ARKEN
The energy had shifted between Kieran and I after that heated conversation had reached its natural conclusion. As we continued to train, his gaze grew hungrier, his guiding hands lingering longer than necessary, and I smirked to myself, feeling smug. Something about that argument had turned him on, and his struggle to return to form was stroking my ego to the high fucking heavens.
The man frequently aroused me to the point of straight stupidity—it was only fair that I returned the favor from time to time. Even if I didn’t knowexactlywhat set him off this time, I was having fun with it.
It probably hadn’t done the man any favors when I’d decided to alter my attire, tying a knot in the stolen undershirt and exposing my bare midriff in favor of giving my chest a little more support. As Kieran had explained, this style of fighting required more mobility than the sparring work we’d done before, and my tits were distracting the both of us with the way they’d been bouncing around.
Though, judging by the stiffening erection trapped behind those grey briefs of his, I’d say it didmeplenty of favors—at least when it came to my own personal agenda.
I was enjoying this lesson immensely. I had been begging for Kieran to teach me how to properly wield an aetherblade from the day I’d learned how to summon them—bitching and moaning and whining through every other training session when he’d denied me, claiming thatwe didn’t need to focus on that right now,andwe needed to build a foundation of basics, first.Logically, I understood his approach. At the end of the day, it was thephysicalportion of the entry exams that I had failed, after all. And even after just an hour or two working with the aetherblades, I was beginning to understand what Kieran meant when he said arcane combat was exceptionally taxing on the body and required a great deal of strength and endurance.
But we had been training for a while, and I was pleased enough with my progress for now. As exciting as the aetherblades were, my academic and athletic intrigue was giving way to stronger urges. Every time Kieran’s gaze drifted lazily over my bare skin, I lost hold of my resolve to stay focused.
Come on now, Ark. You can do this. You’ll have plenty of time to fuck him later.
The one thing keeping me from leaning in toKieran’sweakening resolve was that I was sort of afraid this training session was a one-time thing. I was worried this was only his attempt at helping ease my anxieties and keep the nightmares at bay—that he didn’treallythink I was ready for it, he was just humoring me in an attempt to assuage my fears.
Because naturally, that’s what he had assumed—that I’d been dreaming of the Leshy last night. That I had been reliving the trauma of my near-death experience. And I mean,technically,he wasn’t…exactly wrong?
A lie by omission was still a lie, I knew that, but I was content to let Kieran believe he had the power to protect me from the very worst of my fears.
Even if that couldn’t be further from the truth.
There was no use in attempting to explain that I had much deeper fears, secrets far more frightening than whatever he kept trapped behind his walls. And should they ever be revealed?
There would be no escaping my fate.
Even the strongest man I’d ever known could not hope to stand against the wrath of the gods.
“Distracted, Little Conduit?” Kieran murmured, lips brushing against the shell of my ear, guiding my movements from behind.
Observant motherfucker.
“Ah, yeah, sorry. Just…got lost in thought there for a sec.”
“Let’s take five,” he suggested, striding across the room to toss me one of his waterskins.
“Just a quick break,” I agreed. “I’ll focus up.”
Whatever he muttered under his breath was a touch too low to make out, but it sounded oddly like, “Yeah, okay. That makes one of us.”
I hid my smirk behind a long sip of cool water, sighing with satisfaction as the liquid hit my throat.
As I retied my hair and shook out my limbs, Kieran rolled one of his training mats out on the floor and sat down, extending his legs out and curling forward to stretch. The flexible motherfucker could fully grip both feet in his cupped hands…Not that I really had any complaints over said flexibility.
Get your mind out of the gutter, Asher.
Training. We were focused on training. What was today’s objective again? Ah, right.
“I want you to try to stab me.”
I rolled my eyes, irritated to have been assigned an impossible task. This was the same reason it pissed me off any time Kieran agreed to “spar” with me—he didn’t even have totry.He wouldn’t even bother to coddle me about it, either—the man seemed to enjoy just how easily he could overpower me if he so chose. I mean, I kinda liked that, too—but for entirely unrelated reasons. But I didn’t have anyone else to spar with at my level, and my secretly competitive nature was at odds with the heat between my thighs every time Kieran made it clear I wasn’t even remotely threatening.
Although…
A wicked urge rose as his back was turned, low groans and huffs escaping him as he stretched out sore muscles.
The aetherblade was already forming in my palm as I acted upon pure impulse, bounding across the room at full speed and tackling him into a supine position and grinning like a fiend as I held that gleaming dagger of Light arcana against his throat.