47

Avrora
Our conversation is interrupted by the loud roar of a motorcycle engine ripping through the air. The sound commands the attention of everyone around us, and we give it because motorcycles aren’t allowed on this section of the campus.
There’s a massive sign saying so right at the entrance of the driveway.
Despite that, the biker dressed in full black continues up the path, not caring who he’s upsetting or which rule he’s breaking.
Lorelai smirks when he guns the engine louder and tears up the hill like he’s riding out of a Mission Impossible film.
“Someone’s asking for trouble.” She laughs.
“I think it’s more the case of begging for it.” There are a ton of badass guys who come here, but they know that the kind of trouble they’d get in with the dean or even the Pakhan isn’t worth it.
This guy clearly doesn’t care.
When he gets closer and I take note of his familiar muscular build, my nerves spike.
The bike stops at the edge of the hill, a little over twenty feet away from us.
My poor heart stops when the biker pulls off his helmet and I realize it’s Anatoli.
“Oh my God.” Lorelai’s voice pierces through my shock. But I’m still staring at Anatoli, trying to figure out if what I’m seeing is real. Or rather who.
Anatoli is here.
He’s back.
A bubble of excitement rises in me at seeing him, but I push it away as quickly as it forms.
He’s back, and he’s here to do what?
I feel I should have guessed it was him the moment I heard the bike, but I didn’t know he owned one. Even so, only someone who lives by their own rules and completely disregards everything else would ride a motorcycle through the restricted section of Raventhorn University like they own the place.
Since he’s never picked me up before and I thought the guards were on their way to get me, I can’t imagine he’s here looking for me.
Anatoli swings one powerful leg over the bike, stands, and gazes at me. With his hair messy, a fuller beard, and all that leather wrapped in his bad attitude, he looks sexier and forbidden.
A twinge of annoyance-and what feels like jealousy-hits me when I realize I’m not the only girl who notices. Every female with eyes in our vicinity has formed the same opinion and they can see Anatoli looks like the seriously hot and dangerous guy most mothers warn their daughters to stay away from. I’m sure mine would have been the first in line to issue the warning if she were still alive today.
“Hey, Valkyrie. Come on, let’s go,” he shouts, and something inside me withers away.
He’s talking to me. And he said let’s go? As in home?
On that bike?
“Valkyrie?” Lorelai gives me a salacious smile and her face becomes as animated as it does when she hears juicy gossip.
I glance at her, but shock is preventing me from speaking. From the alabaster look of my hands I know the rest of my skin has turned ghostly pale.
“This is not happening,” I mumble when I notice people now casting curious glances my way.
“Hey, baby girl, come on.”
I wish I could jump into a black hole and allow it to take me far away into another dimension. What the hell is this asshole playing at?
And how dare he do this?
I’m not riding on that thing with him.
“I think maybe you should go with him.” Lorelai giggles, rubbing her hands together.
Go with him?
No, I don’t think so. But I will give him a piece of my mind.
I grab my satchel and march down to him with my hands balled into fists.
Stopping a few paces away, I set my hands on my hips and glare at him.
“What the hell is the matter with you? This is a respectable place with important, decent people.”
Of course, in true Anatoli Scarfoni style, all he does is give me that mocking smirk which grates on my nerves and fans the flames of my fury.
“Decent?” He raises his thick dark brows. “I’d bet my left nut most of them are thinking of either getting high or fucking.”
He might not be wrong, but I don’t care. I hate any sort of attention being drawn to me, and I’ve had no end of it since he stormed into my life.
“Can’t you just be normal?”
“Normal is boring as fuck. Now get on the bike.”
“No.” I try to sound firm but fail because now I’m terrified. I’ve never ridden on the back of a motorcycle before and it was never on my bucket list of things to do before I die. “I’m not going anywhere with you on that monstrous thing, riding around like some hoodlum. Christ knows what will-”
Like the first time we kissed, he steals my words away by sealing his mouth to mine. Just like then, I never saw him coming. He just slipped his arm around me and brought me to his lips in one swoop then kissed me.
Unlike then, we have an audience. One that blends into the ether as
his lips devour mine.
I melt into him, my body awakening. Then it’s left feeling cold and lacking when he pulls away and gives me his sexy trademark grin.
“I missed you, too.”
My awareness flips back into focus and I look around, my skin flushing as I think of how he just kissed me in front of everyone.
And did he just say he missed me?
The thought makes me lightheaded, but I’m still looking around at the people watching, including Lorelai, who has the biggest smile on her face. And that look that tells me she thinks Anatoli and I have chemistry. Which we do.
Thank God I came clean moments ago, or she’d find out tomorrow-or later-like the other girls will when people start talking about how Avrora Galitze was kissing the long-lost Scarfoni son who stole her away from his brother at their wedding.
Knowing these people, though, they’d probably add a lie here and there and say we were having sex on the lawn.
My stomach twists, and I decide I can’t care. Not when the pirate man before me is looking at me like he’s going to eat me.
“Get on the bike, Avrora and hold on to me real tight. You know how.” Anatoli’s smile widens, becoming seductive, and I think of those moments when I hold on to him as he eats me out.
“What if we crash?”
“We won’t. Just hold on to me and enjoy the thrill.”
He hands me his helmet and I put it on, praying we don’t die. Then he helps me get on the bike.
It already feels dangerous, but when he gets on and I wrap my arms around his thick waist, I feel safe against his body.
He puts on a pair of sunglasses, guns the engine, and I shriek when we take off like we’re heading to the moon.
That thrill he mentioned is the same that keeps getting me in trouble with him.
It’s happening again. This time, I’m taking off on the back of his motorcycle with my ass in the air. Thank God I wore jeans today and carried my satchel.
I screw my eyes shut, unaware of when we leave campus or when we reach the road. All I do is hold on, and I don’t know which emotion is worse right now-the terror of this ride or the temptation of being so close to him.
We go faster, at light speed, and my body fills with the sound of the engine and him-his heart beating and the fiery, dangerous essence that makes him the rebel he is.
Soon it feels like we’re flying and the excitement of living on the edge ripples through me.
I chance opening my eyes and see the trees and houses flickering past in a blur.
We ride like that for close to an hour before we start to slow down as we approach the house. In a car, I’d still be traveling and probably stuck in rush hour traffic.
The gates open for us and a slow ride up the driveway takes us right to the door.
I release Anatoli and he gets off the bike, pulling off his glasses with a grin.
“That wasn’t so bad, was it?”
I roll my eyes at him and relax a little because it was fun. “No.”
“Perfect. Next time, you’ll feel like a pro.”
“Next time?” He’s picking me up again?
“Yeah, next time.”
He lifts me off like I’m weightless and when my feet touch the ground, I stumble like I just got off a rollercoaster ride. Laughing, he catches me, but then the playfulness in his expression is replaced with the seduction from earlier.
“Come.” He takes my hand and leads me up the sweeping stone steps.
“Where are we going?”
“Bed. You and I have unfinished business.” His husky voice, filled with molten desire, steals over me, sending thrills up and down my body.
I want to protest and tell him about the paper I have to write, but my traitorous body wants us to finish business, whatever meaning that holds for today.
My hand in his feels so good and the rest of my body yearns for his touch.
The guards standing by the doors open them for us, and we walk in.
But we don’t make it to the stairs because Mikhail walks out of the living room with Gytha next to him.