Page 30 of Storm of Stars
He looked at me then. Really looked. Eyes burning with something dark and fierce.
“I told you,” he said, voice low and trembling with restrained fury. “I’m never going to let her put her hands on you again.”
Those words hit me somewhere deep, deeper than I wanted to admit. The kind of place that makes breathing difficult.
“Technically,” I said, forcing a laugh I didn’t quite feel, “she didn’t touch me. She just ordered the guards to.”
He didn’t smile. Didn’t ease.
Instead, he pressed me gently,deliberately, into the narrow alcove, the black curtain closing us in. The heat of him was overwhelming, our bodies just inches apart. I could feel him without him even touching me. My breath hitched, and I bit down on my lip.
His eyes followed the movement.
And for one sharp, suspended moment, I thought he was going to kiss me again. Finally. Put me out of my damn misery. My entire body was screaming for it. For him.
But instead, he blinked, leaned back just enough to break the spell.
“Okay,” he said softly. “Coast is clear.”
He reached for my bag, slinging it over one shoulder, and took my wrist with the other, leading me from the alcove toward the car waiting just outside.
My mind was a storm. My body was worse. Every step throbbed with unsaid things and unfinished moments. I wanted him to kiss me. I wanted him to do more than that. I wanted…
Ezra ushered me into the car, and I wasn't oblivious to the way he held his body like a shield with his head on a swivel until I was safely inside. Instantly, arms wrapped around me.
“Congratulations,” I whispered as Brexlyn’s arms wrapped tightly around me. She pulled me in close, her scent grounding me.
She’d won. Well, her and Briar. First place in the trial, announced just moments before the curtain fell. The audience had voted, and Brexlyn and Briar had earned it by a landslide. I didn’t know what Briar’s deal with the Entertainment Trial was, not really, I could just tell it was important to her. So, when they called her name, something in her shifted. Her whole body seemed to exhale, relief washing over her like a tide she’d barely kept at bay.
“I’m just glad you’re safe,” Brexlyn murmured, her lips brushing my neck in a way that made my breath catch all over again. I melted into her, my body reacting instinctively. I wanted her. Right here, right now, in front of everyone.
But I reined it in. Just barely.
“Don’t worry about me,” I said with a sly glance toward Ezra. “My bodyguard kept me safe.”
Ezra, finally starting to relax, cracked the faintest of smirks as the car pulled away from the curb.
But Brexlyn wasn’t smiling.
“I don’t think any of us are going to be safe after tonight,” she whispered, so soft I barely caught it.
And she was right.
Shockingly, every single Challenger had used tonight’s trial to quietly pledge allegiance to the Runaway movement. We didn’t coordinate it, not openly, but somehow, we all understoodwhat was at stake. What was being asked of us. And we each found our own way to answer.
Maybe Archon Veritas didn’t know what to look for. Maybe she didn’t recognize our coded messages, the songs, the symbols, the stories slipped into the performances like knives hidden in bouquets. If she had known, truly known, she would’ve shut it down. She would’ve silenced us before we even reached the stage.
But she hadn’t. Which meant she didn’t know everything.
Not yet.
But she had to feel it now, the pressure drop, the static charge in the air. The quiet before the downpour. The storm was coming. And we were the eye of it.
None of us spoke on the topic anymore. Not with Nova up front. Brexlyn seemed to think Nova wasn’t as ‘Praxis praising’ as she seemed. Still, it felt smarter not to risk it.
So instead, I shifted Brexlyn into my lap, tugging her back against my chest and wrapping my arms tight around her middle. Like I could shield her. Like I could hold the world together by holding her.
She giggled softly as I shifted beneath her, and I knew she felt it, the evidence of just how deeply she affected me as I pressed my hips and my hardening cock against her backside. Her almost lustful laugh made my stomach twist with hunger, and I leaned into it. Into her.
