The Wanderers Beginning: The Wanderers, Reborn, & Unforgiven (149 page)

Chapter Twenty-three

Roman was propped up on his elbow, gazing down at me. His smile was sweet and loving. I blinked a few times, adjusting my eyes to the wonderful sight before me. “I don’t believe this is what you would call taking it slow. I can’t say I’m complaining though.” I reached up and stroked his cheek.

              “I’m sorry. I just couldn’t sleep and I was worried about you. So I snuck in here. I hope you don’t mind?”

             
“And you decided to strip down to your boxers?”

             
“I was hot,” he smiled.

             
“Tell me about it. You had so much heat radiating off of you I was sweating.”

             
“That didn’t stop you from molesting me.”

             
“I did not,” I scoffed.

             
He chuckled and flicked my chin with his finger. “I didn’t mind,” he winked. I was about to argue when he cupped my cheek and pressed a tender kiss to my lips, melting all my tension. “I should go.”

             
“You don’t have to,” I said, hoping he would stay.

             
“I need to shower and we’re supposed to be having breakfast.”

             
“How about breakfast in bed?” I suggested, wiggling my brows.

             
“Tempting, but I think I’ve done enough damage by coming here last night.” He got up out of the bed and slipped his pants on.

             
I sat up confused. “Damage?” I asked. I was almost afraid to know his answer.

             
“I just mean every time we try to take a step forward we end up taking one back. We’re supposed to be starting over.”

             
“In a way we are. If I remember correctly, even before we started dating you use to sneak into my room.”

             
“History does tend to repeat itself,” he said solemnly. “I think we’re just so use to each other it’s hard to start over. Start from scratch.”

             
“Does this mean you want to give up?” I asked a little panicked.

             
“No. Of course not. I just think we need to try to have more self-control and not give in to our urges.”

             
“Our urges?” I teased, sending him a sexy smile.

             
“You know what I mean,” he said blushing.

             
“I think maybe you should take your own advice considering you were the one who snuck in here last night.”

             
“Hey, I just wanted to make sure you were okay.”

             
“Uh-huh,” I nodded, trying to hide my smile.

             
“Hey, you’re one to talk. You were the one who mauled me in the laundry room.”

             
“What?” I smacked him on the shoulder. “Roman, I so did not. You were the one who threw me against the washer.”

             
“You are such a slut.” He laughed when my jaw dropped.

             
I hit him again and tried to shove him off the bed. “You are such a –”

             
He cut me off by grabbing my wrist and slamming his lips to mine. I smiled and pulled him down on top of me. He sighed and pulled back laying his head on my chest. “I need to go.” I could hear the strain in his voice and new it was just as hard for him to leave as it was for me. He kissed my shoulder and looked up into my eyes before giving me one more kiss on the lips. He sat up on his knees and I followed his lips with mine. He laughed pushing me back gently. “You’re trouble.” He kissed my forehead and grabbed his shirt. “I’ll see you at breakfast,” he winked and took off quickly.

             
I fell back on the bed smiling. It’s been a while since I smiled that much and my face was starting to hurt. I rubbed my jaw and got up to get in the shower. I showered as quickly as possible not wanting to waste any time getting to breakfast with Roman. Once again I didn’t bother to dry my hair. That would have been another half an hour of wasted time. I practically ran out the door and across the quad. I inhaled the sweet scent of the morning dew as I walked briskly to the cafeteria.

             
I arrived before Roman had and wondered if I should wait for him before I sat down and ate. As hungry as I was I decided to wait.  It wasn’t long before Roman showed up. His eyes lit up when he saw me and he hurried over to where I stood. “Hi,” he said smoothly with his most brilliant smile.

             
“Hi,” I smiled, blushing. I felt like a high school girl with my first crush. He just had that effect on me.

             
“Ready?” I nodded as he opened the door and escorted me into the cafeteria. To our surprise everything was dark. I looked around the room wondering why nothing was on.

             
“Um…this is different,” I said, curious as to what was going on.

             
The doors opened and I turned to see Cameron dragging her feet down the stairs, oblivious to us or even the fact that it was almost dark as night in there. When she finally realized she wasn’t alone and the lights were out, she stopped and looked around, muddled. “Hey guys, what’s going on?”

             
“We wondering the same thing,” Roman said, uneasy.

             
We heard footsteps and then another person came into the room. We all stood silently until Aidan came into view. “I thought I’d find you guys here,” he said a little too chipper.

             
“Why is nothing on?” I asked.

             
“It’s summer so everyone is home, including the workers.”

             
“Then what are we supposed to do about food?” I asked a little panicked. I could skip a meal if I had to, but more than one and I would suck dry everyone there.

             
“Follow me,” Aidan waved and walked to the corner of the room. He led us to the employee’s entrance and through there into a small kitchen.

             
“How do they cook everything in this small kitchen?” The size of the kitchen was not very accommodating to the amount of students they had to serve on a daily basis.

             
“The meals they cook for the students are done over there,” Aidan said, pointing to a set of double doors to my left. “This is the private kitchen for the staff and now students who are stuck here for the summer. You can help yourselves to anything in the fridge but just remember to clean up after yourselves when you’re done and you have twenty minutes to eat before class so I wouldn’t take too long.”

             
“Where will class be held?” I asked.

             
“In Ms. Kraft’s room and don’t be late,” Aidan said before he left.

             
I opted for cereal since it was fast and easy. Both Roman and I were a little disappointed about our impromptu breakfast, but we made the most of what we had. Roman didn’t have to make up his classes. He just had to work with the landscaping, but he walked me to Ms. Kraft’s room before he had to meet the groundskeeper.

             
“I’ll see you later?” I nodded. He gave me a quick kiss on the cheek and left on a happy note.

             
“I see you two kissed and made up,” Cameron said, with a bright smile on her face.

             
“Something like that,” I smiled back.

             
“So are you guys back together?”

             
“Yes and no. We’re taking things slow. Starting over or at least trying to.”

             
“Well that’s good, right?”

             
“Definitely,” I said, once again unable to unscrew the smile from my face.

             
We took our seats in the front row and waited for class to begin. I projected to Dean, asking him where he was and he said he was on his way and to stop bugging him. I so loved this new power.

             
When the door opened, I half expected it to be Dean, but to my surprise or should I say disgust it was Mackenzie. “What are you doing here?” I asked as she plopped down into a seat in the back.

             
“I’m here because you went all ghetto bitch on me, remember?” she said in her usual snooty tone.

             
“Okay, first off, you deserve a lot worse and second I thought your punishment was to work on the grounds and around the school.”

             
“It is.”

             
“Then why are you here?” I asked again.

             
“Why are you here?” she asked, ignoring my question.

             
Clearly I wasn’t going to get a straight answer. “We’re here because we have to make up the classes we missed.” I looked at her. She shrugged her shoulders. “Wait,” I said, getting it. “You’re here because you failed. Why else would they make you retake this class?”

             
“I didn’t fail,” she said defensively.

             
“Wow, that’s incredible. A witch who failed spells and castings.” I laughed so hard I almost snorted. “Maybe if you would have spent more time paying attention in class your spell might have actually worked.” 

             
“It did work,” she spat. “It was just because you’re too much of a freak that something went wrong.”

             
“Uh-huh,” I said, no longer bothered by her.

             
Dean showed up after Ms. Kraft and tried to schmooze her over but she wouldn’t stand for it. She lectured him on his tardiness and told him she would only let it slide for today. Then she got right into the lesson. We spent the next three hours working on spells, casting, history, and power control. Ms. Kraft and Mr. Grant traded places for the different lectures. After the final lecture, they gave us a two hour break for lunch – since we had to cook our own food – and after that we had class with Mr. Cormac to finish the rest of our studies. Then we had to clean the first floor classrooms and then training. By the time we were finished I was too tired to even cook myself something to eat.

             
I had forgotten about Roman and ended up crashing in my bed. I half expected him to sneak in again, but he kept his word about maintaining self-control. I must say I was a little thwarted.

             
I made sure I woke up early enough to make it to breakfast. I ran into Roman in the kitchen. “Hey, good morning,” he said pleasantly.

             
“Hi,” I breathed. “Sorry about last night. I fell asleep after training,” I said apologetically.

             
“I know,” he smiled. “I stopped by to check on you and I saw you were asleep. I didn’t want to disturb you so I let you rest.”

             
“I wouldn’t have mind.”

             
“I believe you still owe me a breakfast,” he winked, pushing the eggs in my direction.

             
“I wasn’t aware that this involved me cooking. If I would have known that I would have told you to make your own.”

             
“I could cook you breakfast?” I smiled at the gesture, liking that idea better. “Or we both could?” he suggested.

             
I agreed to meet him halfway. I made the toast and bacon and he made the eggs. We had a nice, private breakfast, just the two of us. We sat across from each other sharing smiles, but not talking. It was the best breakfast I had ever had. The food was pretty good too.

             
We parted ways and agreed to meet later that night. I promised I wouldn’t fall asleep. The rest of the day went by pretty much the same as yesterday and despite how tired I was I was able to stay awake for Roman. We spent about an hour talking until I couldn’t keep my eyes open anymore. We parted ways and he gave me a kiss goodnight. That was how the rest of the week went. Every morning we had breakfast together, then separated, and hung out together at night talking.

             
By the end of the week I was physically exhausted and didn’t think I could do this for the whole summer. I was also tired of Mackenzie sitting around and doing nothing. “If you think you’re going to sit there the whole summer and not do any of the work you’re wrong. I’m not dealing with your shit.”

             
She put her nail file down and glared at me. “Look, I’m only here because of you. I’m being punished unfairly. So I volunteered myself to be the person who watches over the workers and from what I can see you’re not doing a very good job.”