Page 58 of Bound to the Dorm Elf
He tilts his head, watching me with that unblinking predator’s focus that makes my skin buzz. “Then what are you worried about?”
I hesitate. Because if I say it out loud, I can’t take it back. “That we’re past the point of no return. That whatever happens next… changes everything.”
His mouth curves — not quite a smile, but close enough to make my heart kick against my ribs. “It already has.”
I hate that he’s right.
The radiator clanks in the corner, sending another wave of heat through the room, but it doesn’t do a thing for the cold gnawing at my gut. Not fear, exactly. More like the bone-deep awareness that we’re standing at the edge of something big. Something that won’t let either of us go once we step over.
I try to lighten the mood. “You know, for a guy who pretends to hate human drama, you’re kind of starring in one.”
His eyes glint, faint amusement threading through the steel. “If this is drama, it’s poorly written.”
I laugh, because I can’t not — and immediately regret it when his gaze flicks to my mouth like he’s memorizing the curve of it. The laugh dies in my throat.
It’s not just attraction anymore. It’s the sharp, unshakable sense that we’ve crossed into something else entirely. That if one of us falls, the other’s going with them.
I take a breath, trying to ground myself. “You really think we can take them on? This… A.C.D. thing?”
“Yes,” he says without hesitation. “Because they will underestimate us. You, because you are human. Me, because I am?—”
“An alien who’s supposed to be hiding?” I finish.
His smile sharpens, but there’s something darker behind it. “Because I am not hiding anymore.”
The conviction in his voice sends a shiver up my spine. Not from fear — not exactly — but from the sudden, startling clarity that I believe him.
And if he’s not hiding anymore, neither am I.
I shift my weight, watching the play of shadows on his face from the desk lamp. “So what’s the first move?”
He steps closer, just enough that I have to tip my chin up to keep eye contact. “We find their weakness. Everyone has one.”
I swallow, my pulse hammering in my ears. “And if they find ours first?”
His gaze doesn’t waver. “Then they’ll regret it.”
I should step back. Put some space between us. Instead, I let the silence stretch, the hum of the radiator and the faint howl of wind outside filling the gaps between our words.
It’s ridiculous, but I can almost feel it — the shape of the alliance we’ve built. Sharper now, like a blade drawn in the dark. Not just survival. Not just attraction. Something forged from both.
I think about what Syndee would say if she saw us like this, standing in the middle of my dorm room like we’re plotting a coup. She’d probably crack a joke about foreplay and world domination being a dangerous mix.
She wouldn’t be wrong.
I take another step toward him, the distance between us now almost gone. “If we do this,” I say quietly, “we do it together. No disappearing in the middle of the night to take on a shadow agency by yourself. No pulling the noble sacrifice thing. Deal?”
His expression shifts — not much, but enough for me to see it: the flicker of something unguarded. “Deal.”
It’s just one word, but it settles into me like a weight. The good kind. The kind that means we’re really in this now.
Whatever’s coming, it’s going to test both of us. Our survival, our trust, maybe even whatever this is between us. But standing here with him, I realize something that should scare me more than it does.
I don’t want out.
Not even a little.
CHAPTER 21
