Braving the Elements (Darkness #2)(27)

Adnan returned the compliment with a sheepish grin, his eyes briefly flicking to me. He’d always had the ability in movement, just not the power to back it up. Apparently he realized I wasn’t such a useless jerk after all. Hah!

Well, maybe the jerk part was right enough, but still.

A slow, jarring clap echoed through the room. Darla stood against the far wall near the door, a mocking expression on her face. “Yes-oh-yes, let the little dog create a magical nightmare to show off, then let her big tough bodyguard take it down. Quite a spectacle. Maybe they were thinking no one would notice how weak they are in spells and chanting, hmm? Well, maybe we should—“

The door swung open, thankfully halting Darla. She always had creative ways to put me on display. Jessiah stood framed in the doorway, his wide shoulders making his upper body look like a triangle. My heart fluttered weakly, wishing Jessiah had the same effect on me Stefan did. But then, Jessiah wasn’t attached to the slinky, long-haired beauty next to the door, with her perfect br**sts nearly falling out of her tube top, and her long, slender body draped just so—a weak flutter was better than nothing.

Raising my chin and pushing down my insecurity, while muffling the link with Stefan—hoping he wouldn’t notice if I didn’t cut it off completely—I tried to keep a hopeful expression from my face. I’d been getting closer and closer to Jessiah over the past few weeks, learning heaps, but also just having someone to talk to who wasn’t hell-bent on keeping me prisoner. He was kind and thoughtful, often giving me a flower and a smile when we met for the lesson.

And right now, he counted as a savior, because I knew Darla wouldn’t make fun of a student in front of another teacher. She was vindictive, not stupid.

“I was told your class would be finishing about now?” Jessiah asked with a gleam in his eyes, touching Darla with just enough sex appeal—which he had in droves—to get his way, but not so much as to distract him from what he’d come to procure. Me!

I nearly gushed like a twelve-year-old!

“Just finished, yes. The human created a giant plant that had to be destroyed, cutting my teaching time in half.”

“Ah.” Jessiah’s eyes twinkled as they beheld me. “She excels in creativity.” He winked.

“Hmm.” Darla’s eyes roamed Jessiah’s body, lingering on his arms and stopping for a brief moment between his legs. Her gaze returned to his face, heat kindling.

“I’ll just be escorting her out, if you don’t mind?” Jessiah stepped toward me and away from Darla.

That move right there, which made him the only person besides Charles who would say no to the tramp, endeared him to me. At a spiteful nod, I took his warm hand and let him lead me through the door, Charles hot on my heels.

“Wait, you, I want that mess cleaned up.” Darla stopped Charles with a flaying stare.

“That’s not my job. She is my job.”

A red haze blocked the door, that protection spell Charles still couldn’t figure out how to work was locking him in. As I hustled away with Jessiah, I heard her harsh laughter.

“Do we need to wait?” Jessiah hesitated.

I tugged him along. “Nah. He’s around constantly. I doubt anything’s waiting in the woods to accost us. And if it is, I can blow up a plant to attack it. Or us.”

He laughed merrily, tucking my arm around his.

“So, what do I owe the pleasure?” I asked as we sauntered toward the trees, the night silky and warm on my face.

The soft moonlight caught his beautiful blue eyes as they beheld me, soft heat infusing them. “I never get to talk to you. It seems like you’ve always got somewhere to be or something to do.”

“Or Charles nudging me away?”

Jessiah grinned, threading his fingers between mine to hold my hand. “He doesn’t trust me with his women.”

I laughed because it was so true, even though I wasn’t Charles’s woman. “He is a tiny bit jealous, yes. I’ve noticed.”

A powerful surge blasted through the link, Stefan extremely uncomfortable about something. Given that he was always irritated in some way about his duties, this was par for the course. I stopped the link altogether, wanting a freaking second to myself to figure out this attraction to Jessiah. No, I couldn’t even feel a fraction for him what I did for Stefan, but I wanted to see if this interest was returned—healthy and reciprocal without an arranged agreement with other women. It tipped the balance.

“You’ve come a long way in your elements. Do you have any other help?”

“Just you. I like your teaching style. I am a hands-on learner, so how you show me helps.” I blushed a little. Granted, sometimes his hands wandered a little too close to personal areas, but he always apologized with that devilish smile, the scoundrel side of him making me laugh.

As if thinking along the same lines as I did, he smiled. “Hmm. So, where do you stay while you’re here? I haven’t seen you around the mansion after light.”

We walked through a canopy of trees, heading deep into the woods. The leaves draped across the sky, hiding the approaching dawn. The last traces of night called to me, the silken feel of darkness reaching for my body and caressing my senses.

“I’m tucked away,” I answered, leaning against his shoulder as we walked. “Where do you stay?”

He paused next to a tree, directing my back toward the bark. His eyes looked down into mine, the woods still and quiet in the pocket of time when night animals tucked into their beds and the day animals got the urge to wake up. His hands lowered to my hips.