Page 17 of Wings of Ashes (Wings of Ashes #1)

CHAPTER

A s if Nix needed another reason for Professor Thierry to judge her.

“ Never look an incubus in the eyes .”

Nix would try to be less reckless next time. In fact, during the class, she ignored all of Bael’s little whispers to her, not daring to look his way and be caught in his hypnotic gaze again.

“You know,” Bael muttered. “I don’t need to look in your eyes to get into your mind. I just need you to fall asleep.”

“How is it that you were mad at me when you thought I was mesmerizing you because of the messed-up mind control part, yet you think it’s fine to mind fuck me?” she asked him sternly, still facing the front of the classroom and watching Professor Thierry write some notes on his board.

Bael let out a noise. Even though she did not look at him, she knew he was smirking. “Baby, I can only project some fantasies in your mind,” he said. “Your brain is the one that decides to believe it because it wants to believe it.”

“That cannot be true.”

“Why don’t you ask the professor?”

Nix ignored him.

“Hey, Professor Stone,” Bael called out from the back of the classroom, interrupting Professor Thierry’s teaching.

“ Thierry ,” the professor corrected, grating his last name at him. Was “stone” meant to be derogatory because he was a gargoyle shifter?

“When do we learn about incubi in this class?”

“I realize you would love hearing about your own species, Baelfire—”

Nix’s eyes widened at Professor Thierry’s use of Bael’s first name. Did they know each other outside of the classroom?

“—but not all of my students wish to learn about Hell’s creatures when there are more important facts for them to know.”

“Why? About half of them are going to end up down below anyway. Might serve them well to learn about us sex demons.”

“Professor!” a female student squealed in distress from the second row of desks. “He just implied most of us are going to Hell.”

“I said, ‘half,’” Bael corrected her. “And I’m sure the professor knows exactly who I am talking about.”

“Baelfire, do not interrupt my class again. I am sure you can seduce the cygnus shifter outside of my classroom later.”

“Um, no ,” Nix replied. “No seducing will be happening later.”

“Can you explain to her that incubi cannot really perform mind control?” Bael asked him, having to speak loudly over the many rows of desks between them. “Only grow a fantasy that the subject wants too.”

Nix’s cheeks burned with embarrassment.

“I specifically just told you to not interrupt my class again,” Thierry told him. “Do so again, and you and the swan shifter will be dismissed early.”

“That sounds lovely,” Bael said and stood from his seat. He nodded to Nix. “Ready to go?”

Nix shook her head and looked to Professor Thierry, who glared at her. Her . Why not at Bael?

“Go,” Professor Thierry told her.

Nix started, “I don’t want to leave—”

“You’ve caused enough of a distraction. Both of you, exit my classroom.” Professor Thierry’s silver eyes flashed as he waved his hand for them to leave. “Now.”

In the hallway, Bael grinned at finally having some alone time with Nix.

She was a mystery he wanted to solve. Was it all an act of hard-to-get to keep the sex demon’s interest, or did she actually not want him?

Well, that was a silly question. He could smell her arousal for him whenever he got close to her. Even though she denied it.

Sweet roasted marshmallow and tart berries . He breathed her in and groaned as his dick twitched under his pants. His body wanted her. Badly.

When was the last time Bael was hard for someone? His libido had dimmed a few years ago.

Maybe because everyone always thought they could touch the sex demon without permission. Plenty of women had lied and schemed to try to “have” him. Everyone wanted to tame the beast. To “change” the villain.

Bael was used to everyone wanting him.

Meanwhile, out in the hall, Nix scowled at him and snarled, “I hate you.”

He chuckled darkly. “You do not.”

“I do .”

“You don’t know me well enough to hate me,” he said. He did regret pouring that potion over her head. But he didn’t know it would hurt her. He would not have done it had he known that.

He was an impulsive sex demon.

She turned on her heel and speed-walked away from him, down the hallway.

Bael easily caught up to her.

She huffed and tried to walk faster.

Eventually, she began jogging until she ran out of energy and breath.

Bael slowly stepped up to where she clutched her side and panted. “You have a severe lack of endurance,” he informed her.

He thought swan shifters were at least known for being lithe and somewhat athletic. Yes, they were the weaker of the shifters, but… She really lost her breath that quickly?

“Screw you!”

“I didn’t mean anything bad by it. I prefer my women prone to panting.”

Her scowl almost sent a shiver down his spine.

“You really are pissed at me, huh?” His dark brows furrowed. “Why do you care so much about missing a stuffy class?” He thought he had done both of them a favor. “This way we can focus on the truly interesting subject at hand—why I feel so attracted to you when you are the opposite of my type.”

She slowed her panting as she avoided meeting his gaze. Was she scared of inviting another sexual vision into her head of him eating the fuck out of her pussy? Did she think he would pull a stunt like that? Aww, she’s getting to know me.

“There are more important things to learn than why I make your dick hard,” she said.

“I disagree.”

“That class may not be important to you, but it is to me,” she stated firmly.

“Why? Don’t tell me you are one of the gargoyle’s groupies. He is in his thirties and slowly turning to stone. I’m way sexier than him.”

“I don’t care about how sexy you both are.”

“So, you do think—”

She violently jabbed a finger into Bael’s chest as she snapped, “That class has valuable information, and now I am missing it. You have no idea what effect it could have on my future—for me not to learn everything I can.”

“I had no idea you were such a nerd. Maybe if you got a pair of sexy librarian glasses, some white knee socks…”

“Not all of us know what kind of paranormal we are,” she snapped at him. The second the words exited her pretty mouth, she pressed her lips together like she had not meant to say them out loud.

Bael reached up and clasped his fingers around her pointer finger, which she had drilled into his hard left pec. “What do you mean by that, Swan Lake?” He swiped his thumb back and forth over her palm.

Why did it sound like she implied she did not know what kind of shifter she was? It was obvious just from looking at her. Long neck, slim, blonde, blue-eyed. Not Bael’s type, but he wasn’t about to argue with his erection. The appendage had committed far fewer crimes than Bael’s brain, after all.

With the potion still staining her platinum locks, her hair now appeared slightly pink. Bael liked it much better.

“N-Nothing,” she stuttered and nervously glanced away. “Never mind.” She tore her hand from his grasp, leaving his fingers…cold.

She crossed her arms and warned him, “Do not follow me.”

“Say ‘pretty please.’”

She speed-walked from him again.

This time, he happily stood back and watched her short academy skirt swish and sway over her delectable ass.

He mumbled to himself, “More and more fascinating.”