Page 16 of Gemini Queen
“Why do you say that?” I resist the urge to impose instant punishment for the wardrobe infraction—at times, he enjoys my correction so much it hardly seems like punishment, so with him I have to choose my battles—and sip mypalinka. The fruity golden burn coats my suddenly dry throat.
“Because of the way you’re scowling.” Ronin’s eyes linger on mine with a degree of intimacy I distrust. Of all the students in my cohort, he’s the one who keeps me up nights worrying. “You’d like to fail him, wouldn’t you, Lucius? But he’s just too bloody brilliant, which means you can’t.”
“An astute observation, Mr. Pendragon.” Briskly I gather my papers in a pile. “And you’ll address me as Master Aries on Academy grounds.”
Ronin’s deft hand alights gently on the pile. The edge of his smallest finger barely brushes mine. “We’re not on Academy grounds just yet. We’re still hours from landing.”
Caught in the midst of rising, I go completely still. Every single nerve in my body is suddenly riveted on that tiny frisson of contact. My wolf is violently alert. He’s wanted Ronin Pendragon pinned beneath us, face down and writhing with pleasure, since the moment the Leo heir sauntered onto Academy grounds two years ago. And my wolf doesn’t give a single flaming damn that Ronin’s my student and therefore sacrosanct.
As long as he’s a student under my charge, there’s only one reason for touching Ronin Pendragon that’s permitted under my own unbending rules.
Discipline.
Even the mere thought of disciplining my wayward student for his ill-considered antics in Singapore, the way I’ve prudently decided I must, makes my wolf rise up on his haunches and howl.
My gaze shifts from the sight of our hands, barely touching on the pile of essays I’ve just graded, to Zarina Gemini on the couch. She’s still deeply sleeping, her vivid hair already tangling, brow puckered and soft lips parted as though even her dreams are turbulent. She’s stretched an arm overhead as if reaching for the antique katana mounted on the wall. Even as I watch, one slim supple leg escapes her blanket to dangle over the couch, glittery toes grazing the floor.
I suffer a sudden, thoroughly inappropriate impulse to grasp her pretty foot and lick her all the way up. Of course, it’s an impulse I firmly contain.
Bad wolf.
Between these rogue students who tempt my beast so relentlessly and this rogue wolf who refuses so utterly to grasp my scruples and constraints, I’m not feeling nearly as much self-control as I’d like.
Well, for this too, the antidote is discipline.
My gaze arrows back to Ronin, who’s watching me with an open invitation burning in his molten eyes that shoots straight to my groin and squeezes. It’s an invitation I need to decline with conviction.
I withdraw from his touch and straighten with a snap. “Back against the wall, Mr. Pendragon.”
My student blinks and his mouth falls open. Apparently this isn’t the response he’s anticipated, though it’s certainly the one he’s asked for. “What’s that, now?”
I allow myself a small humorless smile as I lock the essays away. “I believe I promised you certain consequences for defying me in Singapore, did I not? Back against the wall, and don’t backtalk.”
Ronin too rises, and it’s a positive relief no longer having him sprawled so provocatively over my desk.
This remains the case even when his feral face shifts from arousal to anger.
“You’re actually going to bite me?” His gaze swerves hard to Zarina’s sleeping form. “Right bloody now? In front of the Gemini bitch?”
“It’s a disciplinary bite, solely for corrective purposes.” I feel the need to clarify this, both for him and for my wolf, who’s demanding a mating bite in no uncertain terms. “You defied my orders, Mr. Pendragon, and your defiance could easily have gotten both of you killed.”
“But it didn’t! I pushed my fucking feelings aside and protected her.” Ronin’s agitated eyes stay fixed on her delicate frame, still and defenseless in sleep. “I bloody well know what she means for all of us, don’t I? I wouldn’t let anyone else hurt her.”
Which leaves open the distinct possibility that Ronin might hurt her himself.
I’m well aware that he blames the Geminis for that tragic business years ago with Gwendolyn Pendragon. Fate may have deprived Ronin of the opportunity he craved to wreak his vengeance on Damien, but that selfsame fate has just delivered Damien’s sister into Ronin’s ruthless grasp.
Moving with careful precision, I remove my tweed coat and fold it over my chair. “You could easily have failed Ms. Gemini—and thus failed us all. To prevent a recurrence, I intend to administer a disciplinary bite to reinforce your obedience to my will.”
“In front of her?” he demands, indignant.
“If she happens to wake while I’m disciplining you, I trust she’ll find the experience instructive.”
“Look.” His tone turns close to desperate. “Don’t, okay? Just… don’t. I’ll hate it.”
You didn’t exactly hate my phantom bite in the Tai-Sun Tower, did you, Ronin? No more than I hated it myself.
That’s something I’ll never say to him, because truly, I shouldn’t have done it. I took unforgivable advantage of my authority to intrude upon an exquisitely intimate moment between two of my students. And the mere remembrance of that psychic echo, of feeling what Ronin felt the instant he lost himself inside her, is making me uncomfortably close to losing a thing or two myself.
