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I point at the desk on the other side of the room. "I thought that was his office."
Ronan and Nyx both laugh, but the prince says, "No. That's just his classroom workspace."
The sudden thought of Atlas grabbing me and bending me over his desk in his private study has me feeling flushed.
"Calm down, Kitarni." Nyx shakes his head. "You've seriously got to get that under control."
Ronan's eyes are wide, and his mouth is agape, staring at my hands. "What's happening to your hands? Are they glowing?"
"Anytime she has dirty thoughts about Atlas, her hands and eyes glow," Nyx says before I have a chance to explain.
"Not just dirty thoughts!" I retort and Nyx points an accusatory finger at me.
"Ah ha! So, you admit you have dirty thoughts about him!"
"Wait! No, I didn't – "
"So, my cousin, huh?" Ronan scratches along his stubbled jawline. "I figured as much. He was so protective over you at the row house. I thought for sure we were going to have to sedate him at Starnborough to keep him from pacing a hole into the floor while you met with my father."
"Atlas was worried about me?" I ask, wondering why that thought both excites and saddens me.
Ronan bobs his head. "He would never outright admit it, but he was concerned about you."
"I'm not sure which is worse," Nyx huffs, folding his arms across his chest, and bumping me playfully with his hip, "You glowing whenever you have dirty thoughts about him or him pacing like a caged animal concerned about you."
I shove him and roll my eyes. "You're an idiot," I tease, rendering a smile from him.
"Tell me you don't have feelings for him, that you don't want him, and I won't joke about it again." Nyx issues the challenge knowing damn well I can't deny that I have deeper feelings for Atlas besides just attraction, but before I have a chance to fumble through a clumsy answer, Atlas comes through the tunneled entrance, carrying a folded black mat over his shoulder. Amusement glazes over his face when he sees the three of us standing in the middle of the room, waiting on him.
"Well, it looks like we'll have an audience for our lesson today, Strenlys."
His use of my Tronovian pet name sends a welcome shiver down my spine.
Throwing the mat on the floor in front of us, he unfolds it, spreading it across the red circle.
"Sparring or spying today, Ronan?" Atlas asks.
Ronan flashes a coy smile. "Spectating."
"Nyx will show you where to sit." Atlas shoos them away and turns his attention to me, readjusting his black leather, fingerless gloves. "We'll be learning more hand-to-hand combat and eventually we will incorporate magic. But as far as you're concerned, today you have no magic, so don't blast a ball of light at me."
"Understood." I dip my head in acknowledgement as he faces me with his feet hips-width apart and shoulders squared to mine.
"Your one goal is to try to pin me to the mat."
"Wait, what?"
Atlas takes a few steps to the opposite side of the mat and stops when his toes are straddling the line. "You know the basics of hand-to-hand combat. By the end of our lesson, and without using your magic, I expect you to try to take me down."
I quirk an eyebrow and snap my fingers. "Just like that?"
He barely nods in acknowledgment. "If you can."
"And what's your goal?" I tilt my head.
He smiles and I dismiss the flutters it sends surging through me. "To stop you, of course."
"Considering I've only learned self-defense moves, I imagine your job will be rather easy today."
