Page 35 of Taste of Thorns (The Firestone Academy #3)

Chapter Thirty-Two

B riony

“I have your proof,” I tell Fox, stepping into his classroom as the last student leaves at the end of the next day.

Fox stares at me, then busies himself collecting discarded books from the benches and sliding them back into the bookcase at the back of the room.

“We’ve talked about this.”

“We did. You said I needed proof to see the Madame brought to justice. And now I have it.”

“Briony–” he says, spinning around in frustration.

“Jeez, aren’t you even going to hear me out?”

The professor lifts his chin and folds his arms over his chest.

“You’re right. Go ahead, Miss Storm.”

I hold up a finger. “Firstly, there’s the coincidence that the talented students the Madame has mentored have all ended up dead.”

“Not all of them,” he says darkly.

“Good as,” I snipe back. “Secondly, she attacked me in the maze and if it hadn’t been for …” Fox tilts his head to one side as I trail off.

“If it hadn’t been for what?”

“Nothing.” I shake my head. “Three, there just happen to be objects that belonged to the people that have died hidden in her office. Trinkets,” I stress.

“And how do you know this?”

“I found them there when I broke into her office last night.”

“You what?!” he roars. “Are you out of your mind?!”

“No, but I do want to find out what the hell has been going on in this academy.”

Fox marches towards me and grabs my upper arm. His grip is cold and tight. “I told you it was dangerous. I told you to stay away from her.”

I attempt to pull my arm away from him but he’s far stronger than I am. “I needed to know and you weren’t going to help me.”

“Briony, do you even care what happens to you? Do you know what she’d have done to you if she’d found you in her office?”

“I can protect myself now, Fox. I’m not scared of her. You said yourself, I’m a force to be reckoned with.”

“You’re a fool, that’s what you are.” He snatches his hand away from me like I just burned him. “Your powers are still weak and feeble. They are nothing in comparison to the Madame’s.”

“I saved Thorne from those monsters!”

“And since then …” I glare at him. My skills are improving slowly but he’s right. I’ve not been able to repeat what I did in that trial. He twists away from me and then snaps back around. “She’ll know you were in there. Your scent will be all over her room.”

“I’m not scared of her!” I snap.

“Really?” he growls, lifting his hand and sending a torrent of cold shadows racing my way.

Before I understand what’s happening, they’re coiling around my body, locking my arms to my body and squeezing me tight.

“Come on then, Miss Storm. You think you can take on the Madame, you show me what you got?”

His shadows are cold against my skin, bitingly so, not pleasant and soothing like they usually are, and his flaming eyes hiss with anger.

But I’m just as angry with him as he is with me, just as frustrated. He said he’d help me, yet all he seems to do is hold me back. Even our lessons aren’t moving as quickly as I’d like.

I search for my magic inside me and, screaming with all the rage and vexation I feel, I blast my light right through his shadows.

For a moment my light hitting his shadows causes a beautiful fracturing of light and darkness, so beautiful it leaves me stunned, and then the professor is stumbling backwards, his shoulders heaving.

“Don’t ever tell me what I can and cannot do, Fox Tudor!” I say.

He snorts, then shakes his head. “You’re such a fucking brat.” I scowl at him. “All this ‘evidence’ you have against the Madame, Briony, is nothing but conjecture.”

“Well, this is evidence.” I pull out the necklace I’ve been hiding in my pocket all day and let it dangle from my fist.

Fox strides back towards me, taking the necklace in his hand. “What is it?”

“It’s Esme Jones’ necklace.”

“You’re sure?”

“Yes. And like I said, there were other mementos too. Jewelry mostly.”

“She might have confiscated it. It might be a coincidence–”

“Fox Tudor,” I snap, slamming both my fists against his hard chest.

“I’m simply trying to consider the counterarguments. The retorts she will come back at you with. The excuses she’ll use to explain all this away. She’s smart.”

“Stop saying that!” I yell. “I don’t want to know how smart and clever and beautiful she is! I just want you to help me!”

“That’s what I’m trying to do,” he growls.

“You’re not! You’re being damn infuriating.

” I push at him. He scowls back at me, all thunderous brows and darkened eyes.

“Really damn infuriating!” I breathe, pushing at him again, this time hard enough to make him move.

He shoots me a warning look and I keep right on pushing and pushing until his back hits the wall. “You make me so angry!”

So angry and frustrated. Really damn frustrated. So frustrated I want to …

I rise up on my tiptoes and kiss him; he groans and I bite down hard on his lip.

This time he pushes me away. Our gazes lock, both full of heat and annoyance.

“Shit,” he pants.

Then he’s swinging me around and crushing me against the wall. He kisses me hard, pinning my wrists against the wall with one hand and scrabbling at my skirt with the other. He rips away my panties and the noise of the material tearing is loud in the classroom.

“Fox,” I moan as he frees his cock and hitches up my leg.

“Fuck, sweetheart. The things you do to me.” His fangs are long and pointed and his voice comes out lisped. It sends a shiver of desire running down my spine, especially when he scrapes his fangs down my throat, slowly and with enough pressure to mark my skin. I moan, writhing in his arms.

I don’t know what it is about him, but even when I’m angry as hell at him, I want him so badly.

He licks his tongue up the mark he’s made, then tilts back to look at me, my hands still pinned by the wrists against the wall.

He takes his cock in his free hand and glides it up and down his shaft languidly, running the tip of his tongue over his fangs.

“Fox,” I plead.

“Not yet,” he growls. He bends forward to suck on my throat again and his shadows entwine us, this time brushing against my skin and making me shiver. They pluck at the buttons of my shirt, letting it fall open and Fox glides his mouth down my neck, over my clavicle and to my cleavage.

“Shit,” he mutters, before yanking down the cups of my bra with his teeth and spinning his tongue around the nipple of my right breast. It crinkles and stiffens against his tongue and he captures the stiff peaks between his teeth.

I let out a little whimper – part pleasure, part frustration. While it feels good to be touched here, I want him to touch me touch me. I want him to fuck me.

But he’s hell-bent on making me wait, switching his attention to my other breast as he continues to pump his cock. He’s punishing me with this torture and I tell him what I think of him in no uncertain language.

“That dirty mouth again,” he murmurs against my nipple, before capturing more of my curse words with his mouth and kissing me hard. As he does, he pushes his way inside me.

It’s easier than the last time, but the size of him still whips my breath away.

I’m half aware how dangerous this is. The lesson has only just finished, the door stands unlocked, and he’s cast no silencing spell.

It would be so easy for someone to walk in on us, for someone to catch us.

But it adds to the moment. My body’s running on adrenaline and that magic is singing in my veins.

He pounds into me and it’s so much more raw and powerful than the last time; I realize he must have been going gentle on me. I cry out and he rings his tongue around the shell of my ear.

“You gotta be quiet, baby. I know you find that hard. But you’ve got to be.”

I nod my head, trying my best to smother the moans that he forces from my body. It’s no good though, and he kisses me, attempting to swallow away all my noises.

“Tell me I’m better than her,” I murmur against his lips.

“Who?” he growls, thrusting so hard into me, I’m forced up onto my toes.

“You know who I mean.” I scowl.

“There’s no comparison, Briony. You’re everything to me. You drive me to distraction. All I want to do is fuck you over and over again. It wasn’t like this with her. It’s never been like this with anyone else. I’ve never been in love before.”

The word floats out in the air like his shadow magic and it’s so potent, so shocking, it has me tipping over the edge, the professor coming right after me as I convulse around his cock.

“Love?” I whisper, as he rests his damp forehead against my shoulder and catches his breath.

“You knew that,” he says.

“I didn’t.”

He nips at my shoulder. “You do now. I love you, Briony Storm, no matter how damn irritating you can be.”

“I think I love you too,” I say, smiling over his shoulder. “Even when we argue.”

“The arguing is worth it for the make-up sex,” he growls and before I can argue with that, he’s pressing a thumb to my clit and forcing another orgasm from my already wrecked body.