Strange Academy (Hot Paranormal Romance) (40 page)

Carmina giggled at the swearing. Her dark eyes shone. “Maybe you should tell Miss Strange.”

Gray grabbed her hands and pulled her from the chair. Her textbook thumped on the floor. “I need your help, Carmina.”

“A mage needs my help?” She seemed highly amused by this.

“Sadie won’t see me, and I have to get her to give me another chance. Things can be different between us.” He thumbed the shiny silver locks on his briefcase. “I need you to give her this for me.”

He handed her the stapled pages.

Carmina blinked at them. “A book report on Tom Sawyer. I don’t understand.”

“She will. It was the only way I could think of to prove I was willing to drink the fat.”

Carmina’s brows rose into the straight line of her blunt bangs. “Drink the—”

The crash of the office door swinging back on its hinges interrupted Carmina’s question. Sadie, wild-eyed, a black lace skirt tugged up to her thighs, dashed into the room and dove across the principal’s desk. Her elbow knocked Cross’s in-box to the floor, sending sheets of paper fluttering as she grasped the P.A. system control box like a precious treasure.

He couldn’t move, couldn’t think. He said nothing.

She flipped a single switch. The click reverberated through the room.

“Quinlan Strange, I’m going to kill you,” she told the empty chair next to Carmina as she pushed herself off the desk.

There was a pause before she continued. “I don’t care. I’ll find a way to bring you back to life so I can kill you myself.”

He and Carmina recovered at the same time and looked at each other.

“Sadie?” he asked.

“Miss Strange?” Carmina asked.

She ignored them both and tugged her skirt down over her knees. Too bad, since he was enjoying the view of those white thighs. “No, I wanted him to apologize to me, not the whole school.”

As he digested her words, the room swayed. “Whole school.”

“Gray.” Sadie finally turned her dark gaze on him. “Quin turned the P.A. system on. Everyone heard what you just said. You look wobbly. Do you need to sit down?”

He nodded, and as he did, Sadie hugged the little girl. “Thank you, Carmina.”

“Goodbye, Mr. Gray.” Carmina treated him to a heart-melting smile as she left. He had a feeling his nephew didn’t have a chance.

“You. Out.” She turned to face the empty chair and pointed toward the door.

Then the only sound in the room was two people breathing.

He was breathing especially hard because his seated position gave him a good view of her heart-shaped ass in her tight-fitting skirt.

She was disheveled from her sprint. Her hair was out of place, her black eyeliner smudged, and her twisted blouse revealed a peep of royal purple satin cupping her left breast.

She fell to her knees in front of him and took his hands. He stared at her little white fingers caught in his larger, darker palms and, somehow, knew everything would be all right.

“Are you okay?” she asked.

He caught her waist and pulled her into his lap. She didn’t resist, but buried her face in his shoulder. She sniffled on his shirt. He didn’t care.

“Did I just drink the fat?” he asked.

“You just drank so much fat we’re going to have you checked for cholesterol.”

Then she was kissing him. Soft lips captured not just his mouth, but also his heart. He breathed in the citrus of her skin, laced his fingers through the softness of her hair. She curled into him like she wanted even more than this.

When he broke the kiss, they were both panting with desire.

“This is just like
A Christmas Carol
,” she said. “Except with superheroes. You’re Scrooge. Pippa is the Ghost of Christmas Past.”

“I hope you’re Christmas Future.”

“Christmas
Yet to Come
is Carmina. I’m Christmas Present.”

“Best Christmas Present ever.”

Sadie ran her fingernails over the nape of his neck, sending sex signals to his groin. “I love you.”

He gave an exaggerated sigh. “Well, that’s a relief.”

She jumped out of the chair, determination suddenly hardening her looks. She started to pace like a general planning a war. “Okay, we’ll get your father here and I’ll show him my Talent and then he’ll re-inherit you.”

He opened his mouth to interrupt, but she went on. “Gray, you big alumnus, drinking the fat is just saying you’re sorry, not giving up everything you believe in. I know how important the Gray House is to you. We’ll fix it.” A blush crossed her face. “This is partly my fault. I wanted to make you miserable so you’d apologize. I never imagined you’d take it so far.”

She took a deep breath. “I was thinking about a lot of things as I was running over here. I mean, your family is hard on you and makes it difficult for you to do things you think are right. Well, I was hard on you, too. I could have made this a lot easier. I could have just told you about my Talent in the first place. Look at my past relationships—I’m good at playing the martyr, Gray. I did it for too long before I found a lamp. Then I did it again with you. ‘Poor me, the man who loves me wants his kids to have superpowers and everything would be fine if I told him about mine, but I won’t.’”

He stood from the chair, catching her hand and putting it on his back, near his shoulder blade. “Notice anything?”

He felt her fingers poking around his muscles. “Where’s your stress knot?”

“Gone. And I don’t miss it.” He turned to her. “I have an idea. Let’s stop being so hard on each other. And ourselves.”

Her chocolate brown eyes went melty. “You’re so smart. How’d I get so lucky?”

He was feeling pretty lucky himself. “Sterling’s the heir now. But it’ll be different for him—he’s got you.”

“He’s got
us
,” she said, stressing the last word.

He shrugged. “I’m no good at the emotional stuff.”

She raised an eyebrow. “Why do you keep saying that? You’re great at the emotional stuff.”

The idea made him laugh.

She cocked her head at him. “Most of the time, kids don’t need to discuss their feelings; they need to play tiddlywinks. You dropped your entire life to come here to help Sterling with his homework. Do you know how amazing you are?”

He opened his mouth to argue, but then he remembered playing tiddlywinks with Pippa. Maybe... “It was here or Switzerland,” he said. “I didn’t just pick Sterling over Argent because he’s older. I flipped a coin. I’m going to enroll Argent here next year.”

“Against Gray House rules.” She tsked, jutting her hip.

“What are they going to do? Disinherit me?” He put his hands on Sadie’s slim waist and pulled her against him. “As long as Strange Academy’s magic circle is strong, there’s no real danger. And I doubt his parents will even notice.”

“See.” She ran her hands up his arms to rest at the back of his neck. “You’re great with the emotional stuff.”

“Do you remember when you told Sterling and Argent they had a magic circle? Can we have one?” he asked.

“You want to be brothers?” Mischief lit her chocolate eyes.

“I had something with a little more hot sex in mind.” He glanced at the desk. “That P.A. system isn’t still on, is it?”

“Yes,” she said. “To the hot sex. No, to the P.A. system.”

“I’m going to break you out of here, you know.” At her confused look, he went on. “The spell that means you lose your memory if you cross the magic circle. I’ll make it so you can leave.”

She drew back from him, and rested her hand lightly on his chest, as if to reassure herself that he was real, that this was truly happening. “I’ve spent all my life trying to fit in somewhere and changing myself to hide who I was just so I could. Now I’ve found this place. I can be myself here, and I fit in just fine—now that I don’t really care about that anymore.” She looked at him from under thick dark lashes. “I guess what I’m saying is that I’m okay here. I like it here. I haven’t learned how to properly use my powers yet, and until I do, I’m not going to put Strange Academy in danger by risking leaving.”

“Sadie...”

She seemed to understand the question he couldn’t put words to. “I’m not just making the best of a bad situation. Have you seen Pippa’s cottage? I went there when I was quarantined. It’s fantastic, like something out of a fairy tale. It’s on the lake. And because of the ghosts, I’ll never be lonely here, even in the summer when the kids are away. My sister says she’ll bring my niece for a holiday. I know you’ll be away sometimes, doing your demon-hunting thing. But it’ll be okay, won’t it?” She toyed with his silk tie suggestively. “And imagine what it’ll be like every time you come back.”

As good as that sounded... “You’re a Meta now, Sadie. It’s not fair.”

She blew out a breath, and it lifted a strand of hair that had fallen over her eye. “Gray, I put my sister and Pippa through a lot of bad stuff. Maybe this is my penance. Maybe not. It doesn’t matter. I’ve fallen in love with the place and these kids. Anything else seems empty. I want to be here for Sterling and Carmina and Regina and Nikkos—and I have a lot to learn before I can do that.”

He didn’t bother pointing out that she’d probably already rescued Sterling from becoming a self-loathing adult who believed he was evil. The thought sent a tremor through Gray, made him tighten his grip on her. Thanks to her, Sterling would get the help he needed, both to forgive himself and to control his Talents. But what could have happened drove home the many ways he needed Sadie. They belonged together. “Fallen in love with the place, huh?”

She laid a delicate hand along his jaw. It was smooth and cool against his stubble-grained skin. “I’m sorry we can’t get married in London like you wanted.” Her voice darkened and her eye twitched, just once. “And no woman wants another woman’s wedding dress, alumnus.”

He shook his head. “I didn’t want to get married in London. I wanted to marry you as soon as possible. Our wedding would have been next week. I was excited, Sadie—I am excited about our wedding. It wasn’t because it was convenient, it was because it was soon.”

“You called it ‘our wedding.’ Twice. Not ‘Sadie’s wedding,’ like you did with April.” Her face slackened, as if she was getting it. “You’d marry me next week, then?”

He huffed. “Not anymore.”

Sadie’s eyes narrowed in silent warning.

“We can’t get married next week because we don’t have enough time to plan. I want everyone there so I can show you off,” he said. “I’ve left the Gray House, but I won’t slink away into oblivion like I did something wrong by choosing you.”

She closed her eyes and her lips trembled. For just a second, he wondered what he’d said wrong. But then the corners of her mouth tipped up and a noise came out of her that was half overwhelmed sob and half joyful laughter. It was a beautiful sound that made warm pride rise in his chest.

Maybe he wasn’t so bad at the emotional stuff after all.

He took her face in both hands, framing it and bringing her forehead down to touch his own. The intimacy of sharing the honest gaze was nearly unbearable. And he never wanted to stop. “Sadie, I’m sorry I let unimportant things matter. They don’t anymore. They’re outside the magic circle. But say you won’t leave me again.”

“Oh, Gray,” she said, with a glint of light in her dark eyes. “Nevermore.”

Excerpt from Over my Dead Body: A Teen Urban Fantasy

From Teresa Wilde, a new teen urban fantasy, now available
on Amazon
.

Merit Boatman has gone to a better place. Or has she?

When sixteen-year-old workaholic and Tic Tac addict Merit Boatman bites the dust in a freak traffic accident, the last thing she expects is evil Viking god Loki to show up to threaten her afterlife. According to Loki, she’s the only one who can figure out why souls are disappearing before getting to their final destination, and if she doesn’t do it in seven days, he’s got a special place in Hell reserved just for her.

This wasn’t exactly on her To Do list.

Neither was working as an undercover ghost in an office of Death Gods whose job it is to transition souls to the After. Or falling for a certain three-hundred-year-old samurai with a talking dragon. Or making best friends with a valkyrie determined to send her off to Valhalla.

With Loki’s deadline looming, Merit has to face the ultimate challenge—putting her afterlife on the line for her friends, and for everyone on Earth, by facing down an invisible monster who considers her soul a tasty afternoon snack.

Life’s a bitch. But for Merit Boatman, death might be even bitchier.

One: The Late Gunilla Merit Boatman

For some people, death comes like a thief in the night. For me, it came like a car crash at noon.

Picture it: a sixteen-year-old girl, pedaling down busy Michigan Ave in downtown Chicago on a hot July day in business casual capris, weaving through the congested traffic like a bike courier on a mission. A fringe of dark gold bangs peeks out from underneath her stylish blue bike helmet. She has switched out her kitten heels for the sneakers she keeps beneath her desk. Better to bike in. Her jacket is stuffed into her backpack. She smiles, thinking about the kudos she just got from her boss, the assistant manager of auto claims at Geneva North America Insurance.