Page 30 of Nothing to Fear (Wicked Games #1)

Asher

M y knuckles rap twice on Professor Thorne’s chamber door, waiting on bated breath for his dark, smooth voice to answer.

“Come in.” His voice is as rich and dark as his persona, and I have to steel my nerves before going in, reminding myself that there’s always a chance I’m completely wrong about this and everything is getting to my head. But still, everything in my bones is telling me this is spot on.

I open the door and take a single step forward, glancing around his office with intrigue before meeting his severe stare. Looking at Lucian Thorne is like looking in a mirror thirty years in the future, and suddenly, I have a rush of confidence that comes from somewhere deep.

“Corvus isn’t exactly what it appears to be, is it?” I start, wanting to get straight to the point.

Professor Thorne cocks his head to the side, and it takes all I have not to roll my eyes at the gesture. It’s one I do often.

“You’ll have to be more specific, Mr. Ambrose. I’m unsure what you mean.” He says “Ambrose” with disdain, and I never noticed it in our brief meetings before, but I do now, and I’m sure it always sounded like that.

“At the risk of sounding crazy, all the research I’ve done on this place, the rumors are all wrong.

It wasn’t founded on blood magic; it was founded on love.

There are secrets here. Many of them. I’d like to know one.

Just one.” To his credit, Professor Thorne doesn’t flinch, which makes me second-guess myself.

But then he speaks, and my world flips upside down.

“I’m unsure what any of this has to do with me, my course, or you.”

“You’re a descendant of one of the original founding families.

I came across a book inside the Noctus Archives, behind it was the Latin phrase, veritas latet.

At the time, I couldn’t remember where I had seen it before, and then it hit me.

The photo hanging outside your door. Of the five founding members of Corvus College. The founders of Crimson Keep.”

“I’ve clearly come to underestimate you. Something I don’t do often.”

I’m unsure what my face looks like, but my insides turn to liquid as blood rushes between my ears, a whooshing sound drowning out all other noise.

“So it is true?” is all I can seem to say, although I don’t hear the words as they leave my lips.

“What would you like to know?”

“How to get into the Corvus Cemetery.”

“Of all the secrets. All the history, bloodshed, ghosts of the past, you wish to know the entrance of the Corvus Cemetery?”

“Yes.”

Professor Thorne has the audacity to look annoyed.

“The school has a dark history, Mr. Ambrose. Was it founded on love? Perhaps. But with love comes pain. The cemetery is sacred. If you demand knowledge, then the college expects you to give back.”

“The college does? As in the administration?”

“Let me ask you something, Asher. What do you want most?”

Love.

“And did the school provide it? Bring you directly to what you desire most?”

Silas.

“I didn’t answer you.”

“I could see it on your face. You cannot sit in front of me and tell me that you haven’t experienced things you can’t possibly make sense of. We don’t need to speak of it, but it doesn’t make it any less true. You belong at Corvus as much as Corvus belongs to you.”

There have always been things here that were unexplainable, that I was timid to speak into existence out of fear of making them true, or people thinking I was crazy and being forcefully institutionalized.

Silas being one of them. The ravens. The wind.

The trees. The flames. The very school itself seems to breathe life right under my fingertips.

“You deny it?”

“I don’t. But that’s beside the point. Will you tell me how to get in?”

Silas lies on the mattress, his blond hair a stark contrast to the navy-blue sheets beneath him.

My fingers dig into the thick meat of his ass, squeezing hard enough to leave marks and spread him wide.

His puckered hole looks so fucking good, and my cock throbs at the sight of it.

My mouth salivates, wanting a taste of him, wanting to drive him completely mad.

I lean in, using the flat of my tongue to lick up his taint and through the crease of his ass cheeks.

I lap at his asshole, kissing the area with deep, wet kisses, pressing my face flush against him.

Silas jerks at the contact, his hips gyrating, pushing back against my mouth, seeking out the feeling I’m giving him. Moans flow freely from his lips, a dark whisper right to my soul. I love how he sounds when he’s a desperate, whimpering mess at my mercy.

I eat his ass like I’m starving for it, like I don’t want it to ever end, his endless moans urging me forward. My hands rub over his cool flesh, over his hips, pulling him back into me, my fingertips pressing hard into the curve of his body, unable to control myself.

I let my mouth pool with saliva, then slowly let it dribble from my lips onto his hole, my fingers ready and waiting to collect the fluid.

Rimming his ass, I press a single finger inside, slipping past the tight rim and not stopping until I’m buried to my last knuckle.

Silas’ hands dig into the sheets for purchase, deep moans reverberating off the walls.

I add a second finger, loving the erotic sight as they disappear inside his body.

“Fuck yeah, Ash. Deeper.”

“You like my fingers, baby? Just wait until I’m filling you with my cock.”

Silas moans in response, the noise vibrating against my lips as I swallow each of them down. He looks so good, his athletic frame, toned muscles that strain and flex when I touch him.

Shifting Silas to his side, I curl behind him, lifting his leg slightly to hold him open for me as I slide my dick inside his tight, prepped hole.

I enter him torturously slowly with a lazy, languid thrust that has both of us melting into the pleasure.

He’s so tight around me as I glide into my hilt, fitting like a glove.

I groan out my appreciation, my eyes practically rolling to the back of my head as pleasure courses through me.

Silas’ hands reach behind him, grabbing the back of my neck and pulling me closer. My hand fists his hair as I claim his mouth, slow and sensuous. I caress his tongue and put every bit of feeling behind it.

“You’re so goddam tight, your ass is gripping me, Si. How’s it feel?” I pant against his swollen lips.

“So full. It’s so good with you. Aah, fuuuuck,” he moans as I slowly drag my cock out of his tight little hole and thrust back in. My arm bands around his stomach, fingertips seeking out his nipples and swirling around them.

“You love being full of my cock, Silas? You love how I fuck you? How hard I can make you come? Has anyone ever made you feel this way?”

“Only you, only ever you.”

“That’s right. Only me.” Your man. Your masked stranger. The only man for you.

I hold him as close to me as physically possible, his back flush against my chest, my cock filling his body as he laces our fingers together, pulling my hand to his mouth.

Just when I think he’s going to kiss my hand, Silas sucks my thumb between his plush lips, igniting that flame into a full-blown wildfire.

“Fuck yes, baby.”

I fuck him hard and fast, rapid thrusts, the thick head of my cock bumping his sensitive prostate each time I fill him.

My hand moves from his face to his throat, holding him tightly where I want him, his head turned toward mine so I can take his lips once more.

I love how he tastes, every bit of him, and I’ll never tire of it. I can’t get enough.

I continue to fuck him, rotating between bursts of quick, deep thrusts and a slow rock, driving him to the edge and pulling him back.

“You feel so good, Silas, so good. I can’t get enough of you.”

“Has anyone ever made you feel what I do?” Silas asks, our breathing heavy and labored, his words quiet and apprehensive.

This causes me to pause, pulling free from his body and pressing him down flat on his back.

I climb between his legs, his hands sliding up my torso, causing goosebumps to break out across my overly sensitive skin.

I slip back between his spread legs, filling him once again in one fluid thrust. Jesus, it feels perfect.

Every.

Single.

Time.

My hands cradle his face between my palms, thumbs rubbing over his cheeks, trying to memorize every feature as I lazily pump inside him.

“No, Silas. No one’s ever made me feel what you do. In any way.”

I love you.

It’s on the tip of my tongue, and everything inside me is roaring to life with the emotion, wanting nothing more than to say it.

“I love you, Asher.”

My thrusts stop, filling him completely as I look down on him, this beautiful man that I’ve fallen so rapidly for, so unexpectedly, yet so goddamn wanted. A smirk lifts on my lips that he said it first, that he put himself out there and was vulnerable, letting his emotions bleed freely.

“I love you, Silas.”

I crash my lips against his and fuck him senseless, taking both of us under that wave of pure bliss with no intention of coming up for air .

After a needed joint shower where we took turns washing each other, we lay on his couch with our legs intertwined and our fingers laced together over his strong abs. Silas flicks through TV shows as I contemplate the conversation I had earlier today with my dad.

“You know what the worst part of it all is?”

“That we have to deal with him until winter break?”

I chuckle at Silas’ deadpan remark.

“I mean, there’s that, but no. It’s that he knows and still wouldn’t give me the information I asked for. I didn’t expect him to, if I’m being honest with myself, but it was worth a shot.

“It’s fucked up, even for someone as mysterious and intense as him. Did he give any further explanation?”

“Just some weird cryptic shit about the heart of the school knowing what’s best, and it wasn’t his place to share, and that truth always reveals itself when the heart is open.”

“Fuck Thorne. We’re going to find out on our own.”

I nod my head in agreement, but my mind is rolling over everything at triple the speed.

“Will you tell me how to get in?”

“The truth always reveals itself when the heart is open.”

I jerk up from my spot on the couch, putting things together quickly.

“Silas, I’ve got to go,” I say on a rushed breath.

“What? I thought you’d stay the night. Are you okay?”

“Yeah, everything is good. Just need to take care of some things.”

“I’ll go with you, just let me?—”

“No,” I snap a little too quickly, a flash of surprise moving across Silas’ face.

“There’s just something I need to handle.

But I promise, everything is okay.” To remind him, I lean down and grasp his face between both hands, kissing him hard.

Silas’ hand reaches up, touching my face and returning the kiss just as passionately.

As I break away, his icy-blue eyes are heavily lidded and lust filled. God, he’s incredible.

I leave Silas alone in his apartment and jog out of Harrow House, heading to the only place that holds all the whispers and secrets of the school.

The archives.