Page 93 of Magical Academy for Delinquents
Z didn’t share my hesitation. He crushed me to him and pulled me onto his lap. His tongue wrestled playfully with mine and his hands stroked down my back. But he ended the kiss far sooner than I wanted, pulling back with a smile.
“Hales?” he said, softly, tucking a bit of my hair behind my ear.
“Yeah?”
“Next time a guy wants you to seduce him, you just need to take off your shirt.”
My jaw dropped.“What?”
“Maybe the bra too. But, you know, slowly. To make it classy.”
I threw back my head and laughed. Then I hit him. “That’s all you wanted? And I just spilled my guts?”
He shrugged. “I’m a simple man.”
I tackled him shoving him back on the rock until his back was flat against it. We both shook with laughter.
Z wrapped his arms around me and pulled me down to him for a kiss. At first, it was just as fun and playful as Zavier always was, but after a while, it grew deeper, more intense. He pressed me against him, and I could feel how much he wanted me. I wanted him just as bad. I let my fingers get tangled in his just-fucked hair. I started to rub against him, pulling back and saying, “I’m gonna seduce you so good,” then reaching for the next button on my shirt.
Z was the one who stopped us again, sitting up with me still on his lap. He put his hand over mine as he caught his breath. He gave me a peck on the lips, “As much as I want to do this, and I really do, we need to talk.”
“Okay.”
“First off, I don’t think we should trust the power boost. That’s just chance. That time gap is huge. No living Tock has hit that time. We need a second Tock. And I know a guy—”
“Z—”
He cut me off. “Second off, I don’t think Malcolm’s bombs are gonna be quite enough. We need to hedge our bets. I think we need to pull another stunt. Bonus is, this one we can aim at that shit stain your mom married.”
I leaned forward, intrigued. “Yeah. What is it?”
“It’s a little something that we in the business call a Leery.”
Chapter 37
Becomingthe nemesis of a billionaire’s son had its perks. Gray had his private jet come pick us up. The guys had all told their families they were going to stay with him—and what magical parent would say no to that?
I got to ride on the jet, but mommy was too conservative to let me actually sleep over at a guy’s house. Plus, she was all a-titter about my Pinnacle interview. I’d pretty much forgotten about it.
-Did you order a suit?-She texted me as we boarded the plane.
-Forgot. Midterms-
-Good! We can go shopping!-
I groaned as I stared at the text. Shopping was an all-day event with my mother. Evan glanced over at me. “Well, you have to get a dress for the ball anyway,” he said. “Invite Tia.”
I set everything up and then relaxed against the seat as the guys all settled in around Malcolm to learn how to play that board game I’d seen in his closet—Azul.
I bowed out, grabbing a soda and moving toward a plush leather seat in the front. I set down the soda can on the table in front of me and pulled out a folder. (Malcolm refused to put anything into digital form. We had an extensive argument over the spells and programming I could do to keep his plan safe. I lost said discussion when he took off his shirt.)
I flipped through the first few pages of the plan he’d dubbed “Mice in a Maze.” He didn’t want to build a fire bomb—his signature style. Partially because we wanted to remain anonymous. And partially because he had far more interesting ideas about how to drive a pack of shifters wild. I pulled up one particularly juvenile-looking sketch of a stink bomb. “How exactly are we getting these set up?”
Malcolm just winked at me as he laid down some blue patterned tiles on the board and made Gray groan. “Same way I got all my other stuff set up, Shakespeare. I’ve got a system.”
“But security—”
Malcolm paused the game and pulled out a hat. He shoved it onto his forehead, ignoring the fact that it decimated his fifties hair flip. The hat was old and battered with a Pepsi logo on it. “Security doesn’t ever pay attention to the delivery guys.”
