Page 19 of Ulune's Daughter

“She’s ... under other circumstances ... I could ... yes. She’s smart and unpretentious and kind. Even if she hates swimmers.”

“She doesn’t hate swimmers. She agreed to go on a date with you. That’s the best fucking thing I’ve heard all week.” He chortles. “Law will lose his shit.”

“Great,” I groan, dropping my arm over my face again. Luca’s twin barely tolerates me on the best of days.

He traces one rune and then another down my breastbone. I wipe them away when I recognize the whorls and prongs for trust and devotion.

“Stop it, you can’t charm me into loving you.”

He pinches my nipple so hard I grunt.

“I charmed you into loving me a long time ago. I don’t need to do it again. I need to charm you into trusting me, evidently.”

I lift my arm so I can look at him. His face swims in my vision. “How can this possibly fucking work?”

“The same way I make everything fucking work. You asked me to take things slow, to be with you on the DL, until people accepted us being together. I did. Everyone’s cool with us now. Not even the most homophobic of your swim buddies gives you shit, do they?”

“No,” I admit. Although it’s definitely more that they’re ignoring it than that they accept us. They’d probably be just as assholic if I was dating some gamer girl, though. Guys will find things to give other guys shit about. It’s just part of establishing the pecking order within a team.

He trickles his fingers up and down my abs, pressing just hard enough not to tickle. “Give me time to work it out. She has no idea who we are; she doesn’t feel the things we feel. She’s against doing anything that crosses this imaginary line she sees between student and teacher. I’m not even sure Icanhave anything with her until I graduate, so there’s no point in you torturing yourself about this, Rho.”

I groan. “About that.”

His fingers still. “What about that?”

“I might have given her the impression I’m a coach, not a student.”

Luca’s wicked chuckle rends the quiet air of the den. “Good.”

“Not good.”

“Good. Her line is stupid.”

“Lu, I know you don’t give a shit about rules, but she could get in a lot of trouble if she crosses that line. It could hurt her career. She could be fired.”

“The rule is stupid. I’m a consenting adult. You’re a consenting adult. Law’s a consenting adult. She’s a consenting adult. We can all make our own decisions about who we fuck. An institution we’repayingto attend shouldn’t have any say in those decisions.”

I lift my arm to meet his pale green eyes, glowing slightly in the den’s low light. “You know it’s not that simple.”

He grunts and begins tracing the veins below my belly button. “So, we’re careful.”

“Really? That’s your solution? We deceive her? We sneak around until someone catches us?”

“You’re getting ahead of yourself again. Go listen to music with her tonight. See if you like her in more than a generic sense. You don’t have a mate bond with her. There might be nothing more than a vague spark. You might decide she’s boring. If you don’t want to be part of my relationship with her, I’m not going to force her on you. I’ll make it work.”

“How?” I demand.

“Question for another day.” He shifts down my body, until he’s eye to eye with my cock, which twitches with renewed interest despite how sensitive I am from coming three times already. “Question for today is, can you come again?”

Chapter7

Minerva’s Cup

KELLAN

The cover band at Vibrant’sisgood. They’ve got both a male and a female singer and they’re doing covers of everyone fromBlondietoPluto’s A Planet. Their selection is crowd-pleasing and I can’t keep from tapping my toes along to each song.

The beer at Vibrant’s is excellent. It’s from a local microbrewery and they have everything from a crisp, light fruit beer to a chocolate-y porter. With Rhodes driving, I can even enjoy enough of their selection to get a light buzz.

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