Chapter 298: Late Night Cold Shower
Warning: Mature content in the chapter
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Kieran:
The dream felt so real I could almost taste her.
Her lips were soft beneath mine, pliant yet urgent, as though she craved me just as much as I craved her.
I kissed her like a starving man, my hands splayed across the smooth warmth of her bare back, my body pressing into hers until not even the air dared to slip between us.
When her breathy little moan slipped free, I swallowed it greedily, desperate to hear more.
The world beyond the bed ceased to exist. There was only her... my mate.
Her throat arched beneath my mouth, the delicate curve calling to me. I trailed fevered kisses down her skin, tasting every inch as though I could imprint myself onto her. My lips grazed her collarbone before I sank lower, finding the soft mound of her breast. She gasped, shuddering beneath me, when I took her nipple between my lips and sucked.
"Kieran…"
That soft whisper - breathless, needy, achingly familiar - slammed into me with more force than any blade or blow ever could. My head jerked up, breath ragged, and my gaze collided with a pair of amber eyes I knew better than my own reflection.
Amber. Glowing. Haunted. Hers.
Her long, silver hair was spilled across the pillow in wild disarray, catching the faint light of the room like strands of moonlight. And there she was - Evaline Greystone. My mate.
The realization crashed into me so violently it stole the air from my lungs. My chest clenched, my pulse raced, and then...
I woke.
My eyes snapped open to darkness. And despite the darkness filling the space, my enhanced sight recognized the familiar ceiling, bed, and surrounding of my solitary quarters at the Academy.
"Damn it…" I whispered into the stillness, dragging a hand down my face as the fragments of the dream clung to me like cobwebs. My chest heaved, my heart refusing to calm as her voice... my name in her voice... echoed inside my head again and again.
It wasn't the first time I had a dream like this. For months now, my nights had been haunted by the faceless silhouette of my mate. Her touch, her warmth, her moans - it was always there, just out of reach, taunting me with what I didn't have.
But recently… recently, the dream had changed. The faceless blur had sharpened into someone real. Her. Evaline.
And I didn't know if it was a gift from the Moon Goddess or the cruelest torture imaginable.
A glance at the clock on my bedside table showed me the time. Two in the damn morning.
Sleep was out of the question now. Even if I tried, there was no way I would escape the problem pressing against me. A certain part of my body was throbbing painfully, straining for release.
I groaned low in my throat, rubbing my temples in frustration. This wasn't new, either. Waking hard from dreams of her had become its own kind of curse.
But tonight… tonight was worse. Because now, every time I closed my eyes, it wasn't some nameless fantasy. It was her face, her eyes, her lips parting for me, her voice moaning my name.
And I wanted her. Stars, how I wanted her.
Grinding my teeth, I shoved off the covers and swung my legs over the side of the bed. The cool air hit my overheated skin, but it did little to help. I stalked toward the bathroom, stripping as I went, until I stood naked in front of the mirror.
My body was aching with need, my length heavy and flushed, throbbing in time with my heartbeat.
I turned on the shower, twisting the knob until the water gushed out ice cold.
That's what I needed. Something sharp, punishing, enough to remind me of reality.
Stepping beneath the spray, I hissed as the frigid water slammed into me, but I forced myself to stay there, my muscles tensing beneath the onslaught. Droplets ran down my chest, my stomach, my thighs. My breathing turned hard, ragged, but I didn't move away.
Instead, I closed my eyes, seeking the numbness the cold should have brought.
But all I saw was her.
Evaline.
She was haunting me tonight more than usual.
Her beautiful face appeared behind my eyelids with merciless clarity. Those amber eyes, staring up at me with a mix of hesitation and trust. Her lips, flushed and trembling as though she had just been kissed raw. That silver hair fanning out like a halo.
And the moment I let myself picture her, it was over.
I wrapped my hand around myself with a guttural groan, my body jerking at the contact. My length pulsed in my grip, desperate, and I pumped slowly at first, trying to fight the rush of heat that surged through me even under the icy spray.
My mind betrayed me, painting images I couldn't resist.
Her pressed up against me in this very shower, the water soaking her silver hair, making it cling to her pale skin. Her lips parting as I kissed her senseless against the tiles, her hands clutching at my shoulders.
"Kieran…" she would moan, her voice breaking as I touched her.
I tightened my grip, stroking harder, faster, chasing that image of her. My breaths turned ragged, my chest heaving with every desperate movement of my hand.
In my mind, she touched me back. I pictured her small hand sliding down my stomach, curling around me, tentative at first and then bolder as I guided her. I imagined the way her eyes would widen at my size, the way her lip would catch between her teeth as she stroked me the way I was stroking myself now.
Stars, I would lose my mind if that day ever came.
My hips bucked into my fist as a growl tore from my throat. The shower's icy spray was forgotten, eclipsed by the heat building in my veins. I imagined pinning her against the wall, lifting her with ease, sliding into her inch by inch until I was buried inside the one person who had haunted every waking and sleeping moment of my life for months now.
She would gasp and clutch me tightly, her nails digging into my skin.
She would moan my name, over and over, as I drove into her.
And I would worship her with my body until she knew... knew she was mine.
A shudder wracked me as the fantasy consumed me whole. My strokes grew frantic, every nerve in my body straining toward release. My balls tightened, my breath caught, and I surrendered. My climax tore through me with a guttural growl that echoed in the small bathroom.
My seed spilled into the spray, mixing with the cold water as I sagged forward, bracing my free hand against the tiles.
My chest heaved. My body trembled.
And still… still all I saw was her.
Evaline.
The girl who shouldn't have mattered from the very beginning. The girl I should have despised, or at the very least ignored. The girl who wanst my mate.
But instead, she was in my dreams. My fantasies. My very bones.
I closed my eyes again, the water cascading down my face, trying to wash her away.
It didn't work.
Because no matter how much I fought it… she was mine.
And some part of me knew... she always would be.
I turned the shower off and walked out of the bathroom with a towel wrapped around my waist. My body had turned cold, but it wouldn't take more than just a couple of minutes before I would be warm all over again.
I put on pajamas and grabbed a wine bottle and a glass from the cabinet next to the closet. I rarely drank within Academy grounds, but tonight was an exception. I needed this drink more than I needed my next breath.
I poured myself a glass and walked toward the balcony, sliding the glass door open, I stepped out in the cold of the dark night. It wasn't snowing tonight, but the sky was dark with no sign of the moon or the stars.
I sipped the wine, but barely tasted it. Instead, all my attention was on her. While I was here dreaming about her, she was back at the mansion. If not for my duties as the a professor, as well as the headmaster, of the Academy, I would have returned to the mansion to spend time with her.
As I took another sip, I made up my mind to finally end my torture. Once I would be done with the exam results, I would head straight to her, and... I would confess my feelings to her.
As long as she would allow it, I was ready to court her and win her heart. And I knew I would succeed.
A smile immediately made its way to my lips and picked up my phone from the beside table to send a message to Mark.
Stop the search.