Though not forbidden, cadets are strongly encouraged not to
develop strong romantic attachments while studying in the
quadrant for the efficiency of the unit. 

—Article Five, Section Seven 
The Dragon Rider's Codex 

"WAIT!" Caroline shouted and everyone watched her in bafflement as she got up and ran off before coming back thirty minutes later with a cart of popcorn bowels and started passing them out, much to everyone's amusement. "It took a while but I found someone with a food signet." She said as she got back in her spot and they continued. 

His body goes rigid for one beat, two, and then he spins us impossibly fast, putting my back against the door, jostling the frame. Whoa. He captures my wrists in one hand and holds them prisoner above my head. "Violet," Xaden groans against my mouth. The plea in his tone floods my veins with a whole different form of power. Knowing he's just as affected by our attraction as I am is a rush. "This isn't what you want." 

"I don't know mate, seems like it's exactly what she wants." Kol said, amusement shining through his eyes. 

"It's exactly what I want," I counter. I want to replace the anger with lust, the death of the day with the pulse-pounding assurance of my own life, and I know he's capable of delivering all that and more. "You said to do whatever I need." I arch my back, pressing the tips of my breasts against his chest. 

"You're playing dirty." Garrick said to her, throwing popcorn into his mouth. 

"I always play dirty." She countered with a raised brow. 

His breathing changes, and there's a war in his eyes that I'm determined to win.

It's time to stop dancing around this unbearable tension and break it.

He leans down, his mouth only inches from mine. "And I'm telling you that I'm the last thing you need." The barely leashed growl of his voice rumbles up through his chest, and every nerve ending in my body flares to life.

"Are you suggesting someone else?" My heart races as I chance calling his bluff. 

"You little minx." Damon said in amusement, shaking his head at the woman. 

"Fuck no." The unmistakable flare of jealousy narrows his eyes for a heartbeat before his hips pin mine to the door, and my instant relief at his answer is replaced by a jolt of pure lust. I can see that infamous control of his hovering on the edge, balancing precariously on the point of a knife. All he needs is one. Little. Push. And I'm about to shamelessly shove. 

"Do it." Elena said, excited for her sister. 

"Good." I tilt my head up to his and draw his bottom lip between mine, sucking before gently nipping him with my teeth. "Because I only want you, Xaden."

The words breach something within him, and he gives. 

"Finally!" Caroline yelled, bouncing in her spot as Liam watched her in amusement, happy to finally be able to call her his girlfriend. 

Finally.

Our mouths collide, and the kiss is hot and hard and completely out of our control. Need streaks down my spine as he takes my ass in his hands and hauls me against his hips, my back raking the ridges of the door behind me as I use it as leverage to push closer to his strength.

I wrap my legs around his waist and lock my ankles. My dressing gown rises with the motion, but I don't care, not with the all-consuming way he's kissing me. The caress of his mouth and the strokes of his wicked tongue steal every logical thought, and my world narrows to this kiss, this minute, this man. Mine. In this moment, Xaden Riorson is mine.

Or maybe I'm his. Who fucking cares as long as he keeps kissing me?

"Yours. I'm yours." He told her, kissing up her shoulder and the side of her neck as she turned to hiss him. It was heated and it took every ounce of control they had (which wasn't much at this point) to pull away, but they managed it and turned back to the story. 

Heat floods my body in an addictive rush, setting every inch of my skin aflame as his mouth slides down my neck in a sensual assault that makes me moan.

"Gods," he says against my throat, and then we're moving.

Wood scrapes the floor and crashes before my ass hits the desk, and my ankles fall from the small of his back when he leans over me, spearing his fingers through my hair at the nape of my neck as he takes my mouth again.

I kiss him back with a hunger I've only known with him.

My hands fly back to brace my weight, knocking anything and everything out of my way, sending whatever careening to the floor. The clock stops ticking. 

"Damn, Vi." Rhiannon said, a smile glued onto her face. 

"Oh it gets better." Violet said to her. 

"You'll hate me in the morning. You. Don't. Really. Want. This." He punctuates each word with a kiss along my jaw, making his way to my ear. He bites the lobe, and my core liquefies, going molten. 

"She wants it, you dumb fuck." Imogen said, leaning over and smacking his head, causing Xaden to roll his eyes and narrow them at the pink haired woman who ignored him. 

"The only way I could hate you during the morning after is if you try to push me away." Violet told him honestly. 

"Stop telling me what I want." I breathe raggedly and thread my fingers through the short strands of his hair, tilt my head, giving him better access. 

He takes it, working his way down my neck to where it curves into my shoulder.

Fuck, that feels good. Every touch of his mouth to my heated skin is flame to kindling, and I suck in a sharp breath when he lingers on a sensitive spot, taking his time. But then he stills again, his breath hot and wet against the side of my neck.

My brow furrows with an unwelcome thought. "Unless you don't want me."

The marked ones all groaned in annoyance. 

"The two of you are going to end up killing us, I swear." Garrick grumbled, shaking his head. 

"Does this feel like I don't want you?" He takes my hand and slides it between our bodies, and my fingers curl around his length through his leathers. I whimper with pure want at the feel of how hard he is for me. 

"I always fucking want you." He groans as I squeeze. Then he lifts his head, seizes my gaze with his, and I recognize the wild need in those gold-flecked depths. It mirrors my own. "You walk into a room, and I can't look away. I get anywhere near you, and this is what happens. Instantly hard. Fucking hell, I can barely think when you're around." He rocks his hips into my hand, and my grip tightens along with my stomach. "Wanting you is not the problem here."

"Then what is?"

"I'm trying to do the honorable thing and not take advantage of you after you've had a shit day." His jaw flexes. 

I smile and kiss the side of his mouth. "It's always a shit day around here. And it's not taking advantage when I'm asking" —my teeth nip at his lips— "correction, begging you to make my day better."

"Violet." He says my name like a warning, as if he's something I should be wary of. Violet. He only says my name when it's just the two of us, when all the walls and the pretenses fall away, and gods if I don't want to hear it again and again, just like that. 

"I don't want to think, Xaden. I just want to feel." I release him. One tug of the ribbon is all it takes to unravel the long, loose braid of my hair, and I run my fingers through the mass.

His eyes darken, and I know I've won. 

"You always win, when you let down this hair." Xaden told her, staring at the pony tail she was wearing. It wasn't completely down, but it was enough for him to run his fingers through it, which was enough to make all common sense go out the window of his mind. 

"Fuck me, this hair," he says, then hovers his mouth over mine. "And this mouth. All I ever want to do is kiss you, even when you piss me off."

"So kiss me." I arch into him and claim his lips, kissing him like this might be the only time I'll get the chance. This kind of desperation isn't natural; it's a wildfire that's likely to burn us both to the ground if we let it. 

"And several trees with it." Bodhi snickered, causing others to join in amusement. 

The kiss is blatantly, deliciously carnal, and I melt against him, matching every thrust of his tongue with mine. He tastes like mint, and Xaden, and I can't get enough. 

He's the worst kind of addiction, dangerous and impossible to sate. 

"Tell me to stop," he whispers, his thumb skimming the hypersensitive skin of my inner thigh. 

"Don't ever stop." She whispered to him, looking in his eyes so he knew she meant it. 

"Never." He promised her, causing her to smile to herself. 

"Never." She promised right back. 

"Don't stop." I'll die if he does.

"Fuck, Violet," he groans, slipping his hand between my thighs.

Never mind. That is how I want him to say my name from now on. Just like that.

He glides the fabric of my underwear across my clit, and my back arches at the burst of pleasure that radiates through my body, so sweet I can taste it. 

He captures my mouth with his again in a hungry assault, his tongue sliding against mine as his fingers stroke me through the fabric, expertly using it for friction. I try to rock my hips against his hand for more, but my feet dangle off the desk, robbing me of leverage. I can only have what he decides to give. 

"Since when do you let him give instead of you taking?" Damon asked in amusement. 

"Since I found some worth letting him give." She told him with a shrug. 

"Touch me," I demand, my fingernails biting into the back of his strong neck, desire pounding through me like a drumbeat.

His voice is ragged against my mouth. "If I get my hands on you, really, honestly get my hands on you, I don't know if I'll be able to stop." 

He would. I know it in my soul. That's why I trust him with my body. 

My heart? It isn't playing into this decision. 

"Stop being so fucking honorable and fuck me, Xaden." 

His eyes flare, and then he kisses me like I'm the air he's been missing, like his life depends on it, and I think mine just might. His fingers slide under my underwear and stroke my slickened core, and a moan tumbles from my lips. His touch is electric. 

"Aw, it's true love." Katherine teased, getting a shush in return. 

"So damned soft." He kisses me deeply as his fingers touch and tease, making that sweet coil of pleasure tighten in my core. I dig my nails into his shoulder, my back arching as he makes tighter and tighter circles against my swollen clit. "I bet you taste just as good as you feel." 

Pleasure shudders through me, a living, breathing fire beneath my skin. 

"More." It's all I'm capable of saying, demanding, as my skin flushes and my pulse skyrockets. I'm going to combust, to burst into flames, and all I can do is whimper against his mouth as he slides one finger inside me. My muscles clench around him, and he works in a second. 

"You're so fucking hot." His voice drops, sounding like it's been scraped over coals. "It might damn us both, but I can't wait to feel you come around my cock." 

"Oh gods." That mouth. I throw my hands back against the wall for leverage, knocking something loose as my hips roll. Something shatters on the floor to the left as I ride his thrusting fingers. He curls them against my inner walls and I gasp, my thighs locking around his leather-clad hips. And when he uses his thumb to stroke my clit, the friction and pressure push me to the edge of mindless bliss. 

Cat frowned, sure she taught him most of what he knew about sex, but that doesn't mean he ever used most of it unless she pushed him to. Which made her hate the fact he did everything for her without her having to say much for it. Which opened to the realization that-[ he really does love Violet. And that there really was no way in hell for her to compete. 

I cry out, and he covers the sound with his mouth, kissing with devious strokes of his tongue that match the movement of his fingers within me. Power surges, rippling through my bones, and I grab onto Xaden even harder, surprised at the unexpected rush of crackling energy.

"Look at you. You're fucking beautiful, Violet. Let go for me." His words curl around my mind, his mouth fused to mine, and the intimacy of it pushes me to the limit of pleasure and then right over it.

He swallows my cry as my back bows, the first wave of my orgasm washing over me, releasing that tight coil of tension in a burst of sparks at the edge of my vision, breaking me into a million scattered stars. Lightning strikes outside my window, flashing light through the room again and again as he strokes me with an expertise that kicks the first climax into a second. 

"Strike one and two." Garrick said, amused. 

"Shut up." Violet laughed. 

"Xaden," I moan as the pleasure ebbs and flares again.

He grins and slides his fingers from my body, and I'm nothing but ragged breaths and raw hunger as I reach for his shirt. I want it off now. He accommodates my urgency, ripping off the fabric, and then we're kissing again, all swirling tongues and roaming hands. The feel of his skin under my fingertips is divine, impossibly soft over yards of hard muscle. I trace the lines of his back, memorizing the dips and hollows as sinew ripples with every move he makes.

"I need you now," I gasp and reach for the buttons of his leathers.

"You know what you're saying?" he asks as I shove the fabric— and any cloth beneath— past his hips, freeing the thick length of his cock. It's hot and hard in my hand, and the moan that rips from his lips makes me feel invincible.

"I'm asking you to fuck me." I arch up and kiss him.

He groans, dragging my hips to the edge of the desk, then working my underwear down my legs, leaving me bare.

My pulse skyrockets. "I take the fertility suppressant." Of course, we both do. The last thing anyone wants are little quadrant babies running around. But it's better said than sorry. 

"Tell that to the girls." Ridoc said and Violet laughed, before looked at him seriously. 

"Shut up." 

"Same." He grips my hips, lifting me for a better angle, and the head of his cock rubs against my clit. I gasp and his eyes lock with mine. The hunger I see etched in every tense line of his body is my undoing. I don't care if it damns us. I need him.

No more holding back. Not anymore.

I reach between us, guiding the head of his cock to my entrance, but this position is shit. He's considerably taller than the desk, and if I wasn't so desperate for him, I'd laugh, but I am. I arch, but it doesn't help. Every second we wait feels like it stretches on for a decade.

"Fucking desk," he swears. 

Violet giggled at the amused looks, turning to put her face in Xaden's chest to stop the laughter that wanted to come out, because it wasn't just a normal laugh. She wanted to double over and laugh like a crazy person at their faces and at the whole desk thing. 

My thoughts exactly.

His biceps flex as he lifts me by the backs of my thighs, and I wrap my arms around his neck and my legs around his waist, my dressing gown caught between us as he pivots. Our mouths meet in a ravenous kiss as my back hits the armoire, but I barely blink, too consumed with the stroke of his tongue, the feel of him between my thighs.

"Shit. Are you all right?" he asks.

"I'm fine. You won't break me." 

"And even if you did, I wouldn't be complaining." Violet told him softly, a bright smile on her face as she leaned up to kiss him. She could tell from that single kiss that they both wanted more and that the second this chapter was over they were both getting it. 

He pushes inside that first, tight inch of me, and I gasp at the fit, the stretch. 

"That big?" Elena asked, laughing in amusement. 

"Oh yeah." Violet said, a bright smile on her face. 

"More." I'm too busy kissing him to speak. "I need all of you."

"You're going to be the death of me, Violet." Whatever's left of his control slips, and he takes me completely with one hard thrust.

I moan into the kiss. Deep. He's so fucking deep that I feel him everywhere.

"Tell me you're all right." He's already moving, thank gods.

"I'm perfect." Better than perfect. Power blazes beneath my skin again, buzzing in wordless, frenzied demand.

"You feel so fucking good." He slams back into me, again and again, as he sets a brutal, steady pace, his mouth sliding down my neck as his hand rises to cup my breast.

I can't even think around the maddening pleasure as my back pounds the armoire door with every thrust, filling the room with the sound of our straining bodies and creaking wood. Every stroke is better than the last. My breaths stutter.

"Fuck, I'm never going to get enough of you, am I?" he says, his face buried in my neck as I arch into him.

"Just like I'm never going to get enough of you." Violet said, using every ounce of control she had to not lean up and kiss him. They both knew that the next time they kissed they would end up doing a lot more than just kissing. And by doing that everyone would end up getting the show of their lives since the marked ones were sitting so close to them it wasn't like Tairn could cover them like he did last time. So if they went at it now, everyone was going to see it.

"Shut up and fuck me, Riorson." Tomorrow is soon enough for regrets.

Reaching up, I grasp the top edge of the armoire with one hand so I can rock back with more force, meeting the drive of his hips, taking him deeper, harder. He drags one of my nightgown's straps off my shoulder, and the cool night air kisses the hardened peak of my nipple a heartbeat before his hot mouth covers it. The sensations spiral, spinning and coiling, forming a tight knot of pleasure so deep within me, the tension is sublimely unbearable.

The armoire door groans, then splinters off the hinges, and Xaden's shadows whip out, protecting me as the frame snaps and wood crashes around us. My power flares, rising in answer to his, sizzling beneath my skin as I grab ahold of his shoulders, my mouth finding his.

"You broke the armoire?" Caroline asked, amusement shining through her eyes, threatening to make her laugh.

"Yep. And that's not the only thing either." Violet said, laughing in amusement.

There's no stopping. We can't stop.

"Fuck," he curses as he takes me over and over, never stopping, turning us again so there's cloth against my back. But it's not the bed. It's the curtains shoved to the side of the window.

Energy crackles again as our mouths meet, and still he drives on, winding that knot inside me painfully tighter with every movement.

And the power... it's too much. It's burning me, heating my blood with the need for release. "Xaden," I cry out, simultaneously writhing yet holding on to him like he's the only thing anchoring me to the earth.

"I've got you, Violet," he promises, his breath ragged pants against my lips. "Let it out."

Lightning whips through me, flashing so bright that my eyes slam shut. Heat flares above me as thunder cracks immediately. 

"Strike three." Garrick and Ridoc said, amusement filling their voices. 

And I smell smoke.

"Shit." Xaden's power fills the room, eclipsing what light we had, and the curtain falls, but we're moving before the charred fabric can so much as touch my skin. 

"You set the curtains on fire?!" Bonnie asked, laughing so hard she had to grab her stomach. 

That knot of pleasure builds to a breaking point as he takes me to the floor, and finally, I have all of his weight as he drives into me. Shadows fall away and the sight of him above me, his dark gaze locked on mine in intense concentration, is the most beautiful sight I've ever seen.

"So. Very. Beautiful." I punctate each word with a kiss.

He draws back, his eyes searching mine for a heartbeat or two before he devastates me with another kiss that has me straining for more, rocking my hips against his.

This man kisses with his whole body, rolling his hips in time with the thrust of his tongue, bracing just enough of his weight so I can breathe while stroking his chest over my hypersensitive nipples. He keeps me on the same edge he's riding, and I don't know how much longer I can take it before I set this entire room on fire.

"I need...I need..." My frantic eyes search his. Where are my words? 

"Somewhere that isn't in your mouth or brain apparently." Damon said in amusement. 

"I know." He claims my mouth again and reaches between us, using those talented fingers to stroke me into another orgasm, and light flashes again, followed by thunder and darkness as I come apart under him.

Pleasure takes me in waves, rolling through me again and again until all I can do is clutch Xaden's shoulders and ride it out in blissful surrender.

"Beautiful," he whispers.

The second I come down, his rhythm breaks, and he presses my knee up toward my chest and takes me even deeper. I rock my hips up to meet his, sweat beading on our skin as I watch him unravel with rapt fascination. I love his loss of control just as much as I fear my own, and when I swirl my hips, he groans, arching his neck as he thrusts once. Twice.

On the third, he shouts, then shudders within me, and his power lashes out in streaks of shadows, the force splitting the wooden target on the other side of the window. 

"He lost control..." Everyone said in surprise. 

"He's never once lost control over his shadows. You must be something special in bed." Garrick teased. 

"Did you wanna test that theory?" Violet asked in amusement, and when Xaden's grip tightened she laughed. "I"m just kidding! Jeez." She said, muttering the last part in amusement. "Only yours remember?" She reminded him, her eyes going from between his eyes to his lips, and it took everything in her to look away, they just had to hold out a little longer... They could make it... Right? 

"He lost control..." Cat muttered, surprise filling her voice and eyes. For as long as she's known him he's never once lost control. Not like that at least. And just from looking at her, Maren and Syrena could tell that she was starting to come to terms with the fact the crown would never be hers. That it had been Violet's the moment she and Xaden met, and it would continue to be Violet's until the day she died. 

Pieces fly and Xaden throws out another wave of darkness that lasts just long enough to shield us from the debris. Then the shadows retreat and daggers clatter to the ground behind me. 

He looks as shocked, and as enthralled, as I feel as we lay there, staring at each other, our chests heaving in the aftermath of what can only be described as complete and utter madness. 

"Madness the two of you repeat weekly. Honestly, at this rate there'll be no more trees left by next year." Bodhi said in amusement, shaking his head at the two of them. 

"Maybe that's the plan." Violet said, giving a lazy shrug. 

"I've never lost control like that," he says, bracing his weight on one arm and brushing my hair back from my face with the other. The move is so gentle, so at odds with what we've just experienced, that I can't help but blink, then smile.

"Me neither." The smile morphs into a full-out grin. "Not that I've ever had power to lose control of before."

He laughs and rolls us to his side, keeping me close and cushioning my head with his biceps.

I sniff at the smoke in the air. "Did I..."

"Set the curtains on fire?" He lifts a brow. "Yes."

"Oh." I can't find it in me to be embarrassed, so I brush the backs of my fingers across the stubble along his jaw. "And you put it out."

"Yes. Right before I destroyed your throwing target." He grimaces. "I'll get you a new one."

I glance over at the armoire. "And we..."

"Yep." He lifts his brows. "And I'm pretty sure you need a new chair, too." 

"Damn you two, just damn." Mira said before throwing her head back and laughing like a mad man, it was just too funny to not laugh at it. 

"That was..." I didn't even get the man's pants entirely off, and my dressing gown is haphazardly hanging from one shoulder. 

"You two are menaces to society." Damon said, shaking his head with a big ass grin glued to his face as he ate his popcorn. 

"When you rin love you don't even need the close to all the way off, all you need is to feel the love." Violet said softly, her arms tightening around Xaden, knowing in a few minutes they were more than likely about to go test that theory. 

"Frighteningly perfect." He cups the side of my face. "We should get you cleaned up and to sleep. We can worry about... your room tomorrow. Ironically, your bed is the only thing we didn't wreck."

I sit up to confirm that the bed made it, and Xaden does the same next to me, leaning forward. Immediately, I lose interest in everything but the muscled lines of his back and the navy-blue relic Sgaeyl transferred to him.

I reach out and trace the dragon relic on his back, my fingers lingering on the raised silver scars, and he stiffens. They're all short, thin lines, too precise to be a whip, no rhyme or reason to their pattern but never intersecting. "What happened?" I whisper, holding my breath.

"You really don't want to know." He's tense but doesn't move away from my touch.

"I do." They don't look accidental. Someone hurt him deliberately, maliciously, and it makes me want to hunt the person down and do the same to them. 

Everyone grimaced, feeling bad for mama Sorrengail. Not because they cared, but those from Mystic Falls and New Orleans knew that under Violet's big heart and kind soul, she was a bigger monster than Klaus and Kol put together when someone she loved was hurt. And they knew that if Lilith did or said one wrong thing... Violet would more than likely kill her. 

His jaw flexes as he looks over his shoulder, and his eyes meet mine. I bite my lip, knowing this moment can go either way. He can shut me out like always or he can actually let me in.

"There's a lot of them," I murmur, dragging my fingers down his spine.

"A hundred and seven." He looks away.

That number makes my stomach lurch, and then my hand pauses. A hundred and seven. That's the number Liam mentioned. "That's how many kids under the age of majority carry the rebellion relic."

"Yeah."

I shift so I can see his face. "What happened, Xaden?"

He brushes my hair back, and the look that passes over his face is so close to tender that it makes my heart stutter. "I saw the opportunity to make a deal," he says softly. "And I took it."

"What kind of deal leaves you with scars like that?"

Conflict rages in his eyes, but then he sighs. "The kind where I take personal responsibility for the loyalty of the hundred and seven kids the rebellion's leaders left behind, and in return, we're allowed to fight for our lives in the Riders Quadrant instead of being put to death like our parents." He averts his gaze. "I chose the chance of death over the certainty." 

"What the hell is wrong with your mother?" Elena asked in horror. 

"I have no idea." Violet said, shaking her head. While she might do whatever it takes to keep her kids safe, she couldn't fathom ever doing something like this. It made her sick thinking about it. 

The cruelty of the offer and the sacrifice he made to save the others hits like a physical blow. I cradle his cheek and guide his face back to mine. "So if any of them betray Navarre..." I lift my brows.

"Then my life is forfeit. The scars are a reminder."

It's why Liam says he owes him everything. "I'm so sorry that happened to you." Especially when he wasn't the one who led the rebellion.

He looks at me like he sees into the very depths of who I am. "You have nothing to apologize for."

I grab his hand as he moves to stand. "Stay."

"I shouldn't." Two lines appear between his brows as he searches my eyes. "People will talk." 

"When have I ever given a fuck what other people think?" Violet asked in amusement. 

"When did I ever give you the impression that I give a fuck what people think?" I use his earlier words against him and sit up, curling my hand around the section of his neck that bears his relic. "Stay with me, Xaden. Don't make me beg." 

"We both know this is a bad idea." 

"Then it's our bad idea." 

His shoulders dip, and I know I've won. He's mine for the night. We take turns sneaking out long enough to clean up, and then he slides into bed behind me. "Only within these walls," he says quietly, and I understand what he means.

"Only within these walls," I agree. It's not like we're in a relationship or anything. That would be... disastrous given the chain of command. "We're riders, after all." 

"I just don't trust my temper if anyone says—" 

I brush a kiss over his mouth, silencing him. "I know what you're saying. It's... sweet."

He nips at my skin. "I'm not sweet. Please don't mistake any part of me for soft or kind. That will only get you hurt, and whatever you do..." He buries his face in my neck, inhaling deeply. "Don't fall for me." 

"You are kind." Violet said, finally giving in and turning to him, taking his face in her hands as she kissed him softly, pulling back to look at him. "If you weren't kind, you wouldn't have those scars. And as for not falling for you? I think we're both well aware that the ship has passed." She said before kissing him again, not letting go this time so he didn't have the chance to say anything back. 

I stroke my hand over his marked arm and pray that's not exactly what I'm doing. This overwhelming juxtaposition of longing and satisfaction in my chest has to be the aftereffects of coming not once but three times, right? It can't be more.

"Violence?"

I look out my window at the infinite black sky and change the topic, my eyelids growing heavier by the second. "Why did you guess I could wield lightning?"

He stretches just enough to tuck my head under his chin. "I thought you did it the first night Tairn channeled power to you, but I wasn't sure, so I didn't say anything."

"Really?" I blink, thinking back, but my brain is full of a pleasant, dull hum as sleep fights to pull me under. "When?" My eyes drift shut.

His arms tighten around me as he tucks me closer, the backs of my thighs pressed tight against his pants as I start to drift off.

"The first time you kissed me." 

With those last words Violet stood up, walking backwards as she pulled her hair out of it's pony tail before turning around and running off as Xaden stood up and followed her, everyone watching in amusement. 

"Those two are going to end up burning the college to the ground by accident." Caroline said in amusement.