Page 67 of Zodiac Monsters

Chapter 31

I’m going to fucking kill him.

It was bad enough when I’d had to endure whatever the fuck happened this morning while in the middle of a lecture on Finite Element Analysis, but his audacity was boundless.

She wasn’t helping matters either, though. She was willingly and openly playing with fire in the middle of my classroom, knowing it was a full moon tonight. Who was she trying to tempt into this mess?

I was starting to question if there was anything innocent about her, whether she understood the implications of her predicament or not.

I fucking endured that Astrology Club by willpower and discipline alone, and I shot Marcus a death glare as the hour wrapped up. Of every stunt he’d pulled, somehow this one had hit the hardest. Maybe that was the Aries moon talking. It was already dark at this hour. This was the first time the full moon had coincided with Astrology Club since I’d marked her, and it was maddening.

Not acting with any of the urgency I wished she would, Lila packed with that irritatingly precious nervousness she so often exhibited, while Marcus whispered something into her ear.

He grabbed her hand and interlaced their fingers, and I determined this was a good time to ruin his day.

“Miss Denton, I’d like to speak to you if you don’t mind.” I interjected, and she recoiled from him immediately, like she didn’t want to seem too friendly with him in front of me. I might have laughed, but I wasn’t trying to win her over like he was. That came naturally.

“Of course, Professor Karras,” she responded with a nod, while Marcus eyed me suspiciously. “I’ll text you tomorrow.” She told him, and not even he could hide the way his whole heart sank.

What do you know—the second I’m an option, the whole game changes.

Here he thought he’d won.

“I’ll look forward to it.” Marcus made his best attempt to save face. He patted her on the shoulder, then headed out with his tail between his legs. He shot me one last look before he left, but he didn’t have anything to say this time.

Once the class had cleared out, and it was just me and my biggest mistake, I walked over to the door and latched the lock.

I drew a deep breath through my nose before I approached my uneasy student.

“That was cute.” I opened the floor for argument. “You’re aware that, as an incubus and a man with a mate claim on your body, I have to feel every time you’re aroused, getting fucked, or letting a vampire finger you in the middle of Astrology Club, correct?”

Lila choked on her own saliva. “I had no idea…” She didn’t make eye contact. She wasn’t a good liar. Marcus probably told her as much. I may have misjudged who was the most manipulative among us.

“Really? No clue at all?” The scoff that escaped my throat was involuntary. “You’re not lying to me are you, Miss Denton?”

“How would I know something like that? You kicked me out of your house without explaining much of anything, and you’ve hardly spoken to me since last month.”

Ah, she’s angry. She’s also still lying, but I’ll let that slide. If she was fooling around with Marcus as a form of revenge to get my attention, she was dangerously clever. But then, that tracked for my experience with her thus far.

“What would you have preferred I do?” I paced closer to her. “Did you want me to keep pursuing you? Flirt with you in the middle of Physics? Ask you to be my woman and spend another full moon with me?” Before she could react, I caught her by the wrist and twisted her arm behind her back. I shoved her down, chest on the desk, pinned and bent over in front of me. Her skirt was too short to cover her in this position. She was completely naked beneath her skirt, and her physical and emotional reaction to this dynamic was immediately overwhelming.

It was abhorrent that I had to internally remind myself that I was making a point and absolutely not here to fuck her.

What the hell was she doing to me?

I leaned down, close enough to whisper in her ear. “Is this what you were looking for? Would this have satisfied you enough to get you to behave on the one day a month that you’re in the most fucking danger, Lila?” The emotions pouring from her soul were filling my power reserves with more satisfying intensity than anything I’d ever experienced, and I wouldn’t admit, even to myself, that it was an exhilarating rush.

“No.” She whimpered as if I was hurting her. More bullshit.

“Really? Because your heart rate, your breathing, the small widening of your eyes, and the slight temperature rise—all of these easily readable cues tell me this is exactly what you want. If I’ve learned anything from our past interactions, it’s that small movements like this are all it takes to get you out of your mind.” I twisted harder to make a point, and she yelped. “I can sense it in every bit of tension in your body, the quivering lip, the way you’re trying to focus on your breathing to distract yourself—that monster in my soul knows that you would happily be my meal, right here, right now, on my brother’s desk.”

She swallowed but didn’t say anything. So I obliged her.

“Do you want me to fuck you right here, Lila? Do you want to know what my cock feels like without magic or transformation tainting our every interaction?”

I laughed, and I knew I was being cruel. By the devil, how did she keep bringing this out of me? I bit hard into my lip in an attempt to ground myself, as that scent of Apples and Cinnamon teased at my fucking brain.

Lila shook her head, despite her speeding heart that clearly didn’t want to turn me down. She understood that this was a test, not an offer.