SWNOVELS Chapter 30
Blaise
Tuesday morning, I woke surrounded by warmth and strong arms encircling me. Nox’s scent surrounded me, and I breathed him in deeply. I feel like I’m floating on cloud nine and I let his claim of love roll around in my head for a moment before a cold blast of reality hits me. “Shit!” I break free of his hold as I sit bolt right in bed. Glancing at him I’m shocked to see Nox is still sound asleep. “He sleeps like the dead,” I mutter to myself, no pun intended. Slipping out of his bed, I locate my clothes and then pad across his hard wood floor and open his door. Looking back over my shoulder, I smile to myself at being able to see Nox in such a vulnerable state, peaceful. Once I’ve shut his door behind me, I quickly make my way back to the elevators so that I can go to my room and get ready for the day.
Lighting up the screen of my phone as the doors close behind me, I see that it’s only five thirty in the morning so I shouldn’t have an issue of coming across another being this early in the day. My human upbringing has me feeling a little embarrassed at the possibility of someone catching me leaving the west wing dorm rooms even though I know there is no sound reason for feeling this way, we’re all adults but the feeling is there, nonetheless. The ping indicating the doors will be sliding open has me exhaling a breath I didn’t realize I’d been holding and keeping my head down; I dash through the hall and to the east wing elevators as quickly as I can without trying to draw attention to myself, not that anyone is out and about at this hour but still…
Silently I creep back into my room. With a glance at my roommate’s bed “oh stars!” how I wish I hadn’t as I spy naked limbs entangled, barely covered by a thin pale blue sheet, Clover and her Italian lover-boy. With a swiftness I didn’t know I possessed, I averted my eyes, snapping my head in the opposite direction to her bed and quickly walked into the bathroom. After the shower water warmed to an acceptable degree, I stripped and hopped inside. Desperately wanting to rid myself of the vision of Clover and Jackson from my mind I immediately began to allow memories of Nox and his beautiful hands to dance behind my closed eyelids while the spray of water splashed my body.
The urge to return to his room and stay in his bed with him for the day is an overwhelming one but as it’s only the second week of school and I’ve already missed my first round of Tuesday classes, I talk myself out of doing so and scooping up my keycard, phone and satchel, I leave so I can go indulge in a copious amount of coffee before my day truly begins.
Just as I was about to walk into the cafeteria, I felt hands slip around my waist, lift me off the ground and spin me around. Squealing out an ’aahhh!’ I shout, “put me down!” As soon as my feet hit the ground, I spun around to see who felt the need to give me a freaking heart attack. “Carden,” I yell out in shock. “What in the hell do you think you were doing by grabbing at me like that?”
Even as the apology floats past his lips I can see the twinkle in his eyes to know that he isn’t sorry in the slightest. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to scare you. I was sure you could hear me sneaking up behind you, so...” the shit-eating-grin he’s sporting tells me he knew I hadn’t heard him which causes me to squint my eyes in a glare and growl at him. I may or may not have uttered the word ‘asshole’ as well which only had his grin growing wider. “Let me make it up for scaring you and buy you coffee at the dinner. What’d’ya say?”
I pretend to think about his offer long enough for him to shift his weight from left leg to right leg and back again before answering, “hmm, okay but I also want pancakes and sausage!” Carden’s smile is now stretched from ear to ear, but he doesn’t argue and instead grabs my hand in his interlocking our fingers to pull me in the opposite direction so that we can make our way to the dinner.
Once we’ve slipped into a corner booth I ask, “why in the world are you up at such an ungodly hour?” Before he’s able to answer the waitress, we had from our first visit has made her way over to our table and asked what we’d like to drink. We simultaneously say coffee which causes the older lady to chuckle before saying she’ll be right back with our request.
Eyebrow quirked Carden responds, “I could ask you the same thing.” I swear I am going to find a spell that can stop someone from blushing because you know that’s exactly what I do in return instead of being able to offer some smartass comment or witty commentary. Flames burst across my cheeks, and I shift my eyes from his for a moment.
Realizing I’ve nothing to be ashamed of, I give him an honest answer. “I spent the night in Nox’s room because Clover had a friend stay with her in our room last night and I didn’t want to bear witness to the sex-capade.” Finally allowing myself to look at him again, I see surprise instead of anger on Carden’s face.
“Why didn’t you call or text me? You could have stayed in my room?” Just as I go to answer him cups of coffee are placed on the table in front of us and just so you know how awesome our waitress is, she sat a pot of the liquid crack on the table for us as well for whenever we wished to refill our mugs. After which she asked what we’d like to eat, and we both asked for pancakes and sausage. With a nod of her head, she left us, and I found myself staring into Carden’s golden eyes.
“Honestly, I didn’t call either you or Braeden because I figured you were both probably already asleep and I didn’t want to bother you. I felt Nox being a vampire probably meant he kept later hours than you guys and since he responded right away to my text, I just went to him.”
Carden accepts my answer but still feels inclined to say, “you never have to worry about ‘bothering’ us. It doesn’t matter what time it is. If you need us, even if it’s just a place to stay, call us. We will always answer for you, okay?”
Not realizing I’ve sucked down an entire cup of coffee already, I’m just filling my cup up as the door to the dinner is pulled open and glancing at the noise of the jingling bell my heart stutters. Braeden strolls in. He spots me and Carden almost immediately which makes me wonder if someone had told him we were here and where to look for us. As he walks towards us, I take a moment to look him over. His hair is slicked back from his forehead and his tanned skin appears nearly golden in the morning light as it filters in through the dinner windows. His golden eyes seem to dance with happiness as his gaze locks with mine and I offer him a small smile. His white button-down shirt looks strained against his muscles, and I sigh appreciatively at his forearms because of how the sleeves are rolled up to his elbows. Why does this look so hot on a guy? Braeden’s black torn jeans hug his thighs and the white deck shoes just seem to bring his causal carefree look all together.
“Hi,” I say as he slides into the booth next to his brother and I question myself as to why I sound so breathy? His return grin is panty melting and swoon worthy all at the same time and I’m so caught up in ogling him that I haven’t realized that Carden has been speaking to me this whole time. Only when I feel a firm hand giving my upper thigh a squeeze do I realize that he was talking. “Sorry, what were you saying?”
Laughing Carden shakes his head before turning his eyes to his brother. “Wow Braeden, you wanna reel in the sex appeal there, just a bit?” Braeden shrugs in a ‘what can I say’ kind of way but his smile doesn’t leave his soft sensual lips.
Realizing I’ve got a great opportunity I ask them, “hey I was trying to help Nox out with something, and I was wondering if maybe you two would be willing to help too. I’m not sure how much you know about Nox, but his parents were killed when he was young, and we were trying to see if we could get the mission file so we could see why the kill was sanctioned in the first place? I thought maybe you could ask your dad if he could get any information on the case? I was going to ask Uncle Devon too...” They look at each other surprised by my question I think but then turn their golden eyes to me.
Carden shrugs but Braeden says, “I mean sure. We can ask and see if he can get us anything in regard to the case but most of what he works on is considered classified so I’m not sure what all he’d be able to gather for you. But we can definitely try.” I clap my hands together and squeal in excitement at the prospect of finally being able to get answers for the questions Nox has.
Raising his hand Carden feels compelled to add, “don’t get too excited though. It may be a lot of nothing if we do acquire anything. Do you understand what I’m saying?”
I nod because I’ve seen the history channel and know that even when information is provided to the public, there’s still always red tape and blackout information as well but I figure any little bit of information, any little clues, could help. “Yeah, I get what you’re saying and I’m sure he’d understand as well. Something is better than nothing at all though, right?” With this finally out of the way Braeden ‘helps’ me and Carden finish eating our breakfast before we head back to the campus for our classes for the day.