Chapter 735

"Come on, Shrimpy," Luca says, quite cheerful for my sake as he puts his arm around my shoulders and gives me a tug towards the door. "Let's go drink this." He holds up the bottle of wine still in his other hand and gives it a little shake.

I grin up at him. "You don't even have glasses."

"You can lap it out of my hand," Luca murmurs, pulling me towards the door. "Or use the cup in my bathroom."

"The one I'm sure you haven't cleaned all year -"

"Fine. I'll wash it, just for you."

I laugh and wave over my shoulder to Daphne and Jesse, who call their goodbyes. But as we slip out the door and I begin to pull it shut behind me, I don't miss that they go silent. My final glance back into the room gives me a glimpse of her hand fisted in his shirt, pulling him hard towards her.

Grinning, I shut the door and slip my arm around my mate's waist, following him down the hall towards the staircase.

No one bothers us on the walk to Luca's room, though I admit that I'm jumpier than I used to be in the halls. I mean, Gibson being the one who attacked me has really thrown off my feeling of safety. For weeks now I've felt utterly fine walking in the halls of this Castle, even getting frustrated with Rafe when he suggested I needed a chaperone.

But now that I know that at least one Cadet was placed here by the Atalaxians? And that my fire did not work as well as I thought it would when put to the test like that? God, anything could -

"Stop," Luca murmurs, frowning down at me and tightening his hand around my shoulder. "You don't need to go there, Ariel. You're perfectly safe with me."

I sigh, leaning against him. "I know. I just..."

"Got a little spooked?" He twists his mouth a little as he looks down at me, sympathetic, and I nod.

But as we approach Luca's door, I smirk a bit too. "Remember why I was in here the first and only time that I've been inside your room?"

He laughs, pushing the door open. "Yes. Because I was sick of giving you the silent treatment and wanted to kiss the hell out of you."

"And because you'd just punched the crap out of Wright."

I laugh as he tugs me into the room and kicks he door shut, lifting me up against his chest with one arm firm beneath my ass.

"Come on," he says, laughing up into my face as I smile down at him. "Let's get you drunk so that you can forget your worries for half a second."

"Okay," I whisper. And then I dip my head and kiss my mate, loving him very dearly and feeling quite safe in his arms.

About an hour and a half later, Luca's prophecy is correct.

We finished the bottle of wine and have moved on to some whiskey, which tastes terrible but definitely has me feeling all tingly. And my worries all feel quite, quite far away in the happy buzz of my mind. "Why do you boys drink this stuff," I ask, sticking out my tongue and holding up the bottle to peer at it. "Is it just because it makes you look tough?"noveldrama

"Probly," Luca murmurs, closing one

eye to peer up at me as he lays out long on his bed and I sit next to him. "We could put sugar in it to make it taste better. If I had any sugar. Which I don't." en FindNovel

"You need a better candy game, Grant," I sigh putting the bottle on his bedside table. When I look back at him, letting my eyes drift all the way down his long form, I can't help the smile that turns up the corner of my mouth.

"What?" he asks, smirking now.

I shrug. "You're just...appealing. Visually."

He laughs, his dimples jumping onto his cheeks, his eyes crinkling in that charming way that makes my stomach twist.

"Seriously," I murmur, taking

advantage of the situation and

swinging a leg over his body so that

I straddle his hips, putting my hands

on his hard stomach and peering down at him. "Do you like, try? Is there any effort that goes into this, on were you just born this gorgeous?"

My mate smirks up at me, fire and hunger alight in his eyes.