whole body shook with a shiver as his lips claimed mine in a kiss so savage it could cause bruising.

I fucking loved it.





18





As it turned out, there was very little left for me to learn in my magic training. Austin grudgingly admitted around lunchtime the next day that I was almost as skilled as he was, and that was really the extent of what he could teach me. As far as he could assess, my magical aptitude was only a percentage of his, but it was a healthy percentage.

“Fuck,” he muttered, watching me with, dare I say it, admiration? His hand was buried in Tyson’s fur, and he was scratching his belly where the big cat lay between us on the floor.

“What?” I asked, confused. We’d just been sitting there on the den floor recapping the core fundamentals of magic but had finished that some minutes ago and been sitting in comfortable silence.

“I can’t wait to see you once you master everyone’s powers.” Austin gazed at me as he murmured these words, and I felt nothing but admiration from him. Which kind of made me squirm uncomfortably. This rapid shift in our relationship was making my head spin, and I was having a hard time dealing with all these softer emotions from him all of a sudden.

Or I guessed not all of a sudden, seeing as this was clearly how he’d felt for a while. But he was suddenly allowing me to feel them without the smokescreen of anger and irritation, and it was stressing me the hell out.

Yeah, I was in love with them... all of them... and yeah, I understood that by bonding we would literally be together for eternity, but something about the cold reality of feeling exactly what your lover is feeling at any given moment was freaking me out.

“Let’s work on this mental blocking,” he announced, changing the subject and standing up to stretch his back out. As he did so, his T-shirt rose up and showed of his seriously impressive lower abs, stirring arousal in me again.

“Yup, we definitely need to work on blocking,” he muttered, giving me an amused frown. “Your mood changes are giving me whiplash, and I swear if I feel you fucking one of the other guys now, I’ll lose my damn mind.”

Blushing, I raked a hand through my long hair and nodded my agreement. As hard as it was for me dealing with his moods, I could only imagine what it was like for the guys when I was with someone else.

Yup, I was officially an asshole.

“I’ll grab us fresh coffee, and we can get it sorted out before you bond with the lizards this afternoon.” Austin took our empty mugs and sauntered his firm ass out of the den.

While he was gone, I took over scratching Tyson’s belly and was rewarded by a lazy snore from the huge, magical cat. I snickered at him and ran my hands through his silky fur, tracing the pads of his dinner plate–sized paws and tickling them.

“Playing with fire, Kitty Kat,” Caleb warned, appearing from a different entrance and flopping down on the couch I was leaning against. “Don’t they say you should let sleeping cats lie?”

“That’s dogs, Cal.” I rolled my eyes, running my finger down one of Tyson’s deadly sharp claws. “Ty would never hurt me anyway; he’s just a big pussy cat.”

Okay so clearly he wasn’t all that far asleep because when I called him a pussy cat—which he hated—his paw flexed and nicked the tip of my finger with his claw.

“Ouch! Ty, that was rude!” I scolded, pulling my hand back and inspecting the injury. Sure enough, he’d sliced through the pad of my finger, and blood was already welling to the surface. It wasn’t a bad cut though, so I just put my finger into my mouth, knowing it would be closed over and healed in a matter of moments.

The big cat raised his head slightly and cracked one eye open in a clear “don’t call me a pussy, and I won’t scratch you” kind of way.

“Pussy,” I muttered, nudging Tyson with my knee and sucking on my bloody finger. “So, whats up?” I turned to Caleb to find him frowning at me.

“Uh,” he hesitated, looking distracted, then the expression wiped from his face, and he smiled. “I wanted to let you know I’m doing better with my lessons. I don’t think I’ll need to keep going there for too much longer, I hope.”

“Cal, that’s great!” I beamed, scrambling up from the floor to kneel on the couch beside him. “I’m really proud of you. I know there is something shady going on, and it’s killing me that you can’t tell me... but maybe if you can finish, then the whole magical NDA thing won’t matter anymore?”

He shrugged a little uncomfortably. “Yeah, that’s what I’m hoping. But I worry it won’t be that easy. I have a theory though...”

“Yeah?” I prompted, shifting on my knees until I could take his hand in mine.