Page 166 of Obsidian and Frost

He smiled. “We do. This just got away from one of our students. They used too much force and an accidental explosion of magic. There was a brief loss of control, hence me needing to change, my shirt and chest sliced to pieces, unfortunately.”

Hold up.“That’s your blood on there?”

“It is.”

“I don’t understand. Why can’t I—”

“We have two vampire tutors visiting today teaching the children about restraint, so Ariana has cast a spell with the assistance of Kai Hunter and Ryker Morgan to completely mutethe scent of all Celestial blood while inside this facility and its grounds.”

“Right,” I murmured, looking away from the bat. “Makes sense. Absolutely necessary too.”

He strode to his desk, his hips—and other things—working in a way I was trying not to notice, even the way his black pants hung low and drew too much attention to—stop it!

He laid the bat across the desk, then came back my way, stopping just a couple of feet in front of me.

“It was an accident, Lazriel.”

“What?”

“I don’t blame you. You have never been given the tools to handle the situation you were thrown into that day. The way you responded was to be expected and I don’t put the responsibility on you. I’ve also since come to understand, through conferring with Lucian Black, that when most vampires are confronted with Celestial blood and become rabid, they move to the kill. Certainly not to merely revel in the act of the feed itself like you did… and… other things.”

Shit,his words wrapped around me.

Like a chokehold with their heaviness.

But a pleasurable, depraved type of chokehold.

I folded my arms across my chest, needing the barrier there right now. For his sake as much as mine, to be honest. “Whatother thingswere those?”

“A desperate yearning to be fulfilled in a way you have so long denied yourself. Along with the desire to have that hunger reciprocated.”

His words were delivered as facts. Clinical and straight to the point.

But his eyes flickered unsteadily as he looked at me, and he even shifted his weight.

He went to put his shirt on, but my hand shot out on instinct, snagging his wrist.

He was warm to the touch and I could feel his pulse pounding.

His gaze shot to mine, uneasiness warring with intrigue.

“And youdidreciprocate, didn’t you?”

“Release me.”

“We both know you don’t need me to do that.” He was stronger as an Immortal, he could simply pull himself free from my grip.

He stared at me for several tense moments, his gaze flicking from my face to my hand on him.

And then he swallowed hard and told me, his voice rough and strained, “It was pleasurable to me.”

My lips quirked. “I know.”

“It’s not a pleasure I’m familiar with. In truth, I am not familiar with much pleasure at all.”

“Aside from finally kissing Velra after all this time.”

There was a brief twinkle in his eye as he gave a nod.