Page 15 of Wildfire

And damn it all, even worse than that, he did want a rematch.

The bastard was not only clever and attractive, but their encounter had been one of the more memorable in Wilder’s past. He couldn’t even say why—it had been a few minutes in a bathroom, and no one had even taken off a single piece of clothing.

But looking down into those bright, mischievous eyes, that smug little asshole smirk, it put him right back in that moment, pressing Hermes up against the bathroom wall and biting his neck like a wild man. It had been fight as much as sex, and it had been... good.

Good was a pale, unsatisfactory term for it, but it was the best one Wilder’s mind was supplying in the moment. Unfortunately, all his blood was heading south.

“There’s no reason to believe I would be a target for whomever is doing this,” he pointed out, and the words came out dry and raspy. Hermes’s smirk turned into a full grin.

“Unfortunately, I have to disagree,” came the flat, eternally unwelcome voice of Dean Woods from behind Wilder. Lovely. As though she didn’t already dislike him enough, now she’d caught him panting over her... cousin? He had no idea how their family fit together, it simply seemed that everyone he met anymore was related to them somehow.

Hermes’s wicked smile went a little flat, frozen, his eyes reflecting vague annoyance. “Gee, sissy, we so needed you in this conversation.”

Sissy.

That was most certainly not the dean’s given name, so... oh no. No, no, no.

Hermes was his boss’s brother?

Wilder buried his face in his hands, and barely suppressed a groan.

If he hadn’t destroyed his chances of ever being offered a full-time position simply by existing as himself, surely that was the end of things. Wilder had had sex with his boss’s brother. In a public bathroom. With no intention of having a relationship with him in the future.

The dean was going to think he was some kind of flighty sex maniac who went around committing acts of lewdness in public places.

“Dean Woods?” Ward was asking softly, somewhere behind him. When had Theo gotten behind him? But of course he had—Theo had put himself between the dean and Wilder’s utter shame. This was Ward, and that was why he was the closest thing Wilder had to a friend.

Meanwhile, Hermes leaned in and patted him on the shoulder sympathetically. “Don’t worry, I’ll protect you from her know-it-all-ness.”

“Hermes,” the dean barked, and everyone in the hall stood to attention, including Wilder. Okay, everyoneexceptHermes. “This is not a joking matter, so attempt to stifle yourself for a moment while the adults speak.”

Hermes actually put his hands on his hips, screwed up his face in fake irritation, and moved his lips like a fish, like he was mimicking an irritated schoolteacher. How was Wilder attracted to him? He was like an actual five-year-old.

He stared at the man, mystified by his own feelings. Because when he considered it... yep. Still attracted to him.

Meanwhile, Dean Woods was ignoring them both in favor of speaking to Ward and his boyfriend. “Someone has accessed the school’s records, and according to my computer expert, they were looking for a very specific piece of information.” She paused, as though just for dramatic effect, before going on. “Powerful corporists.”

Corporists. One of the three schools of magic, the largest group of which were elementalists.

Elementalists like Wilder.

He took a deep breath, rubbing his eyes and turning to the dean. “We’ll need to report it to the police, of course. There are some students who’ll need guarding. Most of the elemental upperclassmen, in fact. They’re almost all more powerful than Matthew was.”

“But Matthew was one of the loudest about it, wasn’t he?” Theo asked, his voice especially soft. “You said it yourself, Wilder. Rebekah used to talk about how powerful she was. So did Matthew. We’ve got someone looking for powerful elementalists.”

“And eating their souls,” Hermes added.

Wilder turned to stare at him, but Dean Woods didn’t suggest that he was being ridiculous. Instead, when he looked over, she was nodding, lips pursed in thought as she stared off into the distance. “If what they want is powerful mortals, the university’s records would definitely have pointed them in a single direction.”

“Not Theo,” Lysandros insisted, wrapping an arm around Ward’s shoulders.

She rolled her eyes at him. “I said mortals.”

What the hell?

She side-stepped Lysandros and looked at him—no, wait, not at Wilder. At Hermes.

“You want to make sure you’re on Dad’s good side?” she asked, hands on her hips and chin tipped confidently upward.

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