Page 55 of Hunted

He chuckled. “I see my reputation precedes me. Is that why everyone is so shit-scared to fuck up in my class? ‘Cause they’re afraid of me?”

I snorted, my nose wrinkling at his damned ego. “No, but they’re scared of being on the wrong end of a bullet.”

“Wise,” he quipped with a shrug. “It might be true, it might not. Care to find out?”

Glancing up at him when we reached the bottom of the stairwell, I couldn’t determine what his expression was trying to convey—or what angle he was working. But I’d be damned if I was going to miss out on a one-on-one with an Eagle a week before I joined their ranks.

“Sure, why not? Might as well get some practice in.”

He hummed in contemplation. “Somehow, I don’t think you need the practice, but I’m keen to see what you can really do—outside the confines of a rigid class structure.” The left side of his mouth tugged up into a smirk, and the urge to wipe it from his smug, pretty face rode me hard.

Great. And now I’m thinking of riding things hard.

“Penny for your thoughts, Adelaide?” he drawled knowingly.

“Penny for you to shut the fuck up?” I snarked back, my tone saccharine sweet.

He laughed again—a warm, honeyed kind of laugh—which did all kinds of things to my traitorous body.

I shoved past him, pushing through the exterior doors, and breathed a sigh of relief at the instant frost entering my lungs. The cold tempered my internal heat, and I sent up a silent prayer of thanks, storming off in the direction of the armoury.

True to trend, it didn’t take long-legs more than a few seconds to catch up. He threw an arm around my back, steering me towards a different building altogether. One I’d never dared set foot in.

“This way,” he murmured. His gaze darted around the empty quadrangle, flitting up to peer into all the overlooking windows.

I really shouldn’t.

But I did anyway.

I let him guide me over to the apartment building adjoining the square—the one which housed all Academy faculty and administration. I hadn’t given a thought as to where our instructors slept at night beyond knowing that it wasn’t in the same building as us. But now… now I was confronted by the knowledge.

Pearce held the door open for me, and I slipped inside, my skin jittery with the understanding that I should not be in here. It was improper and strictly disallowed. But when he hooked his arm back around my waist and led me over to an elevator bank, how was I supposed to resist when curiosity was going to kill me otherwise?

Meow.

The elevator doors slid open with a high-pitched ding, and again, he held them while I passed through.

I guess chivalry isn’t dead yet—although I might be if someone catches sight of me in this building.

The thought of Beckett—or worse, Commander Varco—finding me in here was enough for my skin to break out in a cold sweat.

“I shouldn’t be in here,” I murmured, heart racing.

Pearce hit the button for the fourth floor as the doors closed, sealing us in.

“No one will be home right now—don’t stress.”

I stared at him, pulse thudding in my neck. “Oh, cool, don’t worry about being alone with an instructor in his apartment where he eats and sleeps and lives,” I babbled, much to his evident amusement.

The smirk plastered across his devilish face widened. “Don’t forget showers. I get naked in there, too.”

Fuck.

“That doesn’t help, you arrogant ass.”

“It might be arrogant, but you can’t deny it’s a nice boulder.”

“Ugh,” I breathed, completely at a loss. “Tell me you did not just use a Shrek reference about your own ass.”